Beneath the Skin: de La Vega Cats, Book 3 (25 page)
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Authors: Lauren Dane
He shook. “Put your hands behind your back.”
She closed her eyes and obeyed. “Am I not allowed to touch you?”
“Not yet.” The arm around her waist moved to trap her wrists, and he smiled against her cheek. “Give your body to me, pretty Ophelia. I’ll do wonderful things to you.”
She didn’t want to lie passively as he pleasured her. She wanted to share it with him, give him back the same pleasure in turn—but only one thing was really important right now. “What do you need from me?”
“Open your eyes.”
His voice had turned to a growl, more untamed beast than man. Ophelia looked up, met his gaze.
Dark, dark blue, like a frozen pond, except there was nothing cold about him. His mouth burned as he brushed his lips over hers. “Come to bed with me.”
He still had her hands trapped behind her back. She stretched up, chasing his mouth, and shivered when her tongue touched his. “Anything, Hunter.”
His teeth caught the tip of her tongue in a playful nip, only to release as he laughed, dark and hungry, and swept her off the floor. “Anything?”
She’d never made such a promise before, and wouldn’t have done it lightly. “Anything.”
Instead of tumbling her to the bed, he sank to the edge and let her body slide to the floor between his knees. “Undress.”
Her hands shook on the buttons of her dress. She’d never been so clumsy, so undone by the heat in a man’s gaze that she’d fumbled this badly. The world faded as Hunter watched her, leaving her starving and impatient.
She shrugged out of the sleeves and her dress fell to her hips, baring the skimpy French silk basque she wore beneath.
He touched her. Gently enough, though the roughened tips of his fingers abraded her skin as he traced the swell of her breast. “You’re beautiful on your knees.”
“Thank you.” Ophelia pushed off her shoes and rose, letting the dress drop to the floor. She brushed the pile of linen and leather aside and knelt before him again.
“Beautiful,” he echoed, and for a moment, he almost sounded like himself. Calmer, at least, for all the heat in his roving gaze. Then he stood. “Undress me.”
His chest was already bare, so she licked her lips and reached for his trousers. “
Just
undress you?”
He stroked her hair, ran his fingers through the loose strands before sinking deep to wrap the length around one fist. “For now.”
Ophelia rubbed her head against his hand, relishing the firm tug of his fingers in her hair as she left his trousers hanging open and pulled off his boots, one after the other. Then she returned to his pants, easing them down, drawing her fingertips slowly over hot skin and hard muscle.
Arousal threatened to cut off her breath. “I don’t know how long I can do this.”
He pulled her head back until her eyes met his. “Which game do you wish to play, Ophelia? Sweet submission, or wild domination?”
Beneath the Skin
Lauren Dane
A whole world exists…beneath the skin.
De La Vega Cats, Book 3
Gibson de La Vega is the Bringer, one of the Alpha’s right-hand cats. It is his job to mete out justice and defend the law that holds their jamboree together.
After a contentious meeting with another jamboree, he’s shot—Mia stumbles onto the scene and saves his life. He’s immediately drawn to the female who dug three silver bullets from his body. Even after he discovers she’s a Porter, a family his own harmed grievously half a century before.
Mia has enough in her life. She’s recovering from a vicious hate crime—an attack using silver has affected her ability to do what she loves most. The last thing she needs is a bossy alpha cat like Gibson. A de La Vega no less.
Despite the myriad reasons to stay away, even as they continue to hunt down the would-be killers, their attraction deepens into something else entirely.
The answers they find bring that threat far closer to home than anyone could have imagined and it’ll be up to Gibson to end the mess once and for all. And up to Mia to stand at his side, even as he risks his life…
Warning: A super hot alpha male with a gruff façade, and an uppity female who’s not buying it. Some violence. Some red-hot sex. Bad words. Lots of fun.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Beneath the Skin
Copyright © 2012 by Lauren Dane
ISBN: 978-1-61921-052-3
Edited by Anne Scott
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: April 2012
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