5 STARS: "HER PANTHER PROTECTOR by Doris O'Connor is book 5 in the Protectors Series, but this reads as a standalone novel. The story opens with the introduction to Sasha, a bad ass panther, who is also one of the protectors. In the space of a few pages, we find out everything we NEED to know about Sasha from his internal thoughts. Until he narrowly avoids getting into an accident on his bike when a panther cub scampers across the road in front of him. And not just any panther cub. His son. And from there, we are witness exactly to what it means for him to be a protector. I really liked this story. Switching back and forth between points of view, I found Sasha's view point to be well done from his thought process to choice of language/speech. The various supporting characters and their interaction with Sasha was grand fun and I admit to laughing out loud to much of the good-natured jabs thrown about. As I'm sure you gleaned from the title, this is a paranormal romance with a variety of shifters and a few vampires thrown in to boot. I enjoyed Macey's (human) interactions with everyone as she was rather abruptly thrown into their world. I thought her research into everything about them from who and what they were to their lifestyle (kinks) was brilliant. As were the different characters' quirks, which made them much more human even as they were thoroughly immersed in their alter (shifter) egos. As an erotica romance with an emphasis on the paranormal along with a bit of kink (bdsm) thrown in, I found all the aspects of the story to be handled well by the author. And well, the sex scenes were downright scintillating." -- Gabrielle Sally, The Romance Reviews
STORY EXCERPT
“I’m not your woman and I never will be.” Macey hissed the words at him in an urgent whisper and put a hand on his chest to push him away. Heat branded him, and she gasped as though she felt it, too. Her pupils dilated in need when he put his large hand over hers and used his other hand to cup her nape and pull her head closer until their breaths mingled. His girl’s breathing sped up and a moan escaped her when he inhaled deeply and pulled her intoxicating scent deep into his lungs.
He pulled back slightly to study her expression, and her eyes fluttered shut and her lips parted in a silent invitation for him to plunder the succulent flesh. How he resisted the temptation, he would never know, but instead of claiming her mouth, he pushed in through the door and marched her backward until her back hit the wall. The contact seemed to bring her to her senses, because she yanked her eyes open, glared at him and, pushing him away, shut the front entrance to her house.
“Fine, have it your way. Fix the fucking door and then you can bugger off.”
The words were only loud enough for him to hear, but she glanced across to the living room nonetheless, as though she was worried Kenny would hear her. Following her direction, Sasha could just about see his son curled up in front of the telly. Wrapped in what looked like a well-loved blanket, and clutching a tatty teddy, he seemed engrossed in the program he was watching. He also looked very young and vulnerable, and Sasha had to swallow past the lump in his throat to get his voice to work.
“I should go and see him, and—”
“No, don’t you dare.” The thump to his back carried a heck of a lot of umph, and Sasha allowed himself to be dragged down the hallway into Macey’s kitchen. The most delicious smells hit his nostrils as they entered, and Macey shut the kitchen door with a quiet and determined click.
“That boy has been through enough. Violence scares him, and I’ve just got him calmed down. I don’t want him seeing you to set him off again.”
She bit her lip as though she’d said too much, and when he looked at her with one eyebrow raised, busied herself by opening the oven door, and checking on what looked like chocolate cookies. That explained the delicious smell, then.
“Nonetheless, I need to make sure he’s okay.”
Macey slammed the oven door shut with much more force than was necessary, and the thing bounced back and opened again.
“Fuck it.” Macey’s curse bounced through the kitchen, and all the fight went out of her when he stepped up, closed his hand over hers and gently shut the oven for her.
“No need to be so violent, darling. Gently does it.”
Sasha suppressed a grin when Macey elbowed him in the stomach and glared up at him.
“Says the man who decided to rearrange that guy’s face.”
“He had it coming for looking at what’s mine,” Sasha said and Macey’s mouth fell open.
“Of all the chauvinistic things to say. Get out.” She stomped her foot for good measure, and the slap against his cheek seemed far too loud in the quiet room.
“Temper, temper, Macey.” Sasha winked at her and blocked the next slap aimed at his other cheek. “Enough, girl, or so help me, I’ll put you over my knee to teach you some manners.”
Macey shrieked and fought him, but with one arm round her waist he lifted her clean off the ground while holding her wrists behind her back. She still kicked her legs and the contact with his shins hurt, but eventually she stopped struggling and sagged against him.
“Damn you, let me go. You have no right to treat me like that. I don’t want this, any of this. Let me go, please.”
It was the tear-stained “please” that made him release her slowly, and her eyes widened when she seemed to notice his erection. He grinned at her and thrust his aching cock against her belly just once before he stepped away to put much-needed breathing space between them. It was that or flip the skirt of her loose-fitting dress up, pull down her panties, bend her over the kitchen table and fuck her silly. That she would be wet for him he had no doubt. Her mind might be rebelling, but her body knew what it needed, and his taking charge of her like this had turned her on no end.
Her pert little breasts quivered with the force of her breathing and her nipples poked through the thin fabric covering them. The most delightful flush covered her flawless skin, and she hastily crossed her arms over her breasts when he followed that blush down into the V of her dress. His beast damn near salivated at the wetness he sensed between her legs, and he knew his voice held the growl of his animal when he spoke.
“You can keep telling yourself that, but your body tells me otherwise, darling.”
She gasped at his words, and he winked at her and pushed his hands into the back pocket of his jeans to stop himself from reaching out and touching her.
“We both know there is something between us, and we both know that I have every right to see that boy. He’s mine, just as much as you are. Now, you can protest that until you’re blue in the face, and I realize that you don’t know me and you have no reason to believe me, but I’m here to stay.”
ADULT EXCERPT
It sent Sasha over the edge, and before she knew what was happening, he’d pulled out of her and, in a dizzying move of speed, had her spread face-down on her kitchen table. With her sensitive breasts squashed into the wooden surface, he kicked her legs apart while he brought her arms behind her back and tied something soft around them. There was the tear of lace as he tore her panties off her and then his deep rumble.
“Tell me this is okay, kitten. I want you at my mercy. I’ve fantasized about taking you like this since the first day I met you.”
Apprehension filtered through her haze of arousal as she tried to tug her wrists apart and couldn’t, but there was also something freeing about her inability to control what happened. The last of her misgivings fled when Sasha pulled her head up gently and studied her expression.
“I can take them off, but you look so fucking hot like this, kitten. All spread out for me to take you, to do as I please.”
He ran a hand over her ass cheeks and squeezed hard enough to leave bruises, and Macey groaned and shut her eyes.
“Oh, yes, my kitten likes that, I see. How about this?”
The open-handed swat to her butt stung like crazy and took her by surprise, but what was far more surprising was the stab of excitement that took her breath away as Sasha massaged that sting away and then delved between her legs.
“So fucking wet for me. So responsive. Tell me this is all right, and I’m not going too fast again.”
Macey mewled like the kitten he called her when he tunneled two fingers into her pussy, while keeping up the circles on her clit. Really, how was she supposed to say anything when he was doing all these things to her?
“Can’t…please…just…”
* * * *
Seeing his girl so caught up in pleasure that she seemed incapable of speech was such a fucking turn-on that Sasha knew he must be grinning like a fool. If only he had his toy bag with him, but that would probably be a step too far for his kitten right now. She was new to this, he had to remember that, but she would look fucking hot with a butt plug up her ass and her pale skin crossed with Shibari rope while he tortured her with pleasure.
A loud thump from upstairs made him freeze temporarily. Not again, surely. Fortunately, Macey was oblivious to the fact that Kenny must have fallen out of bed, too caught up in the orgasm she was fast hurtling toward, if the way her internal muscles quivered around his fingers were any indication.
Sasha kept her hovering on that ledge as he listened for any further sounds from upstairs, but all he could hear was Kenny’s soft, even breathing and he grinned to himself at the image they would no doubt find when they made their way back upstairs. The little guy tangled in the covers, fast asleep on the floor.
“Sir, please…” Macey’s moaned plea focused his attention back on the woman in front of him, and the dominant in him roared at her address. She might not know it, but Macey was the perfect sub for him, and the ease with which that title rolled off her lips was testament to that.
“Please what, kitten? What do you need me to do, this?” He delivered several more openhanded swats to her butt cheeks, satisfied with the way her pale skin wobbled and pinked up under his hands, and the way her juices coated the top of her thighs. Using his claws, he drew patterns across the hot flesh, and Macey’s pussy contracted under his watchful gaze while she mumbled something he couldn’t understand.
The wetness between her legs called his panther to taste, and Macey groaned long and hard when he licked up her slit and back again and lapped up her arousal.
“Please…I…”
When he tunneled his tongue into her hole and then licked up to her little puckered hole and rimmed it while teasing her clit between his fingers, Macey flew again. Her whole body tightened, and even her toes curled under as she shook in her climax. Straightening, Sasha aligned his cock with her pussy hole and pushed in, while shoving the ball he’d made earlier into Macey’s open mouth to muffle her screams. She bit down on her makeshift gag, eyes wide, features flushed, and their gazes locked when he began to move. Like a hot, wet fist, her cunt muscles gripped him in rhythmic waves. Grasping her hips, he allowed himself to set the fast pace he needed to seek his own release.
His panther roared and his canines ran out ready to claim his mate, but Sasha retained enough control of the situation to not give into the need to mark her thus. Instead, he fucked into her tight body with ever-increasing speed as his release built from the base of his spine. Without any barriers between them, every move seemed magnified, and he roared his release when his balls drew tight to his body and ejected a seemingly never-ending stream of his cum through his dick into her cunt. He pulled out to let the last jet spill over her hot ass, and the possessive animal in him strutted at seeing his woman dripping in his cum.
It covered her ass cheeks and slowly trickled out of her hole as her muscles still quivered in little aftershocks. In truth, Sasha’s legs were all but ready to buckle under him, thanks to the force of the orgasm he’d just experienced, and that was without his biting her. Heaven only knew how much more intense that would be.
Gulping for air, he wiped the sweat off his face and, bracing one hand for support on the table, he gently removed her gag.
“You okay there, baby?”