“More,” she said, as he groaned his release, and she was close to coming again.
Wanting to please her, he kept it up, thrusting until she came, her lips parted on a purr of pleasure. He gave her a quick kiss and a thorough tonguing. He pulled away from her, yanked his shorts off the rest of the way, and dumped them on the floor. Before she could protest his abandoning her, he gathered her up in his arms and this time carried her up the steps to the bed.
He had every intention of making love to her again. And again.
Morning would come way too soon.
Wade and Maya snuggled, her soft body curled against his chest as he stroked her hair.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Maya said. “You seemed more than worried last night when you saw me before dinner. More than was warranted just because Lion Mane clawed me.”
Wade snorted. “His clawing you had me seeing red, Maya. Hell. Although you’re right. I am concerned about something else. Nothing’s for sure, but just speculating, what if Lion Mane was Bettinger’s brother?”
Maya didn’t say anything for several moments. “Great.”
“Yeah. Not good. If he decides he wants revenge…” Wade didn’t need to finish the thought.
“Okay. I’m glad I know what I might be up against.”
“He might not be Bettinger’s brother. But the possibility exists.”
She nodded. Then, to his surprise, she asked, “What do you think of our garden nursery?”
Wade kissed her cheek and gave her a long look. Maybe she was having doubts about seeing other shifters. He could only hope. “Your brother asked me the same thing.”
She stiffened and tried to pull away. He held on tight and nuzzled her face until she relaxed. “He’d better not be acting like we’re… well, we’re…”
“A couple?” Wade supplied. “He just wondered what I’d do if we got hitched. He was concerned about how you’d feel. Stay in Texas. Move to Florida.”
“That’s not for him to discuss. Or you. We’re not a couple.”
“Maybe not, but he doesn’t want to lose you. That much was evident.”
She settled down. Two alpha male cats in the house wouldn’t work well. But when she looked up at him, he could see the worry in her expression.
Wade understood how she felt—the closeness she shared with her brother and sister-in-law was important to her. He didn’t want her to give that up. “I wouldn’t take you away from your brother or Kat or their kids.”
“Then what?”
He fought a smile. She had been thinking about it. “Connor says you have plenty of land. A lake, even. We could build a place on the lake. You could still work at the nursery. Your brother said he and Kat couldn’t do it without you. And he wasn’t talking about your menial labor, either.”
“What would you do?”
“My job,” he said honestly. “But I’m not gone all the time. I wouldn’t mind helping with the garden when I’m around.”
“You?”
“Planting seeds. Digging around. It could work.” And he wasn’t talking about the garden, either.
She nestled against him. “I’m not saying yes about anything.”
He nodded. “I told you it was your choice.” But he had every intention of changing her mind. He did have a thought, though. If he could get some of his friends to take her out and prove how much better of a choice he was for her… He shook his head. He couldn’t do that to her. Besides, what if one of the guys he knew appealed to her?
“You don’t really mean it about not minding that I’m planning to see others,” she finally said, her fingers caressing his chest.
“Sure I do,” he said, not even trying to be convincing. She already had him figured out.
She smiled up at him. “You’re making headway.”
He smiled back at her. She was not going to date anyone else if he had any say in it.
Maya couldn’t believe she’d slept most of the day. Then again, since she and Wade hadn’t slept most of the night, they’d had some making up to do. They finally managed to pack their bags and have their last meal together at the dining room where David, Kat, and Connor were already waiting for them.
Maya tried hard not to blush as all eyes were on her, but that part of her being just wouldn’t cooperate. It was one thing knowing they knew she’d been making love to Wade half the night and this morning. It was another thing to face them in person.
Everyone but David seemed tired. Too much late-night activity for the shifter couples. Poor David.
No one said much of anything during the meal. Not even the other guests, some of whom were also headed home.
Once they were on the bus to Belize City, Maya realized she hadn’t once eaten anything in the jungle as a cat, like she normally did when Connor and she visited the Amazon. At least she’d had several nights to run as a jaguar.
The club date was the next big adventure, and she worried just how that would turn out. Fighting in the jungle was one thing. Dealing with a shifter in a city was quite another.
Chapter 20
When Maya kissed Wade good-bye at the airport, she felt as if he was going off to war or something—or she was. Maya couldn’t help feeling awful, but she was annoyed with herself. What was wrong with her?
As soon as she entered the plane, she knew what was wrong. In her heart she was already falling for the hunky jaguar shifter. Afraid that she was going to be like her mother and her father with their doomed relationship, she was trying hard to keep her emotions intact and maintain some distance from the cat who made her hot with just a whisper of a kiss or a caress of his fingers across her bare skin. Distancing herself from him wasn’t working.
The problem was trying to figure out what made for the perfect couple. As she and her brother and Kat flew home, Maya stared out the window at the majestic cotton-white thunderheads hanging aloft in the clear blue sky.
Connor and Kat’s relationship was close to being perfect. Sure they’d argue sometimes, but making up seemed to be wonderful. She hadn’t seen Connor this happy in years, and Kat was so much like family that it was if she had always been with them. Being with Connor was home for Kat.
Maya couldn’t believe that Wade would be willing to move to Texas to live near her family. What was not to love about him? The notion that he’d want to return with her to Belize when Kat and Connor couldn’t was just as appealing.
She sighed and glanced over at Kat, who was sitting in the middle seat beside her, watching her. Connor had closed his eyes, head leaning against the reclined seat, his hand clasping Kat’s. He was in his shielding and territorial male jaguar persona—sitting in the aisle seat, claiming this row, protective of his wife and sister. As if anyone was going to bother them on the flight. Still, it was an instinctive part of his behavior.
“What?” Maya mouthed to her virtual sister, wondering what she wanted to discuss because Kat wouldn’t be staring at her if she didn’t want to talk about some issue—most likely one that Maya wasn’t interested in discussing. At least not on the plane while Connor listened in.
Kat smiled. “You love him. Don’t deny it.”
Maya frowned at her, really not wanting to bring the topic of Wade up right now. She was too unsettled about her thoughts concerning him. “He’s pretty nice.”
“But?”
Maya sighed. “What if it doesn’t last? What if after the babies came…”