A Seacat's Love (Oceanan Trilogy Book 1) (25 page)

“No. Do not kill him. He has to apologize to my kinscats.”

“I hate to say this, kitten, but I think you better forget about that apology. It seems he has had a crush on you for a long time. In his mind, he’s done nothing wrong.” He parted the material. “But I
will
kill him if he touches you again.” Rick reached for the lacy material and squeezed. “I can’t completely blame him.” He rubbed his fullness against her. “Any red-blooded man wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off you.”

Leonora lifted her right arm and reached for his head. Coquettishly, she rubbed her derriere on his arousal, enflaming him further. When it came to Leonora, Rick could not keep his passions under control. She easily drove him over the edge with her insatiable appetite for him, a thirst equaled only by Rick’s for her. A mere glance would have them panting and melting with unrestrained lust.

Rick eyed Leonora’s breasts from over her right shoulder. He saw the bra closed from the front. He reached for the clasp and freed her. “Nora.” He buried his face in her curls. This time his hands restrained her. “Nora.” Rick groaned. His manhood pulsed.

He hiked Leonora’s skirt to her waist. One hand slipped inside her underwear, between her thighs. Rick quickly found her nub
and began to rub it. Leonora eagerly yielded to his touch. Rick knew she liked it when he played with her and rubbed harder. Leonora’s hips swayed into his arousal. Her entrance grew moist and ready. Rick paused long enough to lift her onto the counter. He settled himself where he loved to be, between her shapely legs.

“Turn off your deceptor device.”

Leonora complied with a smile. Rick tenderly kissed her while he caressed her with feather-like touches on and around her knees and thighs, creating a path toward her center. Once there, he raised their passions a step by tugging the flimsy material aside and inserting a finger, then another, inside her sleek shaft.

Leonora’s head fell back on a moan. Rick knew he could easily push her over that sparkling edge. To his dismay, he was always taken along that magnificent ride with her. He hoped this time it would be different.

After having the alluring feline in his bed for seven solid months, nothing had changed. Rick struggled to control his emotions whenever she was around. But when he touched her, he had no control at all. Today he swore would be different, even if it killed him. He would send Leonora to heaven twice before he followed.

Rick observed Leonora’s reactions. Her hips tilted forward. Her legs spread wider. And her features spoke of hunger and pleasure. “You’re a hungry little kitten, aren’t you?” he spoke from between her breasts. He roughly thrust a third finger inside her.

Rick was in tune with each of Leonora’s responses. His gaze dropped to her wet entrance. He watched his slick, shiny fingers drive into her. His need to please her intensified. He increased the pace and included rubbing her clit. Her hips jolted upward in a whimper. Rick felt her muscles contract around him. It all fueled him into doing something new to him.

Staring at her angelic face, he reached for her underwear and slipped them down her legs to the floor. “I want to know all of you.”

“What do you mean?”

Her breathlessness increased the fire in him. Rick grabbed her legs and draped them over his shoulders. He gripped her bottom
from underneath her thighs and tilted her hips upward. “I’m going to eat you all up,” he answered before his head swooped downward.

Leonora gasped and tried to escape him, but he would not let go. Rick had no reservations about tasting her. It amazed him since he had never shared this with Mary or any other woman. Leonora was special. He wanted to know her on every level of intimacy as possible. He did not know what a woman tasted like. What he found could not be the norm!

Leonora was perfumed honey. Rick was consumed with greedily biting, licking, and sucking her. Leonora moaned. She mentally called his name, lifting her hips from the counter to meet his mouth. She wrapped her legs around his neck, took hold of his head, and pressed his face firmer against her.

Rick loved to create a magical realm for her—a realm he hoped would devour her soul—for his soul already resided there. He opened his pants as he seized her aroused nub between his teeth. He then soothed it with quick whips of his tongue.

Leonora cried out his name. Recognizing the tension in her voice, Rick prepared himself for her release. Her passion flowed with a furious force. A red-hot poker sliced through Rick’s soul, and he voraciously drank her surrender. Snatching her waist, Rick hoisted Leonora down, spun her around, and forced her on all fours. He entered her before she finished her last cries of rapture.

Flinging her hair to the side, he lustily gnawed her nape. His right thumb pressed along her spine. His thrusts were quick, deep, and furious. Within minutes, Leonora’s head flung back. Rick glimpsed her eyes. They were opened wide and glowing brighter. A throaty cry escaped her. Rick felt her juices flowing a second time. He cried out in excitement and spilled himself deep inside her spasmodic body.

Once the second explosion of stars finished, Leonora realized what had happened. “Dear stars above, Rick, what have you done? Get off me!”

Tigif climbed the stairs two at a time. His eyes glowed brighter than the sun.
Soon, human, soon you will pay for your daring. You had no right taking what is mine
.

He rushed to the door that led to Blaisdale’s assigned bedroom. He knew no one was inside. Lance and Carol Ann had gone for a stroll on the beach fifteen minutes ago. Tigif reached for the doorknob, twisted it, and slipped inside the room. His glowing gaze swept over the room. Painted in a soothing yellow and bordered with crisp, white molding, the room’s décor transported the visitor to a beachside resort. However, it did nothing to ease the rage that rolled to a boil in the large tiger.

From a secluded distance, Tigif had watched his archenemy place his head in between the legs of the feline he loved. Seeing Leonora’s hips rock against Rick’s face made his decision to kill the Predator unquestionable.

He spotted Blaisdale’s jacket draped over the back of a reading chair situated next to a pair of double-glass doors that led to a small balcony. Tigif searched inside each pocket. Empty. He
scanned the room again. He went to the small writing table and found what he wanted, lying on top.

Snatching the cell phone off the table, Tigif followed the instructions on the small screen and stumbled upon Blaisdale’s list of contacts. He chuckled when he located the name he was hoping for. He wrote the number on a notepad that was on the desk. Tigif pressed the send button and listened to the beeps as the phone dialed the number. As he waited for someone to pick up, he tore the sheet from the pad. He folded it and slipped it into his shirt pocket, while he sauntered over to the double doors to keep a look out for Blaisdale. At the sound of a click, he tensed.

“Hello, Anderson speaking.”

“Hello, Anderson…” His eyes dimmed. “How are you this fine morning?” A smile crept over his face.

“Who is this?”

“Someone who has some interesting information about the missing aliens and who helped them escape.”

Meanwhile, back downstairs in the kitchen, Rick refused to move from where he lay, on top of Leonora.

“Get up. Someone might see us.” Leonora pushed up from the floor. Her arms trembled and then buckled under the extra weight.

“Who? Carol Ann and Blaisdale are not here.” The new sensation of her bottom against his hips while connected was far more than pleasurable. It was sinful.

“But Tigif is.”

“Who cares?”

“I do. We do not need any more trouble from him. So, please, get up.”

Sighing, Rick gave in to her. Getting up first, he held out a hand to help her from the floor. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.” He pulled up his pants and closed his zipper. He walked to the sink to rinse out his mouth and washed his face and hands.

“Yes.” Leonora straightened out her blouse and skirt. She picked up her underwear from where Rick had tossed it. She
examined it. She made a face and balled it up. She held it instead of putting it back on.

“I don’t want to insult you in any way, so please don’t take it as such.” Rick dried his face and hands with a paper towel. “I’ve already explained to you why I thought you were Tigif’s lover. But I didn’t get the chance to ask you about your family.”

“My family?”

“Yes. You haven’t spoken to me about them. Tell me something I should know.”

He felt it was better to approach the topic in this manner than repeating Tigif’s exact words. The cat had obviously lied about the two of them being lovers. Rick did not want to take the chance of Leonora not having a sister be a lie and losing her because of an insult.

“Well, my sister’s name, as you already know, is Karla. What you do not know is that she is not a blood relative. Her parents were killed, alongside mine, many seasons ago.”

“Seasons?”

“My planet has only one climate and, therefore, one season. That is one year in Earth terms. Oceana is mostly composed of water, so we divide the season into periods of high and low tide.” She gestured to Rick. “Similar to your months in a year.”

Rick nodded and leaned a hip on the center island. “I’m sorry to hear about your parents.” He crossed his arms and carefully read Leonora’s eyes for lies. He hoped she did not lie to him. He was not sure how he would take it if she did, for he saw a lie as a betrayal of trust.

“Thanks. Well, Karla was orphaned. She had no other living relatives. Challen could not abandon her. His caring heart would not allow it. So he decided to formally adopt her and raise her.”

“And he is?”

“Challen is my older brother and my only living relative. He raised Karla, who was three at the time, and me. I was two tides old. He taught us everything we know and has kept us safe all these seasons. So you see. Karla
is
my sister, and Challen is my brother. And I should warn you, he is quite protective of us.”

“I see. I have to meet this Challen and thank him for keeping you alive. I owe him much.”

She stroked his cheek. “That is sweet of you.”

“There’s something else. If he’s so protective of you, then why did he allow you to come on this trip?”

Leonora pulled her gaze away and did not answer.

Rick’ brow arched. “Nora?” He grabbed hold of her chin and brought her attention back to him. “You’re keeping something from me. What is it, kitten?”

After taking a deep breath, she blurted, “Challen does not know I am here.”

Rick scowled. “How is that possible?”

She removed her chin from his fingers and walked to the other side of the kitchen. Rick watched her stare at the counter while gnawing her bottom lip. Something was up, and it seemed like she was the reason behind it.

“What did you do, kitten?” he softly asked. “Come clean.”

“You will get angry.”

“Just tell me.”

“Challen forbid me to participate in the expedition. However, I was not about to let him stop me. My dead colleagues and I, Challen, and a fellow Seacat by the name of Concheetah attended a six-hour meeting with our leader, Lord Oren. In the end, Lord Oren had granted his permission for the expedition, even though Challen and Concheetah were dead set against it.”

“Good for them,” Rick snuck in.

She gave him a cold look. “Anyway, Challen was also dead set against me going on this trip—”

“Good for Challen.”

“Shut up!” Leonora snapped, placing her balled fists on her hips.

Rick remembered the first time he had seen her standing this way. It made him smile.

“Anyway,” she continued, “I swore I was going on this trip with or without his blessing—”

“Naturally.”

Her icy glare grew colder. “Later that day, I learned that Oren had instructed Challen to go on his behalf to the Aligned Worlds’ headquarters and negotiate a peace contract for our race. After all, who can better speak for peace than a warrior who fights for peace? Anyway, Challen was off two days later, and I left the following day.” She headed for the exit before Rick could ask her any more questions. “I am going to clean up.”

Rick followed her to the archway. “If I was your brother, I’d redden your behind for risking your life the way you did.”

“You would be amazed at how similar you and Challen really are,” she said, hurrying up the stairs.

A cat version of myself, huh?
He returned to the sink with a lopsided grin.
I like this Challen already
. Rick chose to put away the groceries later. He felt he should first finish off the dishes Leonora had left behind and disinfect the counter.

What they had just shared was so intimate and personal, Rick’s hope for the future brightened. He entertained the idea of convincing Leonora to stay with him. He could change careers, and they could start fresh somewhere far away. Maybe Lance could help by obtaining new identities for them.

This was not the first time Rick considered the possibility. He viewed it from different angles, arrived at different outcomes like Lance had taught him to do. In the end, their future all depended on one thing: the government. As long as the government remained clueless to Rick’s and the Shadow Team’s involvement with the aliens, Rick foresaw no problems keeping Leonora’s true identity hidden. After all, he had done it for twenty-one years with his sister.