VISIONS OF HEAT

“They don’t know I’m here.” He looked up at the roof, at the skylight no one should’ve been able to open. “Psy don’t monitor danger from above.”


She couldn’t figure out how he’d done it, but that didn’t surprise her—he was a cat, after all. “Did Sascha send you?”

“Sascha thinks I’ll eat you up if given the chance.”

“Will you?” She wasn’t sure about Vaughn, about the jaguar that prowled in the darkness behind the beauty of his eyes.

A finger trailed down her face and she forced herself not to move. She was strong and she would get past this block. Her fingers tingled with the sensory memory of Vaughn’s hair and she wondered what his skin would feel like.

“Come closer and find out.” His voice had gone rough, but there was nothing threatening about it. It was almost . . .

She searched the dictionary in her mind and found the answer. “You’re trying to coax me.” No one had ever before done such a thing. They’d demanded, ordered, asked in pandering terms, but never had anyone coaxed.

He was nearer to her, though she hadn’t noticed him move. But he remained atop the sheets while she lay below. Why then could she feel the heat of his body, almost as if he burned hotter than her?

“Maybe.”

It took her a second to remember her question. “Why?” Her hands were on top of the sheets, a hairsbreadth from the bare skin of his chest. Her eyes widened. “Are you naked?”

“Unless you have some clothing to give me, yeah.” He sounded entirely too comfortable with that fact.

“You can’t enter a woman’s bedroom naked.” That wasn’t acceptable behavior in any race.

“I was clothed when I entered . . . in my fur.” He was all golden eyes and gleaming skin above her, a male so beautiful that she wondered at his existence in the same world as her. “I can shift back if you’d like.”

It was a dare. “Fine.” She wasn’t going to let him think he could get away with anything he wanted.

“Are you sure you want a jaguar in your room?”

“I think I already have one.” But something in her wanted to see the change, the same something that knew Vaughn was beautiful, though she shouldn’t have had the capacity to recognize male beauty.

“Don’t move, Red.”

The world turned into a rainbow-bright shimmer around her. She froze at the utterly unexpected sight. She’d thought the change would be painful for him, hadn’t really expected him to do it. But nothing about this spoke of pain, only of awe.

A heartbeat later, the shimmer was gone and she found herself lying next to a jaguar who had very sharp teeth and eyes exactly like those of the man who’d occupied the space moments ago. She swallowed. She was Psy—she felt no fear. But it was practical to be on guard with something this lethal.

The jaguar opened its mouth and growled almost below the range of her hearing.

“Was that a question?” she ventured. “Because I don’t speak jaguar.” Where had that come from? It was a completely illogical statement—of course she didn’t speak jaguar.

The jaguar lowered its head and nuzzled at her throat. Her heart threatened to rip through her skin and to the outside. “I’m stronger than this,” she whispered, and forced herself to lift one hand around and over the jaguar’s head until her fingers closed on the ruff of his neck. She tugged. He refused to move. She tugged again, harder. A growl that vibrated in her bones.

“Stop it, Vaughn.”

Without warning, the fur disappeared from under her hands, the incredible softness shimmering into rainbow-bright sparks that ended with a naked male above her. Her hand was now clenched in amber-gold strands of hair. “So you’ll touch the cat, but not the man?”

“I was trying to get you to move.” She didn’t release his hair, found she couldn’t. His scent was everywhere in the air, his skin golden and close enough to touch, his smile pure cat.

“Where would you like me to move, little darling?”

She knew he’d added the “little” on purpose. “Away from me.”

“Are you sure?” His smile turned wicked. “If I move, you might see more than you bargained for.”

“I know this kind of behavior isn’t acceptable among leopards.” Technically speaking, she knew no such thing. It merely seemed the sort of thing that ought to be true. “How would you like it if an unknown male came into your sister’s bedroom in this manner?”

All amusement was suddenly wiped off his face. He went still, so completely still that it was as if he were made of stone. The part of her that had been deriving considerable intellectual stimulation from pitching her wit against his went silent, aware she’d awakened something very dangerous.

“Let go of my hair, Faith. And close your eyes. By the time you open them, I’ll be gone.”