All thoughts of pleasure fled, and a muscle worked its way across his jaw as he clenched his teeth tightly. He thought once more of the shadowy figure who’d held the instrument of pain in her hands. Of how she’d sliced and diced until she’d reached the part of him that was sacred.
And then had methodically ripped half of his soul out of his body.
Even now, the pain pounded away inside him, the half-empty hole ragged and raw. It agitated the jaguar, filling his mind with all kinds of madness. He’d lived with it for six months and would continue to deal. He had no choice.
Julian let the spray wash over him for a good long time, his thoughts centered on the woman he’d found in his home. Three years ago, he’d seduced her, screwed her, then left like a coward. At the time he’d had no idea who she was, but the fact that she’d been a shifter had been enough to make him run.
Julian shook his head. Yeah, nothing was the same. There was a time when he’d hated anything to do with his shifter heritage, and now he embraced it with a savage need.
His world had indeed come full circle.
Five minutes later, he left the bedroom, dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and the heavy boots he’d arrived in.
The shower had invigorated him, and his head was clear. He ran his hands through the damp thick waves, pushing his hair back as his golden eyes swept the room.
She was where he’d left her. Arms crossed over her chest, legs spread as she looked out the window over the darkened city below. The dagger lay at her feet.
He crossed the floor silently until he was inches from her body and studied her closely as she turned her head to the side.
“Long shower,” she said, and looked away.
He saw her face reflected in the glass. She’d lost a bit of weight since he’d last seen her. The blush of youth had given way to adulthood. It showed in her cheeks, but the end result was toned and lean. She wore formfitting black clothes and kick-ass boots.
She’d let her hair out from the band that had confined it earlier and it flowed, just as he remembered, down to the soft swell of her butt.
She really was a beautiful woman.
“If you want, I can bend over and give you a real treat.” The sarcasm that laced her words was thick, and Julian smiled as their eyes met in the window.
“If you bent over right now you’d be giving me more than a treat,” he said, “and I’d have to do something about it.”
He watched as her eyes fell to his crotch, and his teeth flashed white at the look of disgust that passed over her features.
“Can we skip this?” She whirled around. “The whole banter thing? ’Cause we’re not buddies, and I’m not in the mood for games. I need to be somewhere.”
“Be somewhere?” Julian’s eyes narrowed. “You got some other penthouse to break into?”
“No, asshole, I was only hitting you tonight.”
Julian took a step closer to her. “Well hell”—he stood with his arms stretched out fully—“hit me.”
Jaden’s face darkened. “You’re still an arrogant son of a bitch who doesn’t have the balls for someone like me,” she snapped. “There will be no hitting between us. Again. Ever.”
Julian watched the flurry of emotions that crossed her face. Her chest strained against thin fabric as she inhaled a ragged breath and pushed a long strand of hair behind her ear. The soft curve of her neck stood out in stark contrast to the silken black, and he imagined his fingers twined into the luxurious waves.
It was then that he spied the tats along her neck, and inside, his jaguar began to make noise. She was not just a shifter. The woman before him was a jaguar warrior—rare for a female, and that meant she was mated. The warrior tats on females only materialized after sex with the person she’d claimed as hers.
For some reason, that information left a bad taste in his mouth, the kind that lingered, and he frowned heavily.
“Why are you here?” he asked, watching closely for any hint of deceit.
Jaden pursed her lips, and he could see the indecision in her eyes. His own kept straying to the tattoos on the side of her neck, and when her hair fell forward once more and covered them, he couldn’t say he was sorry.
Where the hell was her mate? Christ, if she belonged to him, he’d never let her screw off into the night, hitting homes that housed dangerous sons of bitches like himself.
“There’s been chatter that something big is gonna hit the fan sooner rather than later. Like nasty big.” Jaden began to tap her foot impatiently and moved across the room, her long legs full of grace and stealth. “Everyone’s looking for the portal, and I thought . . .” She sighed heavily and turned toward him. “I don’t know what I thought. Some information fell into my lap, and I acted on it.”
“What information?”