Stray Cats [High-Country Shifters 2] (7 page)

“I can picture it now.” A small smile lifted her lips. “Will would run around his hotel room, lifting up lamps and swearing there was a ghost there.” The Spirit lore had it that the town was haunted and had its share of ghosts, or so said Lara. “Let me see if I can come up with an alternate plan.”

The door clicked, and Malik walked in. “What’s up?”

She told him about the fiasco.

He shrugged. “If other shifters are near, it would make it easier for them to shift, not that it’s all that hard in the first place.”

“Really?” Her pulse raced.

“I think so.” He scratched his chin. “Though come to think of it, the last time I had to help someone shift was my three-year-old nephew. It worked for him on the first try.”

That was Anterra. This was Earth. She prayed they were willing to be part of the solution, despite their initial negative reaction when they first met Will and Gage. “Okay, I have an idea.”

They discussed the logistics, and by the time she went back into her room, her spirits had lifted. The key would be getting the men back out there again. She’d have to promise those two something pretty good as an incentive.

* * * *

Will couldn’t get the whole shifter concept out of his mind no matter how illogical it sounded. Gage had even asked him what was wrong after he failed to challenge him to a race.

Skiing and beating his brother had been the last thing on his mind. “Admit it, bro. Our whole lives, I’ve known we were different.”

“Yeah, we’re bigger and stronger than most of the people we know, but that’s because we’re almost giants.” He returned his skis to the rental booth.

That was the external difference. “I’m talking about how we feel. There have been times when there’s a rage inside me that takes me by surprise.”

Gage seemed to want to wait until they were away from other people before he commented. “You’ve hid it well.”

Gage hadn’t. “Doesn’t mean it’s not deep inside.” He tapped his chest. “I want to give this shifter thing another chance.” His shoulders seemed to automatically straighten. “I’m thinking that having Sella there, watching me, put undue pressure on me.” He pressed a hand to Gage’s shoulder to stop him. “I know you won’t believe this since I failed to shift, but I swear there was something going on with my body. The cells were trying to be different, only my mind was blocking the transformation.”

Gage shook his head. “It’s your vacation. If you want to lie in bed and think about being a lion, go for it.”

His brother didn’t get it. “We’re a team. We always have been. If we are something that we never knew about, it doesn’t mean we have to give up life as we know it and live here.” He waved a hand.

“You got that right. I’m not giving up our wonderful life, so let’s forget this hooey about being shifters. You heard Sella. Even if you could shift, once we leave Spirit, we won’t be able to anymore. That would be highly frustrating, to know we have a hidden talent but not be able to use it.”

“You’re always so damned logical.”

Gage smiled. “Let’s get a beer. On me.”

Will pushed aside his frustration and decided to lie low for the rest of the night. His brother needed time to come to grips with the possibility what Sella said was true. “Sure.”

After they showered and changed, they ate in the hotel restaurant because everyone they’d spoken to on the slopes said the High-Country Inn had the best food in town. It was quite late when they finished.

Gage stood. “I’m hitting the hay.” Will remained seated in the booth. “You coming?”

“I’ll be up in a bit. You go.”

Gage shrugged and left. Once his brother was out of sight, he decided he wanted to visit Sella and see if perhaps he could try this shifter thing again. What did he have to lose?

Instead of taking the elevator, he walked up the stairwell. He remembered she said she was in room 201. As he passed room 229 the hair on the back of his neck bristled. He stopped. That was just plain creepy.

Ignoring the temporary goose bumps, he went to her room and knocked.

Sella opened the door wearing nothing but a skirt. No top. No bra.
What the hell?

“Are you crazy, answering the door like that?” He scooted in, closed the door, and turned his back.

She inhaled. “I forget.”

“Forget what? To get dressed before answering the door?”
Oh, shit
. “Or were you expecting someone else?” The image of her perfect breasts burned an image in his mind. His freaking cock got hard from that quick glimpse.

“No. I’m sorry.” The drawer opened and closed. “Okay, you can turn around now.”

He rotated slowly and exhaled when he saw she had on a T-shirt, but given her nipples showed, she hadn’t bothered with a bra. She’d said Anterra was quite warm. “Do women where you live go topless?”

“Most of the time.”

He’d never survive if he lived there, though he supposed one would get used to it. Changing the subject was a must. “Can we talk?”

“Sure.” She plopped down on the bed and patted the spread.

He dragged over the desk chair, not wanting his lust to block his thoughts. “You might want to consider being a little more cautious around human men.”

“I don’t understand.”

Sadly, he was convinced she was telling the truth. “Not all men are honorable.” Her mouth slightly parted as if she were trying to figure out what that meant. “You shouldn’t just invite anyone into your room and suggest he sit on the bed. That would make him think you want to, you know.” He ran his gaze to her pussy then back to her face.

Her gaze traveled right then left before her eyes widened at what he was saying. “Oh. I get it, but I know you and trust you. You are a good person, Will Anderson. There is something you should know about me, or rather the women of Anterra.”

He wasn’t sure how much more he could handle in a twenty-four-hour period. “Don’t tell me you disappear after midnight? Or change into a pumpkin?” Adding humor was the only way to handle the delicate situation.

She hesitated. “No. I’m psychic. At least I am when I’m in Anterra. The air there—”

“—Is full of psychic energy. So what are you telling me? That you can tell my fortune?” She laughed, and the sound resonated deep in his gut.

“No, but I can see into your soul. I can tell if you are good or evil.”

He grinned. “Do I pass the test?”

“Yes, so will you sit next to me now?”

She didn’t have to ask twice. There was something so unique about Sella. He stood and moved next to her. “What’s your last name, Sella of Anterra?”

“I don’t have one. I’m just Sella, daughter of Jacor and Elena.”

He smiled and inhaled, loving her earthy scent that had a hint of floral to it. “That works for me. Tell me, Sella, daughter of Jacor and Elena, have you ever been with a man?” He’d never asked another woman that question, but for some reason, he didn’t want to proceed if she was a virgin.

She dragged a finger down his chest. “I’m thirty years old. While I haven’t had sex, as you would say, with many men, I am no stranger to being intimate.” She leaned closer. “Has a woman ever tied you up and licked you until you came?”

His breath lodged in his throat. Never would he have expected such an innocent to speak those words. “No, sugar, but I’m always up for the experience.”

She sucked in her bottom lip. “Really?”

The excitement in her voice got him rock hard. At six foot five, he doubted any little restraint she had could keep him tied, but he sure as hell would like to see her try. “Really.”

She jumped off the bed and rooted through her drawers. “Damn.”

She pulled out a long skirt, and before he could stop her, tore it up the middle.

“Whoa, sugar. What are you doing?”

She blinked. “I need some ties.”

Far be it from him to stop her. “Go ahead.” She’d already ruined the skirt.

In a matter of a minute’s time, she had four long strips. The bed’s headboard was bolted to the wall, so he wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish her goal.

“Stand up.”

He obliged, and she immediately threaded her warm hands under his shirt and lifted it up and over his head. He had to duck in order for her to pull it off. When he stood back up, her mouth was slightly open. “Something wrong?”

“You’re magnificent.”

That was high praise indeed coming from her if all the men in Anterra were shifters. He imagined they’d all be finely honed, if her two friends were indicative of the race. “I aim to please.”

Oh, shit
. That was one more piece to add to the theory that he was a shifter, since the two Anterran men he’d seen had been huge.

She rubbed her hands up and down his chest, and his breath hitched. “I think you need to continue to take off my clothes, or you might miss your chance to tie me down.” He doubted she understood what he meant, but right now he needed to be naked. Then he’d see about getting her that way, too.

“Oh.”

Her fingers fumbled with the button on his jeans. He was tempted to undo them himself and step out of them, but she seemed desirous to undress him herself. “Let me take off my boots. It’ll go easier.”

“Okay.” He toed off his shoes.

She acted like the buttons were foreign to her. “Don’t your men wear jeans?”

“No. Only loincloths.”

If Gage were here, he’d probably say she was pulling his leg, but her comment came out too smoothly to be a lie. His life depended on being able to know who was telling the truth and who wasn’t. He didn’t need any psychic powers to know she was being honest, or should he say, Sella believed what she was saying was the truth.

In frustration, she pulled open the tab, and all of the buttons came undone. She squealed in delight. “I like it.”

“Now pull down the jeans and see what treasure I have for you.”

She attempted to do as he asked, but he had to help her get them off when the jeans reached his ankles. Once he bent over, he removed his socks. All that was left was his briefs.

When she licked her lips and kept her gaze on his cock, it was all he could do not to take off her clothes and make sweet love to her. “One more piece of clothing to go.” His voice came out even and with more control than he thought possible.

She slipped the briefs down and let out a gasp. “By the gods that be, that is one large cock, and trust me, the lion shifters are large, but not that large.”

A grin spread across his face. He’d been told by every woman he’d been with that he was larger than the average man. Worry lines marred her brow. “It’ll fit. I promise.”

She got on her knees and helped him out of the confining piece of clothing. Sella looked up. “Would you sit down?” She glanced to the chair.

He moved the chair away from the bed and dropped onto the seat. After she picked up the cloth strips she moved behind him. To help her out, he crossed his wrists behind his back. “This good?”

“Yes.”

She lifted his hands and wrapped the material in a figure eight around his wrists. She gently tugged, and he almost commented that he could get out of the restraints in under ten seconds, but she seemed to enjoy tying him up. He had to admit that his balls hardened at her mere touch.

When she moved in front and knelt again, his cock throbbed. She tied each leg to the chair with the same flimsy tie. Her damned lips were inches from his cock, and he had the urge to move forward in the seat, but this was her show and he’d let her set the pace.

If he leaned back and the chair legs lifted, he bet he could slip the material below the leg and walk away, but this wasn’t about restraining him. It was about sexual tension, and she was doing a fine job of making him want her.

Once she stood, her gaze ran his length. “I like it.”

“What are you going to do next, sugar?”

She drew in her bottom lip and stepped back. Crossing her arms in front of her, she grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. Since she hadn’t put on a bra, her round, full breasts stared him in the face. The vein that ran down the center of his cock throbbed something fierce.

“Holy hell. You are gorgeous.” He loved a tall, fit woman who was perfectly proportioned. Sella was that woman.

“Really?” She sounded as if no one had ever said that to her.

“Really.” His mouth watered. “You can keep going.” He nodded to her skirt.

Her grin tightened his balls, and pre-cum oozed out of the tip of his cock. Forgetting he was tied, he tried to reach out for her. “Damn.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I wanted to touch you but forgot about the ties.”

“Touching comes later. Right now I get to touch you.” Her pert little chin notched up an inch. Damn, but she was hot.

She turned her back and slipped her loose skirt down over her ass. Dear God, but the woman was trying to kill him. She wasn’t wearing underwear, either. She bent over, exposing the most perfect ass in the world. His mouth watered, and he imagined what it would be like to sink his cock between those round orbs.