Her own cell phone went off. She wrapped the towel around her body and rushed back into her room.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Derek.”
She fought her desire to cry in frustration. “Well? What did you find out?”
“Not much. Not a lot of tiger info flowing around.”
“That is not what I want to hear, Derek. He’s out there. You need to find him.”
“And exactly what do you need a tiger for?”
“That’s none of your goddamn business what I need a tiger for. I just need you to find this one.”
Angie heard a noise from below her window. She walked over quickly and looked down. Half the Pack as wolves ran out the back door and disappeared into the trees. What the hell are they hunting? Christ, did Nik’s people show up to do a little dog damage? And was there anyway in hell she could stop the bloodshed?
“All right. All right. Calm down.”
“No, Derek. I won’t fucking calm down. Just do what I goddamn asked you to. How hard can it be to find a seven-hundred-pound tiger?”
“All right, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
It felt good to finally have someone to kick around a bit. And safe, because the man wasn’t in front of her to kick around in person. No jail time! “No. You’ll call me back tonight. Understand?”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
“Don’t give me that yeah, yeah bullshit. You’re being lazy.” Angie turned away from the window. “He’s probably right under your…eep!”
The words died in her throat as she came face to face with one pissed-off hillbilly.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m sorry? What was that? Right under my what?”
Angie stared at Nik. His gold eyes, hot on her, swept down her body and back up again. She suddenly felt like a stripper. A really hot stripper who had stolen his wallet.
“I gotta go, Derek.” She could barely force the words out.
“Okay,” he chuckled. “I’ll call you later.”
“No. Don’t bother.”
“Yeah, but you said—” She shut the phone closed.
She still didn’t know Nik well enough to read the expression on his face. He sized her up almost like an animal wondering what you were doing on their territory just before they went for your throat.
Barely stopping herself from flinching, she allowed Nik to take the phone from her hand. He carefully placed it on the dresser. Then he casually shrugged himself out of his leather bomber jacket, letting it drop to the floor. Angie debated whether she should make a break for it. She couldn’t read his face. Couldn’t judge his expression. She wasn’t scared, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t wary.
Nik stepped closer to her and Angie’s stomach clenched. Simply having him near her turning her insides to liquid. He still hadn’t taken his eyes off her, studying her face as if he hadn’t seen her in two years as opposed to a mere twenty hours.
He leaned in, rubbing his cheek against hers. She held herself perfectly still, expecting more, but he did nothing else but rub his head against hers. Like the big cat he was. She allowed herself to relax a little. Allowed herself to simply feel him against her. She instinctively rubbed him back, slow circles against his neck and chin.
She felt him against her. Knew he was safe and well. And Angie’s sense of relief nearly blinded her.
Good God, I’m in love with a hillbilly!
She closed her eyes tight against the enormity of her realization, willing herself not to panic. Willing herself not to blurt out her feelings like some pathetic female.
What nut case falls for a guy after knowing him for less than a week anyway?
You know, besides my two best friends?
Nik’s right hand reached up, touching her cheek, sliding down her throat, and gliding down her body. His fingers moved over the towel, brushing her breast. Angie sighed at the contact, her hands reaching up to slide around Nik’s shoulders. But, with a sudden and vicious snarl, he pulled back from her. He looked feral again. Like that night he’d come charging through her window.
Uh-oh.
Nik’s outward calm ended. His hand, so gentle moments before, grabbed hold of her towel and snatched it off her body. He looked down the length of her naked body and growled low. She felt that sound all the way inside her pussy, reverberating against the walls of her womb.
Grabbing her arm, he dragged her over to the bed, snatched the top bed sheet from it. He lifted her up by the waist and threw her facedown in the middle of it.
“Hey!”
Nik ignored her, quickly ripping a strip from the bed sheet. Angie struggled to get up, but he wrapped the Egyptian cotton around her wrist and the end to the bedpost.
Oh, he has got to be kidding!
“Can’t we talk about this?”
“Naw.”
Another strip of sheet, her other wrist tied to the bed.
“This isn’t my fault.”
“Yes it is.”
“How ya figure?”
“They’re your friends.” She felt a strip wound around her right ankle. He tied that off and moved to her other leg.
“No. They’re family. And you have to make allowances for family.”
“Naw.” He pulled her opposite leg out tight, leaving her open and exposed. And way vulnerable.
“Come on, Nik. This is ridiculous.”
“Oh, so I’m Nik now am I? I thought I was just the hillbilly.” He finished securing her to the bed.
She tugged experimentally at the bonds, but they held tight. She’d kill him. If he did anything remotely funky, she’d absolutely, fucking kill him.
Of course, she couldn’t deny how damn turned on she was at the moment. Her nipples hard and rubbing against the sheet-less bed. Unable to close her legs. Unable to move.
Fucking hillbilly bastard!
Nik dug through a backpack he had with him, eventually pulling out a box of condoms. He dropped those on the side table by her head.
Apparently he was a presumptuous fucking hillbilly bastard.
“Nikolai Vorislav, I swear to God—”
“Don’t make me gag ya, sugar. ’Cause you know the mood I’m in right now, I’ll do it in a New York minute.”
Angie hissed at him and he began to take off his clothes. First the T-shirt, then the jeans, and tennis shoes. Finally the boxers. She swallowed. Why did his cock suddenly look ten times bigger than before?
Nik moved to the bed, staring down at her.
Anything even a tiny bit funky and she would absolutely kill him. No weird S-and-M shit. No spanking. And there better be no humiliation. Or the man would never see the light of day again.
He climbed up onto the bed with her and she tensed, her entire body cringing, waiting for his next move.
When he made it she practically jumped out of her skin and fought the restraints like a madwoman.
“Forget it, sugar. My momma made sure all her boys joined the Boy Scouts. Those knots were meant to hold. So you might as well relax.”
“Get off me, Nik. Right fucking now.”
He laughed at her. Laughed! At her! The slimy, hillbilly son of a bitch!
He did it again. His big fingers sliding up her ankle, her calf, to the back of her knee. Then sliding back down again.
“Stop! Now!”
“The more you bitch. The longer I do this. And your skin is so soft, I can do this forever.”
Damn hillbilly!
His fingers slid across her back, down her spine, across her shoulder blades. Just goddamn all over.
The bastard kept touching her. Condoms unused. No moving toward any parts that needed to be stimulated. Instead, he ran his hands over her flesh, again and again and again. Why? Because he could. Because he wanted her to know exactly how much she belonged to him.
And fuck if she didn’t belong to the man. Lock, stock, and Ferragamos. And definitely her heart. Terrified as she was to admit it, she got the feeling her heart would always belong to him. Whether the
bastard hillbilly was in her life or not.
Nik watched his fingers glide across her soft brown skin. She’d been trying to find him. It kept playing through his mind as he gently tortured her body.
She hadn’t set him up. She didn’t even know where he was. Hearing her order that poor schlub around not only made him hard, but showed him how concerned she was for him.
The ice queen, hellcat, psychopath actually cared about him.
Angie buried her head in the pillow, her hands clenching and unclenching into tight fists. Smiling, he slid his fingers between her legs and played around the lips of her pussy. She moaned and pushed back against his hand.
He pulled his fingers away and she half moaned, half growled in anger and lust.
“What’s the matter, sugar? You okay?”
“Motherfuckingsonofabitchcocksuckerbastardassholeprick!”
He chuckled and her whole body tensed up.
“Now is that anyway to talk to me?”
“When my friends find out you’re here—”
“Naw, they’re too busy chasing tigers around their territory. They won’t notice us for hours.”
She glared at him over her shoulder. “Your hillbilly brothers.”
“Yup.” He ran his fingers across the side of her breast, just grazing the nipple. She whimpered, but he circled right back around and concentrated on her forearm for a bit. “We used to play Find The Tiger with the Pack that lived down the way a bit from my daddy. They hated us ’cause they could never find us Vorislav boys. My brothers will have them dogs out there looking for hours.”
Biting back a sob of rage, she again buried her head in her pillow.
“Oh, don’t worry, sugar. We have plenty of time for me to find out what every part of your body feels like. I mean, you weren’t in a rush or anything tonight, were ya?”
Eighteen hours? Twenty days? Ten minutes? Angie had no idea. She lost track after the first half hour or so. He caressed her. Touched her. Ran his fingers through her hair.
Then he started licking her. He started at the instep of her left foot and kept going from there. Every once in a while his fingers or tongue would stray to somewhere vital. Her pussy. Her tits. But stray was it.
Still, without touching any outright sexual part of her, she felt close to coming. But dammit, not close enough. Not nearly close enough.
Add in that she wanted him to fuck her more than life itself and he had himself one cranky Santiago.
She cursed him. She threatened him. His family. His livelihood. His manhood. She even threatened his brother’s dog. Nik would just give that damn chuckle she’d grown to hate while his tongue or fingers kept going.
Angie hated the man. Hated him. His family. His One-Eyed Grandma. She hated his lovely mother for birthing him.
Why didn’t she keep a hold of that rodeo clown? She could have controlled him. He would have been too terrified to tie her up and not fuck her. And why oh why didn’t Miki put shifters on her goddamn List?
Three of his big fingers slid inside her painfully empty pussy. “Want me to fuck you now, sugar?”
Angie panicked. This is one of those trick cat questions, isn’t it?
He pulled those fingers out, only to slide them back in…once. “You need to answer me.”
“Yes.” He’d want her to beg or something wouldn’t he? Something humiliating and demeaning to women everywhere.
“Then promise me you’ll never leave me again.”
Promise him I won’t leave…? “I was kidnapped…again.”
His fingers slipped out of her. “That is really not the answer I want.”
“I promise.” Who could she possibly be trying to fool? She’d beg him for anything now. Do anything he wanted. Absolutely anything to have his cock shoved inside her. Anything.
“I don’t think you really mean that.” He leaned over her again, his chest pressing into her back.
“I promise, Nik. I swear. Anything. Please…”
He nipped the flesh at the back of her neck. “Please what, sugar?”
“Please, Nik. Please fuck me.”
He kissed her ear. “Anything you want, sugar. Absolutely anything.”
Angie’s entire body slammed forward as his condom-covered cock rammed into her, her legs pulled tight because of the bonds.
Oh, thank God, Angie thought desperately as her body shook and shuddered under Nik’s hard body fucking her. Thank God shifters aren’t on The List!
Nik tunneled his fingers into Angie’s silky mass of hair and snatched her head back. His mouth descended on hers as her wet, hot pussy practically seared his cock off with its heat. He reached under her with his free hand, gripping one of her luscious breasts. Lord, he loved her body. Loved how her soft skin felt under his hands. Loved that she had hips and an ass he could truly enjoy.
He roughly thrust into her, knowing she could take it. Knowing she loved it. And she did. Her delicious snatch tightening around him. She moaned, uselessly pulling against her bonds. He smiled as she drenched his cock. It happened every time she fought the restraint, which only made him crazier.
The girl worked him like no one ever had. She made him hot, made him laugh, and sometimes just pissed him the hell off. He couldn’t imagine going back home without her. He had no intention of even trying.
She owned him and didn’t even know it.
Against his lips, “God dammit, Nik. God!”
He grinned and he kissed her again, never tiring of her mouth. She came like that, too, her cries sliding down his throat, filling his heart.
Nik wanted to hold on longer for her, but he couldn’t. Not with her pussy strangling the hell out of his dick.
He shuddered violently, pumping hard and fast as he came and came.
Nik dropped on top of her and the two lay like that trying to catch their breaths.
Wow, she really did love the fucker. She let him tie her up and she didn’t even scream. At least, not in fear or anything.
Nik pulled himself up and out of her. He quickly disposed of the condom and undid her bonds, rubbing each arm and leg to get the blood flowing. When done, he grabbed the comforter off the floor, dragging it onto the bed and over his hips and her legs.
“You okay, sugar?”
Angie nodded as Nik laid his head on her breasts and wrapped his arms around her waist. He nestled down, finally letting himself relax. She pulled her knees up a bit, allowing him to rest in the vee of her body. Whether as cat or man, he seemed to enjoy being between her legs.
She stroked his head and the two began to fall asleep, their bodies locked together.
The perfect fit.
So she found the bedroom door suddenly slamming open really fucking annoying.
Angie’s head snapped up as Miki stormed in. A rifle with scope in her hands.
“Miki!”
“Hold on, Ang.” Miki marched over the bed and to the window. “This is gonna be sweet.” Miki pushed the glass window open, her eyes locked on something. Angie knew that look. Miki got it during hunting season.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Angie demanded.
Miki steadied the rifle in her hands, aiming it at the ground below the window. “Gettin’ myself a tiger-skin rug.”
Angie felt Nik’s body tense and knew exactly who Miki had the nerve to aim her damn rifle at.
“Miki Marie Kendrick!” she bellowed.
“Don’t yell at me when I’m aiming. I find it distracting.”
“Miki!”
Sighing, Miki lowered the gun and turned around, “What?”
“Can you not see I’m a little busy?”
“But…tiger-skin rug,” she whined.
“No.”
“What? ’Cause of him?” Miki pointed at Nik who still hadn’t lifted his head off Angie’s chest. He didn’t seem to be a man easily shaken.
Miki was in her “zone”, too. So Angie pulled out her psychotherapist voice. Soft, lilting, and intensely calm. “Well, this is a little awkwar
d, don’t you think? Remember when we talked about awkward things and how you should avoid making people feel that way?”
Miki rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
“Well then…”
“Fine!”
Miki marched away from the window, back over the bed, stopping at the doorway. She turned and glared at Nik. “But you better stay on her good side.” She smiled, but it was in no way a friendly one. “Otherwise, that furry ass is mine.”
She turned to walk out, but Conall suddenly appeared. “What are you doing? And where did you get that rifle from?”
“Marrec sent it to me. Nice, huh?”
He pulled it out of Miki’s hands. “I think we need more rules.” He picked her up by the waist and walked out.
Angie let out a breath. “I am so afraid to ask what he meant by that.”
She glanced down at Nik. The man hadn’t moved. His head still firmly planted between her breasts.
“Comfortable, Nik?”
“Yup.”
“Well, well what do we have here?”
Angie didn’t even hear Sara come into the room, but she’d bet money Nik had.
“Could you leave?” she snarled.
“My house.” Sara stepped closer to the bed, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She nodded at Nik. “Hillbilly.”
“Canine.”
Angie’s head dropped back to her pillow. Could these shifters be more obnoxious?
“So? Where is it?”
“Where’s what?” Nik asked.
“My apology?”
“For what? Doin’ what you dogs couldn’t?”
Sara growled and Angie wondered if it would be wrong to wear bright red to either of their funerals, ’cause she wasn’t sure who she might kill first.
Angie looked around the room. Where did she move that bat?
She wasn’t surprised when Zach walked in. Why not? Maybe they could get the rest of the Pack, the NFL, and the entire Vienna Boys Choir, too, to come check out Angie naked.
Zach stood next to Sara. “Vorislav.”
“Sheridan.”
Zach looked at his mate. “So…we’re done?”
Sara started in surprise and glanced at Angie. Angie knew what Sara thought he meant. But he couldn’t mean that. Not Zach. Of course, Sara would guess the worst as always and think Zach meant he was done with her. Not likely. Although what Sara put him through over the last few days—really, there was only so much a man could take.