Scarlet Woman (16 page)
Damned if they hadn’t both purred.
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Shelley Munro
Chapter Ten
One Month Later
“Will you marry me?” Saber nuzzled at her neck, stroking his rough tongue over her pulse point. He pinched her nipple in the way he knew she liked. Her slim body arched against him, brushing the tip of his erection. Saber bit back a groan of pure need. Each time with Emily was better than the time before. They were a couple, a mated pair. He wished she would accept it, too.
“Yes,” she whispered, staring up at him and parting her legs with an impatient invitation.
“Too bad. I’ll ask you— Did you say ‘yes’?” He gripped her naked shoulders and stared down at her with shock. He’d asked her every day for four weeks. Every time she’d said no.
“Yes.” Her grin lit up her face.
“When?” he demanded. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“I love you, kitten.” Saber didn’t give her a chance to reciprocate. He bent over her relaxed body and kissed her hard on the lips, putting everything he felt for her into his kiss. His Scarlet woman.
“Love you, too,” Emily murmured when their lips parted. “You want to make love to celebrate? We can do the enzyme exchange if you want.”
“Oh, kitten.
I want
. I get to choose the position.” Feline genes clamored for him to take her from behind, to bite, to seal their love in the traditional way, now, before she changed her mind.
Emily rolled her eyes, but the twinkle he saw told him she was eager to have him.
“If you must,” she said with a put-upon sigh.
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“It’s a feline thing.”
“If you say so.” Emily turned over and knelt on her hands and knees. “You going to do that freaky half-change thing when you bite me?”
Saber suppressed a grin at her calm acceptance of the way he sometimes shimmered between human and cat. “Do you mind?”
“No. It makes me hot,” she admitted.
Saber ran his hand across her naked buttocks. Smooth, sexy skin.
Mine
, his mind screamed. His body prickled with sexual and feline awareness. His senses intensified so he could hear the anxious thud of her heart and the tweet of a sparrow in the oak tree outside. He smelled her piquant arousal and the lavender scent of her hair. His mate.
Saber pumped his cock once, suppressing the shiver that came from his touch. He pressed a kiss to the base of Emily’s spine and fitted his cock to her entrance. Slowly, he pushed inside while his feline senses ran riot. His body shimmered as he buried himself deep. Saber covered Emily and nuzzled her neck. With one finger, he parted her folds, teasing her bud to prominence. Her folds were slippery, and each touch, each stroke, brought a corresponding shudder from Emily. His tongue flickered out to taste her fragrant skin while he thrust in slow, even strokes. Emily sighed, and he felt her inner muscles clench as if she didn’t want him to pull out. Good.
It was time.
On his next thrust, he bit the fleshy part between shoulder and neck. Blood welled in his mouth and he lapped it delicately with his tongue, savoring her taste and her trust. Instead of fighting his demand for capitulation, she sighed again and pushed back against his body, deepening the penetration and giving him easier access to her neck. Not a sign of a struggle or a single peep of protest. A wonder since Saber knew his teeth were bloody sharp. He was humbled by her complete faith, her love when he’d almost given up on the idea of finding the perfect female for him—a mate for life. He let go to study his bite then licked across the red marks he’d left with his canines—four distinct 119
Shelley Munro
puncture marks that let his saliva mingle with her blood. He continued to lick, compelled by his feline genes, while he loved her.
A tiny ripple in her pussy grasped his cock, driving away everything but the feel of her gloving his cock, her lithe body beneath him. She was almost there. Saber circled her clit with a delicate finger at the same time he thrust. She exploded with a cry, tensing as waves of pleasure pulsed through her womb. Saber withdrew almost to his tip and plunged deep, his body shimmering in a ghostly manner. The pleasure. The sensations. They roiled inside him, gathering momentum with each thrust. The climax crashed over him. He groaned as he poured his love into her womb, spasms jerking his cock for long moments afterward. Saber toppled them both to the mattress, drawing Emily into the shelter of his arms. He cuddled her back against his chest, their bodies still joined. A profound sense of peace and well-being flowed through Saber, and his arms tightened around her.
His mate.
He couldn’t get past how lucky he was to have Emily, to love Emily and to have that emotion returned. He nuzzled her hair, a purr of contentment escaping. She pressed back against his chest, her rounded ass rubbing suggestively against his groin. He wanted her again, but first he needed to examine the bite site on her neck. Saber wanted to check she’d stopped bleeding. Propping up on one elbow, he studied the puncture marks and touched them gently with his fingers. Her cunt pulsed in reaction to his touch and he smiled with a wealth of silent satisfaction. Already the blood had clotted. They would heal to barely noticeable scars but would always be sensitive to his touch and give her great pleasure when he caressed them while they made love, arousing and propelling pheromones through her veins, giving her the desire to mate with him.
Only with him.
The thought brought great contentment. “We are mated.”
Emily turned in his arms to face him. “You nibbled on my neck. Is that it?”
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“Yeah, the enzymes sedate against pain. You shouldn’t feel much apart from a need to stay with me.”
“I feel that already,” she confessed. “I did before today. I hated living alone.”
“But you were too stubborn to admit it.”
“Hey, you have weaknesses, too! Go on, own up.”
Saber’s grin was rueful. “And you’re going to list them?”
“I’ll save it until you do something to really piss me off.” Emily reached up to kiss him tenderly and rub foreheads. “Saber, I do love you. Lots.”
“It’s mutual, kitten. You are my mate and I love you.” A sense of completeness filled him. It was done. He and Emily belonged together for the rest of their natural lives.
His Scarlet woman.
Neither of them would ever be alone again.
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Shelley Munro
Author Note
Writers receive inspiration from many sources. One of my favorite places to look for interesting story ideas is the
New Zealand Herald
. Two years ago, a small headline caught my attention,
Panther sighted again
. Evidently, several people living in the MidCanterbury area of the South Island had sighted a mystery cat, a large black creature with a tail the same length as its body.
Around the same time, a small town called Middlemarch came to my notice in a blaze of publicity. Middlemarch is a real town, situated not far from Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. It seems Middlemarch had a problem—plenty of men, but a shortage of young women of marriageable age. The men of the area were having trouble meeting potential partners. Their solution was to hold an annual dance to bring women to the district. A train, dubbed the “love train”, runs from Dunedin bringing women to attend the dance and returning them home afterward. Romances have bloomed as a direct result of couples meeting during the Middlemarch singles dance. Using writer’s license, I moved the mystery cat a little farther south, planting him firmly in Middlemarch and played a little with the geography of the town.
Scarlet
Woman
is the result.
You can visit Middlemarch on the web and read about the dance at
http://www.middlemarch.co.nz.
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About the Author
Shelley lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband and a small, bossy dog named Scotty.
Typical New Zealanders, Shelley and her husband left home for their big OE soon after they married (translation of New Zealand-speak: big overseas experience). A yearlong adventure lengthened to six years of roaming the world. Enduring memories include being almost sat on by a mountain gorilla in Rwanda, lazing on white sandy beaches in India, whale watching in Alaska, searching for leprechauns in Ireland, and dealing with ghosts in an English pub.
While travel is still a big attraction, these days Shelley is most likely found in front of her computer following another love—that of writing stories of romance and adventure. Other interests include watching rugby and rugby league (strictly for research purposes *grin*), being walked by the dog, and curling up with a good book.
Shelley Munro welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1056 Home Avenue, Akron, OH 44310-3502.
Also by Shelley Munro
Never Send a Dog To Do a Woman’s Job
Summer in the City of Sails
Talking Dogs, Aliens, and Purple People Eaters
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC
on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.