Authors: A. C. Arthur
Turning quickly, she walked away from him and after exhaling the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Eli followed behind her.
“Be careful, twin,” he heard Caprise calling from behind him. “That’s not a cat you want to toy with.”
Eli didn’t even turn to acknowledge her warning, but wondered if the females in Havenway had some type of loyalty pact.
Once in the hallway, he realized that Nivea had continued walking. Eli picked up her scent, following it dutifully, his mind focused on only her, the cat and the human. There was something in that combination that had been calling to him for far too long. He’d tried to ignore it, felt he had no other choice but to do so. Here he was, the great alpha that he’d always assumed he was meant to be, following behind a sexy and headstrong female destined to reel him in and keep him tightly within her grasp.
He was shaking his head even as he approached the door to his room where Nivea now stood, arms folded over her chest, shoulder leaning on the doorjamb.
“This doesn’t mean you’ve won, Eli,” she said to him, her cat’s eyes flashing fiercely.
“I should have never entered this competition,” he told her as he reached around, touching his fingers to the new print-scan security device Nick had installed on all the higher level shifter’s doors.
When he heard the click of the locks, he pushed against her until they both fell into the room. With his foot he pushed the door closed behind him and knew it would automatically lock again. His arm was immediately around her waist, pulling her close to him and lifting her feet off the floor. She didn’t gasp or act shocked in any way at his quick motion, but instead wrapped her arms around his neck and parted her lips in anticipation of his. He did not keep her waiting but latched onto her bottom lip, sucking it into his mouth and moaning at how good she tasted. When his tongue slipped inside her mouth and was stroked by hers, everything everywhere stopped.
Walking across the floor until his bed was right behind her, Eli laid Nivea down, falling on top of her as they went. He grabbed her leg, lifting it up so high it finally rested on his shoulder. His hand was sliding down again, cupping her ass, fingers stroking between her legs, feeling the heat through the spandex she wore. Their kiss was hungry and fevered, her teeth scraping along the line of his jaw and down his neck. When her tongue delved into his ear, Eli roared. His sharp teeth latched onto the collar of her shirt, ripping the material straight down the center.
She did exhale quickly then, her back arching so that he could peel the rest of the shirt away. Grabbing the center of the sports bra she wore, that too came off with a ripping sound. Unbound breasts with darkened nipples, taut and begging to be kissed were appeased, his tongue lathing over each turgid bud. He cupped both breasts in his palms, squeezing and rotating from one to the other, licking, sucking, kneading.
Her palms smacked against the back of his head, her fingers slipping forward to pull the sunglasses from his eyes. She tossed them across the bed and in the distance Eli heard them hit the floor. She cradled his face then, forcing him to look up at her.
“We’re in this together,” she whispered. “Like it or not.”
He didn’t like it. Or rather he didn’t like the word
together.
As for the way her tongue slipped past her lips in offering and his mouth closed over it, sucking so deep he felt as if he were actually inhaling a part of her into himself, Eli was too far gone to complain. As their bodies tangled together in the here and now, his thoughts wandered to their cats running, stretching, scents mingling, hearts molding, and their eventual joining … dammit, another vision.
Eli tore himself away from that thought, released his mouth’s hold on her, and ripped away her pants and the tiny wisp of lace that served as her underwear. She was naked and ready, the scent of her essence and the sight of it dampening her plump folds was all Eli needed to know, all his mind needed to fixate on at this moment.
With a trembling finger, he parted her tender folds, loving the suctioning sound of her opening to him. His mouth watered at the sight of her clit, so taut and eager to be pleased and her center dripping with sweet nectar. In one quick motion his mouth was on her, devouring all that she had to offer, all that she was. Her hips lifted from the bed, her hands now gripping the back of his head, holding him steady as she pumped into his mouth.
It came with a rush and Eli’s shoulders shook with the intensity of it. Emotion, that’s what it was, and the moment he realized it, he pulled back, ripping the snap from his pants and freeing his erection. She said something, whispered his name, told him what she wanted, something. Eli didn’t know. He didn’t want to know. And he didn’t want to see, not her face, not her gorgeous breasts or the glistening goodness of all the desire she had for him. He did not want to
see
anything, anymore.
He just wanted to feel.
He thrust into her fast and furious, leveraging himself on his knees, fingers gripping her thighs as he held her legs up. She gasped and her hands moved to cup her breasts. Eli closed his eyes, pulled out, and thrust in once more. Out and then in, deeper and deeper until his cat stood on its haunches and roared so loud Eli’s ears rang. The cat was fierce and hungry, the man horny and conflicted. Together they worked, moving in and out of her, loving the feel of her slickness against his rigid length, the clap of her soft thighs against his, the sound of her voice echoing his name.
No. He shook his head. Just feel the pleasure and let that be all.
But it was useless.
“Eli.”
He could hear her loud and clear, each and every time.
“My
companheiro,
” she whispered. “My
companheiro.
”
Shaking his head did nothing. Her voice was too loud, too soft, her cat too persistent rubbing alongside his.
“All for you, my
companheiro.
”
Eli gritted his teeth as she shivered beneath him, wanting, no desperately needing to see now. He looked down at her, saw her eyes half closed, her back arched, nipples hard. She was in the midst of her release, her body trembling, lower lip clenched between her teeth, fists gripping the sheets. She looked so sweet, so deserving of something better, someone with more sanity, more normalcy. She deserved the best, and yet this was all he could give her, all he had.
With guilt pounding at his temples Eli wanted to pull out, to get off this bed and walk the hell away. But when he tried, something held him still. Her walls gripped his length, her thighs holding him tightly. She opened her eyes and looked right at him. Eli blinked, but she did not go away. The soft curve of her lips, the high tilt of her cheekbones, her smooth brown skin and her eyes, the golden hue of her cat, held him captive.
“Nivea,” he whispered as that painful clutching in his chest centered. He didn’t think he’d be able to take his next breath.
“Come for me, Eli,” she said, lifting her hands to flatten her palms on his chest. “Let go and come for me, darling. For me, Eli, just for me.”
He couldn’t and yet, how could he not? Breath eased through his chest as the warmth from her touch spread throughout him. Inside his cat purred and Eli watched her undulating beneath him, whispering over and over again, “Come for me, darling. Come for me.”
Until that was all he could do. His hands came to her wrists and he held tightly as his body stiffened over hers, his essence being pulled from him in thick jetting pulsations that felt more like he was emptying his soul.
Later, Eli would believe that he had done just that.
* * *
He’d left her in that room asleep, moving even more quietly than he ever had before, knowing that facing her at that moment was not going to be a good thing. As he left the compound he accepted he was being a coward, as if the word were scrawled beneath the tattoo of his cat for all to see.
Now, hours later, he was pulling up in front of an old run-down apartment building in the south side of D.C. Cutting off the engine and letting his head fall back against the seat, he inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly.
The rogue was here.
* * *
She thought about him. Even now as she stepped out of her car and walked toward the building, Nivea could not get Eli out of her mind.
Something had changed between them this morning. She’d felt it in every stroke of his hips, every thrust of his hard length inside her. It was a feeling of completeness, a full and intense feeling that fit like the missing puzzle piece in Nivea’s life. She’d fallen asleep with a smile on her face and a lightness in her heart as she realized that Eli had just accepted the fact that they were mates. He probably hadn’t liked it, but he hadn’t been able to deny it as he’d locked gazes with her and gave her his release.
Nivea hadn’t moved a muscle when he’d awakened this morning, his hand moving softly over her hair, his breathing slow and steady. For once, in all the time she’d known him, Eli had seemed content. His lips had touched her forehead in the sweetest of kisses and then the air shifted, a coolness settled over the room, and Eli had eased from the bed. She’d known he was showering and getting dressed to leave and that he would not say a word to her as long as she lay pretending to be asleep.
She did not open her eyes or speak, but watched him through partially opened lids as he slipped out the door. Rolling over onto her back just seconds afterward, she wondered what the hell she was doing. Why hadn’t she said something? Called him on this foolish resistance he insisted on continuing?
With a sigh she realized she knew very well why. She wasn’t going to tell Eli what to do with his heart or his destiny. Sure, a Shadow knew its mate and once they found their true partner, none other would suffice. But Nivea believed in free will. She believed in love and commitment and loyalty—in spite of the fact that she’d never truly experienced it. No matter what her father had done to her she’d always vowed not to let it dictate her life, her happiness. So while there were some victims of abuse that could not sustain healthy relationships, or refused to even try, she was different. She wanted the normal, the real and pure love of two people, and if she couldn’t have that honestly and truly, then she would have nothing at all.
Eli’s silence had seemed to make that choice for her.
Shake it off, Cannon. Now’s not the time.
If she didn’t tell herself to move on, she might not be able to. That alone told Nivea she was in pretty damned deep with Eli Preston. Taking a concentrated breath, she yanked open the door that almost fell off the hinges with her efforts. With a frown she thought of how she wasn’t supposed to be on this little trip alone.
The plan had been for Caprise to join her, but she’d been drafted for babysitting duty. After the kidnapping, Nick and Ary rarely left Shya alone and when they absolutely had to, they only trusted people closest to them to care for her. Today was Caprise’s turn since Ary had a very important appointment with Kalina for her first ultrasound. So the hit they’d received from the shifter database on a group of suspected rogues in the south side D.C. area was on Nivea to investigate. Caprise had asked if she wanted to wait, to go the next day, but Nivea knew what they were up against. If these rogues were going around killing then it stood to reason they were just as hell-bent on exposure as Crowe and his hybrids. She’d decided to come alone.
Taking the stairs two at a time, her adrenaline buzzing with the scent sifting surely through the air, she came through a door on the top floor. Her cat was wide awake, moving just beneath her skin so that she had to roll her shoulders to appease it.
“Just chill,” she spoke aloud to the cat inside. Nivea loved the feeling of her heritage, knowing the power that rested just beneath the human skin, but she’d always been sure to keep it under control as well, to not let that hellion of a feline get the upper hand. If she hadn’t, Richard Cannon would have been dead a long time ago.
She walked slow and steady, knowing exactly which apartment she was headed to without checking the address she’d programmed into her phone. The rogue scent was calling to her, and … there was something else, someone else …
Her heartbeat thumped, her cat hissing the closer she came to the door. She didn’t dare speak, but kept her gaze locked on the door, and she heard it. The thinking was over, adrenaline pumped through her veins, the cat inside taking over as Nivea kicked in the door.
This wasn’t what she’d been expecting to see. Then again, there’d been no way she could have known what was going on behind that door.
Eli stood in the middle of the messy apartment. More than six feet long, over two hundred and fifty pounds, his mouth opening wide as the second warning roar was released. In front of him, with their backs to her were two more cats—a cougar and a cheetah, poised and ready for battle.
“Shit!” she cursed just as the cheetah turned in her direction and charged.
They were fast as hell so Nivea barely had a second to drop to all fours and shift before the cheetah was on her back. She reared back quickly, not giving it a chance to sink its teeth into her, tossing the cat across the floor. Then she was charging and pouncing. The cheetah moved, jumping onto the back of the couch. Nivea was faster this time, leaping up and taking a bite out of the cheetah’s flank. It hissed and fell back off the chair. Nivea continued battering the cat until it was in a corner, hissing and swatting until finally, tired of the nonsense, Nivea jumped on the cheetah’s back, sinking her teeth into its skull and biting down until its bones cracked and the cat crumpled to the ground.
Turning quickly, blood dripping from her teeth, flanks heaving from her efforts, Nivea saw her mate battling the cougar. It was a strong and well-trained
Bosinian
fighting Eli with vigor and even though Nivea knew full well Eli would emerge the victor, it didn’t stop her from leaping to his defense.
She jumped in front of the cougar, distracting it momentarily while Eli leapt from the marble countertop down onto its back. That didn’t immediately stop the cougar from hurtling at Nivea. She charged back and while Eli bit into the back of its head, she attacked its underbelly, both jaguars biting to kill.