Instinctive - By Cathryn Fox Page 0,22

sinking back and resting her head against the sofa’s cushiony headrest. After a long, quiet moment, she glanced his way, lightly brushed her finger over her clit in a soothing motion, and cut the easy silence encompassing them. “Slyck, did you come?” she asked. There was something deeply intimate in the way she was talking to him. It caught him off guard and filled his darkest corners with warmth. He felt his whole world shift.

His heart began to slowly return to a steady rhythm. “Yeah,” he admitted, noting the easy intimacy between them after what they’d just done.

She tsked. “Now you’re really looking for trouble,” she teased.

“I think I already found it,” he responded, suspecting this woman was panther, and she was his mate. He didn’t know how and he didn’t know why, but everything inside him told him she was the one woman meant for him, even though she didn’t seem to know it herself or know what she was. There was only one way for him to confirm that she was indeed a panther, and that was to get between her legs and breathe in her feminine scent.

Another thought struck him and his stomach clenched. If she truly was panther, that meant her life was in danger. After all, council rules were in place for a reason. He drew a deep breath and worked to center himself. Oh shit, this wasn’t good. Not good at all.

Grinning seductively, she said, “Well, I think you need to be properly punished for not adhering to my rules, Slyck.” Jaclyn climbed from the sofa, walked to her window and stared into his bedroom window. When intense blue eyes met his he could barely form a coherent thought. “But right now it’s time for me to go to bed.”

“Jaclyn.”

“Hmmm.” Her voice sounded sleepy, and not quite satisfied.

“You’re not really that prim and proper girl you’re pretending to be, are you?”

A pause, and then: “Good night, Slyck.”

Chapter Five

No, it wasn’t a good night. Hell, it wasn’t even a great night. It was a fabulous night. An absolutely, unequivocally, blissfully, fabulous night.

And it never should have happened, dammit.

What in the hell had she been thinking?

So much for masquerading as a prim and proper city girl. Her act was as flimsy as rice paper, and it only took a bad boy like Slyck one meeting to rip through that thin veil.

With the intention of calling it a night, and cooling her heated body down, Jaclyn made her way to the bathroom, and took an icy-cold shower. Unfortunately the cool spray against her heated nipples only managed to arouse her more. She spent the next few hours tossing on her bed, with sleep continuing to elude her. Frustrated, and deciding she needed air, to clear her head, and her libido, she climbed from the mattress and reached into her closet for something to wear.

After pulling on a knee-length floral sundress—a dress that would make any debutante in her high-class society proud—and a pair of flat sandals, Jaclyn dabbed her neck with perfume and stepped from her house. Of course, no debutante she knew would be caught leaving her house without panties, she mused. It was naughty, for sure, but her pussy was just too damn hot to keep covered up.

It was nearing midnight as she made her way to town, convincing herself that her trip down Main Street had nothing at all to do with the hopes of seeing Slyck at his club, and everything to do with cooling off her heated flesh.

She took note of the people milling about, and watched them wander in and out of Vibes, as the lure of the music called out to her like an aphrodisiac.

She walked the streets, noting how there seemed to be an abundance of partygoers out on a weeknight. She found it odd that all the stores were lit up. Didn’t anyone in this small rural town sleep? Back in her grandmother’s quaint village, the majority of shops all closed up after dinner.

Treating her the same way they treated her at the department store—as though she was invisible—townsfolk passed her by, barely sparing her a glance. Waves of energy came off them, charging the warm air around her and creating static in the night sky. It made her feel antsy, like she wanted to run away, yet familiar enough that she wanted to stay.

Jaclyn pressed her back to the wall of the candy shop and hugged herself, suddenly feeling very alone and agitated. As the bar crowd