Jungle Freakn' Bride (4 page)

“Help m—” She didn’t finish her yell because a heavy body landed atop her, squashing her flat. Pinned to the ground, just like one of Roberson’s bugs, she could barely lift her head. Her poor vantage point didn’t stop her from taking stock of what she could glimpse. In the moonlight filtering down, what she saw made her groan. A new set of eyes, both golden this time, perused her. A new tongue licked her.

“What is it with the cats around here?”
she grumbled, too annoyed at her aborted attempt o
f
escape to show proper fear.
Besides, her mind had already surmised the felines weren’t wild, killing machines, not if they worked with humans. However, she might have preferred a quick, if painful, death to the other possibilities. Slavers. Indigenes who believed in human sacrifice. Cannibals.
Why couldn’t she ever imagine something nice, like that Ed McMahon guy and a giant check?
Or that cute Ashton fellow and one of his famous pranks?

Hands yanked her
body
upright, snapping her back to the moment.
She staggered at the abrupt motion.
The damp evening air kissed her skin, her nighttime attire of shorts and a tank top leaving generous swaths
of flesh
exposed
,
a
n important thing to note because she fully felt the exten
t
of taut, heated skin
pressed
against her
rear
. Very naked skin
, garnished with an erection that poked her in the lower back, not an easy feat given her almost six foot height, which made the guy behind her pretty
freakn
’ tall. And
horny
.
Let’s not forget horny.

Sucking in a shocked gasp
, she went to lunge forward, but another
bare
chest hemmed her from the front, not that she saw it in the pitch dark outside her tent. She couldn’t avoid feeling it, though
.
H
er
flailing
hands touched a hot and hard male upper body. For a second, she stood frozen but not cold. Not anything close to cold with the naked, heated flesh sandwiching her.
Under other circumstances
,
she might have even enjoyed it. But common sense prevailed,
and
she shoved at the male in front of her.

“Get away.” She didn’t think her words would do anything, but she had to try.

A guttural cough sounded behind her
and
the body in front took a step back. Spun around, she didn’t wobble as strong hands gripped her upper arms, holding her steady.
Carlie peeked up
,
and things went hazy as soon as she met the impossible gaze of her captor.
The blue and gold gaze of a cat,
which n
ow
stared at her steadily from the face of a
man.

What the freak
n
’
hell
is going on?
was her last cognizant thought before she inhaled something powdery and her mind went blank.

“Are you sure we should be taking them?” Chaob asked as they jogged back in their human shape, Acat carrying their unconscious bride over his shoulder.

“The gods have spoken,”
Acat replied.

“Since when do you listen?”

Acat stopped and whirled to face him, the limp legs of the enticing female dangling down his chest.
“Since I can’t deny the evidence.
Are you going to try and tell me you don’t feel it?”

“Oh I feel it alright.” Like a punch to the gut and a jolt to the system. One smell, one touch of the blonde beauty slung over Acat’s shoulder
,
and
Chaob
just about drooled for a bite.

“
Even I can admit when I’m wrong. Just
don’t
tell my father. Trust me
,
I’m just as shocked as you.
But damn, from the moment I s
c
e
nt
ed her…”

“You felt a need to find and claim her.” Chaob
nodd
ed. “I know.
S
till,
though,
I don’t think your grandfather expected us to bring back an outsider.”

Acat shrugged then grinned. “
Grandfather said we’d encounter our brides. We did.
We’ve left the payment, and now i
t
’s time to take them back for the ritual
, whether he likes the choice or not
.”

“Since when are you so gun
g
-
ho about the ritual? I thought you didn’t believe.”

Inhaling deep, Acat’s eyes closed. “I didn’t. I don’t.
Yet,
even I can’t
refute
there is something about this woman. Perhaps it’s because she’s exotic. Or uses a special shampoo or something. I don’t know. All I know
is
just
like we’ve been raised to believe
–
my cat recognize
s
her. My body craves her. And right now, it’s only the fact I’d face exile that I haven’t
already
done something about it.”

“
Have you thought about the fact that she won’t be happy when s
h
e wakes up?” Unhappy and possibly vocal about it, or so Chaob guessed given the brief glimpse they’d gotten of their chosen one’s feisty spirit when they abducted her.

“I can’t think of anyone who would enjoy getting kidnapped. But
our method has
worked for hundreds of years, so
,
much as it galls me to say it, I guess we’ll have to trust it will also work with her.”

“Gods
,
I hope so.
”

Acat rolled his shoulders
in a shrug
. “
If she proves too much of a shrew then we can always lose the trial by battle and let someone else deal with her.”

Lose? That went against the grain.
“
Your
fat
h
er
is going to be livid.”

“Very.”

“You know his policy of not fraternizing with what he considers outsiders.”

“I know his policy very well
,
even if he’s not one to follow it.
”

“You know his views on keeping the bloodline pure.”

Acat’s teeth shone in the darkness. “I do.”

“But you don’t give a damn.”

“The gods have spoken.”

Chaob shook his head, his warrior braid twitching in response.
“
I hope she’s worth the trouble.”
Actually, he already knew she was.
This woman called to him on so many levels
,
and n
ot just
a
carnal
one
.
But, as
b
eta
,
it was his job to act the role of
voice of reason
even if there was nothing reasonable about what he wanted to do
.
Like run my hands up those impossibly long legs of hers.
Compared to the short women of the villages, their blonde prize was a veritable giant with luscious curves he couldn’t wait to explore.

“Hand her over. It’s time we switched.” With reluctance, Acat relinquished their prize and Chaob cradled
t
he
female
in his arms for the next portion of their journey, mindful of the fact that she couldn’t spend the entire trip upside down.
Nor could she sleep through it forever.
Currently under the narcotic effect of a sleeping
dust provided by Acat’s grandfather, she would
waken in a few hours
–
h
opefully not screaming.

As he jogged with his bride, Chaob took a moment to study her features
,
from her straight nose
with its sprinkle of freckles
to her full lips. Eyes shut in slumber, and her face relaxed, she appeared so docile and unlike the fi
er
y female who’d come tearing out of the tent.
Gods, the excitement that course
d
through him when she stood, her perfect height making his loins tighten with lust.
With her n
estled in his arms, he could admire the healthy flesh on her frame, the cushy softness that would soon, if the gods willed, welcome his thrusting body as he
took
her
and made her his
.

But only if he won the battle to claim her.
He almost snorted.
As if he’d lose.

Even though he’d denied it to his friend, Chaob had suffered from some doubt initially about the whole bride thing
– he w
ondered if they’d ever truly find the one meant to spend her life with them as both wife and mother to their cubs. How stupid those qualms seemed now.
He offered up a prayer of apology to the gods and thanked them for their bounty.

Thank you for this gift. I shall never doubt the will of the gods again.
At least in this matter.
Damn, in a matter of
d
ays, he would end up a married man. Praise the gods.
Or
,
as the American’s would say, cool.

*

This is so not cool.
And
not
because of
the
lack of air conditioning
,
even if
Carlie
could have used a really cold blast of something.

Nope. Her problem went beyond the sweat pouring from her
,
n
ot all of it a result of the jungle, but
more
because of the predicament
in which
she found herself. Hanging upside down over a broad shoulder, a very bare shoulder, arms dangling and her shirt barely holding on
–
yeah, not exactly a promising situation.

Waking up from a weird dream only to discover part of it wasn’t a fabrication of her mind was enough to rattle anyone’s composure
,
especially when the last thing she recalled was the eyes of the jaguar suddenly appearing in the face of a man
.
Had she dreamt the entire thing?
Imagined the soft fur and feline face
?
There was certainly nothing furry about her captors now
.
Smooth
,
tanned skin
covered her kidnapper
all over except
for his
head
where a thick
mass of hair
hung down
past
his
shoulders
, twitching in time to his movement.
Intriguing
,
but not as f
ascinating
as the other sight further below. It seemed her abductor
wore a
loincloth
held by
in place by a
thong.
The leather strip, s
trung between a tanned and delectably tight ass
almost
made her
forgot her situation as she spent a moment admiring. Then
,
reality bitch slapped her.

I’ve been captured by an indigene
!

Faced with that
irrefutable
fact,
she did what any self-respecting, modern woman would do.

“Let me go you – you – kidnapping psycho!” she yelled as she pounded on a very broad
,
muscled back.
The l
ight mocha
-
colored
buttocks flex
ed
,
so distracting with the
dental floss
that
slid between said cheeks
. She hit harder, yet
her captor neither flinched
n
or slowed his pace.
Pinching
,
likewise
,
got no result
, nor
did her cursing his man
-
parts in six languages. No, she wasn’t multilingual, unless you counted swear words
–
something she’d learned during her travels.

Stymied, she halted her increasing
ly
violent suggestions
– some of them anatomically impossible
–
to breathe and take stock of her situation.
Dire. Perilous. Uncomfortable. And oh yeah, scary!