Unleashed (7 page)

“Cora!” I gave her a scathing look as I scooted over next to Avery, unable to ignore the part of my mind that was making happy noises at being pressed up next to him. His body was warm and hard and so incredibly male it made my mouth water.

“Who, me? I would never do anything so petty.” Her face was angelic, but I wasn't in the least fooled.

I focused on keeping my hands to myself and on not touching Avery.

But I'd like you to touch me. Not as much as I'd like to touch you, though.

I kept my mind firmly on what I was going to say to Greg. “I think we're going to have to be straightforward with him. He's never been the sort of guy to pick up on subtle hints.”

“Subtle as in, stop hitting on me; I'm not interested in you?” Cora asked.

Avery's thoughts were suddenly filled with violence.

Stop pretending to be jealous.

I'm not pretending.

It's not going to impress me. Greg hasn't done anything to warrant your thinking things like that. Or that. And gelding is definitely out. They have laws against that, you know!

I'm a Moravian, Beloved. I am above such things as mortal laws.

And conceited to boot. You can posture all you like, but it's not going to impress me.

He said nothing, but I caught a shadow of a thought that had me worried he wasn't trying to play he-man just to impress me.

By the time I turned the truck in and made it back to the office, we hadn't come to a consensus on how to deal with Greg.

“If you two would just stay here, I will go see if he's even in the office,” I told Avery and Cora as they followed me down the hall to the big room that housed all the officers for the two counties we covered.

“Jacintha!”

“Too late,” Cora said softly, watching with bright, interested eyes as Greg emerged from his office at the end of the hall and came barreling toward us.

“Just the woman I hoped to see. Perhaps you can spare me a few minutes to talk about some upcoming plans I have for the department. Your input is invaluable when it comes to making decisions, you know.”

He stopped in front of me, giving me his usual oily smile, one that faded slightly when Avery wrapped an arm around my waist and hauled me tight into his side.

“Er . . .” Greg looked askance at Avery. “And this is?”

“Her fiancé,” Avery said in a voice that was outwardly pleasant but with a distinct undertone of warning.

Oh, you are not!

You're my Beloved. That is infinitely more binding than a mortal engagement.

“Yeah,” Cora said, nodding as her gaze narrowed on Greg when I introduced Avery to him. “They're engaged.”

I looked at her in complete surprise. “You don't even like Avery!”

“So? He saved you from that weirdo Dieter. And besides, he's better than the alternatives,” she said with a pointed glance at Greg.

“Cora! I'm sorry, Greg; my sister isn't usually so rude.”

“Oh, I can be.”

Greg waved away the insult. “Engaged, eh? Congratulations. Did you say Dieter? Dieter Baum?”

Next to me, Avery stiffened.

“Yes,” I said slowly, trying to read Greg's expression. His eyes, not nearly as clear and pure a blue as Avery's, looked confused. “Dieter caught me on his land earlier today when I was going to see Albert, and he attacked me.”

“Good God. Come into my office and tell me about it,” Greg said, ushering us into his office. “Are you all right? Did you call the police?”

“I'm fine, and no, no police. Avery was there and managed to handle the situation,” I said quickly.

“I see.” He looked at Avery again. “How fortunate he was there at that moment.”

“Yes. Greg, perhaps you can help me. I would like to talk to Albert about some issues with wildlife in the area, but naturally, after the attack, I'm hesitant to go onto Leshy lands.”

Nice ad-libbing
, Avery said with approval.

I'm rather pleased with it, myself.

“Oh, I wouldn't be if I were you,” Greg said, waving away my worry. “Albert's all right. Dieter's a bit of a nut ball, but if you stay away from him, you should be fine.”

“You know Albert Baum?” Avery asked.

“Met him several years ago. He's harmless enough. I won't say he's not a pain in the ass during hunting season, but the rest of the year he's pretty reasonable. If you don't mind my asking, when did you get engaged, Jacintha?”

Somewhat taken aback by the shift in topic, I hesitated before answering. “Well, to be honest, we're not actually engaged.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Avery is Scottish, you see, and they do things a little differently in Scotland,” I explained, mentally growling at the man in question.

“No, we don't.”

“I think I understand,” Greg said, his face suddenly inscrutable. “Yes, I think I understand it all.”

A chill went through me. “When's the last time you saw any of the Leshies?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It's been some time. Maybe six months. Why?”

Rats. I think he's suspicious
, I told Avery.

No. Just shrewd.

Not his natural state, I assure you.

That you know of.

True.
“I just wondered if perhaps something had happened that would leave them all a bit skittish around outsiders. Or rather, more skittish than normal. Say . . . some problem with their game.”

“Game? Do you think they're raising the animals for slaughter?” Greg pounced on my carefully chosen word, leaving me disconcerted.

“No, nothing like that. It was just a slip of the tongue.”

“I see. Well, I haven't heard of anything amiss with Baum and his group, but I don't maintain much contact with them at all. Just the odd e-mail now and again, and of course, I hear about their interactions with hunters during the hunting season.”

That tells us nothing, damn it. I can't decide whether he looks innocent and is really guilty, or vice versa,
I grumbled.

You didn't expect him to admit anything, did you?

Expect? No. Hope . . . kind of.

Greg turned the subject to matters of state policy, asking my opinion on a number of items, which I answered absently, all the while Avery and I trying to figure out whether we had any other conversational gambit to offer.

We didn't. “Thanks for your time,” Greg said some fifteen minutes later, giving Avery an odd look as we left his office. “And nice to meet your . . . er . . . friend.”

Cora tugged on my arm as Greg toddled off to attend a meeting. “That was boring beyond human comprehension. So, inquiring minds want to know: What were you guys saying on your mental Instant Messengers?”

Chapter 7

“How do you know we said anything?” I wondered whether there was some way Cora knew when Avery and I were doing the mental thing.

“ 'Cause you snickered under your breath a couple of times, and I fail to see how policy regarding wild salmon is enough to tickle anyone's funny bone. What did you guys say?”

“Is she always this nosy?” Avery asked as I made a decision and headed toward the entrance of the building.

“Hey! It's called sisterly concern. And you'd better get used to it, bucko, because I'm not going to leave Jas alone so you can brainwash her.”

Avery's expression was one of weary resignation. “I'm beginning to see the charm of remaining unentangled.”

“If you're referring to me, you're more than welcome to be as footloose and fancy-free as you like,” I said with much dignity. “The last thing I want to do is entangle someone against his wishes.”

Oh, really? So that thought about tying me down and licking various sticky substances off me wasn't yours?

I blushed remembering it.

“So, what now? We just go home and wait?” Cora asked as I gave Avery directions to my apartment.

“Yes.” I glanced at Avery, once again telling my mind to stop flinging itself around in wild abandon at being pressed up against his side. “We should probably stop at a store to get you some clothes that fit, unless you want to keep wearing those borrowed things. There's an outlet mall about half an hour from here. And then . . .”

“Then what?” Cora frowned at Avery when he casually dropped his hand onto my leg.

You need to eat, don't you? I can feel that you're getting more and more hungry. How do you normally handle that?

Feeding? I find someone isolated, feed, and give them a little mind push to forget that fact.

I see. It sounds rather cold and impersonal.

It can be, although usually it's the opposite.

I glanced at him in surprise.
Feeding is stimulating?

Arousing. Sometimes. Depends on the person.

Irritation prickled along my skin at the thought of Avery's drinking another woman's blood, his body all warm and sensual and so sexy it made my stomach hurt.

It doesn't have to be that way, Beloved.

You can control your horn-dawg ways?

Not in that sense. I meant that if you fed me, there would be no reason for you to feel so jealous.

I am not feeling jealous. I have nothing to be jealous about, despite your claim I'm some sort of quasi soul saver.

There's nothing quasi about you, love.

I dropped the conversation, murmuring something innocuous to Cora as we drove to the outlet mall. An hour later we arrived at my apartment.

I pointed Avery to the small bathroom attached to my bedroom so he could shower and change.

“I don't suppose it would do any good for me to warn you about the dangers of sex with a vampire?” Cora tossed the question at me as I went into my room to change my clothes.

“None whatsoever,” I answered, closing the door behind me.

“Fine, but when you come crying to me about being enslaved to a tomcat vampire, I get to say I told you so!” she bellowed before she headed to the other bedroom to unpack her things.

I am not a tomcat. I am a therion. There is a difference.

You're eavesdropping again.

I can't help it.
He thought of licking a line up my spine, making me suddenly stand up very straight.
Now who's eavesdropping?

I grumbled to myself as I pulled off my uniform, hurrying into the oversized spa robe before he emerged from the bathroom. Steam curled around him through the open door. His hair was several shades darker, wet, and slicked back from his forehead. He wore a pair of jeans he'd purchased, but nothing more. At the sight of me, his eyebrows rose. “I would have been happy to wait for you had I known you wished to shower, as well.”

“Thank you, but I prefer to take showers by myself.”

His smile, as I passed him to enter the warm, steamy bathroom, was full of promise, but he said nothing.

He wasn't stark naked and in my bed when I came out of the bathroom, as I half expected. Instead, he stood at the window, having angled the blinds carefully so the sunlight wouldn't strike him.

“You really are opposed to our Joining, aren't you?” he said without looking at me.

“I'm not sure I understand exactly what that is,” I answered, fingering the thick cotton lapel on my robe.

“For a Dark One, there are seven steps. But for me, there are only six.”

“And what are they?”

“A marking, protection, fluids exchange, trust, a second exchange, and overcoming darkness. Dark Ones have a final step: an exchange of blood.”

“Fluids exchange?” I asked, creeped out.

His lips quirked. “Saliva counts.”

“Oh, that kind of fluids,” I said, thinking about the steamy kisses we'd shared. “It seems to me that we've done most of those.”

“We have. All but one.”

I waited, sure he would tell me.

“Darkness.” His eyes glittered in the relative dimness of my room. “You must overcome the darkness that lives within me, the same darkness that resides in all Moravians, for us to be Joined.”

“And what happens then? We're . . . married?” I asked, my emotions torn. I had tried to figure out in the shower what I wanted to do about Avery. Part of me wanted to keep him. He was interesting, fascinating, really, so different from other men, and yet there was something about him that resonated within me, as if he were a missing part of my being. My saner self, however, pointed out the obvious: I'd just met him, knew nothing about him, and oh yes, he was a blood-drinking, shape-shifting jaguar.

“Marriage is a mortal custom. It can be broken. Joining is for all time. You would become my Beloved, and we would be bound together for the rest of our lives, which will no doubt be for many centuries.”

“Centuries!”

“Beloveds, both those of Dark Ones and Moravians, are immortal.” He moved toward me, and my inner self almost drooled while admiring the way his muscles moved together. He took my hands, his thumbs stroking gently over my fingers. “You have seen my thoughts, so you know this is not something I had sought.”

“Oh, I'm quite aware that you were very happy seducing every woman who came within ten feet of you.”

“Not
every
woman,” he said with a devilish grin that melted my heart.

“Do you seriously think I want to spend the rest of my life, spend
centuries
bound to a man with a roving eye and worse? No,” I said, shaking my head. “Call me selfish, but no. I told you earlier that I don't share.”

“And that is why I never thought I'd want to find a Beloved.” His lips curled into a half smile. “It just seemed so limiting. But now I see why Paen and Finn have embraced it. The idea of being bound to you isn't just enticing; it's necessary.” He leaned close to me, his breath brushing my lips. “
You're
necessary.”

“Avery, what you're asking—”

“I know. We've just met. You feel you don't know me. You're not ready for a commitment like this.”

“On the nose,” I said, leaning forward to rub my nose against his. “But surely you must feel the same way.”

His eyes smiled down at me. “If I said no, would you think I was lying?”

Hesitantly, I let my mind merge with his. His emotions were right there for me to examine, shining with a strength that took my breath away. “You said you weren't in love with me.”

“I wasn't.
Then.”

“How can you fall in love with someone in just an hour?” I asked.

He made a face. “My father once told me it was something bred into Moravians, the way we are engineered. He said he fell in love with my mother two minutes after he met her, and that we're predisposed to be happy with the one person who was born to be our mate.”

“Two minutes, huh?” I looked at the clock radio next to my bed. “It took you seven hours. Slacker.”

He laughed and let his lips linger on mine, his arms sliding around me to pull my hips against his. He was still clad in only a pair of jeans, and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy spreading my fingers across the hair of his chest, my fingertips tingling at the sensation of the heavy muscles beneath the warm, silken skin. “I will obviously have to make it up to you.”

“What about the women?” I asked, nibbling on his lower lip a little. “Was your mother as quick to fall in love with your father?”

“No. Beloveds tend to put up some resistance. Dad said it has more to do with their being women than Beloveds.”

I pinched his side. He pulled me tighter, his tongue teasing my lips.

“I'm going to be starkly honest with you, Avery, because you've been the same with me. Right now, I don't know what, exactly, I want for there to be between us. But I think you need me, and that appeals to me. I feel like I have something to offer you, so if you're content to let me have a little space while I make some decisions, maybe we can find out just how things could be.”

“You can have all the time you need to work things out, love,” he murmured, kissing a steamy path over to my ear. I squirmed in delight, my fingers tightening on his shoulders. “But you're correct that I need you.”

“I knew you were hungry,” I answered, half gasping when he found a sensitive spot behind my ear.

If you feed me now, I won't be able to control myself
, he warned, kissing the line of my throat down to my breastbone.

I've never, ever jumped into bed with a man I just met. I'm not at all that type of person.

His eyes were like molten sapphires, so hot I swear I could feel his gaze scorching me.

Oh, to hell with it. There's always a first time.
I pulled him toward the bed.

That was all the encouragement he needed. Before I could even blink, he had his pants and my bathrobe off, and we were lying in a tangled, erogenous heap on my bed.

His kiss was hotter than sin, the taste and feel of him sending my consciousness spiraling into a land of erotic pleasure that amazed and thrilled me. “Go ahead,” I whispered, gently biting the corded tendons on the side of his neck. “Feed.”

He reared back for a moment, his eyes wide with surprise, delight, and passion; then I was straddling his chest, my breasts at his mouth level. The sharp pain that burned my breast melted into a shock of rapture that swept through my body, pushed higher by the sensations Avery shared with me.

You like it when I touch you
, I mused, sweeping my hands upward along his ribs.

God, yes
. He pulled my hips over so I straddled his groin, his penis lying hard between us.

I wiggled, and he groaned in my mind, his tongue swirling on my neck. I smiled down at him as I sat up, my back arching and my eyes crossing as his hands took possession of my breasts, the pads of his thumbs gently brushing my very sensitive nipples.
And you like it when I touch you.

That is clearly obvious. What do you feel if I do this?
I shifted so I could take him in my hands, allowing my fingers to dance down the long length of him.

He swore in Latin, his hips thrusting upward.

That good, huh?

His eyes, which had been rolled back in ecstasy, narrowed on me in a way that bespoke retribution. Before I could move, he had me on my back, his hands spreading my thighs, his breath hot on the very center of me.
That sounded very much like mocking, my love. And two can play that game.

I writhed with anticipation, prepared to enjoy myself thoroughly, but an odd tickling sensation on my inner thighs had me looking down in concern.

The blue eyes of a black-coated jaguar stared back at me in consternation.

“Um . . . Avery?”

I know. It just happened.

“I'm sorry. I don't want you to take this as a rejection, but I'm not into bestiality.”

His jaguar lips thinned.
Neither am I. I didn't intend for this to happen. It just did.

“Hmm. I wonder why. What were you thinking just before you shifted?”

He looked down at my private parts.

“Oh. You know, as enticing as it sounds to say that my genitalia turn men into animals, it's not nearly as exciting in reality.”

His body rippled, elongated, and returned to the form that had me quivering with delight. “Nor for me. I believe it has something to do with strong emotions. When I saw Dieter attacking you earlier, I didn't consciously decide to shift—it just happened. And you had me on the verge with the pleasure you were feeding me.”

My eyes widened. “Oh my God. Are you saying we can't have sex without you turning into a jaguar?”

His head dipped as he swirled his tongue through sensitive parts. I clutched the sheets and bucked upward, the sensation almost pushing me over the edge. “Good Lord, Avery!”

He chuckled a breathy, hot chuckle into my groin, then suddenly moved up, wrapped my legs around his hips, and thrust into my body.
It's just a matter of focusing, I believe.

I tightened all my muscles around him and was rewarded with a groan of the most exquisite pleasure . . . and watched with amazement as black fur rippled up the arms braced on either side of my chest.
Oh no!

Don't worry—I have it under control
, he said, his eyes crossing in concentration as the black fur slowly dissipated.
But if you do that again, I won't be responsible for what happens.

I pulled him down onto me, nuzzling his neck and wrapping my legs around him, angling my hips upward to better meet his thrusts, my body moving in perfect accord with his.