They stayed for lunch: trays of sandwiches provided by park volunteers, who’d known Genevieve would be starved after the healing. Sure enough, the Arcanist put away a surprising amount of food before staggering upstairs for a nap.
Afterward, Dave and the guys took Erica on a guided tour of the park. Proud as a new father, Kurt demonstrated the systems to keep his volunteers safe while they took care of the cats.
Meanwhile Erica found her attention drifting more and more to Jake. As her gaze lingered on his big, handsome body and strong hands, yearning rolled through her like warm honey. His hand brushed hers as they walked, so close their hips bumped, fingertips tracing over sensitive skin. With each contact, she felt the stroke of his aura, or sent her own ghosting against his.
Excitement crackled along her nerves like flame along a fuse. Dave was right: it was time to go for it. I’m finally going to do it. I’m going to make love to him.
It was a bad idea. Chances were good she’d end up regretting it. Yes, Ferals were sexy as hell, but loving a man with a cat in his head could be dangerous. Erica still had a set of claw marks on her left thigh from the time Bobby had gotten carried away. Yet feeling the brush of Jake’s intoxicating aura, she was more than willing to take that risk again.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Dave said, sounding disgusted, “Would you two get a room? You’re making my teeth ache.”
Jake smirked. “It’s not your teeth that’s aching.”
“Asshole.”
Erica’s cheeks went hot as her gaze slid to Jake’s. He smiled back with a flicker of dimple and a wicked glitter in his eyes.
* * *
Jake watched Erica slide into the truck next to him. The scent of her seemed to fill his head: a combination of her body, her shampoo, and the sharp electric tang of her magic. But best of all was the arousal that had been building since they’d all sat on the deck. She was turned on. More, she was turned on by him. Not by Bobby, not by some other man, but him.
He’d wanted her for so fucking long. Watching her buckle her seatbelt, he suspected his aura probably glowed like a torch with the intensity of his lust.
RRrrrrwwww. Clarence’s thought sliced into his consciousness, wordlessly demanding that he claim her before some other male got the chance. Lions were territorial as hell, a quality his cat thought Jake would do well to share.
She’s not territory, furball.
The lion’s reply was a rumbling psychic growl Jake had no problem translating. If you keep playing by the rules, you’re going to lose. Or maybe that thought was Jake’s.
Acutely conscious of her, he drove the Ford toward the BFS exit, his mind working as he planned her seduction. He scarcely even noticed the icy stares of the protesters as they drove past the picket line.
Out of the corner of one eye, he saw a glowing paw reach across the bench seat toward her. Oh no, you don’t, he told Clarence sternly. Too Many Legs.
“RRRRRRmph.” Translation: Then get off your ass.
He flicked Erica a look. She was fidgeting, shifting in her seat. She quickly turned the other way, suggesting she’d been watching him. Maybe the furball had a point.
As he stopped at a red light, Jake sent a tendril of aura stretching across the distance between them, feathering his power over the life force swirling around her hand.
Erica shot him a smoldering look in response.
He kept his gaze firmly on the traffic ahead, though his lips wanted to twitch. I’ve got her attention. Now I just need to keep it.
His next magical probe quested up the length of her arm, just barely stirring her aura. The last thing he wanted was to make her feel she was being groped. Which was why he resisted the temptation offered by those beautiful breasts.
He could feel her -- the strength and currents of her magic, glowing bright with the intensity of the mind behind it. There was a visible complexity in the auras of Talents that Norms lacked. That was particularly true of Erica’s. Countless interconnecting threads created a structure as intricate and lovely as a spider web dewed and glowing in the morning sunlight.
And God, the way it felt. As delicate and arousing as the feeling of breath against bare skin. Intimate. Hot.
His psychic probe dancing over the strands of Erica’s aura, he gloried in the freedom to touch her. With every gliding brush, his need grew -- first into hunger, then craving, then stark animal lust.
And all the while, a rumble sounded deep in his mind: Clarence. Lions didn’t purr, and yet the deep, thrumming sound could be described no other way.
* * *
Erica bit her lower lip, her gaze locked on Jake’s face in fascination. She would’ve thought he was concentrating on the road, if it hadn’t been for the tiny, exquisite sensations he triggered with each brush of his aura against hers. It reminded her of the sensation of feathers swirling over flesh, delicate as a butterfly’s wing. Yet somehow the faint flutter was more erotic than hands on nipples or cunt.
A flush rode his high cheekbones, and his gold eyes glittered as he moistened his lower lip with a pass of his tongue. His big hands rode the wheel easily as he steered the truck around curves, passing other cars with a cop’s skilled competence.
Imagining those hands on her skin made her heartbeat a demanding thump in her throat. Swallowing, she crossed her legs. Her gaze drifted downward, following the contours of his muscled chest beneath the red flannel shirt he wore tucked in his jeans.
Down to his belt buckle and the bulge pressing against his fly. Good God, I don’t remember Bobby being quite that hung.
His aura brushed her inner thigh in a tender, silken stroke. Erica watched the bright rose tendril skate across her skin. It teased her with the thought of what else he could do with his magic.
Her mouth felt dry. Her gaze flicked up to his lower lip, remembering the taste of it. Wanting more. Wanting everything she could get. She’d craved him so damn long. Wanted him so desperately but hadn’t had the guts to risk it. Now she ached to run her hands along those broad shoulders and feel muscle shift under her fingertips. Burned to touch the hot, intriguing bulge of his erection behind the tough material of his jeans.
Almost shaking with hunger, she reached out a tendril of aura to play it along the muscled length of his thigh. His magic felt so much more intense than hers. Touching it felt like putting a hand into a fast-moving stream, feeling it roil and bubble around her fingers. His head turned toward her, and his eyes narrowed, reflecting hot gold.
Feeling uncharacteristically shy, she looked away, out the windshield. Stiffened. “Jake!”
He whipped back around and hit the brakes, barely in time to avoid slamming into the rear of the minivan stopped at the red light ahead. “Fuck!”
Erica swallowed, gripping her shoulder belt in one white-knuckled hand, heart hammering. “Maybe we’d better ease off on the foreplay until we get to my place.”
Foot firmly on the brake, Jake slanted her a look. “Is this foreplay?”
Her gaze slid down to his fly. “It’d be a waste if it wasn’t.”
He grinned, displaying almost as many teeth as Dave. “Glad to hear it.”
Their eyes met in a gaze hot enough to make Erica’s nipples ache.
Behind them, a car horn blew. Jake laughed, a soft leonine chuff, and followed the minivan through the intersection. He seemed to keep his mind firmly on driving the rest of way to her apartment. Erica heroically resisted the temptation to play any more games with his aura.
Not that she needed to. Glancing down at his zipper, she saw he was still hard. Swallowing, she crossed her legs again.
“Cut it out,” Jake growled. “Every time you do that, I smell…” He broke off.
Her cheeks heated. “You’re speeding.”
He eased off the gas. She found herself bouncing one foot just to burn off some of the erotic energy. Her imagination wasn’t helping. It kept showing her images of how that thick erection might look without a layer of denim blocking the view.
By the time they pulled into the complex’s drive, they were both all but vibrating. Erica was reaching for the door handle when a big hand curled around her jaw to pull her head around.
Jake’s mouth crushed down over hers. It was a ferocious kiss, all teeth and tongue and unapologetic lust. Erica threaded her hands into short blond hair and fisted them there as she kissed him back, mouth open, tongue thrusting.
He leaned in hard, pinning her against the door. Long fingers curled around her breast, surrounding her in a rough, warm grip that was incredibly arousing.
She groaned as her lust leapt like a flame. At the needy sound, he tightened his grip, thumb and forefinger closing around one nipple through her bra, twisting, tugging just hard enough to pour gasoline on the blaze.
Shivering, she gasped, stroking one hand over the gold silk of his hair, loving the contrast with the rasp of his five o’clock shadow on her skin as he kissed her.
Sweet. Maddening. Not enough.
He reached up under her shirt, making her pant in delight at the rasp of calluses over the flesh of her ribs. Erica let her eyes drift closed to watch his aura blaze against the darkness behind her lids, shades of violet and blue and rose spinning in wild currents.
It took a surprising amount of willpower to drag her mouth from his. “We can’t make love sitting in the cab at three o’clock in the afternoon.”
Dimples flashed. “Actually, I’m pretty sure we could.”
“Not with the school bus coming by.” She grabbed the door handle and all but fell out of the truck. Hopping to the ground, she hurried up the sidewalk toward the door of her two-story brick apartment building.
Jake’s running shoes scraped on gravel as he jumped out after her. With a sound far too much like a giggle for a self-respecting cop, Erica broke into a sprint.
“Come back here!” The growl rumbled so deep and rough with desire, it sent a shiver down her spine.
“Only if you catch me!” But she had to stop to unlock the unit’s door, the keys jangling in her hand. He pounced on her, wrapping long arms around her from behind. One hand caught her jaw, as his teeth closed over the back of her neck, finding an incredibly sensitive bundle of nerves.
An image flashed through Erica’s mind, something she’d seen on a National Geographic special: a male lion holding a female’s nape in the same grip as he mounted her from behind. And why does that thought turn me on so damned much?
Jake’s teeth scored her flesh, making her hands shake until it was all she could do to manage the deadbolt. At last the lock turned, and she pushed it open. Scooping her off her feet, Jake swept her inside to the foot of the stairs, kicking the door closed behind them. “Where?” he growled.
“Third floor. Unit’s on the left,” she groaned back, not at all sure they’d make it.
He carried her as if she weighed nothing, taking the steps two at a time. When they reached the top, he put her down just long enough to let her take care of the lock while he nibbled her ear. She was quivering by the time she got the door open.
They fell through it together. Jake pushed her backward, his mouth ravenous on hers as he steered her into the living room and tumbled her down onto the sectional. Dove gray leather gave under her back as he settled atop her, a solid male weight.
One hand grabbed the hem of her shirt, pushed it to her shoulders. The other caught the cup of her bra, dragged downward to free a jutting pink nipple. His mouth covered it in wet heat as she groaned her pleasure at the ceiling.
Jake suckled in hard pulls, simultaneously raking his teeth over the little point until Erica writhed under him. Both hands fisting in the material of his shirt, she dragged it out of his waistband. “Naked,” she panted. “Want you naked.”
“Hell, yes!” He pulled away from her, started trying to unbutton his shirt, cursed as the tiny plastic discs frustrated his aroused fingers.
Jake managed to get only three of them open before she grabbed the bottom of the shirt and tugged it off over his head. Tossing it aside, she stared in unabashed lust. He was every bit as magnificent as she’d known he’d be -- his shoulders broad, muscle forming great curved plates across his chest and down the length of his belly, rippling along broad, strong arms. “Good God, Nolan, do you live in the gym?”
Jake shrugged, doing interesting things with all that brawn. “As my old DI used to say, ‘Spend time in the gym or get your ass kicked on the street.’ You have way too many clothes on.” He caught the shirt already rucked up over her breasts, pulled it off, and tossed it aside before attacking the hooks of her bra. A few maddening minutes went by as they fought to strip off all those frustrating layers of clothing, dumping them wherever they fell.
Finally, Jake rose to shed his jeans as she sprawled on the couch naked, wet, and aching. For a suspended moment he stopped and just stared down at her, his big body tense, pupils dilated in the vivid frame of his irises. There was something in his eyes that wasn’t entirely human.
Erica swallowed, watching the magic roil around him, the violet desire intensifying among the ribbons of rose, the two shades driving out the blue. She glimpsed the glowing outline of a mane. Her pussy felt hot, plump, drenched. “What we need now…” She paused to lick her lips. “… is one less pair of pants.”
Dimples flashed. “If you insist.” He unsnapped the jeans and pulled down his zipper, struggling a bit with the bulk of his cock. The metallic hiss made her catch her breath.
His cock’s flushed shaft pressed out through the open fly, a glint of moisture tipping its mushroom head. It looked so deliciously thick, she instantly imagined what it would feel like thrusting to the balls. “You go commando, Nolan? Why am I not surprised?”
One corner of his lip curled up. “Maybe because I am a commando?”
“Were a commando. Now you’re a cop. Get down here and I’ll show you what I can do with that nightstick.”
“Nightstick? Really? What, are you channeling Dave?”
“If you don’t move that tight ass, I’m going to start doing sound effects.”
“What kind of sound effects?”
“What kind of sound effects would you like to hear?” All but quivering in anticipation, Erica watched him kneel.
“You’ll find out.” Grinning, he grabbed her behind both knees, lifted them, and draped them over hard, broad shoulders. He leaned in until his face was scant inches from the soft, damp hair of her sex, and inhaled, gleaming eyes sliding shut. His mouth covered her pussy, hot, wet, and demanding. Every muscle in her body jerked tight in anticipation.
“Oh, God!” she gasped.
“Yeah, that’s the sound effect I had in mind.” Lowering his head again, he licked. Slowly. Tracing between her lips, drawing a long, wet line past plump folds, then back up again to swirl a lazy pattern over her clit.
A shudder ran the length of her body as pleasure wound through her like a scarlet ribbon. Wrapping her legs around his broad back, Erica dug her heels into the thick muscle.
His tongue flicked back and forth, up and down, stroking the tiny shaft of her clit with every pass. As sensation made her nervous system reverberate like a bell, Jake caressed each breast in turn, teasing nipples drawn tight and aching. Every touch made her hips jerk, adding to the sweet burn.
He ate her slowly, thoroughly, suckling, lapping, as if he was in no hurry to bury that thick cock in her depths. As if she were some exquisite dessert he’d craved a very long time.
“Jake! Jake, please!” Erica hunched against his face, one hand cupping the back of his head, the other gripping the nape of his neck as her heels dug into his back. Her orgasm swelled like a storm on the horizon, tightening muscles with every flick of his tongue and skillful fingers. So close, so close. “Please!”
His free hand brushed her ass, and a finger slid into her hot depths. Stroked. In. Out. So close to the edge.
“Fuck me,” Erica panted. “For God sake, fuck me!”
Gold eyes glittered up the length of her body from between her legs, and he stopped licking just long enough to say, “No.”
Before she could protest, his tongue started swirling a complicated pattern around her clit that had her head grinding back into the couch cushion. The muscles in her belly clenched, her thighs flexing as the climax trembled just beyond her fingertips. “Jake!” The word hissed through her teeth. “Now!”
His only answer was a growl.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he surged up between her legs. Bracing one fist beside her hip, he grabbed his cock to aim it between her pussy’s slick lips.
And entered her in one driving thrust.
They both groaned.
Panting, Erica bit her lip at the feel of him, shoved so deliciously deep. She could smell her own wet heat mixed with the dark aroma of aroused male -- clean sweat and musk, the ozone scent of magic overlaid with the faintest trace of fur.
Eyes all pupil surrounded by a thin sliver of glittering gold, Jake began to pump, dragging out, then forcing his way in, slow and taunting. Each satin stroke was a tease of sensation rubbing along sensitized nerves, sending sweet curls of pleasure through her body.
Erica arched her back, the movement pressing her nipples against satin hair and hard muscle -- another dollop of delight. Tightening her thighs around his lean waist, she felt the muscles in his ass ripple as he rode her, filling her with every entry, teasing her with every retreat.
His mouth found hers in a fierce, biting kiss that claimed as his cock ground in and out. Erica kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his waist, digging her fingertips into the thick, working brawn. His aura surged against hers, currents rippling the length of her body, making her writhe against him.
Jake fucked harder, deeper, picking up the pace. Erica met him thrust for thrust, grinding upward, clawing for the orgasm that was so close, blazing behind her eyelids, swelling like a thundercloud. Pleasure stacked on pleasure, each layer enhancing the others, and she heard high, sharp cries she realized were her own.
A thousand shades of violet and rose detonated in front of her eyes like fireworks, and she screamed, coming.
Jake roared, the sound deeper and louder than anything human vocal cords should be able to produce. Purple light forked and snapped through their joined auras like lightning strikes.
At last he collapsed in her arms, panting, a glorious male weight. Erica clutched at him, light still popping around them, her thigh muscles jumping and quivering from the force of her orgasm.
“Fuuuuck,” he groaned, somehow managing to turn it into a three syllable word. Flopping over onto his back, he scooped an arm under her and pulled her over on top of him like a sheet. “That was…”
“It… certainly was…” Erica panted back, her heartbeat banging in her ears. She combed her fingers through the silken ruff of his chest hair, with its threads of gold that reminded her of a lion’s pelt. “I think our magic intensified the experience.” Her lips twitched. “A lot.”
Jake laughed, his broad chest vibrating against her cheek. “No kidding.” He smoothed one hand along the line of the thigh she’d hooked over his hip. His fingertips paused at something high on her leg. Frowning, he twisted his head to look.
Erica lifted her head and followed his gaze to the five short, silvery scars marking her outer thigh. They almost exactly matched the width and length of his fingers.
“Those are claw marks.” Jake sounded puzzled. Realization struck a moment later. “Bobby did that a month before…” He clenched his teeth over the rest of the sentence. “I remember when you had to go to the base hospital the next day. I didn’t realize it scarred.”
Uncomfortable, Erica managed a shrug. “It’s not that bad.”
“It’s bad enough.” He gave her a narrow stare, his jaw flexing as if his teeth were clenching. “What the hell happened anyway? And don’t try to put me off with that ‘he got carried away’ excuse. I’d have kicked his ass then if Kurt hadn’t stopped me.”
“It was the truth.”
“You were fighting. I heard you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ferals have no sense of privacy.” When he only looked at her, his gaze cool and level, Erica sighed and surrendered. “He really didn’t intend to do it. Yeah, we were arguing…” About the way she’d been watching Jake bench press four hundred pounds, pumping out reps with sweat dewing his skin. She’d been taking a break from her own workout when her gaze had fallen on him just a little too long.
Erica focused on the curl of chest hair under her fingers. “Somehow during the fight, we ended up in bed…”
“Did he hurt you on purpose?” His tone was steely.
“Of course not. If he had, I wouldn’t have put up with it.”
“What could you have done? Even if he hadn’t been a Feral, he outweighed you by seventy pounds.”
“I’d have gone to the CO. It was an accident, Jake. Bobby would never have intentionally hurt a woman. You know that.”
“Intentionally or not, he clawed you.”
“More than two years ago. And he’s…” She broke off.
A tight silence rolled by. “Yeah.”
Jake took a deep breath, his broad chest lifting under her body. She felt him begin working to relax rigid muscles in the exercise Ferals used to control their cats -- and themselves. A man with a lion in his head couldn’t afford to lose control.
She’d been telling the truth. Bobby hadn’t intended to hurt her. The sex had just gotten a little rough because they’d both been thoroughly pissed off. Of course, their best sex had always been makeup sex. Bobby being Bobby, and Erica being Erica, they’d had makeup sex a lot.
Bobby, did you walk into that trap because you were distracted by our fight? Was that my fault too? Another uncomfortable thought lanced through her mind. And two years later, here I am with your brother.
She suspected Bobby wouldn’t have been surprised.
Am I doing the right thing? Though maybe the real question was, could she really do anything else?