Lure of the Tiger (Aloha Shifters: Jewels of the Heart Book 4)

by Anna Lowe

  “Is that really you?” she asked, crouching down. The eyes were all Cruz. But the black dots around his whiskers, the orange centerline, the paintbrush stripes… Well, those would take some getting used to.

  He blinked. Yes. This is me.

  Jody decided it was another one of those Do, don’t think moments and fell into a hug. A huge human-to-tiger hug that worked surprisingly well. Cruz held perfectly still, but she could hear his heart hammering inside. A little like hers, she guessed.

  “Cruz…” She hugged him tighter as they both lay on the ground. Then she cried — and laughed a little, too — out of sheer nerves. She leaned more and more of her weight on Cruz, letting go of more and more fear, until at some point she opened her eyes again and found herself eye-to-eye with a man. Her man. Cruz.

  His dark hair was a mess, his eyes as deep and mysterious as ever. But his arms were firm over her shoulders, and his brow was furrowed in a pattern that matched the stripes that had disappeared.

  “You okay?” he whispered, brushing a finger across her cheek.

  The sun pierced the sky on the tail edge of the storm, shooting rays through the thick, low clouds.

  Jody swallowed away the lump in her throat. “I feel fine, but I might be going crazy. Can you live with that?”

  His gaze, she noticed, jumped briefly to the sapphire, and part of her feared Vasco was right. But there was no greed in Cruz’s eyes. More like relief and a healthy dose of respect. A heartbeat later, his eyes locked on hers, and a smile ghosted across his lips.

  “I can live with you if you can live with…” He searched for words before trying out two. “This. Me.”

  She glanced around. The rain had ceased, and the outline of the sun was starting to show behind the cloud cover.

  “You, I can deal with. But the others…”

  He touched her shoulders before she could start trembling again. “They’re gone. The flood took them. We’re safe.”

  She nibbled her lip. “So I’m not going crazy?”

  “Only crazy enough to trust me.”

  She laughed and dropped to his chest. Maybe the truth didn’t have to be terrifying. Maybe she could deal with this if she followed her heart.

  “So, a tiger, huh?”

  “Tiger shifter.”

  She thought it over. “Silas and Kai, too? Or are they lions?”

  Cruz made a face. “Not lions. They’re—”

  An engine roared to life not too far away, and both of them looked up as a helicopter took flight. The helicopter Vasco and the others had arrived in. Which meant…

  Cruz rolled to his feet and pulled her up. “Quick. One of them got away. We need to get out of the open.”

  Jody’s heart pounded in her chest. Now what?

  The helicopter made a slow turn then rushed straight at them.

  “We need to—” Cruz started, then pulled up short as a dark shadow swept overhead.

  Jody ducked. “Whoa. What the—?”

  “Get down.” Cruz pushed her to the ground and covered her body with his.

  Jody looked up, watching the helicopter rush into a tight U-turn. Its engine strained as it hurtled toward the mountaintops, suddenly the hunted instead of the hunter.

  “Go, Silas,” Cruz breathed, letting her up.

  Jody wasn’t sure she wanted to get up. Not when she saw what the helicopter was fleeing from. An impossibly huge creature with leathery wings and—

  The dragon rushed after the helicopter, belching fire until both disappeared over the ridge.

  “That’s Silas?” she squeaked.

  Cruz nodded.

  “Silas is a…a…” She couldn’t quite get the word out.

  “Dragon,” Cruz said, helping out.

  Jody took a deep breath and looked down at the sapphire. “And this is…”

  “A Spirit Stone.”

  “A Spirit Stone,” she echoed in a careful monotone. “Boy, do you have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Cruz gave a solemn nod, and she threw her arms around him.

  “But not right now,” she begged, holding him tight. “Right now, all I need is you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Two days later…

  Cruz woke slowly, gradually. Totally unhurried and totally relaxed. It was two days after the fight in the mountains, and Jody was in his arms. Two days after he’d discovered how wrong he’d been about humans, and two days after he’d confirmed how deep his love for Jody ran.

  Like I didn’t know that from the start, his tiger grumbled.

  He hugged Jody tighter. She was okay. He was okay. Everything was all right. Right enough that he could let his eyes ease open instead of snapping to attention the way he usually did. There wasn’t a nightmare in his mind nor a ghost rattling its chains in his head. On the contrary, the peace went deep enough to tell him his family would be glad for him, too.

  Morning light filtered softly through the woods where every songbird in Maui seemed to be chirping and tweeting at the top of its lungs. Singing about the beauty of life and love because they believed. He smiled and let his eyes droop shut again, because that’s what civilians did. They snoozed, something he’d gotten surprisingly good at in the past two days. Jody called it catnapping, laughing at her own pun each time.

  Catnap. Get it? She’d grin.

  “I get it,” he whispered, kissing her bare shoulder.

  “Hmmm?” she mumbled, still half asleep.

  “Nothing.” He breathed deeply, scrubbing his chin against her skin.

  So, okay, his version of sleeping in was still a few hours shorter than most people’s, but that was okay. He could lie spooned around Jody for hours.

  His tiger chuffed, ridiculously proud of himself. I can do more than lie around with my mate for hours.

  Cruz grinned. He and Jody had spent the better part of the last few days in and around the bed, and not too much of that time had been spent asleep. Why sleep when he could make love to his mate?

  Make love? his tiger laughed. Is that what you did to her when you lifted her against the wall? Or when you laid her down beside the waterfall at the rock pool?

  Cruz shushed the beast, even if he had to admit that he and Jody had sometimes veered over into desperate fucking territory. She had her wild side, too, and her appetite was right up there with his. Other times, though, they’d made slow, sweet love, staring into each other’s eyes the whole time. And each time brought him closer to the woman he loved. Each time made him feel more complete.

  My mate, his tiger hummed.

  Without thinking, he slid his hand from her belly to her breast.

  “Mmm,” Jody murmured, nestling closer.

  He’d done his best to explain to Jody about shifters over the past two days, and though his words came out clunky at times, it went a lot more smoothly than he imagined. Jody had made him shift back and forth a few times. She’d gulped and held very still the first time, but soon after, she’d petted him all over.

  You look good in stripes, she’d joked when he came out of one shift, naked. But I like this look, too.

  And off they’d gone into another round of frenzied sex just because they could.

  The easiest part was telling her about destined mates. Jody had nodded right away, like she’d known all along.

  “You knew you were my mate?” he’d asked, stunned.

  “Sure.” She’d shrugged. “Just like my mom and dad. They just knew. Well, it took me a little while to realize that, but I think I felt it, deep in my heart. You don’t have to be a shifter to sense that.”

  Humans were funny creatures, he decided. Unpredictable, irrational — sometimes, in the best possible way.

  “Mmm,” Jody murmured, putting her hand over his. The only thing she wore was the bracelets that touched his skin, warm from her heat. “Time to wake up?”

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and kissed her shoulder again. “Only if you want.”

  Jody chuckled sleepily and pressed he
r hand against his, guiding his palm over her breast. “I definitely want to wake up. But I could use some help.”

  Oh, he’d help her, all right. He circled the soft flesh as his tiger hummed with approval.

  “What did you say?” she mumbled.

  Cruz cleared his throat. They hadn’t exchanged mating bites yet — a subject he hadn’t directly broached — but he swore she was already close to reading his mind.

  Here’s a little test, his tiger said, thinking all kinds of dirty thoughts. Like taking her from the back on all fours while delivering the mating bite.

  Cruz took a sharp breath because, damn. A hard-on that sudden hurt.

  “I like the sound of that,” Jody mumbled, grinding back against him.

  She was still half asleep, so he did his best not to run away with the thought. He did nip her neck, though, eliciting another hum of delight.

  “Best way to wake up,” she sighed.

  He snuck his leg between hers and slid his hand from her breast to her belly and back up. “I think the rest of you needs waking up, too.”

  She arched, reaching over her head to touch his hair. “You know what I think?”

  “What do you think?” he murmured, reaching between her legs.

  “I think we’re a perfect match.” The last word turned into a coo as he furrowed his fingers through her folds.

  Her legs flopped open, and she pushed back against him, proving her point. She was always eager for his touch, and she loved to toe the line between submitting to his dominant tiger and asserting her own desires. She reached around and groped for his cock, stroking in time with his moves.

  “Cruz…” she murmured, starting to rock.

  “Minx,” he said, gritting his teeth. He’d assumed they’d start the day all slow and sweet, but she was rapidly pushing him over toward hard and hot.

  She moaned as he slipped a finger inside her and started circling. “Not my fault you have magic shifter hands.”

  Cruz pressed his mouth against her shoulder to suppress his own moan. She was so slick, so tight. His cock was going to explode, especially with her perfect ass pumping against him like that.

  He scraped his teeth over her neck, then suckled the spot while his finger continued to circle around and around. It was going to be so hard to resist the mating bite.

  His tiger groaned inside. How can I wait?

  Jody cooed, wiggled, and moaned — then croaked an unsteady, “Wait.”

  Cruz froze while his heart pounded away.

  “I promised myself…” she started then stopped, taking deep breaths. She gripped his forearm hard, hugging it to her chest. “Damn it, I promised myself I wouldn’t get all carried away again.” She rolled in his arms, coming face-to-face, and pointed an accusing finger at him. “You, tiger, are too irresistible for your own good.”

  He exhaled a little. Whew. Maybe there was no need to get all alarmed. He crooked an eyebrow at her, trying to ignore his burning erection.

  “Um… I’m sorry?”

  Not sorry, his tiger growled. Not one bit.

  She shook her head and held a hand up, asking him to wait. As her chest rose and fell, the tips of her nipples tickled his chest. God, she was going to kill him. Ujjayi breathing again?

  “Okay,” she mumbled, pulling away slightly. “When is this meeting again?”

  He propped himself up on his elbow. Was she worried about meeting the other shifters of Koa Point? As of last night, everyone had returned to Maui — Boone and Nina, Hunter and Dawn — so Silas had called a meeting of all hands.

  “It’s at ten o’clock. Plenty of time.”

  Jody gulped a little. “Ten, huh? And everyone will be there? Dragons…bears…wolves…”

  He held her tighter. “Everyone will be there. Don’t worry. You’ll do great.”

  Her eyes drifted to the necklace hooked over a bedpost. “I guess we’ll talk about that then.”

  He nodded, waiting for her to finish, because she’d trailed off and held her lip between her teeth.

  “So, maybe…” she started again, haltingly. “Maybe you and I ought to talk first.”

  His chest rose involuntarily, because this was it. The talk they’d been putting off all along. And a good thing, too, because it was becoming harder and harder to hold his inner tiger back. The instinct to claim her with a mating bite was so strong—

  He cleared his throat and ordered his tiger — and his dick — to calm down.

  “Yeah, I guess we should,” he murmured, letting her start. Left to his own devices, he’d blurt everything out in one breath. I love you. I need you. Please, please let me mark you with the mating bite and never, ever leave my side. Okay with you?

  All that rushed through his mind. But on the outside, he held perfectly still.

  Jody pursed her lips and cupped his face in her hands. “I love you, Cruz. I love you, and I want to be with you.”

  His tiger danced around. She loves me! Wants me!

  “But…” she added, making his heart stop.

  Shit. She was going to tell him she couldn’t stay. That she was a free spirit and had to keep moving. Or maybe she’d say she had to stay in California to help her dad with his shop. Or that she’d had second thoughts about the whole shifter thing.

  “…there are a few things I need to see through before we take the next step,” she whispered.

  His blood barely seemed to move through his veins. Was she talking about taking a break? Humans might do that, but destined mates didn’t. Destined mates didn’t leave each other’s sides after finding true love. They devoted themselves to each other for the rest of their lives.

  “Like what?” he managed.

  “I need to visit my family. After everything that’s happened…” She closed her eyes and held him tightly. “And I really want to finish the tour. Just this season. You know, to finish what I started and all that. Do you think you can handle that?”

  He took a deep breath and tried to summon the strength to say, You bet I can handle it, even if he wasn’t sure he could.

  “Of course, I may need a bodyguard,” she said, smoothing her hands over his shoulders.

  His blood rushed, chasing away the chill in his soul. “You mean…”

  She hugged him tight. “You think I could leave you?” She shook her head firmly. “No way. But I was hoping you might not mind hitting the road for a little while before we settle down here. I mean — if all that’s okay with you.”

  Of course, it was okay with him. “More than okay,” he said, holding her against his chest.

  Her next words were muffled but happy. “I just have three more months on the pro tour. Three months to try to crack the top ten. Even if I don’t, I’ll know that I tried, like my dad always says. It was getting harder and harder to motivate myself to do, but if you were there…”

  Hell, yes. He’d be there. She’d have to chain him to the gate of the estate to keep him from following.

  “Anywhere you go, I go.”

  She touched his nose with one finger and pretended to be stern. “But no snarling at every bare-chested surfer dude who crosses my path. I’m not interested in anyone but you.”

  “Can’t promise that,” he growled.

  She laughed then grew more serious again. “It’s funny — all I could think of these last weeks was earning money to help my family. And now that it’s in my account—”

  Cruz smiled, remembering the look on her face when she’d checked her statements. She hadn’t received the extra payment for the final photo shoot — after all, the photographer and camera had disappeared in the flood — but the first payment was big enough to make her whoop and start planning how to break the news to her family. Her father’s shop would be saved, and hopefully, her sister’s greatest wish would come true.

  Funny, how it no longer seemed criminal to bring a child into the world.

  My sister will get to be a mom, and my dad will get to be a grandfather, Jody had said, looking into the dist
ance with shining, hopeful eyes.

  And we’d get to be uncles, his tiger had added quietly, ridiculously pleased with the notion.

  “—now that the money is in my account, I can finally think about what happens after I quit the tour. I was thinking I might be able to score an apprenticeship with Teddy Akoa. You know, shaping custom boards.” She looked around. “But I’m not sure I can ever live in a regular house again.”

  He took her hands in his. “You never have to live in a regular house again. You can live here.”

  “You sure that’s okay? I mean, the owner of the estate…”

  Cruz made a face. He kept forgetting that the place wasn’t actually his.

  “Who owns it, anyway? Can you tell me now?” she asked.

  “No. I mean, I’d tell you if I knew, but I don’t.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. I don’t know.”

  She thought it over for a minute. “My money’s on Silas.”

  Cruz shook his head. “Every time I think it’s him, something happens to make me decide it isn’t. And what with that query out there…”

  “What query?”

  “There’s a rumor going around that someone approached the zoning committee about developing this property and the one next door. Silas says he doesn’t know anything about it, but I’m not so sure.”

  Jody nuzzled her nose against his, helping settle down the worry in his gut. “I guess no one really knows what the future holds. And that’s the beautiful thing.”

  He kissed her, keeping his lips pressed to hers for a long, long time. That was his mate. Always seeing the bright side of things.

  “And you know what else is beautiful?” she giggled, sliding her hands down his back.

  His tiger perked his ears.

  “What?”

  “Ten o’clock is a long way away. Plenty of time.”

  He grinned, sneaking his hands toward her breasts.

  “There is one more thing,” she said, gently holding him back.

  Anything, his tiger said, lashing his tail intently. Anything you want, we do.