Wild Cat (Shifters Unbound #3)(42)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

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 br**sts 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 br**sts 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 bu**ocks nestling sweetly into his groin. Sunshine poured through the window to touch her hair—when had it stopped being night?