CHAPTER 4
Decan yanked his shirt up and over his head and then let it fall to the ground beside the heap of clothes he knew belonged to Nisa. He held back a curse as he quickly untied his boots and stripped off his pants. Then, he was shifting, running through the area that was once a national preserve.
She had a head start but it didn’t matter, her scent was locked into his senses so that he knew he could find her wherever she was. It was how he’d known she’d left her room.
He had been lying on the bed, arms folded behind his head while he thought about the events of the day. The beginning of his mission for the Assembly Leader, butting heads with Nisa about who was in charge, and the appearance of Kyss. He also needed to contemplate the murders and what that meant for him and his agenda. But all he’d managed to really give deep thought to was, Nisa Reynolds.
Decan had never ached for a female before. Yet, he’d ached as he stood in front of her, wanting with a sickening need for her to reach out, unzip his pants and take him into the waiting heat of her mouth. The second he’d closed his eyes he’d thought of her doing just that and his entire body had hardened, the lion inside roaring its dissatisfaction with the way things had actually turned out. Nisa hadn’t undone his pants and licked him until his release burst free. She hadn’t stood and wrapped her long legs around his waist, opening so that he could slip deep into her.
And he hadn’t done a damn thing about those facts.
Because he couldn’t.
She was untouchable and if anyone in this world knew what that meant, Decan should, after all he’d been through.
Rome had made it perfectly clear what this job was about. Sleeping with his daughter had not been listed in the things to do. In fact, the Assembly Leader’s final words before he’d left had resonated most with Decan.
“I want my daughter safe. That is the first priority of this mission,” he’d said as they stood in his office.
Safe meant untouched by him or anyone else. Decan understood that perfectly. He wished his cat could decipher the meaning of those words.
The four-foot tall, three hundred and fifty pound white lion raced through the path of bald cypress trees that had been battered and still withstood the shift in climate that had plagued the earth in the last years. The trees that normally stood in water, now barely thrived in less than three-feet of water making the path much easier to travel for the four legged beast. Years ago this place would have appeared to be too wet and humid for him to track a jaguar. But not for Decan. He’d been specially trained in tracking. That, combined with all of his shifter senses lent him the upper hand. Now, because of the decrease in moisture in the air, it was much easier to pick up her scent.
Who was he kidding? He’d never lost her scent. He feared it might actually be imprinted on his cat at this point. And that, would be a horrific mistake. For both of them.
She was about ten feet ahead when she turned quickly and doubled back. She knew he was behind her, no doubt, and was trying to lose him. She had no idea who she was dealing with.
Her body was long and sleek, at least five feet. Her coat a perfect pattern of large rosettes and spots. Powerful paws slammed through the water and skittered only when he crossed over to stand in front of her, his teeth bared, head lifted. Her cat roared in response, not backing down, but pressing forward. He stood taller, daring her to try. She did, going up the trunk of a tree and then jumping down so that she was now behind him. The moment he turned she was off and running once more. This time Decan didn’t think. He didn’t recall any rules or wait for any permissions. He let the lion burst free, taking the lead…in everything. He let the chase go on until she was once again near the doorway to allow her back into Oasis. Only she could not get in through this doorway on her own because she wasn’t authorized. She was going to figure that out and be pissed, but for now, he had the upper hand.
His cat circled around her and landed with his front paws on top of the clothes they’d both left behind the bushes that hid the narrow opening. He shifted only seconds before her and was ready for her rage when her shift was complete.
What he wasn’t ready for and should have anticipated was the sight of her standing only three feet away from him, totally naked.
“Standing on my clothes is real mature,” she spat the moment she was able to.
Decan heard her words but he wasn’t really processing them. She was perfection. He’d thought so when he saw how elegant and powerful her cat looked moving through unfamiliar territory. Now, he knew it went through and through. The human body was just as alluring, from her slim waist to the curve of her hips and the pert breasts he knew would fit perfectly in his hands. If he were stupid enough to touch her. Which, this morning, he would have sworn he was not.
“Move out of my way,” she said before coming straight at him. She pressed both her palms on his bare chest and attempted to push him back.
Decan didn’t move. He did, however—despite the stark warnings of the man—plant his hands on her hips and lift her off her feet. She opened her mouth to say something, but it was too late, he was already moving them, taking the couple of steps back to the side of the building where the cloaked doorway was and pressed her back against the cinderblocks.
“What—” she started to say.
“Stop,” he replied through gritted teeth. “Stop before it’s too late.”
Her hands were still on his chest, her dark skin against his lighter hue. They both looked down at them simultaneously and she sucked in a breath. She was going to tell him to get his tainted hands off her. To get his act together before she told her father. Say it! He willed her silently. Say it!
“Stop what?” she asked instead, her tongue snaking out to run slowly over her lips.
“Don’t. I’m warning you,” he said.
“Didn’t you hear?” she asked as she brought one leg up and wrapped it around his waist. “I don’t take warnings.”
Her other leg was easing around him by then and when they locked at the base of his back, Decan growled.
Nisa growled in return.
His fingers tensed, blunt tipped nails digging deep into her skin as his cock hardened to a painful length. It was apparent that not only did the lion want inside of her, the man did too. She held his gaze and Decan swore he could see her begging him to do it in the deep depths of brown eyes. But she didn’t speak. There wasn’t another sound between them.
Instead, his body tensed because he sensed something else. Rogues.
“Fuck!” he yelled and released her. “Get dressed now!”
It took her less than three seconds to figure out what was going on and grab for her clothes the way she was instructed. Decan dressed without looking at her and when she moved to the wall…to the spot her cat had remembered coming out of, he saw the confusion as the palm of her hand did not activate entry.
Instead of providing the explanation she wanted—the one he had no intention of ever giving—Decan pushed past her, holding his right hand up until his claws broke through the skin of his fingertips. With his claws against the wall moving in a series of circular motions the doorway slid quietly open and he stepped aside. She was angry. He could scent it as well as see it, but she wasn’t stupid.
Nisa slipped through the opening and Decan followed. It closed behind them and when he turned again it was to a gun pointed at the center of his chest.
“Stand down!” Keller yelled to the six guards that were now standing in the brightly lit hallway.
One had Nisa’s back pulled against him, one arm tightly around her waist, the other holding a gun to her temple. Decan pushed the gun pointed at him away from his chest and moved quickly to pull Nisa out of the guard’s grasp.
“Don’t. Touch. Her.” He growled and the guard immediately backed away.
“What the hell, Decan?” Keller grumbled as he walked in front of the guards that were now moving to stand across the hall from the doorway. “First, the doorway alarm was tripped, then the sensors picked up activity around the perimeter. Where the hell were you and why didn’t you use the proper exit and entry points?”
Nisa hadn’t pulled away from him, a fact he was supremely thankful for because he would have hated to grab hold of her the way the guard had been doing. But if that’s what it took to show them that he meant for his warning to be taken with deadly seriousness, then that’s precisely what he would have done. She stood beside him, tucked under his arm as if they were joined…but they weren’t, he reminded himself. She was just his assignment. Nothing more.
“Not now,” he told Keller, because Nisa did not need to hear this conversation.
“Decan—” Keller began, his nostrils flaring.
“Ten minutes,” Decan said interrupting him. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll meet you in the lodge.”
There was a moment of tense silence as the lion and the cougar refused to break eye contact.
“Ten minutes and then I’m coming to find you…again,” Keller snapped.
Decan didn’t reply, but moved away, walking Nisa down the hall to stop in front of the elevators.
“What’s going on?” she asked, but still remained close to him.
“Not now,” he said again, his teeth clenching.
The elevator doors opened and Decan ushered them inside, but the moment they closed Nisa moved to the other end of the car and fired off a round of questions.
“What the hell is this place? Who is Keller Cross? And why did I just feel like we were being hunted in a place you said was secure?”
Her t-shirt hung off one shoulder, the baggy pants she wore were twisted and her tennis shoes were untied. But all Decan could see when he looked at her was the endless stretch of soft mocha skin enhanced by the delicious curve of her hips, her ass and her breasts. As his body tightened in response to that thought, the unmistakable stench of rogues still permeated his senses, forcing his lion to react.
“I told you I would take you out for a run,” Decan replied. “It slipped my mind so I’ll apologize for that. But you had no business going up there on your own. It was reckless and stupid and you should thank me for coming to your rescue.”
A part of him sensed the words he’d just said were wrong, but they were already out by that time and the low rumbling sound of her cat disagreeing wholeheartedly with what he’d just said, echoed throughout the car.
“I did not need to be rescued!” she countered. “I picked up the rogue scent out there just like you did. And I’ve never asked permission to leave Oasis—”
The second her lips clapped shut Decan nodded.
“Right. You’ve never asked permission but you’ve been leaving regularly. I know because each time in the last six months that you’ve done so, I’ve been there. Watching you. Making sure nothing happened while you were out disobeying one of your father’s staunchest rules. So yes,” he stated evenly. “You need to be rescued, from yourself!”
Her mouth opened, then closed again as she struggled for words. Decan was fine with that. The less she talked, the easier it was for him to think. Actually, no, that wasn’t right. The elevator door opened and he reached for her. She backed away and he cursed. He wanted to explain, but knew it wasn’t possible, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her off the elevator.
She yanked free the moment they were in the hallway on the floor where their rooms were. He didn’t try to hold on to her, which he easily could have, instead he let her walk ahead of him. Trailing behind her, even while she was quiet, wasn’t easier. His gaze immediately went to the sway of her ass in those ridiculously huge sweats. He’d seen her wear them before during the training sessions she lead back at the Assembly Headquarters. While most of the other female shifters wore the more form-fitting training gear, Nisa always wore something baggy. In the beginning Decan had thought she was hiding her body, but then he’d seen her in full guard gear and changed his mind. That uniform fit her every curve to perfection. He’d lost count of how many days he’d wished he were the material of her tank top so that he could hug her full breasts in the same way. She could be such a bundle of contradictions.
He was so deep in that thought that he hadn’t seen her stop in front of her door, so he bumped into her.
She turned immediately and stared up at him.
“Now that I know stalking is apparently a part of your assignment, you don’t have to prove that point by literally being on my heels,” she quipped.
Her brow was furrowed, shoulders set stiffly. Anger was even an alluring scent on her, like something sweet baking. It tickled his senses to the point that Decan was reaching out to touch her when he probably should have been running to get away from her.
“I’ll apologize for yelling, but not for trying to keep you safe,” he said as his hands closed around her arms.
His action had been slow, his fingers wrapping gently around the bare skin of her biceps. She didn’t look down at his hands, but he knew she was letting the effects of their contact sink in. He knew because he felt it too. It was similar to the way it had been when they were outside and he’d put his hands on her. Like a lock clicking open they stood still and waited to see what would happen next. He was as powerless to stop it as she was, even though he was certain that a part of both of them knew just how a big a mistake this was going to be.
She tilted her chin upward as if she’d heard his every thought and Decan sighed as his cat pressed forcefully against him, begging for the extra connection.
He gave in because in the space of those few moments there was nowhere for him to run. Besides, was not an option when both his body and his cat were in sync. He brushed his lips over hers first, tentatively, trying to test the cat and the man to see if they were both certain. In the next seconds his tongue was pushing past her lips, taking every bit of her taste and groaning into a kiss that he knew would change everything.
Her arms went around his neck and she pulled him closer. Decan wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly against him as their tongues continued to duel. His cat was on full alert standing at attention and hearing the low, but undeniable call of hers. Decan stilled because this had never happened before. Not with any other female he’d been with. It was so strange, he had no idea how to react.
Fortunately, Nisa did. She deepened the kiss, letting her hands slip down to his shoulders where her nails dug through the material of his shirt to prick his skin. Her body moved against his, the curve of her breasts along his torso, in a sensuous motion that had a low growl rumbling in Decan’s chest. He pushed her back against the door and she lifted a leg to glide up the side of his, wrapping it seductively around his waist. His hands moved down to grip her ass, squeezing as he melted into the kiss. Her lips were soft, her tongue hot and wet against his. And her scent, it filled every part of him, enticing him, goading him, forcing him.
Decan’s hand was moving before he could even consider what he was about to do. His fingers trailed along the elastic waist of her pants, dipping lower when he came between them. She moaned. The sharpened edge of her jaguar’s teeth nipping his lower lip as his pressed lower, moving down to cup her bare mound. Yes, it was bare, free of any hair at all, and Decan wanted to roar his intense pleasure at the thought. She was warm here also and wet, damn it all to hell, she was so fucking wet. His fingers slid easily between her plump folds, grazing the tight bud of her clit before moving further to find the spot he needed. He hadn’t even been aware of the search, but his cat had, and Decan had to tear his lips away from hers to let the deep purr of satisfaction echo throughout the hallway.
Immediately following were three chimes that pierced the haze of desire that had been about to take Decan to a place he was certain he shouldn’t tread. Wanting to be thankful for the interruption but instantly hating Nisa’s reaction to it, he pulled his hand from her. She had already lifted her head to the sound, flattening her palms on his chest as she prepared to move away. He did it for her and did not say a word when she turned from him and entered her room.
Gritting his teeth as the door closed, Decan once again let his claws extend and used them to trace a code over the door’s control pad, to lock her inside. She would hate that she could not get out and no doubt let him know about it the moment he returned. But Decan didn’t care. Now, more than ever, he knew that not only did he need to protect her from her own recklessness by going above ground unescorted, but he also had to keep her safe from what was happening around her that she had no clue about.