Sebastian/Aristide (Bayou Heat) (17 page)

“Come for me, Katherine,” he whispered on a growl. “Damn, if it’s possible you’re even more beautiful when you’re aroused.”

Kat stared up at him, her lips parted, panting. “How do you make me feel this way?”

“What way is that?”

“Sexy, and so safe.”

“Because I want you, Katherine. I want you more than you can imagine.” His eyes pinned to hers, the moonlight shimmering overhead, the bayou breeze rushing over their skin, Aristide thrust into her over and over as his thumb expertly massaged her clit. “And if you’ll let me, I’ll make sure you feel all of that and so much more.”

Waves of heat crashed over Kat and her body stiffened. She didn’t want it…didn’t want it to end…

But she was powerless against the pleasure that radiated out from her sex. Her cries echoed throughout the Wildlands as she gave in, gave up, to the most intense and wondrous feeling in the world.

As her body bucked, and cream coated his fingers and her inner thighs, Aristide just held her steady, and continued to gaze upon her as if she was something amazing. As if she was precious to him.

Was she? She knew he wanted her. But was she precious to him?

The question undid her, exhausted her, and she dropped her head against his chest, sated. Breathing heavily, she whimpered, and Aristide kissed her hair and slid his fingers from her body. With gentle hands, he eased her skirt back down where it belonged, then gathered her into his arms. For several, wonderful minutes, Kat allowed him to hold her. But after awhile, as her skin cooled, the feeling of vulnerability and closeness was almost too much to bear, and she forced herself to move away from him.

With some distance between them, Kat found his gaze and held it, wishing this—whatever was going on between them—could last. No…could
grow
. But it wasn’t possible. They were from two completely different worlds and life paths.

“What now?” she asked him.

He gave her a soft smile. “Come back with me.”

Kat closed her eyes on a sigh. “Please tell me you didn’t come after me because I’m your prisoner and you want information.”

“I can’t tell you that, Katherine,” he said, his eyes studying her.

The pain that ripped through Kat at his words, his admission, nearly stole her breath. But she could still manage a terse, “Bastard.” Tears tightened her throat and she backed up another foot. She knew it. God, she knew it. They were all the same. They all lied and used—

“But that’s not the only reason I came after you,” he said, his expression rigid. “Or, Opela help me, the most important reason.”

“What?” Her anger still humming at the surface of her skin, she just stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“I want to protect you, Katherine,” he continued, moving toward her. “I want to find your cub. And I want to save the one who is about to be born here in the Wildlands.”

Her mind raced over what he’d just said. Find her cub? What? Was he saying he wanted to help her? Help her get Noah? And if so, how could she believe him?

“Oh, Katherine,” he whispered, reaching for her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. “My puma knew it before I did.”

“Knew what?”

His eyes glowed black fire. “Please. Just trust me.”

Her belly clenched. “I don’t know you, Aristide.”

He squeezed her hand. “And yet, you kind of do. Right? I know I feel that way. Shit, I felt it at The Cougar’s Den the first time I saw you.”

She shook her head, her fingers curling around his even as she warned herself to stop touching him. “But how is that even possible?”

He sighed. “Oh, the magic of the Wildlands is a curious thing. It exists inside every Pantera, and when a male or female recognizes their other half, the one they are connected to on a level that surpasses reason, that magic’s released. It finds the match, the mate, and grabs on tight until both parties realize it.”

He smiled at her. He was so gorgeous, so sexy, so convinced of what he was saying. But how could that be? He cared for her, wanted to protect her, help Noah…

“Keep that in mind for your next article, by the way,” he added, then brought her hand to his lips and kissed the palm.

Kat shivered. Not with fear or pleasure. But with all that he’d just said to her.

“Let’s work together,” he said. “To bring Noah back to you, and to make sure that his sperm donor never gets near him again.”

Kat didn’t know if she believed in magic, or god—if she even deserved it. But in that moment, her heart believed. In Aristide and all that he promised. She felt somewhere deep inside of her soul, somewhere she had always refused to access for fear of being hurt further, disappointed further, that he would do everything possible to help her and her cub. She smiled at that. Her
boy
.

Aristide broke away, releasing her hand. “Now, let’s go home.”

Home. No, she wouldn’t think on that right now. Right now was all about getting Noah away from that monster.

“Climb on my back and hold on.”

Kat’s eyes widened at his words. “Your back?”

He flashed her another killer smile before dissolving completely into the spotlight of moon glow and reemerging as the gorgeous, growling, and fiercely protective puma she’d seen only once before. She wasn’t used to his shift yet and her breath caught in her throat at his size and fierceness.

With a quick snarl, he made an impatient gesture for her to get on his back. Still trembling slightly from both the residual effects of her climax and from the anxiety of all she knew, feared, wanted and prayed for, Kat climbed onto Aristide’s muscular, golden back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

The satisfied purr that broke from his cat’s throat echoed throughout the forest as he took off into the trees.

“Move and you’re dead,” Hiss uttered in his most deadly voice.

“Easy, friend,” came the reply. “I come in peace.”

Just outside the back door of Shakpi’s and Lady Cerise’s makeshift prison, Hiss had discovered someone camped up under the small deck. It had been pure luck that the Hunter had even spotted the male, as the bastard had been hiding incredibly well. All the way to the back under the stairs. And even more worrisome, he had masked his human scent.

Hiss pressed the butt of his gun a quarter inch farther into the man’s soft temple. “How did you get past my guards?”

The male—the human—seemed completely unfazed by the weapon, or by the puma shifter who wielded it. “Shakpi chose well,” he said, his starkly pale face splitting into an ugly smile. “You are ruthless.”

Shakpi? Hiss’s lip curled. “Show me.”

The man’s near-manic eyes widened. “Show you what, Kitty Cat?”

Hiss didn’t even bristle at the man’s attempt to ruffle his fur. “If you have true knowledge of Shakpi, then you know exactly what I’m asking for.”

The man laughed softly, the movement causing his long, pale red hair to fall about his face. “Are you going to shoot me if I move?”

Hiss pulled the gun from the man’s temple, but kept it aimed at his chest. “You can move. Just don’t fuck with me. How ‘bout that?”

“Sounds like a very solid plan,” he said, reaching down and grabbing the hem of his shirt.

Hiss watched as the man yanked the black fabric up to his right nipple. Below it, inked into the ribcage, was the raven and the moon he sought. But something else caught Hiss’s eye, something he didn’t expect. Two slashes of red, of blood, across each raven’s wing.

His eyes jacked up, and his gut went tight. “Who the fuck are you?”

The man’s eyes glistened. “My name doesn’t matter. All that matters is Shakpi. Has she awakened?”

Hiss hesitated, his mind rolling backwards. If there was one thing he remembered about his training long ago, it was the description of the very tattoo he’d just witnessed. Shakpi’s disciples had warned him that if he was to come across a male with such a marking, he must do whatever was asked of him. Not to help Shakpi, per se, but because that male would be nearly as powerful as Shakpi herself.

“She remains unconscious,” Hiss told the man, holstering his weapon and getting in fight position. He had a feeling if this male had wanted to, that gun at his hip—that gun he’d held to the man’s temple—could’ve easily been turned back on him.

“That is no matter,” the man said tersely. “We will take her there ourselves.”

“Take her? Where?” Hiss had heard no part of this plan.

“Into the Wildlands.” With his red hair and the strange moonlight filtering through the slats in the stairs, the man looked like a circus clown. A very powerful, very deadly, circus clown.

“Shakpi must be awakened,” he continued. “And we will need the blood of that brat to both revive her and sustain her.”

For the second time in two days, a wave of foreboding moved through Hiss. It was true that he hated the Pantera for what they had done to him and to his family. But in that moment everything inside of him—his puma—wanted to scream YOU WILL NEVER DESTROY US.

“Are you sure?” Hiss asked. “That the cub’s blood has this power?”

“It is foreseen, traitor,” he snarled. “Take me to Shakpi. Then go and get rid of your guards. Send them back to the Wildlands. My own disciples are here, waiting.”

“If you cross the borders into the Wildlands, expect a fight,” Hiss said tightly.

“But of course, puma shifter.” He grinned evilly. “It’s a fight we’ve been waiting a long time to engage in. One we expect—if my little writer monkey did her job correctly—to be followed by a human infiltration.” His nostrils flared. “Now. Take me to her.”

Hiss hesitated, a moment of second thoughts. But it was too late for him now. He’d crossed over his own traitorous borders long ago. It was time to see the job finished, and his vengeance taken.

He slipped out from under the stairs and motioned for the man to follow him. “This way.”

***

“I can see the fear in your eyes, Katherine,” Aristide said, watching her pace the wood floors of the kitchen. “And I swear to you, I will do whatever it takes to find the boy.”

She stopped and gave him a pensive look. “I want to go with you.”

“I know, but it wouldn’t be safe or smart. If what you say is true about this human, Marco—and what I believe about his involvement with our enemies—he won’t give a shit who he hurts as long as he gets what he wants. I need to focus on Noah. Without distractions.”

“What if I promise not to be a distraction?”

Aristide laughed softly and went over to her. “You, beautiful Katherine, are destined to be my endless distraction.” He reached for her, and this time she nearly flew into his arms. The action made Ari’s heart muscle squeeze.

She nuzzled her face into his chest. “If this doesn’t work—”

“Shhhh,” he whispered smoothly. “Please don’t do that.”

“I’m scared. For him, and god…for you.”

Aristide placed a finger under her chin and lifted her eyes to his. “Tell me you trust me.”

She bit her lip. “I wish you could understand where I’ve come from.
What
I’ve come from. I haven’t trusted anyone in five years.”

“Oh,
ma chère
, that’s no way to live.”

Her eyes pricked with tears, but she nodded. “I still don’t understand why you’re doing this for me.”

He dropped his head and kissed her. “Yes, you do,” he whispered close to her perfect mouth. A mouth he had to claim. Just as he wished to claim her heart. He kissed her again. But this time with all the heat and desire and faith that was crashing through him.

When he eased back, he smiled. “If all goes well, I’ll be back by dawn.”

“Make it go well,” she said on a stilted laugh.

“I like you in my house, Katherine Burke.” Grinning, he pulled away. “Wait up for me?”

She nodded. “Be careful.”

“Always,” Aristide called back as he headed out the door and down the porch steps.

He was meeting Parish, Keira and several other Hunters at Medical to do a quick rundown of the plan they’d created. Outside the gate of his house, Aristide shifted into his puma. He was halfway down the road when he heard Katherine calling to him on the wind. He stopped and glanced over one massive shoulder, watching her run, his cat’s eyes narrowed and his nose picking up her heady, yet anxious scent.

When she stopped before him, out of breath and face flushed, Aristide contemplated shifting back into his male form. But before that thought had time to truly take root inside his cat, Katherine broke out with the most perfect, most amazing, most needed verbal eruption in the world.

“I do understand,” she said, her gaze pinned to his cat’s. “I understand why you’re doing this. I’m just so afraid to want it. To want you. Because I couldn’t bear to lose you, or to have you turn me away.” Her eyes grew liquid and supple. “I trust you, Ari.”

For so long, Aristide had wanted a mate, a family. A true partner. And the last place he’d ever thought he’d find her would be the human world. But he remembered something his mother had told him once:
love knows no boundaries
. It would seem she was right.

His puma purred at Katherine, then rubbed its large head across her belly before turning away. With a howl of pleasure, of purpose, he broke into a run, knowing all the while that she was there, watching him until his tail disappeared from view.