Angel/Hiss (Bayou Heat Box Set Book 7) (15 page)

He pulled back and bit her lower lip. “Your scent is making me insane, Gia.”

“More,” was her response, growling against his mouth. “You. Naked. Me. Too.”

He cursed, picking her up easily and stalking toward the couch. Anticipation filled her. She reached down and grabbed the edges of his shirt.
Off
. She needed it off. That’s how he was supposed to be. Gloriously naked.

And aroused.

Goddess, she couldn’t wait to see it. His cock, standing proud. Wanting her. Waiting to fill her.

She felt herself falling, and for a second her panic response kicked in. But Hiss had her, eased her down until her back was touching soft, pliant cushion.

“You sure about this?” he asked, poised above her, his expression a mask of ferocious hunger.

Her sex tingled, hummed, craved. “You’re kidding, right?”

A cocky grin touched his mouth. She wanted to bite that mouth. And she would. Later.

“How the fuck did I get so lucky?” he uttered, pulling off his shirt. “Best day of my life when I was put in the Sub next to you.”

“Don’t,” she begged. “Don’t go there.”

“You changed me, Gia. Humbled me. I thought I was the only one suffering…” He yanked off his shirt, tossed it away.

Yes. Yes. That. Me. You
.

So insanely aroused, so insanely desperate for him to stop talking and claim her mouth again as he claimed her body, she hardly heard the knock on the door.

But Hiss heard it.

He was up and off her, and changing into his cat in seconds. It was the first time Gia had seen him shift, and for a moment, she just stared at the auburn puma. It was massive, intimidating, its shoulders nearly as wide as the door he was heading for.

“Wait,” she called.

He stopped and glanced back. Silver eyes bore a hole in her head before he snarled.
Stay back
, he seemed to be saying. And Gia’s insides liquefied once again. She was female. He was male.

The knock came again, and Hiss’s cat growled and returned to its task, stalking to the door. Once there, his mouth closed around the knob, and he turned his head. With a snarl, he pulled back the door.

A stunning dark-haired female stood there, dressed in a black tank top and tight-fitting blue jeans. The second she saw Hiss’s cat, her face lit up.

“Hiss.”

Gia watched as he quickly shifted back into his male form. He stared at the female. “Oh, Goddess. Reny.”

She didn’t say a word. Just launched herself at him. Arms going around his neck, a sound of pure pleasure exiting her mouth.

That’s when Gia stood up. And for the first time in six months, her cat came out to play.

CHAPTER 6

It had taken him time, patience and quite a bit of brawn to calm down his sexy little puma, get her to shift back and listen to him. But when he did, and when she realized that the female standing in their doorway was his sister, Gia had reacted as only Gia could: with a hug for Reny, an apology, and a push for them to go out on the porch and have some alone time together while she took a well-deserved shower.

The visual had been difficult for Hiss to walk away from. But in truth, this was the first time he and Reny had met on an even playing field, so to speak. The last time he’d seen her, spoken to her, he’d been imprisoned on the island of lost Pantera. And by lost, he meant the small cabin where uncontrolled cats and traitors to their kind were sent. He hadn’t been very kind or welcoming to Reny then. Anger and bitterness and resentment did that to a body. So did shock—as he wasn’t expecting to hear that his sister, who he’d mourned for too many years to count—was alive. But he was a different male now, and he was so grateful to see her. Who knew when that would happen again?

If it would happen again.

His gaze traveled over her face, seeking to find resemblances and memories. Those intelligent green eyes had belonged to their father. And the wicked smile that lit up her entire face mirrored his own…well, once upon a time anyway. When he’d felt the carefree puma, the purposeful Hunter, the steadfast friend.

“You know I was warned off seeing you,” she said. They were seated on the steps of the porch, the sun gently setting in shades of peach and copper. “Sebastian was afraid you’d hurt me.”

Hiss released a soft growl. He hated to think she would ever believe him capable of such a thing.

“He didn’t mean physically,” she clarified. “Break my heart kind of thing.” She smiled that smile. The wicked, teasing one. “I don’t think he understands how important you are to me. How this connection is vital to my happiness. It’s family.” She glanced out at the water. “When you were gone, taken, and I thought I’d never see you again, I felt such grief.”

Hiss’s chest tightened, and he reached out and covered her hand with his. He hated that she felt pain, but he was also pleased that she valued him at all.

“When I heard you’d come back,” she said, looking at him again, “the happiness I felt, the relief…it was palpable. But I have to say, I’m still pretty shocked that you did. After everything…”

“Yeah,” he said with a wry grin. “You’re not the only one who feels that way. Now the Pantera think I’m a fool as well as a traitor.”

“They don’t know what to think,” she said. “After all that’s happened, your anger at the elders, working with Shakpi’s followers, being taken captive, saving that female’s life—and returning here, to certain imprisonment, to save the lives of those captives… It’s hard to make a judgment with so many factors at play.”

He could tell she was looking for answers, an explanation for the mercurial range of behaviors. He released her hand, but not her gaze. “Losing you, losing the family in that way, so young…” he started. “It nearly destroyed me. I was alone. To think and grow bitter, and blame. Do you know what the elders told me?”

She shook her head.

“That you and Mom and Dad had been exposed as shifters to the human world, and were in danger. But instead of sending help, bringing you home to me, they left you to fend for yourselves. Not wanting to expose the Pantera any further. They told me you’d been killed. A fire.”

Her eyes shuttered. “Maybe that’s what they believed?” she offered. “Maybe that’s what they’d been told. I don’t excuse their callous way of dealing with the fears of having the Pantera exposed. That is truly heartless, and they should admit to it. But maybe that’s not why Mom and Dad died. Maybe the fire was just—”

“No.” His one-word interruption caused her to startle.

“You don’t think their death was an accident?”

Hiss stared at her, debating. He could hardly tell her that he believed he’d seen their mother, been cared for in the lab by her. Without proof, he’d sound insane.

“Truly, I don’t know what happened to them,” he said finally. “But I know the elders sent no one to help. Them or you.” He shook his head, cursed. “You might not have been exposed to years of abuse and torture if they… Goddess help me, Reny, I had weeks of that and my head’s not on straight. I doubt it ever will be. I don’t know how you…”

“I’m okay, Hiss,” she assured him with such vehemence that he couldn’t not believe it was true. “When it came back, all the memories, it was difficult for sure. I still dream about it, still wake up wondering where I am. But I manage. And Sebastian, my mate, he makes me feel so safe. So loved.” Her eyes warmed. “Is that how you feel with Gia?”

Just the sound of her name made his breath stall in his lungs and his pulse jump. He glanced over his shoulder at the screen door. “When I no longer cared if I breathed another day in that hole in the lab, Gia made me want to live again. She made me believe I could be better, different. Useful. Forgiven. With all I’ve done, what I’ve destroyed, I don’t deserve her, and yet I strive to.”

His sister’s eyes moved over his face. “I hate that the elders turned their back on our family. Failed our family. But as you and I know all too well, bad things happen. Choices are made for reasons that seem just, yet are petty and selfish, even cruel. On all sides,” she said pointedly. She exhaled heavily. “I don’t know, brother. Maybe I’m just saying…stop. Let it go. Ask for forgiveness, accept it if it’s granted and live the best life you can now. Because I want to know you. I want my children, if I’m ever that lucky, to know you.”

His gut was aching something fierce. So much pain, that he’d endured—and that he’d caused. “I want that too,” he uttered. “It’s why I’m here. Why I came back.”

A smile touched her lips. It was like looking in the mirror for a moment. “I’ve found you again, brother, and I’m so grateful.”

“As am I, sister,” he said, moving closer to her, dropping an arm across her shoulders.

She let her head fall to his, and for a good half hour they sat there in companionable silence, watching the sun descend into the bayou.

***

Gia hadn’t seen a real bed with clean sheets and a warm comforter in months. So after her shower, she’d decided to stretch out and relax for a few minutes while Hiss and his sister reconnected outside. Not surprisingly though, that stretch had extended to sliding underneath the covers. And the relax bit? Well, that had morphed into a good old-fashioned catnap.

One that was being deliciously interrupted by a hot, hard male body sidling up behind her.

She instantly pressed back against him and sighed. His chest was bare, but he was still wearing his sweats. She wanted those off. Wanted him naked and rubbing against her.

“Sleeping without me, Gia?” he whispered, brushing her still-damp hair off her neck with his cool fingers, then leaning in to plant a kiss on her pulse point. “Naughty kitten.”

Eyes still closed, she grinned. “I know. How will you punish me?”

A growl vibrated near her ear. “I can think of a few ideas.”

She shivered.

“But first, the guards brought dinner,” he said, licking the shell of her ear, then biting down hard on the lobe. She gasped and arched her back, felt his impressively hard cock at the base of her spine.

“I have it on the table,” he continued. “You hungry?”

Heat was swirling through her now and her mind was slow and soft. “Not for food,” she managed.

“Yeah,” he uttered. “Me neither.”

The heat and hardness of him left her momentarily, and she felt the covers being pulled away. Frustrated, heady with lust, she rolled to her back to see what was going on. Demand that he return to her. But he already had. He was positioned over her like a predatory animal, his steely gray gaze pinning her where she was.

“In my bed,” he growled. “Where you belong, Gia. You know that, don’t you? Understand that?”

Breathless, she nodded.

“Tell me,” he commanded. “I need to hear you say it.”

“This is where I belong, Hiss. In your bed. With you. Under you.”

His brow arched. “On my tongue?”

Her sex tightened and she canted her hips.

“What about on my fingers?” he demanded. “Your sweet cream coating my fingers?”

“Oh, Goddess,” she breathed. “Yes, yes, yes. Please, Hiss. I can’t take it anymore.”

“You never have to beg me, Gia.” He smiled. “Not more than once, anyway.” With deft fingers, he untied the knot of her white robe and spread the cotton flaps wide, revealing her nude body to his gaze. At first, he just stared, skimming her from face to neck, to shoulders to breasts to waist… But when those two gray orbs settled on her sex, which she’d shaved bare in the shower tonight, his nostrils flared and for a second she saw his cat shift in and out of his features.

It made her wild with lust. Every muscle in her body going tense, ready, waiting for his command. She was a puma female and she loved when Hiss showed her his Pantera male fierceness.

“Did you do this to tempt me, Gia?” he asked, his eyes sliding up to meet hers.

“You bet your ass I did, Hiss,” she shot back, then smiled wickedly.

“It wasn’t necessary,” he said, dropping his head and kissing her mouth. “The sweet scent of your pussy has been driving me insane for weeks.” He started moving down her body. One hand fisted her breast, while his mouth hovered above the other. “I need no more encouragement.”

Gia was hardly breathing. She was stiff. Dying to be touched, licked, eaten.

“However…” As his right hand kneaded her breasts, he nuzzled the other with his nose, then flicked the tight bud with his tongue. “It is a most tempting sight.”

She inhaled sharply and canted her hips again. “Hiss, please. You’re being cruel.”

He laughed, his hot breath teasing her wet, sensitive nipple. “I’m savoring,
ma chère
. Every delectable inch. And you are that…delectable.” He sucked her nipple into his mouth hard.

Gia grabbed his head, threaded his hair with her fingers and growled.

“Your pussy had better be soaking wet by the time I get to it, Gia,” he warned, his tone savage, guttural. “Or else I may not put my mouth on you.” He lowered his head and kissed her ribs, then her belly. “Do you have enough cream for me, kitten?”

Back arched, fingers digging into Hiss’s scalp, Gia was one strung-out nerve ending. She was afraid that one lick of Hiss’s sharp, demanding tongue and she would come. Goddess, she didn’t want that. She’d dreamed about this moment. Being taken by this male. It wouldn’t be momentary bliss.