The Panther's Surrogate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance (3 page)

Chapter 2

“You got big plans tonight?” Karen asked Josie with the kind of light, friendly personality that Josie envied from her.

Karen was the kind of woman that Josie would kill to have at the Tiki, but she was over at the Luxario, working for Josie’s rival in the industry. Karen had the charm and the personality that everyone wanted in their staff at a bar. There was something magnetic about her and the way she effortlessly made people talk and feel comfortable was something to envy. But, the Luxario was her first hire and Karen was loyal. That was something that was both incredibly infuriating and respectable to Josie.

“Nah,” Josie said, stirring her overly fruity drink and staring across the courtyard to the Tiki where she hoped she could get a glance of Kheem, but there wasn’t much hope. She was hopelessly smitten by him but it was important to the two of them that no one found out about it. So she looked back at her drink and stirred it methodically, staring at the fruit speared on the plastic sword. “How about you?” Josie asked Karen.

Karen had been a culinary star in America where she’d been rising through the finest spirits establishments and gin joints only to end up at the Royal Palace after her husband died. She had since been dedicated to her craft and was constantly getting interviewed by foodies and journalists in the industry.

They wanted to know why so many people were coming to the small island of Tarobi in the Caribbean to have a drink from her. The praise and the attention were definitely deserved and Josie wished she’d ended up at the Tiki. Having Karen around after a long night at the bar was a dream come true.

“I’m here until closing,” Karen scrunched up her nose and gave a little shrug. “Beatrice has Chloe though, so no playing for the rest of the night. I’ll probably head home and open a carton of ice cream with her.”

“She’ll still be awake?” Josie furrowed her brow.

“Oh yeah,” Karen grinned, thinking about her daughter. “She wakes up the moment I come home. She can hear the door and boom, she’s up.”

“That’s sweet,” Josie grinned at the thought of having a little, tiny person at home waiting for her.

That wouldn’t be such a bad thing. That would be something she could actually get onboard with. What would it be like to have a child who was totally dependent and eager to see you? It was like you were both their slave and their god. She shook her head at the thought of it.

“Karen, did you guys plan Chloe or was she a surprise?” Josie asked her.

If Karen hadn’t been one of her closest friends on the island, there was no way she would ask such an upfront question. But they were close friends and it seemed like Karen was the best person to get an opinion from. Karen looked at her and then stared at the ceiling, diving into her memories and drudging up the thoughts that were escaping her.

“You know, I think we both wanted to have a child,” Karen said with a nostalgic grin on her face. “But, I don’t think either of us were really expecting it seriously when I took the test and found out, you know? Like, it was real at that moment and we’d just been flirting with the idea up until then. It was really a powerful moment. So, honestly, I think it was a surprise for the both of us. Like a good surprise, you know? I hate it when people say they’re children were accidents.”

“Yeah,” Josie could agree with that.

No one accidentally gets pregnant. She’d been safe up until this moment, mostly because Shifters had a control over their pregnancies. She knew it was intense, fast, and brutal. Shifters had their children quickly and the sex was supposed to be immensely powerful and the sensitivity was supposedly unimaginable. She was actually nervous to give into it. She was nervous about the thought.

Earlier today, she’d checked her schedule and saw that there was definitely a window of opportunity for her to take some time off. The pregnancies lasted around two to three months and she had more than enough vacation time and she could get someone to cover her job. She could just fake an illness or claim that she needed to go away for a family matter.

While King Ronald and some of the other clan leaders would find that suspicious, it wouldn’t be suspicious enough for them to question it. She looked at the starry sky and didn’t know where she was anymore. She was so conflicted and scared about this.

“All right,” Karen said, coming back from helping a customer and looking at Josie. “What’s going on? You’ve got that lost and lovely look that I hate,” Karen pointed one of her manicured fingers at Josie’s face. Jose grinned and blushed at the sight and shook her head.

“I don’t know,” Josie shrugged. “There’s a guy I really like and he wants to take the next step.”

“Do you like this guy?” Karen asked her, making a drink without even having to look at it.

“Yeah,” Josie said with a beaming smile instinctively spreading across her lips as she thought about the man that had swept into her life like a distant wind.

He’d brought such passion and romance to her life that she didn’t know what to do with all of it. She knew they were in a state of change right now and things couldn’t stay this way forever. In fact, there was definitely going to be a point where they were going to have to settle down and figure out what it was that actually had transpired between the two of them. She didn’t feel scared about finding the answer to that particular mystery, but she was afraid of losing him. She wanted to keep him with her forever.

“Do you love him?” Karen asked, her voice a little hushed for the dramatic effect that she was so good at capturing.

Josie laughed at the sound of her voice and the look in her eyes. “I think so, actually,” Josie said.

“Then stop playing around,” Karen said with a serious and somber voice. “Life is way too short for games and it’s way too short to play around with things that are important to you. You should get serious about this if you think he’s worth it. But if you don’t, stop wasting your time. He’s not worth it if you don’t think he is.”

Josie smiled at that simplistic answer to all of her problems. There was a reason why Karen was such a successful bartender beyond the world of mixing drinks. She could write a book on how to get people to realize the problems in their lives weren’t actually problems. She just had that ability to simplify things. Maybe that came with tragedy, but Josie was grateful for it. She put the twenty on the bar and stepped away from it.

“I’ve had enough of being a traitor tonight,” Josie said with a raised eyebrow.

“Have a good night, love,” Karen called after her as Josie headed back to her bungalow.

There were around fifteen people on the island of Tarobi who worked as taxi drivers willing to make the loop into the supposedly native and authentic town that sat on the other side of the island.

Yes, while there were a few farmers, fishermen, traders, and other people living in the town of Tarobi, most of them were feeding off the tourists. There were three bars, five restaurants, and two clubs that made them the dominant industry on the island that competed with the resort.

The bungalows that were home to the Shifters were on the far side of the town and were actually extremely nice. They were the state of the art in design and furnishing when it came to this sort of small living space. She loved the intimacy of it and the fact that it was more secure than any other building she had lived in.

Gathering her workout clothes, Josie decided it was important to actually do something productive during her time of terror and confusion. She didn’t need to waste any more time at a bar or wandering around the beach with a book that she couldn’t focus on reading. So instead, she would go to the gym and she would work on her body. There was always more work that needed to be done and she wasn’t going to waste time.

Heading back to the Royal Palace, she went to one of the smaller gyms that the employees were encouraged to use with vigorous emphasis on the fact that beautiful and fit employees definitely drew more clients to their resort. There was always a strong emphasis on this to the female members of the resort’s staff, something Josie hated immensely. After all, the fact that they were all fuck toys tended to get her blood boiling.

At the gym, she focused on cardio for a while, watching the other patrons dwindle down until she was alone again. Josie hit the free weights and listened to the music, marveling at the stillness within her as she worked out. There was no conflict, no worry, no anxiety that she had been dealing with for the rest of the day. Here, there was only silence as she stared at herself in the mirror.

She watched the sweat run down her face, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her eyes intensely illuminated by the workout. She wasn’t about to give up on herself and she wasn’t about to give into the demands of fear. She was a strong woman and she would be a strong woman until the day she died.

When the door opened and closed, she turned and casually glanced at who might dare to interrupt her vigil. When she saw that it was Kheem, she smiled at him and was so happy to see him there. It was in that moment that she knew exactly what it was that she wanted to do. She knew without a shadow of a doubt in her mind that this was the man that she wanted to have a child with.

Whether this was the only child she ever had, or just the first, she wanted it to be with Kheem. He was the kind of man who was worthy of her. For two years they had been romancing each other, orbiting around each other in such a passionate swing that she couldn’t help but give into the momentum and inertia of all of it. She wanted to collide with him and become one. She wanted to have this child.

Setting down the weights, Josie approached him with the precision and the momentum of an arrow being released. He looked at her with his chiseled features and his black, inky skin, his face luminous with the smile spreading across his lips. His arms spread out, openly accepting her as she approached him. She wrapped her arms around him and placed her lips on his. He had the blessed features of a man gifted with plump lips that were perfect to fall into, to meld together with on a most passionate and powerful kiss.

She could feel his warm hands on her sides and he smelled like the heat and the passion of the kitchen he’d come from. Everything from garlic to butter and rosemary and thyme; he was a cornucopia for the senses.

She closed her eyes and sank down into the kiss, letting the fire spread within them, joining and mixing, stirring together as she parted her lips and accepted his tongue, fighting back with his tongue and meeting furiously together in a fever dream of lust and excitement. She wanted nothing more than to have his tongue with hers forever, to have his tongue inside of her. She thought about all the tricks he was capable of performing with that tongue and she knew right there, in that moment, they were going to make a baby together.

Pulling away from him, she locked the door to the gym and knew there wouldn’t be anyone bothering them. When the lock clicked, she couldn’t help but feel giddy inside. There was something deep within her that called to him, that longed for him, begging for his power and his passion to be fully unleashed upon her. She wanted him and it was now their time.

“I want you to fuck me,” Josie said to him with all seriousness in her voice as she approached him. In her workout pants and sports bra, she knew there was nothing he could possibly resist. Why would he? What could he possibly want that she didn’t have to offer him right now? She smiled at him and stepped toward him, feeling his eyes wandering over her. It was an amazing feeling and it was something that she couldn’t help but feel giddy about. “Do you want to fuck me?” she asked with a wry smile.

“Yeah,” he said with a grin.

She felt him grabbing onto her sides and pulling her toward him. Smiling and feeling the strength of his arms, she kissed him and cupped his face, holding him close to her. He was a loving man who cared so much and she loved the feeling of his tongue as it came out to play. She pulled away and licked the tip of his tongue, laughing at the feeling of his fingers digging into her sides.

She wanted it from him as rough as he could give it to her. She wanted him to have his way with her. This was what he wanted. This was something that he truly desired and she wanted to give him the experience. She dug her fingernails into his back as he kissed her neck, pulling her closer to him. Through his work pants, she could feel his cock growing harder and harder with each passing second. The heat was magnificent and she couldn’t wait to free it. Earlier today, she’d been robbed of his glorious tool, but now, she was going to have him all to herself.

Kicking her shoes and socks off, she dropped down onto one of the workout benches, watching as Kheem pulled off his own shoes and socks, his eyes locked on hers, refusing to give up the view he had of her. She liked the intensity of that look, the strength behind it. She liked the idea of him building that fire inside of him more and more. She wanted him so badly.

Slipping her hand under the band of her pants and under her thong, she felt her clit and started to rub it, teasing him, egging him on to come for her. She wanted him to drop his pants and pull out his cock. She wanted him to bring it closer to her and give it to her. God, she wanted him so badly. She could feel the hunger rising inside of her. They would say that she was in heat, but it felt more desperate, more ravenous than that. It felt like she would die if she didn’t have him right this second. Rubbing herself harder, she watched him unzip his pants, going slower than she’d ever seen him before.