Javier tasted like nothing she’d ever experienced. Sweet yet tangy. A flavor she could grow addicted to. His scent was musky, manly, delicious. Heaven and hell all in one gorgeous package. When he wrapped his arms around her, anchoring her to his chest, she didn’t jerk away as she had from other aggressive men in her past. She felt safe. At home.
Slipping her hands behind his neck, she wove her fingers into his thick black hair and tilted her head for a better angle, eating at his lips, nipping his tongue. She couldn’t get enough, couldn’t get close enough. She threw her leg over his, needing relief where she throbbed and ached.
Javier jerked his mouth from hers and let out a deep groan, his grip around her changing from a tight hug to his hands fisting in her T-shirt. It took a moment for Heidi to realize it was a sound of pain, not pleasure.
She carefully moved off him, and his arms dropped away. His breathing was deep, fast, his eyes squeezed tight.
“I’m so sorry.” Heidi laid her hand against his smooth shaved cheek. “Let me get you a pill.”
Javier shook his head. “No. No more of your pills, chata.” He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. “I fear I am not up to such activities yet with a woman who cannot control herself.”
Her lips parted at the insult, until she realized he teased her. She suppressed a smile. “How bad is the pain?”
“I will live.”
“I know you will. I asked how bad the pain was.”
“How long until supper?” he countered instead of answering her question.
With a roll of her eyes, Heidi stood and folded her arms over her chest. “You’re impossible.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Supper is in about an hour.”
“I will join you then. Go now, and let me rest.”
“Excuse me?” Her family might treat her like a servant at times, but this guy wasn’t going to get away with it.
“My leg hurts, chata. Let me be for a while, please, to regain the strength to join your family for supper.”
His tone had lost all teasing, so she moved toward the door. “Would you at least take some aspirin for the pain?”
He gave a slight nod, but his eyes were closed.
Heidi scowled at him and opened the door. Her body was too hot for comfort, and her pussy still clenched in need. Damn, but the man could kiss. And it didn’t matter if he was asleep or awake. He was potent.
Too potent.
Even when he vocalized his need with typical alpha arrogance, she wanted him. Before he left, she’d have him. No way could she let the feelings he elicited from her go without experiencing it all at least once. She knew in her heart she’d never meet another man like Javier Montero. Only a fool would let him go without taking what he had to offer.
Heading toward the kitchen, she stopped and realized he’d effectively distracted her, answering none of her questions about his past or why he wouldn’t open up with any pertinent information.
Frustrated and somewhat annoyed, she almost went back to ask him the one question she needed answered before she could have sex with him: Who is Isabela?
Javier managed to calm his racing heart and raging hard-on enough to drowse off and on for the next hour after Heidi returned with two pills she promised wouldn’t affect his brain.
He wasn’t completely sure what had possessed him to kiss her like that other than to stop her inquisitiveness about his past...and perhaps see if the dream kiss had been anything like reality. In the dream he’d been kissing his mate, not Heidi. The reality was almost too much to comprehend.
The passion she exuded. The lust he experienced when she was near.
He could almost convince himself it was simply that he’d been celibate for the past two years.
Almost. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been around other women in that time. There had been opportunity.
Women found him attractive, and if he’d needed the physical release, sex would not have been difficult to come by. Until now, he hadn’t required a woman, hadn’t wanted one.
A part of his mind accused him of infidelity. But his body damn near demanded he take Heidi.
Possess her. And that did not seem right. He should not have such a strong draw to her—to any female. He’d had his mate, loved her with all his being, and lost her.
No one could take her place.
There was only one woman for him.
But Heidi is not just a woman, that small voice reminded him.
Was it some kind of chemical reaction to a female shifter? Or rather, a female with shifter blood running through her veins?
Impossible. They were not even the same...species. Cougars did not mate with jaguars. Did they?
Javier opened his eyes and frowned at the knotty pine ceiling. Cougars and jaguars did not occupy the same space, normally. Why wouldn’t—couldn’t—they mate if they did? He had heard of ligers, a lion and tiger hybrid.
Heidi might be descended from shifters, but she could not shift. Her fathers had admitted that much.
Cougar versus jaguar was not the real issue at all. Shifter blood or no, she was human...all female, and when he was near her, he had little doubt of his very human, very male need.
He scoffed at his own thoughts. She attracted him enough that he longed to have sex with her. Hot, sweaty sex...for hours, if he could manage it.
His one mate was dead. He would never love another woman. But he was male, and for the first time in two years his human need for sexual release, for physical companionship, pounded at him. He would never mate again, no matter the sexual attraction. But he would have taken what Heidi offered if she hadn’t knocked his cast and sent pain spiking up his entire right side, effectively cooling his lust. Damn his wound, and damn the idiot who shot him.
Javier sat up and lifted his casted leg over the side of the bed. The aspirin had eased the throbbing, but the insistent ache was still there. Taking his crutches, he used the restroom then exited into the hallway.
“Dakota! What are you doing here?” he heard Heidi exclaim. He couldn’t remember a mention of anyone named Dakota.
“Axel called and said they were coming here for dinner,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice said. “I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. Guess I beat them, huh?”
Javier cleared the end of the hallway and spotted a petite, dark-haired, dark-skinned woman standing just inside the front door.
“Give me a baby.” Heidi reached out to take one of three baby carriers from the stranger.
“Hey, Javier,” Beth said as she placed a hand on his back and carefully passed him. “I want one.”
She took another of the carriers.
“And you must be the reason Axel and Gunnar are coming here for supper.” The nearly black eyes of the stranger met his.
He gave a polite nod in her direction.
She showed curiosity but no fear. There were too many scents in the house—the Falkes and the smell of barbeque and onions—for him to scent her. Perhaps if he were in his cat form... His senses were stronger then.
One of the babies squalled, and the mother pulled him from the carrier, propping the child on her hip.
“Kelan could never keep his big mouth shut,” Heidi grumbled.
Beth glanced at Heidi. “Axel was bound to find out sooner or later.”
With a sigh, Heidi waved a free hand toward him. “Dakota, this is Javier Montero.” She went to the couch and removed a second child from its carrier. Dark hair. Dark eyes, like its mother. “Javier, this is my sister-in-law, Dakota, Axel and Gunnar’s mate.” She faced Javier with the baby in her arms, snuggled against her shoulder as natural as could be. “And this little fellow is—” Just then a strange little animal burst into the room and ran directly to him, barking its scraggly head off.