Purrfect Protector (8 page)

“Umm. Sure?”

* * * *

Kale stopped running as he got back to the house. He bent over, bracing his hands on his knees, and tried to drag in enough air to get his lungs to stop his body screaming for oxygen. Sweat trickled into his eyes. “I…hate…you,” he wheezed.

“Hey, I gave you to choice of going easy.” Aleksi, the evil, sadistic shifter, jogged up to him, barely out of breath.

“And you made it clear you would be bored to tears with that option,” Kale shot back, wishing he’d gone with the easy option. He’d wanted to impress Aleksi, but now he wanted to collapse in to a weeping ball of ouch.

Aleksi’s feet came into his view. “Come on. Let’s get you into a warm bath.”

Kale let himself be led and didn’t resist when the shifter wrapped an arm around his waist as they walked the short distance to the house together. He couldn’t even enjoy it. By the time they reached the door, Kale was sweating even more as parts of his body started to freeze up from the sudden shock of overuse.

Aleksi pulled him inside, but before they got to the stairs, Kale’s knees stopped cooperating and he had to shout. “Stop. I can’t. Just let me sit for a minute.”

“You need to soak your muscles or they’ll lock.”

He knew he had pushed himself too far. And the effort to impress Aleksi had completely backfired. His humiliation was complete as the bigger man scooped him up off the floor into solid, unyielding arms.

“Don’t look like that. I can’t believe you ran so far. Why didn’t you say you were struggling?”

This close, and with his face level with Aleksi’s chin, he couldn’t hide what he was feeling from him, so he ducked his head and refused to meet the man’s eyes. What had he been thinking? Even if he hadn’t almost keeled over, the man just wasn’t interested. Aleksi had been all but unaffected by him and had made it clear that the fact that Kale was a model didn’t impress him one bit.

* * * *

Kale still hadn’t managed to shake the unfamiliar feeling of shyness for Aleksi as, several minutes later, the shifter helped him sink into a hot, vanilla-scented bubble bath. “Oh man, that’s good.” Kale sank all the way up to his neck and his feet still didn’t touch the end of the tub.

“Now I have you at my mercy. Tell me truthfully, why you did this to yourself?”

The relaxing effect of the bath took away some of the sting to his pride, but it added a whole different kind of hurt as Aleksi stripped off his shirt and threw it in the laundry hamper. The shifter perched on the side of the free-standing claw-foot bath. With a thin sheen of sweat covering his chest, Aleksi was stunning. Kale usually liked his men with little or no hair on their chests, but he had to admit the blond curls were tempting. It made him wonder what sort of noises the shifter would make if he tugged on them.

Thankfully, Aleksi had been generous with the bubble bath and his dick was covered as he came to full arousal. But that wouldn’t stop the shifter from picking it up from his scent if he didn’t get a hold of himself.

“I don’t know, I guess I wanted to impress you or something.” He settled on the noncommittal answer and prayed Aleksi would leave it alone. He should have known better, though. A cat with a puzzle was worse than a dog with a bone.

Aleksi frowned and Kale inwardly groaned. Where was his usual charm and confidence? “Why would you want to impress me?”

“So you wouldn’t ask that question?” He laughed at Aleksi’s confused expression. “I like you, okay? I know you know I’m attracted to you. Hell, who wouldn’t be? But you don’t seem to notice me other than to protect me. You don’t even like me.” Saying it stung was an understatement, but Kale wasn’t going to beg for anyone’s attention.

“We only met yesterday. I don’t know you well enough to like you or dislike you.”

Kale gestured, inadvertently flicking soap at Aleksi and laughed depreciatingly. “There you go, then.” As soon as he was done with this protection shit, he was going to the nearest club and picking up a host of men to make him forget about the shifter in front of him.

“I wasn’t finished.”

Aleksi tried to touch his hand but Kale evaded him. No doubt the shifter was going to try to let him down easy as if he were some blushing virgin with a crush. No thanks.

“Are you going to list the reasons why someone like you would never be interested in someone like me? Because if you are, you can skip it.” He closed his eyes, held his breath and sank under the bubbles. A childish move, but one that let him keep what remained of his self-respect. The only problem was that he would eventually have to come back up for air.

Kale stayed under until he really had to breathe again. But when he emerged from out of the water, the shifter was gone. He sighed. He’d chased off another one. If he’d kept his mouth shut, they might have ended up friends. Instead, he’d managed to ruin that too by acting like a child having a tantrum.

“You have issues,” Aleksi pointed out bluntly, reentering the bathroom with a glass of green liquid.

He frowned and curled his lip. “Thanks.”

“You are high maintenance, prissy, stubborn, moody, in denial that you’re in danger and you have trouble listening to people. You rely on your looks to get what you want, you run away from dealing with your problems and most of all, you don’t eat sugar. What’s up with that?” The Americanism was set off nicely by the faintest hint of a Russian accent.

Kale blinked. He’d been joking when he’d mentioned Aleksi listing his faults.

The shifter growled, probably at his lack of response or reaction.

Before he had a chance to move away or say something stupid, the big blond shifter claimed his mouth. He tried to pull away and ask what the hell Aleksi was doing, but the shifter cupped the back of Kale’s head in one big hand, keeping Kale there. And really, why would he want to get away?

It started off slowly, with Aleksi teasing his lips, and when he opened for the shifter, Aleksi dominated, demanding and powerful. Kale’s thoughts of friendship fizzled out under the masterful ministrations. The second his tongue was stroked by Aleksi’s, his dwindling erection came back to life full force.

The kiss turned desperate as Kale reached up to clutch at Aleksi’s big, muscular shoulders. He couldn’t get any purchase in the tub so all he could do was try to urge the shifter closer. Aleksi was solid and unmoving, though, and Kale mewled in frustration. He needed Aleksi to touch him. If this was the only chance he was going to get at Aleksi before the shifter remembered all the bad things he’d listed, then Kale was damn well going to make the most of it.

Thankfully, Aleksi took pity on him. Kale heard the clink of the glass being put down, then Aleksi sank his hand into the bubbles and took hold of him. “Oh, fuck.”

“Not yet,” Aleksi spoke into his mouth.

Kale was so hot for Aleksi that it was embarrassing. No one had ever pushed his buttons the way this man did. He keened when Aleksi squeezed him tightly and arched his hips to get more of that touch. “Uh!”

He dove back into the kiss, smiling into it when Aleksi startled him and took control again. A deep growl rumbled through Aleksi’s chest and into Kale’s. Aleksi lifted him up out of the water just enough to press their bare torsos together. With Kale’s skin wet and soapy from the bath, it gave enough slick for him to slide against Aleksi’s wide chest, teasing them both by stimulating their nipples with the slippery rubbing.

Moaning, Kale trusted Aleksi to keep him aloft and trailed his hands from Aleksi’s shoulders, down his sides, then slid them around to graze his fingernails over the shifter’s back.

Aleksi howled and started jerking Kale’s cock faster, holding him up with one arm.

He retaliated by moving his hands down to Aleksi’s waistband and dipped under the belt and fabric. The belt gave way as he pulled the tooth out of the hole, making short work of the button and zip fly as well. Aleksi’s hard cock sprang out—the whole ten inches or so by the feel of it—and almost so thick he couldn’t close his hand around it fully.

Kale’s gasp was half fearful and half lustful. Something that big would hurt if the owner didn’t take care of the person they were with.

It was a struggle to choose between kissing Aleksi’s lips or seeing the large cock in his hand and giving his partner pleasure. Just the thought of making big, bad and totally controlled Aleksi lose it was intoxicating. He wanted to see Aleksi fly apart and come all over his hand.

“Please.”

Aleksi released him from the kiss but Kale had to struggle not to simply sink back into the hot water and let Aleksi have his way. Never had someone kissing his neck taken him to the edge before. This wasn’t some hook-up, though. He actually liked Aleksi, and Kale wanted to please him.

He got a better grip, using his one hand to fist up and down the length of Aleksi’s cock and the other to scoop up some of the bubbles from the bath to ease the way. Once he’d wet his hand and Aleksi’s dick enough to set a faster rhythm, he concentrated his efforts on thumbing the reddened head and leaking slit. When Aleksi replaced the lips on his neck with his teeth—the barest touch of teeth and a guttural moan from the shifter—Kale knew he was close.

“Come for me,” Kale ordered.

He waited for the split second Aleksi’s eyes flashed to his and turned cat before he moved his hand down to Aleksi’s heavy balls and squeezed gently.

Aleksi roared and came over Kale’s hand. The man was beautiful in ecstasy. And those green and gold cat eyes were trained on him through it all. Being the center of someone’s world, even in their pleasure, was overwhelming and he couldn’t hold himself back when Aleksi struck, slamming their lips together.

All through his climax, Aleksi milked Kale’s erection until he was spent and limp.

When the kiss ended, they were both breathing heavily and Kale saw Aleksi’s cock start to fill and grow again.
That is a very quick recovery time, impressively quick.
Kale raised his head and smiled seductively at Aleksi, but the shifter didn’t take the bait. Instead, he got up and tucked himself back in his pants. The endorphins that had blocked the pain from Kale’s abused muscles were creeping back in, but he had no doubt Aleksi could find a way to get his endorphins pumping again.

Instead, Aleksi shoved the glass of green goo at him. “Drink this.”

Kale took it without thinking, still dazed from the kiss. “What’s in it?” He sniffed the glass and almost gagged at the strong, raw, herby scent. Even the weight of the glass resting on his knee was painful. It was so much better when Aleksi was kissing him, so why couldn’t the shifter just accept a life of sexual slavery and kiss Kale forever?
Selfish shifter.

“Family secret.”

Kale plugged his nose and drank the foul stuff down, and damn if he didn’t feel better after a few breaths. He could almost feel the muscles in his arms and legs sigh in relief and the knotted, overworked muscles unclenched and loosened enough that Kale didn’t have to bite his tongue to keep the cries of pain quiet.

“Feel better?” Even though it was a question, it was clear Aleksi knew the answer.

“I still hate you.”

“No, you don’t. You think I’m smexy,” Aleksi said confidently.

Kale handed the empty glass back and Aleksi put it on the counter by the sink.

“Smexy isn’t a word,” he argued.

“Yes, it is. My last protectee taught it to me. It means smart and sexy—smexy.”

Before he lost his courage, Kale asked the question that had been bugging him for the last few minutes. “Can I ask you something?”

Aleksi cocked his head. “Sure.”

“Did we really get each other off? Because it seems like you’re unaffected. If you don’t want to take it any further—that’s fine—but I would like to know one way or the other, please?” It was odd being on this end of the conversation. His usual hookups all knew the score and weren’t looking for anything more than a warm bedmate for the night, but there had been a couple over the years who had changed their minds in the morning.

For a moment, Kale thought Aleksi wasn’t going to answer, then the man sighed deeply. Aleksi sat on the side of the tub again and reached out to pick up his hand. Kale let the man hold his hand and frowned. He’d never indulged in casual touches from a lover before, but he found he liked it.

“It is not that I do not want you—clearly I do. Predatory shifters in general find it harder to get close to their lovers because to lose them would leave them vulnerable. I know you are leaving once Not-Barry is apprehended by the police. Yet I could not stop myself from touching you.” That hint of accent was back again and his informal ease of vocabulary had diminished.

“I don’t get close to people, either. It seems crazy that we only met yesterday but I really feel as if I’ve known you for much longer. Recently I’ve realized I need to make some changes in my life. Otherwise, I’ll lose the person I was before all the glitter and spotlights. I’m scared, but I would like to see if we could have something real, something we could build on after this mess with Not-Barry is over.” By the end of his speech, Kale was staring at their joined hands, unable to keep Aleksi’s piercing gaze. He hated putting himself out there and most of all he hated the timid feeling it gave him. One thing he wasn’t was timid.

They settled into silence, but it wasn’t altogether uncomfortable, only tense as he waited for Aleksi to say something.

“I will agree to see where this goes only if you promise to be honest about the important things.”

“The important things,” he agreed eagerly. It was a reasonable demand.

“And a promise from you that you will not simply run away if things become hard to deal with.”

He didn’t like the sound of that, but the look Aleksi gave him had him biting down on his defensive, snarky comments.

“Fine. Deal.”

Aleksi looked him dead in the eye then nodded, smiling so brightly it lit up the man’s rough features and made him look only a few years older than Kale. Now he was glad he hadn’t spoiled that sight with a stupid half-assed comment.

“Will you get in here with me?” He swooshed his hands in the bubbles in invitation. The warm water was lovely.