STORY EXCERPT

Renata Goldclaw smoothed a wrinkle from the beautiful teal dress on the mannequin. It was a Dior, fresh off the runway. She wouldn’t have it in stock for long, despite its breathtaking price. The sheath flowed down the model’s body, enhancing the slight curves. It wouldn’t suit Renata at all, although she loved it. She was too short and too rounded to do it justice.

When the gentle chime sounded from the door, she took a moment to touch the matching leather bag displayed above the dress, more to draw attention to it than because it needed adjusting. She might as well have saved her efforts, because when she turned around Odell Goldclaw stood there. Odell didn’t notice clothes much, only what was inside them.

In jeans and T-shirt, Odell was as gorgeous as he was in his fire chief’s uniform. From the top of his head, covered with thick, wavy chestnut hair to the tips of his worn cowboy boots, and every part of his powerful body in between, he was a sight for sore eyes. He grinned, the corners of his impossibly blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “Morning.”

“Hi.” She put on her best store owner face, smooth and gently smiling. She’d have a little fun. “May I help you? Do you prefer Dior or Chanel, or perhaps something a little more—adventurous?”

“Damned if I know to the first part and hell yes to the second.”

She’d asked for that one, and he made her laugh. “You shouldn’t.”

He walked across the polished beech wood floor, his sneakers squeaking on the wood. “I’d love to kiss you good morning. Perhaps one day I will.”

She propped her hands on her hips, the fine cotton of her dress smooth under her hands. “One day, maybe not. Odell, you know this isn’t right.” He’d been interested since she’d arrived in Goldclaw five years ago, and seriously chasing her for months. But these men were so sure of themselves, and so dominating that she wanted to set up her own power base before she considered dating any of them.

“I know no such thing.”

“But your breed partner is dating the doctor at the hospital. She could be your breedmate, and shape-shifters can only have one of those.” It wouldn’t be fair to Trinity to muscle in on a promising relationship now.

Odell grimaced. “Trinity’s cool, but I can’t see her being a breedmate. Not ours, at any rate. I don’t get that tingle when she comes close. Not like I do when you’re near, darlin’.”

The man was almost irresistible. Almost. She hung on to that qualification by a thread, but when she tried to step back, he brushed his hand over her waist, grazing the skin of her wrist when he withdrew. As if he’d restrained her, she halted, gazing up at his face. He must be a good eight inches taller than her five and a half feet. “Odell, I’m working.”

“I know. I won’t do anything—inappropriate. Not right now. You look beautiful, by the way.”

“I’m working,” she repeated. “If I didn’t look good, I wouldn’t be a very effective ad for the place, would I?”

“You’d look gorgeous in dungarees.” His gaze heated, and he swept a comprehensive glance over her. “In fact, I can’t wait to see you in them. And nothing else.”

“I’m not a dungarees kind of girl.”

“What if it had a fancy designer label on it?”

She pretended to consider. “Weeel…” She touched a finger to her lips.

He groaned. “For the love of God, don’t do that. Are you working late tonight?”

“No.” She’d planned to close the store at six, and prepare for her Thursday late night. She’d have a busy time, now her boutique’s reputation was spreading. People came for miles to see what new items she had in store. Parcels arrived from designer houses all the time, and after the big collections, they increased. She loved that part of her work, unpacking the clothes and accessories, seeing for real what she’d often only seen online. There wasn’t much about her job that she didn’t like.

“Come to dinner. I’m off duty until tomorrow at two. I’ve got all this time to kill. Help me kill it?”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?” Closing the distance between them, he kissed her. Softly and sweetly, but an undercurrent of passion stirred her body into life, made her pussy wet and soft, readying itself to receive his cock. He smelled of an elusive citrus cologne, and pure man. Heat washed over her, and a harder touch as their skin came into contact. When he drew away, a stray prick of stubble nudged her chin.

Renata opened her eyes and gazed up at him. She sighed. “Because of that. I’ve been waiting to see the mating band on your wrist.” The band was hard shell, like a bracelet, that encircled the wrists of a mated trio. She’d put her life on hiatus, waiting to see them on the wrists of Chris, Odell and Trinity. Then she could move on, and keep her secret locked inside her. The one that wanted Odell so badly.

When she would have moved away, he gripped her hands. “Listen. I want you, Renata, and I have ever since you came to Goldclaw. I let you be because you were setting up your business. Now you have, now you’re expanding, I want us to see what we have. You don’t have to be breedmates to find happiness. Look at Mia, Jag and Dion. They’re married, but not breedmates. They’re happier than it’s possible to be.”

Mia and her two breedmates lived on one of the smaller ranches close to town. Which wasn’t saying much, considering one of the largest ranches in Texas lay on their doorstep, so “smaller” was relative.

That reminded her of her plans for the day. “I have to go out to the concession. Some VIP’s for that wedding at the weekend are coming in this afternoon and I promised Sam I’d give her a hand.” Her assistant and friend, Samantha, was another lucky breedmate, to one of the breed partner pairs in the syndicate that owned the ranch.

The corner of his mouth quirked in a smile. “Then you’ll be hungry when you’ve done. Shall I pick you up there, or do you want to drive back to town?”

She huffed a reluctant laugh. “You’re impossible.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“Bed,” he said. “I want you on your back, on your front, in every position. I want to hold you and touch you, and taste you. Shit, Renata, you are so gorgeous, I’m close to coming right now.”

So was she, and she was so tired that was close to a miracle.

He would have lifted her except she was ahead of him, getting off the sofa and heading for that huge white bed in the master bedroom. If she stopped to think about this, she’d back out.

By the time he’d got through the door, she’d left the robe behind and lay, totally naked, on the cover, her legs slightly apart in a deliberate tease.

He nearly tripped over his jeans when he took them off, kicking his trainers and underwear off in the same movement. Then he walked to the bed.

The sight amazed her. Excited her, too as the bead of pre cum on his huge cock glistened in the soft bedside lights. But he wouldn’t let her claim it.

Instead, he leaned over her, gathering her wrists in one big hand and pinning them over her head. He straddled her, stopping her lifting her legs. So she opened them wider, giving him a better view.

“You heard me, then,” he said, and bent his head to kiss her.

After one luscious kiss, he released her hands and moved down her body. “I’ve been waiting to do this for so long.”

He licked her pussy, one long sweep of his tongue gathering all her juices, then looked up into her eyes as he swallowed. “I knew you’d taste good. I just didn’t know how good.”

Her lips formed a word, but her voice didn’t come. She tried again. “Fuck.”

He looked so fucking good. He was tanned all over, and from here she could see pretty much all of him. As if he heard her, he waggled his fine ass. It was round and begging her to grab it and pull him inside her. Not for the first time she thanked all the gods that being shape-shifters, they didn’t need to use condoms. She’d feel him inside her with nothing between them, very soon now.

Now! her mind screamed, so loud he picked it up. She felt her thought go out of her, ready for him to read. “Not yet,” he murmured. “I haven’t tasted nearly enough of you. I want to know you. It’s taken me so long to get this far, I’m not rushing anything.” He released her wrists. “Don’t move your hands. You’ll get your turn.”

He pushed her thighs apart with his shoulders and draped her thighs over his arms.

He’d wined and dined her in the best way possible. She was so not in the mood for a dinner at the French restaurant in town, good though it was, making small talk. No, no, no.

He took another taste, this time pushing his tongue into her, his mouth over her cunt. Then he sucked, and she went through the roof.

Nobody had done that before, licked her deep inside and stimulated her clit with his upper lip. “Ah, fuck!”

He carried on sucking, making his movements slow and rhythmic. His slurping became the only thing she could hear, his touch all that mattered.

Holding her firmly, he sucked, thrust and worked her to screaming point. Steadily, so she marked every step in her journey to orgasm, he took her.

Then he let down his fangs. Teeth gleamed white, then a slow graze slid down each side of her clit. He was so careful, so delicate, that the razor-sharp weapons only nudged her, without so much as nicking her. This was all pleasure.

A sharp clench inside her informed her that her climax was on its way, inevitable, no going back.

Then air hit her pussy as he swung up. His fangs slid back into his mouth, but his eyes held the look of a wild, beautiful predator. He crawled up the bed, his cock hanging between his legs, hard and long, his balls heavy behind it.

Renata licked her lips, cupped her breasts and presented them to him.

He swiped his tongue across first one and then the other. Renata shivered, but she wanted him. He’d kept her on the edge for so, so long that she couldn’t stand it anymore.

She reached for him, but he grabbed her hands and stretched them over her head again. “Naughty, naughty.” He tapped the side of her butt, then flicked a finger across her clit. She cried out and arched up to him, but before her ripple of orgasm was over, he had plunged his cock inside her.

Speed and grace were the hallmarks of the tiger, and he was feral now, human in form, tiger in nature, taking his woman, surrounding her with him and showing her no mercy.

He pounded into her, thrusting past her orgasm and throwing her into another, harder, more insistent one. He made her mindless with passion, and all she could do was buck under him and take everything he gave her. He crooned words to her. “Fuck, you’re good,” and a moment later, “I need you, Renata,” and finally, “You can touch me now.”

With a cry of surrender, she brought her hands down and clutched his back, hanging on for dear life as he thrust inside her, his cock forging a path deep within. He moved, and when he swiveled his hips, he pressed against her, around and around until tears came to her eyes and she sobbed his name. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop!”

I don’t think I can.