Illicit (7 page)

Emotion filled Grady’s eyes, dark and murky, nothing she could interpret. He stepped forward, opened his mouth. “Shit, Eva, I’m—”

He never finished. From behind her, a low growl rolled through the air and crept up the back of her spine. Her hammering heart came to a complete stop. She knew that sound better than most. Pissed off leopard. If James had seen Grady hit her, the detective’s life was forfeit.

Fear blanched Grady’s face and shut his mouth. Panic filled his eyes. Slowly letting her hand fall to her side, Eva turned. She braced herself to find her uncle in the form of a one-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound leopard.

She sucked in a breath at the sight before her. Not her uncle.

Rage danced in the approaching feline’s emerald depths, showed in the bared canines and ears pressed flat to his head. The leopard stalked forward, shoulder blades rising and falling in time with every lethal step.

Peter.

She released a soft gasp, and with it, the world faded. Never in all her life had she seen anything so magnificent. Sleek and powerful, dozens of black-on-brown ringed spots covered his snow-white coat. She wanted to sink her fingers into his pelt, push through the hard outer layer to experience the downy soft fur next to the skin.

Peter hissed. The sound forced her one involuntary step backward. He strode closer, his large paws easily traversing the snow even with his two hundred and fifty pounds of pure power. With every graceful step, sinewy muscles shifted. Behind him, his long, thick tail slashed back and forth.

“Back in your truck,” Grady demanded, pulling her behind him.

A vicious snarl echoed and Peter crouched low. His nose wrinkled, narrowing his feline eyes. Eva stared straight ahead, mesmerized by the feral beauty of the predator in front of her.

“God damn it!” Grady hissed. “Get. In. The. Truck.” With a hand on her shoulder, he shoved her in the direction of her vehicle.

Mistake.

Peter lunged. In the sunless morning, the twin points of the leopard’s canines aimed at Grady’s throat gleamed.

Idiotic Pard Rule #1: Never show yourself to humans. Well, fuck the God damned rules. Any man stupid enough to touch what didn’t belong to him deserved what he got. The cop Eva called Grady would learn what a leopard could do to an asshole who pissed in the wrong pool.

He was just about to jump in when the motherfucker hit her. He actually hit her.

Eva’s cry of pain echoed, ripping through his meager self-control. A rage unlike any he’d ever experienced drove him from the shadows. Muscles clenched. Saliva pooled in his open mouth. He could already taste the man’s blood.

With coiled strength, he lunged at his target.

“Don’t,” Eva screamed. “You’ll hurt him!” Raw panic in her voice touched something deep inside him.

Fear poured off her, its stench a rancid sting on the back of his tongue. Did she think he would hurt her? Her gaze darted between him and the other man, shifted back to him. No. She was afraid for the cop. Would she try to save the asshole by putting herself in the line of fire? Uncertainty drew him back at the last moment. He stopped two feet short of slashing the man’s stomach wide open.

An unsatisfied rumble emanated from the depths of his chest. The feral rage stole his every thought and his ears flattened against his head. His nose wrinkled in fury, sending a clear message. Back the fuck off. The cop’s jaw dropped. On the verge of pacing, he swished his tail back and forth, waiting for a chance to release his anger.

Blood. He wanted the man’s salty life force surging into his mouth.

Eva drew in several deep breaths, each exhale coming with a cloud of moisture. The cold reddened her cheeks and chapped her lips. With no hat or gloves, Eva’s teeth chattered with each tremor of cold stealing through her. Goose bumps pebbled her exposed legs. She was freezing.

The instinct to warm her warred with the urge to rip the other man to pieces. Already the left side of her bruised face swelled and darkened. Another furious growl escaped. The man would die. He advanced a step, stopped only at the sound of Eva’s voice.

“Don’t,” she warned, speaking to him as if he were human. Her lips clamped shut. Pard Rule #2, don’t talk to wild animals as if they understood what you were talking about. Licking her lips, she lowered her voice. “Grady, don’t make any sudden movements.”

Eva stepped away from the truck and moved in front of the cop. One inch at a time, her chin lifted. Was she challenging him? He snarled, narrowing his eyes further until the only thing he could see was her. Wind blew golden curls in front of her eyes. Snow drifted down, swirling around her and clinging to her black coat.

Mate
. He inhaled her scent, tasted honey and sunshine. Something else lingered on her skin. His scent. His seed deep inside her body. Yes. She belonged to him and only him. Satisfaction filled his predatory soul. Mine.

From the corner of his eye, he scrutinized Grady, assessing the best way to get rid of him.

The man glanced nervously between them. “Eva, you’re the animal expert, how the hell do we keep it from eating us? It looks pissed off.”

A flash of movement set Peter’s teeth in a snarl. He hissed. The cop’s hand froze an inch from the gun holstered at his waist. The same unspoken laws that demanded the leopard stay concealed kept the cop from shooting him. A not-so-idiotic Pard Rule. The majestic snow leopards residing in the snow-laden forests of Bellows Falls were the town’s only pride. To kill one would ignite the wrath of the community.

Eva glared at Grady and a tang of anger replaced her fear. Pride swelled inside him. “First off,” she said. “He isn’t an
it
. Second, if we both just get into our trucks, he’ll go away. Isn’t that right, kitty?”

Another low sound rumbled from his chest. She wouldn’t be calling him kitty again until she was on all fours with his teeth sunk into the back of her neck.

Grady stepped closer, reached his hand out as if to touch her. “I’m not leaving you alone with that thing.”

Dropping into a crouch, he flattened his ears and hissed. One more fucking move and the asshole was dinner.

“I think it’s you he has a problem with,” Eva said. “You’re the one making him mad.”

Like a good boy, the cop lowered his hand and reversed tracks. Grady took a testing step away from Eva and the leopard advanced as if to encourage the retreat. The cop nodded, understanding, and took two more steps toward his police truck parked a few feet away. Another step. Some of the tension loosened inside him and he rose to pace. He wouldn’t kill the man, not in front of Eva, but Grady would pay. No one hurt his mate and lived.

Keen, hungry eyes watched the cop fumble with his door before climbing inside. Peter never looked away, not until the asshole was gone. He glanced back to where Eva had stood, found she’d already pulled her truck out of the parking lot.

Satisfied, he sent one last scathing look at Grady’s retreating taillights and took off through the woods surrounding the town. He wasn’t done with Eva. Not by a long shot.

He sprinted, leaping over fallen trees and traversing the freshly fallen snow with ease. A churning river kept him company through the woods. Icy water cascaded over rocks, into miniature waterfalls, the river’s noise a comforting rush in the winter silence. The unique scents of home soothed the leopard, and he traversed a familiar path he’d taken countless times growing up.

Cutting through a cluster of trees, he broke through a tangle of limbs and found the cut-off to the highway. He waited no more than two minutes before two beams of light cut through the swirling snow. He stood in the middle of the road, met Eva’s gaze through the windshield and dared her to hit him.

The truck screeched to a stop. He strolled forward with the smooth, rolling gait of a feline, and then brought the image of himself on two legs to the center of his attention. Willing the transformation, he forced the beast to retreat, the shift seamless. One second thick fur warmed him. In the next arctic wind tore at his naked skin and burned the soles of his feet.

He padded barefoot to the driver’s side, and all but ripped open the door. The cold temperature did nothing to ease his burning anger. A pungent smell socked him in the stomach, catching him off-guard. Greg’s scent invaded and he fought to keep from backing away. Silent, wary, Eva stared at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. The bruise on the side of her face startled, was a potent reminder of just how much danger she was in.

“I’m driving,” he growled, reaching behind the seat for the clothes he knew Greg kept stashed there.

Without protest, she slid across the wide bench seat and settled into the passenger side. He threaded first one arm and then the other through a one-size-too-small flannel shirt. His father’s scent wrapped around him, threatening the beast and comforting the man. Stepping into jeans that were just an inch too short, Peter climbed into the warm truck and slammed the door. He slid the seat back until his knees no longer touched the steering wheel.

As he drove, an uneasy silence fed his festering anger. For the first time since entering the truck, he looked at Eva. Her eyes were still wide, still unfocused.

“You’re afraid of me.”

“The leopard still lurks in your eyes,” she said, her voice raspy and raw.

His hands tightened on the steering wheel and left his knuckles white. “I didn’t hear you complaining last night.”

Her laughter filled the truck. Some of her fear abated. “Last night. Yes.” She turned her body toward his. “The note was a nice touch.”

It was more than he’d ever done for any other woman he’d left in the middle of the night. He squeezed the steering wheel, heard something crack. “You’ve got an hour to pack your crap, and then we’re heading to Montana.”

She whipped her head in his direction. “Excuse me?”

“I didn’t stutter. Greg’s gone, what else do you have in this God forsaken town? It’s a shit hole, and you know it.”

Her eyes narrowed. The fire in her gaze stoked an entirely different kind of heat in his stomach. “I’m not uprooting my life to run away with a man I don’t know.”

“It’s not safe for you here,” he seethed, wanted to shake some sense into her.

She sank into her seat. “I’m perfectly fine where I’m at.”

With a yank of the wheel, the truck swerved off the side of the road, sliding to a halt between two trees. He jammed the gear stick into park and spun on her. She made a small sound, pressed against her door, a pathetic attempt to escape him in the confines of a vehicle.

Catching her by the chin, Peter held Eva still. Her skin, despite the heat pouring from the vents, was just as icy as his. He tilted the rearview mirror her direction, angling it so she could see her face. Wincing, she tried to pull away. He forced her to look at what the asshole had done to her.

“The son of a bitch hit you.”

She lifted a trembled hand, touched his cheek. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

The sleeve of her coat fell down her arm, exposing the ligature marks from his silk tie. As if they were still in that fucking bathroom, he saw the smear of blood on his cock. He was the asshole who’d hurt her. Him.

He pulled away from the caress. “Don’t,” was all he could manage.

He drew in a deep breath and took an ounce of comfort at his scent lingering inside her. When he calmed enough to form a sentence, he pushed away what he and Eva had done last night and finished his original thought. “He probably killed Greg too.”

She jerked her face from his grip and met his gaze boldly. “Grady isn’t a murderer.”

“Put the facts together. He has a gun. He’s violent. He’s obsessed with you. Who knows how long he waited for you to come out of the cabin? He probably listened to us the entire night. There was another note, Eva, taped to the door when I left. Coincidences are a pile of shit.”

She swallowed, looked like vomit might spew out of her mouth at any moment. “Another note?”

“You aren’t safe, Eva.”

She shook her head, almost as if the action could make all the pieces fall into place. “No.” The conviction in her voice sent him reeling; she didn’t believe him. “I know Grady, he didn’t kill Greg. He never would have set it up so I’d find the body. Never. Until tonight he’d never so much as raised his voice to me.”

How dare she defend him? Before he could stop himself, he buried his hand in the tangle of curls and drew her head back. Images of their night together flipped through his mind. He saw Eva on her knees, mouth stretched over his cock. The image morphed. In Peter’s place stood the cop.

Jealousy burned almost as hot as the rage. He spoke through clenched teeth. “He’s the reason you won’t leave town.”

Eva gripped his wrist, tried to pull away with all the success of a gnat annoying a bear. He tightened his fist and pulled her an inch from his face. Her nails dug into his forearm, the thick cotton of his shirt muting the sensations.

“Tell me.” He brushed his nose against hers, aligned their mouths but didn’t close the distance. If he kissed her, he would fuck her right here on the side of the highway. “Are you still screwing him? Am I the asshole whose been pissing in another man’s pool?”

“That’s disgusting. Let me go.”

He eyed her mouth, recalled how sweet she tasted. He licked his lips and spoke slowly, each word defined with a growl he couldn’t control. “Answer. The. God. Damn. Question. Are you fucking him, yes or no?”

A defiant, nearly irresistible, heat filled her eyes. “No.”

His mouth came down on hers, hard and demanding. He didn’t ask, didn’t wait for her to open. His tongue pressed inside, demanding entrance. Another unwanted image hit him. He saw Grady pushing Eva onto her stomach, shoving into her from the back.

The leopard slammed against his self-control, a battering ram plowing through splintered wood. Blood. Death. Revenge.

He pulled from her mouth. “You might not be fucking him now, but you used to.”

She glared up at him, chest rising and falling with every breath. Her heaving breasts pushed at her gaping coat. Silence hung between them, heavy and damning. It was all the confirmation he needed.

Tonight he dies
, the feline demanded. Agreed.

To Eva, he said, “Answer me.” His voice was more animal than man.

“It’s none of your business.”

“You bet your sweet ass it’s my business,
Angel
.”

She flinched, but stopped her struggles to pull away from him. “I told you not to call me that.”

He licked her lower lip before closing his teeth around the flesh. He tugged. When she leaned in for his kiss, he indulged her. Breaking away, he kissed her chin, nipped her neck. He drew his tongue up the column of her throat, sucked her earlobe into the heat of his mouth and earned a trembling moan for his efforts.

He whispered against her ear. “You are mine.”

Desire filled her eyes and possessiveness swirled inside him at her body’s acceptance of his claim. She drew her lip between her teeth. Lifting and then twisting, Eva climbed onto his lap. Slowly, oh so fucking slowly, she straddled the ridge in his jeans. The heat of her bare pussy soaked through the denim. Damn, she was naked beneath her dress.

Unable to resist, he thrust, rolling upward to press along her sensitive clit. She sucked in a breath and rocked her hips in a sensual rhythm that had him ready to come in his pants. He let go of her hair and closed a hand on either side of her thighs, just under the hem of her skirt. He skimmed up silky flesh, drew the dress with him. Her skin was creamy. Soft. Perfect.