Purrfect Protector (14 page)

He sobered and returned his attention to Gio. “I think Kale’s room was broken into as part of the ploy to get us down here with me waving my gun around.”

After a minute, Gio grimaced with understanding as he obviously put the pieces together. It was odd. Usually he and Gio were on the same wavelength but Kale had figured out what he was thinking long before his friend.

“I will go up and check it out.” Gio waited for Aleksi to promise not to cause any more trouble before heading to the elevator, laughing as Aleksi glared at him.

* * * *

Once Gio had cleared the room, Aleksi had grudgingly agreed to let Kale back up there while Gio and a few different police officers kept an eye on the elevators and stairs. Aleksi didn’t doubt that this wasn’t the last they’d see of Not-Barry.

Aleksi shot into the bathroom when Kale shouted for him, claws out and ready to shred the stalker into little pieces. But he only found Kale standing by the sink, looking horrified.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think. I’m fine,” Kale apologized again and Aleksi scented the air to make sure there wasn’t any danger before pulling his claws back in and studying his lover.

“Why did you shout?”

“It’s nothing,” Kale answered quickly.

Kale wouldn’t meet his eyes and Aleksi’s cat grumbled. He didn’t like the fact that there was a wall between them now. Before he’d dropped the M-bomb, everything had been fine—or as fine as it could be with a dangerous stalker trying to abduct Kale.

“Tell me,” he encouraged softly.

“He stole my shampoo, my shower gel and my underwear from this morning. Then I saw a shadow through the window and almost had a heart attack. It was only a bird, though.” Kale shrugged.

Aleksi scented the overly sweet smell of embarrassment. Aleksi hadn’t been expecting that sort of response and it threw him for a moment. “Do you want me to eat it?”

As responses go, that wasn’t one of his best, but his tiger felt that it had been a perfectly reasonable offer.

Open-mouthed, Kale stared at him for a minute and Aleksi resisted the urge to run or growl. Stupid responses or growling at the man wasn’t likely to make Kale any more inclined to share things with him.

“Umm…no, that’s not necessary. Thanks, though.”

Aleksi tried to seem nonchalant as he nodded. “Okay, then.”

Kale must have seen his discomfort, as the man came closer to Aleksi and put a hand on Aleksi’s chest before stretching up and kissing him on the cheek. Aleksi couldn’t remember anyone doing that before and he felt his heart skip just a little faster.

Stepping back quickly, Kale bit his bottom lip as if he were as affected as Aleksi by the simple contact.

Aleksi awkwardly gave Kale a kiss on the lips—a light one simply because he couldn’t resist. “I think it would be best if you moved hotels until we leave Milan.”

“I want to pack my stuff and get out. I’ll change our flight for tonight instead of tomorrow. I want out of here,” Kale announced with a shudder.

Aleksi couldn’t blame him one bit. Somehow stealing shower gel, shampoo and underwear made the crazy would-be kidnapper even creepier.

* * * *

The earliest flight back home with three seats available on it was at midnight. Hours away. So Aleksi came up with the plan that they not check out of this hotel but also book a night in the hotel next door under a different name. He, Kale and Caleb would stay in the second hotel and no one else would be any the wiser. Not-Barry should think they either were in the same room as before or had gone to one far away from it until they could get a flight out of Italy.

It was a game of cat and mouse. Aleksi had an unparalleled advantage at cat and mouse—he was the biggest damn cat there was.

He didn’t want to be caught in the same situation again, so Aleksi insisted they get rooms on the first floor. There were more escape routes available and less opportunity for Not-Barry to set a trap at every one.

Caleb had reluctantly agreed to say goodbye to his hook-up when Kale told him what was going on and was packing before coming over to join them in the new hotel. Aleksi watched through the small slit in the curtains, observing people coming in and out of the building.

“How did Gio know you were in trouble, anyway? Your friend was
very
happy to see you.” Kale’s question wasn’t so much about what had caught his interest as it was the way he’d said it. Was Kale jealous?

“I protected the previous Italian president a few years ago when there were assassination attempts against him. The older, higher-up police remember me. These new, young, arrogant ones just want to make a name for themselves and make bids for promotions. Good luck to them with that now. I haven’t seen Gio since the protection detail ended.”

Aleksi wondered if he should tell Kale that he and Gio had slept together once after the assignment was over, before he’d had to return to the States. It was long in the past and he knew it had meant nothing more than lust to both he and the Italian. They hadn’t had the talk about previous lovers yet and it was still uncertain as to whether Kale wanted to take it further between them.

“Oh. Were you two…close?”

“We were friends, as I said. But if you’re asking if we had sex then yes, before I returned home we slept together, once.” He knew he sounded defensive, but he couldn’t stop himself. Now that he’d found Kale, his tiger disliked that he had been with anyone else and he certainly didn’t want to think about his mate sleeping with anyone else either.

“We could have stayed if you’d wanted to. You two could have caught up.
Gio
certainly wanted to, judging by how he kept touching you…and how you
let
him.”

There was definitely something dangerous in Kale’s tone, so Aleksi decided to be brutally honest. “Kale, despite the fact that we’ve agreed to be exclusive while we court each other—and I keep my word—I feel I must point out that I have already slept with Gio and if me or my tiger wanted him for more than a night, we wouldn’t be with you now.”

Aggravating the sensitive situation probably wasn’t the best course of action. But his temper had been pricked.

He watched Kale do a good impression of a fish before he continued, “Since I’ve met you, I have not looked at another that way. My tiger is set on you and even though my human half is scared, the events today confirmed it. You are brave and smart and you tried to protect me when I was vulnerable. I would very much like to call you my mate.” By the end of his confession, he was almost shouting and he threw his hands in the air at himself. He couldn’t even do that bit right. What hope did he have of convincing the human to be his mate?

* * * *

Kale lay on the bed, staring up at the white ceiling, replaying Aleksi’s words over in his head. No one had ever called him brave or smart before. They certainly hadn’t shouted it at him either. He couldn’t say it hadn’t been endearing, though.

Aleksi had given him space and after an hour of staring at the ceiling, Kale was still no closer to figuring out how he felt about the whole thing.

The ice walls he’d erected around himself had all but shattered when he’d seen the runt strike Aleksi with the baton. Since then, he’d just been confused and more than a little jealous of the Italian police officer who’d swanned in and tried to make a claim on Aleksi as if he had a right to do so.

He was definitely scared, but there was also something inside pushing him to take a chance on Aleksi, telling him that the shifter would never leave him as his brother had or stop loving him as his parents had.

Normally, when he needed to talk something out, Caleb would poke at him and wheedle until he gave in and Kale told his brother everything, but Caleb had been called into a phone meeting about their investments. Kale had never understood the business side of things. Caleb thrived on it, so Kale left him to it—even if it did sometimes drive him mad that his brother was constantly working. Kale just showed up and did the photo shoots, strutted down the runway, delivered his lines in advertisements, charmed the interviewers and schmoozed the people in charge.

He knew he couldn’t hide out here indefinitely, but he didn’t really want to go and face Aleksi yet either. It wasn’t fair to keep jerking the shifter around. Mating was a serious thing and essentially altered Aleksi’s life forever, no matter what Kale decided.

As that thought left him, Kale frowned. He’d been thinking about how it affected him and how he didn’t know what to do and somehow he’d forgotten that he wasn’t the only one in this situation. Aleksi had been reluctant to admit the possibility that they could be mates and had seemed to be even more reluctant to tell Kale how he felt or what he wanted. And yet…Aleksi had taken the leap and declared his interest and intentions, letting Kale have time to himself when it must have hurt when he didn’t return the shifter’s feelings. Except, Kale wasn’t too sure he didn’t return those feelings.

Didn’t Kale owe it to Aleksi to try?

“Damn it,” he sighed, resigned.

Rolling off the bed, he grabbed a packet from his case and shoved it in his pocket. He strode out of the bedroom and into the small sitting area where Aleksi was seated by the window. The shifter turned his way when Kale walked in but quickly put on a guarded expression, his eyes turning cold, but not before Kale saw the crushing sadness and loneliness there.

While he felt awful that he’d put that there, it made his decision easier. Kale didn’t stop until he reached Aleksi, then climbed right into the shifter’s lap. Aleksi had to either wrap his big arms around him or let him fall on his ass. Kale was relieved when Aleksi chose to catch him.

“What are you doing, Kale?”

“I’m claiming my mate,” he said with a grin and a wink before grabbing Aleksi’s face and taking the shifter’s mouth with a demanding kiss. Aleksi didn’t respond at first but Kale coaxed him into the kiss, spearing his tongue out to flick Aleksi’s top lip. He groaned with pleasure when the shifter kissed him back and they fought for control.

When they broke apart, they were both breathing heavily and Kale squirmed on Aleksi’s lap, feeling the shifter’s excitement pressing against his ass.

Kale laughed when he raised a growl from Aleksi. The shifter grabbed his hips and forced him down onto Aleksi’s groin to get more friction. The show of strength and the glimpse of Aleksi’s not-so-human teeth made him hot enough that he thought his erection might well rip through his pants.

Snapping his mouth shut, Aleksi withdrew his hands. “I’m sorry.”

Kale raised his eyebrows in challenge before grinding against Aleksi’s covered cock. “I’m not some fainting flower, Aleksi. I needed to think it through, but I’m yours if you want me.”

Aleksi blinked then Kale recognized the familiar feline twinkle of mischief in the man’s eyes. “No, mate. You are definitely not a fainting flower.”

“Hmm. I like it when you call me mate.” He rubbed his nose against Aleksi’s, because it felt right, and grinned when the man beneath him purred.

He moaned when Aleksi took hold of his hips again and let him experience the strength and power in those hands. Even the hint of claws didn’t stop him from humping against Aleksi’s stomach. It actually made it better, adding a little suggestion of danger. He knew Aleksi would never hurt him.

Kale gasped. “Naked. Now.”

They scrambled to get up and out of their clothes but as Aleksi started to move toward the bedroom, Kale pushed the big man back down into the overstuffed green cord chair. “Too far away. Here’s better.”

“Are we ever going to make it to a bed?”

Kale smirked, grabbing the packet of lube out of the pocket of his pants before dropping them back to the floor.

This time Aleksi smirked and nodded at what he held. “Confident?”

“Hopeful,” Kale answered, settling astride Aleksi’s lap again.

The skin-to-skin contact was dizzying. He attacked the packet of lube and ripped it open. The slippery contents landed with a splat on Aleksi’s steely abs. Kale groaned in frustration while Aleksi laughed. Leaning down, Kale lightly bit the shifter in punishment.

Aleksi growled and bit him back, careful to only nip, not injure. “I bite back,” the shifter warned.

“Good.”

Kale went to scoop up some lube into his hand, but Aleksi beat him to it, swiping two big fingers through the translucent gel then reaching behind Kale to tease his crease. Aleksi ringed his hole then pressed in with one finger, slowly.

“More.” He liked the burn and when Aleksi granted his demand, Kale’s thighs shook with anticipation. He knew how big Aleksi was. He’d been barely able to fit the man in his mouth. He couldn’t wait to feel his shifter spreading him wide, filling him up.

He must have made a needy sound, because Aleksi brought his other hand up to cup the back of Kale’s head and pull him down so he could nibble Kale’s neck some more. “Shh. Let me get you ready.”

Kale grew accustomed to Aleksi’s two big fingers. Finally, Aleksi withdrew them. With Aleksi’s teeth gripping his neck, he kept him in place as Aleksi reached between them to scoop up more lubricant. Kale’s patience was wearing thin. He needed Aleksi
now
.

Aleksi returned to finger Kale’s ass. This time he worked three huge fingers inside him. Instinctively, Kale pushed up onto his knees and stuck out his ass, arching his back.

His thoughts scattered when Aleksi let go with his teeth and started kissing Kale’s neck. Working over his chin, Aleksi continued over his cheeks and finally claimed his mouth. Kale sank his fingers deep into Aleksi’s hair, keeping Aleksi in the kiss until they had to break apart and gasp for breath.

The first pump of Aleksi’s fingers urged Kale to let out an unmanly squeak. When Aleksi thrust them deeper, Kale wiggled and drew in a sharp breath as Aleksi rubbed the bundle of nerves inside Kale.

“Oh, God.” It left him shaking and his dick painfully erect.

Kale summoned some strength from his need and frustration to pull back and untangle his hands from Aleksi’s soft golden hair.