PrimalDesign (14 page)

His hands dropped. She sounded concerned for him. He studied
her closely, but she only watched him over her shoulder. He swiped a hand over
his face. “No, I imagine they got me when I passed out.”

“So that’s why you asked me if I got drunk too,” she
murmured thoughtfully. She studied the room and climbed off the bed to walk to
the window.

Monk’s tongue was hanging out. It had to be because watching
Kitty walk, her round ass swaying from side to side was one of his favorite
things in the whole wide world. Right up there with breathing, in fact. But
they weren’t here for sex. They’d been kidnapped? He scowled, his lust quickly
morphing into protectiveness as he leapt from the bed to try the door.

No surprise it was locked, but why and by whom? He glanced
over at Kitty, who stood frozen as she gazed out the window. “What is it?”

“I think we’re in Matador Bay.”

Going to stand beside her, Monk peered out the window. Water
and cypress trees as far as the eye could see. Looking down, he saw the house,
or camp, they were in was on eight-foot pilings. Matador Bay was in a very
secluded part of Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish. The only way to get to it was by boat.
The water wasn’t usually very deep, but there were pockets of quicksand dotted
throughout the area, which meant walking it wasn’t wise if the tide were to
come in. Most of the residents in the area kept hunting camps in the bay area,
but this wasn’t the time of year for hunting.

She turned to him, her eyes wide. “You really didn’t bring
me here?”

Unable to help himself, Monk reached for her, smelling her
anxiety. “No, I wouldn’t do that. I’d tie you to my bed before I drugged you
and dragged you out here, Kitty-Cat.”

Kitty’s head came to rest on his shoulder for a moment
before she looked up into his face. “I think someone’s out to get me.”

Great way to introduce the subject, Kitty Marie.

Kitty sat on the edge of the bed watching Monk pace and
rant. The minute she’d said the words, he’d plopped her on the bed and demanded
to know what she was talking about. After explaining the sense of being
watched, the car incident, the paint being thrown on her at the party, and then
being drugged and brought here, Monk had taken to pacing like a caged animal.

Her lips quirked at the thought. They
were
caged
animals. The door wouldn’t open. They’d tried kicking it open, picking the
lock, and nothing. It was reinforced with something that proved impenetrable to
their shifter strength. Not that there was anywhere to go. Neither of them
would be able to make it across the ten-mile bay in either of their forms
without risking death. Which meant they wouldn’t be jumping out of the window.
Of course, it was made of some kind of Plexiglas that only cracked when punched
without breaking completely. And there was no boat as far as they could tell.
They were trapped together in the middle of the marsh.

And Kitty actually felt pretty good about it. Apparently the
drugs they used to knock her out were still in her system. She should have been
freaking out. Someone had shot at her after all. Oh, and tried to run her off
the road, but she was okay. She was still pissed about the paint, but she didn’t
think that was part of the plot to kill her. Mostly because they would’ve had
to stick her head in a can of paint to drown her in it, not throw it on her.
And they’d ruined one of her specially designed shifter gowns. She was probably
more angry about that than anything else, but even that couldn’t stop the
feeling of goodness in her stomach. Because she was with Monk.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on
them as she watched him pace. He’d given her his shirt to wear, keeping his
slacks for himself. Kitty decided she could definitely get used to wearing
Monk’s clothes. His scent surrounded her. Besides, if she was wearing his
shirts it meant he wasn’t and a prowling, half-naked Monk made her pussy
tingle.

“Why didn’t you tell me you thought you were being watched?”
he demanded, running an irate hand through his hair leaving it wonderfully
rumpled. “We could have told your uncle and had a protective detail put on
you.” He stopped to glare at the floor. “I bet it’s Callie.”

That startled Kitty enough to drop her arms. “What? Callie
Hebert?”

He glanced up, his green eyes sparking with rage. “She’s
been trying to get in my bed ever since you came to town, like now that you’re
here I’m going to change my mind about not wanting her. I told her it wasn’t
going to happen and she said something about the past never going away. She’s
the only one I could think who’d want to hurt you.”

Kitty blinked. “To get to you?”

Monk’s frown was mighty. “Yeah. She’s obsessed with me.”

She couldn’t help it, she laughed, flopping back on the bed
to let out great belly-quaking guffaws. She laughed until tears streamed down
her face and Monk climbed on the bed next to her to stare at her with a puzzled
frown. That only made her laugh harder.

When she finally calmed down it was to see Monk smiling at
her as if he thought she’d lost her mind. Reaching up, she cupped his cheek.
“Poor Monk, all the women love him so much they’d take on a grizzly bear for
him.”

Chapter Nine

She felt his blush before she saw it and her heart softened.
Oh, it’d been softening ever since he started pacing, his concern for her
evident in his every stride, but now, her heart was nothing more than mush.
“Ah, Monk,” she sighed, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone. “It isn’t Callie
because she’s been following Zach Trahan around. The only reason she’s talking
to you is to make him jealous.”

His eyebrows drew together. “How do you know that?”

Kitty shrugged. “Monica Doucet told Karen Boudreaux, who
told Erica Yost, who told Daisy, who told me. Everyone in town knows Callie’s
after Zach, but he’s proving resistant so she figures if she makes him jealous
by following you around, he’ll change his mind.”

The man pouted, his lips turning down.

“Aw,
pauvre bête
,” she whispered and leaned up to kiss
his mouth. “I’m an idiot.”

“Why would you say something stupid like that?”

She pinched his nipple for his smartass remark before
answering. “I’m an idiot because I thought I could actually resist you.” He
froze next to her, his eyes darkening. “Just wait, okay? Let me say a few
things.” His jaw tightened but he nodded. Relaxing beneath him, Kitty sighed
and stared at the ceiling. “I’m not disgusted by you, or what defects you think
you have. I’m scared though.” She glanced over at him. “I don’t want to be your
executioner, Monk. I’ve loved you too long to be able to kill you if you go
off. You’re right that I wouldn’t have been able to handle it when I was
younger. Hell, I don’t know if I can handle it now, you know?”

Monk’s lips thinned, but he nodded.

Kitty’s heart pounded hard enough to make her fear cardiac
arrest, but she had to say this. “When I left you last night and those idiots
threw paint on me, all I could think was that everything was ruined. My career,
my credibility, everything, but most of all, I was pissed that I’d ruined my
relationship with you. And I’d done that, no one else.” She stroked his hair
away from his face. “I was so mad at you for offering me everything I wanted
when I’d finally decided I’d never have it. Do you understand? I’d long ago
given up on having a mate, cubs and a family of my own.

“All I had was work. I spent the rest of the night thinking
about you and my life and my career and realized that you were the most
important part of me.” She sucked in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know if I’m
ready to mate, but I want to try being with you. I…” She swallowed, her throat
clicking with the movement. She chanced looking at him, waiting for him to
reject her. It would only be fair because of the way she’d constantly rejected
him, but he captured her gaze with soft, green eyes. “I can move back here, but
I’ll have to go back and forth to New York a lot and it’s going to be crazy and
I’ll understand if you don’t want—”

“That’s all I ever wanted, Kitty-Cat.” He placed his finger
over her mouth when she would have continued talking about her job. “Shh, baby.
I wouldn’t want you to give up anything for me. We can make it work. Us. You
and me together.” His eyes were fierce. “I’m so damn proud of the woman you’ve
become, Kitty. You have so much talent it would be a crime to even think about
taking you away from it.”

Her lips trembled as emotions threatened to overwhelm her.
“Do you still love me?”

He smiled at her. “Don’t you know? I’ll always love you,
Kitty-Cat. Always.”

When he leaned down to kiss her, she met him halfway. It
wasn’t one of their usual, hungry, all-consuming kisses. This one was sweet,
almost as if they were sealing a deal and she supposed they were. She was
giving Monk the chance he’d been asking for. She wouldn’t hold anything back
this time, because he’d been right about her. She’d protected herself over the
years by keeping a part of herself distant from everyone around her, but to
give them a chance at a future, she’d have to go all out. She tried to convey
her promise in her kiss, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair.

The love Kitty had for this man filled her up until there
was nothing left. It should have terrified her, but instead she felt
reconnected with the old Kitty. It was as though a bridge had formed between
her present and past selves and made her a new woman. One who could fiercely
love her man and still become a designing powerhouse. She could do it all as
long as he was at her side.

His tongue slid out to lap at the seam of her mouth and her
lips parted for him. The kiss deepened. Sweet and languid flew out the window
to be replaced by hot and hungry. She moaned as his body came to rest against
hers, the hard muscles pressing tight to her curves. They were made for each
other. She’d just been hiding her head in the sand trying to deny it.

Monk’s mouth left hers to trail gnawing, hungry kisses down
her neck. Buttons flew as his hands ripped open his dress shirt, baring her to
his view. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispered against the hollow of her
throat.

Kitty loved hearing the hunger in his voice, loved the feel
of his fangs as he scraped them down the center of her chest, but she didn’t
have the patience for foreplay. She’d been wet before they even talked, her
body hungering for him just from watching him walk. Her thighs were damp, her
inner muscles tensing. The bear wanted their mate right this instant and was
adamant she would get it. Her claws slashed out, tearing the pants from his
body.

“No playing.” Kitty panted as she writhed beneath him. “Make
love to me.”

He paused with his mouth a hairsbreadth away from her nipple
and looked up at her, green eyes startled. That was when Kitty realized it was
the first time she’d called what they did making love. For the last two weeks
she’d demanded he fuck her, but never, ever had she demanded he make love to
her. Until now.

“I need you inside me, Monk.” Desperation was clear in her
voice and she didn’t care.

His cheeks flushed as his eyes burned jewel bright.
“Anything for my Kitty-Cat.”

His body was all lethal grace as he knelt between her legs.
His skin gleamed like polished gold in the light coming from the window. In
that moment, he resembled a cougar made human and her breath caught in her
throat in awe. He coasted his hands up her splayed thighs until he bracketed
her pussy.

“Mine,” he purred, his thumbs brushing up and down the slick
folds of her sex.

If he had said something along those lines earlier, she
would have taken exception to it. Now though, she reached down to palm the hard
length of his cock. “Mine,” she growled with a soft squeeze.

The muscles in his body tensed when she gripped him and his
cock seemed to turn into steel when she squeezed, but he didn’t argue with her.
Instead, he slid his hands around the backs of her thighs to open her wider,
letting her guide his cock to her waiting slit.

“Put me inside you,” he ordered in a rough voice, his eyes
on where they would soon be joined.

Kitty looked down as well, her body creaming at the sight of
her hand on his ruddy shaft. She brought him closer until the proud crown
brushed her pussy. Her breath hitched as he pressed forward, the bulbous head
breaching her tight entrance. She couldn’t hold back a moan, her hand dropping
away to grip the sheets as he continued sliding deeper inside her until his
groin rested flush against her ass.

“Kitty-Cat,” he said on a groan, his hands tightened on her
thighs.

She looked up, instantly caught by his bright gaze. His face
was strained, the muscles in his neck standing out as though he held himself in
careful check. Releasing her hold on the sheets, Kitty reached up to stroke his
beautiful chest. His heart thudded fast and hard against her hand, the beat
matching hers.

Wishing she could give him everything he wanted right now,
but knowing it was too soon, Kitty gave him what she could. “I love you, Monk,”
she told him in a voice gone husky from emotion and need.

His entire face lit up, making him look exactly like the
young man she’d fallen in love with so many years before. “I love you too,
baby.”

And he moved. Her claws punched through the tips of her
fingers at the exquisite friction of his cock gliding out of her channel,
digging into the meaty muscles of his pecs, but he didn’t seem to mind if the
way he slammed back into her was any indication. Kitty gasped at the sharp bolt
of pleasure that wound its way through her.

Monk kept a slow, methodical rhythm designed to drive her
insane. She scrabbled at his hips, trying to pull him deeper, harder against
her, but he resisted her urgings by sitting on his heels. It changed the angle
of his thrusts. He made sure she felt every inch of his cock sliding in and out
of her. Kitty gave up reaching for him and cupped her breasts, squeezing and
plucking at her nipples in time with his thrusts.

“That’s my girl,” he rasped, his thrusts picking up speed
and intensity, his cock slamming harder into her. “Roll them between your
fingers, baby, get them nice and red.”

Kitty mewled, her head twisting on the pillow as he
plundered her body and she tortured herself. Nearly overwhelming heat scorched
her from the inside out, her inner muscles tensing in preparation for her
orgasm. Her gasping moans and Monk’s rough breathing combined with the wet
sounds of his cock tunneling into her, turning her on even more.

“Monk,” she panted in a pleading tone. “Please, baby.” He
ground his hips against her, the head of his cock nudging her cervix. “Oh! Oh
God, oh God, please, please!”

And like that, her mate snapped. He adjusted her legs until
her calves rested against his shoulders and his hands were free to grip her
hips. Then he slammed into her hard and fast, the new angle rubbing his cock
against that magic spot inside her that burned her alive.

Kitty arched her back, her hands leaving her breasts to find
Monk’s strong thighs, her claws digging into the muscles. The clap of their
bodies meeting in a primal mating echoed throughout the room. She closed her
eyes, the pleasure almost too much to bear, but a sharp nip to the inside of
her leg had her blinking hazily at the man pounding into her.

“Keep your eyes on me, Kitty-Cat.” The deep, lethal tone
made her womb clench. “I wanna see your face when your pussy clenches around
me, wanna watch you fall apart as I come inside you.”

As usual, his explicit words, delivered in his sexy, Cajun
accent sent her spiraling out of control. “Monk!” she screamed, her body
bucking as her orgasm slammed into her like a tidal wave. She didn’t close her
eyes, although it was a near thing.

And she was glad she hadn’t because she would have missed
the look of pained bliss on his face when she tightened around him. His eyes
flashed pale green for a moment, his cat making a brief appearance before he
growled, low and deep, his hips ramming into hers.

“Mine,” he grunted with each sharp jab of his cock into her quaking
pussy. “Mine, mine, mine, mine. My mate!”

His final word ended on a roar as his cock jerked inside
her, his seed jetting into her in a hot, wet gush. Kitty moaned softly, Monk’s
climax setting off another wave of spasms in her body as it eagerly accepted
everything he had to give her.

With one last heave of his hips into hers, her mate seemed
to go boneless, his impressive strength drained. Kitty was barely conscious,
but she felt her legs slide off his shoulders to rest on either side of his
body as he stretched out on top of her. He was a little heavy and sticky and
she didn’t give a damn. She was wrapped in her mate’s scent and warmth, the way
she loved.

Wiggling slightly to find a more comfortable position for
them both that ended with his head pillowed on her breasts and his body resting
along one side of hers, Kitty finally released a sigh of sheer happiness. There
was still a lot for them to work through, but she wasn’t going to fight her
instincts or her heart any longer. It wasn’t worth it, not when Monk gave her
everything she needed.

Something buzzed in the back of her mind, trying to remind
her of something important, but Monk had fucked—no, made love to her—so
thoroughly that all she wanted was a little rest. Whatever it was could wait
until she’d recovered from the mind-numbing orgasm her mate had given her.

* * * * *

Kitty woke up again, this time without an ache in her head.
No, that particular sensation was much lower, especially in her thighs and
pussy, but remembering how it’d gotten there made her lips curl in a small
smile.

“What’s that smile for?” a lazy male voice asked somewhere
over her head.

Squinting against the light, she saw Monk resting on his
side, his sandy hair tousled around his head. His eyes were heavy-lidded and
lazy from a climax-induced sleep, his chest marked with fading scratches. He’d
never looked sexier than he did at that moment.

Kitty arched her back in a full-body stretch, delighting in
the way his gaze trailed over her, pausing at her breasts and the juncture of
her thighs. “That’s the smile of a very satisfied man,” she purred.

Slightly roughened fingers danced down the center of her
chest to circle her navel. “You’re one incredibly sexy woman, Kitty Chambers.”

She grinned at him. “So are you.”

He studied her face with the satisfied smile of a male who
knew he’d done a good job pleasuring his female before he dropped his gaze to
follow the movement of his hand. He watched as his fingers kept up a leisurely
exploration of her skin, meandering around her ribs to wander around her
breast. She sucked in a breath when he lightly stroked her hardened nipple, but
he didn’t linger there, his fingers skating up to her shoulder.

Because Kitty was watching his face, she saw the way his
lips turned down at the corners when he touched the tattoo she’d gotten to
cover his mark. Her heart ached at the sadness in his expression. She’d gotten
the tattoo six months after leaving Maison Rouge and she’d never regretted it,
until now.