Bengal's Heart (40 page)

“Cabal, don’t tease me.” Her breathy tone sent shards of impatience tearing through him.

The soft brush of her thigh against his cock had pre-cum spilling from the tip. He was on an edge he had never known before. The need to savor her body versus the need to spill inside it. God only knew which hunger would be sated first.

Moving lower, he couldn’t help but swipe his tongue over one hard nipple, then the next. A single taste would never be enough though. He drew the tight tip into his mouth, sucked at it, laved it with his tongue and tasted her until she was arching to him and crying out his name.

Then he couldn’t have one without having the other. He sucked the mate into his mouth with greedy hunger. Sucked it. Worshiped it. God help him, but he couldn’t get enough of her.

“Cabal, you’re killing me,” she cried out, but the pleasure in her voice was enough to spur him on.

He moved lower. Stringing kisses down her torso, along her stomach, he spread her legs and inhaled the sweet, delicate scent of arousal. Of pure heated female.

And he had to taste there as well. The scent of her was pure fucking bliss.

“You taste like summer,” he groaned as he lowered himself between her thighs. “Hot and sweet.”

His tongue swiped through the narrow slit, drawing her juices to it, tasting the incredible need that flowed from her. Never had a woman tasted so sweet or so damned innocent.

She wasn’t tainted by another man’s touch. No other male’s scent lingered on her flesh. She was pure. Fresh. And he needed more of her. So much more of her.

He licked the soft folds, drew them into his mouth. Each taste of her pushed him higher, and he swore he could feel his cock thickening, growing harder. It felt like pure hardened steel between his thighs, burning to find the haven that only she could provide.

His hands gripped her thighs as she twisted against him, pushed her pussy closer to his lips and gave him more of her. Her clit was swollen, drawing his tongue. It tasted as sweet and hot as the rest of her. He was burning in the grip of the hunger that filled him now. Every cell in his body was focused on one thing only—Cassa. Her touch, her taste, the feel of her need, the husky murmurs of her desire.

As her fingers buried themselves in his hair, he allowed her to draw his lips back to the swollen little bud of her clit. He licked it. Teased it.

“Suck it.” The needy command had his blood pressure rising. Hell, his blood was going to pound right out of his flesh at this rate.

“Please, Cabal. Oh God. Please.”

His lips enclosed the hardened knot of nerve endings as he sucked it in and allowed his tongue to flicker with the utmost gentleness over the responsive bud.

She writhed beneath him. Her hips pumped, her thighs tightened and he could feel her release building inside her. He could smell it. She was close. So fucking close that he knew it would take so little to push her right over the edge.

And that was where he wanted her. Flying in his arms.

Tightening his grip on her thighs, he sucked her clit deeper into his mouth, harder. His tongue stiffened, flickered harder, faster over the flexing flesh, and within seconds her ecstatic cries were filling his head as she exploded beneath him.

He couldn’t wait. Her orgasm was burning over his tongue when he jerked upright, lifted her legs and pressed the burning crest of his cock into the saturated folds.

They enclosed him. He swore her sweet pussy sucked him in as he worked the thick flesh inside her. Flexing, silken muscles tightened around him, stroking that violently sensitive crown, then the hardened shaft, until he was seated fully inside her, surrounded by fiery heat.

Primal hunger filled him now. There was no stopping. There was no way to halt the inferno overtaking both of them. He could smell it in the air, infused with emotions he couldn’t decipher, and needs as instinctive as nature itself.

Gripping her hips, he pulled back, trying to move slow, fighting to relish every stroke, every caress. Her nails bit into his wrists as she held on to him. Her head was arched back, her hips lifting to him.

Fuck it. God, he couldn’t hold back. He needed too much, needed her too desperately.

Moving over her, his lips took hers as he began to stroke inside her. His hips pumped, churned as he fought to work every inch of the burning shaft inside her with each stroke. She was tight. A heated, snug grip that made him mindless with the need for release.

Holding on was torture. Control was barely a thought, focused solely on holding back his own release for hers. She had to come. He had to feel her orgasm tightening around him, flowing around him. It was imperative. Nothing else mattered.

Her whimpers beneath their kiss assured him it was building again. Each stroke inside her and he swore she was growing tighter, wetter, slicker.

He couldn’t kiss her and breathe. He couldn’t stop kissing her. His tongue pumped inside her mouth as his cock pumped inside her pussy, until he couldn’t bear much more. He couldn’t hold back. He was losing control, losing thought and his sanity inside her.

Jerking his lips back from hers, he buried his head at her shoulder, his teeth clamped on the mating mark, and then he felt it. She tightened, drew taut in his hold, as a shattered cry fell from her lips and her orgasm exploded through her.

Cabal couldn’t hold back the growling snarl that tore from his chest. He plunged inside her again, again. Felt her orgasm rushing around him and lost himself to his own.

The barb beneath the head of his cock pressed out, became erect, violently hard and locked him inside her at the moment of his release. With each spurt of semen he felt the shudders of furious pleasure tearing through, ripping through his soul, opening it for her.

He held her close, one hand buried in her hair, to hold her to his heart, as he fought to breathe through the ecstasy.

She was his. His woman. His mate. His life.

Nothing in this world would ever matter as much as Cassa.

Not his life or others. He would die without her. And by God, he would have no compunction in killing to protect her.

She was more than just his heart. Cassa was his soul.

◆ CHAPTER 23
◆

“I’m not going to sit here in this room and wait on someone who’s not coming.”

Cassa made her announcement the moment she stepped out of the bathroom, freshly showered and dressed. She wasn’t a patient person when it came to pacing the floors. She would just as soon be pacing the sidewalk adding to her story or hunting down sources.

Hunting down sources was her primary concern today. She had several in mind, for information she needed. Chief among the questions she had was in regards to any surviving members of the Feline pride that had been massacred on Valentine’s night twenty-two years ago. Who was left? Who would be taking vengeance now?

She knew Walt Jameson had information, and there were the two Breeds that had been in the café the morning she had met Myron there. On closer thought, those Breeds had been a little too curious. They were watching her that day, listening to her conversation. Which meant they were most likely involved.

She was going to find them and simply have a nice little conversation with them. Maybe mention Valentine’s Day. Maybe mention Douglas.

She felt armed for battle. Dressed in jeans, her favorite dark gray long-sleeved T-shirt and boots. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and a light dusting of makeup had been applied where she felt it was needed.

Last night had held too many revelations, and too many surprises. She wasn’t a sitting duck for anyone, especially Douglas Watts. She had put that behind her the day she thought Douglas had died, and she wasn’t returning to it.

She watched Cabal as he turned from the window to stare back at her. She took in the hard expression, but paid attention to the glitter of amber in his forest green eyes.

Those eyes almost had the power to mesmerize her. She could stare into them for hours, lose place and time and never regret a moment of it. If she let herself.

“What do you think you can do before Watts arrives?” He crossed his arms over the dark gray cotton shirt he wore, as his gaze flickered over her.

“There’s any number of things I can do.” She shrugged. “High on the list is finding Walt Jameson. I’d like to talk to him a bit more.”

“Why?” Suspicion hardened his eyes.

“Because I suspect he’s more involved in this than even you know,” she informed him. “And he offered me information. I intend to take him up on that.”

“He’s close to Myron and Danna,” he informed her. “Anything you talk to him about he’s going to talk to them about.”

“Then I’ll just have to talk to him discreetly.” She shrugged. “I am aware of how that’s done, Cabal.”

And she needed to get out of this bedroom, away from him. The night before had thrown her off balance. Not just in terms of the revelations she had learned, but also in terms of things she had learned about herself as he held her in his arms.

She had felt more last night than she had ever felt in her life. Each touch he had given her, each kiss had sunk clear to the core of her spirit. It had been like flying. Like being reborn. And now she felt off balance, uncertain. She needed time to think, time away from his touch to make sense of it.

“I have no doubt that you can question him very discreetly, Cassa.” He blew out a rough breath as he pushed the fingers of one hand through his hair, feathering it back from his face only to have the silken strands fall back into place. “I just know Walt. If Danna and Myron are involved in this, he’s going to protect them. And if they’re involved, then no doubt he is as well.”

“I’ll talk carefully,” she stated. “But I will talk to him.”

She moved to the desk and quickly stored her electronic notepad in its case before pushing it into her pack. Sitting here waiting wasn’t something she could do. She had to get out of this room, she had to put some distance between herself and her need to stroke Cabal from head to toe.

Her hands were tingling with the need to just pet him. Just touch him. And she knew damned good and well where that would lead.

Her body was already heating in response to that thought. It seemed that the more she touched him, the more she was touched by him, the more she wanted.

“You think you’re leaving here without me, don’t you?” he asked with an edge of amusement in his tone and his expression as he watched her.

Cabal personified male arrogance. She could see it, feel it pouring off him. She might think she was going to go without him, she might even want to go without him, but as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t going to happen.

It was a damned good thing she had decided she was better off with him than without him at this point. She was stubborn, and she liked her job, but she had to admit that with the information she now had, things might be just a little too dangerous for her alone.

“Actually, I more or less assumed you would just follow along,” she replied blithely. “So come on, Bengal. Let’s get to work.”

She didn’t miss the narrowed eyes or the look of male outrage in his gaze. Well hell, if she was going to have to put up with his male attitude, then he better learn to take her female adjustments. It was that simple.

“You know, Cassa, we’re going to have to discuss this penchant you have for pricking my ego,” he stated as they left the room.

“Really?” She couldn’t help the laughter in her voice as she glanced back at him. “You know, Cabal, I was just thinking the same thing about my ego. Sounds like a lengthy discussion to me. Are you certain you have the patience for it?”

The sound he made behind her was between a purr and a growl. Almost one of anticipation.

Funny, she thought, she had heard that Feline Breed males would purr for their mates, normally after sex. She hadn’t heard a single purr yet. And here she had been looking forward to it.

Another discussion they might be having soon. She made a mental note of that one.

Start as you mean to go on. That was the advice her mother had always given her where men were concerned. Weigh each confrontation and ensure you can handle years of it before you decide to bow down and let a man have his way. Because give him an inch and he was going to take a mile. Or in Cabal’s case, an interstate.

As they left the inn, she felt his hand settle in the small of her back as he led her to the black Raider normally designated as a law enforcement or Breed vehicle. The high-profile, four-wheel-drive vehicle was rated for normal road use, but designated for off-road efficiency.

She’d often heard that it could almost climb a tree if it had to. The Bureau of Breed Affairs loved the vehicles.

Having opened the door with the keyless entry remote, Cabal helped her step up into the seat. She didn’t miss the way his hand caressed the outside of her thigh, or the heated look he gave her. It was enough to make her wonder if perhaps she should have postponed this little outing for a bit more inside playtime.

She almost laughed at the thought, as well as the almost giddy euphoria she could feel moving through her. She felt . . . happy. And why she felt that way didn’t even make sense.

It had something to do with the night before. The way he had held her after taking her, the feel of his lips as he kissed her head while cuddling her to him.

Last night he hadn’t budged from her side. He hadn’t let go of her. He hadn’t given her a chance to feel the familiar chill of loneliness that usually afflicted her while she was on assignment. His arms had been strong, his big body warm. And Cassa had felt almost cherished.

It was a good feeling. A fool’s dream perhaps, because only a fool could believe in happily ever after considering the past she and Cabal shared. But it had been nice. It had been satisfying.

As he got into the driver’s seat and closed the door behind him, she caught the look he shot her and had to restrain her smile. It would have been a very self-satisfied smile. Because his look lacked that complete male confidence he’d always had until now. As though he was questioning his opinion of her or their relationship.