Vivi Andrews - Jaguar's Kiss

His hands dropped from her face to grasp her shoulders, lifting her to her toes as he took the kiss deeper, his tongue stroking deliciously into her mouth. She gripped his shirt, loving the feel of his pecs against her fists and needing him for balance as the rest of the world tilted and slid away, and his large, capable hands roamed down her back and over the curve of her hips.

His mouth wandered, over her jaw, along her throat, finding her pulse point, his teeth scraping just hard enough to draw a gasp from her.

They had to stop. If they didn’t stop now she wouldn’t be able to. She wouldn’t want to. I already don’t want to.

“Santiago.” Lila pushed him away, but her hands stayed fisted in his shirt so he couldn’t go far. Everything was swirling, twisting and tangling in her head. Too many things she’d denied for too long crashing against one another.

“I lied,” she whispered, her voice surprisingly rough. “I remember everything about the day we met. No one had ever looked at me the way you looked at me, like I was yours and I just didn’t know it yet. It scared me. Because I knew I could want you, because I knew if I let myself want you I would never be able to stop and I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t free. I’m still not free. I belong to the pride. To Rom—”

He cut her off with a hard, brief kiss. “You belong to me ,” he growled and those words curled her toes and made her breath come short. He fisted his hand in the hair at her nape and hauled her back against him with a hard arm banded across her back.

His possessiveness called to something deep inside her, an animal side that had always been ignored. Mine , she wanted to growl right back. This gorgeous man with his sinful good looks and fierce, untamable independence was hers and no one else’s. She gripped his shoulders, her claws snicking out to test his flesh and Santiago rumbled a deep throaty purr that vibrated through them both.

He broke off the kiss, breathing hard, eyes blazing a wild gold. “Say it. Say you’re mine.”

“Yours. Always.” No matter what else happened, no matter who she had to become when she went back to the real world, she would always be his. Lila pulled him back down to her mouth, biting his lower lip with a hard possessive nip. Mine .

Santiago’s answering growl wasn’t remotely human. He jerked her off her feet and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She would take this moment, take this night and brand him into her soul. If it was all they could ever have, she’d make it count.

She clung to him as he took the stairs to the master suite, carrying her weight easily, his muscles flexing firm and tight beneath the tips of her claws. She bit his shoulder where it met his neck, her lioness rubbing against the inside of her skin. Normally the feline side of her was quiet when she was in human form, but Santiago called to the animal in her, waking her cat and making it purr with his touch.

He dropped her onto the bed and came down above her, caging her with his arms. “No second thoughts.” It was a demand more than a question, but she answered anyway.

“Never.” She wouldn’t regret this.

She sank her fingers knuckle deep into his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers, devouring his lips in a long, hungry kiss. He nudged her legs apart to settle between them and one hand stroked up the bare length of her leg.

“These fucking little skirts,” he groaned against her lips. “You’ve been driving me mad with them for years. Every time I see you in another pretty, frilly little skirt I want to bend you over and flip it up and drive myself into you until you can’t remember your name.” His hand snuck beneath the fabric, long fingers hooking over the narrow waistband of her bikini panties and dragging them down an inch.

The image of him doing just that slammed into her brain and Lila shuddered deliciously. But instead of putting action to his words, he released her panties and stroked his hand back down her thigh, his fingertips brushing the underside of her knee, bending it up as he continued over her calf until his hand closed over her ankle. Her shoes today were strappy sandals, buckled over her ankle. Santiago deftly released one and slipped it off her foot, like Cinderella in reverse, before flicking it over his shoulder to thud against the wall and disappear.

“Fancy little shoes,” he rumbled, the words rough against the shell of her ear as his other hand repeated the upward path of the first. “Frilly little outfits.” He jerked her panties down an inch beneath her skirt on the other side and Lila lifted her hips to help him take them farther, but he didn’t take the bait, his fingers releasing and tracing down again, bending her knee, grasping her ankle. “You know what they do to men, don’t you? You know how they make us want to strip you of all your little decorations until every inch of you is bare.”

Her second shoe sailed over his shoulder. He placed her foot on the mattress next to his hip, her knees bracketing his waist.

“So what are you waiting for?” She braced her feet and rocked up against him, inviting him in with arms and eyes.

His grin was fierce as he bent to nip her ear. “Patience, reina mia . The prettiest packages take the longest to unwrap.”

“I never could wait to see what was inside,” Lila purred. “I love how this shirt brings out your eyes.” She flashed her claws. “If you don’t want me to shred it, you might want to get it out of my way.”

He laughed and reared back to strip it off, revealing a gorgeous stretch of golden muscle with an enticing trail of hair disappearing into his jeans. She ran her hands over his pecs then traced that trail down to unbutton his jeans. He groaned and pulled her hands away, caging them on either side of her head. “I thought we were being patient.”

She growled and pushed against his hands, not managing to budge him an inch. “I finally know what I want, and I want it now .” Before she had time to worry about the fact that she hadn’t done this before. She didn’t want to let the fear that he would be disappointed in her creep in, but the slower they went, the more time she had to realize she couldn’t compete with the women he must have known before.

He seemed to realize the flash fire of lust was fading because he lowered his weight against her and kissed her again. The press of his body, the sinful skill of his lips—she forgot her reservations as he pushed every thought but more from her mind. She twisted beneath him, aching to be closer, but he controlled everything—the pace, the pressure, every touch.

Until she sucked hard on his tongue as she thrust her hips up and ground against his erection, and all that tightly wound control snapped. He growled and yanked at her clothes, shoving her shirt and bra up to feast on her breasts, teeth and lips and tongue making her writhe and release breathless, eager gasps. He nibbled along the under curve of her breasts, his palms shaping the plump mounds, raising one nipple to his lips. His tongue flicked lightly across the swollen tip, then his teeth closed and tugged, triggering a surge of heavy, liquid heat, spreading through her body and pooling at her core.

Then he sucked, and each pull released another pulse of heat. She whimpered his name and he released her with a moist pop and a flash of his teeth, before he bent to give her other breast the same treatment.

Realizing belatedly that her hands were free, Lila traced her claws over his bare shoulders, feather light. He rewarded her with a drawing pull of his lips, then his hands were shoving at her clothes again. She helped him tug the clinging fabric of her shirt over her head and discard her bra, and this time when she lifted her hips, he reared back to slide her skirt and panties down her legs, caressing every inch on the way to her feet. Then she was naked. Vulnerable—if ever a predatory cat can be vulnerable. And purring.