Kiss and Kin: A Sexy Shifter story Page 11
He stepped away, pulling her arms from around the tree at the same time. Then he ran his hands up to her shoulders, easing any strain. Despite the small distance, she was still keenly aware of the sexual tension arcing between them.
“I don’t think I can stop touching you,” he said.
Now that her hands were free, she settled one against his chest. Heat radiated through the soft cotton of his T-shirt. All this clothing between them was an unexpected novelty. An enticement to bare some skin.
“What about me touching you?”
“Dangerous, very dangerous.”
“Sounds like fun.”
Her fingers caressed his chest, grazing over his nipple. It hardened on contact. He hissed and she felt the slight tremor of his muscles beneath her fingers. Her lips parted. His descended. Her eyes blinked once and then closed on a sigh. The tiny sound quickly morphed into a whimper of need when his tongue traced a path along her collarbone. She arched her neck, offering him more. He lifted his head instead.
“I like your dress,” he said.
It was white and patterned with whimsically styled deep-red flowers. It was one of her favorites, which was why she’d chosen to wear it. But that didn’t change the incongruity of his comment given the erotic thoughts tumbling through her brain.
“Except,” he continued, “it’s far too long.”
She frowned. The dress fell to mid-thigh. What was too long about that?
“And it’s in my way,” he muttered, finally releasing his hold on one of her arms.
The next instant his hand slid beneath the hem. She cried out when his hot, calloused fingers brushed against her bare flesh.
“Hush, sweetheart. I’m going exploring.”
That he was. Straight up what was left of her leg to the elastic edge of her modest white panties. She jumped as one long finger slipped beneath the cotton barrier. Not that he noticed.
“This is also in my way,” he said, a hint of annoyance in his tone.
Her fingers crushed the thin fabric of his tee. Not that he noticed that, either. He was otherwise occupied. His brow furrowed, his eyes intently focused on her face.
The backs of two of his fingers skimmed against the dampened curls of her mound. She bit her lower lip to keep from screaming in frustration. They’d barely started and yet she was on the verge of falling apart. Thank God for the solid tree trunk at her back.
“Let go, sweetheart.”
All too familiar words whispered across the shadows. She groaned softly and shook her head. Her body trembled with the need to find release and yet—
And yet she was close. So close she could swear that this time his fingers would finish the job before she woke from the dream.
The fur’s about to fly…
Serengeti Heat
© 2009 Vivi Andrews
A Shifting Dreams Story.
Ava Minor is done being the good girl. As the smallest and weakest in a pride of shape-shifting lions where size and strength rule, she’s never had any choice but to toe the line. Now, with sexy, nomadic alpha Landon King winning control of the pride, she grabs her one chance to let her inner feline out to play.
Landon would rather focus on reforming the antiquated traditions of his new pride than taking a mate…until the rebellious Ava crosses his path. All his noble intentions go up in flames, incinerated by the heat she exudes—especially when he realizes she’s in heat.
Ava, knowing she isn’t mate material, is determined to revel in one wild night before she’s sent back to her place in the pride pecking order.
Except Landon has no intention of letting his daring, seductive lioness go…
Warning: This book contains sizzling heat, adult language, no-holds-barred cat fights, and hot shifter lovin’ with an alpha male who takes inspired leadership all the way to the bedroom.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Serengeti Heat:
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” she snapped, her voice brittle as she stared straight ahead out the window.
“Think again, sweetheart. As far as you’re concerned, I’m judge, jury and executioner. So start talking.”
She shifted against the door again and Landon took a deep breath, thinking to reassure himself that there was no tang of fear in her scent, but instead his head was swamped by a rush of heat. His hands tightened convulsively on the steering wheel. There was no fear in her scent. Only lust, thick and heady. He’d thought it would diminish once he got her away from her cowboy toy, but the close proximity inside the jeep made her scent even stronger. He was drowning in it. And hard enough to pound spikes.
“You’re not talking…” he growled, the promise of a threat creeping into his voice.
“I could declare myself a nomad,” she said defiantly. “Then you wouldn’t have any rights over me.”
Landon laughed sharply, incapable of actual humor in his current state, but bitterly amused. “Shall I call your brothers or would you rather tell them you’ve decided to go off the reservation yourself?”
She hissed a curse under her breath.
“I don’t hear an explanation, Ava.”
She turned to him sharply, blinking in surprise. “You know my name?”
“Of course I know your name,” he snapped, made defensive by the fact that he wouldn’t have known it if the cowboy hadn’t said it in front of him. He’d known she was one of his pride by the scent of her and a vague sense of familiarity, but twenty minutes ago he wouldn’t have known her from Eve among the lionesses in his pride.
He’d only known to dangle her brothers over her as a threat because he’d heard those brothers, four of his most effective enforcers, talking about their kid sister more than once. “Little Ava” was nothing like her hulking brothers. She was tiny, almost frail for a lioness. She couldn’t possibly be fully grown, could she? Though in that outfit, she looked plenty grown-up.
“Your brothers are going to have kittens when they see you dressed like that.”
“I just wanted to have a good time. Is that against the law?”
“Yes.” The answer shot out of his mouth before his brain caught up. Technically, fun was not illegal either among the humans or the pride, but Landon would happily fabricate a law if it kept her ass out of that bar for the rest of her natural life.
She snorted, unimpressed by his heavy-handed answer. “My, my. Aren’t we king of the double standard?” she purred, the sarcasm coating her words like molasses. “And what were you doing at such a notorious meat market, my liege?”
Landon hissed, spinning the wheel to take the turn onto the ranch road and nearly throwing the jeep into the ditch in the process. He got a little yelp of surprise out of her this time, but she quickly contained herself, silent and stoic as the jeep bounced painfully along the rutted dirt track.
She was right. He had gone to the Bar Nothing to find a nice, malleable human piece of ass and get laid. Ever since he’d won the challenge to take over the Alpha position in the pride three months ago, every lioness on the ranch had been waving her tail under his nose, angling to get her paws on the position of his mate. The female he picked would lead the Hunt. She would rule the pack in his absence and preside over the other females. She would be the strongest, the fastest. The best genetic material to pass on to his cubs.
He knew he needed to pick soon. The pride was unstable without an Alpha female in place as his mate. But he wasn’t ready to choose just yet. He and his sister had been nomads before he had challenged for control of the Three Rocks Pride. He didn’t know the pack and its social undercurrents as well as he needed to before he elevated one of the lionesses to be his mate.
He’d slept with a few of them—he was a cat, after all, and there was only so much teasing he could take—but he’d been careful not to lead any of them to believe that their efforts in his bed had pushed them to the front of the line for his consort. Tonight, he’d just wanted to relax. A simple, easy romp with a woman who didn’t have political gain on her min
d. Just sex. No obeisance to the big strong Alpha, and no machinations to become his queen.
Ava had shot his plans for the evening straight to hell.
“No response?” the assassin in question purred acidly. “Afraid you’ll have to apologize for dragging me out of there?”
“I’m not the one who’s going to be sorry if you don’t stop baiting me, little girl.”
She didn’t back down from the threat. Her body angled toward him on the seat and she snarled, “If you can go out looking for a piece of ass whenever you feel like it, then so can I.”
Landon slammed his foot down on the brake pedal. The jeep fishtailed and the brakes shrieked, bouncing and jolting them to a sudden stop. He cut the engine and crawled across the stick shift, caging her between his arms and the door. He loomed over her, his animal nature lapping up the flash of wariness in her pale gray eyes.
“Did you honestly think some human would be able to satisfy you?” he growled low, pressing in on her with his heat.
Her eyes widened, the expression in them suddenly raw and vulnerable, exposed.
“You should have just come to me if you needed to be fucked.”
Anger burned away the vulnerability in her eyes. “Fuck you, you arrogant prick.”
Landon laughed darkly. “All you had to do was ask.”
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