. and home.
Breath coming in hard pants, she looked over her shoulder and realized she’d left Felix behind long ago. Great. Now he’d probably be angry about that. He’d never given any indication that he had a problem with the fact she was stronger and faster, but men could be idiotic about such things.
She thought about going back for him, but if he was mad, her return would just rub salt in the wound. And, she was still mad at him.
How could he just ignore the mating dance? He’d said he wanted her. He’d said they were going to play, that he was going to win her. Didn’t he realize that he had to convince the leopard to be his? The human heart’s love wasn’t enough to bring the bond into being. The cat had to agree and right now, that cat was feeling as feral as the human woman.
Confused under the mad, she climbed up to her aerie, her nostrils flaring at the autumn and earth of Felix’s scent. It was on her skin now, in her blood, in her home. But . . .
She frowned.
There were far too many scents emanating from her home, sweet and wild and unexpected, but she sensed no danger, heard nothing to say anyone else was nearby. Opening her door with care, she stepped inside . . . and yelped as something fell on her. It was soft and smelled pretty and it was red and pink and yellow and white and a hundred other colors.
Laughing, her leopard batting at the petals that were all over her, she waded her way through the thousands, millions of flower petals that filled the aerie. How had he even done this?! Utterly delighted, she fell back into the petals. There were so many that the scented carpet cushioned her fall, the velvety petals touching every inch of exposed skin. She wanted to be naked in them.
Heart giddy with wild joy, she shifted. The beautiful pain of the change rippled through her, her body turning into a million sparks of light before re-forming into the leopard who was her other half. That leopard pounced and played in the petals and, when it caught the scent of its mate, hid itself in the delicate forest.
“Desiree?”
The leopard pounced, taking Felix’s big, muscled body down into the mass of petals. Laughing, he wrestled with her, his hands in her fur and yellow and peach-colored petals stuck to the mink-dark of his hair. “My wolf wants out,” he said a heartbeat before he shifted.
She watched him shift, didn’t interrupt, and once the wolf shook its skin into place, they played again, tussling in the petals. The crushed softness released sweet, sweet scents into the air as the wolf growled and bit playfully at her throat. She growled back, pretending to claw him. He huffed in his throat.
They both shifted back at almost the same instant and Desiree found herself pinning down a gorgeous naked man with eyes of wolf-amber. “You liked it,” he said, his cheeks deeply creased.
Desiree nuzzled him in answer. She’d heard she was supposed to play it cool with some of the mating dance stuff, but she didn’t want to play it cool. She wanted to lick him up like ice cream. So she flicked out her tongue, tasted him. “How did you get all these petals in here?” she asked, licking her way up his throat and along his jaw until she reached the firm but sensual curves of his mouth. She nipped his lips, met his gaze. “Tell me.”
“Nope.” Hands moving over her back to cup her ass, he squeezed. “I’m not done, either.”
Feeling all happy and bubbly inside, she growled at him again. “I can make you talk.”
“I’m tough.” He reached down between her legs, stroked.
A purr formed in her chest. Nuzzling Felix again, she sat up to straddle him, this man who gave her romance, who danced with her. Claws out, she raked them lightly down his chest. He groaned, his hands once more on her ass. “Come here.”
“No. I’m going to torture you, make you tell me the details of how you did this.” Shifting lower down on his thighs, she wrapped her hands around his cock, stroked up then down.
Felix shuddered, muscles rippling. When his claws pricked her skin, her leopard prowled to the surface, her vision altering as her eyes semishifted. “So you think you can convince me to mate with you?” She caressed him with her hands again.
His breath caught,