Man-Eater (8 page)

“You guessed it. How did you know I wasn’t a Pure?”

“Only one reason.”

“You can read minds?”

“That first night. I wouldn’t have been able to resist your heat if you were a Pure Stripe.”

Kendra felt a sudden pang of sadness cut through her heart. She took a moment to catch her breath. Was this what it had come down to? Did he view her differently because she wasn’t a Pure? Would Cyrus not be able to respect her because both her parents weren’t shifters? Kendra looked away. She hoped he couldn’t read the disappointment on her face.

“Kendra,” Cyrus said, taking her hands in his. “I don’t care who your parents were, half shifter, full shifter or no shifter. You’re special to me.”

And like that, the sadness Kendra had felt, lifted. She smiled. Was this really happening? Did he really just say exactly the right thing? The pang of pain that had shot through her heart was gone. Kendra now knew she needed to drop any baggage she might be carrying and accept the man before her for who he was. Because he was wonderful.

The irony was she had driven way out here, into the middle of nowhere, to get away from her creepy ex-boyfriend, to be alone in her heat, and now, the exact opposite had occurred. She had met a man, a fantastic man, the kind of man who gave her butterflies in her stomach. She couldn’t believe it, part of her didn’t even want to believe it, but it was happening. It was real. She felt like she was walking on clouds. Like the world was a perfect place. And she knew that meant one thing. She was falling for him. She was falling in love.

“All that stuff you said you needed to do, the bad timing and all of it?” Kendra said.

“It’s over now,” he said. “It’s all over.”

“So we can get to know each other?” she asked.

“You can take as much time as you need.”

“And what about you?”

“I don’t need any time,” Cyrus said. “I already know you’re the one.”

Birds tweeted in the willows above. Once again, she felt like pinching herself. Was this guy for real? But despite the suddenness of their relationship, she knew he was. Even though she couldn’t quite identify it, she’d had a feeling in her bones from the moment she had gotten into his tow truck, and the feeling was only stronger now—the feeling that somehow, in the haystack of life, she had found her man.

Kendra was so profoundly grateful to have found her mate, she thought a tear might have escaped her eye. But before she could be sure, Cyrus pulled her near, and she leaned in toward him, his lips brushing against hers. It was just their lips at first, soft, sensual, and then she explored his mouth with her tongue. The feeling was fresh, electric. Cyrus dropped a hand down her back, and she felt it once more. That tingle down below. Her heat. My gosh, she wanted him. But there was a difference. She didn’t just want him in bed. She wanted him forever. It was like a transformation had occurred somewhere deep inside of her. He made her feel free. Like a summer day. Like dancing.

Shit. Dancing.

She pulled away.

“What’s wrong?”

“I promised Charlize I’d do a 3 PM set.”

A cloud passed over Cyrus’s face. He checked his watch. Was it concern over the time? Or was it more than that?

“You don’t want me to dance, do you?” Kendra said.

“Do you want to dance?” Cyrus asked.

“Well, I said I would and I really don’t want to let Charlize down.”

“Then I want you to do what you need to do.”

“But does it make you uncomfortable?”

Cyrus laughed. “I’d be lying if I told you the idea of you dancing for strangers doesn’t make my tiger bristle.”

“But…”

“But you made a commitment. And though I may have a lot of faults, I understand the meaning of that word.”

“Are you sure?” Kendra asked.

“Baby, seeing you up there makes my tiger hot as hell. Hot and, okay, I’ll admit it, a little jealous too. Because I want you for me. I want you to be mine. But I’ve got a human side too. And my human side, my rational side, even though it gets just as jealous, knows that one little pole dance isn’t going to change what we have. Bottom line, I think both my human and my tiger can endure the jealousy.”

“Are you positive?” Kendra asked.

“No,” Cyrus smiled. “But I’m as sure as I’m going to get.” He kissed her gently on the lips. “So let’s get you to the club before I change my mind.”

Chapter Seven

Kendra practically sat in Cyrus’s lap as he drove, her hand in his. Something about his being so understanding, his broad chest, and his easy smile, made her all gooey on the inside. And it wasn’t just her heat. That was part of it, of course, and leaning into him like she was, stoked her inner fire, but it was much more than that, and she intended to show him exactly how she felt. With a dance. A very special dance.

Cyrus dropped her off at the club with a few minutes to spare. Charlize, Kitty, and the other girls were already in the back room getting ready for the afternoon crowd. Kendra pulled on her costume. Fortunately, she was the same size as the dancer who had injured herself.

“What’s with that big smile?” Charlize asked.

“I met someone,” Kendra said.

“Not one of the customers. Please tell me it’s not one of the customers,” Charlize said.

“This one’s different,” Kendra said.

“Honey, they’re
all
different.”

“But this one really is.”

Charlize clucked her tongue. “Okay, girl. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I won’t,” Kendra said. “Not with this guy. He’s special.”

“And you want to give him a special dance?”

“I want to give him a really special dance.”

“Okay,” Charlize smiled. “This is what you do.”

∞ ∞ ∞

Cyrus waited in the audience. He wasn’t sitting in the back anymore. He was sitting right up front because he wasn’t afraid of her heat. In fact, he wanted to celebrate it. Because after his glorious evening with Kendra, followed by today’s victory at the courthouse, Cyrus felt like his luck had finally turned. Cyrus noticed the bouncers clear a few guys out of the bar. It was too early for closing time. No, it had to be something else. They were getting rid of the non-shifters. And then Cyrus saw why.

A big cat slunk onto the stage.

A full-grown tigress.

Cyrus knew exactly who he was looking at it. Even though he had never seen her in her shifted form, he was certain he was staring at Kendra’s tigress. The bar broke out into catcalls, and Cyrus struggled to contain the fierce possession he felt. As far as he was concerned, the other shifters shouldn’t even get to look at her. But Kendra had made a commitment to dance, and he wasn’t going to be the guy that caused her to break it. Besides, he had nothing to be jealous of. That glorious cat and the human hidden within it were his. But just so everybody knew it, Cyrus glanced around the bar with a growl. He knew he’d have to put up with the other shifters watching Kendra, but if they dared to touch her, those boys would have another think coming.

The music started to play and the spotlights lit her up. My word, she was magnificent. All stripes and powerful muscle as she purred around the stage in her animal form. She went right to the brass pole and licked it with her long feline tongue. Cyrus smiled. He knew that Kendra’s tigress saw him. Catcalls filled the bar and then she roared, slinking off the stage and down into the seating area.

“Here she comes, boys!” one of the shifters cried out.

Cyrus smiled as she sidled past them, directly for him. She rubbed herself against his legs and roared, jumping back onto the stage. At that moment, the lights went out and the music stopped. Even the shifters were quiet. For one second, then two, Cyrus couldn’t see anything. There was no light in the club anywhere, not even an exit sign, and even with his tiger’s night vision, he was blind. It was dark for a third second and then a single spotlight came on, illuminating Kendra in her human form, wearing a long tiger-print dress.

The moment he saw her, Cyrus was instantly hard. He knew every other shifter in the place was as well, but Cyrus paid them no heed. He was focused on his mate, and she was focused on him. The music began playing softly and she sashayed over to the pole and grabbed hold of it with her left hand. It was only then that Cyrus noticed she held a microphone in her other hand.

Kendra spoke into the microphone above the music. “This is for one special tiger, you know who you are,” she said, her voice sultry with heat. “I’m glad you picked me up, and I hope we get to know each other a whole lot better,” she purred. The bar erupted into catcalls. “Because you’re the one.”

And Kendra began to dance. If Cyrus was rock hard before, he didn’t know what he was now. He felt like his dick was forged from iron. Something about seeing her in her animal form, and then seeing her now, all soft and curvy and human, brought out the tiger in him. She swayed to the music, slowly circling the pole, and Cyrus wasn’t sure that he’d be able to wait until this evening. He needed her now. Kendra slid around, pulling up her long dress to reveal a curvy thigh and then puffing out her glorious breasts. It was too much. The bar was going crazy. Cyrus was pretty sure he was about to explode.

∞ ∞ ∞

Kendra knew she had to play to the whole bar and she did. She still had to make enough money to fix her car, after all, but really she was dancing for Cyrus. Every rock of her hip, every spread of her legs or heave of her breasts, was for him. It was all for him. Money filled the stage as she left. She was literally drowning in bills and she knew why. Because she felt sexy. Because she was sexy. And the irony, the really crazy thing was she hadn’t even needed to take her dress off. It was all in the pout of her lips, the sway of her hips, the purr of her voice. And it felt good, so good she wondered why she hadn’t started dancing long ago. She slunk off the stage, directly past Cyrus, rubbing her thigh against him just as she had done in her tiger form.

“I’ll be seeing you soon,” she whispered in his ear.

Kendra didn’t even have to touch him to feel the desire emanating off his hot body. The day was old enough that her heat was in full bloom and she knew without looking that he was rock hard. She made her way backstage. My goodness, she was going to have an interesting evening, Kendra thought. And if she got her way, it would last all night long.

“Go to hell, you crazy bitch!” a high-pitched voice screamed.

What the hell? Kendra’s guard immediately went up. What was going on back here?

“Get out and don’t come back,” Charlize said.

“I’m not going anywhere until I see your slutty new dancer,” the stick-thin woman with the high-pitched voice said.

“We don’t have a slutty new dancer,” Charlize replied calmly.

“Oh, you know you do.”

“You talking about me?” Kendra asked, striding into the makeup area.

“Kendra. Call Peter,” Charlize said.

“Before you do that, are you sure you don’t want us to be formally introduced?” the skinny woman asked snidely.

“And why would I want that?” Kendra asked.

“Because I’m Morgan White. Cyrus White’s
wife,”
the woman said.

Kendra felt the air leave her lungs. She was sure her heart stopped. Wife did she say? Cyrus had a wife? Was she kidding? No. Please tell her her ears were deceiving her. But she knew they weren’t. Oh my gosh. It had all been too perfect. She knew it had. So this is what it felt like when the other shoe dropped. Kendra felt her tiger bristle up within her. Her animal wanted to deal with it and this was the only way it knew how. By lashing out. But her human side was
more reserved, more refine
d. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kendra said, more confidently than she felt.

“Well, then. Maybe I should spell it out for you. Cyrus is married. To
me
,” the woman said pointing at herself. “But he’s stalking
you,”
the woman said, as if Kendra was an idiot. The woman passed Kendra a folder. “Go ahead. Take a look. Photos. Credit report. Surveillance. Cyrus collects women, honey. He collects them and throws them away. Only difference between us? He married me.”

Kendra accepted the folder in spite of herself. It was wide open and she saw photos of herself. Her credit report. Information. Private information. Where she lived, who her parents were, where she shopped. It was an invasion. An invasion of privacy, and at the top of each document was a byline that said: Confidential—Produced for the exclusive use of Cyrus D. White.

Kendra continued to flip thought the documents. What did any of it mean? These documents contained her life. There was no question about it. He had been looking into her. Everything. Where she worked, who her friends were, where she went to school. Just looking at it all made her feel violated, exposed, vulnerable. Her skin crawled at the thought of him secretly poring over the details of her life. Not because she wouldn’t have shared it with him. But because he hadn’t asked first.

“Feast on that,” the skinny woman said. “Then tell me what you think of Cyrus D. White?”

The woman turned on her silver stiletto heel and walked out the back door. Kendra felt like she’s d been run over by a freight truck. Like all the air had been knocked out of her lungs and she would never breathe again. But that was her human side. Her tigress wanted to shift into her animal form and pounce. But that wasn’t appropriate. Not in the human world. Kendra pushed her animal down as she gasped for breath.