PrimalFlavor (9 page)

She watched his hand as he broke off a piece of pancake and
dipped it in what appeared to be some kind of homemade syrup. He held the
dripping cake up to her mouth. Colette opened obediently and the tartly sweet
flavor of blackberries exploded on her tongue. She closed her eyes with a soft
moan as the butter from the cake mingled with the berries. It was…she couldn’t
even think of the right word for it, her mind too busy buzzing with delight to
think properly.

Zach continued, his words nearly drowned out by the food
ecstasy humming through her body. “I knew the bakery would be mine, so I worked
hard at learning, went to school and then studied abroad for a couple of years
before taking over for Mamaw. She died about three years after I got back from
Europe and I’ve been running the bakery ever since.” His tone gave no hint of
his feelings on the matter, but the purring stopped completely. “I started the
catering business a few years ago and that’s it.”

She continued eating what he fed her, but she chewed over
her thoughts more than the food, her heart aching for him. His mother had left
him to go roaming and his grandmother, the only mother he really knew, had died
leaving him alone. Colette couldn’t imagine being alone, couldn’t imagine not
having the safety net of her family ready to catch her when she fell. That he had
no one but himself did something to her, made her hurt for him and want to wrap
him in her arms and give him all the love he’d been missing.

He popped another bite of blackberry-soaked pancake into her
mouth, but she didn’t chew right away. She couldn’t because her mouth was
suddenly so dry she wasn’t sure she could swallow. That was the second time the
word love had come to mind involving him. Which was ridiculous. She didn’t know
enough about him to be in love. In lust, yes, because he was a sexy motherfucker,
but that was all. She ignored the little voice in the back of her mind that
insisted on reminding her of the stories every Robicheaux man had about the
first time they met their wives. Love at first sight had been mentioned more
than once. Lightning strikes, dumbstruck and struck stupid were more commonly
used when it came to how they described their first meeting with their wives.
It was something of a family tradition to love fast, hard and forever.

Colette just never thought it would happen to her. She
peeked up at him as he surveyed the plate with a frown and her body melted. No,
it wasn’t love. Not yet at least, but it could be. If Zach stuck around, if he
continued to be as irresistibly sexy as he was now, all without trying, she’d
find herself falling for him. Hard. It was a scary thought, even scarier when
she knew the chances of him returning the sentiment were slim to none.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him yet again.

His gaze shifted from the plate to her face. She tried to
tell herself it was a trick of the light, that there was nothing beyond sexual
heat in his eyes, but when he looked at her, she saw something more than lust
shadowing his gaze. Was it love? No, but it was affection.

“I’m here because I can’t stay away.”

The surprise in her eyes equaled the surprise in his brain.
Had he really said that? The way her face softened and her arm slipped around
his back to hug him told him yes. Yes, he’d just confessed something he
would’ve preferred to keep to himself a little longer. At least until he was
more comfortable with the weird emotions driving him to be with her. Zach
didn’t deal in deep emotions. He liked his life simple and uncomplicated. He
saved the messes for his kitchen because they were easier to clean up.

But when she slipped one of her arms around his back and
pressed her cheek to his chest in a one-armed hug that had nothing to do with
sex and everything to do with a budding friendship, he froze for a moment,
stiff in her hold. He didn’t want to be friends with Colette. He wanted to fuck
her, to burrow so deeply inside her that the affection she felt for her family
would warm the colder corners of his life. Which was stupid. He didn’t need
anyone, never had. Even his grandmother had ceded to his independence, knowing
it didn’t do any good to hold a tiger down, or attempt to.

Yet Colette’s arm around him in a platonic hug warmed him in
a way nothing else had for a very long time. It was almost like an acceptance.
She wasn’t asking anything of him, didn’t say she was sorry for his childhood
or any of the things he imagined women would say. She gave him her silent
support and he appreciated it the same way he couldn’t help but admire her
appetite. Nothing made him feel better than to know his food filled her belly
and that she enjoyed it.

He didn’t think she was even aware of the sounds of pleasure
she made in the back of her throat as she ate, or the way she wiggled slightly
in his lap when she wanted the next bite. It’d wreaked havoc on his control
until they’d started talking about him. Zach didn’t want to think about
feelings and things like affection or possibly obsession—there was no way he’d
ever use the L-word in conjunction with anyone. Especially a human who didn’t
understand the importance of mating. No, this was an anomaly, sex with
affection and maybe friendship. He could do that. He’d never tried being
friends with a woman he fucked before, but he figured that was better than just
being a friend.

His tiger began purring again, forgetting about the food
he’d been gently placing in her mouth, forgetting about messy emotions and
things he’d rather not think about. It was busy inhaling her sweet vanilla
scent, feeling the soft press of her breasts against his chest. She was tiny
compared to him and fragile, but she’d come out of the hallway with her gun and
fire in her eyes. His tiger had thought only one thing at the time and that was
“What a woman”.

Now though, Zach’s attention switched from food to sex. His
cock had finally deflated for the first time the entire night and all it’d
taken was the thought of his absent mother and dead grandmother to do it. Now
though, oh now Mini Zach swelled to life, pushing into the soft hip nestled in
his lap. He held his breath, certain she’d leap away from him in disgust
because this didn’t seem like the right moment for him to get a hard-on.

But she didn’t move away. Her warm breath washed over the
light dusting of hair on his chest, which seemed to be connected to his balls
because the puff of air sent a tingle south. Then she kissed his nipple. Zach’s
gaze dropped to the woman nestled against his chest, his heartbeat kicking up a
notch when he saw her cloud of white-blonde hair spread across his skin. His
dick pulsed in excitement even as she brushed her lips over his nipple yet again,
velvet softness against the slowly hardening nub.

“Colette,” he rasped, his hands tightening on her.

He wasn’t sure how much he could take. If she was just
trying to soothe him, it wasn’t working. He had a split second to feel hot,
moist air before she latched on to the suddenly sensitive peak and suckled.
Zach cursed under his breath, one of his hands sliding up to sink into her
hair. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull her away or hold her closer, but when
her tiny pink tongue began to work his flesh in a perfect mimicry of what he’d
done to her a few hours earlier, he decided to enjoy it. For as long as he
could.

But allowing her to initiate sex didn’t mean he couldn’t
help. He kept one hand on her head, holding her close even as his other hand
slid up her silky thigh, under the hem of the t-shirt to cup the round curve of
her ass. His tiger purred louder at the contact, his fingers kneading the
surprisingly generous flesh while she suckled and nipped at his skin. The scent
of her arousal, the sweet musk he wanted to roll around in, thickened the air
around them. Zach’s heart pounded like a jackhammer as his fingers slid along
the silken crevice of her ass until he encountered the slick folds of her sex.

She moaned against his skin as he traced her slit, her teeth
sinking into his flesh. Her hands came up to grip his shoulders, blunt
fingernails digging deep as she squirmed on his lap, her legs separating as
though to invite him inside. His dick started leaking, leaving trails of
dampness on her hip. He was going to come without ever making it inside her,
but he wasn’t even sure he cared. He knew he’d get it up again after a very
short reprieve. Colette was like Viagra and an aphrodisiac rolled into one.

Then she began to slide off his lap. Zach let out a snarl,
not happy with her moving until he realized she was sliding between his legs.
The tiger liked that image a lot and quickly bit off the animalistic sound. The
man, however, nearly discovered what it was like to have a heart attack. Seeing
Colette, the tough woman who seemed to live with a gun in her hand, on her
knees between his legs, her hair a thick curtain around her tanned face and her
witchy eyes trained on his cock, was enough to make any man weak in the knees.

“You did so much for me earlier,” she said absently, her
hands stroking his thighs. “But you didn’t take anything for yourself.” Hungry
eyes met his, striking him dumb. “It’s my turn.”

Holy shit, yes! Did he say that out loud? She wasn’t staring
at him as though he’d grown a second head, so no, he hadn’t. But he wanted to.
Especially when she captured the base of his cock in her strong hands. Stacked
one on top of the other, they still weren’t long enough to cover his entire
length, but a slow, strong stroke upward managed to touch every square inch of
sensitive skin. Then when she leaned forward and lapped at the crown, cleaning
up every drop of pre-cum, Zach had to grip the edges of his chair to keep from
snatching her off her knees and fucking her senseless.

But Colette was the one who seemed determined to drive him
insane, using her hands and her tongue to go at him like a woman trying to
catch a dripping ice-cream cone on a hot summer’s day. She lapped, she licked,
she nibbled and she stroked, working him from base to tip and back down, over
and over but never once did she take him into her mouth. It was a tease, her
parted lips skimming along his length, her heated gaze trained on his face as
though gauging his reaction.

It wasn’t until he thought the top of his head would blow
off that she finally wrapped those lips around his dick and took him as far as
she could. Zach’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and his entire body shook
from the need coursing through him. His tiger was of the mind that now was as
good a time as any to tell her she belonged to him forever and ever. This
bliss, this tormenting pleasure she gave him with her little, inexperienced
suckles was better than anything he’d ever had with the many women he’d been
with. It was because of her, because it was Colette. Tough, hard Colette with
soft lips and an innate ability to drive him out of his mind.

She didn’t draw on him as though she were trying to suck his
brains right through his dick, it was more of a soft draw, her tongue working
the underside of his cock as she stroked upward with her hand. He groaned
appreciatively, his hands leaving the seat of his chair to tangle in her long,
soft hair. Every movement of her head had the strands tickling his thighs,
brushing his calves and stroking his stomach.

“God, baby,” he moaned when she swirled her tongue around
his crown again. “God yes. Yes.”

His balls were drawn tight, the tingling at the base of his
spine growing stronger the more she worked his flesh. He wanted to hold out, to
enjoy the moment, to draw out the anticipation. But it seemed his sly little
Cajun woman knew more than she let on because just when he thought he might
have been able to hold off his climax, she gently scraped her teeth along his
length. The scent of her arousal was thick enough to taste and his mouth
watered. Eating her out, having her come over and over on his tongue had been a
pleasure unlike any other.

She gave another slow draw on his dick that numbed his
brain. He wanted to come, wanted to selfishly enjoy the moment, but he needed
something more. Without giving it further thought, or stopping to wonder if he
was thinking rationally, Zach swept his arm over the table, tossing everything
to the floor. The warm suction around his dick disappeared as Colette lifted
her head with a strangled gasp.

But he was too far gone to put into words what he wanted.
Sliding his hands beneath her arms, he lifted her off the floor and plopped her
onto the table. She looked so surprised, so shocked, if he would’ve been in his
right mind, he would’ve smiled. As it was, all he could think was he needed her
pussy and he needed it now. The condoms, though, were in another room. Next to
her bed in fact because that’s where he’d put them when he returned.

He stood, eyeing her. He was too damn impatient to get them and
playing Russian roulette with her eggs wasn’t something he would ever do.
Although the tiger liked that thought, wanted his seed to bathe her womb, to
mark her from the inside out and do it over and over again until it found
fertile ground. Zach pushed the images of Colette round with his cub away. That
was something for him to think about a lot later. Like with a full bottle of
whisky.

He studied the table. It was sturdy enough to hold him. An
old farmhouse-style piece that could withstand weight and time. He sat next to
Colette, dropped flat on his back and grabbed her. She squeaked and said
something as he positioned her over his face. The hem of her shirt had ridden
up, giving him a perfect view of her slick, swollen cleft and the round, golden
curve of her ass.

“Zach!” she exclaimed in a breathless voice that throbbed
with excitement. “What are you doing? We’re too heavy for the tab—” He pulled
her hips down and buried his tongue in her dripping cunt.

She sucked in a loud breath, her entire body going tense
from shock. But her pussy creamed for him, the thick honey of her arousal
coating his tongue. “Oh. Oh God!”