Shifter's Claim (The Shadow Shifters) (11 page)

Jacques returned the nod. “I’ll walk you around to the back entrance.”

Bas moved around the truck to the passenger side and opened the door for Priya.

She didn’t hesitate but stepped her first leg out of the truck then followed with the next. When she stood in front of him she simply stared up into his eyes. A tilt of her head said what she saw wasn’t what she’d been looking for. At that, Bas gave a small smile, before taking her arm once more.

As Bas and Priya walked, Jacques remained in front of them. The soldier never turned back to look at them or to say a word. There was a back entrance into Perryville for when they had detainees that needed to go to the bunker or just didn’t want to be seen by the guests. Double steel doors that required a combination to get inside, opened at Jacques’s command. Bas and Priya stepped inside and moved down the long hallway with its gray-painted cinder block walls and tiled floor.

Only when they were on the elevator heading up to his suite did Bas relax, minutely. A few seconds later when the elevator doors opened again, he guided Priya off, moving swiftly to the door that would let them into his suite. She followed silently. Until they were inside.

“Look,” she began as soon as he released his grip on her and she’d spun around to face him. “I don’t know who you think you are, or who those drones out there have pumped you up to believe you are, but I’m not on your payroll. So the orders and the dragging me around stops here. You offered your help, but I get it if you cannot actually give it.”

Bas didn’t respond. Instead, he kept walking through the large living area, past the small office section, and straight back to the bedroom, knowing she would follow him. Once in his room he grabbed at the bottom of his shirt, pulling until it was free of his pants and up over his head. Tossing it onto one of the leather chairs that faced the floor-to-ceiling window across from his bed, he turned to face her.

“So you didn’t come here to be ordered around,” he said in a voice that was practiced calm and smooth edges. It was his seduction voice, the one he used on the rare instances when he’d needed the release of sex.

The pulse at the base of her neck quickened and she folded her arms over the delectable mounds of her chest. “No. I didn’t,” she replied in a much less confident voice.

Bas nodded and sat on one of the chairs. He lifted one foot and removed his boot, did the same with the other, all without looking up at her. She was nervous, the musky incense-like scent mixing with the spicy aroma she held naturally. Bas inhaled it all, letting it move through his body with slow efficiency, almost relishing the moment it touched his cat.

He stood then, removing his belt, and unfastening the buckle of his pants. Together with his boxer briefs he pushed all the material down his thighs, stepping out of them as they pooled at his feet. Then he stood tall, naked, and looked at her.

She sucked in a breath.

Good, he thought with an inward smile.

He walked across the room, then took her hands and unfolded her arms from her chest. Keeping his eyes locked on hers—she couldn’t look away if she tried and Bas knew she wouldn’t make that effort—he flattened her palms against his chest.

“I will help you,” he stated softly. “You want to see if I’m really a cat beneath the human clothes?”

She licked her lips and Bas instinctively mimicked the motion.

“Do I feel like a cat, Priya?” he continued, taking a step closer to her, until his erection jutted forward, touching the soft cotton of her shirt just beneath her breasts.

The minute she opened her mouth to speak, Bas pounced, taking her mouth in a kiss so hungry his cat scratched at the surface, reaching for its own release instantaneously. She couldn’t reply verbally, could only react physically and that reaction was not what Bas had expected. It was so much … more.

Chapter 10

Priya felt like she was sinking. In her mind she thought of stepping into quicksand and going down, down, down, slowly, but most assuredly. Beneath her fingers and palms was the taut smoothness of his skin and beneath that, the steady heartbeat that rapped a quick rhythm almost matching her own.

His tongue scraped along hers as if he were tasting something he’d craved forever, and she moaned softly. Hands much stronger and much larger than she’d assumed had cupped her face about a second before his lips had begun their brutal assault. Now he held her in place, in truth he held her upright. Because with the very naked Sebastian Perry kissing her the way he was, Priya’s entire body had turned to molten lava. Every part of her was on fire, her knees weak, her spine tingling, fingertips burning.

She moved her hands because if this was going to be her one shot at touching him all over she wanted to take full advantage. Or would he parade around naked in front of her again? She didn’t believe that and didn’t want to waste time considering it. Instead, she let her hands travel to his shoulders, broad and strong; she gripped him while tilting her head to deepen their kiss. Biceps roped with muscle greeted her next touch as her hands moved downward. Back up again she touched what she could of his back, but he was much broader than her arms were wide and she barely scraped the side of his shoulder blades. He radiated strength, all over, including the persistent punch of his thick arousal to her midsection.

She wanted to touch him there. The thought came quickly and she lost her breath with anticipation. Her hands moved to his torso then, thumbs rubbing along the sculpted board of his abs, down and back to tight buttocks. Then they were in front of him once more, moving of their own accord to where they wanted most to be. Her palms—shaking slightly but figuring it was too late to turn back—wrapped around his length, feeling the amazing heat that emanated from there.

Bas sucked in a breath at her touch and the connection of their lips was broken. For endless seconds they simply stared at each other, his gray gaze holding her plain old brown eyes captive.

“Put your hot little mouth there,” he told her, dared her almost.

Priya wanted to pull away. He knew she wouldn’t do it, knew without a doubt that she would not go to her knees and suck his thick hard dick, no matter how much she really wanted to. In that instant she added that to the list of things she was beginning to hate about Sebastian Perry: he knew too goddamned much.

Priya was no stranger to men. She’d cashed in her virginity card the night of the senior prom in a dismal initiation into adulthood. But none of her previous exploits, even the ones that had come much later in her adult life and ended with pretty strong orgasms on her part, could compare to the desire ripping through her body right now like a tropical storm.

Bas stood absolutely still, like a beautifully intricate sculpture of everything masculine, looking down at her with a smirk that all but called her a coward. She tightened her grip on him, holding firm at the base of his arousal as she glared up at him.

“And what will I get in return?” was her taunting question. It was probably a bad idea to play this game, with this man, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t in the mood to let him win another round.

The corners of his mouth tilted in a half smile as he lifted a hand to trace along the line of her lips. “It’ll get you whatever you want, pretty girl.”

On impulse her tongue snaked out to lick the tip of his finger on its trek across one more time. Bas’s smile instantly disappeared. Emboldened by that reaction she licked around the pad of his finger before lowering her mouth, taking the digit in, sucking hard, then pulling back slowly. She watched him as she did this, his eyes growing darker, his dick pulsating in her hands, moisture seeping at the tip.

His hips thrust forward and she stroked his length, all the while suckling his finger. He pumped into her hand with more forcefulness, more rhythm and he reached up, clasping the back of her head, guiding her until they were totally in sync. Her nipples were so hard it was painful, her center throbbing, the lips of her vagina damp with desire.

“Pretty little Priya, with the hot-ass mouth. I wonder if the rest of you will be this hot,” he whispered.

She would not try to respond, was positive she couldn’t, considering her position and the fact that she just might tell him exactly what was hot on her right now.

“I wonder if I throw you on this bed if you’ll open like a pretty flower for me and let me taste your sweet nectar.”

She closed her eyes, couldn’t help it. The choices were to either cut off the eye connection they had going on, or do as he said and lie on that bed, spreading her legs open wide for him. Closing her eyes didn’t completely help since she was still licking his finger and palming his dick. None of which were things she should have been doing, or had even considered doing when she’d boarded a plane to come out here.

“Do you want me to taste you, Priya?” he asked, pulling his hand slowly from her mouth. “Open your eyes and tell me what you want.”

Priya opened her eyes. She saw the lust plainly in his darkening gaze, in the way he licked his lips as he watched her, circling his hips as she stroked him. Her thumb brushed over his tip, felt the dampness of his arousal and she clenched her teeth.

“No,” she said with a snap, then yanked her hands away from his dick. Not so sure about her movements and not at all confident she wouldn’t reach out for him again or actually fall on the bed and beg him to take her, she backed away.

“As I told you before, this is not why I’m here.” Her hands were shaking and she rubbed them up and down her thighs in an effort to stabilize her raging hormones.

“Do you want me to get down on all fours?”

He was sarcastic and he was serious and she hated both of those facts. She did not believe Sebastian Perry was a cat. Hell, she didn’t even know if she believed in the whole cat-and-man thing. Sure, she’d seen some weird-ass eyes in the alley, but that could easily have been attributed to contact lenses, they came in all colors now. As for the story about the bank robbery, she wasn’t completely sold on that either. This is why she’d never thought to write a story on any of this, not until the e-mails started. Now, she had no other choice but to investigate, to uncover and to hopefully reveal whatever it was Roman Reynolds and his friends wanted kept a secret.

“If that’s going to turn you into a cat, fine,” she said wearily. “If not, you can answer my questions honestly and I can get out of your life forever. It’s that easy.”

“I’d rather we both get on all fours, naked, together,” he continued.

He hadn’t moved, still stood in front of her in all his naked glory. And dammit, it was definitely glorious. She wanted him inside her, his dick, his tongue, whatever, she wanted it. And she cursed herself for that weakness, even if she had no intention of ever acting on it.

“You’re not as alluring as you think you are,” she said, in direct contradiction to what her body was feeling.

“And you’re not that smart,” was his quick retort. “At least not as smart as I thought you were.”

“Wait a goddamned minute,” she began, anger slowly pressing arousal out of the picture. “You are not going to stand here and talk to me like that!”

“No. I’m not,” he replied, turning away from her. “I’m going to take a shower and get ready for bed. I’ve had a long day.”

“I’m not finished talking to you.”

“Then we can finish the conversation in the shower,” he told her nonchalantly just before his delicious body disappeared through an opening in the wall.

She was not taking a shower with him! Not even if her life depended on it. And she wasn’t going to storm out of this room, closing the door with a slam behind her, telling Sebastian Perry to kiss her ass in the process—because Malik’s life did depend on this.

With resignation she followed Perry through the opening in the wall because she did not see a door anywhere and wondered what he’d done to make this opening appear.

This was his bedroom and there was a big bed against a long wall, a silver duvet on top that looked almost too decadent to belong to a man. That had her turning to survey the entire room. The one she’d kind of ignored when she’d had to follow him back here and was then distracted by the … ah … nakedness.

Charcoal-gray, white, and red was the color scheme. A little different for a guy, she thought. The furniture was sleek, expensive, and contemporary. The king-sized platform bed had an ornate frame of leather and mirrors, red silk draped around its border. The bed was flanked by matching end tables with lamps that looked as if they were made of aluminum. The floor was a highly glossed mahogany tile. The walls consisted of charcoal-colored slates, some that opened as doors, like the one he went through to the bathroom and others that supported marble tabs that held statues and picture frames. She moved closer to one that wasn’t too tall for her to reach and picked up one of the frames. Frowning, she surveyed the white background with the glob of black in its center that looked strangely like those cards a psychiatrist would flash, asking what’s the first thing to come to your mind. This one in particular reminded her of a teardrop. Beneath it was a simple letter M. Priya ran a finger over the picture wondering at its true meaning.

Finishing with that little mind trip and wanting to complete her search of the room before he returned, she put the picture down and moved to the window that for some reason had been calling to her. Even in the dark the view was astonishing. The mountains in the distance looked close enough for her to reach out and touch. The resort was very well lit and probably guarded like a fortress, she thought, considering the men Bas traveled with.

The men, she recalled, hadn’t entered the building with them. The men had been standing in a circle taking orders from Bas a few seconds before he turned to her with those eerie yellow eyes. That memory had her gasping for breath.

“Afraid of heights?” he asked from behind her.

Priya turned slowly, trying to prepare herself to see him again, praying with all she had inside that he wasn’t still naked. When she looked at him her mind whispered,
thank you, thank you, thank you.