Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1) (7 page)

“No.” He was on his feet, too. “Please don’t run away. I told my captain he was wrong about you.”

She cocked her head to one side. He’d told her the truth. The words pinged clean against her magic. “Why would you do that? You said on my form, you’d only been here three months. Usually new hires want to make a good impression.”

Color rose from the open neck of his shirt and stained his coppery skin, giving it a rosy tint. “Because I think you’re beautiful. I couldn’t stand the thought of you not being free.”

“It’s more than not being free. It’s being dead.” She squared her shoulders and tossed her hair over them. “Surely you must know they’re killing us before they book us into prison.” She laughed bitterly. “Really cuts down on the overhead if they don’t have to feed us.”

His eyes widened. “No. I didn’t know that. What about the Human Rights Commission?”

“Haven’t you heard? Shifters aren’t classified as human anymore.” She slammed a fist into her open palm. No matter how much she wanted to fuck him, he really needed to leave. “Look—”

“Please.” He extended a hand toward her. “My mother was a shifter, half anyway. She died in prison. I—I’ve never felt so confused in my life.” He turned away. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Shouldn’t have told you that. It’s not your problem.”

Compassion battled briefly with apprehension and won. “You work for the people who killed your kin. Christ, Devon, no wonder you’re conflicted. Do you really have sexual problems, or did you just want to see me?”

He didn’t say anything. Kate made a snap decision. He hadn’t entered any of the data he’d typed. She crossed the room, leaned over the computer, and pushed
cancel
.

“It’s more than
wanted
to see you,” he said, voice low and thrumming with emotion. “I haven’t been able to think about anything but you since I followed you that day. You’re in my dreams when I sleep and in my head when I’m awake.” He closed the distance between them and spun her to face him, keeping his hands on her shoulders. The intensity in his gaze burned all the way into her soul. “I even hired a hooker, but when I was inside her, all I saw was you.”

A well-protected place deep within Kate melted. She wound her arms around his waist and met his gaze with a ferocity born of denied need. “I’ve had the same problem. Ever since I caught a glimpse of you through my windows, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind.” She snorted, grabbed handfuls of his shirt, and clung to it. “It’s been good for my clients. I’m sure they’ve thought they turned into Joe Stud, but I’ve been pretending each of them was you.”

She pressed her breasts against his chest; her nipples hardened sending electric jolts to her pussy. He felt right in her arms, like he belonged there. His high, tight ass made her want to squeeze it. Kate’s breath clotted in her throat. She couldn’t wait to get his clothes off.

A groan tore out of him. His face flushed. A hell of an erection pushed against her stomach. Kate’s cat purred. Its feline heat poured through her, adding to her arousal. She dropped her hands to his wonderful ass and pulled him tight against her.

Chapter 6

Devon’s arms closed around her back. He bent his head and kissed her, tentative at first, then harder when she clutched him and opened her mouth to his probing tongue. He tasted sweet, like cinnamon and wine.
No wonder I’m so attracted to him. He has shifter blood.

“Shifter blood. Shifter blood,”
the cat echoed. Kate pushed her body against his and dropped a hand between them to rub his cock where it strained against the fabric of his faded jeans.

He broke away from their kiss and made a sound like a large, satisfied cat purring. He put a hand over one of her breasts and traced her erect nipple with a fingertip. “Any chance of getting these clothes off? I’ve spent hours imagining what you’d look like without them.”

Kate grinned. “Funny, I was just thinking the same thing. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and led him into the bedroom, then stopped just inside the door. She’d never used this room for anything other than work.

What the hell? If they’re after me, I may not be here much longer anyway. I might need to go to ground somewhere…

“What?” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against his chest. His hands closed over her breasts, rubbing, touching, teasing.

“Nothing. This has always been my studio. Sex is for the men first, and maybe for me if it doesn’t interfere with—”

“Would you like me to take you somewhere else?” His deep voice rumbled next to her ear. He kissed her earlobe and stung kisses down her neck. His fingers twirled her nipples into stiff peaks. His cock pressed against her bottom.

Heat exploded in her crotch. She shook her head. “No.” Her voice was thick with passion. “I don’t want to wait.”

“Neither do I.” He pulled her emerald green top over her head and turned her to face him. She heard a sharp intake of breath. “You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.” He growled deep in his throat and filled his hands with her breasts again. Kate moaned. She pushed his vest off his shoulders; he shrugged out of it. She went to work on the buttons of his shirt, her legs almost too unsteady to hold her.

His hands moved from her breasts to her hips; he shoved her skirt down. It puddled on the floor; she stepped around it. He buried a hand between her legs and rubbed her passion-slick clit. “Bed,” she pointed, then saw he still had his jeans on. She undid the snap and zipper. His cock sprang out. She gasped. Even through the lust-heat fuzzing her brain, it was the biggest, most amazing cock she’d ever seen. Full and hot and hard. She closed a hand partway round it and groaned in anticipation. Reaching behind her, she grabbed a condom from the bedside table and unrolled it onto his wonderful erection.

Kate wanted him inside her more than she’d ever wanted anything. She didn’t think she’d last past a couple of strokes, but it didn’t matter. She rubbed her pussy against his hand then backed toward the bed, threw herself down, spread her legs, and opened her arms.

Devon moved between her thighs, took hold of himself, and guided his cock inside her. She felt herself stretch to accommodate him and raised her legs, locking them around his hips. He supported himself on his arms and just looked at her. Hunger blazed at the bottom of his dark eyes.

Kate understood. Being a shifter was like that. No matter how much sex you had with humans, you still lusted after your own kind. She put her hands on his hips and rocked herself against him. Her clit was on fire. She rubbed it against the base of his wonderful cock until it exploded. Fire seared her. Her muscles clenched around him over and over.

His gaze never left her body as it convulsed around him. “So beautiful,” he murmured. “I wanted to watch you come just like I do in my dreams.” He moved a little, drew partway out, and pressed himself deep inside her again. “I was worried I’d come too soon.”

She laughed. “I wasn’t. I knew you’d be hard pressed to beat me to the draw. You’ve been in my dreams too. But the real thing is ever so much better.” She thrust her hips upward. “I want you to fuck me. Come on, Devon. Hard and fast. I want to feel you come inside me.”

He made that wonderful sound again, low in the back of his throat. He withdrew until just the tip of him teased her and drove himself home, then did it again. He leaned down so his face was next to hers, breath hot against her neck. He closed his mouth over hers and kissed her deeply.

Kate met him stroke for stroke, feeling another climax build deep in her belly. She was so lost in passion, she almost didn’t notice the soft fur sprouting against her legs and arms. Her eyes snapped open. At first, she thought he was shifting, and then she understood she was shifting right along with him. Their fur, his slightly more golden, mingled together. Her vision was altered because she looked through cat eyes with their slit pupils. She hadn’t ever shifted spontaneously before.

She broke away from their kiss. “Holy crap! Devon.”

He opened his eyes, pushed up onto his arms, and looked at her. Something in her tone must have gotten through. He stopped moving. He cock twitched inside her, heavy with need. “What? Condom’s still—”

“Ssssh, it will be okay. I don’t want to ruin this with a bunch of talk. You’re shifting. Your eyes are unbelievable. I’m shifting, too. We’ll finish this in our other forms.”

A panicked look washed over his face. His gaze darted to his body. He yanked away from her, jumped off the bed, and stood, panting. “Not possible. I don’t have enough shifter blood.” He shook his head. “My eyes are all funny.” He flicked at tawny fur growing thicker by the minute on his torso and limbs. “I don’t even know what I’ll be. I mean, I’ve never…”

Kate got to her feet. “Just let it happen. It’s easy. The most natural thing in the world. Let everything go. As far gone as you are, you couldn’t stop it now if you tried.” She grinned. “Looking at your fur, I’m betting you’re a mountain cat just like me.”

“Will we still be able to talk?”

She nodded. “Yes, but in our minds.” Kate sucked in a breath. She reached for her animal form, completing the transformation. Once she had her paws under her, she turned her butt toward Devon and arched her back suggestively.

A wonderfully feline growl sounded from behind her, low and throaty. Kate’s whiskers twitched. Nothing like a male cat on the prowl. She didn’t have to look to know his shift was complete. She braced herself and took the weight of his body, glorying in it. Teeth closed over her neck where it joined her shoulder. It had been over a hundred years since she’d had a shifter partner. Maybe that was why her control had gotten away from her.

Just as outrageously outsized as he’d been when he was human, he plumbed her, barbs and all. She hissed and whined her pleasure, writhing against him. His cock jumped inside her and jumped again. His teeth bit deeper. He let go and roared his passion and delight. Her own climax rocked her, rippling along her nerve endings. The barbs on his cock ramped up her pleasure tenfold. Nothing was quite as sizzling and untamed as shifted sex. Nothing.

It took time for him to slip from her body. The barbs were mildly uncomfortable when he withdrew, but what they’d shared was worth it. Once he was free, she turned to look at him. A husky purr reverberated from deep in her belly—the feline equivalent of a wolf whistle.
“Wow. You’re even more gorgeous as a cat than you were as a human.”

He shook his head back and forth and shifted his weight from paw to paw, obviously uncomfortable with his four-legged stance.
“I—I need to be human again. Now. Tell me what to do.”

“Think of your human body. Visualize it and you’ll be there. Once you get used to—”

The edges of his cat body shimmered. Kate gave her own body the command to shift right along with his.

“Christ!” Devon sank into a heap on the floor. He tugged what was left of the condom off himself and dropped it on the rug. “What the fuck happened to it? It’s shredded.”

“Cat cocks have barbs.” At the desperate look on his face, she hastened to add, “Hey, it will be all right.” Kate sat across from him, leaned forward, and stroked his thigh. “Really it will. And it will get easier to change over—”

“I don’t want it to get easier.” Anguish rode beneath his words. “In fact, I don’t ever want it to happen again.”

Understanding crashed into her. Of course he wouldn’t. He’d just transitioned from one of the hunters to one of the hunted. She took a measured breath and chose her words carefully. “I think you shifted this time because you were excited. Strong emotions can force a shift. That’s how most of us learned to shift as children. Someone baited us until we found our animal forms. After you find it once, it’s easier the next time. Soon it’s second nature.”

“But I don’t have enough blood to shift into anything,” he protested. “I’m only a quarter.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. You are pretty old for an initial shift. Now I think about it, I’ve never heard of something like this happening—”

“That does not make me feel better,” he snapped.

Of course it wouldn’t.
Kate kicked herself and took a deep breath. “Is there anything that’s changed lately?”

He slammed his forehead against a hand. “Of course. Stupid of me not to…”

Kate waited, but he didn’t say anything else. Finally, she prodded, “…stupid of you not to what?”

He showed her the inside of his forearm where a bruise was fading. “The police force insisted I take a series of intravenous infusions. It was a prerequisite for working here. I never asked what was in them.” A muscle in his jaw jerked. “Figured I wouldn’t understand all that chemical mumbo-jumbo anyway.”

He blew out a breath. “They give us stuff to alter our genetics when we sign on as officers. It creates an edge in the field, helps keep us alive. I got that series of shots fifteen years ago. Whatever was in the recent infusions was supposed make us more sensitive to shifters.”

“Hmph.” Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Looks like when the drug combines with shifter blood, it strengthens it. Once upon a time, scientists would have wanted to know things like that.”

“I’m sure as hell not going to tell them.” He dropped his head into a hand. It muffled his next words. “You said strong emotions can make me shift.”

“Yes, but you’ll learn to control it.”

“How long will that take? Police work is nothing but strong emotions.” He raised his head and locked his dark, tortured gaze onto hers. “Fear, anger, pity…” He ticked them off on his fingers. “That’s just for starters. There’s not a day on the force where I don’t end up feeling strongly about something.”

“I don’t know how long. I learned when I was young. All of us have our first shift right around puberty. It might be easier then, or harder. I just don’t know.” She spread her hands in front of her. “I’m sorry. I know it seems like the end of the world—”

“It
is
the end—of
my
world, anyway,” he growled. “May as well stop by the station house and turn in my badge. It’s better than being in the middle of working a crime scene with a partner and turning into a mountain lion.” His hands fisted in his lap.