Teasing the Wildcat by Mina Carter & Bethany J. Barnes

Teasing the Wildcat

Sargosian
Chronicles

Mina Carter & Bethany J.
Barnes

Published: 2011

ISBN: SHPFREE25

Published by Summerhouse Publishing.
Copyright, Mina Carter and Bethany J. Barnes. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This book contains material protected under International and
Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or
use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
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permission from the author.

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Editor

Craig Kim

Cover Artist

Mina Carter

This is a work of fiction. The
characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the
author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any
resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is
completely coincidental.

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“
Bonded? Is that like
being married?” Tangling her legs with his, Summer King wiggled
closer to her Sargosian husband until there was no space separating
them. “Sounds like your old ways are very much like the way the
humans’ were, back on Earth, hundreds of years ago…and still are,
to some extent. Get married, build a life together, start a
family.”

"Yeah, in a way. That shawl I gave
you? That's a bond shawl. It means you’re my main wife." Roz Taren
flashed a quick grin. "So when I take more wives, you get to boss
'em around."

Stillness settled over her for a few
seconds as she counted to ten…and then to twenty. Pushing up on her
elbow to look down at him, she tried to keep a straight face as if
they were merely discussing the weather. Her mind bounced back and
forth between the red haze of anger and the green fog of jealousy.
Untangling her legs from his, she debated between leaving and
punching him. Leave? Punch? Her gaze slid to the door before
turning back to him. Her fists were clenched, nails digging into
her palms.

Breathe chica, don’t lose
it yet.
“
More
wives?”

Roz looked at her, his expression
serious. He had to be joking…surely? His lips quirked, then broke
into a full, wide smile. A laugh followed right on its heels. "You
should see your face. If I were serious, I'd be a dead
man."

“
Oh, so you’re joking? I
thought jokes were supposed to be
funny.
So tell me? Do I get to have
more husbands to see to my needs…if you’re to take on more wives?”
she challenged, while staring him down.

He went still, but the smile was still
on his face. "Oh, no, it only works like that for men. Women can
only marry once in our culture.”

She was up in a flash, meaning to bolt
out of the room, but she changed directions, a split second after
gaining her feet. Spinning, she balled her fist and punched him in
the stomach as hard as she could. He grunted, but she’d seen Roz
and his men in training. For them, the hardest punch she could
manage would be little more than a love tap. He lay on his back for
a moment, watching her with a quizzical expression.

She sighed. Men, so dumb, whatever the
species.

“
That’s
for lying to me
sweetums.
Think I can’t tell when
you’re lying? I don’t believe you! What a shit!” She carried on
muttering and cursing a blue streak, gesturing wildly with her
hands the entire time. “You’ve got some nerve…” She then went on to
invent a few new combinations of curse words. “More wives my
ass…”

Turning her back on him, she crossed
her arms and prayed she hadn’t gone too far.

"Summer? Sweetheart, I was playing.
You know you're the only woman for me," Roz said from behind her,
his voice concerned.

Biting her lip hard to keep from
giving away the fact that she was laughing instead of crying, she
shook her head, sending her hair flying around her head and
shoulders in denial. Of what though, she didn’t say. She wouldn’t
let him off the hook that easily… As it was, her first instinct was
to ask if he was okay…to check that she hadn’t really hurt
him.

If he thought he was the only one that
could play jokes of this sort, then he was wrong…though she would
never intentionally hurt him. Not his heart, not ever. Making him
sweat was different and completely acceptable. She waited, sensing
his approach.

"Summer?"

Dropping her center of gravity lower
than normal, she spun and shoved off from her back foot. There
wasn’t much distance between them, so she had to put every bit of
her weight behind the move. Wrapping her arms around his torso just
above his waist, she tackled him. At the same time, she stepped
behind one of his legs and pushed to fold it, hoping to knock him
off balance…just enough.

He must’ve been surprised, because
they ended up on the bed with her sprawled on top of him. Wasting
no time, she aimed her fingers at his sides, his armpits, in an
all-out assault. A search and destroy mission bent on one
purpose—to tickle the heck out of him.

“
You want something to
laugh about? I’ll give you something to laugh about!” Smiling and
giggling, she attacked him with a ruthlessness she’d reserved only
for her brothers up to this point.

He lay on his back, trying to bat her
hands away until he seemed to notice she wasn't trying to hit him.
Leaning on his elbows, he looked at her in confusion. "What are you
doing?"

Her giggles and smile faltered as it
became clear he wasn’t laughing or squirming to escape her
marauding fingers. Not only was he not laughing, he looked baffled
by her actions. She stopped trying to tickle him, her hands coming
to rest flat against his ribs.

“
I’m tickling you…or at
least I was trying to.” Holding his gaze, she tried to be ready, in
case he was tricking her into dropping her guard. She wouldn’t put
it past him to be sneaky that way.

His expression was still blank.
"What’s tickling?"

Okay…that was most definitely a new
one for her. Not only was he not ticklish, but he didn’t even know
what it was. Holding her hands up, she mimed with her fingers how
to tickle, as she tried to come up with a way to explain
it.

“
Umm…it’s something you do
to someone to make them laugh. You wiggle or ‘tickle’ your fingers
on different areas of their body to get them to laugh and squeal.
If they’re ticklish, they can’t control their reaction, and they’ll
laugh until you stop. For example—you can tickle babies to make
them laugh when you want to see them look as cute as can be, or…”
Summer rolled her eyes “…like my brothers did, you can use it to
drive your little sister crazy, as a form of torture. It can be a
lot of fun because most of the time, the person doing the tickling
ends up laughing almost as much as the one getting
tickled.”

Pouting a little, she asked. “You’ve
never been tickled? Ever?”

A small smile on his face, he shook
his head. "No...it's not something we do. Not that I know of
anyway."

The penny dropped. He’d told her just
after they were married that his culture was very different from
hers. They'd never played as children because their parents hadn't.
Brought up in a war, they didn't know how to. Doing something
purely for amusement was as alien to him as handing explosives to a
five-year-old so they could make mines, was to her.

Her heart ached. He’d told her bits
and pieces about his childhood, merely enough for her to remember
it didn’t sound as if it’d been all that happy. Abruptly, she felt
like an idiot. “I’m sorry. I must seem pretty damned silly to you,
huh?”

"No, not at all." He grinned suddenly,
his expression mischievous. "I used to bunk off cleaning duty to go
play in the woods. There were mines there to play with. I used to
skip rocks over them."

Without warning, his hands wrapped
around her tiny waist and he wiggled his fingers, digging them into
her skin slightly.

Her incredulous expression changed
instantly. She squealed, squirming to desperately evade his
fingers. Sprawled on top of him the way she was, all she
accomplished was to press herself harder against him. All grace
gone, she practically screamed with laughter and gasped for air.
“Stop…you…eee!”

He laughed in delight and kept up the
assault. Yeah, he seemed to understand the appeal of tickling now.
“Why?” he asked. “What's it worth?”

What the hell? Had he sprouted extra
hands? Every direction she tried was blocked by strong fingers
digging into her sides. Summer felt like an epileptic cat, rubbing
against him in uncontrolled twitches.

“
What’s—” she couldn’t
work out whether to gasp, squeal or giggle, so she tried to do all
three at once “—what’s what worth?” But she was laughing so hard,
getting words out was nigh on impossible.

Straddling his hips, she used her legs
to try to push off him. All she ended up doing was falling down on
him again. Great. She’d smother him with her breasts if he didn’t
let go soon. Death by C cup. What a way to go.

Pushing up so he could breathe again,
she scrambled once more, but couldn’t get loose. Desperate times
and all that, she ended up saying the worst thing ever. “Roz!
Please…”giggles escaping her lips, she wiggled again and pleaded,
“…anything! Anything you want.”

He grinned and flipped her onto her
back, holding her down against the soft surface with his hard body.
Capturing her hands with ease, he hauled them over her head. In a
heartbeat, the light in his eyes went from teasing to red hot.
"Anything?"

Breathing hard, she
struggled to get her hands loose before the magnitude of what she’d
said dawned on her.
Anything? Wow, let’s
chalk that one up under dumb things to say.

The heat in his gaze threatened to
melt her on the spot. Fighting not to capitulate immediately, she
racked her brain for something witty or sarcastic to say. Her gaze
wandered over his face and came to rest on his lips. Relaxing,
Summer shifted and brought her legs up to cradle his hips against
hers.

“
Whoa there, wildcat. Did
I say
anything?
”
she scoffed, trying to gain control of the situation. She smiled
wickedly, teasing him, coming within a micrometer from kissing him.
Nuzzling his nose, she added in a breathy whisper, “I meant to
say
almost
anything.”