Once Upon a Tiger (5 page)

The moment their tongues touched, Victor’s resistance crumbled. His arms came around her, crushing her against him. Alexis moaned in pleasure. Yes, yes, yes. Him. Always Victor. Only Victor.

She shoved the denim shirt off his shoulders, then ripped his white t-shirt down the middle, pushing the material apart so she could get her hands on his skin. Everything in her tightened like a spring waiting to launch. She scraped her nails over his chest, leaving light red lines. He arched against her and his hands tightened on her shoulders.

She heard the material of her robe rip and smiled against his mouth. “I guess turnabout is fair play,” she said, “but you owe me a new robe.” Then she kissed him again.

She moved enough so he could pull off the remains of his shirt without having to stop kissing her. Then she wiggled the tattered scraps of her robe off and settled her naked breasts against his chest. The sizzle of skin on skin contact made her clench and melt at once. More, more, more!

His rough chest hair made her nipples harden into tight, needy beads. She fumbled at his jeans, popping open buttons while still trying not to lose the electric skin contact. He didn’t help, much to her frustration. Instead, he stroked her back and shoulders, her sides, then cupped her face. Her every nerve was alive and jumping. His touch soothed and excited, hurt and pleasured at once.

He lowered his mouth to nuzzle her neck. An involuntary groan rose from deep in her chest. She arched against him, pressing hard, clenching her thighs against his hips to ease the tension. It didn’t help. Not when his lips were driving her insane.

“Victor.” His name came out in a gasp as he edged lower, pushing her up until her small breasts dangled above him. He pulled a nipple into his mouth, sucking hard, scraping her sensitive skin with his sharp teeth. She threw her head back and gripped the cushions. Everything felt so much more intense, sharper, intoxicating. He was exactly what she’d always wanted in a man. Having his mouth on her moved her beyond logical thought. She knew she had to have him.

He moved from nipple to nipple until her body was vibrating with tension. Then, to her surprise, he sat up, taking her with him. A moment later they were in her bedroom. God, his strength… She didn’t feel delicate often. Fragility didn’t exactly go with her job. But with Victor, she felt safe. She could savor giving up control, letting him overwhelm her and take over.

The feel of his jeans rubbing against her flesh was intolerable. She couldn’t stand having any material between them. When he set her on the bed, she wasted no time stripping off the last of his clothing, tugging and ripping until she got to delicious, hot skin. The scent of him filled her, earthy and primal and overwhelming, calling to her inner animal.

She slid down his body, slipping the thick length of his cock between her lips and sucking slowly. She stroked her hands over his hips and thighs, up the flat muscles of his stomach, and indulged herself with the taste of him, that heady mix of salt, musk, and his unique tiger essence that was impossible to describe with human words.

Victor clamped his hands into her hair, hard, almost painful. The pain was a welcome pleasure. When she looked up at him, sun filtered through her closed curtains, casting a pale purple light over him, giving her a sense of moving outside of time. Like the world beyond the room didn’t exist. They were suspended in this small bit of time and space, and she had him at her mercy, to do with as she pleased.

His grip tightened further when she slid her lips down his cock. His silence was strange and perfect. Without the distraction of grunts and groans, she was completely focused on her other senses—the taste of his skin, his sweaty heat and bunching muscles, the jolts and jerks of his body when she did something he liked. And his scent… That flavor of spice and musk overwhelmed her, filling her with him, his lust and more.

Their unique essences mixed together, heavy and heady in the small room. Basil and cinnamon and allspice combined with those elements with no names. Somehow it all worked, all fit exactly right. And the result rivaled the most delicious meals, the most luxurious perfumes, the deep heady richness of the forest. It was perfect.

As if they were designed to mingle and become one.

She was so focused on that luxurious, textured scent she almost missed his hands tugging hard at her head. She lifted her mouth from him and raised her brows. He was panting, his beautiful eyes narrowed. She grinned.

“Want me to stop?”

He shook his head, but continued to tug her up the mattress.

“Do I need to stop?”

A nod. Then his mouth was on hers and she gave in to his lead, letting him flip her onto her back while he explored her body in turn with hands and mouth. She closed her eyes, one less sense to rely on, and focused completely on feel and smell, and the taste of him still in her mouth.

Unlike Victor, though, she couldn’t keep silent. She moaned when his mouth traveled down the line of her stomach, gasped softly when he licked the skin between her hip bone and curls. She hissed and arched off the bed when his mouth covered her heat and his tongue slipped inside. The play of his tongue, the gentle tease of his teeth, sent her careening into an orgasm, her body shuddering as he held her and kept her from pulling away.

“Victor,” she sighed. She opened her eyes when she felt his fingers threading through her hair. His eyes were blacker in the purple light, more startling and beautiful even than normal. She couldn’t look away. What was he thinking? He didn’t smile, but there was a kind of intensity surrounding him, giving the moment a sacred feel.

What she’d thought was love before felt like a girlhood crush compared to the feeling now crashing over her. It sucked her under like riding whitewater rapids, spinning her around, and tossing her wildly into the air. There was no land, no balance, nothing to hold on to except Victor. In those quiet moments, he captured her loyalty and heart forever. She was done. There would never be another man for her. She didn’t have to get pregnant to feel certain Victor was her mate.

She covered his hands where they cupped her cheeks, then rose enough to kiss him. He followed her, keeping his mouth fused to hers. She opened to him, her mouth, her body, her heart. He slipped into her heat as easily as he’d wrapped her soul up in him. His rhythm was hard and slow, deep, steady. The slip and sliding friction of his cock inside her was heightened by the hormones washing through her, and her next orgasm built faster than she expected. She bit his shoulder to hold back but it didn’t do her any good. She broke apart with a shout, her hips jerking against his.

He kissed and sucked at her neck without breaking his rhythm, which sent another wash of building sensation through her. She clamped her hands onto his bunching ass muscles and slammed her hips up, meeting him stroke for stroke until he threw his head back, his jaw clenched tight, and came. Silently. Beautifully.

She tried watching his orgasm but her own was just there, on the edge of taking her. She ground her hips against his again, his rough hair rasping against her clit, and she tumbled that final step into bliss.

His weight when he settled over her was wonderfully heavy, pressing her deeper into the bed. As she held him, stroking his back, she pulled in their mixed essences again and set her tiger to memorizing the various components. This was a smell she would never forget. It imprinted on her and made her feel calmer and more whole than she’d felt since her parents were murdered.

Victor was her family now. Funny how it happened. So suddenly. So completely.

But fast on that thought, she had to face how vulnerable they both were now. There was no taking this back. And this broke more laws than she wanted to consider.

Chapter Six

Victor rose up on his arms, braced above her, and raised a brow in question.

Alexis smiled a little. “How did you know I had something to say?”

He ran a hand over her shoulder, rubbing it a little, and she realized she must have tensed.

“You’re good with body language.”

She giggled when he waggled his eyebrows.

“Yes, yes, that was spectacular. Though we have a little problem now.”

His shoulders lifted and fell in a sigh, and then he rolled to her side and pulled her snug against him. With a hand gesture, he indicated she should continue.

“If I end up pregnant, I think they’ll let us be. We didn’t run, but since you’re not allowed to anyway, they can’t say you technically broke a law.”

He gave her a heavy-lidded look, his mouth flat.

“Right. They might argue the point, but if we are pregnant, they’ll have to give us some leeway. Every new cub is important, even if they’re males.”

He frowned down at her and rubbed a hand over her stomach.

She shrugged. “I know. I wasn’t ready to be pregnant yet. With you, though, I’d be willing to have children.”

He blinked, then leaned close and kissed her, slowly and with a reverence that clenched tight around her heart. She swallowed hard as he lifted away. She cupped his cheek, not sure she could tell him she loved him yet, but at least through her actions she could show him.

Letting out a shaky breath, she refocused on the point of the conversation. “That said, if I don’t end up pregnant at the end of this estrous, the elders are likely to order some kind of punishment. For me, I’m not sure. They’ll probably just try forcing me to run again. For you, though, they may impose confinement.”

For something like this, Alexis was afraid they might impose a long sentence. Maybe even years. To the depths of her soul, she hated that she might be the cause of him facing that experience all over again. Only this time, he wouldn’t receive any special treatment, or any leeway.

He kissed the tip of her nose before rolling out of bed. She curled forward so she could watch him leave the room, now freely admiring his naked body. There was no going back and no point in pretending. When he walked back in, she licked her lips. He shook his head but couldn’t hide his slight smile, or the fact his cock was hardening again.

The distraction and fog of lust rushed through her blood. They needed to talk, but right now she wanted nothing more than to roll him under her and fuck him until they were exhausted. He distracted her by holding up his notebook and pen.

She sat up and leaned against the wooden headboard, waiting until he showed her the note.

I knew the risks when I came to help you. I’m not worried about confinement. Been there, done that
.

She snorted, waving off his nonchalance. “But I am. I don’t want you punished because of me.” She pursed her lips and picked at the sheet. “And there’s no one else I want as a mate. If you’re confined, I’ll have to spend all of your confinement fending off other males during my estrous. I
will
end up killing someone.”

She glanced at the pad when he raised it in front of her.

Then you’d end up in confinement with me. Could be worse
.

That made her chuckle. “True. They can’t make me run if I’m in jail. Hmm. Something to consider.”

He lifted her chin and shook his head. Then wrote more.
No trying to get yourself confined. You’re a female. You can’t be sure what choice they’ll make. You don’t want something worse.

“Worse? Like being forced into the Mate Run?”

Like being forced to mate with a male of their choosing. No run. An arranged marriage
.

She shuddered. “Oh, no. I will not stand for that. I’ll vanish into the wilderness before I let them do that to me.”

I know. So don’t risk it. I want to be able to find you when I get out of confinement
.

“You know, we could do that, you and I. We could just vanish.”

They’d send the Trackers after us
.

“I know how the Trackers work. We could avoid them.”

What if we do have children? A girl?

She groaned and punched the mattress. If they had a girl, Alexis couldn’t in good conscience keep her from her people. Every female was more valuable than money to the tigers. Females meant survival, and she
did
want her people to survive. She just wanted to choose her own mate, and any daughter she had the same right.

“You’re not helping,” she said with a grunt.

He cupped her cheek, forcing her to look at him, then he kissed her again. He pulled back and wrote another note.

We’ll figure something out. First, we have to get through this estrous. Keep the others from forcing your hand. We’ll face the elders after.

He was right. They still had most of the next two days to get through, to keep the other males from forcing her to fight.

She let her gaze move down to his semi-erect cock, then reached out and stroked him. They had two more days to indulge, to take advantage of her cycle. Now that they’d crossed the line, she didn’t want to waste a minute.

“Did you notice the way our scents came together?” she murmured. She looked up in time to see him nod, but his focus was on her hand, still moving slowly up and down his cock.

“Perfect.”

He nodded again. She squeezed him gently and he sucked in a deep breath.

Ah, she loved the way he felt, so hard and hot and at her mercy. The next two days were going to be fun.

She nudged his shoulder and he eased down onto his back. His hands settled on her hips as she straddled him and lowered herself over his erection, taking him inside slowly so she could savor the stretch and friction. He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth until she dropped the final inch, then he pushed out a breath and looked up at her. She smiled.

“Perfect,” she repeated and started to move. She rode him in the same steady rhythm he’d used to command her body earlier. Cool air from an open window washed across her skin, bringing with it the woods, rich soil, earthy bark and leaves. She let all those things suffuse her body and mind, filling her with a rightness she’d never known before.

When Victor’s fingers found her clit, she gasped and increased her pace, pounding hard, dropping over the cliff of her orgasm just as he joined her. The feel of him pulsing inside her, the sight of his face tight and straining, was like a dream. She memorized it, living in this moment. For now, at least, he was hers and she was his and there was nothing beyond tomorrow.