Savage Nature (25 page)

Mahieu stepped close to hug her tight. “Of course we’d come for you, Saria.”

“Don’ make me cry, Mahieu. I didn’t know.”

“We’re
famille.
” He leaned close. “
J’aime beaucoup, ma soeur.
How did you not know that? If you’re in trouble, Saria, we all come.”

10

DRAKE nodded to Saria’s two brothers as he took her with him back down the narrow path leading away from the water, but he walked carefully, keeping them in sight until they had put foliage between them. Saria lifted her hand toward her brothers in a brief wave, but she didn’t say anything more, although they shifted positions, Saria taking the lead.

Drake frowned. His leopard was still prowling, pacing back and forth, fighting him occasionally to get out. “You’re certain your female isn’t giving you trouble?” He watched her closely, searching her dark eyes for signs of trouble.

Saria shook her head, glancing back at him. “She’s quieter now.”

Drake looked around them. Fenton’s Marsh smelled like death to him. “Let’s get going. I want to do this before nightfall.”

Truthfully, he wanted Saria away from the area, although he couldn’t say the marsh wasn’t beautiful. He could see why Fenton’s pristine acreage was the habitat to so many wildlife species as he followed Saria into the interior.

Flowers grew among the darker greens of the plants, tall stalks strangely striped a dark and light green. The blossoms resembled a golden lily with dark splotches in the soft coned petals. Scattered among the taller flowers was another species he didn’t recognize, each one of them growing about halfway up the striped stalk of the strange lily. Just as the vines tangled in the branches of the trees and wove them together, the smaller bright-colored flowers did the same on the ground.

Moss hung in long veils from tree branches, and every kind of plant possible seemed to vie for space in the thick brush. As they moved deeper, away from the water’s edge, the foliage was even thicker, resembling a dark jungle. Mushrooms and fungus grew in abundance. Here, the flowers were thick carpets covering the ground beneath the trees.

“This is like a rain forest in here. The soil must be incredible.”

She sent him a smile over her shoulder, immediately capturing his attention. “I’ve photographed every inch of this land through here. I’m slowly working my way south. I can’t find the names of some of these plants and flowers anywhere. Like I said, no one comes here, they haven’t for years. I’m hopin’ there’s somethin’ important to
National Geographic
or one of the other science mags.”

“Get some plant named after you?” He watched her walk, the easy sexy sway of her hips. She walked with straight shoulders, and that gentle sway emphasized her narrow waist. She wasn’t fashionably thin, but rather had curves where a man like him most appreciated them.

“No, that’s more Charisse’s style. I just want to have my photographs paid attention to and somethin’ like that would make me famous. I could really make my livin’ that way.” She flashed him another look over her shoulder and he forgot everything about his surroundings. It was a beautiful place, but there was nothing there more beautiful to him than she was.

“Stop it.” She laughed softly. “Sometimes I don’ know what to do with you.”

“I can give you advice,” he said.

The ground was growing spongy beneath his feet again, indicating they were crossing back toward the water on the other side of the long finger of land. Saria laughed softly again, but she didn’t reply.

Drake was silent for a moment, trying to figure out a subtle way to broach the subject of her brothers. He kept his voice very gentle. “You know we have to tell your brothers someone is killing using both a leopard suffocation bite and a knife,” Drake said, wishing he didn’t have to bring them back to the purpose of their visit to the marsh.

For a few moments, it had been just the two of them again, but she had to come to terms with disclosing the information to her family. He wanted them both on the same page. They needed allies to figure out what was going on inside the lair. No one would talk to him, his team or probably Saria. They needed her brothers.

“I found those bodies some time ago and there won’t be any evidence left,” Saria pointed out.

“We don’t have a choice, Saria. They know something is wrong.”

Saria kept her gaze fixed on the trail as they walked. The path was becoming thinner, the surrounding area more hazardous, but Saria knew exactly where she going. “It won’ be easy,” she ventured. “Remy is a homicide detective and he won’ like that I was afraid of them.”

“Saria,” Drake said softly. He stopped her by gently shackling her wrist and forcing her to turn back to him. “Whatever led up to your fears was real. One time coming to your rescue doesn’t erase years of neglect. You had a reason to suspect them.”

“Maybe, Drake, and maybe it was pride. They seemed so close to one another and I was so alone and not a part of them. Maybe I wanted to punish them in some way.”

Drake leaned into her and brushed the top of her dirtstreaked face with a kiss. “It’s always easy to second-guess yourself with new information, but at the time, honey, you did the best you could. You were trying to protect them.”

She squared her shoulders and nodded. “Thank you for not making that worse back there with my brothers. I know you were angry.”

He raised an eyebrow.

She smiled and shrugged. “Your eyes start glowin’. Really, Drake. They go gold and then shimmer. I think every once in a while I’ll be tempted to get you angry just so I can see all that shimmering fire.”

He bunched her hair in his fist and brought his mouth to hers. When he lifted his head, his eyes were every bit as golden as she’d claimed. Saria laughed and the tension in his belly dissipated. She was back, sure and confident. She’d been shaken for a moment, but she’d been true to her word, and she stood with him.

“I wasn’t angry so much as my leopard was behaving badly.”

“
All
of you were behaving badly. I thought my brothers were going to kill you. And Remy nearly killed Armande and Robert. It was very tense there for a while.” She gave a little sniff. “I was the only one with a lick of sense.

“I’m takin’ you the safe way around and stayin’ out of the marsh as much as possible. This way is longer, but less hazardous, although we’re comin’ back into the reeds, so look sharp if we go through water. What are you hopin’ to see?” she asked. “The bodies are long gone.”

“My leopard will be able to scent them. I want to know if there were others. It’s possible your killer has been using the island for a dump site for a while.”

“I don’ know why, but I still think the first time was different than the others. There were two boats, and I suspected they were up to some illegal activity.”

“Two different killers?”

She frowned, shaking her head as she wove her way through the reeds. “No. More like that time it wasn’t planned and the other times deliberate.”

He noticed she kept her rifle cradled carefully in her arms and she was very alert, watching for alligators as they neared the reeds. She stopped at one point and then gave an area a wide berth.

They walked for perhaps another mile. His leopard began to settle, allowing him to breathe easier. The terrible need to explode into rage subsided gradually, and with it the tension drained from his body, allowing him to drop his guard enough to enjoy their surroundings.

The foliage had fewer wildflowers tangled among the dense shrubbery and more trees and large brush spaced farther apart. There was evidence of small animals everywhere. Birds had settled back into the branches and when they neared the outer edges of the curved property, he could see egrets and herons wading in the shallow reeds.

Saria took them to a sheltered cove, one where the ground was solid and trees lined the water’s edge, shading the edge of the marsh and the reeds jutting out into the water.

She spread out her arms and turned in a circle. “This is where I found the second body. It was half in and half out of the water over there.” She pointed a distance away to a long path where the brush was flattened leading to the edge of the reeds and deeper water—obviously an alligator slide. “And over there.” She pointed to a spot a good deal away from the slide where someone might choose to picnic, thinking themselves safe from the gator. “There were bottles from our bar lyin’ on the ground.”

He took her hand and led her back to the interior, away from alligators and dead bodies. The ground was solid and the trees had thick branches. If need be, she could easily climb up one, although there was no evidence of alligators this far inland.

“I’m going to shift and take a look around, Saria. It may take a while.”

“I want to take some photographs of you. Is that all right? In your leopard form.”

“You know that’s not a good idea.” Drake hated to deny her anything. “Even for your own use, it’s just not a good idea.”

“How could anyone tell the difference between a shifter and a leopard?”

He handed her his shirt, shrugging out of it easily. “They’ll know the picture was taken here in the marsh, honey. How will you explain a leopard in Fenton’s Marsh?”

Saria seemed fascinated by the muscles on his chest. She stared while she folded his shirt. Drake kicked off his shoes and dropped his hands to the front of his jeans. Her gaze dropped with his hands as he parted the material and peeled them from his body. He liked that she was fascinated. She was going to have to get used to seeing him naked and she didn’t seem to mind, although she appeared a little intimidated.

“Your brother Remy is a tough man.” He tried distracting her.

She blinked, trying to focus on his face. “All of them are.”

“This lair needs a strong leader. And he fought circles around their appointed fighter. He’d take any of them down in seconds.”

“My brothers stay to themselves.”

“Isn’t Mahieu seeing Charisse?” He handed her the jeans, desperately trying to think of anything but sex. Suddenly sex was on his mind in a big way, and being a man, he found his thoughts physically impossible to hide. She was already intimidated enough by the thought of having sex with him.

“Well, with any of my brothers you just never know. Lojos and Gage have been givin’ him a really bad time about her, teasin’, you know. Mahieu doesn’t say much, but he’s been hittin’ the jazz clubs with her.”

She made no attempt to pull her gaze away from his body. Her eyes grew big and she raised her eyebrows. “I don’ know, Drake, you’re just a little bigger than I expected.”

The woman could make the devil blush. Instead of stepping back from him, she stepped closer to him and reached toward him hesitantly, as if afraid he’d bat her hand away. He went still. So did his leopard. Both held their breath. Her gaze jumped to his face, burning into his, then dropped again to his heavy erection. Tentatively, her fingers brushed over his cock, a soft slide of just the pads of her fingers, as if he might burn her skin—instead, she burned his.

The breath slammed from his lungs. Hot blood rushed through his veins to pool into aicked, urgent need. Every nerve ending seemed centered in his groin. Her fingers stroked over the length of him, tracing him, shaping him, sliding lower to cup his sac. A low growl escaped, his throat closing on the sound so it came out strangled.

“So hot,” she murmured as if to herself. “Alive.”

“Very alive,” he admitted, gritting his teeth. He didn’t want her to stop, but it was torture, pure and simple.

Saria looked up again at Drake’s face. Lines of desire were etched deep. His eyes had gone fiery gold—like the blazing sun. She moistened her lips. Everything about him was beautiful to her. She loved the idea that his body was so hot and hard just for her. There was something powerful and freeing about taking control. Her fingers played over his body as if it was a musical instrument, sliding and stroking and shaping while she committed the feel of him to her memory. A single pearly drop of his essence leaked from the smooth, velvet head.

Saria stared down at the drop and licked her lips a second time. Her mouth watered. Deep inside, she felt her leopard stir, and then stretch with languid interest. The amorous cat had been driving her crazy earlier in the swamp—something she didn’t want to admit to Drake in front of her brothers, but now she didn’t want her leopard’s response. She wanted this exploration to be all her. Looking up, she thought that Drake’s face could have been carved from stone. His eyes were hooded, heavy-lidded, his expression one of pure power and passion. His eyes had gone completely golden with lust and unbridled need—for her. She drank in the sight of him, her heart pounding with daring.

“Drake.” She stared down at his erection. “Show me.”

He didn’t ask questions, or protest. He took her hand and wrapped it around him like a fist. He showed her how to pump him. He felt like velvet over steel, a fascinating combination. She wanted to spend a long time learning all about his body, what made him gasp with pleasure and what brought him to his knees. What put that sexy, heated glitter in his gold eyes.