When Elijah woke up, he could hear the shower running. As he opened his eyes, he realized that he wasn’t in his apartment, and the hot, sweaty events of the night before came rushing back to him. Valentina was perfect. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, but she was strong and fearless, and when it came to sex, well, considering how rock hard his cock was already at just the thought of her, it was going to be a while before he got this out of his system. If he ever did.

He got up and went in search of his kitten. The steam billowing out of the bathroom carried a lavender and floral scent to him, and mixed in with it was something he now knew was unique to that sexy jaguar. The room itself was cream and pale marble, with dark wood cabinets and gauzy curtains hanging over the massive windows, not that they were anything compared to the ones in her bedroom.

Quietly, he made his way toward the shower, hoping to surprise her. What he didn’t expect to find was her leaning against the wall with her hand between her legs. Damn him if that wasn’t the hottest thing he’d ever seen.

“Can I help with that?”

A squeak of surprise escaped her, and her hand withdrew.

“Don’t stop on my account. Mind if I join you?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said, her voice breathy with her arousal, the scent of which hung heavily in the air around them.

“No? So, you weren’t just touching yourself thinking about last night?”

“No!” The word popped out of her mouth so quickly that he knew it was a lie. The slightly sour scent of her untruth tinged the air, and he knew exactly what it meant thanks to his panther.

“So, I guess I’ll just take this and go?” he asked, wrapping a hand around his hard member.

Her eyes widened as she took in his erection, and just as he turned to leave, she said, “Wait.” She sighed. “Come in here.”

Elijah turned and stepped into the steamy triple-wide shower. There wasn’t a curtain or a door, just an opening at one end that he could walk through. She turned to face him, and she looked like a goddess. The water clung to her golden skin as it ran down from her raven hair, dripping down her breasts and off her nipples, caressing her hips and touching her in places his hands itched to feel.

When she didn’t say anything further, he bent his head and captured her mouth with his. Her sweet honey taste coated his tongue as it delved into her mouth, swirling around her own. The little moans that he wasn’t even sure she knew she was making made him even harder.

He turned her to the tiled wall of the shower and pressed her up against it, pinning her there with his whole body. Her breasts plumped as they pressed against his chest, and he could feel the heat radiating out of her.

As he devoured her mouth, he dropped a hand, squeezing it between their bodies and pressing it between her legs. Her folds were slick, and not from the shower. He loved how wet she got for him.

Slowly, he inserted two fingers while his thumb found her knot of pleasure. The thrusting and circling of his fingers and thumb had her trembling in no time. She must have been close when he first came in to be so close to the edge of her orgasm already.

As he felt her inner walls clenching, he pulled his fingers out. “I want you to come on my cock,” he growled at her. He knew she would obey him, at least when it came to this, and that was all he really cared about.

His hands scooped under her thighs and pulled her up so that her legs wrapped around his hips, while the head of his dick nudged against her hot folds. He eased into her heat and couldn’t stop the groan that left him as he sheathed himself fully inside her.

He didn’t move, not an inch. This wasn’t about his pleasure, at least not yet. In that moment, all he wanted to do was make her break apart with pleasure as she had done the night before. As he eased his chest back, he slipped a hand between them while his other hand held both her ankles in place behind him. He was just able to reach his thumb down to where they were joined, where he circled her clit over and over again. Occasionally he passed directly over it, but she didn’t seem to like that as much, so he focused on the circles.

Valentina’s body began to shake and quiver in his arms as he kept repeating the motion. Her hands came up and found her breasts, rolling her nipples between her fingertips. If that wasn’t one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen, then he didn’t know what was. The simple fact that she was a participant, that she was visibly enjoying herself, was an aphrodisiac all in itself.

Without warning, her pussy contracted around his cock, squeezing it hard as the orgasm flooded through her. She yelled out her pleasure, the sound turning into the kind of growl that could only come from a big cat. Her hips bucked against his own, thrusting him even deeper inside her while her body spasmed.

After a few moments, the pulsing sensation around his manhood eased, letting him know that the orgasm was subsiding. Gently, he kissed her neck, nibbling on her earlobes and moving up and down the elegant column of her throat.

“Elijah.” She sighed as her eyes flickered open once more.

“Yes, kitten?”

“Fuck me, please.”

“Only because you asked so nicely.” He nipped the tip of her nose and felt the smile on her face before he saw it.

As he moved his hands to more firmly support her, he withdrew his cock until just the head remained inside her. The air was cold in comparison to the heat of her core.

He began to move then, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of her generous ass while his cock pumped in and out of her. Valentina’s breath came in short sharp gasps while the water sluiced around them.

“Fuck, kitten. You’re still so tight.” It was like her pussy wanted to grab hold of him and not let go, not that he wanted to leave. She felt incredible around him, and not just her pussy, but her ass spilling out of his hands, her breasts shimmying back and forth against his chest while her warm breath tickled his neck. It was all too much for one woman to have.

Her hands were wrapped around his shoulders as she held on to him, and as he sped up, her fingernails dug into his flesh in a way that had him pounding into her even harder. He loved that she liked it rough.

The sounds escaping her were too much for him, though, and if she kept it up, he wouldn’t last more than a minute, so he released one of her legs, keeping her pinned to the wall while she found her footing, and then he began to pump into her again.

The angle change had her core wrapping even tighter around his cock, and he knew he couldn’t last. His free hand cupped her breast, squeezing and pinching at her nipple while his head dropped to her shoulder. Her moans were right in his ear then, and he knew he had made a mistake.

“I can’t last with you making noises like that, kitten,” he said, grunting the words through his clenched teeth.

A smile spread over her face, and she kissed him, her tongue sweeping into his mouth a few times before she pulled away and sucked on his earlobe. He groaned in pleasure as she held on with her teeth while he thrust into her over and over again. After a moment, she released him and whispered in his ear, “Come for me, Elijah.”

It was as if she’d lit the fuse on a firework. Suddenly, his orgasm was right there, and he couldn’t push it down again. With two more thrusts, he was spilling himself into her, his cock jerking wildly inside her while she moaned in his ear. This was heaven. It had to be.

He eased out of her, immediately regretting the decision. Valentina smiled lazily up at him as he released her other leg so she was standing on her own.

“Soap?” he asked.

She gestured to the purple poof and matching bottle next to it. He squeezed a little onto the poof and began to lather it under the warm water. Once it was nice and soapy, he began to wash her body. It didn’t matter to him that she might have already done that before he came in; what mattered was that he showed her he respected her body as much as her mind. He wanted her to know through his actions that this wasn’t just a mindless fuck. The craving he had for her had only intensified, and, if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure it was ever going to go away.

White bubbles covered her warm, amber skin, and the light lavender and floral scent he’d picked up on when he’d first woken up filled the space around them.

Once she was completely covered in bubbles, she took the poof from his hand and began soaping his body in a similar fashion. They were both silent as they cleaned each other’s bodies, but the gentle touches and glances spoke more than either of them needed to say out loud.

They finished up in the shower, and it was only when they exited that he realized he had no clothes to put on, at least, not without wandering through the halls in a towel, so he sat on the edge of her bed in a fluffy cream towel and watched her dress.

Lacy polka-dot panties and a matching bra went on and were covered by a pair of skinny jeans, a T-shirt, and a blue and purple sweater. There was something so intimate about watching her go about her normal routine, and it fascinated him. He wanted to watch this over and over again.

When she turned and looked at him, he noticed that the color of the sweater brought out the rose color of her lips and accentuated the blush appearing on her cheeks. He could tell that her hair would have a natural wave to it if she let it air dry, and he was willing to bet she looked even more stunning with that little bit of texture in her hair.

“What?” she asked, completely unaware of how much he was drawn to her.

“Just watching.” He shrugged.

“We should get to work. If we don’t figure this thing out by the end of the day tomorrow, I’m going to have to leave it up to you. The director of Wardens of the Heart can’t just disappear for days at a time.” She paused, assessing him. “Aren’t you going to get dressed?”

“I can, if you’re okay with me walking through your house in a towel? Also, can we talk about the shifting with clothing at some point? Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes mud and blood come back when they shouldn’t. What’s going on with that?”

“Shifting with clothes has to be a conscious thing. You have to think about it when you shift into your animal and when you shift back to human. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Some people are better at it than others. As for the mud and blood? Sometimes what we do as humans sticks to our animal selves, and vice versa. There isn’t really science behind it, or at least, none that the clans have been able to figure out, not that they’ve put a lot of resources into it. It’s magic—that’s all there is to it.”

“Magic? So, you don’t just consider yourselves a different species?”

“We. You’re one of us now, remember? And yes, in a way, but magic exists in the world, which is something you will come to understand with time. Now, let’s go find your room.”

She turned and walked out, leaving him trailing after her with just his towel. Almost as soon as they were a good distance away from her bedroom door, Kinsley crossed their path. The redhead was engrossed in a book and hadn’t noticed either of them, so he wasn’t worried, but the last thing he expected was for Valentina to get the other woman’s attention.