Lando had sent his driver home and stood around the lobby of her building for a while. He then decided not to let the rather bad introduction of before sit for that long. He then went back up to her floor, let himself into her apartment and looked around. Spartan compared to many females he knew. There weren’t a lot of small things, no lace and not any flowers.
She had a picture of her family and he remembered her parents, not as much her brother, because he’d only been three when they were there. He frowned and looked around. Just the one picture of her parents, she had a few more of her brother and her.
He opened her closet and looked at her clothing. Uniforms for work but otherwise, a mashup of different things. Tight and sexy, loose and comfortable. He sat on her bed and put his face in her pillow, inhaling sharply, allowing her scent to flow over him.
The elevator dinged and he heard her walking up the hallway. He went to the window, he didn’t need to be in her room like this, it wouldn’t go well for him. His mission was to get her back to Brazil with him, not freak her out. He hid in the pantry as she let herself back into her place.
Instantly, his cat was alert and ready to pet, bite, claim.
His heart thundered in his chest as she leaned against the door and reached down to unzip those killer boots on her feet. His canines pushed through as he watched. She pulled them off one at a time and groaned in relief when she stood flatfooted. His control slipped another notch when she unzipped the dress and it began slipping from her body while she headed to the bedroom he’d just been in.
Everything from his libido and his cat said to follow her and claim her. With a strength he wasn’t aware he had, he left her place. He wasn’t going to club her over the head and drag her back to his place. Although, the idea had merit. He made it as far as the elevator before he whipped around and went back to her door.
He knocked.
A minute later, she opened the barrier between them.
His blood rushed south to his cock, swelling the engorged member even more.
She had a look of uncertainty on her face but a smile remained firmly in place. She’d lost the body hugging pale pink dress for some pajamas.
It wasn’t any better for him. The rich raspberry color of the set did things to him, the top and the waistband both were trimmed by black lace. One shoulder was bare. The pants were low-rise and all he could think of doing was pulling them down to see what her panties looked like.
“You again, Lando Vargas. What are you doing at my door at three in the morning?”
“You were expecting someone else?”
“Not your place to ask. What are you doing here?”
You are so wrong about that, my mate. He took a deep breath and tried again, “I told you before I came for you.”
She shrugged, making the one covered shoulder bare as the material slid to her upper arm. “You make me sound like a possession which I’m not. Tell you the truth, you’re starting to freak me out a bit. So, let’s cut the bullshit and you tell me what you want, so I can go to bed.”
“May I come in?”
Her smile curled his toes.
“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea.” A deep breath. “No, it wouldn’t be.”
Lando could smell her desire and his cat tore at him from the inside. She wanted him, there wasn’t any reason to deny himself. Yet, he held back. “We need to talk.”
“I need to sleep. And you need to get another hobby. I don’t know how they do things down in Brazil but here, this is borderline stalking.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know I’m still from Brazil and not the United States of America?”
“One…by your answer just now and two, you seem a bit too untamed to be from Miami.”
“Is that an insult?”
“No, but Americans have a certain way about them and I don’t see it in you. Not that this conversation is making any sense. What is it you want?”
“I told you.” He moved closer.
“No, you said you were here for me when I asked you what you were doing here. That’s not what you want.”
“For me, they are one in the same.”
Her gaze shuttered. “What are you talking about?”
“This would be much easier if I could come inside.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lando touched her face with the back of his hand. His cat purred, wanting more. He forced himself not to move it anywhere else. “Tell me, Selena Rowe, are you scared of me, or your reaction to me if we are together behind closed doors? And what you may allow yourself to do?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said after swallowing a few times. “I’m not letting you in.”
He trailed his thumb along her lower lip. “Fine, I’ll allow you this small victory but I will be here in the morning and we will talk.” Another brush along her plump lips. “And whatever else you want.” Lando bent closer until his lips were nearly on hers. “Sleep well, cônjuge.” With a final caress of her soft hair, he stepped back and walked away, his cat, furious with his decision. Yes, calling her cônjuge had been natural as he did see her as his spouse. Humans had words that didn’t fully explain the depth of what their relationship was but she was his wife as well as so much more.
At war with himself since he left her, his cat remained angry with him until the sun rose over the ocean and he departed the hotel for her apartment. His driver didn’t make small chat, just drove, which he needed since he was so on edge.
“Be back in four hours,” Lando told the driver as he stepped into the morning sun and stared at the building before him.
“Yes sir.” He shut the door with a nod.
Lando attempted to soothe his cat, its restlessness enhanced his own. Or vice versa. Either way, they needed to calm down.
He paused before her door, gazed about, and knocked. The response took longer today than it had after she’d just returned from the club. But when she arrived, he couldn’t stop the smile.
I’ve been around her for less than twenty-four hours and I am smiling more than I did in a month back home.
Those intoxicating eyes snared him and he fell willingly into their depths.
“You again.” Selena shook her head. “What time is it?”
He prowled closer and she stepped back. “Morning,” he said, shutting the door behind him.
She yawned. “I swear I just went to bed. So, what is it that has you here at my door three times in less than a day. It can’t be my parents they’re…” She cleared her throat. “…Not on this continent.”
Her pulse kicked up and he couldn’t miss the tinge of anger lining her tone. Interesting. A mystery to solve later on for sure. “I told you. I came here for you.”
“And I’m pretty sure I told you that makes you sound stalkerish. So since I’m exhausted and have a busy day today, you tell me and move along, so I can start my day way earlier than I had intended.”
“Sarcasm is sexy on you.”
She blinked twice and rolled her eyes. “You have sixty seconds to start talking.”
“What happened to the happy woman who was here last night?” His palms itched to touch her again. Appease that hunger within him.
“She has a hangover and is exhausted. But hey, let’s expect me to be cheerful.”
“Perhaps you should eat something.”
“I had planned on it. You know, when I woke up hours from now.”
“I’ll make you something.” He moved to her kitchen, shrugging out of his jacket and laying it over the back of a chair. “Give me a few minutes.” Lando had no problem cooking for her. Hell, he’d be fine taking care of her for the rest of their lives. She just had to come with him back to Brazil.
“Of course,” she stated drily. “I’m so used to hot men walking into my place and offering to cook me breakfast.”
He paused in his search of her fridge. Angling his head, so he could meet her eyes, he cocked an eyebrow. “Hot? Glad you think so.”
“Of course, that’s what you would pick out of that statement.”
“It’s the most important.”
She smiled, eliciting another purr from his beast. And himself.
Selena tugged up the shoulder on her shirt, covering the bared skin as she made her way to one of the chairs around the kitchen table. “What is it I can do for you, Mr. Vargas?”
“You have nothing in here,” he said, not answering her question. “Why don’t you have food in your fridge?”
“I just got back from a trip and haven’t been shopping.”
Okay, she had a valid point.
The scrape of her chair was his only warning she’d moved close. When he turned, she was there. Right up against him. Tempting him. Daring him.
Gods help him, he wanted nothing more than to sink his hands in her curls, haul her close and kiss her. When she was putty in his arms, he wanted to strip her clothing, and lick her from top to bottom. For starters.
“I’ve not seen you in years. Why are you here?”
“I came to bring you home.”
“I am home. This is where I live. This is where I work.”
“But not where you belong.” He cupped the back of her neck, the connection of their skin awaking everything within him. The electricity flowed from her to him and back again. “You know I’m right. You feel it, with nothing more than a simple touch to your neck. The urge, the need for more. To take off your clothes and rub against me.” He lowered his head, so it nearly touched hers. “To take me inside you. To feel me thrusting my cock deep inside you. This pulse that’s between us will only get stronger. So long as we’re together.”
Her eyes were half-lidded, lips parted as short staccato breaths escaped. The air was ripe with the scent of her desire.
Lando licked his lips and counted down the seconds until he could lick hers. “You can’t deny you feel this attraction between us, cônjuge. It won’t go away, it will eat at you until it feels like you’re burning from the inside out. Only being with me will assuage it.”
He massaged the back of her neck and she swallowed hard. “Does that line work?”
“No line, Selena. It’s the truth.”
A tremor raced through her and he tightened his hold, anchoring her to him.
“I won’t deny there’s an attraction,” she whispered, hands settling against his chest.
His cat purred and rubbed along where her hands were, wanting them on him. “But?”
“But just because I want to jump you and enjoy what I see you have in your pants, isn’t a reason for me to throw my life away and follow you like a lost little puppy.”
“You’re equating being with me to tossing your life away.” That stung.
“I don’t know you. I knew you for a few months when I was a child. I don’t know how they do it in your country, but here, that doesn’t mean we’re tied together for the rest of our lives. There were many kids there in that village, are all of them coming to tell me I should be with them, that we have hot sexual passion between us, so I should leave the States and move there to live in a hut?”
“First, no one else will touch you. You won’t want them to and I’ll kill them if they do.”
“And we’re back to the stalker aspect.”
“Not stalker. Mate. Husband. Lover.”
Her fingers clenched, running her nails down his chest.
Fuck that feels amazing. He wanted to roar his pleasure.
“Mate? Husband?” Selena smacked his hand off her neck.
Lando released her even though he didn’t have to, she wouldn’t have been able to get him off if he didn’t want to. “Yes.”
“You’re right, it’s not stalker, it’s flat out fucking insane.”
“Not for my kind, it’s not.”
“What? Brazilians can just walk around and find a woman. Then point and grunt ‘mate’ at them and their fate is sealed?”
“Not Brazilians, no. My kind, yes.” He stepped back closer, needing the contact to soothe himself and the cat within.
“I must still be drunk. Fine, I’ll bite. What’s your kind?”
“I look forward to you biting me.” He slipped a hand around her waist, pulling her against his rock-hard erection. She whimpered and he pushed into her, flexing his hips. Her eyes grew smoky with desire once more. “More than you could know.”
“Your kind?” Her question flashed that sexy tongue piercing once more.
How’s that going to feel on my cock when she’s on her knees in front of me?
He angled her chin so their eyes met. He allowed his eyes to flash his cat for a moment and then shifted them back to human. “Yes. The Protectors.”
She took a deep breath and let it out with her words, “The Protectors?”
He felt pleased she understood. “Yes. I am one of them. From the Astapa pack.”
“None of which makes sense to me.”
“I’m a shifter.”
Selena heard the words. Ran them over and over in her head but still couldn’t seem to comprehend what this man was stating. A shifter? Like someone or thing who could take a separate shape? What they had in movies and romance novels? Surely, she hadn’t been that drunk last night and this morning.
Still, this man standing before her, oozing his sex appeal didn’t appear to be making a joke, in any way.
“Shifter,” she repeated. God, the way his fingers teased the nape of her neck was about to give her an orgasm right there. He was nearly too much but he hadn’t lied, she wanted him. Wanted to fuck him, get fucked, and do more of that—all the way around.
“Yes.”
“Do people call the men in the little ‘I love myself’ coats when you tell them this line? And does it help you get women into bed? Not that I see you have issues in that arena.”
“No other woman will be in my bed again.”
Okay, so that line made her even more weak in the knees, even if she didn’t quite believe him. “Joining a monastery?”
His lips kicked up and she wanted to kiss him again. That brush of his lips hadn’t done anything but whet her appetite for more. So much more. Behind the soft material of her top, her nipples were hard points, craving touch. His.
“No.”
“Right, because you are throwing around words like mate and husband.”
His eyes glowed eerily for a moment. “You forgot lover.”
No, she hadn’t. Sucking in her bottom lip, she canted her head to the side and placed her hands back on his chest. “Do you really think so? You thought I forgot that you mentioned lover, or how much my body craves yours?”
“I’m hoping you didn’t.” He brushed his lips over hers.
At the feel of this, she melted a bit more. In her mind, she knew it wasn’t smart for her to think that this wasn’t a line but damn, if it didn’t feel amazing to have a man thinking of her in those types of terms.
What happened to thinking he was a stalker?
Selena waved off her subconscious and focused on the here and now. Along with the fact she was desperate to have him sexually, she—for whatever reason—trusted what he was stating. No matter how ridiculous it sounded. “I didn’t.” She moved her hands lower in open admiration of his muscles, thinking how nice it would be to check beneath the shirt. Not an ounce of spare flesh. He practically vibrated with a wild and barely contained power. One that intoxicated her like nothing she’d ever experienced. “Good, so that’s out of the way. We know sex isn’t an issue. Or rather…won’t be.” She refused to stop touching him. She couldn’t, her body craved the contact.
“It’s a skin boon.”
She looked up at him from staring at her hands spread over his charcoal gray shirt. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“The touching. We allow it among our kind but with mates, it’s even more,” he paused as if searching for the right word. “…Intense.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” she commented. “Wait, you said allowed among your kind. Right, the shifter thing. I really should have you explain that more, but damn it. I can’t stop touching you.”
Her brashness didn’t embarrass her, it was fact. She’d never felt such a concentrated connection with anyone before. None of the men she’d been with did she want to just lay there and allow their bodies to touch, it was more of a need to get it done to scratch the itch. Yet with Lando Vargas, she wanted to experience what it was like to be pressed up against him, have his arms around her as if she were his most important thought in the world.
“The skin boon is yours, mate. You can touch me as much as you want. In fact, I wish it.” His eyes grew hooded. “Touch. Caress. Mark.”
She needed to know more. “Take off your shirt.”
He didn’t make her say it more than once. He released her and tugged it off over his head in a single motion.
Selena took it from him and dropped it at her feet, only to put her palms on bare skin. Heated skin.
His Adam’s apple bobbed and she swore a deep purr rumbled up from his chest. She captured her own lip biting it as she slid her hands up over his pectorals. He didn’t move an inch, not even when she walked around him and touched his back. Across his shoulders was an intricate design she would call a tribal design. “What is this?” She touched the dark ink and jumped as it moved beneath her fingertips. “Is that normal?” She lowered her arm and waited for him to answer.
“It’s a glyph,” he said stepping back, so they were again touching one another.
“And why is it moving?”
A small shrug. “Because you’re touching it. Don’t stop.”
A slight bit uncertain, she put her hand back up there and more heat pulsed through her fingertips as the design shifted and flowed beneath the pads. Another purr and she pushed harder against him. Heat grew in her then shot straight to her clit and she squeezed her legs together trying to control the lust raging within her.
She slid back around to his front and stole a peek below his waist. His cock was present against his jeans, showing her how turned on he was. Selena dragged one hand down to his waistband and tucked two fingers past it.
His entire body stiffened as he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her to him, so there wasn’t any daylight between them.
Yes.
Her body welcomed his along hers but wanted more of skin to skin contact. Skin boon as he called it. Whatever it was, she approved whole heartedly.
“Cônjuge.”
Whatever he said, heated her through and through the way it rolled off his tongue, sounding sexy and proprietary all at the same time. “You’ve done something to me.”
He cupped her face. “Why do you say that?”
“Because all I want is sex and that’s not me.”
“Because you’ve never been with me before. For us, it’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with wanting sex with me, cônjuge. I will never hurt you. I’ll always protect you.”
She struggled to talk but all she could think about was him, lying her on the bed and slipping between her thighs, filling her with his cock.
“One other thing about this skin boon we share with one another,” he murmured in her ear as he swiped his tongue along the edge. “I can see your thoughts.” He nudged her top aside and kissed her bare shoulder. “I want to be inside you more than you can know.” He began inching her hem up, exposing her bare belly.
Selena held still as he pulled if off over her head.
“Fuck, a tongue piercing and a belly ring.” He raked his gaze over her. “Do you have any idea how fucking hot you are?”
Her answer was to undo the button on his pants. Carefully, she lowered the zipper and drew his jeans down over his hips. His boxers didn’t hide much of anything. She reached for them as he kicked the material away. In the back of her mind, she wondered when he’d gotten rid of his boots. She swore she hadn’t taken his eyes off him for a moment.
He captured her wrists and shook his head. In answer to her questioning look, he pushed down her pants. “Fair is fair.”
Selena stood before him in nothing more than a pair of black lace boy-shorts.
He closed his eyes briefly before dropping to his knees. “Cônjuge,” he uttered before pressing his lips to her upper left thigh. “You are everything I could have hoped for.” He trailed kisses along her cream-colored garter tattoo. Lando drew down her boy-shorts and gazed up at her from where he knelt. “Everything.”
She opened her mouth to speak when he placed his over her shaved pussy. Her knees buckled but he was there, holding her, supporting her. He widened her stance with his shoulders.
Selena didn’t give a fuck. She couldn’t concentrate. Ripples of pleasure washed over her, one after another on never-ending pulses. She gasped and gripped his hair, pushing him firmer against her. Needing that broad stroke of his tongue, craving it further.
He circled her clit then alternated with swift strokes and long ones. Lando touched her with his finger and she gave a sharp cry of pleasure. A cry that morphed into a loud moan as he pushed his finger inside her.
Mind blanking, she exhaled sharply. He readjusted his position, all without taking his mouth from her. The moment he pulled away, she protested, tightening her grip in his hair.
His chuckle rumbled along the inside of her thigh. “Just moving you to where you’ll be a bit more comfortable.” As he spoke, he lifted and carried her to the leather sofa. “But this time, these need to go.” He rolled her panties down and then reclaimed her pussy with his mouth, seconds after he pushed her back onto the leather.
Not that he would have let her fall, she still appreciated not having to try and keep her own footing. She took full advantage of being sprawled out before him, widening her legs and grinding against his face, so close to coming. Hell, it’d been so long and never, ever, had it been like this.
He licked, laved, nipped, and all around tortured her, allowing her to teeter on the edge but not fall over.
Body taut like a string, she squirmed and arched her back. Wanting nothing more than to be allowed that orgasm.
He did this strange purring, vibrating thing around her clit and it didn’t allow her to merely fall over, it launched her over the edge. The shivers rocked her as sparks splintered behind her eyes. Her cry filled the air and she sagged against the cushion, heart pounding within her chest.