“It means I plan to take you home with me,
amorcito
.”
“When?”
“When we’re done dancing.”
His hands splayed across her hips, pressing her closer still, so hard and hot against her stomach. “I’m ready now.”
“So I see.” She wrapped her arms around his neck as the music slowed.
“Are you
teasing
me? After everything you’ve put me through?”
“Do you feel teased?”
“God, yes.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely a bad thing.”
Rosa made him dance through five songs. Each one jacked the tension between them to a new level. Each movement, each caress, each sway of her hips and brush of her breasts drove him mad. She glimpsed the feral part of him snarling in his animal gaze, and he lowered his head to nuzzle her neck.
“Espera, por favor.”
He lifted his face from her throat, seeming dazed. “What?”
Rosa knew she could only push him so far. That limit was very close. But with a smile, she slipped out of his arms. “I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere.”
“You’re not leaving me for Valle business—” he began, but she darted away before he could finish the objection.
This surprise would be worth the wait. She went at a run, taking less care than usual on the rocky paths, and prayed it wasn’t too late. Out of breath, she approached the cave.
The woman, Colleen, came out to meet her, with the rest of the family at her back. She cocked a weapon. “What do you want now? We’ve stayed away from town.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry for the way I treated you. I’m issuing an invitation to live in Valle, if you want it.” In the face of the family’s still blankness, Rosa couldn’t read how they received her words. She stumbled on, both because it was right and because it would be a tangible gesture of remorse for Cristián. “There’s a party tonight . . . because we ended the raider threat. And I want you to know you’re welcome with us. No tests.”
“A party?” the little girl asked.
Rosa’s heart twisted. Cristián had been right. This was a child, one who’d never known such simple pleasures. Her clearest memories would be full of pain, no sense of belonging or community—except what came from her family.
“There’s food and music,” her father answered roughly. “Dancing.”
“Will you come? We have houses.” Sudden inspiration made her add, “And we need someone to run the store. Take inventory, keep track of supplies. Does that interest you at all?”
“It does,” Colleen said slowly, as if she couldn’t credit the change of heart.
“Thank you,” Joseph said. Though the kid hadn’t lost his wary edge, he was almost smiling now.
Jacob nodded, apparently making a decision. “Let us pack our things.”
She waited, knowing Chris had to be out of his mind with impatience. Half an hour later, she led them back along the rocky path to the lights of Valle. Her Cristián had waited for her. He perched with sizzling impatience on the railing outside the
taberna
, where cowboys might once have tethered horses. Catching sight of the new arrivals, he strode toward her with a gradually burgeoning smile that started in his sharp eyes and spread to his mouth.
“
This
was your business?”
“They should be here,” she said. “They need a home.”
It took time to show them to their new house. Then they returned to the outdoor celebration so Connie could enjoy the fun as any girl deserved. Both children’s faces reflected such sweet wonder. Jacob led his wife into the dance.
Chris took Rosa’s hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Tell me we can go home now.”
“There is nothing I want more,” she said as they strolled, hand in hand, toward her casita. “You understand why I did this?”
“To show me you’ve really changed.”
“
Sí
. In heart and mind. If you will forgive me,
mi corazón
, then I am yours.”
“You’re everything I ever wanted. I just don’t think I knew it.”
In a movement so fast he surprised her, Cristián swept her into his arms and jogged the remaining distance. Instead of fighting as she might once have done, she twined her arms about his neck and let him prove his strength.
Once wrapped in the privacy of Rosa’s bedroom, he tore at her blouse, shaking with need. But she felt it too, this soul-deep passion. She reached for him in turn, desperate to have his skin against hers. The time for teasing was done, as was the time for foreplay. The dancing had stirred her as much as him, but she needed his kisses. He’d taught her to like them, to crave the dark, hot feel of his tongue sliding into her mouth.
“
Mi amor
, I am yours.”
The words spurred him into a growling kiss, his lips slanting over hers with delicious heat. His tongue stroked, and Rosa rocked against him. He pulled his thigh up, adding pressure.
Ay, Dios, sí.
Sucking and biting with tender nips, he put his mark on the side of her throat. She arched for him, wanting it, wanting to be his.
He was rougher than he’d ever been, but she had no fear. Her arousal spiked, fierce and desperate. Even the little bites on her throat felt divine. Nothing but love and desire here.
Rosa shifted, wrapping a calf around his hip. Chris groaned. He plunged his tongue in and out of her mouth, and she tasted sweet agave wine. His shirt was long gone, but his jeans took moments to remove because they both were so unwilling to stop kissing. The shocking delight of coming skin to skin stole her breath.
She cupped his ass in her hands to draw him toward the bed. He needed no urging.
“Want you,” he growled.
She fell back under his tender onslaught. When he came up over her this time, she didn’t freeze. There was only Cristián above her, burning and beautiful. He shaped her breasts with reverent hands. His mouth was hot and hungry as he sucked one rosy tip into his mouth. Her hands cradling his head, Rosa cried out and arched her hips, urging him closer.
His lips, his teeth, his tongue were everywhere, first at her breasts, then her belly and thighs, nibbling until she could only close her eyes. With anyone else, she would have feared the beast she’d roused, but there was no fright—only a hunger that matched the leopard in him. If he devoured her, so be it.
Growling a little, he nuzzled his way down her body, pressing kisses against her hot skin. He pushed his face between her thighs. His tongue lashed her clitoris. Circled. Skated away to tease her thighs. Rosa writhed, willing to give him
anything
. She sank her hands into his hair.
“Tell me you like it.”
“I love it,” she gasped.
“Ay, sí.”
He slid a finger inside, hooking it to provide the most pleasure. She came for him in long, tense waves. As she lay replete and he glided up her body, she wrapped her arms around him, legs about his hips. No fear. No memories. Only silken welcome and wholehearted trust for Cristián.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Mine.” His voice sounded so guttural she hardly recognized it.
Siempre.
Always. She sang the words into his ear, threading through his hair.
With a groan of satisfaction, he drove inside. She gloried in his length and his heat, the rich fusion of his weight and steady thrusts, the wicked slide of his body deep inside her. She matched his thrusts with equal vigor, exulting in their primal sounds.
His beautiful eyes opened, all reason gone. Cristián gathered her to him, hammering them together with a rhythm desperate and fierce.
“Rosa,” he whispered, his voice awed.
She kissed him, working his hips to drive the pleasure. At first she didn’t think she could come again, but, despite his obvious need, he kept pushing her higher until she broke open and screamed. Her hands dug into his back. He pushed deep and held there, with long pulses as he poured into her.
In the quiet aftermath, she whispered, “I love you. You are my heart, my conscience, and my courage.”
Exhausted, he cuddled her against his chest. “Love you.”
She listened to his heart, proof that this was real. That she’d arrived—at great cost—to her own happy ending. Rosa had no memory of sleeping, but she must have done. And she woke to find him still in her bed.
It will be like this forever. He loves me, no matter what I’ve been or what I do.
The surety of that love humbled her.
Hunger stirred, so she went to fix some food, careful not to wake him. When she returned with the bread and cheese, she found him propped on one elbow, the sheet teasing her with glimpses of his tanned, taut abdomen. The words were inevitable, for she recognized this moment, this long-ago dream. It felt to her like a promise kept.
“You are so beautiful,” Rosa said, and déjà vu hit hard.
Like a golden cat, he sprawled on her sisal mattress, her handwoven blanket covering one lean hip. His belly made her want to trace each ripped muscle with her tongue. God, he was gorgeous. He had the scruffy wildness of a man who knew how to take care of himself.
She started toward him with a sultry smile. After all, she knew what came next, and it was magnificent.
EPILOGUE
The sun was warm on his back, the flinty soil hot against the pads of his paws. Chris trotted across a never-ending expanse. His thoughts and his animal body worked in concert now. He remembered who he was, where he belonged, and he returned unerringly with a fresh kill in his jaws. Though he loved Valle, it was Rosa to whom he returned, time and again. Real leopards might not mate for life, but he wasn’t wholly feline, and she held his heart. Forever.
Town life always startled him after the strong silence of the desert. A hammer in Ex’s forge rang out against metal, strike after strike. Singing from Tilly’s little kitchenette. Haggling and the chatter of children in the general store.
Chris reacquainted himself with these sounds, slowly emerging from his solitary frame of mind.
He padded over to the tavern. After nudging the door open, he passed the tables and chairs where bravos sat playing cards or having a quiet drink. The sun was setting, which meant these same men would be on patrol shortly. The pattern of their lives had become good and steady again.
They greeted him with affectionate nicknames no one dared use when he was human. Their fear had receded, their suspicion too. He stalked past to where Allison and Maryann worked. Maryann, so quiet and reserved, scratched him between the ears, then retrieved the two dead quail from his jaws.
His duty discharged, he moved into the back pantry, where he and the other skinwalkers kept spare clothes and toothbrushes. Shifting was no more pleasant than it had been months earlier, but he knew better how to ride the waves of pain. Fresh game had been a scarcity in Valle. He, Ex, and Jacob changed all that. So he weathered brief agony for the luxury of meat.
Dressed again, his mouth rinsed, he grabbed a hunk of buttered bread. Maryann always had one ready after he hunted, knowing how famished he and the others were following a shift. She never showed a scrap of fear around them, whether in human or animal form. Perhaps that was because, out of all the men in Valle, the three skinwalkers were among the most prominently spoken for.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” he said, dropping a kiss on the back of her hand.
She blushed and, per usual, didn’t say a word. She just smiled and went back to preparing the evening meal, Allison singing softly beside her.
Chris slipped out the back door and inhaled. Rosa was nearby. Her body chemistry had altered slightly, but she was still unmistakable. His respiration picking up speed, he rounded the corner and pulled up short.
Rosa stood in the open front gate, which had been repaired with materials from the fire-ravaged buildings and salvaged semis. Jameson and another bravo flanked her up on the wall, but she stood alone. The sundress Singer had made molded against her rounded belly when the wind kicked up. She raised a hand to her brow as shade. A smile shaped her mouth.
Like all the other dreams, this one had come true too.
Thighs tingling and slightly numb, he joined her at the gate. Silently she folded into his arms, welcoming him with an openmouthed kiss. She was soft, strong, always able to turn him on with the slightest nudge. But this wasn’t a nudge. This was Rosa, and she wanted him.
“Well, hello to you too,” he said.
“Anything good?”
“Quail.”
“Now there’s a good boy.” She teased him by scratching behind his ear.
He flinched away, laughing, then noticed figures in the distance. “Hey, is that Beatrice? Walking away?”
Rosa sobered a little. She nodded. “And Hector and Louie too. I guess they figured two-to-one odds were better going with her.”