The Mating Project (5 page)

Belatedly he
stuck out his hand and rose slightly to shake hers. The minute their fingers
touched heat travelled up his arm, and she gasped and let go of his hand. To
mask his own reaction he ran that hand through his hair and then gestured for
her to sit down.

"Please,
forgive me. I'm not normally so ill mannered. Please, sit down, Ms.
Anderson."

She smiled and
sat down on the edge of the seat. The action made her skirt ride up, and when
she crossed her legs Silas could have sworn he saw the top of her stockings. He
cleared his throat again and dropped his hands to shuffle the paper on his
desk.
Anything to stop himself from reaching under the desk
and adjusting his throbbing cock.
She would notice that, for sure.

Her intelligent
blue eyes crinkled up at the corners when she smiled again.

"Call me
Maria. After all, we'll be spending some time together."

The breathy
quality of her voice did not help with the predicament in his trousers, not one
little fucking bit, and he suppressed a groan.

He had turned
into a fumbling teenager for fuck's sake. What must she think of him?

"Time, yes …
well, that's debatable. I have no intention to set foot in your zoo,
Maria."

She smiled and
crossed and uncrossed her legs, and leant back in her chair. From his position
behind his desk he had a perfect view up her skirt. He caught a glimpse of
purple, lacy underwear, and her delicious female scent intensified. Cold sweat
trickled down between his shoulder blades, and he hastily took his glasses off
to resist temptation.

There, that was
marginally better, but his cock still strained toward Maria like some sort of
heat seeking missile. The rational, barely functioning side of his brain knew
this was a set up. She couldn't possibly be as interested in him physically as
she appeared to be. Even without his glasses he was acutely aware of every move.
Her increased breathing.
The subtle
way in which she shifted in her seat.
The way she licked her lips, and
the way her gaze kept darting to his mouth. The intensity of that gaze was
almost like a physical caress and brought out his inner caveman, the one who
wanted to simply grab her, bend her over his desk, and fuck her silly.

He groaned under
his breath at the erotic images invading his brain, and his balls drew tight.
Fuck it all, he had to stop these thoughts, or he'd come in his pants like a
fucking teenage boy.

"Why?"
Her breathy question sounded almost like a moan, and he swallowed hard when she
got up from her chair and parked her delicious ass right next to him on his
desk. She brought one leg up, and ran the tip of her fire red engine shoes up
his left leg.

He shot back on
his chair, and she placed her foot right between his splayed legs on the edge
of his chair. If she moved even a millimeter she'd stroke his balls, and that
thought made all his leftover blood shoot straight to his cock.

Silas grabbed
the edges of his chair in a white knuckled grip to stop himself from reaching
out to her and acting on the images that bombarded his brain.

Maria, however,
had no such qualms. She picked up his glasses and slid them back onto his nose,
all the while giving him the perfect view down her cleavage. Fuck, she had the
most amazing tits. The sort a man could feast on all night long, bury his cock
between, and never want to come up for air.

And she smelled
so damn good.

"Why
… what?"
He finally managed to ground the words out through clenched teeth, and forced
his gaze upwards to her face.

She was smiling
at him. Rather than the calculated pout he was expecting this was an open,
friendly smile that lit up her face, and all the tension in his body seeped away.
She was fucking beautiful when she smiled like that.

"It's
crazy, isn't it?" She leant forward and inhaled deeply, and Silas stopped
breathing. "I know you feel it, too. This insane attraction between us, so
maybe we should just fuck and get it over with. That way we might both be able
to concentrate on the work we have to do."

She winked at
him and shut his open mouth with one manicured fingernail. Instead of removing
her hand however, she traced a path along his jaw, over his Adam's apple and
along his collarbone into the opening of his shirt.

Silas swallowed
convulsively, and he could have sworn she purred, which was impossible, unless…

He pushed her
hand away and somehow got his voice to work.

"What the
fuck are you, and who sent you?"

Chapter Four

Silas's annoyed
growl would have done any shifter proud, and Maria's cat sighed in submission,
at the barely hidden anger in his gaze. His deep brown eyes flashed in flecks
of yellow, and the intensity with which he studied her made Maria want to purr
and curl up in his lap, so he could stroke her belly.

A renewed gush
of her arousal stained the crotch of her thong, and Silas's nostrils flared as
though he could smell her need for him, and perhaps he could. He was human, but
her cougar was emitting some pretty hefty pheromones, and this close even his
limited human sense of smell would be able to pick up on it.

"Answer me,
dammit, woman."

He took hold of
her ankle to move her foot, and Maria gasped at the flare of heat that brief
touch sent along her nerve endings.

Silas groaned
again and shot out of his chair and stood facing the window. Even with his back
turned to her, she didn't miss the way he adjusted the front of his trousers.
Her pussy clenched in answer. His cock had looked long and thick behind its
cloth covering, and Maria wanted him between her legs something bad.

Fate was having
one God almighty laugh at her expense. First that damned mutt and now a human.
She'd known Silas was her mate from the minute that door had opened and his
woodsy, spicy scent had hit her square in the face. It was now laced with the
trace of sweat and the bitter scent of his mistrust and anger.

"I thought
I'd made it perfectly clear that I want nothing to do with your damn council.
I'll not be party to experimenting on your kind, and I sure as fuck am not
going to help you lot to procreate."

He turned around
as abruptly as he'd taken up residence in front of the window, and he shoved
his hands into his trouser pockets with so much force that the sound of tearing
cloth filled the quiet room.

Silas glared
down on his ruined trousers and then fixed her with such a look of contempt,
Maria's beast whined in distress.

"And I'm
not ruled by my cock, regardless of what this looks like, so you can march your
luscious little ass right out of my office before I forget I'm a gentleman, and
take what you're practically throwing at me."

He narrowed his
eyes and ran his gaze up and down her body. Maria's skin heated under his
disapproving glare, and her cougar strained to be let loose, to sink her teeth
into its mate's neck and to force the bond between them. Oh, he felt it, too,
this connection between them. One that was so much more intense than what a
teenage Maria had felt for Malachi. She was a woman now, who knew what she
wanted from a man sexually, and God, she wanted this man with every fiber of
her being.

The mere fact
that he could resist her pull showed just how strong a mate he would be, and
Maria squared her shoulders and nudged her chin up.

"Fine, have
it your way. But you're a deluded fool if you think you can simply walk away
from us."

Silas gave a
harsh little laugh and shook his head.

"Don't
flatter yourself. There
is
no us."

He blanched when
she stepped right into his personal space, until her breasts touched his chest.
Instantly her nipples firmed into tight little beacons of lustful need, and the
cat in her couldn't resist rubbing herself against him.

Silas grasped
her by the shoulders, but instead of pushing her away, he merely held her. His
fingers curled painfully into her flesh, and Maria knew she would have bruises
tomorrow. Her stomach hollowed out, and she cupped his hard shaft through the
fabric of his trousers.

A shudder went
through Silas's frame, and his cock jumped under her fingers.

"If there
is
no us, then you won't mind me doing this, will you?"
She leant in and brushed her lips against his. It was supposed to be a mere
tease, but her taste buds exploded with his unique musk, and when he opened his
lips on a rough exhale, she slipped inside.

When their tongues
met, passion, need, and pure animal lust flared between them as though a match
had been lit, and Silas immediately took charge of that kiss. He slid his hands
down to her ass, and massaging the globes pushed her closer into his erection.

He
marched her backward until her legs crashed into the desk, and he effortlessly
lifted her on the top. Maria brought her legs up around his waist, and her
cougar purred at the way Silas thrust his heavy erection into her pussy. It
wasn't enough, though, not by a long shot.

She
wanted no barriers between them, and she whimpered her need when Silas broke
the kiss and rested his head on her shoulder. His fingers dug into her hips
holding her close, and his heavy breaths in to her neck sent her cat wild.

"Fuck
it. I can't do this. Not here. What bloody spell are you weaving over me,
woman?"

He
dragged his teeth along her rapidly beating pulse point, and then sought her
mouth again, as though he couldn't help himself, whilst tugging her blouse out
of her skirt. Maria jumped when his long, elegant fingers touched her bare
belly and then moved around to the top of her ass. He pushed his hand under the
waistband of her skirt until he could grasp a handful of her bare skin. His
fingertips dipped into the cleft, and Maria whimpered her need.

The
knock on the door broke through her befuddled brain, and Silas froze and swore
under his breath. He stepped away from her, adjusted his dick, and pulled his
shirt out to cover the evidence of his erection.

Maria,
too, hopped off the desk and hastily rearranged her clothes, just as the door
opened to a bemused looking Natasha.

"I
thought you might want to know that the Dean is on his way over, Professor, and
he looks mighty pissed. Now might be a good time to make
yourselves
scarce." She paused and smiled at Maria, and then simply stepped back and
shut the door again.

"Saved
by the bell."
 
Silas muttered the words under his breath,
but Maria heard him anyway.

"What's
the deal with the Dean?" she asked.

"None
of your damn business."
Silas’s sharp retort made her blink,
and then his hand dug into the flesh above her elbow with surprising strength
as he bundled her along with him. "Just move that gorgeous ass of yours,
woman. I need to leave."

They
hadn’t made it half way up the corridor before a middle-aged man in a crumpled
suit stood in their way, and Silas's hold on her arm grew painful.

"There
you are, Deacon. That assistant of yours seemed to think you'd already left,
but your bike was still in the shed, and as you never go anywhere without that
thing I knew you had to be still here." He stopped and looked Maria up and
down in such a way that she wanted to gouge his eyes out. He didn't seem to
recognize her, but she sure as fuck recognized him. Back in her days, he'd had
a reputation. More than one of her fellow students had found herself at the
receiving end of one of his gropes, or worse, but he'd never gone near her
then. Clearly he had no such compunction now, and Maria's animal growled her
disgust.

Silas
stiffened next to her as though he'd heard her beast, and he pulled her
slightly behind him.

"Dean,
I'm late for an appointment. We'll have to do this another time."

"And
that time will never come. If I was given to flights of paranoia, I'd think
you've been avoiding me, Deacon. And since when do you take your booty calls on
University premises?"

"I'm
not a—"

"Ms.
Anderson is a colleague from the Zoological Society of London, who has
requested my help on a conservation project." Silas interrupted her, and
her cougar purred at the barely concealed anger behind the clipped words.
"We're on our way there now, and we're already late, so, if you'll excuse
us…"

Silas
stared the other man down, and the Dean finally stepped out of their way.

"The
zoo, you say. You do surprise me, Deacon. What happened to your ideals and your
vocation?
You can take the Zoo's money, but will not accept sponsorship
from—"

"Enough!"

Maria
jumped, and the Dean pursed his lips, as Silas continued in a more even
tempered tone of voice.

"Like
I said we're already late. And at least the Zoo serves to protect animals,
misguided as that may be. How you can equate that to a whaling corporation is
beyond me."