A. Arthur - Passion's Prey

“X and I had sex,” she said bluntly. Then she pulled out a dress and threw it over her shoulder. “I’m going to go in and change.”

Ary looked stunned and for a moment Caprise thought she might make a clean getaway.

“Wait, you did what with who?”

So much for the clean getaway.

Instead, Caprise figured, she might as well just get this over with. She moved to the king-size bed, which at first seemed utterly foolish for just one person, but then she’d fallen in love with its extreme comfort, even on those nights that sleep eluded her.

“X and I had sex. He showed up at the club being all bossy and controlling as usual. Then one thing just led to the other and we did it.” She shrugged but even she realized that what she’d just said wasn’t that simple.

Ary came to sit on the other side of the bed, taking a moment to adjust herself and her growing girth. Pregnancy for Shadow Shifters was a bit different than it was among humans and full-breed jaguars. Ary would carry the baby for twelve to eighteen weeks max; then she’d deliver what would look like a human but after going through puberty would become a full-grown jaguar shifter. So right now, she looked like she was about four months along in a human pregnancy, complete with the swollen ankles and face.

“You don’t even like X” was Ary’s next comment. She’d folded her arms so they rested on top of her stomach, and Caprise resisted the urge to reach out and touch her.

In fact she turned away, looking across the room instead.

“He’s arrogant and high-handed and obnoxious.”

“Okay,” Ary said. “That may be true. I guess the next question would be what’s he like in bed?”

To that Caprise couldn’t help but chuckle. Ary was a curandero, a former healer to the Topetènia tribe and current director of the Stateside Medical Center. She was also a little bit naive about the way things were done in the states considering she’d grown up in the Gungi. So her question seemed more than a little off to Caprise.

“It wasn’t that big a deal,” she started to say. “But then he gets even more macho-man on me and tosses me into his truck, because he says Rogues are coming. We end up at his place, where—” She sighed. “—we do it again.”

“Again?” Ary asked. “Well,” she added, barely holding her own smile in, “I guess that means he was pretty good in bed.”

No matter how contrary her nature, Caprise smiled right along with her sister-in-law. “He was good. But that’s not the point. It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“So why did it?”

That was a simple question, one Caprise had been avoiding since the moment X pulled her off that stage.

“I don’t know” was the only reply she could come up with. And surprisingly, it was the truth. She didn’t know why she’d had sex with X when sex had been the farthest thing from her mind since she’d made her way back to the United States. No, to be even more honest with herself, sex hadn’t been what Caprise had shied away from—intimacy was. And what she’d shared with X wasn’t intimate, it was basic and good. Damn, it was good.

“So let me get this straight. You and X were at a club together and then you had sex. Rogues appeared, then you ran away to his house and had more sex. Does that sound about right?”

“The facts are there. But let me fill in the blanks because you’re going to find out anyway. I’ve been working two nights a week at Athena’s. I dance there because I haven’t heard back from the school about getting a job dancing or teaching or whatever. X was there last night and he saw my routine. I don’t know, I guess he got turned on, and when I came off the stage he dragged me back to my dressing room. Then he smelled Rogues and things got all crazy.”

“And you ended up in his bed again?”

Caprise frowned. “Why do you keep going back to that point?”

Ary laughed. “It’s a pretty hard point to get past. No pun intended.”

Caprise could see she was enjoying this way too much. “You’ve been around Kalina too long. Speaking of which, where is she?”

Ary shook her head. “Don’t try to change the subject. She’s in some training meeting with the newly hired staff. I don’t know if she really likes the new duties of being First Female of the Stateside Assembly, but it’s keeping her plenty busy. And now back to you and X and the Rogues. I know he’s been investigating the club. We actually saw the girl who was killed there at the morgue.”

“That’s the girl they think he murdered?”

“X would never murder anyone, especially not a female. That’s not what shadows do,” Ary said adamantly.

It took valiant effort not to roll her eyes. “He’s a man, Ary. He was born in the states and raised here. So he’s visited the Gungi, that doesn’t make him a part of the tribe.”

“You’re wrong. The Gungi is in our blood, no matter where we’re born. Topètenia are from the Gungi and will always return to their home in times of need. Isn’t that why you went there when your parents died?”

Caprise opened her mouth to speak then clapped her lips shut again. She took a steadying breath and clenched and released her fists. “How did you know I went back?”

“I saw you.”

“I didn’t come to the village. I stayed away.”

Ary shook her head. “I left the village every morning to visit Yuri. I saw you one morning. You stayed on the western side, down by the river. I recognized you because you look like Nick, even in cat form.”

Shit. The Gungi probably hadn’t been a good place to hide anyway. Yet Caprise had been drawn to the forest regardless of what her mind thought was best.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“It wasn’t my place. Besides, I had no contact with your brother so I had no way of knowing he was looking for you.”

“And you figured he’d dumped you so why speak to his sister.”

Ary didn’t reply.

“Sorry. I’m just agitated.” She sighed and laid her head back against the headboard. Hearing her cell phone chirp from across the room in her purse where she’d left it just made her mood worse.

“Agitated because you slept with X or because you don’t have an explanation for why?” Ary asked.

“Both,” she replied quickly.

“Sometimes there is no explanation. Things just are the way they’re meant to be,” Ary stated.

Caprise didn’t like the sound of that, but her temples throbbed now and she figured that was a sign that she’d done too much talking. Ary, in her quiet, know-it-all sort of way, had taken the unspoken hint and left her alone.

On the floor Caprise’s phone went off again. Without preamble, a low growl sounded in her chest. She wanted to curse, but hissed instead and stomped into her private bathroom to change. The last twenty-four hours had been a complete headache for her. She could only hope the next hours would prove better.

When Caprise stepped out of her bathroom she wanted to scream. Her day was getting worse.

“The next time I tell you I’ll take you home, I want you to wait for me to do just that,” X said from across the room where he leaned against the wall beside her dressing table.

“I’m not under your command” was her retort. She almost told him to get out but knew that would be futile. “How’d you get in here?”

“I told Nick those access codes were bullshit. I cracked it in two seconds,” he replied simply. “You can’t lock me out just because you want to.”

“I can and I did. But since you clearly want to act like the animal—”

Her words were cut off as X moved across the floor with lightning speed. In the next second he’d grabbed her wrists, pulling her arms up above her head. With the barest push he had her flat on the bed, his strong body pinning her down.