Predator's Refuge (11 page)

She elbowed him and laughed harder. Her tremors of hilarity began to settle and she leaned into him, sighing. “What’s going on here, Anton? The world seems so messed up right now.” She gazed at him for a long time and he held her gaze. For the first time, she noticed how his green eyes seemed to be comprised of multiple shades of color. With an almost ombre effect, they were rich and dark near the pupils, almost brown, lightening into the most beautiful pale green tone on the outside, like a peridot. She wished she could copy the exact color of his eyes and make it a gemstone for a ring. It was almost easy to forget all that had happened when gazing at him. Almost. “I’m so sorry about your parents. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

He brushed a hair from her forehead with fingers that felt much softer than they looked. Marci was beginning to think he was softer than he looked too.

“Thank you,” he said in low tones. “But please don’t upset yourself. What happened to my parents was a tragedy, but I’m sorry to say they brought it on themselves.”

Hearing the quiet pain in his voice was worse than hearing sobs and wails at a funeral. Marci’s heart went out to him. “What did they do to you?”

“Are you sure you want to know,
cicuskám
? It’s better not to know.”

Her heart plummeted another level. “Please, tell me.”

He stared at her, his gaze dropping for a while to her lips, and then he turned to look at their entwined hands with a sigh. “My father believed in leadership by intimidation, and would give a Mafia don a run for his money. Sadly, his parenting style was much the same. It is the Gaspar philosophy. Destroy your enemies. Train your young so they are capable of destroying their enemies. Might is right, and everyone else can simply fuck off.”

She twisted her hands in his, seeking a sort of comfort in his big hands. Nodding, she urged him to continue.

“From a young age, being an heir who had no wish to become an heir, I began to rebel. Luckily, I had my father and Istvan to beat the rebellious streak out of me. Hell, a couple of times, dear Father practically bludgeoned it out of me.” He pointed at his broken nose. “A constant reminder of my father’s kindnesses and many instructions.”

“Oh, no.”

“It’s okay. I had Gabi. The two of us were treated more or less the same. He has a few scars, too. We learned to pick our battles and we learned when to keep quiet. One time, when I dared to contradict my father, he made Istvan break my leg in two places. Our father was impressed and rewarded him. The experience taught me to hold my tongue, and taught our youngest brother blood might as well be water.”

“Didn’t you fight back?”

“Istvan was my youngest brother. How could I? For a long time, I tried to be an example to him. My plan stopped working the day he grew to be as big as Gabi and me. We defended ourselves, but I refused to be the aggressor.”

Envisioning it, Marci wanted to cry. She wanted to wrap a young Anton in her arms and never let go. And yet the man at her side was dry-eyed as he told his tear-worthy story. “What about your mother?”

Anton offered her a sad grin. “High. All the time. I suppose she needed an escape too. She never once came to our aid. She probably knew better than to go against our father.” He paused for a moment, lost in thought. “Actually, she did take our side once. My father used to put Gabi and Istvan and me in a large cage together, like the ones they use in mixed martial arts. He called it ‘training.’ He made us fight each other, bare-fisted, to the point of exhaustion. Istvan always won because Gabi and I felt badly about attacking him. I suppose Istvan had the killer instinct, even at a young age. My mother objected once. The look my father gave her was pure rage. When I saw her the next day, her eyes had been blackened. She never said another word and disappeared into her pills and potions.”

Marci thought of her own mom. Paula Lennox had only ever been loving when Marci was growing up. She was kind and patient, but had always been strict in the best way, offering valuable advice and lots of hugs. She wished she could give her a hug back now.

As for her dad, well, Robert Lennox was demanding at times, but he would never in his wildest dreams place a child of his in a cage as ‘training.’ The very thought could not have been more abhorrent.

As she considered the differences between the two sets of parents, a few tears dribbled out from between her lids and down her nose.

He wiped her wet face. “Hey, little lynx.” His deep voice rumbled. “I don’t want your tears. I’m fine now.” He swallowed. “Please,
cicuskám.
I don’t ever want to be the cause of your tears.”

She looked at him, all bleary-eyed and dribbly, and saw him smiling at her with the gentlest expression. “Aren’t you ever going to tell me what
cicuskám
means?”

“Not if I value my sanity, Marci.”

He stared at her for a moment more, and then brushed his large fingers all over her cheek, in a caress that made her dream the wildest dreams. His warm breath washed over her as he breathed deeply, and she was giddy, drinking him in. Everything about his smell and touch appealed to her on a level she’d never anticipated. And his taste … she couldn’t stop wondering about his taste.

Clearly, he was wondering too. Anton brought his face closer to hers, and their clutch seemed even tighter as the boat gently rocked them. There, on a simple fishing boat on Lake Gemini, the tiger shifter prince opened his mouth and flared his nostrils. She did the same, inhaling him like a cat would.

And then he kissed her. Their open lips met and mingled with the perfection of two halves coming together. Perfect symmetry. Each soft press feeling like velvet alignment, tender crushes that made her swoon.

But then his tongue flicked against hers, and his hands slid down to her ass, dragging her closer, and her dream kiss took on a passionate, new edge.

She could swear his tiger growled.

Her lynx performed a frenzied dance of sheer delight, clambering closer to him, pushing up against her insides, wanting a piece of him for her own.

He tasted so good.

Anton angled his head, groaning, and plunged his tongue into her mouth, taking her in a savage kiss she felt in her toes. Each hair on her head seemed to stand on end as he pinned her against his hard body, giving her what she’d wanted from the first moment she spied him in the resort lobby. His kiss, so demanding and ruthless, thrilled and chilled her while heating her through at the same time. Their tongues tangled and she allowed her hands to maraud over his wide chest, relishing each hardened curve of muscle.

By the time he nibbled her bottom lip, Marci knew she’d invite him back to her cabin. She needed him inside her like she needed water and air.

It was then she heard the ring of her cell phone in her hip pocket. They fell apart on a breath and his eyes were as wide as hers must be. Dumbfounded, she stared at him and her phone rang again. He grinned and ran his tongue along his bottom lip. “You’d better get that.”

She swallowed in an attempt to assuage her dry throat and answered the call. “Marci, here.” She listened to her coworker on the other line, trying hard to ignore the way Anton stroked between the fingers of her free hand. “I’ll be right there.”

As she ended the call, he looked up from under his ebony lashes. “Duty calls.”

She stared at her cell phone, wanting to toss it in the water. “Yeah. One of the guests wants to complain to the manager. It seems our only vegan customer ever was just handed a thick, bleeding steak for lunch.”

He let out a hearty laugh. “A vegan shifter? What the fuck is that all about?”

She let out a halfhearted giggle. “I really don’t know.” With a sigh that racked her chest, she gazed at him. “Thanks, Anton. For talking to me.”

His eyes darkened with the same need they’d held when he’d kissed her. His lips twitched into a mischievous curl. “For a moment, I thought you were thanking me for kissing you.” He leaned in, bit his bottom lip, and stared at her mouth.

How she wanted to suck that lip out of his mouth and into hers. Before her common sense eroded completely, she made a flustered exit out of the boat. As she slipped into her pumps, she was conscious of Anton’s gaze following her every move. Before she started to analyze the mire of her emotions, she headed back to the lodge, turning once to look at him.

He hadn’t moved. Still seated on the boat bench, elbows on his knees, Anton stared at the horizon. Slowly, he shook his head and his large body sagged under the weight of invisible pressure.

Chapter 6

That evening, once Anton was done with his mentoring duties, he went looking for his brother. It had been a few hours since he’d touched base with Gabi and he wanted to make sure his sibling wasn’t causing trouble for Marci’s staff. As much as he knew Gabi appreciated Marci’s offer of a place to stay, he also knew he preferred the high life. They might ridicule Istvan’s abuse of his privileges, but some of the same tendencies ran through Gabi. Hell, they probably ran through him too. Growing up the way they had, one took certain things for granted. And even though their family life had been no better than a treacherous minefield, they’d always enjoyed the finest of luxuries at home.

A Gaspar’s just deserts, his father used to say.

What had they done to deserve any of their wealth and power? They’d simply been born into the “right” family, a family with a long-standing name. Nothing more.

After experiencing some of the simpler pleasures on Gemini Island, he wanted to stay here forever. Waking up to singing robins outside his cabin window had become a new delight. Diving into Lake Gemini first thing in the morning, shaking off his cobwebs with a bracing dip in cold water, was a ritual he was growing to love. He wanted to leave his former, jaded lifestyle behind forever.

Especially if his new lifestyle came with more of Marci’s kisses.

As his tiger roared its approval, he fought the urge to smack his head. What was he thinking? How could he have forgotten his willpower, kissing her like that? Brother Ferenc would be so disappointed in him.

Damn. He was beginning to think that little monk suffered from feeblemindedness. Stupid, praying, celibate monks. What the hell did they know anyway?

No
. Ferenc was right. He needed to regain his composure and restraint. He needed to exercise a modicum of control and dominate his desires.

Even though what he really wanted was to dominate her. To have her spread out on a bed, while he orchestrated their passion…
Fuck
.

Perhaps because since her voyeur moment at his window he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head, hadn’t slept. Hell, since first setting foot in the Ursa Lodge, he’d been consumed with her scent and the need to make her as unsettled as he was. Seeing her like that, exposed and vulnerable, had an imprisoning effect on him, and he was reeling with the need to regain footing, in whatever small way.

He wasn’t accustomed to feeling at a loss of power to a woman. Even in his other relationships with females, he’d always been the one in command. He preferred it that way, and relished being the one who called the shots. And at the monastery, there’d been no women at all, unless one counted the biddies who brought flowers to the church. They hadn’t exactly been the sort to stoke a man’s fire.

And yet, seeing Marci, her dainty hand stroking her sex, flooding his senses with the need to rut, had made him want to beg. Even now, in his human form, he found it hard not to act the tiger. It took everything in his power not to wrinkle his nose as his tiger would, let his tongue hang out, and drink in her scent.

Shit, he knew she was delicious, even though he hadn’t tasted her pussy. Damn Jacobson’s organ, making him taste everything he smelled. He’d never minded this aspect of being a feline, but he regretted it now.

Fuming, he turned a corner on his path, and headed toward Gabi’s cabin. As he did, some movement over to his left caught his eye. With a discreet turn of his head, he glimpsed Shawn Dixon loitering outside one of the cabins. Surly as ever, the teen leaned against the wooden frame of the structure, arms eternally crossed. He jumped when the door opened and two teen girls emerged, laughing at a private joke. They took one look at Shawn, sneered, and went on their way. With a dejected hang to his head, Shawn started to stumble off in the opposite direction.

Anton caught up to him. “Shawn. How are you tonight?”

“What do you care, old man?”

He struggled not to roll his eyes. He was only thirty, but knew teens considered any adult to be elderly and feeble of mind. “Are you going to the teen mixer later?”

Shawn had no issue with rolling his own eyes. “Right. See, thing is,” he remarked slowly, “I’d rather gouge my eyes out.”

Anton bit his lip, amused at the kid’s attempt at sarcasm. He’d always appreciated a good sense of sarcasm. “Well, you might want to change out of that white T-shirt. I once watched my youngest brother gouge out a man’s eyes. It’s messier than you think.”

The teen paled and took a step back, his gaze pinned on Anton’s bulk. For a moment, he seemed worried, as if his mentor might actually demonstrate proper eye gouging technique. His expression then softened and reluctant admiration shone through his narrowed eyes. “You’re one sick dude, Mr. Gaspar. I’d better come to that mixer, you know, just to keep an eye on you.”

“Very good idea.” He nodded. “I’ll see you there.”

Anton saluted the kid and continued on his way to Gabi’s abode. He made a mental note to seek the boy out again for a longer talk. He’d break his walls down, so help him.

He turned a corner on his path and approached Gabi’s cabin. The door opened, and a giggling waitress from the resort’s pub stepped out. As she exited, his brother smiled and smacked her ass. The girl jumped, giggled harder, and escaped down another path.

Anton let out a breath as he marched toward his very satisfied-looking sibling. “Already corrupting the locals, I see?”

Gabi shrugged. “I’m beginning to like these Gemini Island girls. They make an art out of pleasing their customers and making others feel good.” He stared at the retreating waitress’s ass. “That one felt especially good. I’ve never had a fox shifter before. I might need to become her pen pal after I go home.”