someplace deep inside her the moment she looked into the eyes of the cat.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She was shaking her head. “No. It wasn’t your fault. I mean, you saved my life.”
He still held her hand and with his other his fingers feathered over her jaw. “I will always protect you, Kalina. Always.”
Kalina felt dizzy, like everything around her was spinning. Inside her body was on fire with need. But her mind craved more. She needed this confrontation, needed to end the speculation once and for all. “Please,” she whispered, turning her face slightly so that her lips brushed along his fingers.
He didn’t speak, just moved from her, showing her his back as he walked away. When he was close to the platform of the bed he stopped. She held her breath in anticipation. His shirt fell from his shoulders first, and she watched the muscles of his back bunch and contract as he bent over to remove his shoes and socks. Her nipples tightented when his slacks drifted past his hips, down his thighs, along with his underwear. If she thought he was a gorgeous specimen in clothes, out of them he was beyond words. Even a full back view was enticing enough to have her nipples puckering. Tight buttocks dimpled as strong thighs moved to kick the clothes farther away from him.
Then it happened. Right in front of her eyes, the six-foot-two-and-a-half-inch man dropped to the floor and shifted to a large cat.
The transition was swift, an elongating of bones she barely heard cracking. Dark fur rippled along the surface that was seconds ago smooth skin. The cat was as long as Rome was tall with a hulking body that gave the impression of being very heavy. But that was just the physical.
Even though her heart beat so loud she was sure Baxter could hear it from wherever he was in this house, Kalina walked toward the cat that now swished its long tail and turned to her.
She kept going until she was standing not even a foot away from it and could do nothing but sigh. Her shoulders sagged as she felt a tremendous weight being lifted. Going to her knees and letting her bottom fall back on the heels of her feet, she simply stared.
He was beautiful. Majestic. Regal. Powerful.
She reached out a hand and touched the huge circumference of his face, her fingers shaking only slightly as the softness of the fur tickled her skin. It was like onyx, this dark, smooth, thick fur that covered him, and yet she could see darker spots here and there. He made a grunting sound and the warmth of his breath from flaring nostrils drifted over her skin.
Kalina had always been afraid of cats. If she’d see a cat walking on her side of the street she’d quickly cross to the other. Mrs. Gilbert’s pudgy feline scared her on a daily basis, and yet here she was, with the head of what she presumed was a black jaguar in the palm of her hand.
Rubbing past his head, her small hands trembled along his back and down his sides. The pattern of rosettes was visible, giving him a distinct exotic look. To say she was amazed would have been an understatement.
Everything about him said strength and control and—she realized with a jolt piercing throughout her body with only a small amount of confusion—lust. Something, somewhere deep inside her rose, standing at attention. Her gaze found that of the cat once more and held. They were the eyes she’d seen in her dream, the ones she knew so well, and they were staring back at her. He made a chuffing sound, rubbing his head along the palm of her hand, and her heart raced. The flattened nostrils of his nose flared as he sniffed. Then the head moved closer, pushing past her hand and rubbing along the inside of her arm. The fur was so soft it sent shivers up her arm to trickle down her spine.
He sniffed again, this time closer to her breasts, and Kalina swore her own nostrils moved as well, searching for a scent she could recognize. And it was there, not completely to her surprise. A faint scent filtered in the air around them, a sweet sort of musk that once it reached inside her body had everything growing warm. That part of her that seemed to have risen to meet this animal part of him was at full attention now, pushing against the barriers of her human skin with an urgency that Kalina could not contain.
She dropped her arms to her sides as his head continued to move over her chest and down her torso. At her midsection he gave a little push and she instinctively opened her legs. He came closer, that chuffing sound muffled against the inside of her thigh. When his head settled between her legs, his nose at her center, Kalina shivered, her breath catching, nipples tightening. The scent permeating the air melted inside her like some liquid drug and she felt her body going limp against the floor.
She’d stretched out, watching as the big cat stood over her, stalking around her in slow languid movements. His eyes were intense as they raked over her body. When he paused at her feet Kalina wondered what would happen next. She struggled to differentiate between the sound thoughts of a human female and the rising sensations of another.
As quickly as he’d transformed from the man to the cat, the man returned in all his naked splendor. Above her Rome stood with one strong hand cupping his elongated arousal. She licked her lips, her tongue eager to touch the engorged tip, to lick its thick length.
He went to his knees, stretched his body along the length of hers, keeping the bulk of his weight off her by propping up on his elbows. Her arms were flat at her sides but she lifted her head, anticipating his kiss.
“This is what I am,” he whispered, staring down at her as the words tumbled from his lips.
He was the handsome attorney with the sharp suits and keen wit. He was the dominant yet considerate lover who had made her come with just the touch of his hand. He was the beast who’d haunted her dreams. And he was exactly who she wanted.
Shifting to bring a hand up, she touched her fingers over his jaw, let them trail until they feathered over his lips. “This is who I want,” she replied.
His head lowered and their lips collided in a hungry kiss. She gripped the back of his head, pulling him closer, trying to get deeper. She craved his taste, wanted every bit of his tongue in an attempt to quench this persistent thirst.
He gave her everything: lips, tongue, moans, nipping teeth that had her hissing at their contact. Her body trembled, aching to be touched, taken. As if he’d read her mind his hands began to move frantically over her body, severing their kiss while he worked. Her pants and panties were stripped quickly from her bottom; she toed off her shoes during the process. He grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it roughly over her head. His teeth found the sensitive skin of her neck and traced a stinging path of heat down to the crevice between her breasts. With her chest heaving, her back arching to meet his assault, she heard a snap and felt her bra slip from her body.
Rome took a bare breast into his mouth, suckling so deeply the turgid nipple burned. Simultaneously he cupped the other breast, squeezing just as tightly. Kalina’s thighs shook, her pussy creaming with expectancy. She gasped and clamped her hands onto his shoulders as he continued his assault.
“Mine,” she thought she heard him mumble as his lips moved from her breast down her torso to where his tongue stroked longingly over her navel.
His palms still held her breasts, and she lifted her hands to his wrists to keep them there. With each stroke of his tongue over her skin, she felt a new layer of herself being peeled away. Nothing was the same, not the sound of his voice, the feel of his kisses, the sensations rippling through her body. It was all different, new, vibrant in a way she’d never imagined.
When he nipped along the line of her juncture she cried out his name and realized her throat felt hoarse, like she’d been yelling and yelling for hours. She moved her head from side to side, seeming to go in slow motion as flashes of scenes filtered through her mind.
A picturesque jungle. Majestic cats standing together in unity. A colony. A whole new world.
His hands left her breasts to spread the plump folds of her pussy until cool air whispered over the tightened bud at her center. When the flat of his tongue covered that nub everything inside Kalina rushed forward, raging as the sound of a vicious waterfall rumbled in her ears. He licked again and again, using the full length of his tongue. She arched from the floor panting and screaming as each stroke pushed her closer and closer, until she was finally freefalling over the edge. Falling and falling only to land with swift efficiency on her feet.
The landing was like an awakening and Kalina’s body fully responded.
Grasping his head she worked her hips over his mouth, directing his strokes and begging for more.
