Her brows drew down. “What?”
He bent down and snatched up his coat from atop her pallet. He looked at her over his shoulder after he straightened, holding her gaze as he slowly—soslowly—raised the jacket to his nose. His nostrils flared with an inhalation, and his eyelids drifted shut. He made a low, rumbling sound that was somewhere between a growl and a purr. A damnedpurr.
I think I just came.
Shay suddenly recalled how she’d started her morning.
Eyes wide, she leapt from her chair and crossed the room, holding out a hand. “Give me that!”
Keeping the jacket raised, Drakkal turned away from her, shielding the garment with his body. “You sure you want to waste time talking, Shay?”
“It’s not wasting time,” she said, standing on her toes and leaning against him as she reached for the jacket. “Now give me back my jacket!”
“Can’t. Smells too good.” He turned toward Shay just enough for her to see him rub the fabric against his cheek and draw in another deep breath.
How could she be so mortified and turnedon all at once?
“I’ll give it to you if you promise to wear it for me again,” he finally said.
Shay stepped back, held her hand out, and glared up at him. “Fine. Give it to me and I’ll put it on.”
The visible corner of his mouth lifted in a devilish smirk that displayed one of his wicked fangs. “Onlythis.”
Make that mortified, amused, and fuckingaroused.
She wasn’t used to this kind of playfulness, and never would’ve expected it from Drakkal…but it was averygood look on him.
And it was also a distraction from the true purpose of his visit—he’d come to offer her work and a safe place to live. She needed to know that she could trust him, that she wasn’t going to get involved in something she’d regret. She couldn’t make that mistake again.
Keeping her gaze locked with his, she curled her lips in a sensual smile and leaned forward, letting her hair fall around her face. She beckoned him with a finger. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”
Drakkal’s ears perked, and he finally lowered the jacket and turned to face her. Though surprise and suspicion crept into his expression, they were overpowered by the desire still burning in his eyes. “I don’t like being calledkitty,” he said as he took a step toward her, but his voice was sultry instead of annoyed.
She lifted her chin and stared up at him with hooded eyes. “Yes, you do.”
He hummed thoughtfully and came to a stop immediately in front of her. “Only when you say it,kiraia.”
Shay lifted a hand and settled it on his cheek. The fur beneath her palm was softer than she’d anticipated. His eyelids drooped, and his lips parted. She slid her hand along the back of his neck and into the thicker fur of his mane. A shuddertraveled from his body into hers, accompanied by another of those rumbling purrs.
“Good,” she said softly, easing closer. “Then you’ll also like it when I say you’d been abadkitty.” Curling her fingers into a fist, she gave his mane a yank.
He winced, and the noise that emerged from him was somehow a snarl and a hiss at once. Before he could recover, she snatched the jacket out of his hand, released her hold on his mane, and retreated from him, dropping a hand to rest over the blaster on her hip.
The pain on his face quickly gave way to an amused smirk—as though he’d not really been hurt at all.
“If you don’t want to rut, you shouldn’t be teasing me like this,” he said in a husky voice.
The tension eased from her as soon as she realized he wasn’t going to retaliate. She stared at him questioningly, unable to shake her lingering wariness, before returning to her chair. She sat with the jacket folded protectively over her lap and both arms atop it, one hand clamped on the fabric.
The remembered feel of his soft fur, his heat, lingered on her palm.
“Enough playing around, azhera,” she said. Things were getting too…relaxed with him. “Spill it. What do you do?”
He approached slowly; despite his leisurely pace, he put off the air of a predator confidently stalking its prey. Shay couldn’t stop her eyes from dipping to the prominent bulge at his crotch—which was definitely larger than it had been a few moments ago. Her core clenched as the fires in her belly roared to new heights. She tightened her hold on the jacket.
Fuck. Me.
Focus Shay!