by Cynthia Sax
“You don’t need me.” Jeanine glanced longingly at the Leone pride. Tanner sat at a table facing them, his laughter reaching them from across the room. Females watched the young lion, sexual hunger reflected in their expressions.
Jeanine still wants that cub’s approval. Adar sucked back his jealousy, willing to do whatever he had to make his mate happy. “I need you.” He wrapped one of his arms around Jeanine’s waist and pushed her forward, her lack of sexual interest in his rival the only thing keeping him sane. “And I should hear this.”
“Yes, you should hear this.” Violet hooked her arm in Nikhil’s. “The Big Cat Mates Club has only one rule.” Nikhil snorted. Violet was not known for following any rules, and Violet smacked his shoulder. “No secrets. What we know, our mates know. Plus this threat extends to Jeanine also.”
Threat. Adar slid his gaze to Nikhil. The CEO appeared grave.
Royce, his mate Starr, and his two brothers stood as they approached. “Adar, Jeanine, Baagh, Violet.” Royce, the alpha lion, nodded.
“Forget this formality.” Violet hugged Starr, and the two women laughed. Jeanine hung back. “You know Jeanine, of course.”
“Of course.” Starr smiled. “Though we haven’t had an opportunity to talk since my interview.”
Adar frowned. Starr had been hired months ago.
“The interview Jeanine called me cruel to arrange,” Tanner added, a grin on his unblemished face. “She thought I was raising your hopes unnecessarily.” The lion shifter laughed, and Jeanine stiffened in Adar’s arms.
“If Starr hadn’t been your brother’s mate, Jeanine would have been right.” Adar edged his voice with ice, having zero tolerance for anyone mocking his mate. “You told a waitress she might have a job as an executive assistant, raising her hopes, knowing there was little to no chance she would be hired, and then you left Jeanine to clean up your mess.”
Tanner’s eyebrows lowered, and his mouth flattened. “I didn’t ask her to clean up anything.”
“You didn’t have to ask. Cleaning up your messes is her job.” Adar ran one of his palms down Jeanine’s bare right arm, his cat seeking to mark his territory, physically reinforce his claim on his female. “She deals with the crushed job applicants, the rejected salespeople, the callers you don’t want to talk to, and she does it with a smile, never losing her cool.”
Jeanine met his gaze, a sheen covering her brilliant green eyes. “I lost my cool that night. I called him an ass.” A nervous chuckle rolled through the group.
Adar’s heart lightened. “Did you, kitten?”
She nodded, a small smile curling her lips. “I was quoting someone I knew and respected. This male is very strong and intelligent and handsome.”
Adar rubbed his fingers over his face. “And scarred.”
“His scars are proof that he’s willing to fight to protect his territory.” Jeanine caressed his cheek.
“And to protect his mate.” He pressed his lips to her fingertips, and she trembled. “He’d die to protect his mate.”
“That’s good to know, lover boy,” Violet said dryly, and Jeanine snatched her hand away, her face flushing bright pink. “Because I was… ummm… visiting the wolf shifter forum,” the hacker continued, and Adar lifted his eyebrows. The forum was locked to outsiders. “And they’re planning a strike against Leone Media, something about seeking revenge for their fallen brethren.”
“Oh shit.” Starr’s face paled, and she tucked her body into Royce’s. “They’re coming after us, Royce. Because of that fight in the parking lot.”
“They won’t harm you,” Royce assured his mate. “They’d have to get through me first.”
“And me,” Jeanine whispered. “I’ll be the first being they meet.”
“No.” Adar strapped his arms protectively around her. She was right. They’d kill her to get to Royce. “You’ll have to find another receptionist, Royce. I’m not risking my mate.”
“It’s my job, Adar.” Jeanine pushed at him, wiggling in his arms. He didn’t ease his grip. “I know the risks. I’ve always known the risks.”
“The risks,” Royce repeated. He and the other lion shifters stared at her, realization dawning on their golden faces. “You knew she didn’t feel safe.” The alpha lion accused Adar.
“You should have known that also.” Adar met his gaze squarely. “She’s a human guarding your precious firm from shifters. I thought you were protecting her. That’s why I didn’t step in before today.” He jutted his jaw, not wanting to think of the dangers she’d been exposed to. “Instead you’ve been treating my mate as though she’s expendable.”
“Are you accusing me of deliberately endangering one of my employees?” Royce stepped toward him, his eyes flashing.
“I was aware of those dangers.” Jeanine held her arms out, seeking to stop a full-grown lion shifter with her bare hands. “But I’ll need help dealing with this new threat.” She looked at Adar. “What should I do?”
“Nothing,” he growled. “I don’t want you going anywhere near Leone Media. If you were hurt --” His voice broke, the thought of a future without Jeanine unbearable.
“I won’t be hurt. You’ll protect me,” Jeanine stated with a confidence Adar didn’t share. “And when you’re not there --”
“I’m not letting you out of my sight.” She was his to safeguard.
“Oh.” Jeanine blinked. “Then we’ll be working together.” She smiled brightly at him, her beauty temporarily blinding him. “I can help you, when I’m not answering phones and cleaning up Tanner’s messes.”
Tanner muttered something even Adar, with his cat hearing, couldn’t decipher, and Jeanine’s smile widened even more.
“We’ll be a team, you and I.” She splayed her frighteningly fragile fingers over his rough hands. “Belonging to each other.”
“We are a team.” Adar gazed down at the female he couldn’t live without. “And we’ve always belonged together. You simply didn’t know it.”
Her face flushed an endearing pink. “My body knew it.”
As does mine. Adar’s cock hardened. “Before this night ends, all of you will know it.” He swung her into his arms, and she squealed, kicking her legs, and clutching his shoulders. “We’re leaving.”
* * *
Jeanine reclined on the limousine’s black leather seat, her mind spinning and her body aroused. “Shouldn’t you be attending your own party?” She shamelessly spread her legs, allowing Adar to stroke up her thighs, his coarse hands sliding under the hem of her dress. The partition behind the driver’s seat had been lowered, granting them the illusion of privacy, creating a moving oasis inhabited by the two of them.
“I should be here with you.” Adar grazed her soft folds with his fingertips, and she twitched, the ecstasy too intense, too right. “You’re dripping for me, mate,” he rumbled, his grim lips curled into a smug smile. “Is all of this sweet cream for me?” He swept his fingers up and down, up and down her pussy.
“Yes, it’s all for you, Adar.” She rested her head on the seat back, trusting him with her body, her heart, and her soul. “It has always been for you.” Only he made her this wet, needy, longing to be filled. Jeanine lifted into his hand, impatient for more.
“Which is why the cub still lives.” Adar sank to his knees before her and flipped her skirt up. He perused her thoroughly, leisurely, with his unblinking cat eyes. “This pussy is mine.” He cupped her mons, pressing the heel of his hand against her clit, the pressure exquisite.
“Yours,” Jeanine moaned, wiggling her ass.
“Mine.” He opened her wider with his fingers and skimmed her clit with his thumbs, ratcheting Jeanine’s desire higher. “You smell delicious, kitten.” He extended his tongue, and she shook, anticipating his touch.
He swept her from ass to clit with the flat of his tongue. “Adar,” she cried, bucking, unable to control her body.
“Hmmm… You taste even better than you smell.” He laved her pussy, dipping his tongue into e
very crevice, exploring her, feasting upon her, and she dug her fingernails into the limousine seat, struggling not to come. The trembling in her thighs intensified.
He cupped her bare ass, his claws pricking her skin, as he licked and nibbled upon her. Spots decorated his forehead, blending into his short black hair, his animal prowling close to the surface. I do that to him. Jeanine gazed at Adar, need winding tighter around her. I bring out the beast in this powerful male.
He pushed his tongue into her, and she arched, grasping his head, pressing her fingertips into his scalp, needing to clasp him -- her constant, her safety in a world of risk. “Please,” she moaned.
Adar’s gaze met hers, his eyes glittering with a wild savagery, a primitive possessiveness that stole Jeanine’s breath. A rumble rolled up his suit-clad chest, and he drove forward, surging deeper.
“Yes.” She tilted her hips, giving him access to everything, to all of her. He thrust mercilessly into her, skimming his flesh along her inner walls, using his tongue as he would use his cock, filling her again and again, his nose rubbing against her clit.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Jeanine rode her lover’s face, raising into each stroke, smacking her folds against his firm, hard lips, smattering his scarred cheeks with her juices, branding him with her scent. He growled, sucking, thrusting, devouring her wetness, his wildness dangling her over the razor-sharp edge of fulfillment.
“Adar.” She dug red crescent moons into his scalp with her fingernails, holding onto him for dear life, her body rocked with bone-deep tremors. “I need…”
Adar fastened his mouth over her clit and sucked hard. The contact severed Jeanine’s fragile grip on reality, and she screamed, flinging her body upward, driving her hips into Adar’s face. He caught her as she plummeted down, down, down into the sexual abyss, a vortex of color and sensation swirling around her.
“Adar,” she murmured, her world gradually leveling.
“Kitten.” He licked her clean, flipped the hem of her skirt back down, and rejoined her on the limousine’s backseat. The leather dipped under his weight, and her body slid against his, his heat and hard muscle comforting. “Where do you belong?”
Jeanine rested her head on his shoulder. “Here, with you.” She covered her mouth with her hand as she yawned -- dazed, light-headed, and thoroughly sated. “I love you, Adar.” The words slipped out before she could censor them, and Jeanine stiffened, alarmed by her confession. “I didn’t mean --”
Adar pressed his index finger over her lips, stopping her retraction. “Yes, you did.” He kissed her forehead. “Now, sleep.” He cuddled her closer. “I’ll protect you.”
He’ll protect me. Adar’s heart beat under Jeanine’s ear, his breath wafted on her neck, and his musk enveloped her. She closed her eyes, achingly aware that the words she wanted to hear hadn’t been said.
Chapter Three
Adar sat on the damn uncomfortable lobby guest chair, papers laid on the glass coffee table before him, a contract requiring his perusal and signature. The tablet and phone beside him provided a link to his management team, communications he supplemented with after hour meetings.
With Jeanine by my side. He glanced at his female, his constant companion. She maintained her post, typing a report for Leone Media, her fingers dancing over the keys, a smile on her beautiful face.
Adar breathed in, smelling hot, willing female, and his cock twitched, his need for her insatiable. If it hadn’t been for his mate’s admirable sense of duty, he would have spent the entire week solidifying the bond between them, coaxing another “I love you” from her red lips. “It’s time for a break,” he announced.
Her cheeks turned pink. “I wish.” She sighed. “We have another hour.”
“I won’t last another hour,” Adar grumbled, this week’s sacrifices made for Jeanine, not for Royce and Leone Media. “And I wouldn’t have to last for another hour if you worked for me.”
Jeanine’s head turned, and her gaze met his. “You want me to work for you?” Her voice lilted with excitement, her face becoming animated. “But I thought Sue was doing a good job. She seems very capable.”
“Sue is our receptionist. I want you to be my assistant,” Adar clarified.
Jeanine widened her brilliant green eyes. “You want… you want me to work inside the office?” she whispered. “With everyone else?”
“With me.” Fuck everyone else. Adar frowned, fed up with sharing his mate.
“I’d work with you inside the office,” Jeanine crowed, clasping her hands together. “I could attend birthday parties and retirement parties and baby showers --”
“We don’t have that many parties,” he advised, wondering what type of firm Royce was running with his financing. “You would mostly work.”
“Inside the office.” Her face glowed. “I could take coffee breaks whenever I wanted. Use the bathroom whenever I wanted.”
“Fuck me whenever you wanted,” Adar added smugly. “We wouldn’t have to wait for another hour.”
“Adar!” Jeanine glanced at the entrance to the office, his mate overly concerned with following some unwritten rules she’d somehow formed about business propriety.
Fuck propriety. Fuck Royce. And fuck waiting. “Draft your resignation letter, kitten. You’re working for the big, bad cat now.” Adar grinned, pleased with the solution. “I --”
The front door opened, and a strange scent hit him. Wolf.
“Get down!” Adar leaped toward his mate, shifting as he moved. His clothes shredded, fur covered his skin, his arms extended, a tail protruded from his ass. Jeanine screamed, the gut-wrenching sound paining his sensitive ears, echoing in his head.
Adar collided with the wolf in midair, and they tumbled to the hard floor. He clawed the big male’s shoulder and ripped at his exposed throat with his teeth. Warm blood filled Adar’s mouth, coating his tongue, exciting his vicious cat. The wolf kicked once, twice, three times and stilled.
“Adar!” Jeanine screamed a warning.
He spun on his hind legs, having no time to ponder his kill. Four large wolves approached the reception desk. The beasts threatened his mate. A red-hot rage rose in Adar’s chest, acid burning the back of his throat.
Adar repositioned quickly, placing his long body in front of Jeanine, preparing to protect her with his life. I can’t move from here. He scanned his territory. I can’t hide in the shadows. He faced the daunting task of defeating four wolves alone, his fighting techniques severely limited.
A black metal stapler whizzed through the air and struck the largest wolf. It bounced off the shifter’s scarred forehead and clattered to the floor.
I’m not completely alone. Adar twitched his tail, both his cat and human approving of his kitten’s resourcefulness.
He paced before his mate as the wolves growled and barked, arguing among themselves. Adar coiled his muscles, lowering his body. A coffee cup cracked against a wolf’s shoulder, and the beast yelped, jumping back, exposing the wolf beside him.
Adar sprang forward. The wolf swung his head, and Adar twisted his body. Jaws snapped and teeth grazed his left front leg, leaving a trail of pain, the air scented with his blood. He raked his claws over the wolf’s face, slicing an eye open, blinding the beast. The wolf whined, retreating as his two pack mates surged toward Adar.
Fuck. Adar hissed and swatted wildly, fighting for his life, fighting for his mate’s life. I can’t fail her. Pens pelted wolf fur, sticking into tough hide, each barrage accompanied by a flurry of colorful curses.
My mate. Claws and teeth shredded Adar’s fur, the agony blurring into a numbness. Fight. He slashed a wolf’s throat with his teeth, and another wolf took his place.
Roars rocked the small space, the floor shook, and the wolf was gone. A lion, Royce, flung the wolf over his shoulder. The wolf slammed against the wall and twitched.
A second lion, Tanner, the cub, barreled into the wolf on Adar’s right. The third Leone brother, Dirk, joined the fray. Adar staggered backward as the
three lions easily tangled with the remaining wolves. Blackness edged Adar’s vision, his wounds closing slowly, the blood loss weakening him.
“Adar.” Jeanine hugged his neck, burying her face in his fur. He rumbled his discontentment, his fragile human mate foolishly putting herself in danger. “I thought I had lost you.”
Adar’s legs collapsed, and he sank to the floor. Jeanine cradled his head in her lap, her musky female scent comforting him. He stared up at her, too injured to shift, wishing he’d told her he loved her. I do love her.
“You protected me.” She gently petted his sensitive whiskers and pressed kisses on his forehead. “I love you, Adar.” He licked the wet trails streaking down her cheeks, tasting her relief, her concern for him, her love.
The stench of lion intensified. Adar twitched his nose.
Royce, in human form, crouched near him, his forehead wrinkled. “He’ll have a few more scars, but he’ll live.” The lion shifter rested his hand on Jeanine’s shoulder.
My mate’s shoulder. Adar growled.
Royce removed his hand. “You’re a controlling bastard, Adar.” He grinned. “Thank you for protecting Leone Media. Although I suspect you didn’t risk your life for the company.”
I risked my life for my mate. Adar nudged Jeanine’s arm with his head.
“Jeanine.” Royce looked down at Adar’s female. “We’re hiring a temp to cover reception. Take some time off and care for your cat.”
“I won’t be coming back to Leone Media.” Jeanine stroked Adar, and he purred, her touch divine. “Adar asked me to work for him.” She rubbed her fingers, and her scent, into his fur, and he flicked his tail against the floor. “Inside the office, as his assistant.”
“That’s a good position… for both of you.” Royce chuckled. “There will be no more ornery leopards in my lobby. Concentrate on healing, Adar.”
I’d rather concentrate on my female. Adar licked his blood off Jeanine’s fingers.
