Lorenzo let out a small growl of familiarity as he scented Diego making his way toward him. Diego growled out of the darkness, and a second later, the man himself appeared, strolled over to the porch and dropped down next to his friend.
He cocked his head as he heard laughter coming from inside the house.
Lorenzo grimaced. “Surprise congratulations party.”
Diego gave him a look of amusement. “And you’re hiding out here?”
“I’m not hiding,” bristled Lorenzo, even though he knew he was.
His jaguar humphed, but the beast didn’t want to play pin the tail on the jaguar any more than he did.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, until Diego felt obligated to fill it. Diego was someone who couldn’t stay quiet for long. Or ever really. Lorenzo had been on camping trips with him before, and the man talked in his sleep.
“Long day, huh?”
Lorenzo grunted.
“Unexpected us all finding mates, huh?”
Lorenzo grunted.
“I wonder what Laurel’s doing right now…”
Lorenzo had to chuckle at the predatory gleam that entered his friend’s eyes. He wouldn’t have pegged Diego with Laurel – the woman was a vegetarian for heaven’s sake! A quality unheard of in a jaguar leap, but he supposed the beast wanted what the beast wanted.
His beast wanted Sadie. How anyone could not want her was beyond him. She was a beauty plain and simple, and he’d seen glimpses of feistiness in her that he found infinitely appealing. But also, he saw hints of vulnerability, small cracks beneath a confident façade, and he found that appealing too.
“No regrets?” asked Diego.
“No,” said Lorenzo. He had no regrets. Anxieties, worries and a new collection of nervous ticks – but no regrets.
“I can’t wait to see her tomorrow. To see her smile, to hear her laugh, to see her… her…”
Diego swallowed and let out a small, plaintive yowl. Lorenzo laughed, but then he started thinking about Sadie, and his jaguar let out a yowl.
Diego stood up abruptly. “I’m just going to go home now.”
Lorenzo narrowed his eyes. “Roberto said we should let them be for their first evening at least.”
Roberto was their prime – the leader of their leap, and the scariest jaguar in their leap. Which, considering their leap contained the man-mountain that is Tomas was saying something. When Roberto gave them an order, they listened and followed it as if their lives depended on it… because they kind of did.
Diego gave him a pouty look. The same one he did whenever he had done something wrong – or was about to do something wrong – and was going to lie about doing something wrong. Like the time he borrowed Lorenzo’s car and crashed it because he was trying to impress a girl by driving on two wheels – he couldn’t drive on two wheels at all, he just thought it looked easy in the movies.
“I told you, I’m just going home,” he said in a crabby voice.
Another sure sign he was lying – Diego only became petulant when he was lying.
“Aha.”
Lorenzo stood up and stretched. “I think I’ll take a walk.”
Diego folded his arms. “Oh, really?”
Lorenzo shrugged. “Really.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
They started walking, eyeing each other balefully and continuing arguing – it lasted until they arrived at the guesthouse where their mates were staying.
*
Sadie held her breath as she opened the front door to the guesthouse. She half expected an alarm to blare at her, or at least a jaguar to pounce out of nowhere and roar at her. She’d seen a few wandering around the compound earlier on their ‘tour,’ but nobody paid them any mind. She supposed to them it was the most natural thing in the world to strip and turn into an enormous hairy beast. She supposed Lorenzo did it on a regular basis. Supposed he peeled himself out of his clothes and then shimmered his way into the form of a giant, wild jaguar…
She gulped and gave herself an inner slap. Now was not the time to get a case of the vapors. Nope, she could do that later when she was home, alone, in her dingy apartment… For a second she had to wonder about the logic of wanting to leave this beautiful, idyllic place to go back to a home where it was a competition as to which room had the largest water stain. But she knew why. Mandy.
Sadie shook her head and gingerly stepped outside. She had gathered a few things – a bottle of water, spare panties, a couple of granola bars, lip balm – always a must - and a torch – and she was leaving.
She had managed to creep past the other girls’ rooms and was now making her bid for freedom.
Sadie took another step and… nothing happened. The night was still and dark, and she was nervous, but she was resolved to leave.
She started walking towards where she thought the exit was. All she could hear was the soft patter of her footsteps. She must have passed five other houses when the hair on her neck bristled.
Sadie stopped, peering ahead of her, seeing nothing. One of her hands dropped limply to her side, and when it connected with something warm, she screamed.
Her meager assortment of items went flying as she realized there was a jaguar beside her. He regarded her steadily for a moment before his body shimmered, and he turned back into Lorenzo.
Sadie clutched at her chest, willing her racing heart to slow down to a mild jog. “Holy shit! You scared the life out of me!” she harped.
Lorenzo gave her a cool look. “No kidding.”
She blushed at having been caught trying to sneak out – even if he was her kidnapper she still felt irrationally guilty for trying to leave. Though, as her body flushed, it was for a completely different reason.
“Good grief - you’re naked!” she breathed, her eyes widening at the sight before her.
Lorenzo’s face tightened, and he growled lightly, but Sadie didn’t care. Nope, she was too busy goggling at the sight before her. His body was… stupendous. Having only been with her two husbands, she was feeling a little cheated… given that she now knew what else was out there.
“You could look away,” he said stiffly.
Wasn’t the only part of him that was stiff she thought saucily.
“Look away?” she muttered incredulously. “It’s filling my vision.”
Lorenzo let out a bark of laughter, and she jumped.
“It’s not funny,” she murmured, though without any heat – no all heat was reserved for her suddenly aching flesh.
“I thought you were…” He stopped, and she managed to wrench herself away to see his expression cloud over.
“What?”
“Just… my scars,” he said with a growl.
Sadie shrugged. She hadn’t paid them any mind. Nope, too busy salivating over his hard muscles, and his gigantic proportions…
“Perhaps you should cover up,” she said hastily.
She had a strong urge to touch him, and she wanted to stop that urge dead in its tracks. The urge was reminding her that she hadn’t had sex in over a year. It was also pointing out the fact that she’d never been with someone quite so… delicious looking.
His mood lightened a touch. “Trying to run?”
“No,” she lied immediately. “I’m just out for a walk. I’m a night… crawler.”
She’d watched far too many cartoons over the past twelve years, and the words just bubbled out.
Lorenzo gave her an almost bemused look. “You one of the X-men? Or are you a bug?”
“First of all, euw – bugs! Second of all, if I were an X-man, I’d be Storm because she’s awesome.”
His lips twitched into a smile. “I’m surprised you know the names of the X-men.”
Mandy had watched the cartoon obsessively when she was age seven to ten – if it happened in the cartoon, Sadie knew about it. She almost said that out loud and caught herself.
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” she countered.
Lying naked in bed she added in her head, trying to sleep despite the distraction of the motorboat sized object in his pants… Oh boy she needed a cold shower or perhaps therapy…
“Shouldn’t you? Trying to sneak out so soon?”
“Are you really surprised?”
He gave her a hard look. “Guess not, but you can’t go anywhere.”
Sadie folded her arms and jutted her chin. It was a bit like a firefly trying to stand up to a gator, but she didn’t like being pushed around in spite of the odds. “I don’t really like being told what to do.”
She was pretty sick of it after being married to Al.
“It’s late; it’s dark, why don’t we talk about it in the morning.”
She guessed it was a pretty dumb idea for her to go tramping through the darkness. His eyes flickered down.
“You wouldn’t get far before coyotes started taking an interest in you,” he said gently.
“I suppose,” she said reluctantly. “How did you spot me so quickly? Were you lying in wait outside the house?”
Given the way he stiffened again, she would say she hit the nail on the head with that one. About the only time she ever would – she was lousy when it came to home repairs. Al was too, but he always went berserk when she used to call someone in to fix something. Always claimed she was trying to cheat on him. Yeah, like she would purposefully break the shower to get a sixty-two-year-old plumber in to alternately show her his buttcrack and pictures of his nine grandchildren.
Lorenzo stooped and scooped up the water bottle, the torch, and his eyes widened at the panties. Sadie plucked them out his hands with a wry smile.
“I guess it’s late, and I really should be getting to bed,” she said haughtily.
Lorenzo nodded and wordlessly started leading her back to the guesthouse.
No, perhaps a night flight wasn’t the way to go. She would wake up early, and at the crack of dawn then she would leave. She didn’t need to mention the fact that she was planning on hotwiring a car – a little talent thanks to her first husband. That would be a heck of a lot easier in the daylight. Yep, she just had to spend one night there, and she was gone.