Prey & Prejudice: Cougar Falls, Book 7 (7 page)

Zoe didn’t blink. One moment she stood just behind Miles, and the next she had a beautifully manicured hand wrapped around Lisette’s throat while she delivered two rapid blows to the woman’s face.

He heard a bone break and saw blood spurt from Lisette’s nose. He stared in shock, not having anticipated an all-out brawl between the women. Lisette’s men stood frozen as well, seemingly not sure what to do.

“Now listen, you vulture,” Zoe said in a low voice. He wasn’t sure if
vulture
was an insult or the truth. Lisette could very well be a devourer of carrion. “This is
our
space,
our
territory and
our
bar. You aren’t welcome in it anymore. And just so you know, we would rather eat your little chicken heart raw than allow any raptors to run Miami.”

“Everyone with a brain knows this is cat central, bitch. So take your men out with you and run crying back to Brian. Tell him the kitties were mean, and that I still have a picture of his naked ass hanging out the window of my limo. If he doesn’t want that plastered all over my Twitter feed, he’d better keep you close.” Then she glanced at Bill and smiled. “Hey, sweetie. You’re looking good. And so are the rest of you.”

To Miles’s astonishment, the thugs smiled back at her and began talking about her time in Baltimore. They fucking
missed
her? Lisette tried to screech at her but Zoe’s grip on her throat made her curses too weak to be more than gasps for breath.

“Zoe?” he said, proud of his calm voice. “Why don’t you let your friends take her back out of here. Then you and I can discuss what’s what, hmm?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him and shrugged. “Sure thing, great pride leader.” She tossed Lisette back at Bill. “Hold on, guys.” Zoe moved to the curtains granting them privacy, said something to the bouncers, then stepped back. “I know we’ll be seeing you later in less-than-friendly circumstances. Sorry for that, but this isn’t going to go down well if you try to take our territory.”

Bill and the guys looked disappointed but resigned. “Guess we’ll see you later.” He turned to glare at Miles. “You too, asswipe.”

Him they insulted, but not Zoe, who’d punched their boss in the face…twice?

“Whatever. You heard her. Take your big ass out.”

Bill’s face flushed as he and the others assisted a now-weeping Lisette outside the partition.

“James?” Miles called to the closest bouncer. “See that they get an escort outside and double the security. No raptors in the house tonight. If you find any others, cart them outside as well.”

“Gotcha,” James answered. “Oh, and Eddie’s seeing to the kids. Dresden is no longer limping.”

“Good. Zoe and I aren’t to be disturbed. At all.”

“Sure thing, Miles.” James chuckled before the curtains closed once more. Then his and the other bouncer’s footsteps faded.

Before he lost control of the situation, Miles turned back around and advanced on Zoe. “What the hell was that?”

She smiled at him, apparently not realizing the enormity of the situation. “Oh. Lisette’s a crazy bitch. Everyone up north knows it.”

“You two have a history, I take it?” Who the hell was Brian, and why was Miles jealous that Zoe had a picture of his naked ass?

“You could say that. Lisette’s brother Brian made a move on me. It happened years ago, but she carries a grudge. I turned him down, but not before snapping a picture of his lily-white ass hanging out of my limo, while he begged me not to throw him from the vehicle. And that picture wasn’t easy. I had to angle through and over the sunroof to get it. But what a memory.” She chuckled.

“What exactly were you doing in raptor territory?” Unwillingly fascinated by this nugget of her history, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

She shrugged, and her dress rose the barest inch higher up her supple thighs. “I don’t remember exactly. Mama was visiting friends in Richmond, and I wandered up to visit the birds. Wanted to see how raptors lived. They’re pretty boring. All gossipy and annoying.” She looked at him from under her lashes and added in a sultry voice, “Though Bill and the guys were more than fun.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Zoe closed the distance between them and licked her lips, a breath away. “We partied into the night on several occasions.”

“Is that right?” He refused to reach out and touch her, not while his temper and jealousy reared their ugly heads.

“Uh-huh.” Zoe, unwisely, taunted him by putting a hand on his chest. “We’d shut the bars down, then head back to their place for more…fun.”

He’d had enough. The heat that existed between them grew boiling hot. Miles pounced. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back against the bar, caging her between the ledge and his body. Then he grabbed her hands and put them on the counter behind her, holding her tight.

“You don’t come between me and a fight again,” he growled. “I don’t give a shit if it’s between me and your mother. You got that?” She could have been hurt, and that enraged the fuck out of him.

“Please. What will you do if I disobey, great pride leader? You gonna beat me?”

He heard the excitement, smelled her lust and called on every ounce of discipline inside him to make this a lesson she wouldn’t soon forget. “Oh, Candy. I’m going to do you one better.” He kissed her before she could say more and then he showed her just who was dominant, and who wasn’t.

Chapter Five

Zoe could honestly say she hadn’t been this excited in years. Miles kissed her so hard, with such ferocity, that she couldn’t think. Usually bent on controlling her lovers, easily managing their lust, she was finally caught in her own.

Punching Lisette had been so satisfying, but not more so than defending Miles. It felt right to put herself between him and the Turkey Vulture. She hadn’t liked the way Lisette made eyes at him any more than she’d liked the woman using her old friends to threaten him.

Too bad Bill and the others hadn’t gotten a backbone. In the five years since she’d seen them, it appeared they still kowtowed to whatever Lisette wanted. Brian was strong, but he had his hands full ruling the parts of Philadelphia the raptors had annexed. Even Oscar, Lisette’s mate, was little more than a figurehead. Everyone in raptor town knew Lisette ruled the roost.

At least in Miami, the cats finally had a pride leader who didn’t bow to anyone. Not even Zoe…

The idea of using Miles to get to the pride had occurred briefly, but Zoe couldn’t keep her wits about her when she was near him. Aroused and needy, she and her cat wanted Miles for personal reasons that had nothing to do with assuming leadership.

The hell of it was, her weird desire would make assisting the pride even harder, because Miles was a huge obstacle. The smart thing would have been to leave him alone and work around him, get the other members of the council and the pride itself to see how hard she would work for them, how much she had to contribute.

But she couldn’t ignore Miles. Only back two days now, and she had a hard time
not
thinking about the conceited asshole.

She moaned as he deepened the kiss. She wanted this cat between her legs. Fascinated didn’t begin to describe her strange feelings for the stubborn male. But his mouth, that tongue… He had her hands pinned to the bar counter behind her, his body holding her firmly down. And she could feel that massive erection digging into her belly. Thanking her intuition to wear a short dress with easy access and a thong that wouldn’t provide much in the way of a barrier, she ground against him.

When he came up for air, glaring down at her with fire in those gorgeous green eyes, she licked her lips and moaned his name. Men liked it when she acted so enthralled by their touch, but with Miles, she didn’t have to pretend. “That’s it, baby. Take my panties off. Unzip your pants and shove up into me. Come on.” She arched into him again, bordering on desperate to feel him inside her.

His mean smile startled her. “No. I said I’d do you one better.” He gripped her wrists hard, punishingly rough. “Don’t fucking move.”

The growl in his tone shocked her, because he sounded genuinely angry.

“But I—
oh.
”

He dropped to his knees, his hands still holding onto her, and nuzzled between her legs. She automatically widened her stance and sucked in a breath when he licked her through her panties.

So wet, she gave little resistance as he slid his mouth over her full clit. He licked and sucked, and she was gripping the counter without his hands over hers before she realized he’d let her go. But then he was pulling her thong to the side, and she let out her breath and bit her lip as she waited for him to rise to his feet and thrust inside her.

Except Miles glanced up at her, gave her another mean smile and fastened his mouth to her once more. He drew her flesh between his lips and teethed the sensitive nub until she wanted to scream.

And then she did scream as he sucked harder and shoved two fingers inside her. She came on a cry, pumping against his face while he teased an unending orgasm from her body.

She shook as she came down from her high, but the bastard wasn’t content to leave her alone. Instead, he growled and continued to eat her, pushing her into an uncomfortable, too-sensitive phase before shoving her headlong into another rise toward climax.

Somehow she’d totally lost control of the situation. “In me, Miles,” she panted while he continued to feast. She let go of the counter to pull his head away, but the moment her fingers touched the silk of his hair, she gripped his head and ground against his lips in time with his tongue and teeth. His fingers grew more creative, dipping into her, painting her folds and rimming her anus as he toyed with her.

When he plunged his fingers deep in her channel and added a finger inside her ass, she saw stars.

“Not…
again
. With you, Miles.
Please
,” she heard herself beg. Pleading for him to push inside her, to ease the emptiness in her womb. But he didn’t listen.

Miles shoved his fingers deeper and nipped her clit, and she spasmed in one long orgasm that shook her to the quick. She was dimly aware of him pulling himself to his feet, of the quick kiss he gave her while he straightened her clothing.

“That’s right.
I’m
in charge, Candy. Not you. Next time, obey and maybe you’ll get what you were begging for,” he said with relish. Then he winked and strode past her, through the curtains and out of sight.

Zoe blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Her panties were drenched, her wits scattered to the winds and her body still throbbed from the incredible release of not one, but
two
super orgasms.

When she finally realized what the sly cat had said and done, she swore, consigning the conceited feline to a hell of her making. Stalking out of the curtained area and to the nearest restroom, she entered a stall, ripped off her wet underwear and cleaned up as best she could. Then she tossed her panties in the trash and washed up, all the while scheming to get back at that bastard with the golden tongue.

Use sex to manipulate me, will you? I don’t think so.

Zoe still shuddered at the thought of him between her legs, but she also knew he hadn’t been unaffected. Had he come while eating her? Had he left with a hard-on he’d taken to another woman to finish?

The thought had her seeing red, and she growled low and loud, until another woman in the restroom asked about the sound. A man had made Zoe Castille lose control.
And he called me friggin’
Candy
. Again!

Aggravated beyond reason, Zoe knew she only had herself to blame for underestimating him. She should have kept her cards close to her chest, proven herself to the pride and then declared herself more than competent to take over. But she’d wanted to be honest about it all, to let them see the real her from the get-go.

Instead, now she had to prove herself to a man who made her crazed with lust. A first in her life, for sure. No man refused Zoe Castille. Miles wanted her. But he hadn’t acted on it, which meant he had a stronger sense of self-control than she’d had. And that aggravated her to no end.

This had nothing to do with the pride and everything to do with him and her.

He thought he could play the big man while she whimpered—
and begged
, her cat reminded her with a sneer—for pleasure.
Fuck that.

Zoe left the restroom and the club with one goal in mind. Getting even with Miles, and then pulling ahead.

She’d end the immediate threat to the pride with the raptors. No matter her standing in the pride, she was living in Miami now, and cat territory stayed inviolate. So she’d handle the birds. But she’d also make Miles pay, oh so sweetly, for toying with her. If he thought tonight had put him in the win column, he could think again.

She spent the next week regrouping. Talking to her few raptor friends from Baltimore on the down low. Following Joy around, learning faces and names. Meeting everyone. She also made sure to keep her distance from Miles. The few times she’d seen him, he’d smirked at her, even had the nerve to moan and lick his lips when no one was watching. The arrogant—sexy—jerk. She merely raised a brow back at him, using his own method of annoying others, and ignored him. Or at least tried to.

But she heard his laughter, knew he thought he’d bested her. And it grated, because she found herself liking his smugness. He reminded her of…her.