Before the crash, Carly had been teaching Tiger about kissing. When the subject had first come up, Liam had told Tiger that Liam hadn’t known how to kiss either. Kim had taught him. He’d implied that not knowing how to kiss wasn’t a problem for Shifters, and that was when Connor had said Tiger would learn when the time came.
Tiger brushed a wisp of hair from Carly’s cheek. He knew he needed to make his way to Ronan’s and question Walker. He needed to know why Walker had been sent to watch Carly, and why a man dressed in the same kind of black fatigues had shot Tiger in the back more than a dozen times.
But the house was quiet, the street outside quiet as well. Shifters would be inside eating their nightly meal, talking to their mates and cubs, mothers and fathers, sharing time with family. Later, the more nocturnal ones would be out with neighbors, playing with cubs in the long stretch of green behind the houses, or leaving Shiftertown to go to the bar Liam managed or one of the clubs in town that allowed Shifters.
Or they might go to the fight club that was held once a week, where Shifters took out their aggressions in the ring, with the rest of the Shifters betting like crazy on the outcomes.
Tiger wasn’t allowed to fight in the fight club. They didn’t trust him, and Tiger agreed with that. To him, fighting wasn’t a game. It was survival. Kill or be killed.
Right now, his bed was the best place to be. He was hard and ready, wanting Carly. But just lightly touching her while she slept filled something in Tiger he hadn’t realized was empty.
Tiger leaned over. Remembering how to pucker his lips and how to release the pressure at the correct moment, he kissed her cheek.
Carly blinked once, then again, then her smile blossomed. “Oh, hey.” She slid herself to a sitting position and tucked stray locks of hair behind her ears. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“You stayed.”
Carly shrugged. “I told Armand about the accident, and he said that under no circumstance was I to come to work. He said he’d make Yvette answer the phones and beg her to be nice to people.” She laughed a little. “Yvette has the biggest heart in the world, but she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She’ll save their lives and fix them the best meal they’ll ever eat, but she will give them her unvarnished opinions about them at the same time.”
“Glory is the same. Except she can’t cook.”
Carly laughed again, drawing her knees to her chest and circling her arms around them. How wonderful, Tiger thought as he studied the softness of her thighs, to know people—who weren’t researchers studying him—to know enough about them to make jokes.
“Looks like you’re feeling better,” Carly said.
Tiger put his hand to his abdomen. A few twinges went off at his touch, but that was all. As before, his body had closed up, was making itself whole again.
“Why did you stay?” he asked.
“I just told you. Armand said . . .”
“No.” Tiger sat up with her, reflecting that he was tired of lying on his back. He propped himself on the headboard, leaning an arm on his drawn-up knee. “You could have gone home. Gone anywhere. But you stayed.”
A flush of color stained her cheeks. “I was worried about you.”
“Why? You saw that I was healing.”
“Tiger, no one gets shot twice in as many days and heals faster the second time. Dylan said it was like your body was changing, like it was adapting to the circumstance.”
He shrugged, and even that didn’t hurt. “They wanted me to be the best fighting machine ever. Gave me drugs that hurt like hell, and surgeries, always surgeries. And then tested me and gave me more drugs. I was the only one who survived.”
Carly’s eyes widened. “There were more like you?”
“There were twenty-three. I was the last. Then there was only me.”
She touched his arm, fingers light on his bicep. “I don’t know how to answer that. How to convey how really sorry I am. It sounds lame even to say it.”
The touch had been a mistake. Tiger’s healing body had been content to be in her presence, to rest while he drank in her scent.
The warmth of her hand on him awakened primal needs, and the beast in him rushed to the surface. He should warn her, tell her to get out.
He couldn’t make himself. Tiger was lonely, and alone, in spite of living in this house, in this room where he could watch over all of Shiftertown.
Carly was here. And he needed her.
Simple words, for a simple being. Tiger clasped Carly’s wrist and lifted her hand away, but kept hold of it as he looked at her. She gazed back at him, her expression telling him she felt the change in him, his raw need.
“Tiger,” she whispered. “I’m scared.”
The hesitant words made Tiger stop himself, to push down the feral beast who wanted her. “Of me?” Even his voice had changed, the words harsh and flat.
“Of me.” Tears moistened her eyes. “I just had a bad ending to a relationship I thought was fine. I don’t want to let myself fall in love with you. With anyone.” She touched his face, this second touch ripping away all restraint Tiger had put on himself. “But I think it’s too late for that.”
Too late. Much too late. Tiger growled like a true tiger, pushed Carly onto the bed, pinned her with his hands on her wrists, and brought his mouth down on hers.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Tiger’s lips were hot, his mouth moving on hers, his tongue sweeping inside. He opened Carly’s mouth with his as she’d shown him how to in Ethan’s dressing room, brushed kisses along her lips and chin as she’d shown him how to in the car.
He held her down with hands on her wrists, his body weight on her. Tiger could have crushed her, Carly knew, but he held himself back, shaking with the effort.
Tiger pulled Carly’s lower lip between his, sucking, the tiny pain sensual. He licked across her lips, then inside again, tasting her mouth.
Carly tasted him back, loving the velvet friction of his tongue. He tasted of spice and musk, the hot bite that was him. Tiger didn’t close his eyes to kiss her; his golden gaze was fixed on her, watching her watch him.
When he eased away, Carly pressed kisses to his mouth, his lips smooth and warm, a little moisture behind them. Tiger kissed her again, matching her actions, his mouth deftly caressing hers.
“You’re a quick learner,” she said breathlessly.
“I am.”
“Mmm. Modest too.”
“They told me so,” Tiger said. “The researchers said I learned fast.”
Carly’s anger surged at those faceless people who’d kept him in a cage, performed experiments on him that hurt him, trying to make a Shifter into a better fighter or whatever it was they were doing. Kept him in a cage. And he was the only Shifter who’d survived this torture.
“They should be arrested.”
Tiger shrugged. “They went away.”
The words were simple, but Carly sensed the volumes of pain behind them. They’d hurt him, then they’d deserted him. He’d had a mate, he’d said, and she’d died. Tiger’s child had died as well. How could he bear it? How could anyone stand so much?
“I’m here,” Carly said. Silly, because she was lying under him—where else would she be? “No matter what. If we hook up or we don’t, if we’re friends only—hell, if we move to opposite sides of the globe—I’ll be there for you when you need me. Okay? I promise.”
Tiger didn’t answer, but the hunger in his eyes told her everything. He lowered his head and nuzzled her, sending white-hot tingles across her skin.
The same hunger flared in Carly. Tiger was sexy, he was gorgeous, and she needed some loving. Finding Ethan yesterday had made her feel like the most un-sexy, most unwanted woman on the planet. Ethan obviously found Carly inadequate, or why would he have needed to fulfill himself with someone else?
When Tiger looked at Carly, she felt beautiful. She knew she cleaned up well, which was why Yvette had hired her to work in the gallery. But Yvette had always maintained that
Carly had girl-next-door prettiness, not siren beauty. Fresh faced and sweet, not a temptress. Perfect for the female customers who came in with their husbands to buy art for their houses or offices. Ethan, come to think of it, also hadn’t regarded Carly as a siren beauty, which was what would make her the perfect businessman’s wife. Women wouldn’t be jealous of Carly.
Tiger looked at Carly as though she were a sex goddess in a G-string. Like he wanted to make love to her for days. He’d looked at Carly like that from the first moment he’d raked his gaze over her on the side of the road. She’d asked him if he liked what he saw, and he’d said a simple Yes.
“I was right about you,” Carly said now. “You’re a sweet-talker.”
Tiger growled, not talking at all. He released her hands but only so he could push up her T-shirt and pop open the button of her shorts. The sheet fell from his backside, which was as gorgeous as the rest of him. Carly ran her hands over his buttocks, liking how firm he was, then up his torso again, hands finding the pockmarks from the bullets that had gone in, then out.
Tiger’s next kisses were even hotter and more skilled; he adapted to kissing as much as his body was adapting to being shot.
Need in his eyes, he knelt back and skimmed her shorts from her. Panties next, Carly helping, then Tiger tossed them both away, though her T-shirt remained pushed up around her shoulders.
Carly lay back down, heartbeat speeding, ready for the man who excited her and was excited by her.
Her breath left her when Tiger lifted her by the waist and flipped her over, drawing her up onto her hands and knees. Tiger pulled her hips back to the stiff cock that she glimpsed before her hair tumbled into her face. Good God . . .
“Whoa, wait.” Carly squirmed away, turning to sit on the big bed, her T-shirt falling to cover her lap. “What are you doing?”
Tiger remained on his knees, his cock pointing toward her—his long, thick, no-way-anyone-is-that-big cock. His brows drew down. “Mating.”
“I know that, but why the back door? You’re really . . . big. You’ll kill me.” Carly would die happy, but he was going to be a tight fit.
The cock dipped slightly. “If it will hurt you, then . . . I won’t.”
Carly saw how much it cost him to say that. Tiger wanted her. He pulsed with it. She wanted him as well, with every pump of blood through her veins.
“I mean we should take it slow,” she said. “Let me get used to you. Me with the soft bed cushioning my back, you easing on top of me.”
The cock went completely firm again, but the look on Tiger’s face was one of confusion.
Pieces of information clicked in Carly’s head—stuck in a cage, researchers, treated like an animal, given a mate. Not a girlfriend, or a wife, or a lover. A mate. Tiger hadn’t said whether the woman had been Shifter or human.
“Are you telling me you haven’t ever done it front to front?” she asked.
Tiger shook his head. “It was only the once.”
“Oh.” The loneliness of his words struck her to the heart. “You make me want to hug you more and more. Come here. I’ll show you. You’re a quick learner, I said. Now you can learn this.”
Tiger came to her so rapidly that Carly laughed. She stopped laughing when he took her down to the bed.
“Now you’re getting it.” Her words ceased as he kissed her, his mouth firm, no longer hesitant.
Carly wrapped one leg around his thigh, caressing his calf with her bare foot. She liked how he kissed her, mouth warm, taking but giving, knowing what he wanted and what she wanted. Tiger nipped her cheek, her neck, all the while his body shook as he held himself back.
Carly guided him with one hand on his hip, parting her legs so that he could come between them. His skin was hot but smooth, his ass tight as he moved over her. Carly raised her hips a little, her one leg up and around his, encouraging him with her hands to come on inside.
Tiger’s body heat covered her, and then his body. He brushed her tangled hair from her face, lips coming down in a long kiss as he slid inside her.
And stopped. Carly’s eyes opened wide. She was certainly wet enough for him, slippery and wanting, but she tightened, the sudden ecstasy turning to an aching.
“Wait.” She pressed her palm to Tiger’s chest, feeling his heart beating triple-time.
Tiger pulled out quickly, kneeling back, the look on his face one of anguish. “I’m hurting you.”
“Only because I’m not used to you.”
At least Carly hoped that was the explanation. It would be a tragedy if she’d finally met a man who made her feel like this and they couldn’t consummate their relationship . . . or whatever this was. For once in her life, Carly didn’t stop to analyze her connection with a man. She wasn’t thinking about whether he was going to run off with all her money, or whether he’d dump her after a few dates, or what it was they were building together, if anything.
She liked Tiger and wanted to be with him. Nothing more. No hidden agendas.
“How about we try it me on top of you?” she asked. “That way I can guide things, ease in however much I can take before we go on.”
From the look on Tiger’s face, it hadn’t occurred to him that this position was possible either. Carly seriously needed to work on his education.
She got to her knees. “Lie down.”
Carly pressed her hands to his chest again, and Tiger lay back on the sheets, his gaze never leaving her. The fading sunshine clearly showed the pink marks where Ethan had shot him, and more scars where the other bullets had come through. But the blood was gone, his skin whole again.
She climbed over him, positioning her knees on either side of him. His cock was still stiff and long, Tiger waiting.
Carly pulled off her T-shirt, breathing a sigh as the fabric left her now-itchy skin. She tossed the shirt aside and filled her hands with Tiger’s swollen cock.
Large, but not unmanageable. She drew both hands up its sides, around the head, back down to his firm balls. His hair there was multicolored too—orange and black. She was falling in love with a man who was tiger-striped all the way down.
The thought made her smile. Carly leaned down and kissed the tip of his cock.
Two strong hands closed around her wrists. Tiger pulled her up, his eyes molten gold, his voice a growl. “Now. Do it now.”
Yes. Carly wanted him with every thought, every breath. Tiger wanted her too, she saw, was afraid he wouldn’t be able to contain himself.
Carly felt even sexier knowing he could barely hold it in for her. The fleeting thought of a condom ran through her head, but she knew one hadn’t been made that would fit Tiger. And she’d read somewhere that Shifters couldn’t give humans the illnesses that humans could give one another through sex.
She leaned forward, her breasts brushing his chest, then lowered herself onto the end of his cock. The next fleeting thought was that Shifters could still get humans pregnant. But Carly was taking birth control—at Ethan’s insistence—and the worry about that seemed far away and unimportant.
Then all thoughts about anything fled her head. Tiger was big. Unlike the startled halt when he’d been on top of her, this going-in was eased by Carly’s slowness, her slickness, her burgeoning need.
Oh my God . . . That’s . . .
I’ve never . . .
The words welled up as Tiger slid into her, and Carly heard some of them come out of her mouth. She lowered herself more, Tiger’s cock opening her with blunt, hard pleasure.
Carly’s hips rocked, her body wanting more of him. Tiger’s hands went to her thighs, fingers pressing, and he let out a soft noise.
“Tiger.” Carly’s exclamation came out a groan. “You are fucking marvelous.”
Tiger held her in complete silence. Carly stretched, her breasts feeling heavy and tight. She pressed her arms over her head, fingers flexing, her head going back as she felt him rise inside her.
She went hot all over at the same time gooseflesh rippled over her arms and legs. H
er nipples darkened and tightened, one beam of sunshine snaking in from under clouds to bathe her in warmth.
No warmth compared to the scalding heat between Tiger’s hips and Carly’s inner thighs, sweat collecting to slide to the sheets. Perspiration gathered on Carly’s face and beaded on Tiger’s upper lip.
Tiger moved his hands from her thighs to the curve of her waist, holding her steady while he let his hips rock upward. Gently, gently. Tiger’s body still shook; he was holding back, afraid of hurting her.
Carly’s heart ached for him at the same time her inner places swelled and tightened. He was so tender, this man people feared. He’d shielded her body with his and taken what should have been a lethal barrage of bullets so Carly wouldn’t be hurt.
Pleasure seeped through her, joy so hot she was sure her blood was on fire. Tiger watched her in silence, his eyes Shifter gold, his face quiet.
He was a beautiful man, strong, good-hearted, protective. She remembered him with tiny Katriona, how incredibly gentle he’d been with her.
He was as gentle with Carly now. Tiger held her, sweat trickling from under his palms down her skin, the sunlight moving from Carly’s body to Tiger’s face.
Breathtaking. She rested her hands on his chest now, the hard flatness of it dusted with dark hair streaked with gold and orange, his nipples as tight as hers.
The look in his eyes was one of wonder. Tiger marveled at what they did, Carly rocking on him, fire rippling from where they joined.
The fire grew, blocking all thought. The sun continued to slip away, the room changing from sunlit to flooded with red and gold, and then to twilit. She and Tiger rocked together, sealed to each other, Tiger higher in Carly than she’d imagined she could take him.
Tiger growled and clasped her shoulders, tugging her down to him. She went, kissing him while she lay full length on top of him, with him still inside her.
Tiger kissed her in return, licking into her mouth, tasting all corners of her. Carly tasted him too, learning him, loving the texture, the heat.