Tempting the Tiger (25 page)

“Shh,” Reno said as he crushed her to him. “It won’t happen again. Never, Amia. I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me.”

He held her for a long time, rocking her gently in his arms until he could feel her breathing slowing down, until the trembling began to stop. He thought she might be falling asleep. She’d certainly been through enough physically and emotionally to drain her. But with a sigh, she shifted in his arms until she sat up. Turning, she straddled his legs and sat on his thighs, facing him.

“I knew,” she said. “I think I’ve always known. I just didn’t want to know.”

“Know what?” Reno asked, not sure exactly what she was talking about.

“That the glow I was seeing was the animal inside someone,” Amia confessed. “I knew there was something different about me. It was why my father allowed me to keep to myself. I thought he just didn’t care one way or the other. Now I realize, he was just plotting and planning on how best to use me. When I told my mom, she always interfered when Marcus wanted to take me anywhere with him. He used to do that when I was really little. Mom told me I had to pretend not to see the glow. She was so worried. I could always tell that.”

“She wanted to protect you.”

“I think so. I think I might have…” She took a deep breath, and a lone tear trickled from her eye. “I think I might have been the reason she died.”

“What happened?” Reno asked. He stroked his hands up and down her arms, trying to soothe the tension he could feel in her.

“There was a man in the barn. They’d captured him and brought him in while I was in the yard. It was so sudden that my mom didn’t have time to get me back inside. Marcus took me over and asked me what I thought. I remember glancing toward my mom. Marcus got angry. He shook me, said he’d asked me a question.”

“You were eight?”

“And terrified. My mom came over to stop him, and he hit her so hard he knocked her to the ground. I whimpered. I remember that. He shoved me toward her in disgust, and they dragged the man into the barn.” Her eyes were haunted when she met Reno’s. “I told my mom later. That he glowed. I think she went to help him. I think she died because of it, because of what I told her.”

“Oh, baby,” he said. “You were eight. You’re not responsible for the crazy shit that went on around you. You told that room how you’d made your choice. Your mom made hers as well. No matter what happened to her. It was her choice. Not yours.”

She sighed and shifted closer, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his shoulder. “I know that,” she whispered. “I do.”

And still it hurt her. He understood that. His mate might try to show the world a tough woman, but on the inside, she was compassionate and caring. Every choice she’d made since the day she’d walked away from her father and the rest of the Blane family had been to help someone else. She put herself last, as if she had to make amends for things that happened outside her control.

“Promise me something,” he said.

She nodded her head against his shoulder, not even knowing what he was going to ask, but already willing to put it before anything she might need or desire. “Okay.”

“If anything ever happens here, if we’re attacked, I want you to hide. Don’t put yourself in danger.”

She pulled back her head, and he could see the denial in her eyes before she even shook her head. “I can’t do that, Reno. I can’t hide away while others are fighting.”

“I can’t fight if I think you’ll be putting yourself in harm’s way,” he grunted. “I’ll have to get to you and forsake anyone else.”

“You can’t do that,” she argued, and he put one finger against her lips to quiet her.

“I won’t have any choice. You’re my mate. I will go insane without you. I always told Tah I understood how he felt when he said he wouldn’t be worth much if anything happened to Abby. But I didn’t, not really. Not until you. Now I know what it would do to me if anything happened to you. I would die. I would cease to be anything but the animal inside me, and I would want only one thing.”

“What?” Her eyes were wide and round as if she knew what he was going to say. Probably she did. She was his mate.

“Blood. Vengeance.”

“Reno.” She cupped his face with her hands.

“Promise me,” he urged.

“I promise you that I will guard my life as much as I do anyone else’s. I promise I’ll fight as hard to save myself as I will to save everyone here. I won’t hide. It’s not who I am, who I want to be. I’m your mate. You can’t expect me to be less, to give less than you will.”

He could see it in her eyes. She was waiting to see how he’d respond. Would he accept her or be just be another person to let her down?

“I love you, Amia. I never want you to be less than who you are. I love you, all of you, every facet of you. You saved me. I know just how strong and capable you are. I might forget that every once in a while. You’re my mate. It will always be my instinct to want to protect you.”

Her lips twitched with a smile. “I’ll be happy to remind you just how strong and capable I am.”

He bet she would. He was looking forward to it. His cock was long and thick, and he wanted nothing more than to strip them both and show her just how much she meant to him.

“You saved me too,” she said softly. “You may have been the one bound to a wall. But I had tethers on me as well. They kept me coming back. I think maybe I wanted them to kill me.”

“Shh,” he said, his heart thundering at the thought of her dying.

She shook her head. “I had no reason to live. I had no friends. No one I could count on. And if I did make the mistake of making one, the Blanes stepped in and killed them. I can tell you and everyone else that I went back again and again to save people, and I did. But I know part of me was daring them to just kill me.” She met his gaze. “I wanted them to kill me, and they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t.”

“I’m glad they didn’t.”

“I am too. Now. I was locked up inside my head. I just didn’t realize it at the time. They had me bound in chains even when I wasn’t on that fucking wall.”

Reno trembled, not wanting to imagine her on the wall in the barn, her at their mercy. Not when he knew they had none.

“You freed me,” she whispered. “I can’t promise to hide, but I can promise to make sure nothing takes me from you, or you from me. For the first time in my life, I feel like I belong, like I can be myself. With you. I know you’ll accept me. I know you’ll fight for me.”

“I would—”

“Don’t say it,” she warned, putting her hand over his mouth. “Don’t say you’d die for me. Don’t you realize it would kill me to lose you?”

“I’m a fighter. It’s always been my gut reaction to put myself between those I love and danger. If anything, that will only be more prevalent with you. You’re my mate, my other half.”

“I don’t expect you to change. I love you, Reno. All of you. I just ask that you protect yourself just as fiercely. For me.”

He smiled and brushed his lips over hers. “I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect mate.” He slid his hands under the hem of her shirt and spread his hands over her belly. “Let me love you. Let me show you what you mean to me.”

She shook her head. “It’s my turn.” She slid back from him, brushing his hands away as she reached for his shirt and started lifting it. “Let me show you. Let me show you all the things I want to do to you. Let me love you.”

He lifted his arms as she tugged his shirt up and over his head. He loved the way her eyes ate him up, the feel of her hands in the hair on his chest.

“Love me then,” he told her, and a purr left his chest as she reached for his jeans.

Amia took her time undressing Reno. She’d never tire of seeing her mate naked, of touching him, tasting ever inch of him. And that’s just what she planned to do. She stood at the foot of the bed where she’d slid while pulling his jeans and boxer briefs off after removing his boots and socks.

“Lie down,” she ordered, and with a grin that made her pussy and nipples tingle, he complied.

She thought about taking her clothes off but decided against it. If she was naked, he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her, and they’d end up making love before she was through exploring him. And she wanted to explore him. She hoped by keeping her clothes on he’d realize just how much she wanted that.

“You have the sexiest feet,” she said as she ran her hands over them, following his arches and skimming over his toes.

Reno laughed. “Nobody has sexy feet.”

“You don’t think my feet are sexy?” she countered.

His eyes were molten with lust when he leaned up and met her gaze. “There’s nothing about you that’s not sexy.”

“That goes for you too,” she said and leaned closer to trace her tongue up the center of his foot.

He jerked at her touch, and she heard him mutter, “Fuck me.”

“Oh, I plan to,” she assured him. “Later. Much later.”

He groaned as she explored his feet and moved slowly up his legs. She loved the strength of his calves, and reveled in the sensitivity of his knees. Who knew her big strong mate was ticklish behind his knees? She spent a lot of time on his thighs, massaging and licking over him. Placing kisses and caresses on his flesh while doing her best to ignore the solid length of his erection where it rose up between his sprawled legs.

She skimmed her lips over his hips, wrapped her hands under him to palm and squeeze his firm buttocks. She let his cock ride between her breasts, nudging the bottom of her chin, but paid it no attention, knowing it drove them both a little crazy. She licked over the muscled ridges covering his abdomen, placing open-mouthed kisses and nibbling with her teeth. She loved the smell of his skin, nothing but the scent of the soap he used blending with the natural scent of the man. And Reno just lay still, letting her touch and taste to her heart’s content. But she could feel the tension in his body, hear it in the way his breath panted out. He was barely holding himself in check, but he was. For her.

She moved up his chest, rubbing her cheek against the solid strength and nuzzling close to his right nipple. She ran her tongue over it, and he groaned, his hands finally leaving the bed to wrap around her. She worked the flat disc until it rose to meet her lips then sucked greedily on him as he so often did with her.

“Fuck,” Reno groaned. “I’m hanging on by a thread here, baby. Taking all I’ve got not to rip your clothes off and bury my cock in your pussy.”

“Not yet,” she whispered against his chest and worked her way over to the other nipple, showing it the same attention.

He jerked under her, lifting up so his cock rubbed along her skin, and she wondered if it felt as good to him as it did to her.

“Amia,” he rasped.

“Not yet,” she begged, moving up to his neck, tracing a path to his ear where she gripped his lobe with her teeth and gave it a hard nip.

A growl sounded in his chest, and she laughed. She was pushing him, and she knew it. And she loved every moment of it.

“Reno.” She took his mouth with hers and reached down to wrap his cock with her fingers. She slid the other hand in his hair, enjoying the feel of his thick locks.

He took control of the kiss from her, eating at her mouth, tasting and consuming her. She knew what he was doing, trying to show her without words who was in charge. She thought it was cute that even then, he believed he was, when really neither of them was. They were both lost to the pleasure that consumed them every time they touched.

She broke from his mouth and panted for air. She nipped along his jaw, her blood singing with lust, feeling the urge to take, and knowing exactly what she wanted.

“Amia,” he grunted again, and she nipped him harder.

“Mine,” she told him, biting his nipple hard enough to sting.

Reno flexed under her and purred, obviously enjoying her rougher touch. She scraped her teeth over his abs, down to his hip where she nibbled him again.

“Mine,” she said again, and he let loose that delicious purr that had her so wet and ready.

She slid between his thighs, and he sprawled them wider to accommodate her. She took his cock in both hands and licked him from balls to head, circling her tongue around the crown and tasting the drop of pre-cum just filling the slit.

“Mine,” she moaned, licking her lips and meeting his heated gaze.

One big hand wrapped tightly in her hair and urged her head back down.

“Yours,” he growled.

She let him guide her down and tasted him again, rubbing her tongue over every inch of his rock hard shaft
and even flicking it along the taut skin covering his balls. He tasted of salt, sweat and man. His musky scent filled her senses and made her mouth water for more.

“Amia.” He grunted her name, his fingers tightening in her hair so she felt the tug against her scalp.

Her eyes lifted to meet his gaze again as she ran her tongue over the top of his cock, taking another delicious drop of fluid. His eyes flared then narrowed. His grip tightened further, giving her an edge of pain that only made her hotter.

“Suck my dick,” he commanded. He wrapped his free hand around the base of his cock and used his hold to bring it to her lips and press against them.

She wet her lips, teasing them both a little more before opening wide with a groan and sucking him in. His grip on her hair never loosened as he fucked her mouth. She slid both hands around to cup his flexing ass and came up to her knees, bending and changing the angle of her mouth so she could take more of him inside. He was humming and purring while she sucked him, her tongue wrapping, rubbing and licking his flesh.

“That’s it, baby,” he crooned. “Suck my cock. Feels so good. That hot little mouth of yours sucking my dick.” He growled and fucked a little deeper into her mouth, choking her briefly as he pressed toward the back of her throat. He withdrew just as quickly, and she sucked air in through her nose, fighting her gag reflex. “Suck my dick, baby. Suck every drop of cum from my cock. Then it’s my turn. I’m going to lay you out and feast on your sweet pussy. I’m going to make you come on my fingers, on my tongue, against my lips. Then I’m going to turn you over and put my cock in your ass.”