The Wallflower

Chapter Three

Emma was still reeling from whatever the hell it was Max had done to her with his bite when he gently helped her into the Durango. Her hands were shaking so badly she couldn’t even put her seat belt on without help.

She’d never come so hard in all her life. And he hadn’t even gotten her naked. She desperately tried to ignore the little voice that asked, if it was that good upright and clothed, how would it feel with him naked and inside me? She shivered.

“Are you okay?”

Emma tried to ignore the way her cheeks were heating, instead focusing on the purring amusement she could hear in his voice. “I’m fine,” she squeaked. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “I, um…” Her voice trailed off as Max took her hand in his, placing it on his hard thigh. She had to clear her throat again, shaking her head violently to see if she could get her brain cells to start working again. “Ah, Saturday…when will you be picking up the costumes?”

Max smiled lazily. “I’ll head to the costume shop tomorrow and get them, don’t worry about it.”

“When will you drop them off?”

Max was silent for a moment, obviously thinking. “Would Becky wear a costume from a secret admirer, or would it be better coming from you?”

Emma bit her lip, her attention once again focused on Becky’s problem rather than the tall blond problem at her side. “I’m not sure. If I told her I’d gotten the costume, she might feel more comfortable about wearing it.”

Max smiled. “We’ll do that, then.” His shoulders went back and his head tilted as he looked down at her briefly, the determination in his eyes completely wiping out the earlier humor. They seemed to gleam gold under a passing street lamp before he turned back to the road. “Now you’re going to explain to me why you carry mace in your pocket.” That odd note of command was back in his voice as he drove away from Noah’s, demanding a reply.

Emma shrugged and ignored the urge to put her head down. “No reason, I just think a woman alone should carry protection and I don’t like the thought of guns.”

“Don’t lie to me, Emma.”

Emma’s chin tilted up. “I’m not lying.” She sniffed. “I don’t like guns.”

“Emma,” he growled.

“Oh, pooh, you don’t scare me, so stop growling,” she yawned. She turned to look at him. “Anyway, should Becky carry her own rapier or would it be better to have her carry a toy?”

Max’s jaw was moving, like he was grinding his teeth. “I can find out. Would you rather tell me, or let me go looking?”

“Wow,” Emma breathed. “I’ve heard of that, but never actually seen it.”

He looked at her quizzically out of the corner of his eye. “Seen what?”

“You actually talked through clenched teeth. I didn’t think anyone really did that, you know?”

He pulled over and put the car out of gear. “Emma, why don’t you want to tell me what happened?”

“Oh, gee, maybe because it’s none of your business?”

His utter stillness surprised her; she wasn’t even certain he breathed for a moment. When he turned his head with exaggerated slowness, she realized she’d finally succeeded in pissing him off. “Everything about you is my business, Emma.”

She was shocked at his dangerous tone of voice. “Max?”

“You’re mine, Emma, and I protect what’s mine.”

Her jaw dropped in disbelief. “What ? ”

He put the car back in gear, taking off with a squeal of tires. “You heard me.”

“Uh, excuse me, but one kidnapping with food does not make Emma your property!”

“You bear my mark.”

She blinked, totally confused. The feral light in his eyes hadn’t lessened. The Durango was roaring as Mad Max drove like a bat out of hell for the outskirts of town. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I bit you.”

“And? You think you’re the first guy to give me a hickey? Shit! ” Emma made a grab for the door as Max took a turn at high speed.

“I don’t think I need to hear about you and other men right now, Emma.”

“Okay, okay! Could you slow down, please?”

Max took looked away from the road long enough to see her glaring at him. With a rough sigh he slowed down. “Look, I know you’re confused.”

“No, I think you’re the one who’s confused. Have you forgotten to take your medication today? Is that it? You turn into psycho-boy while in college?”

Max ran an impatient hand through his hair. “This isn’t the way I wanted to do this,” he muttered gruffly.

“Look, I promise I’m not jealous that the voices only speak to you, okay?”

Max pulled off the main road and onto a side road, shaking his head. “Emma, we need to talk.”

The tone of his voice made her sit back. He sounded…odd, like he knew whatever he had to tell her was something she wouldn’t want to hear. “We talked. We talked all through dinner. Why are we out in the middle of nowhere to talk, by the way?”

He sighed. “Because there are certain things you may want to see that I can’t show you in the middle of town.”

“Uh-huh. I think your thing can go without being seen tonight.”

The Durango jerked to a stop. There was a stunned silence for a moment. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“I can’t believe you can’t believe it.” Emma folded her arms under her breasts and scowled. “What’s the matter, Max, never been turned down before?”

“Why are you being such a pain in the ass?” Max turned to her, frustration written all over his face. “I offer to help you, buy you dinner, kiss you senseless and bring you to orgasm, oh, no, don’t bother lying about that either,” he yelled as she opened her mouth, “and all you do is give me grief!”

“You felt me up without permission, kidnapped me, practically attacked me on the street, bit me , then act like a crazy man, drive like a bat out of hell out of town, and you want to know why I’m giving you grief? You’re lucky I haven’t broken out the mace, pal!”

“All I want to know is who hurt you!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.

“It happened two years ago, Max! What are you gonna do, hunt the guy down in jail and beat him up?”

“Ah-hah!” Max’s finger waved in her face. “Someone did hurt you!”

“Argh!” Emma’s hands flew into the air in frustration. “All right! I was mugged, okay? It was a college student, he’s in jail, I had a broken wrist but he got a broken nose, end of story!”

Emma glared at him, her arms crossed over her chest. If he made one wrong move, hell, one wrong sound , she would mace him!

He grinned as the temper visibly drained out of him. “Did you give him as much grief as you’ve given me?”

“More.”

“God, you are so beautiful when you’re pissed.” He grabbed the back of her head and gave her a quick, hard kiss. “Okay, warrior princess, now that you’ve told me what I wanted to know I’ll tell you what you want to know. Okay?”

Emma took a deep breath and debated whether or not to kiss him back or clobber him. “It better be good.”

Max leaned in until her lips were once more beneath his. “And then I’m going to take you home and

fuck you raw.” As her eyes widened, he added, “And, baby, that will be better than good.”

She was completely speechless as he got out of the SUV in a slow glide that had her thinking of silk sheets and heated skin. She gulped as he prowled around the hood of the Durango, moving like sex in jeans. His heated gaze never left her face.

“Oh, boy,” she whispered as he opened her car door. He smiled when he saw her seat belt was still on.

He reached in slowly to unhook her seat belt, brushing his arm deliberately against her breasts. Her nipples hardened, rasping against his sleeve as he removed his arm just as slowly. His smile, sexy and satisfied, showed he’d felt it.

Suddenly, she had to know. “Max?”

“Hmm?”

She ignored the hand he held out to help her down. “Why me?” He looked confused. “I mean, you just came home three months ago and can still have any woman in Halle. Why are you trying to seduce me ?”

“The real question in my mind is why I didn’t try it sooner.”

Emma stared into his eyes, reading regrets past and a determination that almost alarmed her. When he cocked his brow questioningly, she took his hand and let him help her out of the Durango. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Okay, what’s the big deal?”

Max’s lips twitched.

Emma crossed her arms and tapped her foot. Her chin lifted as she waited for an answer.

Max reached out and gently stroked the bite mark on her neck. “Do you remember how you felt when I bit you there?”

Remember? My legs still feel like rubber. She nodded, doing her best not to let any of that show in her face while secretly locking her knees. She must not have succeeded because Max’s smile heated. “That was me marking you as mine.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Didn’t we have this discussion, Captain Caveman? A hickey does not make me yours.”

“But in this case, it does.” When Emma shook her head, he nodded. “There’s a special enzyme that’s only released when I bite someone. I released it into you, Emma. You’re my mate.”

“Doesn’t it take three bites to turn me, Dracula?” She didn’t even bother trying to keep the disbelief out of either her face or her voice.

“If I was a vampire, yes, it would.” Max grinned, his eyes glinting oddly in the moonlight.

“Oh. So I’m going to start baying at the moon, then.” She nodded sagely.

“No, baby, you’re going to purr,” he purred, licking his mark with a rough, raspy tongue.

Emma shivered. “You know, this has to be the oddest way a man’s tried to get in my pants in ages.”

He snarled warningly, the sound oddly cat-like and strangely familiar. “Didn’t we say we wouldn’t discuss you and other men?”

“Max, you’re not making any sense. Now, let me call Simon and we can discuss getting your Thorazine prescription renewed…”

Max strangled a laugh, lifting his head from her neck. “Look at my eyes, Emma.”

She looked. Then she blinked. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out.

His eyes had turned to pure molten gold, shining in the moonlight with an eerie luminescence that one only saw in the eyes of…cats.

“Contact lenses?” she asked weakly.

He shook his head and blinked, his eyes that quickly turning back to sunshine blue.

“You’re a, what? Werecat?”

“Puma, actually.”

“Puma,” she repeated weakly, dropping back to lean against the Durango’s door. “And you bit me, so now I’m going to roar at the full moon?”

He sighed. “Actually, Puma’s can’t roar, we’re missing the necessary parts. Specialized larynx and hyoid apparatus, to be precise. And we can change at will, we aren’t ruled by the moon.”

“Oh.” Emma’s head was reeling. “Can you show me?”

Max frowned. “Show you?”

“Yeah.” Emma straightened up, half terrified and half excited at the prospect of seeing him change. She waved her hand at him commandingly. “Change. Become a cat.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, now! What, you need to wait for the full moon? I thought you said you could change at will?”

“Emma—”

“I mean, why tell me this at all if you weren’t willing to, I dunno, prove it or something?”

“Emma—”

He was starting to sound all snarly again. “So c’mon, Lion-O, hop to it.” She clapped, loud and sharp.

“Chop-chop!”

“Emma!”

“What?”

“Have you ever seen a cougar in Levi’s?”

“No.”

“Neither have I.” He looked like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh or yowl.

“You mean you’d have to…” Emma eyed his jeans speculatively.

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“And if my ass is naked, baby, you’d better believe yours will be too.”

Emma put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Isn’t this why you brought me all the way out here, to show me your Incredible Cougar Act?”

“Puma.”

“Whatever.”

“No.”

“Then why?”

“I figured if you screamed no one would hear you.”

Emma blinked. “Gee, Max, you’re all heart.” He had the grace to blush. “So, because you bit me, and released your enzyme thingy in me, I’m going to change into a puma?”

Max nodded.

“Does it hurt?”

Max shook his head. His eyes had glued themselves to her neck, the hunger in them getting stronger by the second.

“When?”

“When what?” he asked absently, his hand drifting down to her arm before moving to stroke the bite mark.

“When will I change, Max?”

“I changed within the first forty-eight hours after I got bit.”

Emma gasped in sympathetic horror. “Is that why you left and never came back, Max? Because you got bit?”

“No, I was bit because I was next in line to be Alpha.”

Emma shook her head. “Okay, now I’m totally confused. Maybe I’ve got food poisoning from my seafood alfredo and I’m actually in the hospital having hallucinations and heaving into a bucket,” she muttered.

Max laughed as he focused once again on her face. “Want me to prove you’re wide awake?” One hand snaked out, gently cupping her breast. His thumb raked across her nipple, shooting sparks straight down to her clit.

“Oh boy,” Emma whispered. “Okay, I’m awake.” She pulled reluctantly away from his caressing hand, determined to focus on the whole Emma-as-a-cat thing. With growing confusion, she rubbed at her forehead. “Can you please explain before my brain explodes?”

“Jonathon Friedelinde was Alpha before me. His daughter didn’t show Alpha tendencies, so a competition was held to determine who was strong enough to be the next Alpha. Simon and I overheard Marie and some of her friends whispering about the competition and we both entered, not knowing what the hell we were getting into, or what the prize was. Jonathon forgot to make the contest Puma only, which I pointed out to him with great, annoying frequency until he relented and let us in.” Max shrugged.

“I came in first, Simon came in second. What really bothered some people was the fact that Simon and I were both still human when we won, against some who’d been Pumas since childhood.”

“So you knew about the Pumas even before you entered the contest?”

“I was friends with Marie for years, saw her change once.”

Emma stared at him in growing horror, thinking of all the ways a Puma could rip into a man. “You could have been killed!”

Max seemed completely unconcerned. “If it had been a duel to the death, yeah, we both would have died. Instead it was a test of endurance, intelligence and cunning, and probably the most fun either of us has ever had. And sometimes I think the only reason we won was because no one was allowed to shift.”

“What was the test, paintball? Capture the flag?”

Max grinned. “Something like that, but a lot more complicated.” Max reached out and wrapped his hand around the nape of her neck, seemingly unable to go for any length of time without touching her somehow. The gesture was surprisingly comforting. “Jonathon bit us both that night, to our surprise. I was twenty, Simon nineteen.”

She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. “And confused as all hell, I’ll bet.”

He leaned into her caress, his eyes closing in pleasure. “We got used to it, and as soon as Jonathon stepped down I came home and named Simon my Beta.”

“Beta?”

“Mm-hmm, my second-in-command.”

“You said I’m your mate,” Emma whispered as Max pulled her into his arms.

“My Curana.”

“Your who-wadda?”

She could feel Max’s laughter rumbling through his chest. “My Curana. Mate to the Alpha. It’s supposedly a name derived from the Portuguese word for cougar.”

“Oh.”

Emma allowed Max to pull her head gently to his chest. She snuggled into his warmth, inhaling his unique scent, oddly comforted by his presence. “So,” he rumbled, “we’ve done the dinner and fight.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Come home with me, little Curana. I want to make love to you. I want to be inside you the next time you come.”

Emma shivered as she heard the low, rumbling purr emanating from him. “Max?”

“Hmm?” His hand started to stroke up and down her back, gently nudging her towards the SUV.

“Will I have to use a litter box?”

“Emma!”