Cat's Lair

by Christine Feehan

  Now there was humor in his voice. Gentle and amused. She couldn't take the combination, not on one cup of coffee.

  "Eli, I'm serious, you're going to ruin our breakfast." Again, without really raising her gaze to his, she tried to step around him.

  Eli was a solid wall. There was no moving him even when she put her hand on his chest and shoved. He didn't even rock back.

  "At this precise moment, baby, I don't give a damn about breakfast. I want you to look at me."

  "Well, I can't." The admission burst out of her. She couldn't contain it. She always seemed to blurt the truth out around him no matter what she vowed to herself.

  "You can't?" he echoed, sounding more amused than ever.

  "No, I just can't. So go sit down and let me finish making our breakfast."

  Catarina sounded snippy. Eli didn't do snippy very well, she was pretty certain of that, especially when one hand moved the pan on the stove from the burner and the other arm wrapped around her waist.

  "Kitten, I'm not going the entire morning without a kiss from you. When we wake up, you've got two choices. Your mouth can be on mine, or it can be on my cock. It isn't that difficult. You didn't have your lips wrapped around my cock when I woke up, so I'm waiting for my kiss."

  That was just a little shocking. She shouldn't be shocked because that sounded like the arrogant, bossy Eli she was becoming familiar with. Bossy, arrogant, dominating Eli was far more familiar than sweet Eli.

  "Those are my two choices?"

  "Yeah. And some days, I'll expect both."

  "How lucky of me. Really, Eli, what other rules do you have? I wouldn't want to break any." In spite of her sudden, weird shyness, he'd made her just annoyed enough that she risked a glance upward.

  Big mistake. He might sound amused, but he didn't look amused. His amber eyes had gone golden. Burnished gold. Almost liquid, which she knew was a bad sign. His hand settled in her long hair, fisted there. He pulled her head back, using his grip on her hair. Rough. Not at all gentle. A bite of pain in her scalp sent heat rushing through her veins like hot lava flowing straight to her deepest feminine core.

  Oh, God. Why did she have to find everything about him scorching hot? She gave a soft protest, "Eli." Her stomach did a funny flip. He could make her want him with one touch. One look. He terrified her the longer she spent time with him. What had she done? How had she made such a stupid commitment?

  "You don't get to take yourself back. You gave me you last night," he said, his eyes burning fiercely.

  She could see the leopard in him, a ferocious, feral animal, lurking close to the surface, needing his mate to submit to him.

  "I'm not taking me back," she whispered, awed by the power she felt running through him. His body was hard and hot, his strength barely contained.

  "Then what the hell are you doing?" he demanded.

  She counted her heartbeats. She heard her pulse pounding in her ears. One hand was a flimsy defense, there on his chest. She could feel his defined muscles coiled with tension beneath her palm.

  "I'm . . . ah . . . taking a time-out."

  He let his breath out in a slow hiss of annoyance. His hand never loosened in her hair, preventing her from moving her head. "A time-out?"

  She moistened her lips, and for the first time, she really looked at him. Looked into his eyes. Immediately she found herself caught and held there, a prisoner in all that gold. She swallowed hard. "I'm not taking anything back, Eli. I'm just overwhelmed. I don't know how to act. I'm still just a little freaked out and I'm sorry if that upsets you."

  He stared down at her with the unblinking, focused stare of the leopard for what seemed an eternity. His face softened, although the grip on her hair didn't. "Kitten. You can't hide from me like this. If you're freaked out, you talk to me. If you're overwhelmed, you tell me. I'm not the kind of man to guess what's going on with my woman. You have to come right out and tell me."

  She swallowed hard again. "Okay."

  "I'm going to kiss you good morning," he said softly. "That's all, just kiss you. That shouldn't scare you. You've kissed me before, so why does it freak you out this morning?"

  "We never stop at just kissing, and I need to process. You confuse me, Eli. I can't think when you're kissing me or your hands are on me, and I seem to do the craziest things."

  His lips whispered against hers, the lightest of touches, but he might as well have sent a flaming arrow straight between her legs.

  "I love how honest you are, Cat," he said softly, his mouth on hers.

  The way he did that, talked right into her mouth was just as hot as if he'd kissed her. Well . . . maybe she was wrong about that because then he was kissing her and the ground shifted out from under her feet. The room spun. Her body melted into his. She didn't even feel his hand loosen in her hair. Her arms slid up his chest and curled around his neck to bring his head closer. He kissed her and then he devoured her as if she was all he wanted for breakfast.

  Eli broke the kiss and looked down into her dazed eyes. His heart stuttered in his chest. She was beautiful to him. Not just the outside packaging, but the way she gave herself to him when he touched her. The way she answered him so honestly, even if she was revealing things to him she'd prefer to keep hidden.

  Her lips were parted just the slightest bit, looked swollen from his kisses, moist and soft and inviting him back. He didn't try to resist the invitation, even though he'd promised her he would only kiss her. He knew she wore nothing beneath the shirt, because he'd asked her not to wear anything else. His woman always did what he asked, because for some reason, if it mattered to him, it mattered to her. Even when it was difficult for her.

  Like this morning. Overwhelmed by her commitment to him, but not taking it back. He lifted his head again and ran his hand gently over her face. "You okay now, baby? We need to talk more?"

  A hint of amusement crept into the dark blue violet of her eyes. "Is that what you call that? Talking?"

  "It's how I do my best talking. That said good morning to my woman. That said you're safe with me. Did you feel it?"

  "I don't know. I'm still trying to put out the fire you started. You always scramble my brain."

  But she was smiling. Looking at him. Before she'd been afraid to even chance a look. Eli stepped back away from her before it was too late. He prowled across the room, paced back and forth to release the energy built up in his body. He was a man who needed sex. Lots of sex, but now, with her so close to him, he needed it all the time. His leopard was a handful on the best of days, but with Eli's body painfully hard for what seemed like every minute of the day, his leopard was roaring for Catarina's submission.

  "I'm making another coffee," he announced. "Do you want one?"

  "Sure. That would be nice," she ventured.

  She just stood there, her back to the counter, her long hair gleaming like a waterfall after midnight, her eyes still a little dazed and if she didn't move, he was going to sit her up on the counter, put his mouth between her legs and have her for breakfast.

  "Baby." He sighed the endearment.

  "Mmm?"

  His cock jerked. Threatened to burst through his jeans. "Fix our breakfast."

  "Oh. Yeah. I knew I was doing something."

  That made him smile and the fierce edge to his temper was gone just like that. He went to the coffee machine and began the process. "I want to make certain you understand the rule we've got going in this house." He kept his back to her. He could hear her chopping vegetables and she was fast at it. There wasn't a second's hesitation. She'd be good with a throwing knife.

  "Rule?" she murmured, already distracted.

  He didn't want her distracted. "Cat, look at me." He turned his head to look over his shoulder, waited for the full impact of her beautiful blue eyes on his. "When you wake up, where does your mouth go?"

  "Seriously, Eli? That can't be a rule."

  "It's a rule."

  "I might have morning breath. Or I might have to go to the bathroo
m. Or I just might want to wake up before you and sit on the porch with a cup of coffee. That can't be a rule," she protested.

  She stood there, gesturing with the knife, a little frown on her face. Her eyes were bluer than the deepest sea, and her hair was everywhere, falling in sheets to her waist. Her beauty took his breath.

  "It's a rule," he repeated. "You wake up, your mouth belongs either of those two places. After that, you can do any damn thing you want."

  "Lucky me." She went back to her chopping.

  He found himself smiling. She didn't argue with him and he was fairly certain he'd made his point.

  "Speaking of kissing, Kitten," he said, paying great attention to the coffee machine. He didn't understand why her coffee was so much better. He followed her instructions to the letter, but it just didn't come out quite the same. "That same rule applies at night when we go to bed."

  "Oh, for heaven's sake. What about your mouth?"

  He laughed softly and toed a chair around so he could straddle it as he watched her work. "It's only fair if the same rule applies to me. I wake up, my mouth is on yours or between your legs. Whichever works best at the time."

  She nearly choked. The blush stole up from inside the shirt to her neck. "I see," she managed to get out.

  He liked watching her cook. She enjoyed it. There was no doubt in his mind, she would be happy in his house, making it a home for them. He liked sitting in their kitchen with the smell of coffee and breakfast surrounding him. He liked having her scent in his lungs and the taste of her in his mouth. He especially liked knowing her naked body, warm and soft, was wrapped in his shirt while she worked. He felt comfortable teasing her, and watching a blush steal up her neck and into her face.

  "Did you think I was going to neglect you?" he persisted.

  She narrowed her eyes. "Quit trying to distract me. I'm working here."

  "I just wanted to make certain you know I'm not altogether a selfish bastard. Well, now that I say that, maybe it isn't true. Maybe I am. I like my mouth between your legs, taking all that sweet honey from you. It's mine, right? Belongs to me. A man ought to be able to harvest honey anytime he gets a notion if it belongs to him."

  "I've got a knife in my hand," she reminded him. "And you're trying to embarrass me."

  "Kitten," he said softly. "I'm doing a damn good job of it."

  She laughed, and instantly the kitchen flooded with warmth. She didn't laugh that often, not like this, not for real and the sound felt a little like music.

  "You are," she admitted. "I'm almost finished. The beignets are almost done and the omelets are perfect. I didn't have a lot to work with. We really need groceries, Eli, and I can do so much better."

  She arranged his omelet and hash browns mixed with ham onto his plate and set it in front of him with his silverware. The way she arranged everything with such care made his heart melt around the edges. She liked taking care of him. He hadn't had anyone want to take care of him since his parents had died when he was a boy. She liked it. He could tell by the way she put a napkin out for him, checked his coffee and put the basket of fresh, hot beignets in front of him before she settled with her own food across from him.

  "Never going to give you up, Catarina," he said firmly. "Not ever. I'm going to take such good care of you, you'll never want to leave me."

  She sent him a small smile and pushed her hair out of her face, tossing the long strands over her shoulder in a purely feminine gesture. She was sexy without even trying. Still, she had an expression that told him she wasn't certain he meant what he was saying.

  Eli leaned across the table toward her. "We're shifters, Cat. Shifters mate for life and beyond. It's said we find one another over and over, that sometimes we can even remember things about one another. Leopards smell lies and that makes it impossible for mates to lie or deceive one another."

  She frowned. "Why didn't I know you were a cop?"

  "Because your cat wasn't close enough to recognize mine. I didn't know you were leopard and you didn't know I was. But we're mates. You'll know. So will your leopard. I'm not telling you lies when I say I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Or the sexiest. Or that I want you every fucking time I lay eyes on you. Or when I tell you I'm never going to give you up."

  Her eyes searched his for a long time. "Then I guess I made the right decision. I think you're so beautiful you take my breath away."

  He tried not to let the sound of her voice and the way she said the words, the ring of absolute truth get to him--but it did. His heart turned over. His belly knotted and his cock was as hard as a damned rock. Love and lust mixed into some terrible combustible chemical, just waiting for a match. "Baby. Men aren't beautiful."

  "You are. The way you move. Your eyes. Your mouth. Especially your voice." She sent him another small smile. "It doesn't hurt that you have a scorching-hot body and you know how to use it."

  His eyes met hers. It was all he could do not to come over the table and drag her into his arms. He had the feeling that he was just getting in deeper and deeper with her. She wasn't ready yet. She needed a little space and she'd made that clear. He wanted to give it to her. He took a deep breath, lifted his fork and saluted her. "Kitten, you have to be the best cook I've ever been around. I watched you make this, saw every ingredient you put into it, but I've never had eggs like this. Not ever. You must be magic."

  She looked pleased. "Wait until I actually have some spices and things to work with. I love this kitchen, Eli. It's beautiful."

  "I'm glad. Anything you want different, let me know and I'll see what I can do about it. I told you, I'm no cook, but I can grill a mean steak." He forced himself to sound offhand. He didn't want to spook her, but he'd get her anything at all she asked him for. He'd pull down the damn moon for her if she asked him.

  "That's good, because I don't always feel like cooking," she admitted, sneaking a little glance at him over her coffee.

  Eli frowned. "You don't have to cook for me, Catarina. I didn't bring you here so you could wait on me. Any time you don't feel like cooking, just say so. I'll take a turn or we'll eat out."

  "We can't eat out, Eli. Even you can't eat out." She raised her head, her blue eyes meeting his, anxious.

  Eli liked that she looked alarmed. For him. Not for her. She was worried about him. "I'm not afraid of Cordeau, baby," he said softly.

  She shook her head. "Eli, he'll know I'm with you by now, and the minute you surface somewhere, he'll find you," Catarina cautioned, carefully choosing her words, trying not to sound like she was challenging him. Or bossing him.

  His heart turned over. He put his hand over hers, his thumb sliding along the bare skin of her inner wrist. "We're going to be ready for him. I don't intend for us to hide forever. Just long enough for your leopard to make her appearance, and for us to be ready."

  Catarina tilted her head to one side and her long, gleaming hair fell around her shoulder and tumbled down her back making his cock jump. He loved that simple little gesture and she did it a lot when her hair was down. He liked her hair down.

  "Just how does one get ready for a man like Rafe Cordeau?"

  "In a fight, Kitten, sometimes it comes down to conditioning. I know that sounds simple, but whoever is in shape is sometimes the one left standing. So we're going to start training camp today. We'll run, work on the bags, kicking, punching, crunches, push-ups and the medicine ball. I want you shooting a gun every day and I've got a couple of practice knives we can use. You get hit with one, it raises a hell of a welt and you know you would have gotten cut."

  "Sounds fun," she said, and took another sip of coffee.

  His eyes narrowed on her face. "This isn't a game we're playing with Cordeau."

  "I'm not complaining. I was already training," she pointed out. "It's just that, well, I can't see me besting Rafe at hand-to-hand combat."

  Eli frowned. She'd grown up with Rafe being the sole authority around her. Everyone was afraid of the man. Everyone. Especially Catar
ina. To her, Cordeau was the ultimate, invincible monster. Eli hunted monsters, both human and shifter. He'd been doing it a long while, and the other shifters he knew had been doing it even longer.

  "He isn't invincible, Cat. He's dangerous, but he isn't invincible. I've met quite a few men--and rogues--just like him. I'm still alive and they're not. I put the humans in cages if I can and the shifter into the ground because we can't afford a rogue loose on the world."

  She dropped one hand under the table where he could see her anxiously rubbing her thigh with her palm. "I know you're all macho, Eli. I can even tell you know how to fight. But he's not right. He isn't. I never really wanted to look too closely because he's all I had, but there's something not right about him."

  He knew what she meant. Rafe Cordeau was a sociopath, and it made it all the worse that he was a shifter. His leopard craved the hunt for humans and Cordeau gave that to him. He enjoyed the power of life and death over those around him. He couldn't imagine what it had been like for a young girl to grow up in Cordeau's house. Or the courage it had taken for her to leave.

  "I'm truly sorry the bastards gave him your location, Cat. I didn't agree with the decision, but still, I was a part of it."

  She shrugged. "I was too comfortable there. In the end I would have stayed too long, and I would have made a mistake. That's the worst part, figuring out when you have to make the move, after all the time and effort you put into a new life."

  "Not here," he said. "Not now. This is going to be your home. Right here. My Cat's Lair. It's all yours, Catarina, so do whatever you want to it."

  "You mean that, don't you?"

  "I want a home. I figure you know what you're doing in that department a whole hell of a lot more than I do. And baby, working in the coffee-house, I don't care how loose you wore your clothes, every man for miles was already lining up trying to figure out how to get in your pants. With your face and body and all that hair, hell woman, men were leaving the bar early to come to the coffee-house just to see you. Most of them were jacking off in the restroom at the sound of your voice, and the image of you in their heads."

  She gasped. "That is so not true. I was flying under the radar. And men don't see me like that."

  "I'm a man, Kitten. What the hell do you think I was doing every night after leaving you?"