She stopped breathing when the hair on his head spread across his entire body. The gold locks burst into a full-on mane while spreading across his back. The brown hair that tumbled from under the gold covered his chest like a thick winter sweater. Then his limbs altered so he went on all fours.
The whole process took all of forty-five seconds, but it seemed like years. And with a shake of his body, Mace’s unnecessary clothes flew across the room.
With those gold eyes she’d recognize anywhere staring straight at her, he shook out his mane and roared.
Her dogs bolted from under the bed and out the bedroom door. Dez wasn’t sure she’d ever see them again.
She analyzed the situation quickly. Her .9mm probably wouldn’t do any good. Nope. Not with this one. She needed the shotgun.
Dez shot off the bed and made it to the closet in record time, but before she even had her hand on the doorknob he slammed her up against the hard wood. The body against her, though, wasn’t lion, but human. And all male if the erection pushing into her back was any indication.
“Breathe, Dez. Just breathe.”
Breathe? How was she supposed to breathe? She leaned her head against the door and wondered why she couldn’t pass out like any other normal woman. She shouldn’t be strong. She should be weak and frail. By the time she woke up, he’d have eaten her legs off and she could die from loss of blood. Anything had to be better than dealing with the reality of this situation.
“I don’t think you’re breathing.”
“Get off me, Mace. Now.” Amazing. She sounded completely calm and rational. She tried to push away from the door, but that big, hard body refused to budge one inch. His hands held her hands flat against the wood so she couldn’t go for her weapon. His naked flesh practically seared her exposed skin with its heat.
“You said you wanted me to prove it,” that low voice purred in her ear. “And that’s what I did, Dez.”
He was right, of course. The fuck. Although he didn’t have to sound so haughty about it. But who knew the world actually had people who could shift into something other than human? She happily went through life thinking people who believed in vampires, werewolves, and witches were nutcases. As a cop, she believed what she could see and it always had a plausible explanation.
Of course, a lot more things made sense now. All those weird “quirky” things that Mace always used to do so clearly spoke of…well…an animal. Smelling the back of her neck. The growling. The purring. That time he actually bared his fangs at a sophomore who tried to take his grilled cheese sandwich in the cafeteria.
Yet none of that made any of this easier. Especially not with her body being pinned by a guy who three minutes ago had shifted himself into the king of the jungle. A guy who scared her one-hundred-and-fifty pound Rottweiler dogs to death.
A guy kissing her neck.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?” He asked just before his tongue swirled around that spot where her neck and her spine met. Her knees almost buckled, but she stopped by reminding herself that the guy wasn’t human.
Her fingers dug into the wood. “Is this really the time for you to get horny?”
“Sorry, shifting does that to me. Shifting and you.”
No, no, no! He wasn’t going to get away with being charming now. “Mace—”
He cut her off. “I’ve wanted you since Mr. Shotsky’s biology class.”
Unbelievable. A naked freak has her slammed up against her own closet door so she can’t get to her gun, but some trite bullshit about ninth grade had her creaming like a porn star. Exactly what was wrong with her? And could she pass it on to any children she may have?
Mace’s hips pushed up against her, and she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. “Christ, Dez. I wanna fuck you so bad, my whole body hurts.”
Okay. She had two choices here. She could tell Mace what he wanted to hear. Get free and splatter pieces of him all over her nice wood bedroom furniture. As a human she could probably use her .9mm on him.
Or…she could be honest with the big idiot.
“Mace…” She took a deep breath. “If you let me go now, I’m going to blow your brains out.”
Mace didn’t move. He barely breathed. This was the moment. This. Right now. If Dez really wanted him dead, she would have lied her ass off to get away from him and…well…blown his brains out. Instead, she warned him. Warned him that if he let her go, she’d kill him.
Okay. The woman had completely confused him. And how he handled it from here would decide everything for them.
“That’s kind of a problem, baby. Me being partial to breathing and all.” He nuzzled her neck and her heart started beating faster, but he didn’t smell fear. He took that as a good sign and decided to barrel forward—slowly.
“Why don’t we do this…” He slid one arm down her body, feeling the soft skin under his fingers. “Let’s get rid of all this unnecessary paraphernalia. Make it easier for us to have a civilized discussion.” He grasped Dez’s holster with her .9mm in it, pulling it off her jeans and with practiced aim tossed it to her dresser across the room. It landed with a rather loud thunk, and Dez’s body jumped next to his. But he still didn’t smell fear. He smelled something else altogether.
Lust.
He lightly kissed the tip of her ear. “Any other weapons, Dez?”
Her forehead resting on the door, she muttered, “You don’t expect me to answer that honestly, do you?”
He leered. “I guess I’ll have to check then.”
“Guess so.”
Mace slowly dragged his hands down Dez’s arms. He used every ounce of his self-control to not rip her jeans off and start fucking her from behind. A sudden move like that could blow it all. Dez trusted him. Trusting him even though she knew he wasn’t human. Not completely. That meant more than he could ever say, and he wasn’t about to ruin it by being…ya know…a guy.
Dez closed her eyes as his hands slid down her body, across her breasts, lingering for a moment at her nipples, which caused her entire body to convulse. Damn sensitive nipples. Every time her ex had touched them, she practically ripped his throat out. That wasn’t the response she had with Mace, though. She wanted him more than she ever had before. And she’d wanted him a lot before. Yet knowing he was only partially human had changed everything for her. She dealt with humans every day. Every day she found herself disgusted and appalled by their bullshit. Trusting human-Mace seemed like a stupid idea to her. She didn’t trust, understand, or really even like humans. She knew what they could do. The damage they could cause.
Animals, though, were all about survival. Mating, hunting, feeding—simply keeping their species alive. They didn’t hurt each other out of spite. They didn’t humiliate others to make themselves feel better. When they hunt and kill it is only for food, and they never do anything morally reprehensible to the corpse afterward. Dez understood animals. She always had. Now she understood Mace, and that made all the difference in the world for her. He was the first man she could ever truly trust.
Although that particular thought made her want to pass out.
“You stopped breathing again, Dez.” She let out the breath she had been holding. “Good, baby. Keep doing that and you’ll be fine.”
His hands slid around her waist and he crouched low, bringing them down the outside of her legs. He found her secondary weapon in an ankle holster and a small blade strapped to the other ankle. He took those and tossed them on the dresser.