“Okay. But why all the subterfuge? Couldn’t you have just told me you’d come looking for me?”

  “First, I had to evaluate whether you knew about the unseen world or not. The need for secrecy among my kind is paramount. I had to get to know you a little and gauge how you might react to learning what I had to tell you. I was going to keep you under surveillance for a day or so before finding a way to approach you, but the sniper changed my plans in a hurry. I’d only just gotten to town and located the studio when he opened fire,” Den admitted.

  She wasn’t sure why she believed him, but she did. That had been one hell of a coincidence, but she had seen stranger things happen in her kooky magical family. Sometimes, things really did seem orchestrated by some divine hand.

  “Actually,” he went on, “I hadn’t expected to reveal myself to you so soon, but seeing you using your magic changed my plans again.” One corner of his mouth tilted upward in a devilish grin that reminded her—as if she needed any reminding—how attractive he was. And how naked he was. “So,” he crossed his arms and leaned casually against the tree right next to him, “you come here often?”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A bubble of laughter rose up from Sunny’s throat. Den’s parody of the famous pickup line was perfect for the occasion.

  “I like to dance for the full moon. It calls to me,” she admitted with a little shrug.

  “I know what you mean,” he replied, smiling that devilish smile once more that made her pulse speed up just the tiniest bit. “Most shifters find the full moon almost irresistible.” He looked around at the circle, now festooned with night-blooming flowers. “Were you about done here? I’d be glad to walk you back to the house, if you are.”

  She looked around and nodded in satisfaction. “I suppose so. It’s not how it used to be. Before my accident, I mean. I used to really be able to dance, and the dancing somehow activated my ability to make things bloom and grow. I’ve learned to compensate a bit, but it’s still not quite as easy as I remember it.”

  “I’m sorry, Sunny. That’s got to be hard,” he said gently. “Have you looked into any of the magical healing alternatives?”

  Den straightened as she began walking slowly out of the circle of trees. He followed her steps, not crowding her, but staying close as she picked her way through the densely packed trees.

  “My folks talked about it a bit, but they’re not really all that well connected. They’re artists that dabble in magic, but they’re not very powerful. At least, not in the ways that matter to their families. Their union was not sanctioned, but they were in love and decided to go their own way.” She shrugged, knowing her parents had sacrificed a lot to be together, but they were still deeply in love all these years later, so it had definitely been the right course of action.

  “Did they put up the ward around the property?” Den asked quietly as they made their way toward the edge of the trees.

  “Ward?” Sunny was surprised. She’d heard of wards, but she didn’t know they’d built one. “If there is one, I suspect they did. Or maybe one of their guests did it for them. They do still have some friends in their extended families, and they sometimes come to visit. They also have a few magical friends who come here to decompress and dabble in art.”

  “Art can be magical,” Den offered quietly as they walked.

  “That’s what my parents say.” She was pleased by his observation. Most magic users had no time for her parents’ chosen form of expression.

  Sunny realized she shouldn’t have been surprised by Den’s perception. Their dinner conversation had proven he was a man of deep thought.

  And incredible muscles. She couldn’t help but notice, even though she tried not to look too closely. She didn’t want to ogle the man. That would be rude. But he certainly was easy on the eyes. Hubba hubba.

  “Speaking of your parents, where are they? I don’t perceive anyone in the house.”

  They were crossing the backyard and were close to the kitchen door, which she had left unlocked. Nobody ever came out here to trouble them. It was safe enough to leave one of the doors open while she danced under the moon.

  “They’re away on an art retreat. They had the opportunity to take a master class with someone famous that they admire. Have you heard of Roderigo Cortez?”

  Den began to laugh. “Rody is a shifter. A related species. He’s one of the jaguars from South America who have recently moved to that island Mark Pepard bought for them all.”

  “Wait. You mean to say that Mark Pepard, the reclusive billionaire, is a shifter?” She shook her head in disbelief.

  “Yeah, that’s about the worst kept secret among shifters ever since he got married. The jaguars have a slightly different power structure than the rest of us. Most big cats do, in fact. We cougars more closely identify with the rest of the shifters in North America, and we follow the Lords. Most of the other big cat Clans have different hierarchies. Some of them have monarchs, I hear. The jaguars have several different Clans, each with an Alpha-Beta structure that I don’t completely understand. Mark is the Alpha, but his second-in-command is his Beta and security chief. Maybe you’ve heard about the guy who married that famous movie star, Sullivan Lane. He’s the Beta in that Clan. And there are quite a few other famous members, including Rody. They’re all showboats, those jaguars.” Den chuckled, and Sunny could tell he liked the jaguars despite his words.

  “They sound interesting. I wonder what my parents will make of your Roderigo? I don’t think they’ve ever really mixed with shifters before, though they know of their existence. Mom’s the one who told me about them when I came into my power,” Sunny admitted, reaching for the kitchen door. “Would you like to come in?”

  What was she doing, inviting him inside her house? Her empty house. Where anything could happen because they were the only two people on the property. Oh, my.

  She went into the kitchen, and he followed, looking around as she headed for the sink. She needed a glass of water. Suddenly, her mouth was completely dry.

  “Would you like some water or juice or something? The bathroom is just through there. You can get a towel, if you’d like to…uh…cover up.” Blushing furiously, she busied herself with the sink while Den prowled into the bathroom. She felt like a ninny, but she wasn’t used to having a naked man walking around in the house.

  Den came back with one of the cheery yellow bath towels wrapped around his hips. Oh, boy. He looked even better this way, if such a thing was possible. She hadn’t let herself look too much before, but now… All bets were off now.

  She could look to her heart’s content at those washboard abs that had nothing to do with a gym and everything to do with being an animal on the inside. The thought fired her senses as she wondered what he’d be like in bed. Would his wild side come out to play, and if so, in what ways? She was dangerously close to throwing caution to the wind in her need to find out.

  She sipped her water as he moved back into the kitchen and walked up to her. She was frozen in place, her back to the countertop beside the sink, leaning against it. What was he doing?

  “Water sounds good,” he told her as he took the half-empty glass from her hands and downed the rest of it in a few sexy, slow-motion gulps. Oh, brother, she was in trouble.

  He moved away after placing the glass in the sink. Den sauntered over to the kitchen table and leaned one hip against one of the high-backed chairs, facing her.

  “So, how long are your folks gone for?” Den asked. His tone was casual, but his golden eyes zeroed in on her like lasers. Magic swirled deep within them, if she wasn’t much mistaken.

  “Just until Monday,” she replied. It was Friday today, so she’d be on her own the whole weekend. “This is the first time they’ve left me on my own since the accident, so I expect Mom to call every few hours. I spoke to her just before I went outside, in fact. She worries.”

  “Sounds like a good mom,” Den commented, nodding with approval.

  “She is, but since moving back in here, I’ve felt like I was going backward a bit. I went from being a world traveler, woman on her own, to being a kid again, living in my parents’ house. In my old room, in fact.” She chuckled, despite the intimacy of the situation.

  Only the small light above the kitchen table gave off an orange and red glow through its stained-glass shade. The light was on a timer and would stay on until dawn, lighting the way should anyone wake up in the middle of the night and want a snack or something to drink.

  “Is it pink?” Den asked, that devilish smile back on his handsome face.

  “What? My room? No. It’s better,” she confided with a teasing lift of her eyebrows. “It’s purple. Light purple. A shade called Lilac Breeze. I picked it out all by myself when I was ten.”

  He laughed along with her. “Sounds perfect,” he told her. “I’d love to see it.”

  Had he really just said that? Oh, wow. Her stomach was down by her toes somewhere, the bottom having dropped out of it when his tone had gone all husky and low. Sexuality personified. That’s what he was. Dangerous for any woman’s sanity.

  Den moved, prowling closer, and Sunny couldn’t find it within herself to stop him. She knew she could. Just a word and he’d leave her be, but she didn’t want the night to end. She wanted to know what it would be like to be with him.

  There was something so compelling… So…important…about him.

  Like he was essential to her existence, in some way she couldn’t yet define. All she knew was that for right now, she wanted to spend the rest of the night being with him.

  It had been so long since she’d had a lover. Not since before her accident. Somehow, the male dancer she’d been serious with paled in comparison to Den’s svelte muscles and gliding stalk. There was something so primal about him. He stirred every last one of her senses. Her mind, included. She’d greatly enjoyed their banter over dinner. He’d been witty and intelligent in a way that had sparked her admiration and desire.

  She only wished she was the woman she used to be, with a body undamaged by crumpled metal and months of hospital care. She wished she could match him in athleticism, but she knew those days were long gone. She was lucky she could even walk right now. That had been in question for months.

  He was right in front of her, his height imposing, but not threatening in any way. He was gentle for such a big man. He’d proven that already in their first encounter. It had only been a quick kiss in the dark outside the restaurant, but she’d felt weak in the knees and not from her injuries. She’d wanted more, but it had been impossible right then. Now? All bets were off. They were alone in the house, and there was nothing and no one to stop them from going all the way.

  She made a decision and stepped into his arms, closing that final short distance between them. His lips were on hers, their breathing increasing as desire rose.

  “You drive me wild, Sunny,” he murmured against her lips. “Will you let me drive you wild too?”

  “You already do,” she admitted, loving the way his lips teased hers.

  It was a sexy move she’d never experienced before. Her former lover had been very fast to the mark, so to speak, and hadn’t spent a lot of time on seduction. Den, however, seemed to be all about the play, like the cat that shared his soul. She sensed she was in for a treat. No way would she turn this man out into the cold. Not anytime soon, at least.

  She kissed him, this time, merging their lips as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against his hard muscled chest. He wore only the towel, and she was wearing her nightdress. She felt his hands at her thighs, lifting the sheer cotton fabric a little at a time. It was agony. It was ecstasy. Or it would be, soon enough.

  Their tongues dueled, bringing increasing pleasure as Den scooped her up onto the kitchen counter, his hands on her butt. She gasped as the cold of the stone countertop bled through the thin cotton of her nightgown. Den spread her thighs and stepped between. She didn’t have any underwear on under the nightdress, which was hiked up to the tops of her thighs.

  She felt on fire with need in a way she had never experienced before. No man had ever sent her senses soaring so high, so fast. No other lover had ever made her feel so much with just the slightest touch.

  Not that she’d had many men. Just a few, over the years. Relationships she’d thought would lead to something permanent, but somehow never had. She’d gone into each relationship with such high hopes, only to have them dashed when time and circumstance drew them apart.

  This time, she hoped, she was going in with her eyes open. She wasn’t the young dreamer any longer. She was a woman who had been through hell in the past year. She’d lost her livelihood and her raison d’etre, but she was still alive. Still walking, even if she didn’t manage that very well sometimes. She would take Den as her lover, but she wouldn’t expect anything more. How could she? He was a shifter. There were probably some kind of rules about who shifters could marry. He would probably settle down with a nice little shifter wife someday.

  But, for now, he was all hers, and she intended to make the most of the experience.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sunny felt Den move closer, spreading her thighs even farther apart. He still had the towel wrapped around his hips, but that was no impediment. She would have him, and she would have him soon. Her mind raced with the wonder of that thought. She felt so free with him. So able to be herself and express her desires. She’d never really felt like this before.

  “Tell me you want this,” Den whispered against her neck, placing little nibbling kisses down her throat that lit her world on fire.

  “I want it. I want you,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “Don’t make me wait.”

  Den made a rumbling sound of approval as he nosed his way into the neckline of her flimsy nightdress to kiss the swells of her breasts. The neckline was elastic, and it didn’t take much for him to pull it downward and reveal her aching peaks. He kissed his way across her body, pausing to suck and lave with his talented tongue while she sighed and moaned with delight.

  She squirmed to get closer to him, inching toward the edge of the countertop and spreading her thighs wide. He seemed to understand what she wanted, moving his hands to her thighs and inching up the fabric that still covered them mid-way. As she moved closer to him, he slid the fabric upward, revealing more and more of her skin, and that secret place that ached for his possession.

  She ran her hands down his muscular chest, enjoying the hard ripples of his mid-section, and then lower. The towel was a hindrance, so she slipped the end he’d tucked in the front free and pushed it away. She tried to reach for him, but he trapped her hands with his and met her gaze.

  “You do that, this’ll end way too soon, princess,” he warned, his smile devilish once again. How she loved that particular expression on his handsome face.

  “Then, give me what I want,” she dared him.

  “Are you sure?” His tone was teasing, his eyes lit with a fire of desire that sparked her own.

  She nodded slowly. “Very sure.”

  He growled. Just a little, but definitely a growl. Sweet heaven! That was sexy.

  Den placed her hands on his shoulders, then put one hand between them and one on her lower back, guiding her gently forward as he held himself ready for entry. She complied, moving closer at his urging, going slow as he controlled her with his gentle but firm touch on her butt. His hands were so strong. His manner was so masterful. This was no callow boy, but a man who knew exactly what he wanted and precisely how to get it.

  Everything about him turned her on. She was breathless by the time she felt the first touch of that velvety head against her inner core. He invaded by slow increments, allowing her to get used to him. The feel, the girth, the length. He was more than she’d ever had before, and she finally understood a little bit of the things her friends would giggle about and whisper over when they talked of their lovers and their various attributes.

  Bigger definitely was better. At least in this instance. He filled her completely, leaving no part of her untouched or uninfluenced by his presence. She was complete. Possessed utterly…and ready to find out what pleasure he could ultimately bring her. She only hoped she could keep her sanity after this encounter. So far, he was damn close to blowing her mind, and they hadn’t really even started yet.

  Den began to move, slowly at first then more swiftly as things started to heat up. She clung to him, depending on him to keep her safely perched on the edge of the countertop, trapped between it and his hard body. His arms were around her, supporting her, molding her to him and making her feel protected and cared for in a way she hadn’t expected. At one point, he buried his head in the curve of her neck, and she felt his teeth and tongue teasing the sensitive area.

  His pace increased again and again until he was making short, fast, hard strokes that drove her absolutely wild with want. She could feel the crisis coming and almost feared its intensity. Den pressed her close against his chest, and she felt a rumbling vibration against her breasts that was the last straw. She climaxed with a gasp, biting her lip to keep from crying out at the amazing feelings coursing through her body.

  Den came a moment later with a growl that sounded almost like the cougar that shared his soul and a clenching of his muscles that kept her pressed hard against him in every way. She might have blacked out for a few seconds. She couldn’t be sure, but regardless, she knew this encounter with Den had been the most intense pleasure of her life. Nothing and no one could match it.

  It was a long time before either of them moved. Finally, Den shifted a little, releasing the pressure of his hold, which she hadn’t really minded at all. She’d liked the way he’d clung to her and allowed her to do the same.

  “Are you okay, princess?”

  His voice was rough with passion fulfilled, and the look in his eyes melted her heart. It looked like he truly cared about her condition. The few men she’d been with before Den hadn’t ever looked at her that way. Heck, after the act was over, they’d barely looked at her at all, preferring to roll over and go to sleep.