Tigers Like It Hot (9 page)

“God, you’re beautiful.” Mac swallowed, fell to his knees in front of her and held up the white roses he’d purchased just in case she’d hated them for buying the costume for her.

Gareth crushed the box of candy he’d brought as he, too, fell to his knees in supplication of such perfection.

Mac couldn’t think, he couldn’t breathe, he could only stare at the woman he hoped to call mate in a few short hours.

“Do-do you really think so?” The last of her sentence came out little more than a squeak as she reached up with a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. She’d even worn make-up. Now that he thought about it, Kelly had also worn make-up well suited to the costume. It was almost as though they had dressed up as cats before. Perhaps they had.

Right now, he didn’t give a damn. All he cared about was getting the date over with so they could take her back to their room and make her theirs. It was the thing foremost in his mind. He was sure it was all Gareth could think about, as well, if the other man’s blank expression was any indication.

“Of course we think so,” Gareth managed to say.

“We knew you would look beautiful in it. Our only worry was that you wouldn’t think so and refuse to wear it.” Mac stared up at her. He couldn’t believe their good fortune.

“We love that you have curves. We love that your body is soft instead of hard. We want you just the way you are. No one will ever convince us that you are anything less than perfect.” Mac stared up at her, hoping that she could see the sincerity in his eyes. “Our greatest fear is that you will realize that you’re too good for us. He held up his tail he would never be rid of, and met her gaze. “That you’re too good for me. I’m damaged goods. I’ll never be able to accompany you outside of the cascade unless it’s Halloween or we’re going to one of those comic book conventions you humans seem so fond of.” He bowed his head, knowing that if anyone here was too good, it was Jessi.

Jessi bent down and took his tail from his hand, and stroked it gently. “That’s one of the parts of you I love the most. Like me, you’re not perfect. What’s more, you don’t think you’re perfect. Nothing turns a girl on like a guy who doesn’t know how wonderful he really is.”

She grasped his hands and pulled him to his feet before moving to Gareth and doing the same.

“Don’t you see? All my life, I’ve been around men who thought they were perfect, that they could do no wrong. They thought I was weird for liking to dress up in these costumes. They made fun of me. Worse yet, they hurt me, both physically and mentally. In a few short hours, you two have managed to help me start to heal again.” She stared into their eyes, letting them see that she told them the truth. “In the last few hours, you’ve managed to show me that it wasn’t me who wasn’t good enough. It was them.”

She stood up straight in her costume, her full breasts jutting out, making him want to weigh them in his hands, bring them to his mouth and suckle the hard tips through the thin material of the costume.

“It’s taken me years to figure it out, and I could never have done it without you, but I’ve finally realized that I’m enough, just the way I am.” She smiled. “Now, she reached up and smoothed her hair back. “Are we going to eat? I’m starved, and it appears the others have started without us.”

Mac glanced around the room and noticed that they were alone. He didn’t know when the others had left, and frankly, he didn’t care. Actually, he was glad to know that they hadn’t had an audience for that last bit.

With a smile, he held out his arm and waited for her to hook her arm through his before leading her through the door. “Have you got your key?”

“It’s on the dresser by the TV,” she told Gareth over her shoulder. “I really didn’t have anywhere to put it in this costume.”

“I’ve got it,” Gareth said as he pocketed the card and followed them through the door, letting it close behind him.

Mac didn’t miss how his gaze was practically glued to their mate’s ass as he followed them up the hallway.

What was better was that he was certain that Jessi hadn’t missed it either. That was a good thing.

They didn’t have dinner with Kelly and her men. Jessi was glad. She wanted to take the time to get to know her men if she really was planning to agree to be their mate, then start the process after dinner. She wanted to know everything she could about them.

After dinner, they took her to one of the local nightclubs. Jessi hadn’t been dancing in years. She also had never gotten so many dirty looks from women in her life.

Almost every single woman in the place made a move on her guys and, to their credit, Mac and Gareth barely looked at them. They only had eyes for her. It did her body image good.

It was only after she’d had two slow dances with both of them that they decided it was time to go. They twirled her off the dance floor, and when she stumbled in the high heels, Gareth picked her up and carried her from the club.

Jessi couldn’t help herself. She grinned and waved as they passed all the pretty, little things who would have stolen her men out from under her, given half a chance.

“I have to tell you guys,” she said as she wrapped her arms around Gareth’s neck. “I could really get used to this sort of thing.”

“Good.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I love carrying you. It feels as though you’re mine.” He glanced back at Mac. “Well, ours,” he said with a grin.

“Shall we return to the hotel?”

Jessi’s stomach fluttered at Mac’s question. She knew that was where they wanted to go. She knew it was where
she
wanted to go. Still, it didn’t make her any less nervous. They’d seen her in the body suit, which was almost a second skin, but it didn’t make her any less nervous to show them her body beneath it and all of its imperfections.

“Is there something wrong?” Gareth stopped, shifted her in his arms and met her gaze. “There is nothing about you that will not please us.” He pressed a kiss against her lips. “I promise you, Jessi, my brave, brave girl. I love everything about you. I love your hair, I love the way it curls around your shoulders. I love that little dimple in the corner of your mouth. The one you get when you smile wide.”

Mac moved up, pressed a kiss to her cheek and stroked her hair. “I love everything about you, as well. I love the color of your eyes, such a deep brown with golden flecks. I love your full lips and your soft, full hips. I can’t wait to see how perfect you are in the flesh. What I see with my eyes can only be as perfect as what I see with my heart. Like I said before, the mating bond works fast with our people. I love you already. My heart and my eyes only see your perfection.”

Unshed tears burned her eyes. How long had she waited to hear something half as beautiful from a man—from anyone? The only love in her life had been Kelly. She loved her like a sister. They had been there for each other, loving each other when no one else would. Jessi was so glad Kelly had Zach and Derek. She’d been looking forward to spending more time with her.

“Shall we take you to your room or ours?”

It was Gareth’s question that made up her mind for her. She knew how much they wanted her. They hadn’t made it a secret, yet they were both willing to allow her to choose their course. They would wait, if that was her wish.

“Take me to your room.” She cupped his cheek and smiled. “Take me to bed. Make me your mate. I don’t think there’s anything that I could ever want more.”

Gareth stepped up the pace. Jessi wasn’t sure, but she suspected that he would have run all the way to the hotel if there hadn’t been witnesses. He was already showing his strength by carrying her about. Running with her would have been a spectacle.

He did jog to the room once they hit the fifth floor. Mac opened the door and he carried her through the door and into the room.

It wasn’t a surprise to see that they had prepared the room for her acquiescence. They had moved the nightstand and had pushed the two queen-sized beds together.

Gareth lowered her legs until he set her feet gently on the floor, holding her until she gained her balance on the spiked heels.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his hands gently grasping her shoulders.

“Yes. I’m fine.” She smiled up at him, unable to believe what she’d just agreed to. These two men were gorgeous. They were beyond that. They were perfect. Even Mac with his perceived deformity was perfect in every way—at least he was, for her.

She watched as the two men slowly removed their shirts. It was almost like a male strip show in the privacy of a hotel room. Sinewy muscle moved beneath their perfectly tanned skin, as they removed their shirts. Strong biceps bulged, their stomach muscles rippling as they unbuttoned their pants and lowered the zippers.

Jessi’s breath caught in her throat as they kicked off their shoes, lowered their slacks to the floor and kicked them free. They now stood before her totally naked, but for the black socks that they quickly removed.

Mac’s tail whipped around him, unable to stay still. She’d noticed earlier that his tail was rather active when he got excited. She smiled as he grabbed it in an obvious effort to keep it from knocking the floor lamp over.

She was hot, her hormones kicking into overdrive. Her lust for these two men grew exponentially until she could barely contain it. She reached behind her, trying to release the zipper on the back of the costume, to no avail.

“I can’t take this off on my own. Will one of you unzip me?”

She couldn’t stop staring at them standing before her, naked, perfect. She wanted them. She wanted to see them, to feel them against her bare skin. Jessi whimpered when they stood there, staring at her.

“Please,” she whispered the word. She didn’t want to beg. She had never begged for anything in her life, but she was afraid she would start now. It had been okay when they’d been dressed, but not now. Now, they stood before her in all their naked glory and Jess just wasn’t sure she could keep herself from begging them to take her.

She wanted them more than she had ever wanted anything before.

“You can have us. Every part of us. We only want you to be certain that
we
are what you want.”

Jessi hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud until he said that. Her face burned and she slapped her hand to her mouth.

“Don’t be embarrassed, baby.” Mac stepped closer, reached out and turned her around. “We want you to tell us what you need. We don’t know until we’re bound. After that, we’ll know what you want, almost before you know it yourself. Our minds will be connected to you, just as your mind will be connected to us.”

“Will I—“ She licked her lips. “Will I be like you afterward?” She had asked that before, but they hadn’t answered. Jessi wasn’t sure she wanted to be a shape shifter. She didn’t know if she could handle it. What if she did something horrible as a tiger?

“We don’t know, darlin’. Our prince mated a human woman and she changed, but we’ve heard that humans don’t always become like us. They have our longevity and our healing abilities, yes, but not all become shifters. If that’s what you’re hoping for, we can’t promise it.” Gareth looked worried. It was as though he thought she’d only agreed because she wanted to be like them.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to be like you. I didn’t agree to this because I want to be like you. I agreed to it because there’s something inside me that tells me that I will be making the biggest mistake of my life if I don’t accept you as my mates. I don’t know what I would do if you two walked through that door right now.”

“There’s not a chance in hell that that’ll happen.” Mac chuckled as he unzipped the body suit that fit her like a second skin.

Resting his hands on her shoulders, he pressed a kiss to the back of her neck, his hands skimming down her arms, taking the sleeves of the costume with it.

Jessi shivered in the cool air as Mac kissed her newly exposed skin.

Gareth circled around in front of her, knelt down and picked up first her right, then her left foot, gently removing each of the platform shoes that still hadn’t made her as tall as they were.

“I want to touch you.” Jessi almost whispered the words. Her breath came in short pants as Mac sucked her earlobe into his mouth and ran his tongue along the shell of her ear.

“Not yet, baby. This is for you. This is to show you how we intend to worship this perfect body every night for as long as we live.” Gareth reached up and pulled the bodysuit from her, along with the tiger-striped pantyhose. “Good God, Mac. She’s not wearing panties.” He took a deep breath, kissed her mons and pressed his face to her lower belly. “I’ll explode if you touch me now, and I have plans for this erection. It doesn’t include shooting my load on the carpet. Mac and I want to be inside you when we come.”

The images his words brought to mind made her whimper. “Oh my…”

Gareth knelt before their mate, his nose pressed against her soft curls. He didn’t know what it was about this landscaping so many women talked about on the TV these days. He wanted his woman to look like a woman, to smell like a woman.

He loved that Jessi still had soft curls covering her mons. It looked short, so she must have trimmed it, but at least it wasn’t shaved clean. He leaned forward, snaked his tongue between her legs and groaned. “God, baby. You taste as delicious as you smell.”

She whimpered and shifted her legs, widening her stance, to either give him better access or to keep her balance. He wasn’t sure which and he really didn’t care. Again, he snaked his tongue between her legs, lapping at the smooth skin there. Okay, she’d either waxed or shaved her labia. He lapped at it again, this time changing his tongue, giving her a little roughness. She groaned and widened her stance again. Gareth grinned. He could grow to like the smooth skin of her labia against his tongue. It was almost like licking cream from silk.

Lifting her leg, he rested it on his shoulder, pulled her nether lips apart and sucked her clit into his mouth, laving the tight bud with the slight roughness of his tongue. Jessi stiffened, her body growing taut as she grew closer to her climax. Again, Gareth reached up, lifting her other leg, he rested it on his shoulder, now bearing her weight as Mac held her upper body, kissing her neck while he pulled and twisted Jessi’s pretty pink nipples.