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“I talked to him simply to enlighten him, Shiraz—to make him see that he had a damn good asset of an extra man sitting in front of him, but that perhaps he was missing something because that guy’s usually hidden under a three-piece suit, attending to a schedule full of important decisions.”
The drumming stopped. His head dropped in a jerk of surprise. “Important decisions?”
“His words, not mine.” I caressed fingertips through his heavy stubble. “Though I have to agree with them. You are important around here—even if you need to go gallivanting around on the cliffs, in the middle of the night, to prove it to yourself.”
He pushed his face against my hand, though his eyes stayed open and ardent the whole time. “Not to prove it…to you?”
My fingertips curled in, fighting the new arousal from his soft growl. Dear God, what he could do to me with one look and half a dozen words. “I don’t care if you rescue one horse or a hundred…if you’re the prince of a hundred thousand cats, or a hundred thousand people. None of it matters, gorgeous. The man you are, the person you are, is all that matters to me.”
He turned his head. Pressed his lips to the center of my palm. “And you are the only person who has ever said that…whom I believe.”
I flattened my hand against his cheek, hoping to share the magic of his kiss with him. His lids lowered, turning his stare sultry, making me think the mission had been a success. He exhaled in shaky spurts. I inhaled in matching measure. More energy sparked and arced between us, throbbing on the air itself now, giving me courage to dare a little jibe.
“You mean others have called you the prince of cats?”
A rough purr exuded from him. “That one was a first.”
My own breath turned shaky. “A wildcat, maybe.” Especially with the way he started rocking against me once more. “One of those black jaguars, with all the interesting patterns across their body.” I swirled fingertips across one of his pecs, envisioning the exotic tattoo across that muscled slab. “A creature only capable of snarls and hisses, instead of phone calls to Los Angeles, talking to the other kitties’ mothers and bosses without them knowing about it.”
He lowered his arms. Used his powerful grip to palm my thighs then hike them around his waist. Locked me to the tree again as he readjusted our bodies, notching his hardness into my valley with even more throbbing insistence. “You mean properly looking after the other kitties?” he rumbled. “Making sure their mothers and friends do not go mad with worry about their safety in a strange land, after a huge storm?”
“And distributing untrue impressions about the cat prince’s intentions?”
That would sure as hell sober him up.
Or so I’d thought.
Apparently, stupidly.
The man looked as if he’d expected every word I flung. Might even be proud of them. As I wrestled with the storm that blasted my psyche from that observation, he finally responded.
“Hmmm.”
If I cared to qualify that as a “response”. Not that he looked open to giving me any more options.
“Hmmm?” No more pectoral caresses for him. This time he got a full smack, enforced by my narrowed stare—answered by the sultry weight of his own. But noticing it didn’t seal me off from the effects of it, molten and mesmerizing in my blood…especially as he leaned even tighter over me, shoulders flexing as if he craved to crawl right into me…
“Do you have issues with ‘hmmm’, little tupulai?”
I managed to jog my chin up. Shot him a glare that I mostly meant. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On what it means.”
“Ah.” His lids got even heavier…as his stare descended to my lips. “Perhaps it means a great many things.”
Shit.The way he could even speak things…
Could reach inside me with their lush magic, touching me with more than just the sensuality of his voice. He threaded the very fibers of my body with his command, until my blood and tendons sang for him…my inhalations and exhalations sang with need for him…
“Things like…what?”
He let his lips hover over mine. “Like how I should be exercising my…princely rights.”
“Oh?” I let him see my open amusement at that. “Your princely rights to what?”
His brows pushed together. “To punish you, of course.”
