A Kitty in the Lion's Den(15)

“All right, well follow me, and I’ll show you where you can sleep.” He turned, and she had no choice but to follow him. There were only two doors down the hallway, one on each side of her. She presumed the one they passed to be the bathroom. He pushed opened the other door and stepped aside for her to enter. The room was just as barren as the rest of his place. The bed was the main focal point, but it was nothing more than a mattress on a frame, and covered with a dark comforter. A nightstand sat lonely beside that, and a stainless steel lamp atop it. “You can take the bed.”

She looked at him, and then again at the bed. She couldn’t help the image that slammed into her head, the one that had her picturing both of them on that mattress without a stitch of clothing on. God, control yourself. She cleared her throat, hoped her face wasn’t as red as she thought it was, and looked over at him. “But where will you sleep? I don’t want to take your room. The couch will be fine for me.” She was suddenly struck by how much bigger he was than she. But maybe that was because she was currently picturing them naked and between those sheets? He was tall and so very muscular, and although she wasn’t thin by any means, and had even been called fat by her father and brother on more than one occasion, Maverick made her feel tiny.

“You’re fine. I’ve slept on far worse, believe me.” She didn’t bother arguing, because she knew she wouldn’t win regardless. His scent saturated everything, and the idea that she would be sleeping in his bed, becoming covered in the dark smell that came from his inner lion, was like an olfactory orgasm. “I don’t have anything that will fit you, but you’re more than welcome to my t-shirts.” He moved past her, and the side of his arm brushed against her. Even with her life on the line, her father and his men no doubt hunting her down right now, and the fact she was in the bedroom of the once most feared and revered hit-man to run in the organized crime circle, she couldn’t help the tightening of her body, of the fact arousal started to take hold of her. It had only been that one small brush against her, and she hadn’t even felt any bare flesh, but her cat rose up and started purring. It was an odd feeling to have her animal take an interest in this male. Her Pallas’s cat was more reserved, kept to itself, and never emerged because survival was far more important than intimidation. The males she was constantly around had no qualms with shifting often, but they didn’t, because even though they were fierce and dangerous, their inner animals were of the smaller breed. There had been people that laughed when they realized her father and the majority of the males who worked for him were Pallas’s cats. They thought their breed wasn’t intimidating or something to fear. Needless to say all of those people were dead.

But right now her inner cat wanted out, wanted to rub all over this alpha lion until there would be no mistaking that they were mates. She blinked a few times, realizing where her thoughts had gone, and that Maverick stood by his dresser, his hand on the handle, but his eyes on her. His lids were at half-mast, and his chest rose and fell with an almost violent tendency. Even if she had been human and hadn’t been able to smell the arousal that came from him, the way he looked right now, like he was barely restraining himself, forcing himself to stand still, would have told her of that fact. After they stared at each other for what seemed like forever, he finally turn around, opened his drawer, and grabbed a white t-shirt from inside. He held that material in his hand for a second longer than was normal, and she saw the way he was clenching his hand around it. Letting it fall to the top of the dresser, he kept his head lowered as he moved past her and toward the bedroom door, but before he left her alone he stopped, and without turning around said, “Bathroom is down the hall if you want to get cleaned, and if you need anything, just let me know.”

She nodded, but she felt stupid since he still wasn’t looking at her and couldn’t see the act. Without another word he shut the door behind him. Kettah stared at that closed door for far longer than she should, and despite the fact she couldn’t see him she could feel his presence still on the other side. After a minute he left, the sound of his footsteps retreating down the hall. She turned and eyed the t-shirt, and although there was a part of her that wanted to wear it, to smell like him and feel the material on her body that he had worn, she wasn’t about to get undressed. What if something happened and they found her tonight? She would need to make a quick escape, and being fully dressed was the smart thing to do.

It didn’t take long for exhaustion to finally settle in, and so she walked over to the bed. It was massive, but then again she supposed it needed to be to fit a male like Maverick. Climbing onto it she brought her knees toward her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. She eyed the door again. He was just a few feet away, a lethal killer that was now her mate. Her mate. It seemed fate was a clever entity, bringing together two people that were trying to get away from the same evil. She should and shouldn’t be tired. The fact she was trying to escape a horror-filled life should have had Kettah on high-alert, but the fact she was doing just that had drained her to the point she was having a hard time keeping her eyes open. She had spent countless hours on the bus, and then another couple of hours with Maverick. She just wanted to fall asleep and pray that when she woke up all of this was a nightmare and she lived a different life.