PrimalFlavor

by Danica Avet

  She didn’t of course. This was her house. But the way Zach reached into the correct cabinet for a plate and began loading it with food, she began to wonder exactly how much time he’d spent going through it. And how was she supposed to think about food when she was staring at his ass? Watching it flex and bunch with every move he made? Or the long, muscled lines of his legs when he shifted from one foot to the other? Or— He turned around and his cock pointed directly at her. Again.

  Her heart fluttered with excitement and want. The logical Colette, the one who knew Zach being in her house was a bad thing, tried to tamp down the arousal. “What are you doing here?” she asked again as he approached her with a heaping plate of food. It looked delicious and her stomach growled.

  “Right now, I’m feeding the hungry beast in your stomach,” he said easily, bypassing her to put the plate on the table.

  Colette allowed herself to relax since his back was to her, but before she could do more than squeak, Zach spun around and snatched her off her feet. In a split second she found herself perched on his lap, her gun clattering to the tabletop. She gasped, her head lifting, and stared directly into his gorgeous eyes, which were only inches away from hers. The look in them, hungry and devious, sent a quiver of awareness through her. If she hadn’t recognized the need in them, the hard column of his cock pressing into her hip would’ve told her exactly what he planned to do.

  But just in case she still didn’t understand, he told her. “Later, I’m going to feed an entirely different beast,” he whispered against her lips. He pressed a quick kiss to her mouth and pulled away. “Now eat.”

  Stunned from that brief moment of contact, a kiss that reminded her too easily of what he’d done to her on her sofa, how he’d turned her anger into arousal, Colette looked away from him and at the plate of food he pulled closer to them. Two thick, fluffy pancakes sat at the center, surrounded by a moat of berries. Sliced strawberries nestled between blackberries and raspberries in a neat circle around the pancakes, which were golden perfection. Her stomach yowled.

  Zach reached out and sorted through the berries, rejecting several before he plucked a plump blackberry from the pile. Then he held it up to her mouth. Colette reared back in surprise, her gaze flying to his. He wanted to feed her? He traced her bottom lip with the berry, letting it drag across her skin, the heat in his eyes requesting—no, demanding entrance. Her stomach twisted with the abundance of butterflies that had taken up residence there.

  Without thinking, she gave him access, opening her mouth for him. Satisfaction gleamed in the gold depths of his eyes as he placed the ripe berry on her tongue. Colette reflexively closed her mouth and captured his fingers between her lips in a suckling kiss. His pupils dilated, the black swallowing the gold until only a thin ring remained and a deep purr rumbled in his chest. Unable to help herself, caught in the intense sensual pull he had, she flicked her tongue over the tips of his fingers in a shy caress. The movement caused the berry to burst, combining the salty taste of Zach’s skin with the tartness of the fruit, her eyes closing from the tart flavor.

  “You have a nice kitchen for someone who doesn’t cook,” he said conversationally.

  Colette opened her eyes again to see a smile flirting with his sinful lips. “I’m not good at it,” she confessed. “My mama tried to teach me, but I preferred being on the water or in the woods with my dad and cousins.”

  He placed a slice of strawberry on her tongue, his fingers stroking her bottom lip and leaving a trail of fire behind. “You’re close to your dad, huh?” She would’ve responded to that, but he popped a raspberry in her mouth when she opened it. “So what do you do at the tour company?”

  Between bites of succulent berries he kept pressing on her, Zach slowly drew out information about her. She told him about the Bayou Ange Swamp Tours, how her dad had started it when he returned from college and brought his brothers in with him. How she’d grown up with a true love for the beauty of Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish and had gone to school to study biology so she could have a better understanding of her surroundings. She told him how her parents met, that her mom was a third-generation Haitian whose twin sister married a clouded leopard shifter and lived in New Orleans. She told Zach everything he wanted to know without even meaning to and in doing so, she learned more about him as well.

  “How did you end up becoming a baker?” she asked when he was busy searching for another “perfect” berry. Since there were only a few left, she figured he was stalling.

  He shrugged, the purring growing softer for a moment before starting up again when he looked at her with another raspberry pinched between his fingers. He fed it to her, his eyes on her lips. “I came to live with my grandmother when I was four. My mom wanted nothing to do with a kid, so she dropped me off and that was the last time I saw her.” He shrugged again and reached out to pull a small covered bowl toward him. “Mamaw had the bakery, which had been in the Trahan family for over a hundred years. Since Mom was her only child and had no interest in it, she taught me the recipes that have been passed down for generations.”

  She watched his hand as he broke off a piece of pancake and dipped it in what appeared to be some kind of homemade syrup. He held the dripping cake up to her mouth. Colette opened obediently and the tartly sweet flavor of blackberries exploded on her tongue. She closed her eyes with a soft moan as the butter from the cake mingled with the berries. It was…she couldn’t even think of the right word for it, her mind too busy buzzing with delight to think properly.

  Zach continued, his words nearly drowned out by the food ecstasy humming through her body. “I knew the bakery would be mine, so I worked hard at learning, went to school and then studied abroad for a couple of years before taking over for Mamaw. She died about three years after I got back from Europe and I’ve been running the bakery ever since.” His tone gave no hint of his feelings on the matter, but the purring stopped completely. “I started the catering business a few years ago and that’s it.”

  She continued eating what he fed her, but she chewed over her thoughts more than the food, her heart aching for him. His mother had left him to go roaming and his grandmother, the only mother he really knew, had died leaving him alone. Colette couldn’t imagine being alone, couldn’t imagine not having the safety net of her family ready to catch her when she fell. That he had no one but himself did something to her, made her hurt for him and want to wrap him in her arms and give him all the love he’d been missing.

  He popped another bite of blackberry-soaked pancake into her mouth, but she didn’t chew right away. She couldn’t because her mouth was suddenly so dry she wasn’t sure she could swallow. That was the second time the word love had come to mind involving him. Which was ridiculous. She didn’t know enough about him to be in love. In lust, yes, because he was a sexy motherfucker, but that was all. She ignored the little voice in the back of her mind that insisted on reminding her of the stories every Robicheaux man had about the first time they met their wives. Love at first sight had been mentioned more than once. Lightning strikes, dumbstruck and struck stupid were more commonly used when it came to how they described their first meeting with their wives. It was something of a family tradition to love fast, hard and forever.

  Colette just never thought it would happen to her. She peeked up at him as he surveyed the plate with a frown and her body melted. No, it wasn’t love. Not yet at least, but it could be. If Zach stuck around, if he continued to be as irresistibly sexy as he was now, all without trying, she’d find herself falling for him. Hard. It was a scary thought, even scarier when she knew the chances of him returning the sentiment were slim to none.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked him yet again.

  His gaze shifted from the plate to her face. She tried to tell herself it was a trick of the light, that there was nothing beyond sexual heat in his eyes, but when he looked at her, she saw something more than lust shadowing his gaze. Was it love? No, but it was affection.

  “I’m h
ere because I can’t stay away.”

  The surprise in her eyes equaled the surprise in his brain. Had he really said that? The way her face softened and her arm slipped around his back to hug him told him yes. Yes, he’d just confessed something he would’ve preferred to keep to himself a little longer. At least until he was more comfortable with the weird emotions driving him to be with her. Zach didn’t deal in deep emotions. He liked his life simple and uncomplicated. He saved the messes for his kitchen because they were easier to clean up.

  But when she slipped one of her arms around his back and pressed her cheek to his chest in a one-armed hug that had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with a budding friendship, he froze for a moment, stiff in her hold. He didn’t want to be friends with Colette. He wanted to fuck her, to burrow so deeply inside her that the affection she felt for her family would warm the colder corners of his life. Which was stupid. He didn’t need anyone, never had. Even his grandmother had ceded to his independence, knowing it didn’t do any good to hold a tiger down, or attempt to.

  Yet Colette’s arm around him in a platonic hug warmed him in a way nothing else had for a very long time. It was almost like an acceptance. She wasn’t asking anything of him, didn’t say she was sorry for his childhood or any of the things he imagined women would say. She gave him her silent support and he appreciated it the same way he couldn’t help but admire her appetite. Nothing made him feel better than to know his food filled her belly and that she enjoyed it.

  He didn’t think she was even aware of the sounds of pleasure she made in the back of her throat as she ate, or the way she wiggled slightly in his lap when she wanted the next bite. It’d wreaked havoc on his control until they’d started talking about him. Zach didn’t want to think about feelings and things like affection or possibly obsession—there was no way he’d ever use the L-word in conjunction with anyone. Especially a human who didn’t understand the importance of mating. No, this was an anomaly, sex with affection and maybe friendship. He could do that. He’d never tried being friends with a woman he fucked before, but he figured that was better than just being a friend.

  His tiger began purring again, forgetting about the food he’d been gently placing in her mouth, forgetting about messy emotions and things he’d rather not think about. It was busy inhaling her sweet vanilla scent, feeling the soft press of her breasts against his chest. She was tiny compared to him and fragile, but she’d come out of the hallway with her gun and fire in her eyes. His tiger had thought only one thing at the time and that was “What a woman”.

  Now though, Zach’s attention switched from food to sex. His cock had finally deflated for the first time the entire night and all it’d taken was the thought of his absent mother and dead grandmother to do it. Now though, oh now Mini Zach swelled to life, pushing into the soft hip nestled in his lap. He held his breath, certain she’d leap away from him in disgust because this didn’t seem like the right moment for him to get a hard-on.

  But she didn’t move away. Her warm breath washed over the light dusting of hair on his chest, which seemed to be connected to his balls because the puff of air sent a tingle south. Then she kissed his nipple. Zach’s gaze dropped to the woman nestled against his chest, his heartbeat kicking up a notch when he saw her cloud of white-blonde hair spread across his skin. His dick pulsed in excitement even as she brushed her lips over his nipple yet again, velvet softness against the slowly hardening nub.

  “Colette,” he rasped, his hands tightening on her.

  He wasn’t sure how much he could take. If she was just trying to soothe him, it wasn’t working. He had a split second to feel hot, moist air before she latched on to the suddenly sensitive peak and suckled. Zach cursed under his breath, one of his hands sliding up to sink into her hair. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull her away or hold her closer, but when her tiny pink tongue began to work his flesh in a perfect mimicry of what he’d done to her a few hours earlier, he decided to enjoy it. For as long as he could.

  But allowing her to initiate sex didn’t mean he couldn’t help. He kept one hand on her head, holding her close even as his other hand slid up her silky thigh, under the hem of the t-shirt to cup the round curve of her ass. His tiger purred louder at the contact, his fingers kneading the surprisingly generous flesh while she suckled and nipped at his skin. The scent of her arousal, the sweet musk he wanted to roll around in, thickened the air around them. Zach’s heart pounded like a jackhammer as his fingers slid along the silken crevice of her ass until he encountered the slick folds of her sex.

  She moaned against his skin as he traced her slit, her teeth sinking into his flesh. Her hands came up to grip his shoulders, blunt fingernails digging deep as she squirmed on his lap, her legs separating as though to invite him inside. His dick started leaking, leaving trails of dampness on her hip. He was going to come without ever making it inside her, but he wasn’t even sure he cared. He knew he’d get it up again after a very short reprieve. Colette was like Viagra and an aphrodisiac rolled into one.

  Then she began to slide off his lap. Zach let out a snarl, not happy with her moving until he realized she was sliding between his legs. The tiger liked that image a lot and quickly bit off the animalistic sound. The man, however, nearly discovered what it was like to have a heart attack. Seeing Colette, the tough woman who seemed to live with a gun in her hand, on her knees between his legs, her hair a thick curtain around her tanned face and her witchy eyes trained on his cock, was enough to make any man weak in the knees.

  “You did so much for me earlier,” she said absently, her hands stroking his thighs. “But you didn’t take anything for yourself.” Hungry eyes met his, striking him dumb. “It’s my turn.”

  Holy shit, yes! Did he say that out loud? She wasn’t staring at him as though he’d grown a second head, so no, he hadn’t. But he wanted to. Especially when she captured the base of his cock in her strong hands. Stacked one on top of the other, they still weren’t long enough to cover his entire length, but a slow, strong stroke upward managed to touch every square inch of sensitive skin. Then when she leaned forward and lapped at the crown, cleaning up every drop of pre-cum, Zach had to grip the edges of his chair to keep from snatching her off her knees and fucking her senseless.

  But Colette was the one who seemed determined to drive him insane, using her hands and her tongue to go at him like a woman trying to catch a dripping ice-cream cone on a hot summer’s day. She lapped, she licked, she nibbled and she stroked, working him from base to tip and back down, over and over but never once did she take him into her mouth. It was a tease, her parted lips skimming along his length, her heated gaze trained on his face as though gauging his reaction.

  It wasn’t until he thought the top of his head would blow off that she finally wrapped those lips around his dick and took him as far as she could. Zach’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and his entire body shook from the need coursing through him. His tiger was of the mind that now was as good a time as any to tell her she belonged to him forever and ever. This bliss, this tormenting pleasure she gave him with her little, inexperienced suckles was better than anything he’d ever had with the many women he’d been with. It was because of her, because it was Colette. Tough, hard Colette with soft lips and an innate ability to drive him out of his mind.

  She didn’t draw on him as though she were trying to suck his brains right through his dick, it was more of a soft draw, her tongue working the underside of his cock as she stroked upward with her hand. He groaned appreciatively, his hands leaving the seat of his chair to tangle in her long, soft hair. Every movement of her head had the strands tickling his thighs, brushing his calves and stroking his stomach.

  “God, baby,” he moaned when she swirled her tongue around his crown again. “God yes. Yes.”

  His balls were drawn tight, the tingling at the base of his spine growing stronger the more she worked his flesh. He wanted to hold out, to enjoy the moment, to draw out the anticipation. But it see
med his sly little Cajun woman knew more than she let on because just when he thought he might have been able to hold off his climax, she gently scraped her teeth along his length. The scent of her arousal was thick enough to taste and his mouth watered. Eating her out, having her come over and over on his tongue had been a pleasure unlike any other.

  She gave another slow draw on his dick that numbed his brain. He wanted to come, wanted to selfishly enjoy the moment, but he needed something more. Without giving it further thought, or stopping to wonder if he was thinking rationally, Zach swept his arm over the table, tossing everything to the floor. The warm suction around his dick disappeared as Colette lifted her head with a strangled gasp.

  But he was too far gone to put into words what he wanted. Sliding his hands beneath her arms, he lifted her off the floor and plopped her onto the table. She looked so surprised, so shocked, if he would’ve been in his right mind, he would’ve smiled. As it was, all he could think was he needed her pussy and he needed it now. The condoms, though, were in another room. Next to her bed in fact because that’s where he’d put them when he returned.

  He stood, eyeing her. He was too damn impatient to get them and playing Russian roulette with her eggs wasn’t something he would ever do. Although the tiger liked that thought, wanted his seed to bathe her womb, to mark her from the inside out and do it over and over again until it found fertile ground. Zach pushed the images of Colette round with his cub away. That was something for him to think about a lot later. Like with a full bottle of whisky.

  He studied the table. It was sturdy enough to hold him. An old farmhouse-style piece that could withstand weight and time. He sat next to Colette, dropped flat on his back and grabbed her. She squeaked and said something as he positioned her over his face. The hem of her shirt had ridden up, giving him a perfect view of her slick, swollen cleft and the round, golden curve of her ass.