“That’s kind of unbelievable.” Kylie narrowed her eyes at him. “Should I be worried?”
He sighed. “Every shifter who hasn’t been forced to bare their throats to those bastards should at the very least be wary. The lions haven’t managed to take over any shifter-occupied cities here in the south, but it’s not for the lack of trying.”
“I meant since I’m a Returner,” Kylie elaborated.
His expression instantly clouded. “I don’t want to scare you…”
“…but?” she prodded with a bit of firmness.
He rubbed at the back of his neck in agitation. “There’s really not a good way to put this, but—the lions, they collect Returners.”
Kylie took in his words without blinking. “I thought for sure you were going to say they put out hits on us. Why in the world would they want to ‘collect’ us? For ransoms? Bargaining?”
“If only it were just that. No Kylie, they want you for the same reason the clans are so protective of their Returners.”
For a moment, she gazed back at him in feigned perplexity before abruptly widening her eyes as though in epiphany. “But I’m a jaguar!” she protested.
“Damn it, I figured Jennifer would’ve told you about that when she was explaining the heat,” Hunter said. “Though it doesn’t happen very much because the Elders tend to discourage it, we can mate and have children with certain other shifters. Unfortunately for all of us, jaguars can produce children with lions.”
“This mess just keeps getting better and better,” Kylie grumbled.
She then scooted closer to him and put a hand firmly on his arm, making him instantly go rigid. Since he was actually answering all her questions, maybe it was time to ask the questions she really needed the answers to.
“Tell me the truth, Hunter,” Kylie continued sternly. “Are there lion shifters in Riverford right now? Is that why you insisted on staying with me tonight even though you were obviously still struggling being so close to me? Did Mr. Gaither assign you as my bodyguard?”
Hunter’s nostrils visibly flared as his eyes fixed on her, his pupils dilating until only a very small sliver of honey-gold showed. Getting this close to a male who likely still had some of her pheromones swimming around in his head despite the vinegar probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but Kylie stubbornly refused to back down. She needed those answers, dammit!
Then he abruptly sneezed, and when his eyes blinked back open, the heat that had been building within had faded. “Maybe I was a bit overzealous with the spray bottle,” he said with a small, sexy smile as he reached up to rub at his nose.
This close and she could smell his heady, masculine scent even through the vinegar. A mad urge suddenly popped into her head as she stared at him, and before Kylie could even think to stop herself, she leaned forward and pressed her lips firmly against his.
A sharp gasp was her only warning before his arms roughly wrapped around her back and she was crushed against his chest. A wet tongue licked insistently across her lips until she instinctually parted them—and suddenly her mind was as hazy and full of pleasure as it had been when Hunter had pushed her up against the elevator doors the first time they had kissed.
We shouldn’t…we shouldn’t… the reasonable part of her mind screamed, but then her back hit the seat cushions and her mind promptly wrenched to a stop as she felt Hunter grind his hardness roughly against her groin with enough force to make her cry out into the kiss.
Sloppy and hard and wet, it was one of the hottest kisses she had ever had, and Kylie found herself nearly devouring those soft, delicious lips with utter abandon. His stubble scratched against her cheek and jaw, adding to the arousal that was now a throbbing, sweet ache between her legs as Hunter continued to thrust and roll his hips erratically against her.
Kylie squeezed her knees tightly against his hips and thrust her pelvis up against the bulge in his jeans, grinding into his irregular rhythm as she dug her fingers deeply into his shoulders. She frowned as she realized that he still had his shirt on, that they both were still fully dressed.
As if reading her mind, Hunter’s hands were suddenly pushing up her long t-shirt over her chest, the rough pads of his fingers making her shudder in excitement as they skirted up her belly to cup her breasts over her bra. He gave them a playful squeeze before he pulled away from their kiss with a sigh, his warm breath tickling her swollen lips.
“I want you so bad right now,” Hunter said gruffly, making her eyes fly open in surprise. The last thing she had expected him to do was talk so lucidly.
Lust-darkened eyes met hers, and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t know why, but the vinegar isn’t working,” he said, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes as if in pain. “Even though my nose is burning, your scent is still driving me crazy!”
Kylie swallowed thickly and tried to make her mouth work. “I was the one who—who attacked you,” she finally managed. “You smelled good, too.”
The muscles beneath her fingers tensed. “I want you,” he repeated softly, his eyes still closed tightly. He pressed his forehead against hers. “I think I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you step out from behind your door wearing my sweater. I wanted you when I knew damn well I shouldn’t. That’s why I want you to tell me to go. I won’t take advantage of you when you’re a slave to the heat, but I don’t think I’ll be able to keep myself from you tonight, even if I leave this apartment right now, unless you reject me.”
Here his lips curved up. “If you decide you want this once you’ve got a clear head and you’ve had a few weeks to make sense of this crazy shifter world, then I promise no power on this earth’ll be able to drag me away.”
Kylie frowned. Was she starting to go into heat again? Even now with her entire body thrumming with arousal, she didn’t feel even an iota of that same scorching, intolerable heat of before that had almost driven her insane with mindless need. Right now, she was pretty sure she was just plain old horny. Maybe remnants of the heat were still wreaking havoc with her hormones, but when she had looked at Hunter’s gorgeous face smiling so sexily at her, she was pretty sure that she had kissed him because she damn well had wanted to, not because she had been a slave to her jaguar instincts.
Starting anything with Hunter was probably the worst idea she had ever had, but…what if it wasn’t? What if he turned out to be the only man who could ever truly understand her, truly help her to find out what had happened to her parents? What if she could someday reveal her secret to him? Could she really afford to get sidetracked from her original intentions when it came to Hunter and the jaguar clan? No, more importantly, could she really walk away from something she hadn’t even dared hope for until now?
“The Devil tempts but doesn’t force.” There had been no truer saying than that, especially when the “Devil” in this instance was the jaguar shifter with a body like a god and the smile of an incubus that was currently lying between her legs.
Slowly, Kylie raised her hands to gently cup his cheeks. Startled, Hunter lifted his head, his entire body beginning to shake with what was likely a gallant effort of keeping a sudden surge of lust triggered by her touch at bay. He looked at her warily.
“I kissed you because I wanted to,” Kylie said with a wry grin. “My earlier heat had nothing to do with it—well, I really should say nothing much to do with it—and I’m definitely not in heat right now. Maybe hot for you, but nothing as insane as I was feeling when we went at each other in the elevator. If anything, it’s your fault for distracting me with such a sexy smile, and I do love a guy with stubble.”
Something wild and excited flashed deep within his eyes. “Just when I thought I had you all figured out, you totally surprise the hell out of me.”
Then instead of bending down to recapture her lips as she expected, Hunter pulled away completely from her body and sprang to his feet. Before worry that he was going to leave her anyway could creep into her mind, Hunter reached down to
her shoulders and pulled her up onto her feet as effortlessly as though she was made of air.
“Let’s go take a shower,” he said, tugging her towards the hallway. “Damned if I’m going to smell that vinegar for a second longer than I have to!”
CHAPTER NINE
Kylie had only managed to make it a couple of steps into Hunter’s spacious bathroom before he whirled around and abruptly yanked her t-shirt over her head, leaving her to blink at him in surprise as he tossed the shirt behind him as if it had personally offended him. He then stepped up to her until only millimeters separated their bodies, and his hands snaked around her back. She felt the tension of her bra ease before she realized that he had unhooked it.
“H-Hey!” she scolded with a nervous laugh, running her hands up his chest to grip his shoulders tightly as she pressed against his front. “It’s not fair that I’m the first one who’s half-naked again.”
The top of her head barely came up to the height of his mouth, so Kylie rose on her tiptoes to press a kiss lightly, teasingly, on his slightly parted lips before he could say anything. When she drew her face slightly back, he was looking down at her with intense, narrowed eyes that warned he was probably a breath away from ripping off the rest of her clothes and bending her over the counter between the double sinks.
While that might be fun in its own way, Kylie wanted the first time they slept together to be a lot more intimate. She wanted to be able to feel the hardness and weight of his body pressing into her, to see the arousal and ecstasy on his face as he plunged into her heat for the first time.
Careful not to break eye contact, she took a small step back from Hunter, briefly meeting resistance from the arms still wrapped around her waist before he reluctantly loosened his hold and allowed her another step back. He fisted his hands at his sides as though he didn’t trust them not to reach for her again.
However, that was as far as she needed to go.
Kylie reached for the buttons on his already rumpled shirt, and his entire body completely stilled. She stared into his eyes as she slowly began to unbutton his shirt, watching all the various emotions—lust, anticipation, amusement—flash through them even as heat began to rise in her cheeks.
By no means a virgin, she had never been so bold with the one and only guy she’d slept with. Their sexual encounters had been hesitant and awkward at first, and then over the course of the few months of their relationship, their bed-play had fallen into something that was more comfortable, pleasurable, but not even resembling anything close to passionate.
That was when she had known it was time to end it with him. With her parents leaving her with a huge empty place in her heart, she wasn’t about to add an empty relationship to the mix if she could help it.
Afterwards, she had felt so jaded that she hadn’t much bothered with dating. After all, why bother to date anyone when that person might not ever understand her situation, the burden of her secret that had been slowly eating her up inside for the past twelve years?
Here with Hunter, even though all she was doing was slowly opening his shirt, Kylie had never felt so excited, so alive. Her body practically thrummed with all the nervous energy coursing through her. It was all she could do to keep her hands from shaking. She didn’t want Hunter to think that she was scared.
Hunter remained as still as a beautiful sculpture as she finally drew both flaps of his shirt aside and slipped the shirt off his shoulders to reveal a tanned, nearly hairless muscled chest that would have been the envy of any guy. Kylie let his shirt drop to the floor, and immediately, she reached over to run both her hands over his pecs, thrilling at the silky-hardness beneath her palms and fingertips.
He shuddered and closed his eyes in pleasure. With a mischievous smirk, she took advantage of his momentary blindness to step in closer and latch her mouth onto one of his already hardened nipples. Hunter nearly jumped clean out of his skin, arms as hard and thick as steel cables instantly enveloping her and crushing her against his body once again before she could do more than run her tongue teasingly over the sensitive nub.
A growl that was all jaguar filled the air around her. She could feel its vibrations tickle her lips as she pressed them more firmly to his areola and circled her tongue around his nipple. Though marred somewhat by the smell of vinegar that very much still emanated from her, the smell and taste of him filled her head, reawakening the throbbing between her legs. Yes, her jaguar knew exactly what it wanted.
Kylie let out a small sound of surprise when she felt his hands slip beneath the waistbands of both her jeans and panties and firmly cup the bare skin of her ass, giving both cheeks an aggressive squeeze.
“We need—to get into—the shower,” Hunter ground out, pulling her head away from his chest. “I’m about this close to saying ‘fuck it’ and taking you up against the wall or bent over the tub. I’d much rather take you while you’re soaped up and slippery and smelling only of you.”
Kylie felt a surge of heat in her groin at his words. “As long as I can see your face, you can make love to me anywhere,” she promised, her voice low and sultry as she looked up at him almost bashfully from beneath her lashes.
Hunter reached over and finished pulling off her bra, letting it drop before reaching for the button to her jeans just as she did the same to his. Seconds later she was naked and kicking her jeans away, and Hunter’s hands had found their way to her breasts as, equally naked, he pressed himself firmly against her back. He tweaked her right nipple with just enough force to make her cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure while his other hand kneaded the other.
She was practically putty in his hands as he maneuvered them towards the walk-in shower, stopping only to pull the curtain aside in order to turn on the water. Kylie stepped into the hot spray, and barely had enough time to turn around before Hunter was pulling her towards him for another one of those wild, sloppy kisses she enjoyed. His tongue pushed roughly into her mouth, and they spent the next few minutes trying to lick every inch of the inside of each other’s mouth as the hot spray washed a bit of the acrid smell of vinegar from her body.
Then Hunter clumsily reached for a bottle of shampoo from a small ledge cut into the shower wall, nearly dropping it in his haste, and pulled away from the kiss. He poured some into his hands before Kylie could reach for it and began to massage it into her hair. It should have felt weird to let someone else wash her hair, but Kylie’s mind was buzzing with too much pleasure to think about anything other than how pleasant his fingers felt running over her scalp.
Soon, she could only smell the faint hint of the vinegar that the water had not completely washed from her skin beneath the much stronger sweet scent of the shampoo mingled with the luscious smell of Hunter, himself. She couldn’t help leaning into him and drawing in a deep whiff of that heady smell as his soap-covered hands began to slide down her shoulders and back up again in a teasing caress that made her shiver in excitement.
Before either one of them could get lost in the moment again, Kylie stepped back farther into the spray of the shower and tilted her head back in order to rinse her hair. Getting soap in her eyes was so not sexy, she thought ruefully.
She could sense Hunter moving around, and then a few seconds later, he pulled her from the spray and crushed his lips to hers. She could taste the chlorine-tinged tap water in the kiss.
A different type of sweet aroma than the shampoo assaulted her senses as Hunter began to run something slippery and cool over her back and shoulders with aggressive hands, then down over her ass, making her break the kiss with a gasp and hastily rub the water from her eyes.
He took a step back from her with a predatory grin, his hands rubbing along her sides before sliding over her belly and up to her breasts. His hands were once again covered in suds as he very deliberately began to fondle them, his thumbs brushing over her now aching nipples while his hungry eyes seemed to pierce right through her.
Kylie couldn’t help but close her eyes and moan as one of his hands d
ropped down between her legs and began to slowly massage her clit in exaggerated circles with his fingertips. She soon reached over and encircled his thus far neglected cock in a light grip, eager to return the favor. His breath caught, and his whole body noticeably tightened as she slowly began to stroke her fingers along his silky warmth.
Her eyes dropped to watch their hands pleasuring each other, and once again, a mad idea popped into her head. Kylie sunk to her knees without warning, her hand still firmly grasping his cock. It was a beast of an organ, long and thicker than she could have ever imagined, and she felt her throbbing sex grow wetter just thinking about that monster plunging into her.
Resisting the urge to stroke herself, Kylie pressed her lips lightly against the head of his member and flicked her tongue across it. A taste that was all Hunter exploded onto her tongue, different than the salty bitterness she had expected, though there was a hint of that as well. A deep moan blended with the hiss of the shower, sending another strong jolt of arousal to her groin. It made her feel wild and powerful, and she knew she had to make him do it again.
She slid as much of his member into her mouth as she comfortably could, and concentrated on licking firmly along the sensitive nerve on the underside as she sucked him, determined to make him see white despite her inexperience. She felt him cradle the back of her head gently with one hand, but he didn’t try to press her forward as she had expected. While struggling to keep a steady rhythm with both her mouth and a hand stroking at the base of his cock, she used the other to tentatively fondle his balls. Hunter’s legs trembled, and the hand pressing against the back of her head clenched, fisting her hair.
Then suddenly his hands were gripping her shoulders and pushing her back. She released his cock from her mouth with an audible pop before looking anxiously up at him. Had she done something wrong?
Tempted by the Jaguar #2: Revelation (Riverford Shifters) Page 5
