Hot Licks (10 page)

And that thought, along with the mention of his mother, had a cool niggle of suspicion worm its way through the warmth in her chest. “Did your mom tell you to show me this place?”

Rome turned from where he was trailing a finger gently along one leafy plant. The thought of how that finger would feel against her bare skin made her eye twitch. “What? No.”

His brows furrowed. “I actually hadn’t really thought about this place until I saw her in the kitchen this morning with some cut roses and herbs.”

Gwen spread her arms wide. “How could you not think about this place?”

“Because flowers aren’t my thing and when I want to be around nature, I prefer the outdoors.”

Pondering that, she glanced up reflexively when lightening flashed through the numerous windows that made up at least half the ceiling. Thunder boomed only a moment later, but she was too mixed up inside to count.

“Gwen.” She turned her attention back to Rome at the soft command of her name. “Why did you ask if my mom wanted me to show you this place?”

Because I’m too damn suspicious
. “No reason.” She quickly changed the subject. “How can the floor hold all this weight?”

For a moment she thought he might push the issue, but then, though he still seemed concerned, he let it go. “We had to reinforce it. The floor is actually two feet higher then the rest of the attic, the ceiling four feet so we could add in some side windows for a cross breeze.”

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Cross breeze?” At his nod, she swiveled on her heel and made her way to the outside wall where several pairs of windows could, indeed, be slid open to let in fresh air. “Holy smokes.

The top ones don’t open, do they?”

“No, but they’re both thermal and solar.” he smiled at her look of look of bafflement. “They’re thick, made of bullet resistant glass and have a thin ceramic coating on the outside that traps the heat and pushes it to recharge the batteries we attached to them. It ended up being a smart idea because those batteries run a good portion of the house.”

“Wow.”

Rome shrugged, and Gwen found herself mesmerized by the way the white material of his shirt stretched over the muscles in his shoulder and the startling contrast it made to the darkness of his skin. Desire, briefly tamped down by the wonder of the solarium, flared back to life, exacerbated by the soft lighting, beautiful surroundings and earthy scents that bombarded her senses. Despite the storm raging outside she felt cocooned in an oasis, entrenched in a world where only she and Rome existed.

He must have sensed the change in her because he cocked his head slightly, his eyes narrowing in concentration, his nostrils flaring. Between those slitted eyelids, his gaze became heated and focused. On her.

Having all that masculine attention riveted on her was enough to send her nerves into a panicked jitter. She licked lips suddenly gone dry. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

He slowly closed the distance between them, as if any quicker movement might cause her to fly away. He needn’t worry. Her feet seemed glued to the floor. “It’s my pleasure.”

The drop in his tone, the husky sound that emerged from his throat caused another shiver to wash over her. “I should be getting back now.” Unfortunately her body wasn’t listening, and with each disappearing inch of space between them, she was finding it harder to make herself move.

“Okay.” His easy acceptance only increased her unease, and she knew why when he added, “How about a thank you kiss?”

Alarms shrieked in her head.
No. Don’t do it. It’s a bad
idea. Very bad idea
, her brain yelled. She opened her mouth to deny him, but what popped out on a breathy whisper was, “Okay.”

His features seemed to draw tight at her acquiescence and a flare of triumph lit his eyes right before his head lowered.

The kiss wasn’t a soft brushing of his lips with hers.

Not a tantalizing stroke of mouth against mouth. It was a devouring, as if he’d waited his whole life for this one moment. She felt the same and her lips parted instantly, allowing his tongue to stab deep into her mouth. The taste of him, hot and spicy with a dash of sin, was a carnal seduction. His hands reached around to cup the curve of her ass and pull her hips into alignment with his, settling her aching core against the hard length of his erection. On a wordless murmur of relief, she rocked into him.

“Gwen.” At the raw hunger in his voice, her stomach seized. No one had ever said her name with such passion, such fierce need. As if she were essential to his very being.

Trailing kisses down her jaw, he pressed his mouth to her neck, teasing and stoking her desire with clever lips and the slick glide of his tongue. She felt the edge of his teeth, a rasping tease that only made her hotter. Wetter.

One leg rose to wrap around his waist, opening herself to the shallow thrusting of his hips. She clenched the material of his shirt with one hand while the other snaked around his neck to hold on tight as the world spun about her.

She jerked at the warm touch of his hand on the bare skin of her back, under her shirt, her body screaming
yes,
yes
as he undid her bra with an expert flick of his wrist. Her brain had given up the fight and now seemed dazed, soaking up all the heady sensations. That clever hand on her back smoothed over her skin, around her ribcage and up to cup her breast. She sucked in a gasp when his thumb brushed her pebbled nipple, only to have his mouth back on hers, his tongue diving in to take her verbal pleasure into his mouth. Their tongues swirled and danced as their hips rubbed and rocked, masculine hardness against feminine softness.

She forget where she was, forget why she shouldn’t be doing this with this man. And she damn near forgot her name when he drew his lips away from hers, only to place them on her exposed breast.

“Ankh.” The strangled sound emerged from her lips in soft shock as fire flooded her veins. He suckled her breast in heavy draws, then flicked his tongue over the hard bud.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” He ground out, the words almost too thick to understand.

With her head thrown back, eyes closed, she abandoned all reasoning and simply felt. She wiggled her hips to the left, angling the hard press of his fly to where she needed it the most. That yearning ache began to swell inside her, tension mounting with each draw of his greedy mouth. Another minute of this and she’d probably come.

His teeth closed over her sensitive nipple.

Correction. A few more seconds.

A loud metallic scrapping reached her ears, and, opening her eyes, more in dizzy reflection than anything else, she screamed when a large object thumped against one of the windows in the ceiling and tumbled over another one.

Jumping apart as if electrocuted, Rome and Gwen watched the unidentified object roll over another window before sliding off the edge of the roof.

“What the hell?” Rome raced over to look out a side window. Apparently unable to see a thing, he slid both the window and screen aside and peered out.

“Ohmigod!” Gwen yipped at the sight of him sticking his head out into the large gap, four stories up from the hard, unrelenting ground below. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to figure out what the hell fell.” He speared her with a confused glance when she wrapped her hands over the waist of his jeans, her fingers tangled in the belt loops. Then his lips edged up at the corners. She didn’t see what was so amusing about falling fifty feet.

“It’s okay,
bella
. There’s a widow’s walk out here. I’m not about to fall to my death. Not after that kiss. There’s too much to live for.”

At his wicked wink, and from the location his eyes rested, she glanced down to see her breasts peeking from under her pushed up bra and tank. With a sound of disgust, she let go of him, stepped back and hastily straightened her clothes.

Just in time too, as it turned out. Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs and a male voice called, “Rome?

What the hell are you doing up here and what’s making that god-awful noise?”

With one sharp quizzical look at Gwen, Andreas marched over to his son. “What’s going on?”

Gwen could feel her cheeks heat, which spread as another set of footsteps, lighter, approached.

Just perfect.

Hoping that neither parent would realize what almost happened just over their heads, Gwen edged farther away from the window.

“Are you okay?” Melinda asked as she came into view, her face creased into lines of worry, which only made Gwen more miserable.

Gwen cleared her throat and pointed to the where the men didn’t have enough sense to get their heads out of the rain. “Something fell from the roof.”

“What?” Melinda moved next to her husband, who immediately held an arm out to bar her from getting too close to the open window. “What was it?”

“Looked like the satellite dish to me,” Rome said when he straightened. “But we’ll have to go down and see for sure.”After a moment of silence where they all contemplated that, Melinda turned to her husband, and in the most deadpanned of voices, said, “I told you to switch to cable.”

Gwen choked out a sound, part laugh and part sob, and even as Rome reached out a hand toward her, excused herself and fled to the safety of her quarters.

“How often are you out here?” With his eyes glued to
the female form walking in front of him, and in particular that
very fine ass he’d had his hands on not twelve house ago
and itched to cup again, Rome’s question came out a little
hoarse.

“Almost every day. It depends on the weather and
guest requests.” Though her shoulders were stiff, her back
a tense, straight line under the tan backpack, the rough
undertones in her voice mirrored his own. Given that she’d
treated him all morning with a cautious professionalism that
had been infuriatingly polite, her breathy response was a
balm to the hunger pumping through him. Not for one
second did he believe the unsteadiness was a result from
physical exertion. They were merely walking the reserve,
checking that the short sign posts which designated the
name and area of the reserve every quarter mile or so were
intact. The rangers used the signs as reference points to
report a sighting or problem so they knew exactly where to
return when they had the proper equipment.

The delicate scent of her arousal was making him
crazed and he hoped she was recalling last night, the way
she rocked her hips into his, how it had felt when he’d taken
her breast in his mouth, pulling gently on her budded nipple,
stroking her with his tongue. The memory had him
practically foaming at the mouth and he rubbed the back of
one hand over his lips, the other pressed along the hard
thickness of his erection. If that damn satellite dish hadn’t
broken free, he might already have the pleasure of knowing
how it felt to be buried deep inside her body.

Feeling like one giant throbbing exposed nerve, he
nearly swallowed his tongue when she bent over to
reposition one of the signs. It was his favorite position.

Before he knew it, he was reaching for those curved hips
when she let out a startled exclamation. “Ow.”

Yanked from driving lust to concern nearly gave him
whiplash. “What happened?”

Gwen frowned at her palm. “I cut my hand on the corner
of the sign.”

“Let me see.” He reached for her hand, inspecting the
long, shallow gash and the blood that welled. Smaller than
his, her hands were strong and, given the nature of her
work, surprisingly soft. Which put to mind how sensually soft
she was in other, more secretive places.

He let go before she felt the betraying tremor of need
that shook his hands.

“It’s not bad. I just need a band aid.” Oblivious to his
struggle for control, Gwen shrugged off her backpack and
extracted a small first aid kit. “Hold this, will you?”

In silence, Rome watched as she quickly and efficiently
cleaned the wound with a wet wipe and then slapped a
band aid across the wound. “Hurt yourself often?”

“Let’s just say grace isn’t my middle name.”

“And what is your middle name?” There was so much
he wanted to know about this woman, and not just in the
most carnal of ways. Though there was no denying that was
at the top of his list. In bold print. And at the earliest
opportunity.

A small smile played at the corners of her mouth.

“Honey.”

While he wouldn’t call himself jaded, little surprised him
anymore, but this single word boggled his mind. “Honey?”

“Yeah.” She glanced up with a smirk. “At least it’s
better than my sister’s. Her middle name is Sugar.”

His jaw dropped and she retrieved the kit from his
hands. “Seriously?”

Storing everything away, she slipped her arms back
through the straps of her backpack. “What can I say. My
parents are weird.”

“We always think our parents are weird.” But at least
he and his siblings hadn’t been given sweeteners as their
middle name. He almost asked if she had any brothers and
what theirs were, then thought it was probably better he
didn’t know.

“Yours aren’t. They’re pretty cool. Though your dad’s a
little scary.”

That shocked the hell out of him. “You’re not scared of
him, are you? He’d never hurt you. Ever.”

Gwen waved her bandaged hand between them. “No.

It’s not that. He’s just a bit intense and quiet. Like Santos.

I’m just never sure what they’re thinking.”

Rome caught her hand, his dark eyes growing hot.

“And do you know what I’m thinking?”

She gulped air when he pressed his lips against her
palm. “That’s not too terribly hard to figure out. But...”

He felt his temper flare at the rebuttal word. If she
brought up the ridiculous notion that she couldn’t get
involved with him because he was her boss’s son, he just
might throttle her. “No buts. Unless, of course, we’re going
to talk about your delectable butt.”

She let out a shaky laugh. “Fine. But...” she drew the
word out when he narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m going to
change the subject.”

He grunted. Better than a flat out refusal. Having
already tasted her lips, cupped the soft weight of her
breasts, he craved more.
Needed
more. His beast understood, and was in full agreement.

Easy there big boy
. “Into what?”

She resumed walking the path and Rome jumped into action to follow, the irony not lost on him how a dangerous predator such as himself was obediently trailing after this woman like a lovesick puppy. But frankly, given the nature of what he know knew was the mating heat between a cat shifter and the woman destined to be his for all time, he didn’t give a flying flip.

Not to mention he wanted to get in those tight jeans more than he wanted his next breath.

“Don’t you think it odd that James’s tires were slashed?”

The question pushed past the erotic fantasy weaving in his brain and he shook his head to clear it. James had contacted Gwen this morning to inform her that some asshole had slashed two of his tires. Between contacting the police, shopping around for replacements, waiting for a tow and everything else, he wouldn’t be able to come in to work. Oh. And that he was
extremely
unhappy.

“Odd as in does it have anything to do with Dennis being beat up a few days ago and the vandalism on the reserve?” Rome didn’t believe in coincidences, and even had James been able to make it out to work with Gwen today, Rome still would have stuck to her like glue.

She shot him a troubled look over her shoulder.

“Guess you were thinking the same thing.”

His jaw tightened. “I also think you need to remain at the house, or barring that, never be alone.”

She stumbled and he shot out a hand to keep her upright. “What? Are you nuts?”

His jaguar snarled at her impertinence. “Two out of three of our rangers have been taken out of temporary commission, and I, and my family, will be damned if we allow anything to happen to you.”

Mulling that over with a tight expression, she finally gave a reluctant nod. Fierce and independent she might be, but a fool she was not. “Tomorrow’s my day off anyway, so I’ll stick close, but I can’t not work. James and I will just stay together. Which means someone needs to be with him the next two days so he’s not out here alone.”

Some of his tension eased at her ready acceptance, his cat laying low in his head. Waiting. “He won’t be. We’ll make sure of it.”

As she opened her mouth for a reply, a slight rustling sound caught his attention. In a lightening fast move, he shackled her wrist and drew her to his side, pressing a finger to her mouth at the same time. Something in his face must have expressed the seriousness of the situation because she snapped her mouth shut and darted her eyes at the greenery around them.

Slipping in front of her, he scanned both the trail and the dense line of trees bordering its edges. Alert, head cocked, he used every sense he possessed while the jag hissed in warning.

After several heartbeats he felt her hand touch his shoulder and glanced down to see her at his side. Part of him wanted to stand tall and proud, pleased that his woman was no little simpering miss to be pampered and coddled.

Another part wanted to knock some sense into her. He was bigger, stronger and faster, with years of experience, not to mention the shear power of a predator, at repelling danger.

The rustling grew louder, coming from ahead and to their left, followed by voices too low to make out. He drew in a deep breath, using his shifter’s enhanced senses to draw in and analyze the scents of several individuals. Sweat, male, body odor. One in particular made his nose curl in distaste. A metallic, almost coppery scent that would have caused all his fur to stand on end had he been in jaguar form.

Silent, he drew Gwen deeper into the forest, angling his body in front of hers, one arm held out to the side and back, silently telling her to stand still and stay behind him.

He kept his eyes forward, peering through the limbs and leaves, and waited. Patience and precaution were required, the better to size up his enemy. He could hear Gwen’s heart race, the press of her breasts against his back with every rapidly drawn breath. He’d had a hard enough time keeping his body in check while simply walking behind her. Now he was sporting a throbbing erection that threatened to drain every brain cell left in his head. Rome grit his teeth.
Focus!

He got himself together, and just in time. Men started to emerge from the forest, about thirty yards ahead. If Rome hadn’t slipped them into the shadows of the trees they would have been spotted by the intruders. Not a big deal had he been alone, but with Gwen at his side, and his furry half to keep secret, Rome was out-numbered as five men in total scattered along the trail.

One man had a metal detector and a large leather pack about his waist. Another held a shovel, then he turned and Rome saw a lethal looking rifle along his back. It made his lips curl in fury because this one wasn’t filled with tranquilizers like the one he’d accidentally on purpose left behind. The only jaguar out here was him, and if anything needed to be shot, the weapon in his boot holster would suffice.

A third man had a backpack, his hands free to reach for the gun at his hip. A fourth man also carried a shovel, and a long wood handled tool with a hook at the end. Yet, for some reason, it was the fifth male that captured Rome’s attention.

Something about the blonde made the hair on the back of Rome’s neck rise in alarm. He’d moved from the forest, not with the stumbling steps of his counterparts, but with an
otherness
that Rome simply couldn’t deduce.

One thing Rome could figure out, even at this distance; they were all clearly agitated. The wind picked up, shifted and headed away from Rome and towards the pack of males arguing on the trail. Their scents began to dissipate, their words nearly imperceptible among the rustling leaves and scattering forest creatures in search of shelter, food, or entertainment. Rome caught an odd phrase here and there, but only enough to confuse him. Frustrated, he felt a growl rumble in his throat. The cat wanted out. Wanted to stalk and attack those who dared to trespass on its territory, because it didn’t give a damn why they were on its land.

They posed a threat to its mate and therefore they must die.

Suddenly the blonde stiffened and turned his head slightly to the side. He tilted his face to the sky and Rome could see, thanks to the keen vision of his other half, his nose flare as he sniffed the air.

It was reminiscent of a shifter scenting the wind, only Rome knew this man was no shifter. He didn’t carry the musky pheromone all shifters emitted, no matter what manner of creature lived inside.

Then it hit him. That strange almost copper scent, the oddly boneless way the blonde moved. Rome felt his gums burn, rage causing his fangs to descend as a long ago memory surfaced, and in that split second, he
knew
what stood on the dirt path.

Bodies scattered throughout a small village under the blazing heat of an unforgiving desert sun. So many innocent lives lost to the bloodlust of a man, a creature, far different from a shifter, yet just as deadly.

Though its senses weren’t nearly as sharp as Rome’s, there was one thing the blonde would be able to smell from this distance. Blood. And though Gwen wasn’t gushing it, the scratch on the palm of her hand would be enough to draw the creature’s attention. Like sharks, vampires could scent blood a mile away. Rain alone would be of little hindrance, and since the wind now blew in the blonde’s direction, Rome and Gwen’s moment of discrete observation was history.

“Run,” he rasped low, simultaneously snatching Gwen’s hand and yanking her into motion away from the trail.

“What..”

“Men. Guns.” Rome ducked beneath a low branch and spared a quick glance at her startled face. “We need to get to safety.”

Gwen’s only response was a mouthed “Oh, shit” before she picked up speed and they both ran through the forest, hopping over short bushes and dodging low-hanging limbs.

Rome’s thoughts were swirling. They needed to stay off the trails. Though it would be easier on Gwen, it would also be too easy for the blonde to catch them, and catch them he would since vamps were faster than humans, almost as fast as a shifter. Rome briefly thought of carrying Gwen and run full out, but that would last only so long. A shifter’s strength might be great, but it wasn’t unlimited. He couldn’t bench press a car and he simply didn’t know how long he could keep at top speed with Gwen’s added weight. If it should slow him down, even for a few seconds, they were screwed.