lures. She was focused on the same things he was: supporting a family and trying to create a better life for them. And she was kind, trying to talk to him as a person and not as a tool. Those two things alone were so rare in his life. He could not think of another soul—save maybe his sister—who acted in such a way.
“Nathan?” she pressed, clearly wondering about his silence. “I’m sorry. Have I come at a bad time? You’re probably really busy—”
“And if I am?” he pressed, wondering exactly how generous she was. “Would you leave me alone now? What about the football game tonight?”
Tracy bit her lip, her anxiety obvious. “I won’t go. I’ll lock myself in my room and study the book you gave me.”
“It won’t be enough,” he said. “You need a teacher.”
She licked her lips, and his dragon reared. “I won’t be ruled by this.” She lifted up enough to look him in the eye. “I want to be a woman, I want to explore my sexuality, but I won’t let it control me.”
She meant it. But she had no idea how strong the desire could grow. “Most tigresses aren’t so interested in controlling themselves as much as controlling other people. Other men.”
She pulled back, obviously repulsed by the concept. “I don’t think I like your tigresses very much.”
He shrugged. “A tigress is pursued by all men. It is important that she learn how to protect herself.”
“That’s not a very good excuse. Control comes from within. And only over ourselves.”
He smiled, his heart and his body fully caught now. “You might very well be the salvation of our temple.”
She released a self-conscious laugh. “I just want to be able to go to a football game without losing my mind.”
“Then we should begin,” he said. He didn’t really mean it. He just wanted to touch her. Unable to stop himself, he stroked the soft skin of her cheek. She closed her eyes, lifting her face to his touch.
“Is this what you did at the temple?” she asked. “Did you teach a lot of girls?”
“No,” he said, his face already dropping closer. His mouth was almost on hers. “I used to teach, but then my talents were needed elsewhere.”
She shifted her head so that his fingers brushed across her lips. “Doing what?”
“The accounts. I cashed the checks for classes and paid the bills. I decided on the repairs and on the luxuries.”
“You made things run smoothly,” she said. “How old were you when you started doing that?”
“From the moment I could read,” he answered.
She stopped rubbing her lips across his finger. “Wow. I started at eighteen, and it sucked then. You must have been a baby. I can’t even imagine how hard it was for you.”
She understood. Nathan could see it in her eyes, and it made his breath catch in his throat. She understood more than his own mother what he had done as a boy, and how hard he’d worked to bring order to a very chaotic world.
“Do you miss it?” she continued. “Do you long to go back to Hong Kong?”
“No. I miss my brother and sister. I will make sure that they have everything they want. But no, I will never go back to that life.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Never? Was it so very bad?”
He shook his head, refusing to elaborate. How could he explain a house of two dozen beautiful, sexual women intent on seducing him while completely ignoring the mundane realities of life? Not a one understood bills or plumbing or even the basics of preparing a meal because their minds were completely absorbed with their sexuality. And his mother was the worst of the lot. As a child, he’d had to learn quickly about fixing his own food or starve.
There were a few who had helped. Tigress cubs too early in their training to have tasted the glories of heaven, too new to have lost all earthly focus yet. They helped him when they could, guided him as a mother or a lover.
But then came that first touch of divinity, that first moment of true ecstasy and all was forgotten—their promises to him, their whispered love, even simple kindnesses were lost in the search for heaven.
That was what it meant to be a tigress, and he would not subject himself to it anymore. In fact, his whole focus was to earn enough money so that his brother and sister could escape, as well. Falling in love with yet another tigress cub was not in the realm of possibility for him. He could not do it. He would not.
And yet, Tracy did not act like any tigress he knew. Tracy had not lost herself in the quest for immortality yet. And Tracy understood him as no one else had ever bothered to try. He knew eventually the spirit would take her. She would taste ecstasy and he would be abandoned once again. Nathan knew, but he couldn’t stop himself.
He kissed her. He claimed her mouth the way a dragon would claim a woman. He took her; he ate her alive, and he relished every second of her surrender.
Chapter 9
SHE HAD BEEN WAITING AGES for his kiss. She had dreamed of this moment, hungered desperately for it. And it had been worth the wait.
A week ago, they had been strangers in an incredible night of passion. Now they were friends. When he leaned in to kiss her, her entire body stretched for his lips. She met his mouth with a yearning that had nothing to do with his strange tigress rites. It wasn’t hunger that drove her, but a warmth of shared secrets.
But passion wasn’t far behind. Lightning burned through her system, beginning with where their lips touched and searing through her senses. She came alive in an instant. She opened her mouth wide, seeking to devour him, but he was there before her.
His arm wrapped around her waist, gripping her tightly to him. His mouth slanted over hers and his tongue thrust into her. She matched him in intensity, but not in skill. He knew just how to excite her. His tongue teased then pushed, toyed then thrust. In and out while she tried to keep up. In the end, she gave herself up to the experience. No, she gave herself to him. It was time for her to become a woman in all senses, and she wanted to do it with him.
Tracy burrowed her hands into his silky black hair and arched into his embrace. When he broke off the kiss to breathe, she dropped her head against his shoulder and trembled from the force of their desire.
“This isn’t practice,” he said. “I’m not being a teacher. Teachers don’t kiss. Teachers don’t—”
She pulled his head back to her mouth. She didn’t want an instructor—she wanted a man. She wanted him. “Tell me what to do,” she said against his lips. “Tell me what you want.”
“Let me open your yin gates,” he said, already pushing her down onto the floor.
She went willingly, gripping his broad shoulders for balance. “What can I do for you? What—”
He hovered over her, his dark eyes piercing even in shadow. “I want to drink you up. I need to feel you surround me. Please.” His hands coiled under her shirt, trembling over her bare belly but not pushing higher.
“Yes,” she answered, not even knowing what he wanted.
He pulled off her loose T-shirt in one quick movement. She helped as best she could, raising her arms so that the fabric could fly free. And while her hands were still in the air, he popped the clasp on her bra.
“You’ve done this before,” she commented drily.
Nathan shook his head. “Not like this. Not as a man.”
She smiled, unaccountably pleased by his words. She lay down now, her upper body completely exposed to him. He looked at her for a long moment, his right hand hovering ever so tentatively over her belly, then higher to shape the air above her left breast.
“You are a water soul,” he said as he looked at her. “Your body is full and round.”
“Is that your way of saying I’m fat?”
He glanced startled at her face. “No. It means whenever I see you, I think of full mountain streams, of glorious oceans. Your body nourishes whatever you touch, you give life to the world.”
He saw her as some sort of water goddess, lush and full? Tracy touched his face to reassure herself that he was real. That this stunningly beautiful man was looking at her as if she were the answer to his prayers. His skin burned fever hot beneath her fingers, and she tugged at his dress shirt. “Take it off,” she urged.
