Leopard's Spots 2: Oscar (4 page)

“Ah, god!” Josiah’s lips were on the thin side, but they were almost a coral colour, and well-shaped even if they weren’t thick and pouty-looking. Oscar was glad for that. He always associated thick and pouty lips with guys like, well, like himself. Young and pretty.

But Josiah’s lips were perfectly masculine in Oscar’s opinion. Strong, lean, determined, and they’d look fucking perfect wrapped around his dick. Oscar whimpered. His balls tingled and drew up tight.

“P-please, fuck fuck fuck!” he babbled mindlessly, squeezing right under his cockhead. He bit his bottom lip and cum spurted from his slit, hitting the shower wall, leaving a trail of white streaks on the tile.

Gradually he got his breath back and cleaned up, using a generous helping of soap to help eradicate the scent of spunk. Maybe he was being paranoid about it, but what kid wanted their parents to know they’d been masturbating? He towelled off and took care of his other hygiene needs then left the bathroom to get dressed.

Since his dad wasn’t back yet, Oscar didn’t give it a thought before dropping the towel. He was digging through his duffle for underwear—he could have sworn he’d packed some more, but it wasn’t looking good—when he heard someone outside the door muttering. Oscar grabbed a pair of jeans and sprinted back to the bathroom seconds before the hotel room door swung open.

“Tacos!” Henry called out, as if the spicy scent hadn’t already swamped the room.

Oscar’s stomach rumbled and he quickly put the pants on, only slowing down to make sure he didn’t end up with his dick in the zipper. He’d seen a movie where that had happened and was pretty sure he was scarred for life from it, or at least paranoid enough that he didn’t like going without underwear.

“Coming!” Oscar buttoned his waistband.

He stepped out of the bathroom and almost drooled at the food laid out on the table. His dad’s eyes were lit up with an eagerness that made Oscar happy to see. Things had been so tense lately, what with them worrying about another cougar shifter showing up to cause trouble. It would have been great if he and his dad could just have this trip together to enjoy, but that wasn’t the case, and it made Oscar even more grateful for every good moment they could share.

“Looks good,” Oscar said once he sat across from his dad.

The table was so little their knees bumped, but neither seemed to care. They were too busy ogling the food.

“Smells even better.” Henry inspected a small container of green sauce. “They said this one is really hot. You want to try it?”

Oscar snorted but nodded. He could smell the peppers in that green sauce. No doubt his lips were going to burn and he’d be sweating like a pig, but damn, he wanted that sauce. “All of it on this one.” Oscar picked up a carne asada taco and parted the tortilla.

As soon as Henry dumped the hot sauce on it, Oscar brought the taco to his mouth and took a big bite. “Oh my god,” he whimpered, heat and spices flooding his taste buds and actually making him shiver. “So good—”

Henry chuckled but was soon moaning around a mouthful of his own taco. Together they enjoyed breakfast, even though Oscar couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. It’d come on him suddenly, as if for having this time with his dad there’d be a horrible cost. It was stupid, almost superstitious, but Oscar couldn’t make the thought go away.

“I’ll clean this up.” Oscar scooted back his chair and groaned. He was so full he didn’t think he could waddle, but if he ate like this more often, maybe he wouldn’t be such a skinny twerp.

No negative thoughts, not today. I have to work past my tendency to dog myself.

He couldn’t do anything about the missing fingertips, those weren’t growing back, but he could damn well stop ragging on himself. It wasn’t like he really thought he was a loser, most of the time, but years of being called one and worse made it hard not to fall back on self-abuse when he was stressed or afraid.

Right now, he was both, although he wasn’t sure why. He cleaned the table off while his dad called his mom and checked in. Oscar listened intently to Henry’s end of the conversation about not being able to find any information on cougar shifters in the area, and how frustrated he was at trying to find the names of Tavares’ kids. And forget talking to Cole Tavares himself, at least at this point. As far as they had found out, Tavares was in Mexico.

Oscar put on a shirt and brushed his teeth again, and when he exited the bathroom his dad was off the phone. Henry stood by the window looking down at the street or the sidewalk, Oscar wasn’t sure which.

“How’s Mom and everyone doing?”

Henry smiled, and it seemed to Oscar he glowed from the inside at the mention of his wife. Oscar wanted that soft, content expression his dad got, wanted to know what it was like to love someone that much.

“She’s fine. Wants us home and she still thinks we’re not the brightest crayons in the box for coming after Tavares, but she loves us anyways.” Henry leant forward and pressed his forehead to the window.

Oscar could see his frown reflected in the glass.

“There’s been the same three guys walking back and forth in front of the hotel over the past several minutes. Well, four, actually, but this one guy isn’t with the first three, I don’t think. He looks like he’d eat the others for breakfast, and he’s been standing at the bus stop watching them. Watching me, too, I think. I can’t tell without staring at him, and I would rather he not know I’m on to him.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be scowling down at him.” Oscar suggested. He moved over to the edge of the window, beside the thick drapes.

“Careful, don’t let him see you.”

Oscar fought against rolling his eyes. He wasn’t stupid. Instead, he concentrated on being extra cautious as he peeked past the material to the street below. His stomach warmed up and did a swirly, dipping type of thing that made him feel dizzy. “Oh fuck,” he mumbled.

“Oscar Ray Travis!” Henry snapped. “Watch your mouth! You may be an adult but you are
still
my baby boy!”

Oscar gave up the fight and rolled his eyes. “Yeah. I know. It’d be nice to be treated like a man, though.”

Henry stepped back and away from the window before he touched Oscar’s shoulder. Oscar looked at his dad and knew he was about to get a well-deserved lecture.

“Being a man doesn’t mean you have to use bad language so much.” Henry frowned at him. “Don’t think I haven’t heard you. You’ve got a worse mouth than your brothers.”

“But not Jenny,” Oscar pointed out.

Oscar’s sister could out-cuss any sailor, he’d bet his left nut on it. Well, maybe not his left nut, but still. And that wasn’t the point, and his dad was giving him
The Look,
the one parents all seemed to give their kids that made those kids realise what ungrateful, mouthy little shits…brats they were.

“Sorry.” Oscar lowered his eyelids partially and sneaked another glance at the bus stop. Then he pushed the curtain aside. “I am, Dad, okay? I know I have an attitude problem, chip on my shoulder, whatever, and I’ll work on it. Are you sure the guy on the bench was checking up here?” Oscar couldn’t see Josiah, and he wanted to. He wanted to go find Josiah and ask him why the hell he was hanging around outside, and how he’d found Oscar.

He’s a shifter, idiot. For all I know, he followed me here last night. Or he could have a very accurate sense of smell, like mine. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to hunt me down later, after I left. But Dad said there were other guys, too. Did some of those other guys from the club find me? Why would they bother? I’m not worth so much trouble.

“…I saw him do it more than once.” Henry stepped back up to the window and didn’t even try to pretend he wasn’t looking for Josiah. “Where’d he go?” Henry bumped his nose on the glass as he turned his head. “I don’t see any of them. Maybe I was wrong. No, no, I know I saw the big guy watching this window. Watching me.”

Oscar hated his conscience sometimes, like now, when it was slapping him around. He wanted to be treated like an adult, he was a man, blah blah blah, and here he was afraid to tell his dad about Josiah. And why was he still feeling all warm and tingly?

God, I sound like a chick in a
romance flick
. It was ridiculous. Yet Oscar couldn’t help but move closer to the window. He scanned the street again as he started talking, hesitantly explaining how he knew Josiah, and gradually a sense of relief filled him. Maybe his dad could help him make sense of the weird feelings fluttering around inside him.

It hadn’t been hard at all to follow Oscar last night. The leopard had had enough of a head start that Josiah hadn’t worried about being spotted, but he’d still been careful. And once he’d seen Oscar go into the hotel, Josiah had waited for a while before going inside and following the scent of the sexy man right up to his room. He’d freaked a bit at first when he’d detected another man there as well, but the similarity in their scents quickly cut through his stupid jealousy and Josiah was ninety-nine per cent sure whoever was in there with Oscar was a family member.

If not, Josiah would run the fucker off. Oscar was his, and vice versa. Besides, if the mate bond worked with snow leopards like it did for all the other shifters Josiah knew, Oscar wouldn’t be able to fuck around with anyone else. He’d be repulsed to the point of being physically ill, or so Josiah had heard. He had only been around happily mated couples. As far as he knew, those were the only kind that existed, so how would anyone know what happened in situations where one shifter tried to have sex with someone other than their mate?The mate bond had to apply to Oscar, because otherwise Josiah figured he was up shit creek.

He hadn’t been able to sleep much for fear Oscar would check out of the hotel. Josiah would have hunted him down all over again, but it would have been a pain in the butt and taken up time he didn’t want to waste. So instead, he’d given up on sleep after a few hours then showered again and driven over to the hotel. The Marriot had a nice parking garage and it was secure enough for Josiah to feel comfortable leaving his new truck in there while he stalked Oscar…like Oscar had accused him of doing, or wanting to do. Yeah, Oscar was a pretty damn smart guy. He’d keep Josiah on his toes.

What he couldn’t figure out was why there were three cougar shifters watching the place, too. He didn’t know the guys, but he did have a few cougar friends and he’d thumbed off a text to them asking if they recognised the men. The picture he’d snapped was kind of blurry, but even so, Cecilia had texted back that she thought they were the Tavares’ brothers.

That wasn’t exactly helpful, but at least Josiah had a place to start, sort of. Shortly thereafter he’d felt it, someone watching him, and when he’d looked up to the third-storey window where he knew Oscar’s room was, he’d caught an older man watching him. The way the guy had studiously averted his face away from Josiah convinced him he’d been the object of unwanted attention. Josiah played the peek-but-don’t-get-caught game with the man for a while before his skin had pebbled with an awareness that made his nerves ping and his cock pump to aching hardness.

Oscar was up there, at the window right now. Josiah didn’t glance his way, he didn’t need to in order to know he was right. Instead, Josiah concentrated on the cougars, until suddenly one of them zeroed in on him.

Not the sharpest guys ever. Took them long enough to realise I’ve been watching them for a while now.

The biggest of the three, who also appeared to be a little older than the other two, glanced up at the window before turning back towards Josiah and smirking.

Josiah was up off the bench before he knew it. He didn’t like the man’s expression, not at all. The older cougar took a step forward only to stop when the other two grabbed his arms and pulled. They said something to him, whispering in such low tones Josiah could just make out the ‘please, not now!’ right before the cougars turned and strolled off.

Strolled, because that one, the smirking bastard, pointed at Josiah then up at the room where Oscar was. And it unsettled him. He didn’t know what the hell was going on. Should he chase after the cougars? Were they really a threat? One thing was for sure, the cougars knew Oscar was up in that room, or the other man was up there, or both of them. And they knew Josiah was watching. Waiting. But did they know why? He was certain they weren’t watching him. They’d been so intent on spying on Oscar’s room they hadn’t noticed him for a long time.

So what did they want with Oscar, or whoever Oscar was with? Josiah cursed and watched the cougars turn the corner. He took a step forward but stopped instead of proceeding. Did he dare leave now? What if there were others here, watching, waiting for Josiah to slip up in his vigilance?

“What the fuck is going on?” Josiah snarled and pivoted around, nearly elbowing a man who spun out of the way.

“Watch it, asshole!”

“Sorry,” Josiah muttered, but the stranger just flipped him off and went on his way. Josiah kind of wished he’d knocked him on his ass instead of trying to avoid a collision. Why was he even bothering to waste his time being pissed about it? Josiah shoved his irritation aside because he had a more pressing need.

In a matter of seconds, Josiah was inside the hotel lobby. As was the case last night, the front desk attendants were busy, either on the phone or with customers. Even if they hadn’t been, Josiah wouldn’t have worried much about one of them stopping him. He knew the trick to fitting in was just to act like you did. He strolled over to the elevator and waited with the other people until the car arrived.

Inside he poked the button for the third floor. Josiah studied the floor as the damned elevator took off. Every jostle made his heart feel like it was just about stop. Josiah hated heights, and he hated elevators twice as much.

When the doors opened, he thought he did good to not run over everyone trying to get out. As soon as he was free of the hellacious contraption, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and from above his top lip. He ran a hand over his hair and made sure his shirt was tucked in, wanting to appear as presentable and non-threatening as possible.