Wild Cat

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Diego jerked his head up and swung to her, his pain screaming itself at Cassidy in the breathless silence. Instead of demanding to know how she got into his apartment, Diego pressed her against the tile wall and kissed her.

They were hot, needy kisses that left her gasping. His mouth was a point of fire as their lips parted then met again, and again.

Her hands roved his back, found the wet skin of his buttocks. The very short cream-colored dress Cassidy had put on to come over here was soaked, and Diego so easily found the zipper in the back.

She hadn’t bothered with a bra tonight. Diego’s hands slid down Cassidy’s bare back, scooping her to him at the same time. His kisses were frenzied, the need in him strong. His cock was hard now, rigid against his abdomen.

Diego pressed her wet hair back from her face, cradled her in his big hands. “How did you know, mi ja?” he asked. “How did you know I needed you?”

Cassidy shook her head, beyond words. She’d needed him. But something had happened tonight after he left Shiftertown, something that had hurt him.

She ran her hands down his back, putting every ounce of calming into her touch. It’s all right. I’m here. You’re safe now.

Diego shuddered. It was working, his heartbeat slowing, or at least coming down from its frenzied pace. He tilted her face to his, the heartache in his eyes burning.

Cassidy found herself lifted up the wet wall, the water pounding around them. Diego yanked her panties down, and Cassidy kicked them off.

She and Diego were face-to-face now, water all over them. Diego kissed her face and her throat, open-mouth kisses that scorched. He kissed her lips, opening her, taking what he wanted. Cassidy wrapped her arms around him and gave back.

He lifted her right leg, fitting it around his hips. Cassidy clung to him, drawing a sharp breath as his tip pressed her opening. Diego’s eyes opened all the way as he shoved up into her in one quick thrust.

Diego kept kissing her, their hot mouths bumping, seeking, needing. He was huge inside her, stretching, burning. He felt so, so good.

The part of Cassidy that had died when Donovan had been killed blossomed like a long-dormant flower. She groaned. “Diego, yes.”

Diego backed her against the slick tiles, his kisses everywhere. A string of Spanish poured from him, words she didn’t understand. His mouth was hot, his cock, so thick inside her.

Cassidy said his name, the only word that flowed through her head. She whispered it; she shouted it. She touched him all over, his broad back, the sleek line of the tattoo, his hard buttocks as he loved her.

In this position, he couldn’t thrust much, but he filled her, and pushed higher and higher. Cassidy held on with hands and her leg around his hips, her head back on the tiles while he kissed her.

Diego was tight inside her, where he belonged. He felt good, damn good. Cassidy had no thought but of Diego, his breath, voice, body, heat. She was shaking, trying to draw him up into her, wanting him to stay there forever.

“No,” he said, voice grating. He shook his head against the tile next to her. “No, not yet.”

Cassidy touched his face, his skin so hot. The heat snaked up her fingers, moved through her blood, twined around her heart.

Squeezed tightly there, wove fingers through her emotions and held on. Not releasing when Diego lifted his head and softly kissed her. A bond on her heart, a need to be with this man whatever happened to him or to her.

The mate bond.

Cassidy gasped in shock. Diego fisted her hair in his hand, kissed her lips. “Mi ja,” he whispered. “Amorcita.”

Cassidy couldn’t speak. It couldn’t be. Not with a human. Not so soon after Donovan…

The mate bond didn’t care. It wound happily around her heart as Diego shut off the water, lifted her into his arms, and carried her, both of them dripping, into the bedroom.

Cassidy’s beautiful jade eyes were on him as Diego set her on the bed.

It was a mess in here. They should be doing this in some lush hotel room, maybe in a mountain cabin or by the beach, with a roaring fire or Mai Tais or something. Cassidy deserved a more romantic place than Diego’s cluttered bedroom and unmade bed.

Next time. Next time would be perfect.

Cassidy was beautiful as she lay back and watched him through half-closed eyes. Her body was beyond gorgeous. Generous curves, long legs, breasts a man could die for. Her skin was pale, the ancient Scots in her, the dusky tips of her nipples awaiting his mouth.

She’d come to him. Diego’s entire body hurt with what he’d done, and Cassidy had come. She’d known he needed her and exactly how to ease his pain.

Diego climbed over her on hands and knees. Any thought that she shouldn’t be here, that he shouldn’t do this, didn’t matter anymore.

Their mouths met again in hungry frenzy. Diego broke off to lick the side of her neck, and Cassidy nibbled his shoulder, her soft breasts pressing him.

Diego lowered his head to take one of her nipples into his mouth. He suckled the velvet tip, teeth scraping the hard little point. Cassidy moaned, driving him wild.

“Cass,” Diego whispered, just to say her name.

“Please.”

The little whimper got him. He should be sated after finishing in the shower, ready to sleep, curled against her.

Not yet. Not by a long way. Diego nudged her thighs apart and found her still as ready for him as he was for her.

Diego lowered himself to her and slid straight into her. Her eyes flicked to light green as he entered her, her cat’s eyes.

“Cassidy.” Diego slid all the way inside, resisting closing his eyes as she squeezed around him. He wanted to see her face. “Beautiful.”

Her eyes flicked back to the deep jade green he was falling in love with. She was hot inside, so damn hot. He’d never met anyone like her.

When he thrust in again, Diego lost his tight control. He squeezed his eyes shut and just felt her, her body so soft under his, sweet hot sin on his bed.

Cassidy forgot how to breathe. Diego closed his eyes and turned his head, water from his hair dripping to her shoulder. He was heavy on her, his strong body enclosing and overwhelming hers.

She loved it. His mattress was firm on her back, his long, strong body hot on hers. Diego was inside her, and he fit just right, as though he belonged there and always had.

Cassidy wanted more of him, and more and more. She begged shamelessly with her body, arching into him, running her fingernails down his back. He smiled, opening his eyes to look down at her again. Cassidy loved his eyes, dark enough to drown in.

The heat she’d felt in the shower tightened even more on her heart and fanned out through her body. It was hottest where they joined.

This shouldn’t happen. Can’t happen.

But it was, and her heart and body sang with it.

Diego smiled at her, his eyes wicked and warm. He kissed her, swallowing her next gasp.

Slow thrusts grew faster. Then faster. Diego kissed her face, her lips, her neck. Cassidy’s hips moved to meet his, sensations flooding her. All thought shut down. There was nothing in the world but her and him, their heat, this feeling.

Body on body, skin sliding on wet skin. Diego inside her, part of her, the craving to be joined with him-forever.

“Mi ja,” he whispered. “My beautiful, beautiful Cass.”

His warm voice brushed liquid syllables over her. She’d loved his voice since the first time she’d heard it.

Diego couldn’t get enough of her. That little smile, her green eyes, the scent of her body, the feel of her around him. This was right. This was home.

Thought dissolved into frenzy. Nothing existed but feeling. Cassidy’s softness, her squeezing him so hard, her bare foot teasing on his leg. Breasts beneath him, hot mouth, scent of her desire, hips rising to meet his.

Never stop, always be here. With Cassidy. With the woman who should be his. Now and forever.

Words came out in Spanish, the language of his heart. “My love, my soul. Always mine. Always, Cassidy.”

No more words. Their bodies met and melded, kisses turning to fire. His blood burned. He wanted all of her, more and more. Mindless. Feeling. Mine!

Diego’s body shot the last of his frenzy into her. She moaned, moving with him, just as frenzied.

Diego wanted to stay inside her forever, but he settled for lying on top of her and gathering her against him. She breathed a sigh and smiled at him.

The smile was full of warmth, of caring, Cassidy who’d come to save him from himself. The darkness that had dogged him and eaten at his heart had eased somewhat. Because of her.

Diego knew, as he kissed her again, that he had to have this woman in his life. For always. No matter what he had to do to get her there.

They made love twice more, and at the end, Diego was as awake and alert as he had been when they’d started.

Cassidy drowsed though, and he let her, liking the way she looked curled under his sheets. Diego finally rose, quietly so he didn’t disturb her.

He did a quick rinse off in the shower, tucked a towel around his waist, and went out to see what he had in his kitchen. He should offer her chilled champagne, but he’d be lucky if he had a couple of Coronas in the fridge.

The noise he heard was soft, impossibly soft, but it raised every trained sense he had. Someone was outside.

Diego quietly closed the bedroom door, cutting off the glare of the bathroom light he’d never turned off. In the living room’s darkness, he crept to the window and looked out.

His front door led to a small outside balcony that served as a doorstep for his apartment and the one next door. Open stairs ran from it down to the parking lot. At the bottom of the staircase, a shadow flitted into view and then almost instantly vanished.

Diego moved noiselessly across the living room, set the two beer bottles down on the counter, went back into the bedroom, and picked up his gun from the dresser.

Cassidy propped herself on one elbow. “What is it?” she asked sleepily.

Diego’s heart beat swiftly, both with adrenaline and at seeing the beautiful woman he’d just had sex with rising from his sheets.

“Someone outside.”

“Oh.” Cassidy lay back down. “It’s just Kyle, one of Eric’s trackers. He’s here to protect me. He and Brody.”

Of course. Eric, rightly so, wouldn’t have let her leave Shiftertown without them, not with Reid running around loose.

Diego put the gun back into its holster on the dresser. “How did you get in here, anyway?”

He hadn’t cared when she’d suddenly appeared in his bathroom-it was enough that she was there-but he was calm enough now to be curious. The front door had been firmly locked when he’d entered the apartment.

Cassidy smiled, a wicked, tempting smile that made him want to crawl right back into bed with her.

“Kyle, the Lupine, is very good at picking locks. But he won’t be coming in. I took his lock picks away from him.”

“Devil.” Diego turned off the light in the bathroom, shut the bedroom door, and came to the bed. It was warm under the covers with her. “Tell me something. Why is Brody one of Eric’s trackers but Shane isn’t? Or is he?”

Cassidy pulled Diego into the comfortable nest with her. “Shane is Nell’s second. There’d be a conflict of loyalty if Shane worked directly for Eric.”

“But not if Brody does?”

“Brody’s lower in the bear hierarchy. And Eric has one male from each Shifter family working for him in some way. It’s another way he keeps the peace between species.”

“Your brother is too damn clever for his own good.”

Cassidy shrugged. “He’s a good leader, and he makes use of all his resources.”

Of which, Diego realized, he himself now was likely one. But he didn’t want to talk about Eric and his trackers. “Come here,” he said.

Cassidy put her arms around him, and Diego held her close. He drew a long breath and let it out. “I killed a man tonight,” he said.

Cassidy started, then she stroked his back, soothing. “Oh, Diego. What happened?”

He told her. Diego hadn’t told the dispatcher the truth, or the paramedics, or the uniforms, or his captain, not even Xav, who’d come to the scene when he’d heard. But the story poured out to Cassidy, from what Enrique had been like at fifteen to the thirty-five-year-old pathetic wreck Diego had shot tonight.

Diego found his eyes wet with tears. “Enrique didn’t think I would do it. He was going to shoot me for real. He smiled at me as he died, as though I’d finally measured up in his eyes.” He rubbed his forehead. “Like I ever wanted that son of a bitch to approve of me.”

Cassidy touched Diego’s cheek. “He was an alpha who’d lost his power. Sometimes dying pride leaders do that, when their power has passed on. They hole up somewhere and ask a young alpha to fight them, so they can go with dignity.”

Diego shook his head. “Enrique deserved to die ten times over for what he did to my family and to so many others. He doesn’t deserve dignity. But tonight, I felt sorry for him.”

“Because you have compassion. The best leader does. Strength without compassion isn’t true strength.”

Diego managed a smile. “Listen to you. Like I haven’t dreamed about shooting him in the ass all these years. Like I don’t want to find the men who killed Jobe and rip them apart with my bare hands.”

“Of course you do. Just like I want to rip apart the men who killed Donovan.”

Diego pressed a finger to her lips. “Which you are going to let me take care of,” he said. “Humans won’t tolerate Shifters killing humans.”

“Shifters do a lot of things without bothering about humans,” Cassidy said.

“Don’t tell me things like that. I’m a human cop, and if I know things, I’m obligated to act on them.”

Cassidy licked his finger. “All right. This is a no-telling zone.”

His blood heated. “Dios, you’re sexy, Cassidy. Especially when you smile at me like that.”

Cassidy widened her smile. “You’re sexy too.”

“Stop looking at me like that,” Diego growled.

“What are you going to do if I don’t. Restrain me?”

Diego shivered. “And don’t make my mind go there.”

“Go where?” Cassidy gave him an innocent look.

He leaned into her. “Dirty, naughty places. Like it did in that skyscraper when I slapped cuffs on you. Sexiest ass I ever saw in my life.”

“And yet, you still took me in.”

“Just doing my job, ma’am.”

“I wanted to jump your bones in the interrogation room,” Cassidy said.

Diego’s mind conjured up about five good scenarios, all of them highly satisfying. “I wanted to jump yours. Let’s just say that if the video had been running, we could have made a fortune selling it on the Internet.”

Cassidy grinned. “Really? It would have been that good?”

Thoughts of Cassidy, coveralls open, on the ugly metal table, lingered in his head. “It would have been damn good.”

“It was pretty damn good right here.” Cassidy rolled her lower lip with her teeth. “Maybe still is?”

Diego rested his fists on the bed. “Are you saying you want more?”

“I’m saying I want you.”

It was a good thing Diego had decided to take a few weeks’ leave to get over shooting Enrique. He wouldn’t be able to walk after tonight.

He pushed Cassidy down on the bed, letting his tongue do some exploring. Cassidy’s skin was fiery and salty, her breasts smooth, filling his mouth with her taste. Diego suckled and licked, then drew his tongue to her navel and flicked it over the stud there.

Cassidy laughed. “That tickles.”

“Too bad, querida. What happens to this when you shift?”

“It just goes away when I shift and is there when I change back.”

“Oh, right. How does that work?”

She shrugged. “A Basque woman in northern Nevada made it for me. There’s magic in it, she said.”

“Magic.” The Shifters liked to talk a lot about magic and seemed very comfortable with it. But then, these were people who could move back and forth from animal to human form. Scientists tried to claim that the shape-shifting ability was genetics gone wrong, but there had to be more to it. “Pretty magical, all right.”

Diego played with the stud with the tip of his tongue, liking it. Cassidy’s flat stomach rippled with her delight. “Lindsay and me both got one, daring each other. I was pretty crazy when I was younger.”

“Yeah? What about now?”

“You’re starting to make me crazy again.”

Diego warmed. “Good.” He left the stud and licked lower, then lower, to the warmth between her legs.

Cassidy stiffened. “What are you doing?”

Diego raised his head. “What does it feel like I’m doing? I’m feasting on you.”

Her eyes were round, her breasts rising as she half sat up. “I’ve never…”

“Been feasted on?” Something in Diego went tight. “Do you like it so far?”

Silently, she nodded.

“Then I’ll keep doing it.”

Diego lowered his head. Dear God, she tasted good. He drank her in, the beautiful taste of Cassidy, his damn gorgeous, sexy woman.

He rose up over her, hard and wanting her. Cassidy’s face was languid with sex, but there was a stunned look in her eyes. Diego grinned at her. “Did you like that?”

“Hell, yes.”

“Good. How about some more?” He lowered his head again.

Cassidy loved it. His tongue drove her crazy. Hot, wet, wild, beautiful. “Diego.” Cassidy raised her hips, wanting more. And more.

Diego slid his arms behind her legs, pulling her toward him. He knelt over her, positioning himself, then thrust straight into her.

He was big, opening her, satisfying her. Cassidy never wanted it to end.

Diego feathered her skin with hot, leisurely kisses. He made love to her just as leisurely, as though they had all the time in the world, slow heat in the cool night. “Amada mia,” he whispered. “You are so beautiful.”

Cassidy didn’t understand all his words, but the mate bond did. It rose up in her to bind her to him, and it wasn’t going to give her a choice about it.

Hours later, Diego woke in the warm bed with Cassidy when someone thumped on the front door.

He didn’t want to get up, not with Cassidy backed into him, her buttocks nestling sweetly into his groin. Sunshine poured through the window to touch her hair-when had it stopped being night?

The thumping didn’t end. Cassidy looked at him sleepily. “That’s not the trackers,” she said. “They wouldn’t knock. And if it was someone trying to hurt us, they wouldn’t let them near the door.”

Diego growled, but he got up, pulled on a T-shirt and sweatpants, and made for the living room. He relaxed when he recognized the silhouette outside his living room window, and unlocked and opened the door.

“Hey, Diego,” Xavier said, walking in. “Ready to go?”

Diego rubbed his head. “Go? What time is it? What day is it?”

“Saturday.” Xavier strode into the kitchen in his gray T-shirt and jeans and frowned at the two beer bottles still sitting on the breakfast bar. “We’re supposed to go to Mamita’s.”

“Oh, yeah.” Real life, which had seemed a million miles away, rushed at Diego with lightning speed. Last night, when Diego had talked to Xav, Xav had reminded him, but that seemed a lifetime ago. Xav had said he’d turn sitting on Reid’s place over to Eric’s trackers, because missing Mamita’s Saturday breakfast wasn’t an option. Mamita had made that clear a long time ago.

Xavier’s gaze was on the half-open bedroom door. The bed was hidden but not Cassidy’s shoes resting lazily on the floor.

“Aw, hell, Diego, you’ve got Cassidy in there. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Diego stepped to the bedroom door and pulled it shut. “Keep it down.”

“You should have used the signal. I’d have left you alone.”

Diego and Xavier had worked out a signal when they’d moved into their own places years ago. If either had a woman spending the night, one front window blind was to be completely closed, the other to have the slats half open.

“There wasn’t time,” Diego said. “Give me a minute.”

Xavier strode to the refrigerator, looked inside, and shook his head. “You’ll starve Cassidy to death. Tell her to come with us and have one of Mamita’s spectacular breakfasts.”

Diego imagined Cassidy meeting his mother and how that would go, on both sides. But he did want Cassidy to meet his mother. Cassidy was special, and his mother would realize that.

Diego opened the bedroom door, ready to invite Cassidy and offer her first dibs on the shower.

He faced an empty bedroom. Cassidy’s dress and panties still lay in a heap on the bathroom floor, but she was gone.

The window by the bed was wide open. Diego went to it and looked out. Two years ago, he’d have hung all the way out, but now he stayed a safe foot back on his solid floor and scanned the narrow alley below. He saw nothing but a few stray newspapers caught between the apartment building and the block wall that separated the property from an empty desert field. The apartment’s back wall was sheer, but a large wildcat could have easily leapt down, scaled the far wall, and faded into the field on the other side.

Damn. The disappointment cut deeper than he’d have imagined.

Diego showered and dressed while Xavier flipped channels on the television. Diego left the back window open when he and Xavier headed out. It was unlikely a human being could scale the sheer wall that led to his bedroom, and Cassidy might want her clothes back.

Cassidy waited, crouching in the scrub of the empty lot, until she saw Diego’s T-Bird drive off. She knew he was unhappy with her running, but the mate bond sneaking up on her had terrified her, and she needed to retreat and think about it. Meeting his mother while the mate bond toyed with her was not something Cassidy was ready for.

She’d seen Diego looking out the window for her, confused and irritated, and she didn’t like how that made her feel. But she’d make it up to him. Cassidy would call him later, invite him back to Shiftertown, explain.

I’m trying to protect you, Diego. Just as I did when I took that blood pledge to keep the other Shifters off your back.

Eric hadn’t been happy about that, but he’d understood. Eric could be tough, but he had wells of compassion.

The back alley was quiet. Brody and Kyle were waiting farther back in the desert lot, impatient and wanting to get out of here. She sent them a low growl to cool it a minute while she flowed quietly to the top of the wall.

From there, it was an easy leap through the back window Diego had so thoughtfully left open for her. She’d need her clothes if she wanted to drive home.

Cassidy landed on the bedroom floor with a light thump. She started to shift into her human form when a sudden smell assaulted her nose.

Fae.

She froze for a split second, then she sank back into her wildcat. The Fae was moving around the living room. Cassidy slid noiselessly around the bedroom door, keeping to the shadows.

It was him all right, tall and slim, dark-haired, and stinking of Faerie. Reid.

He didn’t see Cassidy until she leapt.

Reid whirled, eyes full of fire. Cassidy’s Collar went off, biting pain deep into her, but she opened her mouth and went for his face.

She felt something bite into her side, and found herself spinning, dizzy and sick, the world blurring before her eyes until it snapped and went dark.