A Game of Cat & Mouse

by Astrid Cielo

  Caleb’s erection pressed against her mound.

  Miranda couldn’t recall a time when she’d felt this ready, this needy. She wasn’t a complete prude, although her family often teased her with said title, and had indulged in a few lovers. None of them had ever elicited a fraction of the reactions that Caleb managed with just one look. I don’t even know him! With that thought, she groaned as she realized, despite the need coursing through her body, her family’s teasing was coming back to bite her in the ass. Despite her belief that women had the same right to be as promiscuous as men, she could not bring herself to answer her body’s demands, especially with a man she did not know.

  Miranda turned her head, effectively breaking Caleb’s intent assault upon her mouth. His mouth descended to the side of her neck she exposed with her evasive technique. She felt the scrape of sharp teeth, and her heart began to race in equal parts fear and arousal. “Caleb?”

  ***

  A haze of lust descended upon Caleb, his cougar demanding he take his mate. Take her! Every bit of his control was tested when he sensed his claws extend. His worry over harming Miranda with them pulled him back from the edge of his control and allowed him to retract them.

  Caleb knew he would never get enough of the beauty he held within his arms, sampling her as she released small

  squeaks of arousal within his mouth. He was lost in the scent of her arousal permeating the air.

  Miranda suddenly moved, tearing her lips away from his and exposing her neck to him. Caleb almost cried out in triumph, as the moment he had waited his entire life for suddenly became a reality. He allowed his incisors to lengthen as he gave the graceful curve of her neck teasing scrapes with his teeth. Anticipation was growing with each second as his mate beckoned him to claim her. Take her!

  The sudden scent of fear nearly choked Caleb, his cougar growling within himself, pushing to be released to eradicate that which would dare to scare his mate, his Miranda. The potency of the fear enraged him since smell was not one of a cougar’s best assets. He pulled back, peering down into the dark brown eyes filled with unshed tears. His heart clenched, and he noticed the press of her hands was not from passion but from resistance. He released her and turned away, taking deep breaths as the cause of her fear finally made it into his lust-filled mind – him.

  Caleb never dreamed finding his mate would be this way. His previous

  expectations were shattered when he’d first seen Miranda. He assumed his mate would be a cougar, perhaps one from another pride. She would be fierce and everything an alpha female should be.

  Now, his dream had changed into that of a little mouse whose fear caused his gut to clench and his cougar to pace restlessly.

  Caleb’s muscles relaxed, his agitation melting away with the simple touch of her hand on his arm. Miranda was still there.

  He expected her to run, but his mate surprised him.

  “Caleb?”

  Her hesitant tone brought him back from his thoughts. Caleb turned to find her dark brown eyes regarding him warily, her mouth turned into a frown. Though he knew it might scare her, he could not help clasping her cheek and brushing his lips against hers. Miranda sighed, and her body relaxed as the tension drained from her tiny frame.

  “Don’t fear me. I would never hurt you.”

  Miranda nodded almost imperceptibly before stepping closer and burrowing her face in his chest. Caleb’s arms embraced her automatically, and just like that, everything was right in his universe again.

  It amazed him how one little mouse could become so important so quickly.

  “I’m sorry. But you have to understand I don’t know you. I need time.”

  Miranda’s lost little voice worried Caleb.

  All the matings he had witnessed were intense, one of the many things separating them from humans. After finding their mate, most shifters were helpless against the pull, and the fact that Miranda was going to try to resist scared him. His mate needed time, and that was exactly what he was going to give her.

  “Let’s get you home, Miranda.”

  Chapter 4

  Caleb, true to his word, led her back home where she quickly slipped into the summer dress she’d left on her small back porch. Caleb smiled down at her, almost as if amused by her modesty. His hands lifted to brush across her cheeks, and she closed her eyes to bask in the momentary bliss of Caleb’s hands on her skin.

  “Let me take you out tomorrow?”

  Miranda opened her eyes in surprise and searched his golden brown eyes for

  confirmation that she’d heard correctly.

  She felt her mouth turn into a smile, and her heart executed a flutter that she was sure could not be healthy. He wanted to see her again. Well, of course he does; he is your mate! A sobering thought that her mouse side thought was apparent. Caleb wanted her and always would, but only because nature had deemed it so. Miranda wanted love, had dreamed of love. But did she want to be loved simply because their bodies decided for them? Was it truly love if she wanted him with every fiber of her being but did not know the first thing about him? Wasn’t that just lust?

  And there lay the root of her hesitancy.

  Miranda was afraid that they would mate and he wouldn’t truly love her.

  Her mother told her that finding a true mate was dependent on body chemistry and genetics. The fact that she was a mouse shifter and Caleb was a cougar shifter was weird, but maybe she held some kind of genetic material that would be beneficial for their future offspring.

  Whatever the reason, her body clamored for Caleb. Despite a chemical attraction that would ultimately tie the two together for life, no matter the species of shifter they may be, it did not guarantee love.

  Most true-mated pairs were in love, but love was not required to produce offspring.

  “Miranda?”

  Miranda blinked and focused her

  attention back on Caleb, his golden brown eyes regarding her expectantly. She nodded slowly, accepting his invitation because, despite her reservations about this mating, she couldn’t deny that she needed him. He smiled before brushing his lips feather light against her own.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow night at six o’clock. Be ready for dinner.”

  Miranda sighed as she stepped back and closed the door, resisting the urge to throw herself in his arms. Beg him to take her.

  Now Miranda tossed on the bed, her skin tingling with each movement. Her

  pajamas lay in a long forgotten pile on the floor, their constraints too much tactile stimulation for her to handle. What was happening to her? Of course, on some level, Miranda knew, but she ignored the idea, relegated it to being impossible. But no matter how she denied it, the truth remained— Miranda was in heat.

  Miranda wished she could go back in time and do just that–throw herself into his arms and beg Caleb to take her. Why did she ever think she could resist something ingrained within their species?

  Miranda writhed as her skin became

  even more sensitive, the nerves firing over and over, the feeling turning almost painful. She knew it would progress from tactile sensitivity to cramps and finally intense pain as her whole body demanded his touch.

  Miranda, tired of resisting, allowed her hands to slide over her skin, cupping her breasts and massaging them. Pinching the hardened and sensitive nipples, aroused since her afternoon encounter with Caleb, she imagined his large hands cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples. She parted her thighs, allowing the cool air to hit her molten center. She moaned and trailed her hand down her stomach to the aching and clenching flesh at the apex of her thighs.

  The first touch to her sensitive clit caused her flinch, her back arching and her vagina clenching at nothing. Miranda cried out, and a fine sheen of sweat coated her body. She circled her clit and moaned as the pleasure began to build, her whole body demanding she crash over the

  precipice. Her other fingers left the torment of her breasts to sink within her sheath demanding to be filled. Her hips move
d in time with her ministrations, but her body never quite reached the peak she so desperately needed.

  Miranda’s hands fell away as she caught her breath. The pain took her by surprise, her stomach clenching in cramps as she moaned and curled her body into a fetal position. Tears pricked her eyes as she realized that she needed Caleb. She needed something from him she didn’t want to take until she knew that he loved her – until she loved him.

  ***

  Caleb paced in his cougar form in the

  woods outside of Miranda’s house, his cougar becoming more agitated by the second. He wanted it’s mate. He knew his Miranda was suffering because he’d

  witnessed some of the pride females go through heat. They would begin with sensitive skin that would turn to painful with any tactile stimulation, followed by cramping that nearly incapacitated them.

  Most of the pride females assured him that although excruciating, a good orgasm could quell the worst of the pain.

  Leaving Miranda when he’d walked her home had to be the hardest thing he’d ever had to do. Her big brown eyes regarded him warily as she dressed. Her modesty was amusing and oddly refreshing. But left her he had because Caleb knew that she wasn’t sure of what was happening. Hell, he wasn’t too sure himself. A mating usually occurred amongst one’s own

  species of shifter. Rarely did a mating occur between two types of shifters, but it was not unheard of. Rarer still was a mating between shifter and human.

  Caleb knew that Miranda would have a hell of a time, becoming the alpha female of a cougar pride, and he wasn’t apt to tell her before she agreed to be his mate.

  The pride females already had their hackles raised when they scented Miranda upon his return. Brenna James, one of Caleb’s most adamant admirers, had even had the audacity to hiss at her alpha. After reminding her who ruled the pride, Caleb had spent a torturous few hours ensuring his pride was running smooth–as smooth as it had since he had become alpha–before returning to pace like a stalker outside of Miranda’s house.

  Her quiet moans became a cry of pain that tortured him and placed him over his line of control. Taking only a moment to transform from cougar to man, he found himself opening her door. The sounds she made were like a trail and, at the end, lay a writhing and sobbing Miranda.

  Caleb scooped her in his arms and lay down on the bed, holding her close to his body. Miranda’s sobs turned to a squeal of surprise as she attempted to evade his grasp.

  “Hush, Miranda. It’s me, Caleb.”

  Miranda stilled and burrowed closer to him, her body moving restlessly against him. Caleb could feel the moisture from her tears that continued to spill down her cheeks where she rested against his chest.

  Rolling to where she was below him, her face was bathed in the light from the moon that came through her bedroom window.

  He couldn’t deny how beautiful she was, even crying, and how much he wanted her. Leaning down he kissed her tear-stained cheeks, lapping them with his tongue to clean her face.

  “I’m so confused.”

  Miranda’s whispered confession stopped his ministrations. Caleb looked down at her again to see her eyes clenched shut and her teeth clenched so tightly he thought they might break. Caleb cupped her cheek and kissed her softly on the lips, satisfied when she relaxed, allowing him to deepen the kiss.

  “What are you confused about?”

  “The fact that I want you more than my next breath, but I don’t even know you.”

  “We have our whole lives to get to know one another. Please, give me a chance, Miranda. I want you too, sweetheart.”

  “Okay. Can you hold me? I mean…I, um…” Caleb leaned down and kissed her because he needed it just as much as she did. Caleb nuzzled her neck. “It would be my pleasure.”

  Caleb pulled her close and she wiggled for a few moments as her body made

  demands he knew she wasn’t ready to answer. Within thirty minutes, she stilled, and her features relaxed in sleep. It seemed just being near him had appeased the heat enough to allow her rest. Pulling her closer, he allowed himself to slip into slumber.

  ***

  Hearing a whimper of pain, Caleb

  wakened from the dream of Miranda’s hot mouth gliding over his cock. He looked over at the bed beside him, alarmed to find it empty. When had Miranda left him? He jumped from the bed and found her curled in a fetal position on the bathroom floor, her face frozen in a mask of pain and only small whimpers escaping her. He rushed to her side, his cougar becoming agitated at its mate’s cries of distress.

  “Sweetheart, why didn’t you wake me up? I could have fixed this.”

  “But I’m not ready for that. Not yet.

  Please, understand, Caleb.”

  “I don’t understand, not one damn bit, but I’ll respect your wishes. But I cannot see you in pain. Not when I can help.”

  Decided, he scooped her up and took her back to bed. Miranda may not want to have sex, something that would completely eradicate her heat, but she would accept this.

  Caleb laid her on the bed and took his place beside her. Cupping her cheek, he forced her to look at him.

  “A friend in high school once told me that a good orgasm could alleviate the worst of this pain. I know you don’t want to have sex, and I promise that I’ll respect that wish, but you need this. Let me help you.”

  Miranda closed her eyes, and Caleb

  knew she was going to refuse. Desperate, he kissed her, taking her lips and forcing her to open to him. Miranda sighed into his mouth, her body relishing his

  attention. Her arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him down to her, flush against her body. Miranda had waited until her body would take over and demand she be taken despite her wishes. Though her body called to him, demanded he take her, he promised Miranda that he wouldn’t.

  “Let me just take the edge off,

  sweetheart.”

  ***

  It had been bittersweet waking up in

  Caleb’s arms. It was sweet because Miranda felt at home in his arms, draped across his muscular chest, and bitter because the pain had wakened her.

  Despite the agony that wracked her

  body, she’d taken the time to look at Caleb. His features were relaxed in sleep, reminiscent of a child. Her fingers traced his face, delighting in the stubble-roughened texture of his cheeks, but her exploration of him had been cut short. She gasped in pain and eased from the bed.

  He’d found her naked and curled into a ball on the bathroom floor and immediately come to her aid. His kiss stole her thoughts on why she didn’t want him to take her.

  Miranda became lost in a sea of need.

  Caleb’s scent wrapped around her, enticing her to let go and allow him to ease the pain that seemed never ending.

  “Please, Caleb. Please make it stop!”

  Miranda should have been aghast at her wantonness. It simply wasn’t like her, but in this moment, she knew only that she needed. Needed him. The first touch of his hand to her breast was torture.

  Miranda arched her back, forcing more of her small breasts into his hands. The nerve endings, already over stimulated, fired in rapid succession, sending waves of pleasure that bordered on pain through her body, centering at the apex of her thighs.

  She clenched her legs together, sending sparks flying through her body at the small pressure the movement placed on her engorged clitoris. Her hands moved of their own accord, sliding down her belly and into the small thatch of curls, seeking to end her torment.

  Miranda cried out in frustration as a hand grabbed hers and pushed her hand above her head.

  “I’ll take care of you, sweetheart,” Caleb whispered in her ear.

  Miranda moved her hips, enticing him to focus on the place that needed him most.

  Something warm and moist closed over her nipple, sucking at the hardened nub, and she released the moan she’d been holding back. Miranda clasped Caleb’s head to her breast, begging wordlessly for more. She lifted her hips, begg
ing him to touch that special place... He parted her thighs, and his fingers delved within her aching and moist flesh.

  “Caleb!”

  He chuckled against her breast before devoting the same attention to her other, his fingers never speeding or slowing as they explored her. She pulled his hair in frustration, and Caleb released her breast and nipped her neck in warning. She yelped and looked down into his eyes, glowing like those of a cat. His tongue slowly lapped the sting away, his eyes never leaving hers. In that same lazy manner, his fingers found her clit, circling it expertly. She was hanging onto the precipice ready to fall, but there was something missing.

  Caleb teased her, slowly and gently rubbing his fingers over her sensitive clit.

  Miranda clawed at his back, her body climbing towards the peak. Caleb took her mouth in a blistering kiss as his fingers became more forceful, exerting just the right amount of pressure to send her slamming over the edge, her whole body shattering in pleasure.

  Miranda came back to herself to find Caleb regarding her with his glowing cat eyes in the moonlit bedroom. She cupped his stubble-roughened cheek, bringing him down to her lips for a kiss. He allowed her a few sweet kisses before pulling back.

  “I’m too close to the edge of my control, sweetheart.”

  “That’s okay.” “No, Miranda. Right now, it is just your heat talking. Don’t worry, it’ll all be over tomorrow, and you’ll be able to think clearly. I gave you a promise, and I plan to keep it.”

  Miranda let her hand drop, and she

  rolled to get away from him. Caleb didn’t want her anyway. He grabbed and pinned her to the mattress, forcing her to look into his eyes. The glow receded for a fraction of a second before his eyes began to glow again.

  “Don’t, Miranda. You know that I want you; please do not push me. Now let’s sleep. Let me hold you.”