Golden Eyes

CHAPTER 5

Duncan paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, his mind ablaze with the day’s drama. A cheetah. She was a fucking cheetah. As mind blowing events went, this one topped the list.

Apart from the fact that he had a beautiful, naked cheetah-woman camped out in his bed, he also had to deal with the fact that poachers were turning out animals to hunt in his mountains.

And to think he’d lamented the fact that nothing exciting ever happened in Elk Ridge.

His first priority… Hell, what was his first priority? He had an injured cheep …woman. What was he supposed to do with her? And he had poachers to catch and make damn sure their days of importing exotic animals were over.

He spun around, took two steps toward the bedroom then stopped and walked back to the fireplace again. The bedroom was out. She was in his bed. Naked. There was only so much temptation a red-blooded man could take, and a voluptuous golden-eyed goddess laid out like a Christmas present might well be construed a temptation.

He flexed his fingers, curling them until the skin stretched and whitened across his knuckles.

A sound from the bedroom had him yanking his head around.

He strode out of the living room and rounded the corner into his room. He caught the door frame with his hand as he came to a halt.

His breath stuck in his throat, swelled and rebounded into his chest.

The fur he had covered Aliyah with was bunched around her feet. She lay on her hip, but her upper body was twisted so that her back was pressed to the bed. Her left arm was thrown wide to the side, and her right hand was curled into a fist at her shoulder.

She was…quite beautiful, even in her state of distress. Apart from the inflamed-looking wound on her leg, her skin was unmarred by a single blemish. Slender legs led up to rounded hips, a tiny waist, and two spectacularly formed breasts.

Jesus, they were perfect. She was perfect.

Gently rounded nipples, a soft peach color, so soft looking that he caught himself swallowing as he imagined tasting them.

He closed his eyes. He couldn’t go there. He was turning to leave when she moaned again. As he looked back over at her, he could see a sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead. Her head twisted side to side, and then her eyes blinked open.

They glittered gold, and the pupils elongated and shrank to a vertical sliver. Her muscles twitched and jumped, and he realized she was fighting against her instinct to shift.

Unsure of whether he should stay or whether he should get the hell out of the bedroom and lock the door had him standing there not knowing whether to shit or go blind.

Her distress decided things for him.

He hurried to the bed and knelt over her. “Aliyah,” he whispered urgently. “Aliyah, wake up, honey.” He reached down to touch her damp face. Tenderly, he pushed a tendril of golden hair behind her ear, and she nuzzled her cheek into his palm.

Her eyelids fluttered, and he breathed in relief when he saw her eyes were back to normal.

“Duncan?”

“I’m here,” he said. Then he looked down and realized his hand still rested against her cheek. He started to pull it away, but she caught his fingers in his hand.

“No, don’t go,” she said. “Please.”

To his utter astonishment, she reached over and wrapped her arms around his waist then proceeded to snuggle into his body as tightly as she could go. Oh hell.

He relaxed on the bed to alleviate the awkwardness of the position, which sent her seeking further into his arms.

“It’s been so long,” she whispered.

“Since what?” he asked as he smoothed her hair with his hand.

“Since I felt another’s touch on my skin.” She rubbed her cheek over his chest and then impatiently shoved at his shirt, raising it up so she could press her face to his bare skin.

She ran her hands up his ribcage and over his chest as if she couldn’t get enough. Her warm lips glanced over the hollow, and he groaned as his cock, which had jumped to attention the moment she touched him, swelled painfully in his jeans.

“Aliyah. Aliyah,” he said louder when she ignored him. “Honey, you have to stop.” He tried to pry her away, but he didn’t want to hurt her. He grasped her wrists and pulled just as her lips met the column of his neck. “God.” It came out more as a groan than an actual word.

“Touch me.”

“Aliyah …we can’t…don’t do that…ah damn it.”

Her lips whispered close to his ear, and she nibbled delicately at the lobe.

“Touch me,” she whispered again. “Please.” She captured her hands in his and raised them to her breasts.

He might have resisted even that, though the weight of the soft mounds resting against his palms made his fingers itch to rub over her nipples, but when she reached down and slid her hand between his legs to cup the discernible bulge there, he was lost.

“Slow down, sweetheart,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you. We have to take it easy. Your wound isn’t healed.”

He groaned even as he said it. Surely this qualified him for sainthood. He had his arms full of a curvaceous hellcat intent of rubbing herself over every inch of his body and he was saying shit like let’s slow down.

He might as well cut off his dick and throw it out the window.

With a delicious sounding purr, she arched her body and slid along his chest until her breasts bumped him right in the mouth. Unable to resist such a sweet offering, he nipped at the swell then lapped at the nipple with his tongue.

She threaded her fingers into the hair at his nape and pulled him closer until he sucked the tender bud into his mouth.

“Yes,” she whimpered.

No longer able to fool himself into thinking they’d be taking anything slow, he wrapped his arms around her and lowered her to the bed. He was tugging at his jeans while she yanked at his shirt. And then he had an awful thought.

Oh Jesus, let him have something. He shot off the bed and hurried into the bathroom to yank open the drawer. Hallelujah. One half-empty box of condoms. He hoped like hell the damn things didn’t expire because it had been awhile since he’d used them.

When he returned, Aliyah was spread out all over his bed, her mouth parted, hair splayed out on his pillow, and those delectable nipples were puckered and just waiting for his mouth.

Her gaze wandered down his body, and he felt himself harden further when her eyes glittered in appreciation. He wasn’t a vain son of a bitch, but when a beautiful woman looked at you and liked what they saw, it would definitely add two inches to your dick.

He tossed the condoms onto the nightstand and then crawled onto the bed beside her. The wound on her thigh was still red and angry, so he bent down and kissed the area just above it.

Her hand tangled in his hair and coaxed him away to the rest of her body. He was hard and impatient, and he was positively itching to get between her legs. But he figured the quickest way to fall out of grace with a woman who practically threw herself at you was to make it all end in three minutes flat.

As he lowered his body carefully to hers, she moaned in pleasure.

“You feel so good,” she murmured as her hands ran over his back.” Hard, strong. My people would call you a warrior.”

“I’m hard all right, sweetheart, and it has nothing to do with being a warrior.”

She giggled, and then he lost his breath when she reached between them and curled her hand around his cock.

“Honey, if you have any desire to make this last, if you want me to touch you as you so very prettily asked, you need to move your hand.”

With a sensual smile, she complied. “I do want you to touch me. Everywhere. With your hands. Your mouth. And then I want you to take me. Hard. Fast. I use to lie in the cage at night and dream of being human again. Of having a man’s hands on my skin. Touching me. Loving me. Of having him fill me again and again.”

Dear God, he wasn’t going to survive this.

“I guess I better be damn glad another man didn’t find you then,” he gritted out.

She pulled him down so that their mouths met. Hot, wet, and lusty, their tongues met, and he tasted her. Golden. Like she looked. Warm like sunshine.

“Not any other man.” She gasped between kisses. “Only a warrior. Like you.”

He wasn’t sure he really believed that any man wouldn’t have done in a pinch, but her words were a salve to his ego. No man liked to believe he could be substituted on a whim. Even if it were true.

Impatiently, she pulled his head down to her breasts. He smiled and lazily ran his tongue around one of the taut little buds. She shivered, and he glanced up at her face.

“You like that, sweetheart?”

She nodded.

He liked it too.

He toyed with the nipples, enjoying the velvety texture against his work-roughened skin. Soft, like her. The plump mound of her breast moved with each stroke.

No longer able to keep from tasting, he bent and sucked the nipple into his mouth. She arched into him with a gasp. He sucked and nibbled, alternating gentle sweeps of his tongue with a sharp nip of his teeth.

His little kitten enjoyed the pain.

When he released her breast, her nipple was red and erect, a direct contrast to the other that still lay untouched. It was a matter he’d quickly rectify.

As he captured the second nipple in his mouth, he slid his hand down her belly and into the soft curls between her legs. She opened to him immediately, and his fingers delved into her damp core.

“Duncan,” she murmured, and he felt a keen sense of satisfaction as his name spilled from her lips.

His fingers slid easily through her folds, gliding over her clit and to the opening below. One finger eased inside, and he damn near came as he imagined what it would feel like as it closed over his cock. Hot. Silky. Wet. The ultimate paradise.

She sucked at his finger, wrapping tightly around the tip. Sweat broke out over his body. God, she was small. He couldn’t wait to dive in.

But first he wanted to give her what she wanted.

Willing himself to maintain control, he eased down the bed and began at her feet. He rubbed the soles while he took each tiny toe into his mouth, sucking lightly in turn. She twitched every time he hit a sensitive spot but he held firm, forcing her to let him have his way.

When he’d finished with her feet, he kissed a line up the inside of each leg. He took special care around her injury and pressed his lips in a circular pattern around it.

He bypassed her pussy, which incited a protest from her. He just grinned and ran his tongue around the shallow indention of her navel.

“I’m saving the best for last,” he murmured.

He played with her breasts, nibbling and licking, and enjoying every sound of pleasure that she made. He loved the contrast between the tightness of her nipples and the lush softness of her breasts. Then he imagined sleeping with his head pillowed on them. Wasn’t that every guy’s fantasy?

He followed the curve of her shoulder to the column of her neck and to the tender skin below her ear. For a moment, he toyed with the lobe and grinned when he felt little chill bumps race across her skin.

When he finally made it back to her lips, she kissed him ravenously, her arms circling his neck and locking him into place. She fed from him; there was no other way to put it.

He returned her kisses, enjoying her passion and her excitement. He couldn’t remember ever making love to a woman who was so responsive, so eager for everything he could give her. It was damn addicting.

With reluctance, he pulled away from the sweetness of her lips and slowly moved down her body again. She trembled, and he smiled because he knew she knew what he would do next.

He lay there at her side, stroking the golden curls between her legs with gentle fingers. Light and teasing, he petted, gradually growing bolder, going deeper.

The plump flesh there enticed him, made him want to explore further. He wanted to taste her, feed from her. With two fingers, he parted the layers and sent a third finger seeking within.

Whisper soft, he touched, stroked, and touched again, enjoying how her clit grew erect and taut, how she shook every time he rubbed her just right.

With his free hand, he reached down and circled his cock with his fingers. As he continued to stroke her, he stroked himself, enjoying the pleasure and imagining how it would feel when her pussy was doing the stroking.

He glanced up at her to see her watching him through half-lidded, passion-glazed eyes.

“Do you see what you do to me?” he asked huskily.

She licked her lips, and he damn near came in his hand. He yanked his hand away, but his cock remained painfully erect, bobbing away from his body.

“I want to taste you,” she said.

He groaned. “Honey, there isn’t much I’d like better, but if you’re going to wrap that sweet mouth of yours around my dick, I want to be in a state where I can enjoy it. If you go anywhere near me with that tongue, I’ll be done for.”

She pouted, sticking that luscious bottom lip out. Damn if he didn’t want to go nibble on it again. But there were other parts of her body he wanted to feast on first.

Ignoring the ache between his legs and the fact that he was so damn hard he feared splitting his cock at the seams, he rotated over her hips so that his face was just inches above the wispy blond curls at the apex of her thighs.

“Spread those legs for me, beautiful. Careful, and don’t hurt your wound.”

Slowly she shifted, spreading her uninjured leg so that her glistening pink flesh was bared to his view. He lowered his head and pressed his tongue to her opening and licked upward in one motion, sliding over her clit, then pausing there.

She cried out and fisted her hands in his hair. He chuckled between her legs. “Let up on the hair, sweetheart. You’re going to yank me bald.”

She eased her grip, and he ran his tongue in little circles around the straining little nub of flesh. It had always amazed him how much of a woman’s passion was wrapped up in one tiny little bundle of nerves.

You could bring a woman to orgasm in thirty seconds flat with just the right amount of stimulation.

Or you could take it nice and slow, just like he planned to, and build and back off, build and back off until she was begging. There wasn’t much to be said about getting off in thirty seconds anyway.

He sucked gently at her clit until she whimpered and squirmed beneath him. Then he wandered down to the tight little opening and rimmed it with his tongue. He spread her wider with his fingers and slid his tongue inside, tasting her warm honey.

“Duncan! Oh please,” she gasped.

He smiled.

He eased one finger inside her pussy while his tongue lapped upward again. Like velvet, her pussy clung to his finger, cradled it as he worked deeper. Then he found the area he was seeking, slightly rougher and different in texture than the slick walls of her vagina.

He crooked his finger upward, and she cried out, her head coming up.

“Duncan!”

He sucked at her quivering button and worked his finger in a slow back and forth motion until she writhed beneath him. He knew she was close to coming when every single part of her pussy convulsed and tightened around his finger.

Only the knowledge that he wanted her to come with him, wanted her exploding around his cock, had him pulling away.

She whimpered her disappointment, but he grinned and worked his way back up her body with tender kisses.

When he got to her mouth, she fastened greedily on him then paused for a slight second as she tasted herself on his tongue. He deepened the kiss, the idea that they were sharing her essence between them sending spasms of desire coursing through his body.

“I want you.”

Those were beautiful words coming from deliciously swollen lips.

He glanced down their bodies and grimaced. There just wasn’t an easy way to do this. He sure as hell didn’t want her screaming in agony when he bumped her leg. He wanted her screaming for a completely different reason.

“What’s wrong?” she asked with a frown. “You don’t want me?”

He laughed. God, what else could he do? Not want her? He was going to fucking implode if he didn’t have her, and soon.

“I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off, sweetheart. That leg is going to hurt no matter how I go about it.”

She put a hand on his chest and pushed at him. With a frown, he let her move him away as she slowly worked her body until she was lying on her stomach.

With a deep breath, her fingers curled tightly around the sheets, she heaved her body upward until she was on her knees.

“Oh honey, no, don’t,” he said, not wanting to cause her any pain.

She turned to stare at him over her shoulder, her eyes glittering bright gold. “Take me.”

Those two words sent an edgy need crawling over his skin until it was tight and uncomfortable. She leaned forward, her ass stuck in the air, her legs parted so that her pussy was open to his gaze, his hands, his cock…

With the wound facing outward, and the need to spread her wide gone, it just might work. His cock was screaming at him to mount up, but he didn’t want to hurt her. So he eased behind her, grasping her hips in his hands. And then he remembered the condom.

“Give me just a second, honey.” He rolled off the bed and grabbed one of the condoms, ripping the package open with his teeth and fumbling with the wrapper. In another two seconds, he had the condom rolled on, and he repositioned himself behind her.

As he guided himself toward her opening, he briefly wondered if this would work. She was small. He wasn’t. While he worried he’d hurt her, he also looked forward to how she’d feel all wrapped around his cock like a vise.

His hands smoothed over her ass, kneading and fondling as he spread her wider. When the tip of his dick touched her wetness, he had to close his eyes and pray for control.

Inch by inch he moved forward. He clenched his teeth as he worked inside her. She moaned and convulsed around him. She tried to move back, wanting more of him, but he staved her off with his hands.

“I don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart,” he managed to rasp out.

Her head came up and she looked back at him, her bottom lip sucked between her teeth. “Fuck me, Duncan.”

Oh hell. Her words acted like a whip and spurred him to action. He surged forward, burying himself deep inside her. When he looked down, he saw he still had two inches to go. He’d get there. He just had to coax her into accepting more of him.

He pulled back and thrust again then looked down to make sure he wasn’t jarring her wound too badly. She didn’t seem to care, though. She moved back to meet his thrust and strained against him.

“I want you to take all of me,” he gritted out. “Can you do that, Aliyah? Can you take all of my cock?”

She shuddered at the erotic words and lowered her head so that his angle of penetration was better.

He withdrew and thrust again. This time harder. She took another inch.

He closed his eyes and held her there for a moment, simply enjoying the sensation of so much silky, wet flesh surrounding his dick. When she stirred impatiently underneath him, he began thrusting. At first lightly and then harder with each thrust.

With a soft cry, she opened more for him. He could feel her pussy gently give way and accept him, and the globes of her ass met his abdomen. God almighty, there wasn’t another feeling like this in the world.

His body took over. He began hammering forward, his mind wrapped in a cloud of euphoric pleasure. She tightened around him, her body shook, and he could hear her whimpers and the sweet little sighs escape her mouth.

He cursed the condom. He wanted to feel her skin on skin. He wanted to erupt inside her, wanted to see his seed trickle out of her pussy when he was done.

He felt her let go, heard her scream, and then felt a burst of wetness surround him as she orgasmed. It spurred his own. His balls tightened painfully. He swelled as his orgasm rose, raced up his cock. With one more hard lunge and a shout, he buried himself deep in her body and felt himself turn inside out.

He rested there on his knees, slumped against her ass as his cock jerked and spasmed with the last of his release. He hoped to hell he hadn’t reopened her wound or hurt her.

He glanced down and ran a gentle hand over the injury to make sure she wasn’t bleeding. Then he carefully eased out of her body.

Her legs trembling, she turned on her good side and collapsed onto the bed. He yanked the condom off and aimed it at a nearby trash can. Then he crawled up beside her and gathered her in his arms.

“That was…” She seemed to struggle over just the right words. He could understand her difficulty because damn if he could put words to what had just happened between them. “Duncan, that was so wonderful,” she whispered.

She nestled into him, her body limp and warm. She made contented little sounds against his neck, and he thought maybe he had truly died and gone to heaven. This…this was perfection.

“Rest now, honey,” he murmured against her ear.

He smoothed back her hair, stroking the strands with his fingers as she closed her eyes and melted against him. When he was certain she was asleep, he carefully reached behind him to turn off the lamp and then wrapped himself back around her.

This wasn’t exactly how he envisioned the night going, but he damn sure wasn’t going to complain. He still hadn’t figured out what the hell he was going to do with her, but he guessed there was plenty of time to figure that out tomorrow.