Hester stumbled across the bedroom floor. Sleep had been fitful. She wouldn’t deny she was a little concerned about the attempt on her life – correction, second attempt on her life – and sleep had not come to her easily. Finally, giving up, she decided to seek out some cocoa. That usually put her to sleep. If she had her phone, she would call her mom and ask for a lecture on what she was doing wrong with her life – they were always snoozefests.
Heavens – was she actually missing her mother?! Her cheetah huffed.
Had to be the thin mountain air – there was no other explanation. But then, this was the longest they had ever been apart without some form of communication. Her mother always found a way to contact her. College had been particularly challenging. When Hester made it clear that she was not okay with her mom moving into her dorm room – in spite of the fact that her sweet and befuddled koala shifter roommate said it was fine – her mom started turning up at her lectures. Chatting with her fellow students, talking to her teachers – it was how she ended up in one of her doomed marriages. Those were the longest years of Hester’s life.
Hester shook her head and opened her door. Still half asleep, she didn’t even notice the sleeping jaguar until her foot connected with something soft.
“Ah, crap!” she exclaimed as she tumbled on top of the jaguar.
He let out a growl that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
“Shut up, you!”
The growl really did turn to laughter as he shifted beneath her, his body growing and moving, and rather than clutching fur, she now found her hand – oh dear lord! She removed it immediately, trying not to melt with mortification.
“That’s quite a way to wake up,” Antonio purred at her.
“You… you…” Her ire rose, and words didn’t seem to do justice to what she felt at that moment. So instead, her cheetah let forth a vicious snarl.
“What’s happening?”
Tomas ran out of Mary’s room wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, and Mary peeked out from behind the large young man. Hester couldn’t fail to notice that she, on the other hand, was wearing a nightgown that looked like it had been in style when the civil war was still going full throttle.
Hester tried to get up, but she was afraid to put her hand anywhere and slipped, plastering her full body against his. The thin cotton of her pajama shorts was hardly any kind of barrier between them.
Mary gasped as she realized that Antonio was naked and that Hester wasn’t that far off being naked either.
“Mary, don’t look!” cried Tomas, desperately trying to cover Mary’s eyes.
“I’ve already seen them,” said Mary, her face now almost entirely covered by one of Tomas’ meaty paws.
“Don’t you have a room for that?” scolded Tomas.
Hester flicked a lock of hair out of her eyes. “We weren’t doing anything! What on earth were you doing outside my door?” she demanded of Antonio.
Antonio raised himself on his elbows, much more relaxed than the rest of them put together. “Guarding it, of course.”
Tomas humphed, not believing him for a second. Technically, under leap rules, they weren’t allowed to do anything with their chosen females until the joining ceremony – if the females decided to stay that is. Sex until then was a big no-no. It was a rule that was very much hated by most of the leap males.
“Thought you’d be out here guarding too,” commented Antonio giving the younger male a wry smile.
Tomas’ eyes flashed. “I was guarding Mary…”
“Inside her room?” teased Hester, finding her equilibrium again after finding her hand clutching… oh lord – it had been big!
“We were not doing anything; I would never disrespect Mary that way!”
“No, we weren’t,” agreed Mary, with what Hester had to believe was a little disappointment.
Huh, looked like she wasn’t the only one having trouble resisting the unholy dreamboats that were the kidnapping jaguars. Apparently, the woman wasn’t quite as mousy as Hester first thought.
“Can I look yet?” added Mary. Her face was moving around, but Tomas’ hand stayed clamped over her eyes.
“We’re going back to Mary’s room, just, please, try and keep it down. Mary needs her rest.”
“Yes, that’s what we’ll be doing – resting,” sighed Mary.
Tomas gave them an irritated look before leading Mary back and firmly slamming the door.
“Touchy, isn’t he?” giggled Hester. “But I guess the problem is that he isn’t getting touched at all right now.”
“I think he’s pissed about me being naked.” Antonio folded his hands beneath his head and lay back, stretching his glorious body out for her perusal. “Didn’t like his little mate getting an eyeful of this.”
Hester scrambled off him, and though her cheetah was panting like a lovesick cub, she just scowled at him. Actually, she wasn’t keen for Mary to get an eyeful either. The woman had her own mate – she didn’t need to be looking at Antonio. Tomas was right to cover her eyes; though, Antonio hadn’t covered hers. Tomas was nearly naked, and Antonio didn’t even bat an eyelid. Humph. That actually put both her and her cheetah out a little. She wasn’t exactly about to go out and flash her ding dongs at other men to intentionally make him jealous, but shouldn’t he feel just a smidge of possessiveness?
“Don’t know why he would be worried. He surely already knows how lucky Mary is to have him. Did you see his muscles – ay chi wow wow.”
Antonio swiveled shrewd, golden eyes in her direction. “Hessie, baby, you want me to be a jealous rampaging beast, I will be. But I already know I don’t have anything to be jealous about.”
Her cheetah snorted as she folded her arms. Obnoxious tit. He was right, too.
“What makes you so damn sure?”
Antonio propped himself up on his side, and Hester fixed her gaze on his head. Below that was something bobbing and getting bigger, and she was trying to pretend it wasn’t there at that moment.
“Your breathing,” he answered simply.
“My breathing?” Not what she was expecting.
“Yeah, haven’t you noticed? When you’re talking to me, you start breathing faster, and your heart starts beating quicker. I excite you,” he said with a horrific amount of smugness.
“Puh-lease!”
“It’s true. Flirting with me gets you going and when you kissed me earlier…”
Outrage boiled over. “When I kissed you?!”
“Trying to sleep in here!” shouted Tomas from Mary’s room.
“Yes, we are,” agreed Mary, more faintly and with a certain amount of resignation.
“When I kissed you?!” Hester repeated in a whisper as her cheetah howled at his audacity.
“Yep, when you kissed me, I thought your heart was going to beat out of your chest.”
Hester huffed; she didn’t like to admit he was right. Set a bad precedent for any future discussions.
“But when you were talking to the prime, or when you were looking at Tomas and heck, even when you were running as your cheetah, your heartbeat was fine, you were relaxed. It only seems to be out of control around me.”
“It’s because I’m annoyed at you,” she stammered.
“Nah, you were annoyed at Tomas when he interrupted us…”
“We weren’t doing anything!” Hester hissed.
“Well, your hand was certainly doing something, but let’s not split hairs. You were annoyed at Tomas, but you were still calm and you certainly weren’t lusting after him.”
Hester let out some sounds of disgust. He was being totally insufferable, and the most insufferable part of it all was that he was right. She generally was calm when it came to confrontations – she had to be when fighting in court. She may be shouting and haranguing on the outside, but inside, she was steady as a rock. Yeah, he was right about her not even looking at Tomas as any kind of object of lust. He was a good-looking young man, but the idea of feeling any lust toward him was completely lost on her – but when she looked at Antonio… gah! Drool, melting, and lots of cheetah swooning – the whole works. When dealing with Antonio, inside, she was as steady as jelly.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said primly, trying as elegantly as possible to get to her feet.
His only answer was a grin. Yes, she was lying, and he knew it – business as usual for the two of them.
“Why are you outside my door?”
His happy demeanor faded, and his expression turned grim. Antonio stood to face her. “Guarding your door. No one is getting past me. Spoke to Roberto - he found the leap mate who left the chocolates on the stoop.”
Her cheetah perked up in interest, flexing her claws. “Who?”
Antonio shook his head. “Hilda – she’s in her late sixties, human and lives close by here. When they were taking in the mail, they found the box for you, and she offered to deliver it. It was just there in our mailbag when it was dropped off earlier.”
Hester deflated a little. So much for hoping it was Valentina. “Maybe there are fingerprints on it.”
“Roberto already took it down to the local cops.”
“He took it down himself?”
Antonio smirked. “Yep, got the chief out of bed for it. He’s super pissed about what happened, but I think he also enjoyed getting to see the chief in his jammies.” His amusement dimmed. “Got a bad feeling they won’t find any prints but yours, Laurel’s and Hilda’s.”
“Have you heard…”
“Laurel’s fine. She can come home tomorrow.”
Hester breathed out and muttered her thanks to any deity who happened to be listening. Antonio placed a hand on her shoulder, and instinctively she pressed into his touch.
“This isn’t your fault.”
“I know,” she growled, “I just want to find who did it and kick their ass to the North Pole!” Her cheetah roared in agreement.
“That’s my girl.”
Hester rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have a floor to be getting back to?”
Antonio gave her a leer. “You know, I’d be happy to guard your room from the inside – if you like.”
“Pretty sure you can manage just as well from the outside.”
“Well, if you’re content to leave me on this cold, hard floor…” He gave her such a kittenish look – think Puss in Boots’ big eyes look – that she almost wet herself as she burst into peals of laughter.
“Seriously! Please go to sleep!” howled Tomas through the wall.
“Okay!” called Antonio.
Hester took the opportunity to slip back into her room and shut the door. “Good night,” she called through the wood.
There was a pause, and then a chuckle from Antonio. “Good night.”
The cocoa was completely forgotten as she returned to her bed and willed her telltale heart to slow down. She felt better knowing Laurel was okay, though still pissed that the assface moron who did this was still wandering free. Not for long, not when her cheetah got her claws into them. Still, it was kind of nice knowing that Antonio was looking out for her, that he was outside, protecting her, separated only by a tiny bit of wood…
Hester groaned and got up, her cheetah grumbling. After a few minutes of grunting and sweating, she had managed to push the chest of drawers in front of the door. It wasn’t that she was worried he would come into the room, more like that she would wake up in the night and in a moment of weakness drag him in. Well, she was only human… mostly!