Eternal Hunter (Night Watch 1)

“Don’t you know”—the words were a growl, so deep and rough they sent a shiver over her—“not to play with a tiger?”

Oh, but a tiger shifter was exactly the kind of guy she wanted to play with. “I can’t hurt you.” The words slipped out and after a second, she jerked back, horrified. No, she’d said—

His head tipped back and his brows lifted. “Ah…makes sense.”

What?

He caught her hand, pulled it between them. “The humans didn’t like it when you played rough, huh?” The tips of her claws had just begun to appear.

“I have a…hard time holding back.”

“Not gonna complain over that.” His hold on her hand tightened. “Not gonna complain one bit.”

“You’d be the first who didn’t.” Could she not keep her mouth closed? Erin tried to tug her hand back.

No dice. The tiger wasn’t letting go. She could force the issue but…

“Then you’ve been with damn idiots. A woman with power is a f**king beautiful thing to behold.” His eyes held the glow of the beast. “You’re f**king beautiful.”

He’d just—oh, hell. “I got to third base for the first time when I was seventeen. The guy was the high school quarterback.

I-I’ve always been strong and—I didn’t mean to hold him so tight.” But she’d almost broken both his wrists. When she’d realized what was happening and eased her hold, he’d run, much faster than he’d ever moved on the field. Come Monday, no guy at the school had so much as given her a second look.

Freak.

“In college, I’d been seeing this guy.” Lyle had always been able to make her smile. “Things got hot and my claws came out.”

Erin, what the hell? You cut me! How did you…?

Her teeth snapped together. “After that,” she gritted, slamming the door on that particular memory, “I learned fast that I had to always have control and be very careful in bed.” Human lovers were too weak. She could break them if she wasn’t careful.

So she’d taken her pleasure, weak though it had been, and she’d done it by always holding herself back during sex. If she let go, her partners would have found out what she really was.

Not an option.

Jude unhooked his seat belt and leaned over her. “I like your claws and you’re welcome to hold me as tight as you want.”

His lips pressed against hers. Took. Tasted. His tongue slipped inside.

A moan rose in her throat.

His head lifted and he told her, “You don’t have to hold back with me. Last night should have proven that to you.”

It had. And being with him had made her want so much more.

The past was all around her then. Reaching out with greedy hands and claws, while the only man who’d ever made her feel like a normal woman waited before her with bright eyes and a mouth that made her sex clench.

One more time. She needed him, just once more.

And she was going to have him.

Screw the voice that demanded she tell him all of her secrets. She didn’t want to see pity in his eyes.

She wanted the lust that burned hot enough to singe her flesh.

Her fingers sank into his hair as she urged him close again, and she took his mouth.

No holding back. As wild as she wanted to be. Finally.

The fury of lust was in his kiss. She could taste the reckless need and the hunger. She loved it. Her heart pounded, drumming hard and fast in her ears, and she pressed against him, loving that thickly muscled chest. Damn, the guy was perfect.

But he had on too many clothes.

So did she.

Her tongue snaked over the raised edge of his scar, and, this time, the moan was his.

Her ni**les pebbled, the points aching and hard. She knew that he’d smell her arousal in the close confines of the truck’s cab. It would be impossible for a guy like him not to notice.

If only the gear shift weren’t so close to her leg, she could try to straddle him and—

He jerked back. “We…have to talk…the guy after you—”

Talking wasn’t what she wanted. “We’re safe here, aren’t we?”

A nod. “Out here”—he ran his tongue over his lips as if catching her taste—“I’d know long before anyone got close.”

That’s what she’d thought. Out in the wild. The perfect place for her tiger. “Good.” Her right hand dropped between them and rubbed over the obvious bulge of his arousal. “I want you— now.” Oh, hell, had she just said that? Sounding all confident, like she wasn’t shaking inside? What if he could see right through her? What if—

“I know.” The edge of his growing canines appeared when he gave a hard grin. “Your smell is driving me insane.” Then his hand was on her thigh, shoving up her skirt. She hadn’t bothered with panty hose. Living in Louisiana, a girl learned to ditch those at an early age. So his callused fingertips touched skin and sent a little shock right through her. Especially when those fingers curled around the inside of her thigh and slid up…

Her breath hitched. “Inside.”

His mouth lifted in a half-smile. “Hell, yeah, sweetheart. I’m going right—”

Her cheeks flamed. “I mean…” His fingers worked up an inch and brushed against the crotch of her panties. Those panties were getting damp, fast. “Not…here.” Because the fear was always there in the back of her mind.

Watching.

He’d be smart enough to stay back, so Jude wouldn’t hear his movement. But he could use binoculars. She knew the guy would do just about anything to keep tabs on her.

No, no, she didn’t want that ass**le to see a thing. “Your house.”

One finger eased under the elastic edge of her panties and pushed up between her folds. Erin stiffened.

Not because she didn’t like his touch, but because she did. Too much.

That finger stroked over her, spreading her cream in a long swipe and Erin gasped. “Inside.” The house. She meant the house.

He pulled away. It seemed like more beast than man stared at her from his eyes. “You’d better move fast, sweetheart.”

She shoved open the door. Fought to untangle herself from the seatbelt. Then she was all but racing for the porch, ignoring the chirp of insects and the distant lap of water.

He reached the door first, by about a good two seconds. She flew in behind him, mouth dry, body throbbing, so ready.

Jude caught her, yanking her close and crushing his lips to hers. Her back rapped against the wall and her mouth opened wider.