Beastly Desires (18 page)

Kaisal closed his eyes and whispered, “I can’t promise I’ll always be able to resist, princess. But I
can
promise you won’t be hurt in the process.” His lids slid open and he thickly added, “Your enemies won’t be so fortunate.”

She shrugged lightly. “Don’t care about my enemies. I care about
you.”

His smile did something inexplicable to her insides. Suddenly he backed away and began to strip.

“Erm…what are you doing?”

He tossed his shirt and then undid his jeans. They dropped to the floor and he stepped out of them before tugging down his boxer briefs. “Callum is going to be out for the next few hours due to a healthy sum of money paid to my younger con-artist of a brother. Therefore”—he lay down on his side, spread out on the rattan couch, propping his head up on one arm—“I want you to paint me like one of your French girls.”

That was when she began laughing and couldn’t stop.

***

“You know,” Kaisal stiffly stated. “When I made this suggestion I was hoping my getting naked would induce the urge to ravish me.”

“Quiet down and hold the pose, man.”

“I feel
ridiculous
.”

“But you look
incredible.
Just stay still.”

“You’re not planning on showing this to anyone when you’re done, are you?”

“Depends,” Kamali answered, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as her hand flew over sketching paper, the other holding an eraser while she gave minute glances toward Kaisal, who’d been instructed to lie on his stomach on the couch, one arm swinging lazily off the side as he stared straight at her.

He jerked. “Depends on
what
?”

Her lips curved into the easiest grin he’d seen her give all day. “On whether or not you annoy me. Should you avoid doing so, Naresh will never have a reason to nickname you ‘Baby yams.’”

“That
better
be in reference to the perfection that is my ass, woman.”

Kamali’s eyes sparkled. “
Mebbe…”

Kaisal chuffed and she burst into laughter. That sound, the subtle sweet quality, washed over him and he knew then that he’d do
anything
in his power to keep her laughing, keep her lips curled in the same mischievous look Callum often wore. Kaisal was in love. He didn’t know every minute detail of her. He couldn’t even comprehend the way her mind worked sometimes, but he knew what love felt like. The completely open expression she’d worn while talking to him about her father and the way her gaze never once turned judgmental or disgusted when they talked about his past caused him to tumble right into the emotion without resistance.

He understood that this unerring commitment to belong to Kamali and Kamali alone could only mean that his beast wasn’t the only one between the two of them who’d found his other half. Kaisal was gazing right at
his
other half and the loose-limbed way she sat in her chair, knees to her chest, gorgeous dark skin covered by one of his shirts, socks slouching over and her hair in a
catastrophic
state, made him briefly close his eyes to block out the image. He didn’t want to ruin the ebb and flow she’d garnered while drawing.

The idea to move his den to the garage and remodel the room into a small art studio for Kamali seemed to be a decent enough. Even if she never used it he figured there might come a day where she’d sit down at the drawing table and work on something simple. Her reaction had been more than he’d hoped for. The genuine joy in her expression had been his silent
thank you
, and the fact he was her first model in what she’d admitted to be months only solidified his choice.

She’d been edgy lately, jumpy. Kaisal had noticed it a few days ago but chose to gloss over it in hopes she’d relax. She hadn’t and he knew why. Someone was watching them. Basanti had noticed it and asked if he wanted it taken care of and his answer had been a succinct
no.
He wanted the fucker to keep watching, keep skulking about. Because eventually, whoever it was would slip and Kaisal would free his wrath. Once that happened, his and Dublhainn’s plans would come to fruition and he’d have Nico Traore in his grasp. When the bastard left it, he’d leave without his throat.

The lion male had a clean record in their community—was barely even perceptible—but Kaisal suspected that had more to do with his ability to slip in under the radar. If his assumption was right, Nico and those who followed him were drifting criminals who took every advantage they could and stayed low in the grass until they could catch their prey. No matter, they’d understand what a true predator was soon enough.

In the meantime, Kaisal would concern himself with his mate and content himself with the energy of his son. They needed his attention and he was all too happy to give it.

This was why he suddenly sighed and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Kamali’s head rose. “You and the food.
What
is with you and the food?”

He ran his fingertips across the floor. “You’re bellowing instead of answering my question.”

“Because I’m trying to determine why you’re so concerned about my digestive system.”

“You make it sound like I’m going to attempt to take it out at some point.”

“The thought
has
crossed my mind a time or two…”

“Och!” He sat up. “I try to make sure you’re nourished and well-loved and you insinuate that I
may
be a serial killer? How is that okay?”

“I didn’t insinuate anything, and would you mind at least putting a pillow over your lap? I can’t talk to you with that”—she waved a hand at his cock—“staring at me.”

Kaisal leered. “Is it staring at
you?
Or are you staring at
it
?”

“Kaisal…”

He looked down at his groin. “Oh…and there it goes. The leaning tower rises to stand strong.”

She put down her pad and pencil. “This session is over.”

“But—”

“Over!” Kamali turned on her heels and began to march out of the room, shoulders back, head held high.

She had to know it would only make him chase her…

***

Kamali didn’t even make it down the hall and, if she were being honest, she really hadn’t expected to. She’d learned to recognize that look on Kaisal’s face and it meant one thing and one thing only—something else was possibly about to be broken in a frantic bout of haphazard sex. Therefore when she found herself slung across his shoulder as he marched them to what he kept calling “Our cave of miscreancy and crimes against the flesh”
—
also known as their bedroom—she wasn’t the least bit surprised, particularly because she’d provoked him on purpose. Watching his thighs flex from this angle was most certainly interesting. Whoever said a naked man was a scary sight clearly hadn’t been in the presence of so much tanned, well-muscled, deliciously scarred flesh.

Kaisal smacked her on the ass. “Dirty lioness. Staring at me with iniquity in your heart.”

She snorted. “I have iniquity but it rests a
lot
lower than my heart, Hobbes.”

He growled as he stepped into the well-lit room and kicked the door closed with his foot. “How low?”

Kamali ran a hand down his back. “I could draw a map or you could discover it for yourself.”

“I think I prefer option B but let’s not take the first one off of the table
just
yet…” he replied, gently tossing her onto the California king sized mattress.

Having him fall over her like a blanket, his mouth curling just at the corners seduced a smile from her in return. “What am I going to do with you?”

That sense of calm was back. As was the urge to blurt out that she was quite possibly falling for him and all his strange tiger ways. Kaisal was full of contradictions that somehow made him perfectly imperfect. He was fiercely overprotective with a wicked sense of humor. He was undeniably strong but so incredibly gentle natured. He was remorseful for his rage but didn’t apologize for wanting to bring that very thing down on the head of Nico. And he
understood
her. Kaisal didn’t simply hear her when she spoke, he
listened.
Her mate had taken
his
sanctuary and replaced it with hers just to show her how much his home was
her
home.

The hesitation on his face when he’d told her about his past made her ache for him. To carry that around, never sure if you can trust yourself or if others will trust you, had to be a hard battle. And yet, he did so. He’d managed to show her all these lovely little facets to his personality that never failed to amuse and exasperate her. If Kamali knew nothing else about what her life would be from this day on, she knew it was meant to be spent with him, watching his eyes glaze over into a white-hot stare of pure animal attraction, wanting him to touch her so badly that her nails scored his shoulders when she jerked him down to her fully.

A gasp expelled from Kamali as he settled between her thighs, his chest flush with hers. They didn’t move any further, just watched one another through shifted gazes, mouths open, pants pouring out. Kamali couldn’t verbalize her thank you because there truly were no words that would describe precisely how
safe
she felt in his presence, but there were ways to show gratitude without ever speaking. Stroking a hand through his multicolored locks, she observed the way he shook when her nails gently scraped just behind his ear. When she ran her fingers over the spot again a rumble vibrated up from his chest.

“Who’s the pretty kitty?” Kamali teased. “Who’s the most beautiful kitty in the world?”

His satisfied expression broke with laughter. Kaisal gripped her hand and pulled it away. “Leave my happy spot be, woman!”

Giving him a wicked grin, she gripped him about the waist with her thighs and rolled until she was straddling his hips. He tried to sit up and she shoved him backwards. “
Stay
.”

He blinked. “You
do
know I’m completely feline, right? We don’t take commands. We take…
period.”

Kamali gave him a patronizing grin and patted his chest. “Yes, my big, strong, thick-furred, weather-adapted male.” Leaning forward, she swiped her tongue just under his chin and whispered, “But if you dangle the right incentive”—she nipped his collarbone—“even the wildest beast can be tamed.”

“If you’re trying to make me lose control,” Kaisal gritted out, “it’s working.”

She was no longer listening, too busy trailing her lips down the delineated muscles of his stomach, catching the way they contracted with every sharp inhale. Kamali paid special attention to the scars lining his torso and what looked to be claw marks just beside his belly button. Every mark represented the many occasions where he’d put his life on the line to protect someone else. How he could
ever
think to be ashamed of that she didn’t know but she’d pay homage to him the same way he’d done to her from the very second their eyes met in the parking lot of a gas station she saw every time they left home.

He concerned himself with all things regarding her safety when he could’ve simply handed her over and avoided whatever dismal consequences were on the horizon but he hadn’t. Kaisal guarded her the way she guarded Callum. He treated her son as though he’d been his own from the moment he bellowed his way into the world, golden eyes furious because he’d been taken from the comfort of his mother’s womb. Kamali paused just at the ridge of her mate’s pelvic bone and touched a hand to her now-flat tummy, briefly wondering if the empty space would soon carry Kaisal’s child. It was too soon to decide on that, right? She shouldn’t have even been considering it but the thought of feeling another precious life steadily grow inside her, a life she’d created with
this
man, doubled the rate of her heartbeat.

She smoothed her mouth along the skin just above the downy hair of his sex and Kaisal’s hands fisted in the comforter. When she flicked her tongue out she saw claws extend from his fingertips and smiled to herself. Her palms caressed his sinewy thighs and steadily made their way to her goal, that which gave her undeniable pleasure although she’d
never
say it out loud—his cock.