I don’t think things can ever go back to how they were before. Not after all of this. More importantly, I don’t want them to. I don’t want things to go back to how they were before I met Matthew. I don’t want the life where I’m bored. I don’t want the life where I spend all of my time focused on work.

  I want this.

  I want the heat, the passion.

  I want the laughter.

  Being with Matthew – if that’s something he even wants past tonight – is something that’s going to require a lot, though. It’ll mean giving up part of who I am. It’ll mean giving up part of what I believe in. I won’t be able to just keep going on as I have been in the past. I won’t be able to just keep pretending I’m totally happy and fine without a mate because after tonight, everything’s going to change.

  And I want it to.

  I want him.

  I want all of him.

  Starting with right now.

  “You’re wearing too many clothes,” I say.

  “Oh no,” he says, feigning surprise. “What should we do about that?”

  “Hmm,” I run a finger down his chest. “I could undress you?”

  “Please,” he says, and his voice comes out thick with arousal. He lets me take my time unbuttoning his shirt. I slip it off his broad shoulders and push it back. The shirt falls to the floor in a heap, forgotten.

  “Wow,” I murmur, touching his abs.

  “I could say the same thing,” he says, and he reaches for my breasts. He runs his hands over them, bouncing them, playing with them. He teases me gently and pinches my nipples.

  “Mmm,” I groan, and I reach lower. I take his pants and unbutton the top. Then I unzip. I slide the zipper down and run my hand over the front of his pants. Matthew’s cock is hard and thick and so ready for me.

  “See, you’re not shy,” he murmurs.

  “I never said I was,” I smile, and I push his pants and boxers down, effectively de-pancing him and releasing his cock. I keep looking at Matthew, careful to keep my eyes on his, and I reach for his length. Then I stroke him: softly at first, but then faster.

  “Damn,” he groans.

  “Definitely not shy.”

  “Nope,” he whispers. “Not shy at all.”

  “You like this.”

  “I fucking love it, baby.”

  “You have a nice cock, Matthew.” I stroke it, teasing him. He’s thick and he feels heavy in my hand. I like it, though. I want more of this. I want to taste him. I want to tease him. I want to feel his cock in my throat, so in one swift movement, I drop to my knees and slide his dick inside of my mouth.

  The sound that escapes his lips is one I’ll never forget because it’s absolutely fucking perfect. He loves this almost as much as me, and I’ll always remember the day that I made him fall apart with pleasure.

  It’s a bit of a power trip, being on my knees in front of a lion. He’s towering over me, but I’m the one in charge, at least for right now. I have the power to make him lose his mind with ecstasy, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

  I start licking and teasing. I slide my tongue over his shaft before slipping him back into my throat. He fists my hair and guides me deeper and deeper onto his cock until he can’t take it anymore. He steps away, wiggles the rest of the way out of his shoes, socks, and pants, and climbs down on the floor with me.

  “My turn,” he says. He pushes me back and kisses me hard. Matthew isn’t gentle with me. He doesn’t tease or mess around. Okay, so maybe I got the lion a little excited. It was totally worth it to get to play. He runs his hands down my body until he’s touching my pussy. He rubs his fingers across my skin, teasing me, and then he climbs down my body until his mouth is even with my pussy.

  Then he licks me.

  Oh, he fucking devours me.

  I cry out at the sensation. His tongue is hot and wet and sweet and any coherent thought I’ve ever had seems to fly away. I thrust my mouth up towards him and he laughs as he licks me, teasing me over and over until I finally can’t handle it anymore and I come with his lips on me. I fall apart and somehow, I’m totally weak with passion and excitement and heat.

  “You are so fucking sexy when you come. Did you know that?”

  “No,” I whisper, shaking my head. I suppose I thought I look like anyone does when they have an orgasm.

  “You look wild and free,” he murmurs. He moves back up and strokes my face as he kisses me. I can taste myself on his lips and I don’t mind at all. In fact, it’s kind of a fun sensation. He climbs up over me, pushes my knees apart, and slides his cock inside of me while he’s running his tongue over my lips.

  He fills me wholly and the feeling is so fucking nice. I’m tight and sensitive from the orgasm I just had, and every sensation feels totally magnified. My nerve endings feel like sparks going off. They feel like they’re blazing. It’s a good feeling, and I kiss him as he slides deeper and deeper inside of me.

  Wrapping my legs around Matthew, I pull him closer, and I let my heart feel free for just a little while. I know that this thing between us is probably only going to be one night, but part of me has to wonder what would happen if it wasn’t just one night. He feels so fucking good in me, and I love the way he’s touching me. I love everything he’s doing to me. I love the way he’s touching me and playing with me. I love the way he makes me feel alive.

  Deeper and deeper, Matthew makes love to me. He bites my neck and nips at my ear. Somehow, he manages to play with my breasts as he’s making love to me. I can feel him absolutely everywhere. How does he do that? I have no idea, but I love it.

  I love everything that’s happening.

  I don’t want it to ever end.

  I grip him with my legs, pulling him closer to me.

  “You look so fucking hot,” I groan, because he does. Damn, if he’s not the sexiest shifter I’ve ever seen. He’s purely masculine, purely muscle, purely mine.

  Mine.

  My inner-tiger wants him. All of me wants him.

  And then he comes deep inside of me, filling me, and he murmurs my name as he does. His body shakes, pulsing deep in my core, and I grip him, holding him tightly until the last waves of pleasure have disappeared, and then I hold him for a long time.

  Finally, he pulls away and looks around.

  “Okay, so I didn’t mean for our first time to be in the hallway,” he chuckles. “But that was fucking hot.”

  “So hot,” I agree, kissing him.

  “Let’s do that again and again,” he says.

  I smile and nod. “We have all night.”

  We have all night to play with each other. We have all night to tease one another. We have all night to lose ourselves in the magic between us. We can lock ourselves away and just forget about the rest of the world. Here, in this place, we don’t have to worry about our jobs or our responsibilities or anything at all. Here, when we’re together, we can just forget about everything else.

  Tomorrow, things might look different, but we’ve got tonight, and that’s enough for me.

  I hope.

  Chapter 12

  Cassidy

  The next morning, I’m sipping coffee at my desk when my office door swings open and my assistant appears. I can scent her anger before she even enters the room.

  “This is ridiculous,” Danielle says, storming into my office. She drops a stack of papers on my desk. “Have you seen this?”

  “What is it?”

  I’m still in post-sex-with-Matthew bliss and to be honest, I probably haven’t seen anything she could want to show me. My heart and my soul are on a cloud in dreamland. I don’t want to come back down and deal with Alastair’s bullshit today.

  But it’s not Alastair’s crap we’re facing today, I realize. I grab the newspaper from Danielle and look at the headline.

  SHIFTER DIVERSIFICATION PROJECT HALTED, SAYS MAYOR.

  “What the fuck?” I look at her. “Says who? I realize that Alastair wouldn’t collaborate with Ridge Construction, but the entire project is being scrapped? No, no, no.”

  This can’t be true, anyway. I was just with Matthew. We spent the entire night making love over and over again. When we finally emerged from the bedroom this morning, it was only so both of us could get to work. I dropped him off at the bar so he could get his car and then I went home, showered, changed, and managed to make it to Cambridge Real Estate with five minutes to spare. There’s absolutely no way Matthew’s project could have been halted, at least not by him. He was much too busy with me last night to have any time for paperwork.

  “Apparently,” she says, hissing. “The mayor decided that Ridge Construction is in violation of a bunch of zoning laws. He’s shutting down the project and says they can reapply for a building permit in a year.”

  “A year?” I stand up. “Uh, no. Not happening, and this is bullshit.”

  I grab my purse and storm out of the office because enough is enough. I move down the hall to Alastair’s office and push open the door.

  “Fuck!” Alastair calls out and starts scrambling for his pants. Melanie is splayed out on his desk. Obviously, the two of them were mid-coitus when I walked in, but I’m too mad to be embarrassed. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

  Melanie starts getting dressed, too, and she shoots me a shy smile.

  “Hey, Cassidy, I won’t be long. Give me just a minute and I’ll get out of your hair, okay?” She’s so fucking sweet and gentle. Any other day, I’d be enamored with her sweetness, but not today.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I say. “I’m the one who won’t be long. Alastair, your dad is being completely shitty. He’s shutting down the apartment buildings for college shifters who want to live here. He says Ridge Construction is in violation of zoning orders.”

  “What?” Alastair at least has the decency to look surprised. My cousin has never been a particularly good liar, so I kind of think he’s not faking this time. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m going to his place right now. This blatant legal bullying has got to stop. There’s no zoning law that says he can’t build apartments there. In fact, I know that Ridge Construction went through the proper channels of acquiring all of the appropriate permissions before construction began because your dad fucking signed off on them!”

  “How do you know that?” Alastair asks, reaching for his shirt.

  “Before I came to you and asked if we could support the project, I got copies of all of the paperwork that was publicly filed. It’s all clear, Alastair. I even talked with our legal team here at Cambridge Real Estate. Alfred and Jessica both said the paperwork was good. I wanted to have all of my ducks in a row before I came to you with the project, but apparently, none of that mattered because your dad is going crazy.”

  “He’s not going crazy,” Alastair says, and he looks pained.

  “Look, I’m sorry that your dad is sick. I really am. Uncle Jacob and I have never been close, but do you really think this is the way he should go out? Your dad has the chance to leave behind a great legacy. What he’s doing is destroying it.”

  “You want me to talk to him, don’t you?”

  “Nope.”

  “No?”

  “I’m doing something better. I’m going to your mother.”

  “What?” Alastair pales, and Melanie looks from me to him and back again, obviously trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Okay, so my cousin didn’t fill his bride-to-be in on the family drama. That’s totally fine.

  “Alastair, your dad is making poor decisions that are not only affecting the people in this room, but the people in this city. Our town needs more than the same old things all the time, man. We need change. Growth. We need to know that we’re bringing in new citizens and new shifters and new jobs.”

  “We can do that without this project.”

  “No,” I shake my head. “We can’t. Your dad is scrapping this project and he’s setting a precedent that he doesn’t care about other shifters. He doesn’t care about getting rabbits and birds and frogs and owls their own spaces. He’s telling the world that Lyon County is just for cats, and that’s unacceptable.”

  Without another word, I shift, tearing my clothes in the process. It’s fine because I didn’t really like my outfit that much, anyway. The fabric shreds as my tigress body comes into view and both Melanie and Alastair look surprised, if not entirely shocked.

  “Is that true?” Melanie looks to Alastair. “Those things she said. Are they true?”

  “I...uh...I...” Alastair hangs his head. “It’s complicated,” he tells her.

  “No,” Melanie says. She cups his face and looks at him. “It’s not, sweetie. It doesn’t have to be. If your dad really did this, then we need to change it. We need to fix it, okay?”

  I realize this is sort of a private moment between the two of them, so I turn and leave through the open door. Nobody seems to notice or even bat an eye as I strut through the real estate building, go down the stairs, and then leave the office entirely.

  As soon as I’m outside, I start to run.

  I run, and I run, and I run.

  When I’m in my tiger form, I’m free. The entire world seems to fade away as I focus only on the sound of my own breathing. I don’t go to my aunt’s house first. I have another stop to make before I go see her. I run quickly, swiftly, and silently. I move around cars that are stopped for traffic lights and I’m careful to dodge a mom with a baby stroller. I hurry, scurrying through the city, until I reach the building I’ve been carefully avoiding until now.

  Launching myself up the stairs, I shift just outside of the building so I can open the door. I’m totally naked, but I try not to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable with this as I march up to the receptionist’s desk. She looks surprised to see a fully nude woman in the office, but I’ll give props to the girl because she is still totally polite to me.

  “Hello, miss. What can I do for you today?”

  “I need to see Mr. Ridge, please. It’s urgent.”

  Chapter 13

  Matthew

  I’ve been on the phone all morning trying to deal with clients who are freaking out, tenants who are worried they won’t be able to move in, and investors who want to know if I’m making a run with their money. Everything I’ve worked for up to this moment is on the line and all because of a bitter old man who hates me.

  Why?

  Because I was a piece of shit in high school and I stole his son’s date.

  Either that, or the guy’s just a bigot.

  I don’t know.

  What I do know is that I’m up to my elbows in paperwork and stress and threats and the only thing I want to do is call Cassidy and talk to her about what’s happening. I want to ask her to help me. I want to ask her to guide me through this. Something tells me that she’ll have the answers because somehow, she always does. Cassidy always seems to know just the right thing to say.

  She always manages to help me calm down.

  I haven’t known her long, but something tells me that this thing between me and Cassidy is special. Maybe we’re true mates. Soul mates. Shifter mates. I don’t know the right term for what we are. What I do know is that one night was not enough and I want so much more. I want to spend the rest of my life worshipping her. Forget a wedding date. I want forever.

  But first I have to deal with the mess in front of me.

  Then I can call and talk to my girlfriend.

  Well, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s...

  Mine.

  My inner-lion knows just as much as my outer-man when it comes to this sort of thing. Both my body and my soul want Cassidy as my mate: as our mate, because when it comes to my lion, I really am two different and distinct beings all rolled into one.

  “Um, sir?” A knock at the door.

  “What is it, Alice?” My receptionist rarely comes back here on her own. Usually, she just calls me on the phone.

  “There’s a, uh, woman here to see you, sir.”

  I glance at my calendar, which is blank.

  “Not on the schedule. Have her make an appointment.”

  I look back at the mess on my desk. Seriously. I have so much crap to deal with today that I don’t even know where to start. I hear Alice clear her throat and I look back up. To my surprise, she’s still standing in my doorway.

  Why?

  “Uh, Alice?”

  “Sir, she’s...naked.”

  “Naked?”

  “Naked.”

  “There’s a naked woman in the office?”

  “Yes, and she’s really naked.”

  “As opposed to just a little naked?” I ask, rolling my eyes. “Well, then, send her in. There must be a reason for it.”

  Why would a naked woman be coming here to see me? I have no fucking clue. More importantly, I don’t care. I just need to make it through the rest of today and then I can rest. I can be at peace. I can move on and try to salvage what’s left of my company. After today, I’m not sure that’s going to be much.

  “This way,” I hear Alice say. Then a familiar voice responds.

  “Thank you, very much.”

  To my surprise, Cassidy walks into my office. Like Alice said, she is definitely, totally, and completely naked.

  Instantly, I’m aroused.

  Instantly, she can tell.

  “Hold your horses, there, lion,” she says. “We’ve got a bigger problem.”

  “I’m aware.”

  Of course, Cassidy would know what’s happening in the real estate world. This is her world, too. I’m not sure why I’m even a little bit surprised that she knows something has happened and that it could threaten everything I’ve been working toward.

  “What do you know?”

  “Everything,” she says. “But don’t worry, okay? I have a plan.”

  A plan?

  Cassidy?

  “Fuck, if I don’t love a woman with a plan,” I tell her. “What’s step one?”