Taylor carried her over the threshold. It wasn’t a marriage act, but by the time they got back with her stuff she was more than ready to put the horror of the past week behind her and fully embrace, well, him.

They’d gone back to the clinic with an armed guard, to her place to get her clothing and what possessions she couldn’t live without. The smell of laundry hung heavy in the room. Oppressive despite the fact that the bed was still stripped. The scent lingered... or maybe it had always been that strong. It was part of the changes in her that caused her to notice it now. Either way, the air outside was sweet by contrast. Given that on a good day the clinic always seemed to be downwind of the latrines, she had to get out of there and stay gone. Let Manchester and Meadowlark sort out the details. She wasn’t coming back.

She didn’t truly start breathing again until they’d returned to the hotel, and the gift of Randall’s room.

“Tell me you had them put fresh sheets on the bed,” she remarked from Taylor’s arms as he kicked the door shut behind them.

“I had them put fresh sheets on the bed,” he replied, laughing, and nuzzled her neck. “Why, did you have plans?”

The last was said with a suggestive leer. It was all she needed to pounce.

Angelica attacked him, wrapping her legs around him for a tighter hold as she smothered his face with kisses. He was barely able to get them fully into the room before he fell, laughing as the tumbled to the floor, still locked in her embrace. His foot knocked against the coffee table, sending it crashing over. Glass broke.

She didn’t care.

“I have you to myself for a whole week!” she breathed, still straddling him. The crisis was past, and they were safe. The bad guys might not all have been locked up, but right now Griselda would have to come right through the bedroom doorway with a machine gun before she’d care. That was a worry for tomorrow—no, next week. Right now, Angelica could feel the light in her eyes as she basked in the warmth of his smile, the tenderness of his touch.

Which was all well and good, but it wasn’t tenderness she was craving.

She sat back on his legs and yanked him upright so that she could pull the shirt he was wearing over his head. Impatient to touch him, she ran her fingernails over his back and chest, biting into his trapezius, her hands raking his back. He cried out in surprise and looked down at her, his eyes growing dark. Smoldering. She smiled as mischievously as she knew how and then gave him such an innocent look that he couldn’t help but laugh at it.

He lifted an eyebrow and grinned. The soft t-shirt she’d pulled from the bottom of a drawer, just to have something on after her paper gown fashion show, tore open. He savaged the neckline in his fists and it popped like a party favor. He grabbed at her bra, using it for leverage to flip her over onto her stomach and tear at the hooks in the back. Angelica started giggling and couldn’t stop, her face buried in the carpet. She loved it, the sheer violence of it, and even was willing to forgive the travesty he’d made of her favorite shirt as he pulled the bra from her, causing her to flip back onto her back and grabbed at the waist of her pants hard enough to drag her an inch over the carpet.

“Ooohhhhh!” she shrieked, trying to grab him, to find something to anchor herself as he pulled her pants open and dragged them down over of her hips. He yanked her panties down in a single savage gesture. Somewhere she’d lost her shoes. Did it matter? Only when she rolled and found one beneath her. She wrenched it out and threw it aside. Something teetered on the end of the bar and crashed, hitting the tiled floor. The sweet smell of alcohol filled the room.

Time stopped. Angelica lay naked on the floor under his gaze. She put a finger between her teeth to keep from laughing, but she could do nothing about the grin that threatened to split her face in half from sheer joy. Damn, it felt good to have things to laugh about again, things to be happy about after all that had happened. After the chaos of returning to the camp and finding Randall and an entire battalion of Marines raiding the place, everything had just gone crazy.

But here—now—was all that mattered. Everything else was in the past. Worries could wait. Whatever mop-up was going on out there was happening without them. They only had this time and each other.

Let the world end. I’m here. With him. The man I love.

Laughter forgotten she growled, a sound in the back of her throat that told of her own need. She wanted him. Had to have him. It was without protest that she nestled into his arms as Taylor put one large hand under her shoulders and the other between her legs. Grabbing her shoulders and her ass, he lifted her and walked across the room with her hanging on for dear life, his powerful forearm rubbing her mound with each step.

He walked to the bed and flung her down. She bounced like a child does when pretending the bed is a trampoline. “Oh, my...” she laughed, laying her forearm over her head, loving the ridiculous way he grinned down at her. “Why, whatever will you do to me?”

He chuckled and kicked off his shoes. She tried to help as he fumbled with his belt, but he batted her fingers away when it proved to more a hindrance than a help. She licked her lips in anticipation as he pulled his pants down, his erection springing upward.

Sometimes she forgot how utterly beautiful, how utterly amazing, he was.

“Is that for me?” she teased, to hide the awkwardness of being caught staring, and squeaked as he grabbed her ankles and spun her on the mattress, parting her for his pleasure.

Angelica swallowed her laughter and looked him right in the eye as she wrapped herself around him. “Take me, tiger,” she said, and laughed at the expression on his face. Her laugh turned to surprise as he placed himself at her opening and did just that.

The penis enters the vulva, parting the labia majora, the labia min....

SHUT UP!

She cried out as he slammed into her, filling her with a single thrust. He grabbed her, lifted her in impossibly strong arms, and held her. She anchored herself, grasping his shoulders so tightly that he cried out as her nails dug into the back of his neck as he settled within her. Her legs wrapped around him as he moved, rolling until she was above him. Hands on her hips he raised her into the air, to the end of his shaft and lowered her again, her body moving easily with him, capturing the rhythm and taking it as her own. Angelica threw her head back and arched her back, biting down hard and squeezing him as best she could with her muscles and her legs, feeling him lift her and drop her, letting him set the pace—rough and fast and hard.

Eventually it was she who took the lead, driving herself down on him. His hands came up to catch her breasts and squeeze.

The pain, the pleasure, the pressure began to build. He rolled her over and got up, taking her to kneel on the bed. He took her from behind while she grabbed the covers and pulled. She held on, laying her head down on the mattress, thinking it was so like the position she took when she shifted.

“HEY!” He jumped back, and she fell on the bed. She turned around, staring at him, frustration and arousal coming off her in waves.

She looked at her arm. The fur was receding. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah. It can get away from you, cub. Sometimes...” Taylor said and shook his head, chagrin warring with amusement on his face. “Don’t let yourself think about being the cat while you’re having sex.”

She stood up, taking his balls in her hand. “Sorry,” she whispered. “It’s all kind of new to me.” She pulled gently, massaging the sac, kissing his chest. She looked up at him and grinned. “I believe we have unfinished business, sir,” she murmured as he came to life in her hands.

He grinned and lifted her up again, took her to the bed and lay her on her back, taking her ankles and putting them on his broad shoulders. He thrust into her again. Only this taking had lost the violent edge. He came to her gently this time. Caressing. Every touch tender and new.

When the orgasm came she arched and cried out, shuddering around him. He was almost at the same moment and held her, leaning over her, spending himself into her.

The moment lingered, waves of pleasure washing over her, through her, and she shook. And if she cried, who could blame her? It was a way to throw off the past few days, a way to reconnect, to share, to be with the only man who mattered in host of men and cats.

She was in love and was loved in return.

Afterward Angelica curled up like a kitten in his arms and slept, letting the dreams come and cleanse her of nightmares. Tomorrow would be another day, and decisions would have to be made. It was time to leave this jungle behind.

She wondered what worlds waited for them next.

THE END

Book 3 coming... final one in the series