Secured Heart (Timberon Cat Book 1) (2 page)

He glanced down at her hands, then up to her face. “You get enough of Paul Stellar? Now you’re on to the next old man?”

Gritting her teeth, she forced out, “For your information, I couldn’t go through with it.” Paul Stellar had been the CEO of Turner Corporation, one of the biggest Midwest shipping companies involved in everything that came through the Gulf, and its owner had been more than twenty years her senior. As an intern, she’d been young and stupid and had allowed him to wine and dine her one summer. Way more sophisticated than she, he’d convinced her that he was falling for her and couldn’t live without her. If she’d done her research, instead of dropping out of the University of New Mexico her junior year, throwing away the academic scholarship she’d worked so hard to gain, and heading to the first justice of the peace Paul took her, she’d have known it was Stellar’s M.O. Young naïve girls were his thing. He’d promise them the world at his side, marry them, then dump them when they’d outlived their usefulness and he was off to the next perky thing. Coming from a low-income family, she’d snapped onto his bait without caring what her friends said. What Kal had tried to tell her.

“
What?” His eyes widened with shock.

“
That’s right, nosey. I got cold feet. I stood there in my expensive white skirt suit he’d had tailor-made for me. None of my family or friends around, just strangers waiting for their own chance before the judge.”

Kal’s eyes darkened with some emotions.

Too afraid to analyze what he was thinking about her, she continued. “For a few weeks he tried to get me to do it. Hired a wedding planner and was willing to pay for a big event. I-I couldn’t. I chose a date a year out. Stellar got pissed. Next thing I know he tossed me over for some twenty-year-old three months later. He made sure I got a copy of their wedding picture in the mail.” She shifted her gaze past his shoulders, taking in the night lights of Albuquerque, not wanting to see the pity she was sure would be in his eyes.
I’d been a fool.

When he didn’t respond, she asked, “What? No ‘I told you so’?”

“
Well, I did.” He teased as he brushed her hair over her shoulder.

Rolling her eyes, she tried not to think about the light shivers racing along her spine at his gentle touch.

“
So, you missed your chance with Stellar. Have you set your mark on Tyler as a husband?”

Shoving hard this time, she stepped away from him and faced the railing. “Stuff it, Kal. You don’t know anything. I’m not some whore for hire.”

“
Not saying you are. Just telling you what it looks like.” He growled low, his lips pressed against her ear.

Why did it matter to him?

Years ago in college, she’d thought she had a chance with him. That Kal may be the one. One night she’d gone to his apartment and had seen a large cat looking like a North American Lynx leap out of his window and head toward the Sandia Mountains. She’d paced his living room waiting for his return. When he did, he explained to her all about his kind and how the
Amofeli
, shifter cats, mated for life.

She’d wanted to be his soul mate. That wasn’t the case. Even after he’d explained his secret, he still continued with his old ways. In college he’d picked off every easy bimbo and party girl who shook her big breasts in his face.

“
Just leave it alone, Kal.” Her throat tightened with emotion and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Seeing him was bringing up old hurts and pains, most of them she’d brought on herself. Stellar had seen the vulnerability she had because of Kal, the older man had stepped in and given her the attention she craved from someone else. She’d used the business mogul as he had attempted to use her. “You didn’t care enough years ago when I needed a friend and you hopped on the first plane to Afghanistan to make your fortune like so many civilians who wanted big pay.” She glanced at him, then looked away again. “I needed you then and you stayed away for years.”

~YH~

Kal could hear the pain in her voice. He knew back then it had been wrong to leave without talking to her. After college he’d gotten a job with his criminal justice degree, but had heard about the opportunity to work in the Middle East doing base and facility security, earning up to seventy thousand a year. He’d applied, gotten the position and was gone before the ink had dried on his resignation. The mountainous region had allowed his cat a lot of area to play. The stint over in the desert wasn’t easy, was dangerous to say the least, even for him, but he needed something that would keep his mind off the one person he couldn’t have. When he returned, he’d started his security business with Dwayne. Even though his rash decision had paid off, he’d only taken the chance to get out of the city. A city that enjoyed plastering pictures and gossip about Paul Stellar’s business and his new plaything. It wasn’t Lana by Stellar’s side and he didn’t know where she was or what had happened to her marriage.

Yeah, he’d royally fucked up with her in college. He’d known he cared about her. That his emotions and connection to her ran deeper than for any other woman he’d allowed in his life. However, he’d taken their friendship for granted as he screwed his way through his undergrad years with every available piece of ass. He’d barely learned to control his shifting when his mating gene had erupted to full capacity making his sexual urges indiscriminate. However, he knew enough to keep clear of Lana on the worst days. By the time he’d gotten his cat under control, stopped tomcatting around and gone after Lana, his mate, it was too late. She’d met Paul Stellar at a function put on by the dean.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Staring at her, he watched the wind lift her hair away from her body.

“
Do you need me now?” he asked.

Turning her back on him, she stepped away from the rail. “I have a job to do. I don’t have time fo--”

Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her body against his. “Answer me, Lana,” he commanded. “Do. You. Need. Me. Now?” He bit out each word slowly. The question was about more than a friendship, but about desires as well.

His cat was so in tune with her that he could feel the quivering breath she took. The intimate contact didn’t allow them to hide anything. He was sure she could feel his body’s response to her as well. His cock was pressing into her back, insistent.

She turned as her mahogany-brown eyes darkened and he could see her need clearly, before she licked her lips and shifted her gaze away. “Ye— No. I don’t know.”

“
What’s Tyler to you?” He had to know. If this man was her next meal ticket, he wanted to know, had to know who his competition was. This time he couldn’t walk away from her. He refused to walk away from her.

“
He’s my boss. I went back to school and became a paralegal and worked my way up to his assistant. I not only help with cases, but I organize the firm’s important functions, like this--”

Seizing her mouth, he kissed her deeply. He didn’t need to hear anything else. Slipping his tongue into her mouth, he tasted her. It wasn’t enough. A few steps forward brought them against the wall. Lana kissed him just as passionately in return, her hands fisting in his hair. The clatter of her small purse striking the cement floor didn’t stop them.

He broke the kiss. “I’ve waited years. Denied myself what I wanted. You, Lana.”

Panting, she declared, “I want you, Kal.”

“
I know this isn’t the time or place, but I swear if you try and stop me, I’ll fuck you so hard you’ll scream and everyone down that hall will hear you.”

“
Don’t stop.”

Enough said.

Kissing her again, he deepened it this time. He wanted more from her, needed to taste her very soul through the kiss, know if what he felt for her was echoed in her heart. Her whimpers vibrated along the inside of his mouth and he groaned. Slipping a hand up to the center of her back, he held her tighter. He enjoyed the feel of her soft, full breasts crushing against his chest. The feeling evoked a memory of them in college. Freshman week pool party, the first time he’d seen her. She’d stood beside a lounger and pulled her short sundress over her head. A mismatched lime green and orange bathing suit cupped her body in all the right places.

Randy as a horny teenager with his new
Amofeli
hormones having kicked in, he wanted to caress the space between her perky cleavage and palm her breasts. He’d crossed the cement blocks around the pool to do just that, but he’d said something to her and when she’d given some witty response and smiled, he realized he liked her in that instant too much to allow her to be just a conquest. His big mistake was putting her in the friend zone.

As they stood there, lips locked and holding hands, the world stood still, the breeze stopped blowing and everything around them disappeared. Nothing else mattered but them, that moment.

It seemed as if he had waited years for this. Now he knew what Frank Sinatra meant in the old classic when he said a kiss is still a kiss…man must have his mate. This simple, but life-altering kiss with her had confirmed what he’d always suspected, Lana Greisen was his mate.

His cat declared the truth of the thought with a sensual purr. It was an ability only available for an
Amofeli
male when with his life mate.

Moaning at the sensation, she settled against him. Still yielding her mouth to him, she circled his shoulders with her arms.

Their breathing was heavy, both of them trembling and he could smell the heat of her arousal. The scent of her wet sex started to drive him mad with lust. His cock thickened and he slipped a hand over her ass. Squeezing the plump flesh, he gripped the material of her sexy dress and began dragging it up. As the hand he held her back with moved into her hair, he buried his fingers in the thick mass and kept her mouth aligned with his.

In the distance, they could hear someone calling her name.

Parting his lids, he watched as she opened her eyes wide. They were already filled with trepidation and recognition of the occasion that had brought them both there.

The fog of passion cleared his mind and he recalled where they were as well.

She tried to pull away.

However, he held fast as his astute hearing picked up on the scuff of the person’s shoes against the door track as they turned to come outside.

Kal barely had time to camouflage them before her boss stepped out on another patio four feet from theirs. Normally, his chameleon-like ability only allowed for
him
to blend into his surroundings, but because he was still intimately connected to Lana, it masked her as well.

He kept his tongue deep in her mouth, even as she tried to push him out.

Clutching his shirt, her hands trembled. He picked up on her fear that they would be discovered.

They would if she continued to struggle.

Flipping the tip of his tongue across the roof of her mouth, he shocked her.

With a small gasp, she shifted her gaze from her boss to him and he gave her a hard, direct stare, attempting to communicate they needed to be still.

She blinked a few times but stopped her squirming.

Moving them ever so slightly, he turned so they could see the intruder.