Night of the Lions Page 5

  She narrowed her eyes before her long tapered fingers worked on the plain white buttons on the Oxford shirt. There were ten buttons on the shirt, and she’d only fastened five when she’d put the shirt on. She actually owed him one question. Gabe fought hard not to let his triumph show on his face. After all, this was serious business.

  “Take it off,” he commanded.

  Cat shrugged off the shirt. Gabe flung it on the floor. Like she said, she was wearing layers of his V-neck white undershirts. Her lush breasts made impressive tents in the fabric. Her nipples were hard.

  Gabe swallowed hard. “One shirt off.”

  “What?”

  “Six questions. Five buttons. You owe me a shirt.”

  “Didn’t realise you’re good at math.”

  “Hmm. How did you think I’d been successful in my business if I wasn’t good at math?”

  Cat peeled off one undershirt. Her breasts looked more prominent. So inviting. His mouth watered. His cock hardened. His lion was restless with anticipation.

  Her pretty face glowered in grim determination. “Can’t believe I blew all that in stupid questions,” she muttered darkly. She looked down and must have realised she had only two undershirts left. As he suspected, she went to the million-dollar question. “Did you kill Cameron Rossi?”

  “No.” Gabe gestured her to lose a shirt.

  She did it half-heartedly. “Have you ever killed someone?”

  “Yes.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Who?”

  “The shirt, please.”

  Cat yanked it over her head without reserve. She seemed to be consumed by his answer and she paid little attention to her nakedness. Gabe’s heart beat fast. She was more beautiful than he had imagined. That smooth skin. Shapely, ample breasts. From the looks of them, they were real. Her nipples were the colour of ripe raspberries. He couldn’t wait to have a taste.

  “Who did you kill?”

  “This question will cost you a kiss.”

  She jabbed a finger in his chest. “Answer me first.”

  “Marius Veron. Alpha of the Veron pride.”

  “You mean, he isn’t human?”

  “Baby, the way you’re saying it suggests that me and my brothers aren’t human either.”

  “All of this is just a big joke to you, isn’t it?”

  “Catherine…”

  She slid from his lap. “I should have known. Well, ha-ha. Thank you for the laugh.”

  “You owe me a kiss.”

  “The hell.” Cat strode out of his office angrily. She paused only to scowl. “You sleep on the couch tonight.”

  Gabe groaned. His cock strained under his briefs to the point that it hurt. The hell. The hell he’d let her go this time. He’d told her the truth, though deep inside he’d known she wouldn’t easily believe it. But he was telling her the truth. He deserved that kiss.

  Gabe got up from his chair to follow her to his bedroom. He was going to collect that kiss whether she liked it or not.

  Cat slammed the door, fuming. That man! Of course he was going to lie. He just wanted to mess with her. Werelions. What’s up with that? Her face flushed with heat. She wasn’t sure if it was because he’d toyed with her or the fact that he’d demanded a kiss. Cat remembered when he’d licked the side of her jaw and sucked her earlobe. She hadn’t been able to breathe. All the bones in her body had melted instantly. She was mad. Mostly furious at herself, because she couldn’t stay mad at Gabriel.

  The door behind her burst open. Cat instinctively shielded her nakedness. Even that didn’t do much. Gabriel didn’t focus on her bare body. His eyes zeroed on hers. Five strides later, he enclosed her in his arms. He crushed his mouth on hers, kissing her greedily. She squirmed in his arms, her protest weak and futile. She almost fainted when he gave her a chance to breathe.

  “Ask me a question. Anything,” he rasped.

  “Why are you doing this?” Cat wanted to kick herself in the shin afterward. The questions weren’t free. They came with strings attached. “I didn’t mean that. Void!”

  The hungry smile on Gabriel’s face widened. “No one makes a deal with me and voids it. That’s not the way things work.” He swept her off her feet and carried her to the bed. Her back hit the mattress and a heartbeat later he was on top of her. “You asked me why am I doing this. It’s because I want you. Ever since I saw you in the club. I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

  “You’re doing this to distract me from the truth.”

  “Seems to me you’re the one who doesn’t want to face the truth.”

  “Werelions don’t exist.”

  “In due time, my sweet Catherine, I shall prove to you it’s true.” Gabriel brushed his lips on hers. Nibbling. Exploratory kisses.

  Cat willed herself not to respond. But three kisses later and she found herself kissing him back. Her back arched as he thrust his tongue into her mouth. She ground her hips exasperatedly against his, rubbing his bulging hardness.

  Gabriel snaked his hand over her breast, palming and kneading. He pinched it and rolled her nipple with such mastery that a deep, drawing sensation shimmered in her pussy. Gabriel broke the kiss and trailed wet licks over her chest. “God.” He hissed, staring at her breasts. “I love them. They fit perfectly in my palms.” He squeezed her again.

  Cat moaned.

  “Your nipples are so pretty. Like ripe berries.” Gabriel took a curious lick. “Mm. Sweet. Taste even better than any berries.” Gabriel lowered his head. He darted his tongue out and flicked it against her nipple. She jerked. A high-octane pleasure jolted through her. Gabriel traced her areola with the tip of his tongue. Her heart thumped harder. He sucked her breast greedily, making her toes curl.

  Jesus. Cat grabbed his shoulders and clawed her nails into his expensive shirt, not caring if she ruined it. Her spine kinked in pleasure. Each suck made her tummy flutter and her pussy clench, wet with desire. Gabriel released her nipple. His gaze shifted to her untouched one. He latched onto it hungrily. Cat yelped. Pure pleasure swept her mind to oblivion. She writhed and bit her lower lip. If she screamed, would anybody hear what they were doing? The bedroom door wasn’t closed properly. Was there anybody else in Gabriel’s apartment?

  Cat clawed the bed sheet. Her spine felt as if it had melted into liquid. Gabriel wasn’t only sucking her, he was also playing with her nipple. His tongue circled the tip of it where it was most sensitive. Suddenly, she wanted to come so badly. Her pussy quivered and creamed.

  She wanted to yell again when he released her. Both her nipples were red, hot and throbbing from the delicious abuse. Gabe’s eyes gleamed with lust—they were almost luminous.

  “Ask me another question.” His voice was gruff. Needy.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Hmm. Yes, I am. Crazy about you.” With both hands, he splayed her thighs apart. Her pussy was bare for him to see.

  “Gabriel!”

  He dived into her pussy and gave the hood of her clit a long lick. The impact was devastating. She would have dropped on to her knees and keeled over if she hadn’t already been on her back. She closed her thighs, trying to push him away. Gabriel growled and planted his hands firmly on her flesh, shoving her legs apart again. He licked her wet seam and paused before her clitoris. He looked up. Their gazes clashed. A smile spread on his face. Cat mewled when he sucked her clit the way he had sucked her nipples. Unadulterated pleasure shot through her centre, paralysing her being for long seconds.

  She gasped. She writhed.

  Gabriel’s torture didn’t end with the sucking. He parted her pussy lips and slid a finger into her entrance.

  “Gabe…”

  He slid in another finger. Her pussy stretched around his rough, large fingers. She could feel the callused part of his knuckles. Divine. He sucked her clit again while he finger-fucked her with short, precise jabs.

  Cat cursed, grabbing Gabriel’s hair. A maddening urge to come overwhelmed her. Gabriel had long fingers that could reach deeper in
to her cunt than she could reach without the aid of vibrator. And the man was a thousand times better than her much-loved Hitachi wand. The moment Gabriel rubbed her secret spot she knew she was done for.

  He’d barely given her a dozen rubs when a galvanic orgasm tore through her.

  She screamed, her head thrown backward. Her pussy spasmed around his fingers, her juice seeping down his wrist.

  Gabriel let go of her clit. He watched her ascend to rapture. He didn’t stop stroking her until the last wave of her climax had dissipated. Cat had to stop him. She couldn’t take any more stimulation. He withdrew his fingers and licked them like a starving cat.

  “God,” he growled. “You’re so luscious. Ask me another question, Catherine.”

  What? Another question? That means…

  She swallowed hard. So far, what he had confided to her were lies. Why should she give him the satisfaction? She mumbled, “No.”

  “No?” He sounded more amused than mad.

  “No, no questions. You’re just jerking me around.”

  “I told you I would do no such thing. I answered your questions truthfully.” Gabriel stood up and started undressing.

  “That’s not going…” Her words evaporated in her throat. She wanted to say that his getting naked wouldn’t change her mind. But a glance at the perfect body underneath his shirt and her mind scattered. He shrugged off the V-neck white undershirt, the same kind she’d worn less than fifteen minutes ago, and unbuckled his belt.

  His pants dropped. His briefs followed.

  Cat unconsciously swallowed her saliva at the sight of his cock.

  It was as beautiful as the rest of him. A cock made for fucking and to be blown. Thick, hard and long. And it was fully erect from a nest of dark thatch. He kicked off his shoes and yanked off his socks hurriedly. The bed dipped as he spooned himself next to her. He kissed her shoulder, her neck, and the back of her ear until she liquefied like a dropped ice cream on the pavement under the hot July sun.

  “Where were we again?” he asked in a voice that sounded like a purr.

  “No questions.” Cat thought she should probably disentangle herself from him and get up. But she didn’t really want to. His body was warm and inviting. His mouth and tongue—oh, my God. They were beyond treacherous. She wondered what his cock could do.

  “You sure?”

  His hot breath sent shivers throughout her body. He played with her nipples and breasts again.

  Gabriel wrenched open her legs and slipped his cock at the juncture of her thighs. Her wetness made his shaft slick when he mimicked fucking her. Her swollen pussy grazed against his granite-hard erection.

  Oh, man, Cat mourned. No woman could resist this type of seduction. There had never been any tales of his wild sexcapades in the tabloids, so she’d never thought he’d be this good at sex. She could feel that satiny-smooth, veined, rigid flesh of his grinding over her pussy lips. And his coarse pubic hair on her ass, sending small thrilling sensations straight up her spine.

  Cat buried her face in the bed sheet, muffling her own frustrated growl. “Gabe…”

  “Hmm?” He nibbled on her earlobe.

  A wave of shudders made her pussy wetter. She elbowed him and turned aside, facing him. Gabriel plastered his lips on hers, wrestling her under his body. The last defiance inside her melted away. She instinctively wrapped her slender legs around his waist. He must have taken it as a sign of surrender, because he growled in triumph and positioned himself on her pussy. His crown nudged her wet opening. His flat abs pressed against hers and his chest brushed her hardened nipples.

  “Gabe…”

  “Yes, babe?”

  “I…” A bubble of frustration shimmered in her chest. She didn’t know what she wanted. To tell him to get off her? Or to cut to the chase and yell at him to take her, already? She knew she shouldn’t fuck him, shouldn’t have let herself get in this position. This man was still a suspect and held the key to a myriad of secrets she desperately wanted to know. But, damn it, she wanted him. Badly. Cat grabbed a handful of his hair and kissed him on the mouth.

  Gabriel mauled her back, kissing her with the same heat. He braced his elbows next to her head and penetrated her.

  Cat tore her mouth from his, gasping. He speared her with his huge cock, knocking the breath out of her lungs. An incredible pressure burnt her sex—he had stretched her beyond her expectations.

  “Gabe…” she wheezed.

  “Bear with me, babe.” He pushed another inch. And another.

  She threw her head back, baring her neck. Gabriel licked and sucked her flesh. He thrust until he hit the neck of her womb. “Jesus.”

  He didn’t move right away after he’d sheathed himself balls-deep inside her. His cock throbbed. Her pussy fluttered around his shaft. Gabriel had taken her so deep, she could feel him in places she hadn’t thought existed before. He slowly pulled out until his cockhead almost left her opening, and pushed back inside in an agonisingly slow motion, as if he wanted to relive the initial penetration. The pleasure was beyond words. Especially when Gabriel started rocking her. His hard shaft ground deliciously against the tight walls of her vagina.

  Cat moved with him, eagerly meeting his thrusts. God. The pleasure was unthinkable. She needed him to move faster. Her climax hovered just above the horizon and Gabe seemed to be taking his sweet time. A manic need engulfed her in one smooth swoop. She hadn’t expected it would feel so good having him deep inside her like this. “Gabriel,” she sobbed. “Please…”

  Her plea made him pause. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No… I…” Cat wound her arms around his neck. “Faster. Fuck me faster…”

  “Oh.” Gabriel slammed into her without reserve. He pounded her harder and faster. “Like this?”

  “Harder.”

  “God, yes.”

  Gabriel hammered his cock inside her in short, rapid thrusts. Their flesh made obscene sounds as the fire of their lust incinerated her sanity to cinders. He growled as he fucked her harder. The pleasure seized her in a wicked grip. The air around her thinned. She tried to stave off the urge to come—she wanted it to last longer—but she couldn’t.

  Cat came. Hard and long. Fireworks burst before her eyes. She bit Gabriel’s shoulder to muffle her scream. But he didn’t seem to feel it. He kept fucking her until he climaxed.

  He roared. Oddly enough, he sounded like a lion.

  Her mind was halfway to oblivion, but she was dimly aware of Gabriel spurting his seed inside her. His cock jerked in more than a dozen spasms. Her cunt contracted around his shaft, stroking it in an inward motion, milking his cream.

  When Cat floated back to earth, she felt like a wreck. He kissed her. Gently, this time. He carefully pulled out of her and examined her pussy. He looked worried at first, but she was fine. He seemed to finally convince himself that she was okay.

  “Sorry,” he whispered. “I went too hard on you.”

  “You kidding? I love a hard fuck.”

  He cringed. “A little thing like you? I’m just glad I didn’t rip you asunder.”

  Asunder. Cat almost laughed. Who talked like that in this time and age? “Give me a kiss, big guy.”

  Gabriel was more than happy to kiss her. Cat buried her face in his throat and curled in his arms like a contented cat. For the first time since Jon had died, she felt safe and secure.

  Which was kind of weird.

  Gabriel Larousse was still her number one suspect.

  Chapter Four

  Cat was sure she had violated the most important rule of being a private investigator—never sleep with the person she was investigating. And here she was, fucking Gabriel. She wouldn’t mind having another go. And, when she thought about it, spies in movies sometimes had to sleep with the enemy in order to reach their objectives. She felt slightly better about herself. She wasn’t such a slut after all.

  She didn’t know how long she’d dozed off for. She found herself sleeping in Gabriel’s arms, a warm blanket tuck
ed up to her chin. The blinds on the windows were drawn, but it was dark beyond them. It was still night-time. Her gaze drifted to the digital clock on the nightstand. Eleven forty-five. She had been sleeping for three hours.

  But Cat didn’t feel like sleeping any more. Suddenly, she was wide awake. She could take a shower and snoop around Gabriel’s place, looking for clues.

  Or she could stay in bed and enjoy his warmth. Gabriel’s toned arm lay across her breasts, and her head was tucked under his chin. His breathing was shallow and peaceful. Cat disengaged from him and watched him sleeping.

  Yeah. Werelions, my ass.

  Gabriel looked as human as he possibly could. No sign that he was a shifter. So how did this shifter thing work, if he really was one?

  Cat pushed the blanket down. Gabriel really had a nice pair of legs. Very toned thighs. Trim waist. Fabulous cock. His beast was sleeping at the moment, looking tame and harmless. At the sight of his cock, she temporarily forgot what she was going to do. Oh yeah, look for evidence that suggested he was a shifter.

  Her gaze skated on to his groin. Hmm, does his cock shrink when he shifts into a lion? She couldn’t recall what a lion’s cock looked like. Okay, the thought was rather perverted. So was ogling a naked sleeping man like this.

  Feeling more curious than a cat, she fondled his beast. Incredibly, it stirred at her first touch. Sweet. She restrained the urge to giggle. Cat scooted down. The scent of masculine soap drifted to her nose. Hmm. Seemed he had taken a shower earlier. Cat clamped her hand around his semi-erect shaft, squeezing and pumping it gently. It gradually hardened into a full erection. Feeling naughty, she leant down and licked his huge tip.

  She heard a grunt and a curse.

  “Catherine…”

  She gave him another lick as if she were taking the first taste of the top of a sundae cone. His body jerked. A hoarse laugh followed.

  “Cat…”

  She ignored his call, too busy with her new toy. She flicked her tongue out and gave him a light caress on his shapely crown. Pearly cream blossomed from the slit. She swept it clean. A salty flavour flooded her palate. Cat smacked her tongue and took a second helping. She stretched out her jaw to accommodate his girth and plunged her mouth down until his cockhead nudged the back of her throat. She sucked. His cock quivered in her mouth, pulsing. More pre-cum burst from his opening, flooding her mouth with the salty, distinct male taste.