Pack Justice (Nature of the Beast Book 1) (22 page)

“I guess the cat is out of the bag, isn’t it?”

“All hundred and sixty pounds of him, I’m afraid. You’re a looker as a wolf, Mr. Scott, but you’re something else when you’re a cheetah. What
are
you?”

Since I was already hidden under the blankets, I burrowed my way under my pillow, too. “Hell if I know.”

“How long have you been able to become a cheetah? It’s been driving us absolutely insane. We had no idea how you gave us the slip. The windows are too small for a Fenerec or a human to get through. As a cheetah? Is that how you got out?”

“That’s how I got out,” I confirmed, dodging her initial question with the hope she’d forget she had asked.

“Why?”

My face heated from a mixture of shame and embarrassment. “I needed a run and to hunt.”

“So instead of asking, you decided to climb out the window?”

“I didn’t know I could ask!”

There was a long moment of silence, and then Andrea sighed. “That’s fair. There’s a lot you don’t know.”

“No kidding.” At the top of the list was the reason why Andrea had snuggled up to me during the night, her body warming mine. “I support the rock to the head theory. I have a hell of a headache.”

“Painkillers aren’t very effective on Fenerec, but we might have something. Why don’t you get out of bed and get dressed? You’ll feel better after you have something to eat. No daring escapes out the window this time, Mr. Scott. I have you right where I want you.”

“Is that so?” I challenged.

“It is so.”

Some things I couldn’t resist, and Andrea’s close proximity robbed me of my will to resist the urge to say, “I’m going to need my shirt if you want me to get dressed.”

“Is that so?” she murmured, and the husky quality of her voice lured me into peeking out from under the pillow and blanket. Andrea wasn’t smiling, but she wasn’t scowling either, and the way she fiddled with the top button of my shirt stole my breath.

I wanted to rip her out of the silk and find out if she was even half as beautiful as I thought she was. “It is so,” I growled back.

The faintest of smiles curved her lips, and my eyes widened. She slipped out of bed, her gaze locked on mine. Button by button, she opened my shirt to reveal a black lace bra. Her smile slid into a smirk, and she slipped out of my shirt and tossed it on my head. “I suppose I should get dressed, too—in my own clothes.”

I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or disappointed.

Chapter Sixteen

Andrea’s scent clung to my shirt. While my spirit beasts were still drowsy, both of them had ideas about what I should have been doing instead of getting dressed to face the world.

Even if I wanted to test the waters and find out how interested Andrea was in a more intimate relationship, the pounding in my head worsened with movement until the pain did a better job of dousing my curiosity than a cold shower. While my leg supported my weight, I ached with every step. My churning stomach wasn’t helping matters any, and I considered begging someone to put me out of my misery.

In the years I had known Andrea, I’d never seen her wear anything other than business attire, and her choice of a worn t-shirt and faded pair of jeans made me conscious of the fact I could show up in court and do my job as long as I could find a suit jacket.

I sighed and buttoned my shirt.

“You’ve been a wolf too long,” Andrea informed me, closing the distance between us. “It’s crooked.”

“I’m going to just blame my headache for this,” I replied, unbuttoning my shirt and hoping I’d get it right without embarrassing myself further. Before I could try again, Andrea batted my hands away.

I froze as she ran her hands across my chest, straightening the silk to her satisfaction before working on the second button from the top. Brushing my shirt smooth again before reaching for the next button was unnecessary, but I enjoyed her attention almost as much as my spirit beasts did.

Andrea laughed. She ran her hands up my chest to touch my throat with her fingertips. “You’re purring.”

I hadn’t realized I was until she mentioned it. The heat in my scent had likely already betrayed my state of mind, although she didn’t seem bothered by my desire for her. The feel of her skin against mine made me shiver, and I flexed my hands, tempted to touch her to discover how much she liked it.

“You need a shave.”

I grunted my agreement. “Shower, too.”

“You’d drown if you took one right now, Sean. I’ll make you some coffee, and we’ll play the rest by ear.”

I drew in a deep breath, my nose flaring to catch Andrea’s scent.

Her state of mind, apparently, wasn’t much different from my own.

“Coffee can wait,” I growled through clenched teeth. There was a lot I didn’t know about my new circumstances, but I remembered my fury over anyone other than me touching Andrea when she had been a wolf. I hadn’t known who she was then, but her scent was branded in my memories, and I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

I needed to take her and make her mine, and my willingness to resist putting my hands on her evaporated with her touch. My breathing hitched, and drawing on my cheetah’s speed, I wrapped my arms around her slender waist and yanked her to me.

Too many nights I had dreamed of Andrea, wanting to kiss away her scowls and listen to her breathless cries. My mouth covered hers, and she kissed me back, weaving her fingers into my hair so I couldn’t escape her.

I kissed her until I was dizzy from the lack of air and the pounding in my skull crested until my ears rang. I slumped against her, resting my head on her shoulder while I fought to catch my breath. Every time I saw her, her delicate physique brought out my instinct to protect her and roused my desire to make her smile.

Her hands slid out of my hair and wrapped around me, pulling me close until she supported most of my weight. “You’re shaking.”

Closing my eyes, I focused on drawing slow, deep breaths. “I feel terrible.”

“Ritual sickness,” Andrea murmured, and she tilted her head to kiss my cheek. Her lips were warm on my chilled skin. “You’ve been a wolf too long.”

I turned so I could press my nose to her throat and breathe in her scent. The alluring aroma of her arousal lingered, stirring my spirit beasts despite my throbbing head. Once I felt even a little better, I’d resume where I had left off, but instead of just kissing her lips, I’d leave no part of her untouched.

I wanted her, and I wanted her to know it.

Her throat was soft and warm beneath my mouth, and I teased her with the tip of my tongue. Andrea arched against me as a strangled cry escaped her lips. The heat in her scent strengthened and a shudder ran through her. My eyes widened at her reaction, and I froze, listening to the hitching of her breath and her quiet gasps.

Her small hands fluttered and tangled in my shirt, and a single press of my body against hers sent her sprawling onto the bed. I went with her, one knee bracing my weight while I leaned over her, my mouth still pressed to her throat.

There were so many things I wanted to do with her, and the way she melted beneath me, her breaths coming in short uneven bursts, drove me to explore her throat with gentle kisses. Each time my mouth touched her, she made a soft, mewling cry.

Andrea tilted her head back, her lips parted and her eyes closed. She squirmed beneath me, and her hands clutched at me. Emboldened by her reaction, I seized her wrists and pinned her arms over her head without removing my mouth from where I kissed the side of her throat.

My light and tentative touches made her writhe beneath me, and when Andrea whimpered my name, I shivered. I needed to take her and make her mine, and I battled the throbbing in my skull. I adjusted my hold on Andrea’s wrists, pinning her with one hand so I could trail the tips of my fingers along her cheek.

When my hand reached the other side of her throat, I drew circles on her skin. She gasped my name again, a stronger shudder coursing through her.

Idette touching my neck repulsed me, but my breath caught in my throat at the thought of Andrea’s lips playing against my skin while her breath tickled me. The sound I made was a mixture of a growl and a purr.

I drummed my fingers against her neck, and her entire body jerked and twitched at my touch. Unable to resist the lure of her squirming on the bed beneath me, I covered her body with mine.

I wanted her, I needed her, and headache be damned, I would have her. I growled, let go of her wrists and shunted her farther up the bed. I stalked after her, kissing and nibbling my way up to her lips. Taking hold of her hips, I rolled until she was on top of me.

When I finally broke our kiss, I tangled my fingers in her hair, applying pressure until she tilted her head for me and exposed her throat once more. I began with a gentle kiss before I gently scraped my teeth against her skin.

Releasing her, I tilted my head back, exposed my throat, and let her do with me as she desired.

Fenerec women, I decided, had a rough, wild side to them, and while Idette’s behavior repulsed me, Andrea’s growling and liberal application of teeth drove me to the edge until I was as desperate for more as she was.

At the rate we were going, I was going to die a very happy man before either one of us managed to leave the bedroom.

I was disappointed to learn, however, that taking a beautiful woman to bed didn’t actually cure headaches. If anything, as soon as the euphoria of being with Andrea wore off, the pain returned worse than before my desire had gotten the better of me.

Andrea wiggled beneath me and pressed her lips to the side of my throat. Instead of the burning lust her earlier nips had ignited, the tension flowed out of my muscles until all my weight rested on her.

She didn’t seem to mind, wrapping her arms around me and stroking her fingers down the length of my spine. “We got a little carried away, didn’t we?” she murmured.

I cracked open an eye and glanced in the direction of the alarm clock. Without my glasses, I was too far away to make out more than a blue smudge of light. “It’s blurry o’clock,” I replied, closing my eyes and deciding it no longer mattered. “If you have any mercy in that beautiful body of yours, put me out of my misery.”

“Coffee comes with painkillers. We’ll hope they help,” she replied, squirming in her effort to get out from under me. “You need to let me up, Sean.”

“I like you where I have you.”

“You’re sweet, but you’re getting up, even if I have to drag you out of bed. At this rate, Ramirez and O’Mallory are going to come in here to make sure I haven’t killed you.”

“You can if you want, I won’t complain. I can die a happy man now,” I reassured her.

Andrea nipped my neck in rebuke, and I yelped at the shock lancing down my spine all the way to my toes. “You will not,” she snarled, her teeth still pressed against my throat.

While she didn’t look strong, she rolled us both over and untangled herself from me, snapping her teeth at my throat again in warning. I flinched, and she sucked in a breath, her eyes widening so much the whites showed all the way around. “Fuck, Sean. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have, I…”

Andrea wasn’t Idette, but once I started trembling, I couldn’t stop. It took several long, deep inhales before I could force myself to relax beneath her. Andrea rubbed my throat where she had bitten me; the brisk, firm touch alleviated the sting.

When I could keep my voice even and calm, I said, “You have very potent teeth, woman. Very versatile. You have a good bite and a bad bite. I like the good bite. Do more of that one. Right now, if you want. I’m game.”

She stared at me for a long moment before she relaxed and sighed. “I think you’ve had enough for now. Maybe after dinner, if you’re really, really nice to me.”

“Are you volunteering to be dessert?”

“It hasn’t even been ten minutes.” Andrea laughed and kissed my forehead. “I underestimated you, it seems. And here I was worried you had no interest in me.”

Snorting, I worked my elbows beneath me and lurched upright. “I have a difficult time believing that, now that I have an idea of just how sensitive your nose is, Miss Morgan.”

She blushed. “You were thinking about me?”

“I thought it was rather obvious,” I muttered, reaching for my shirt. It was obvious its days as a shirt were over; buttons were missing and there was a rip across the front. “You’re vicious, and I think I like it.”