Tempted by the Jaguar #3: Ramification (Riverford Shifters) (7 page)

“Thanks a lot, buddy,” Hunter muttered under his breath as he raked a
hand through his hair in agitation. “Though I suppose he has a point. The last
hour has shown me just how much I let my hatred of those lion bastards fuck up
my common sense. After what we shared, I should have at least had the decency
to hear you out.”

“Sooner or later, Polyshifters always cause chaos,” Kylie whispered,
still unable to look at him. “My mother used to say this all the time. Her
voice always sounded so sad. It used to scare me a lot because normally she was
always so incredibly cheerful and full of life. This morning proved she was
right.”

Kylie forced herself to look up, to capture and hold his gaze. What she
said next was the hardest thing she had ever had to say, every word shattering
the last of the small hope of the possibility of love she just now realized she
had been clinging to by tooth and nails despite everything.

“Last night should have never happened.”

Her words hung in the air like a toxic cloud ready to suffocate her.
Yet, Hunter didn’t so much as blink as he looked back at her with that same
unreadable expression he had held before as he had stood in the back of the
room staring at her back. One minute, two, then five, and the silence that had
fallen between them still stretched on, broken only by the steady beeps of
Paul’s heart monitor, until Kylie had to struggle hard not to look away.

Then Hunter’s eyes inexplicably softened. “I can see it in your eyes,
you know,” he said finally, “that you really believe that, but not for the
reason you want me to think. You want to run, and I can understand that given
everything that’s happened, my fuck-up playing a not-so-insignificant part.”

Kylie looked away, then lowered her eyes to Paul’s still-sleeping face.
“You don’t need to keep apologizing. I wasn’t exactly a complete innocent in
all this.”

She could feel Hunter’s eyes boring into the back of her head, making
some deep remnant of her shifter side still present in her psyche want to turn
around and snap her jaws at him.

“He’s going to need some time to recover,” Hunter said. “In the
meantime, my clan can protect him here.” He was gazing intensely at her when
she reluctantly turned back to him. “And I’ll protect you, if you’ll let me.”

Kylie’s heart clenched. “Please don’t say that,” she said softly.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be. You’ve already seen what having a
Polyshifter suddenly pop up in front of you can do to upset what you thought
were strong ties. Even if the lions haven’t found out about my true heritage
yet, I have no doubt that assassin told others about me.”

Kylie laughed humorlessly. “The rogue lion. That’s almost as bad as
being a Polyshifter. I don’t think they’ll ever stop coming after me. That’s
why it’s better for me to leave now before things become much worse. Paul
almost died this time trying to protect me. The next time he might not be so
lucky to survive—or it might even be
you
that’s killed—”

Hunter was out of his chair in an instant, and then his mouth, hard and
demanding, abruptly silenced the rest of her words. One hand held the back of
her head in place and the other snaked around her middle in order to draw her up
out of her chair and flush against him. Kylie let out a muffled sound of shock
and tried to pull away, but Hunter’s arm was all curved steel.

Then she found her mouth opening for him of its own accord, and
suddenly his hot tongue was sliding sensually against her own.

Idiot! Idiot!
she berated herself, but she couldn’t bring
herself to fight against the kiss seriously, especially when it was something
her wounded soul wanted so badly.

The warmth of Hunter’s firm body acted like a balm, and soon Kylie was closing
her eyes and wrapping her arms around his waist, all but melting against him.

Hunter made a noise of pleasure against her lips, and the kiss deepened
to something more frenzied and passionate.

“It seems I missed quite a lot,” a raspy, amused voice suddenly broke
through the loud drumming of her heart what could have been equally minutes or
hours later.

Kylie immediately broke away from the kiss, feeling a surge of both
guilt and joy and looked down at the mildly smiling man with the oxygen tubes
up his nose. “Paul! You’re awake!”

Hunter reluctantly released her when she pushed hard against his arms,
but he stayed close as she carefully picked up Paul’s right hand and gave it a
gentle squeeze between her own.

“So I take it, it really wasn’t a scratch?” Paul said more jovially
than a man waking up from surgery should have been capable of, his gaze weakly
sweeping the room.

Kylie fought hard to keep the tears that were threatening to well up at
bay. The last thing she wanted to do was to make Paul worry about her distress.

“When is it ever?” Kylie scolded, forcing a tiny smile. “That bitch
nicked your liver. Needless to say, you’re going to be in here a while.”

“Where are we?” Paul asked, wincing as he tried to shift his legs.
“This room doesn’t look like any of the patient rooms in Riverford Regional or
St. Mary’s.”

“It’s the jaguar clan’s private clinic,” Hunter interjected. “None of
the humans even know it exists. I’m sure you, of all people, understand the
need for that level of discretion in this case.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed. “Given the eyeful I got when I woke up, I think
introductions are long overdue.”

Without batting an eye, Hunter offered Paul his hand. “Hunter Rivera.”

 She had no idea how the bastard could handle everything so calmly all
the time.

“Paul Moore. I was conscious long enough to know it was you and your
people who saved my daughter from that lioness. I can’t thank you enough.
However, forgive me if I’m just a little bit concerned about you two starting
something again given the circumstances.”

Kylie winced. She heard Paul’s chastisement loud and clear even if
Hunter didn’t. What she had just allowed to happen was incredibly dumb—no, it
was actually incredibly cruel to both of them. It was just as she’d told Hunter
earlier. It was simply too dangerous to stay in Riverford longer than was
absolutely necessary. She knew it, and Paul knew it.

“I will protect her.”

Kylie turned her head to look at Hunter so sharply that her neck
cracked. What the hell was he
saying
?

But Hunter wasn’t looking at her. He was looking down at Paul with a
look of challenge in his eyes. Paul met his gaze with an unconscious upward
lift of his chin.

An eternity later, her adoptive father slowly nodded. “As long as you
truly mean it, and it’s what Kylie wants, then I won’t say another word about
it.”

Kylie opened her mouth, but no sound emerged as she was inundated with
a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. She fisted her hands tightly at her sides
and tried again, “Paul, I—”

“Kylie,” Paul cut in gently. “It’s not me you should be talking to
right now. As you can see, I’m fine now, if rather achy and sleepy. Go take
care of what needs to be taken care of. You know where to find me afterwards.”

“I’ll call the doctor for you, Mr. Moore,” Hunter said, wrapping a deliberate
arm tightly around Kylie’s waist. “I’ll also make sure Kylie gets some rest.”

Too conflicted to argue, Kylie merely said goodbye to Paul and allowed
Hunter to guide her out of the room.

“I’m curious,” Hunter said as he slowly ran a hand soothingly through her
hair. “How is it that a Polyshifter can choose which animal to shift into? Do
you just think “jaguar” or “tiger” with the desire to shift?”

They were currently lying intertwined on top of the comforter of a bed
located in one of the spare rooms on the top floor of the clinic that the
hospital provided for the staff. Kylie’s head was pillowed on his chest.

She had balked at first when she had walked into the room and had seen
the bed—she had been expecting a waiting room or staff break room of some sort—but
after some gentle coaxing, she had given in to the desire to be held by him again.
She knew she could trust him when he had said that nothing would happen in that
room that she didn’t one hundred and ten percent want to happen.

Kylie sighed wearily. “I wish it was that easy. Then this whole
nightmarish day could have been avoided. No, the trigger is either shifter
blood or…” She wrinkled her nose. “…territorial markings. It has to come in
contact with my skin. Provided I inherited the right shifter genes, it triggers
a change in which animal soul becomes dominant. I was in your territory the
night my shifter side was awakened. That’s why my first shift was into a
jaguar. Unless you have a habit of bleeding all over the place, as embarrassing
as it sounds, I must have touched some of your territorial markings when that
monster tossed me onto the ground.”

“Your hands were once covered with the blood of a human,” Hunter
pointed out. “Why didn’t you revert back into a human?”

“Changing into a pure human is different. Only the saliva of a human
can trigger a shift that represses
all
of my animal souls. My father and
Paul thought it might be because of a particular enzyme within a human’s saliva
that negated whatever biological process that allowed us to shift to begin
with.”

“Polyshifters are more mysterious than I ever imagined,” Hunter said.

“We can’t all be lion clan spies,” Kylie quipped and then instantly
regretted it. What the hell was wrong with her?

Hunter’s hand stilled. “You know I feel horrible about immediately
thinking that about you, right?” he asked quietly.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“You’re angry,” he stated.

“Not at you—at least not anymore. That you rejected me so quickly hurt,
yes, but that was mostly my fault. Given what a lot of Polyshifters have done to
so many shifter clans on behalf of the lions—well, it would have been stupid
for you
not
to be suspicious. I can pretty up my part in the whole mess
by saying I was just afraid, that we’d only known each other for a couple days,
but while those things are true, it’s also true that I
did
deceive you
by pretending not to know anything about shifters at all. It was awfully unfair
of me to expect any other reaction from you when I wasn’t even being completely
truthful.”

Hunter lifted her chin up with a couple of fingers until her eyes met
his. “I don’t want you to be angry at yourself, either,” he said firmly. “We
both could have handled everything a thousand times better, so let’s just leave
it at that.”

He bent his head down and brushed his lips lightly against hers. “Can
we start over?”

There were a thousand reasons why she should get up from that bed and
walk away before it was too late. She was bad news. As a Polyshifter, she would
always be bad news, a curse to everyone who dared get close to her. Maybe Hunter
would hate her for a little while, but that was better than him dying because
someone was after
her
.

“I will help you Kylie,” Hunter said gruffly, hugging her body more
securely against him. “Maxim, Paul, Karen, and Mitch—we’ll all help you. You
don’t have fight those bastards alone.”

To her horror, Kylie felt her eyes begin to well up with tears. It was
as though Hunter’s words had poked at a ball of hurt she hadn’t realized had
been festering deep in the bowels of her soul.

She immediately buried her face into his t-shirt. Damned if she would
let him see her fall apart.

Hunter tightened his arms around her and rolled them over until his
body lay atop hers. Kylie kept her eyes scrunched shut even as she clutched at
his shoulders almost desperately. His weight felt good, making her insides
start to tingle with warmth and something much more exciting. The urge to cry
began to slowly ease as her cheeks began to grow warmer.

He kissed her forehead tenderly, and Kylie’s eyes finally opened. His
eyes glittered with strength as well as what she imagined was the wild spark of
his jaguar soul.

She slowly opened her legs until Hunter’s body naturally settled
between them.

“I want you,” she admitted.

It was said in a barely audible whisper, but there was no doubt that
Hunter’s keen jaguar ears heard her loud and clear.

His eyes seemed to flash with an inner light, and then he was devouring
her mouth, his tongue thrusting aggressively into her mouth and finding hers
ready to join its pleasurable dance.

Kylie’s knees tightened around his waist as Hunter began a slow, hard
grind against her groin. If he didn’t slow down, her panties would be drenched
before they even got naked. She tugged at his shirt insistently until he took
the hint and pulled himself away from her lips long enough for her to pull it
over his head, followed almost immediately by her blouse and bra.

With a mischievous grin, Hunter dipped his head and bit down lightly on
one very erect and sensitive nipple, making her involuntarily cry out, before
taking it into his mouth and sucking hard. Kylie arched her back and grasped a
handful of his hair, tugging at the dark locks in time to his licking and
sucking.

Needing something more, she searched blindly for his hand and once found,
brought it up to her thus-far-neglected breast. Still guiding his hand, she
teasingly slid his fingers slowly over that aching nipple once, then back again
before she released him. Hunter slid his thumb over the nub several times, just
as slowly, maddeningly as she had shown him, before he abruptly pinched it
hard.

“Hunter!”

Kylie bucked her hips and moaned, “Pants off, now! I want to feel your
sexy skin sliding against my entire body…”

She only got as far as unbuttoning her jeans before they and her
panties were whisked down her legs at the same time faster than she could
blink. His own jeans and boxers soon joined hers over the side of the bed.

Then Hunter’s body was once again stretched over hers, grinding her
down into the mattress as he thrust his hardness against her aching pussy until
she moaned.

When his lips once again found hers, Kylie nipped at his bottom lip
hard, pleased when a faint, coppery taste flooded her tongue as she licked it.
Within moments, Hunter’s masculine scent changed to something achingly more
familiar and heady.

Hunter pulled away with a gasp. “Kylie you—!” he sputtered, his
nostrils flaring several times and the hazel in his eyes becoming more
prominent. “You didn’t have to do that. It doesn’t matter if you’re human, a
cougar or a jaguar or a bear to me.”

“But it does matter,” she insisted. “If we do this, if I ultimately
decide to stay here in Riverford, then it will be as a jaguar, a member of your
clan. What better time to make the change than now?”

Kylie then leaned forward and pressed her nose into his neck and
inhaled deeply. “Besides, smelling you like this really turns me on,” she said
with a wicked grin.

The startled look on Hunter’s face quickly turned to something much
more lustful. “Then in that case—” He reached down and inserted two of his fingers
into her wet passage in one hard thrust, making her squeak and dig her nails
into his large, rock-hard biceps. “Let’s see if I can’t stoke the fires a bit
higher.”

He hooked his fingers as he began to thrust them in and out, rubbing
that spot that never failed to drive her wild while his thumb massaged rough
circles over her clit. He then bent down to claim her lips again, swallowing
her moans as though he needed them to breathe.

Already on the brink of climax, Kylie reached down to encircle his already
leaking cock and gave it a few, aggressive strokes until it was Hunter’s turn
to moan.

“I want to feel your cock deep inside me,” Kylie pleaded against
Hunter’s swollen lips.

That delicious fullness pounding into her was something she never
thought she would ever feel again, and now that the experience was miraculously
within her reach again, she felt as if she would die if she had to wait even
just one more minute.

Hunter quickly removed his fingers and positioned himself at her
opening. Kylie’s breath caught in a split-second of agonizing anticipation
before Hunter filled her up to the hilt with a single, powerful thrust. Her
muscles clenched around his thick, silky member as she cried out. God, she was
already so close, and he hadn’t even started to move yet!

Kylie felt her knees being pushed up, opening her up even wider to
receive each bone-jarring thrust. Hunter was fucking her like it was the last
time, thrusting deeply and more aggressively—dominantly—than he had the
previous night. Maybe he really thought it might be. She certainly hadn’t been
forthcoming on any promises.

But now was certainly not the time to make such an important decision,
not when one of the most gorgeous guys on the planet was buried balls deep into
her trying his damndest to screw her into the first floor.

Then the pressure building in her groin exploded, and Kylie lost all
ability to think at all. She might have screamed, but then her whole world had condensed
down to the area between her legs and the pleasurable spasms centered therein.
Then a flood of warmth coated her insides, and Hunter groaned into her mouth,
thrusting hard and deep a couple more times before collapsing heavily onto her
trembling body.

Kylie immediately wrapped her arms around his back and began to kiss every
bit of damp skin she could reach on his chest and neck, still caught up in the
frenzy her climax had incited. In contrast, Hunter was almost lazily thrusting
his still-hard cock shallowly into her as though teasing her, his hips moving
in a sort of slow circle.

It wasn’t long before she felt his soft lips cover her mouth again, and
Hunter spent the next few minutes lovingly kissing her breathless before
finally pulling out of her and rolling onto his back, pulling her with him.
Kylie laid her head onto his chest and closed her eyes, intent on enjoying the
post-climax heaviness in her limbs as well has Hunter’s intoxicating scent.

Hunter lightly ran his fingertips along her back, and if Kylie had been
a housecat rather than a jaguar, she imagined she would have been purring up a
storm.

“So now that you’ve spilled all your secrets, it’s only fair that I
return the favor.”

Kylie’s heart skipped a beat as she raised her head slightly to look up
at him. “Why does that sound so ominous?”

His eyes had taken on a solemn tint. “You have good instincts.”

She stiffened. “It has something to do with the brother that injured
wolf shifter mentioned before he passed out, doesn’t it?”

Kylie was ashamed that in all the excitement of the day, she had
forgotten completely about him.

Hunter sighed. “And apparently also a good memory. You see, a year ago,
Ryder—”

Her phone’s ringtone suddenly sounded loudly from somewhere below the
bed, making Kylie jump and Hunter curse.

“I’d better get it,” she said, reluctantly untangling herself from
Hunter’s warmth with an apologetic smile. “It might be Karen. I was supposed to
call her when dad woke up.”

“Oh my God, Kylie, where have you
been
?” her friend, Tara, cried
before she could even finish saying hello.

For a split-second, Kylie was thrown a bit off balance. The last person
she had been expecting was her friend.

However, before she could rattle off an excuse for her sudden absence, Tara had already started talking again.

“I’ve been trying to reach you for forever! Kylie, something terrible
has happened to Molly!”

—