Samantha

I slept like a baby for the rest of the night. No hyenas chasing me in my dreams. No suffocating feeling of being trapped and powerless. Just a deep and peaceful sleep.

I woke up just once because I had to pee, and when I returned to bed, the sight of the black panther sprawled on my mattress did not scare me. I had a male in my bed for the first time in years, and I felt at ease.

Sleepy and content, I easily gave in to my tigress' call and laid my head on his broad back. The way pride members would do for comfort and protection.

Not only did Eric not mind being used as a pillow: he started purring in his sleep.

What a sweet man.

When the morning light woke me up, I found myself lying on my back with the blanket nowhere to be found. Instead my legs were kept toasty warm by Eric's body. My hand was buried in the soft fur of his head, which was resting... on my mound.

My winter onesie, which was among the few old clothes of mine I had not packed yesterday, was the only barrier between Eric's face and my girlie bits. Since all my undies were in the travel bag in my car, the fleece clothing was the only thing preventing his velvety fur from touching my bare skin down there.

Oh, that would have felt amazing...

No, no, no, what was I thinking? Had I forgotten my plan to send Eric away and slip away out back where Sebastian couldn't see me bolt? I had to do it while it was still early in the morning, before that obsessive tiger decided to show up at my door.

It didn't matter how good it felt to have Eric here in bed with me. How intrigued I had been by Dean's offer to frisk him. How interested I'd been in seeing what lay hidden under Sebastian's towel. That was my horny cat talking, and listening to her urges had led to more than one bad decision in my life.

So I had to stop thinking about getting Eric under my onesie and start thinking about getting him out of here.

He chose that moment to nuzzle my crotch.

I bit my lip. He was asleep still, it wasn't like he was taking advantage. If anyone was using the situation, that was me. I who had told him to keep his paws to himself, had caressed him in my sleep.

Hell, I was caressing his powerful back at this very moment!

I pulled my hand away, as if burned. But it was too late.

Eric opened his eyes. A pair of emerald-green orbs focused on me, still heavy with sleep.

I smiled tentatively.

He lifted his head... and realized where it had been resting. I saw how his gaze sharpened, heard him inhale deeply.

Great. Just great. Now he surely knew that I not only didn't mind where he'd ended up in his sleep, but I was also tempted to let him stay there.

His reaction at smelling my arousal? He prowled up my body, taking my scent in along the way, his eyes never leaving mine in wait for a sign to stop.

I knew I should tell him to stop, but I found myself mesmerized by his green gaze. And his hot breath against my bare neck did funny things to my insides. When he licked me there, his raspy tongue moving slowly and sensually against my sensitive skin, I moaned and dug my fingers in his fur.

Instead of push him away, I pulled him closer. Eric kept licking at the crook of my neck, taking his time as if I were the last drop of cream in his bowl that he intended to enjoy to the fullest.

The damn onesie. It was preventing his wet kisses from progressing downward where I needed him to go. My breasts had pebbled, liquid heat had pooled in my core...

I gave up. Or rather, gave in.

"Please, Eric... Shift," I whispered breathily.

He didn't wait for me to ask twice. In less than a minute, the panther in my bed was replaced by a gorgeously naked Eric. His body, built like a swimmer's, was poised over mine, eyes remaining inhuman as the burning desire kept his panther just under the surface.

The evidence of said desire was pulsing against my belly.

I had to put a stop to this, now! I had to push him away, tell him to go–

I slid my fingers in his messy hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Mmm, he tasted as good as chocolate and as addictive as catnip. I might have purred.

"Tell me what you need, lovely," he whispered over my lips.

What? He was letting me lead?

But of course. He was an Omega: neither dominant nor submissive. A shifter with the gift to bring harmony wherever he went. Apparently, that applied to the bedroom as well.

He could give me what I needed without binding me to him in the process. Without giving me the mating mark the way a dominant shifter would be driven to. I could please him just like I craved, after everything sweet Eric had done for me, and then walk away.

"Explore me, Eric," I told him in between kisses. "Taste me... But no biting."

"I won't mark you," he assured me, his voice husky with want.

Then off he went on his exploration quest.

He alternated between pulling the zipper of my onesie down with his teeth and tasking every inch of exposed flesh. He was maddeningly patient but I still loved every second of his slow seduction.

No one had ever taken his time with me like this. Unwrapping me gradually instead of in one go to get to the present within. So when Eric eventually got to it, the present was slick and ready for him.

Off went my onesie and down went Eric on my sex. His hands held my thighs apart, leaving me all exposed to his lips and tongue. When he added fingers to the mix, I had to grab the headboard to prevent my claws from scratching his muscled back as I got swept away by the exquisite pleasure.

A few strokes of his skillful fingers, several laps at my throbbing nub and he undid me.

My claws dug in the wooden headboard and I cried out in ecstasy loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

As my breathing slowed down, I locked eyes with Eric over my mound. "Come here," I purred.

He gave my still quivering sex one long lick before kissing his way back up my body. His hot skin pressed against mine when he took my lips, making me sigh in delight. He felt so right against me, fit so well...

I wanted to see how he would fit somewhere else, too, but first I intended to taste him. I would make him see stars, just like he'd done to me.

I flipped him over, pinning him under me. I smiled at his surprised expression before moving down to do some exploring of my own.

I bit his pec, covered in a fine dusting of hair, and enjoyed the groan that elicited in Eric. I then followed his happy trail to where my cat was begging me to take a long lick. That, I would do. And more than once.

He groaned as I took him in my hand.

"Lovely, wait."

I looked up at him, surprised.

"I'm honored by your attention, but... I really need to... be inside you. Please?"

I returned to his lips, kissing him deeply.

He was so sweet and adorably shy as well. He'd barely found the courage to say the last bit. But he needn't have melted my heart with the 'please': what he desired, I would give him.

"How do you want to take me, Eric?" I heard myself ask, at the same time as I rubbed myself against him. I who was shy myself, found his shyness made be bolder.

He hissed at my tease and tilted his head back, eyes closed. He must be close to his limit, after the prolonged foreplay he'd gifted me with. "I... Can I have you in my lap? Your beautiful face a breath away from mine?"

My heart skipped a beat at the intimacy he was suggesting. I'd never tried this position before, for that same reason.

Yet, I did not hesitate before I said, "Just position me, Eric. And drive yourself where you belong."

He reared up and got a hold of my waist to lift me onto his shaft's swollen head.

I bit my lip as I sank lower, taking him in inch by inch. What he lacked in length he made up in width, stretching me nicely. Add to that how his fingers had unerringly found my sweet spot earlier, and I had no doubt he would make my body sing.

As aroused as Eric was, he didn't rush me. He seemed to enjoy the slow joining of our lower bodies as much as I did, cataloguing the changing sensations as I took more and more of him inside me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck to bring his upper body closer, the friction of my pebbled nipples against his chest making me even wetter.

Once I was fully impaled on Eric's cock, my gaze met his. Emerald-green eyes met my amber ones.

Electrifying.

"Move with me, lovely."

"Yes! Together."

Our lips crashed in a hungry kiss. Eric's fingers dug in my hips, preparing to move me up and down his thick cock–

The doorbell rang.

We both froze.

More ringing, insistent enough to wake the dead.

Followed by an unfamiliar male voice saying, "Ma'am, are you awake? I know you're home, Bas sent me. I'm with the local police. Rory Becket. He might have mentioned my name to you?... Ma'am?"

Sebastian had mentioned Rory, all right.

As the pride member who was going to come arrest Eric.