Cee Cee didn’t know what to do. On one hand, she wanted to lick this man from head to toe. Seriously, she’d not seen anyone like him before in her life. His dark tawny hair that brushed his shoulders with its black tips, golden eyes that peered into her soul and that scruff lined jaw that didn’t do a damn thing except soak her panties.
She had to get out of here before she jumped on him and could be accused of sexually attacking a man. Her cells migrated toward him, wanted him to touch her. It hurt to get up off the floor herself but she wasn’t sure she could handle his hand on hers.
And now here she sat, snapping pictures of two of the most adorable juvenile male cubs she’d seen and he was beside her, pressing against her leg with one of his own. She’d finally located something that would take her attention from snapping pictures.
This man.
How the hell does he smell so fucking delicious? Like my favorite dessert right out of the oven, surrounding me and tempting me to just forgo my manners and jump right in, face first.
Her lips twitched as she imagined falling face first into his groin. Yeah, that would be a delight and then some.
He shifted again, pressing more of his strong jean clad thigh against her.
Drawing back from the viewfinder of her camera, she slanted her gaze to him, his tanned skin had a dark dusting of hair where his arms pushed out from the rolled up sleeves of his white button-down. Not an ounce of fat on his muscled body.
He doesn’t need it, I have enough for us both. She sobered and refocused on the felines still making their slow, cautious approach. A man like him wouldn’t have any use for her. He would be seen with a model type of woman. One who people would nod and say, yes, what an amazing couple they make. Not one who would wonder what she’d done to deserve a pity date. Or what punishment he was having to endure.
Cee Cee knew she wasn’t unhealthy by any means, she was fit, traveling around the world dealing with dangerous animals, both four and two legged. Hell, she had to be. However, by the standards of today’s society she was fat, bordering on obese. She had a belly, thick thighs, and curves that a lot of women paid damn good money to have ass fat from someone shot into them to acquire those things.
She could run up flights of stairs and out dance a lot of people on the floor. But because of her bone structure and build, she was deemed unattractive.
Which is why I keep to myself and need to not be thinking of him like this. This way, I won’t be disappointed when he doesn’t show me any interest. I should remain focused on what I do well. Pictures.
“Don’t be scared.”
Oh, she wasn’t. She absolutely loved these animals. She’d been known to get a little careless with the younger cubs, but these were not babies. These males could injure or kill her.
Much like that adult king could have done but didn’t, earlier.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she muttered back, following one of the boys with her lens. The action took her directly into the man beside her.
He shifted his weight and held her up as she damn near leaned on him to capture the image of the one coming around the tree. The sun hit his coat just perfect, allowing her that second to catch him before he was again, camouflaged.
She’d spent enough time watching them, she’d learned how to pick them out against the backdrop. “S-s—sorry.” Cee Cee scrambled off him and skidded back to the chair.
He placed his golden gaze on her, the heat contained inside it, melting her. On the other hand, he had woken up that part of her she was desperately trying to ignore. “There is nothing for you to apologize for. Believe me, it was entirely my pleasure.”
Christ above, that deep rasped voice was damn near enough to make her come just from the timbre alone. Add into that the heated sexual flames in his stare and she could officially say, he’d brought her to one without even removing a stitch of her clothing.
Scrambling to find her scattered wits, she blinked and picked up her camera once more. This was her buffer, her barrier. She was no longer the scared, timid girl who never stood up for herself and just tried to blend, but the one who would go toe to toe with poachers to save a cheetah.
“Sure it was.” Even words like that had the power to cut her deep. She reinforced the walls around her ability to give a damn and peered for the cats once more.
Nothing.
They must have bolted when I panicked about where I was leaning. Depressing, but she’d managed to get some great shots of the boys. “Are they around here often?” she asked.
“Kent.”
She adjusted the zoom, hoping to catch a glimpse of them once more. “Huh?”
“You asked my name earlier. I’m Kent.”
She pulled back from the camera and stared at him, her nerves again acting the fool and making her palms sweaty and her heart race uncontrollably.
“Kent Zigler. Ziggs to my friends.” A hitch sounded in his voice when he said that last sentence.
Deep within the confines of her chest, she had this insane urge to offer comfort to this man. This incredibly, hot, sexy, out of her league man.
He blinked his long, black lashes. “And you are?”
Fuck. She’d been so shocked he had given a damn to give his name, she’d forgotten the basic manners. She’d already decided to trust him. A man who allowed cheetahs to enter his home when they wished, couldn’t be all bad. “Cee Cee.”
“That it?”
All he was getting. Unless he asked for pussy. That she’d willingly give to him. More than once. It throbbed as if in total agreement with her and Cee Cee swallowed hard while his gaze darkened two shades. The look he leveled on her went from his eyes directly to her clit.
She was fucked.