Treasured by a Tiger Read online

  Gods.

  The pain in his blue eyes stole her breath.

  It echoed in her heart.

  What had happened to the gorgeous warrior with a heart of steel who had saved her and the others from the hell of slavery?

  What had happened to the powerful, confident male who was on a mission and wouldn’t let anything stand in his way?

  She raised her hand and he edged backwards.

  “Don’t touch me. I don’t… I can’t…” He closed his eyes and his voice dropped to a whisper. “If you knew what I was—”

  His head snapped up, his eyes meeting hers.

  “It was foolish of me to let things carry on this long, and I haven’t been honest with you… but I will now.” Those beautiful blue eyes gained a wild edge. “I need this over with because I can’t bear it anymore. I can’t bear lying to you… fooling myself into thinking you’ll look at me the same way once you know what I am.”

  Lyra didn’t like the sound of that.

  He broke away from her and fumbled with his black trousers, his hands shaking violently as he undid the button and dealt with the zipper. She moved back a step to avoid being hit by a boot as he toed them off and kicked them aside.

  She caught a glimpse of him in all of his glory as he shoved his trousers down and then he had shifted.

  She stared at the large animal in front of her.

  Unsure what she was meant to see in him that he found so appalling, that he thought would put her off him and make her despise him for some reason.

  Unsure what he had been lying about.

  All she saw before her was a beautiful, breathtaking, white tiger.

  Soulful blue eyes held hers, and then he lowered his head and turned it away from her a little, and his shame blasted through her, the depth of it startling her and bringing tears to her eyes as she realised what he had meant.

  Gods, he thought there was something wrong with him because he had come out purest white and black.

  Her beautiful male.

  She went to him, eased to her knees in front of him and took hold of his cheeks in both of her palms. His white fur was soft against her skin, his whiskers tickling her forearms as she forced him to look at her.

  It was all there in his eyes.

  The hurt. The shame. The fear.

  All this time they had been together, he had been thinking she would reject him the moment she had seen him in his tiger form.

  It broke her heart.

  The tears lining her lashes slipped down her cheeks.

  She looked at him, trying to find fault in him and finding none at all. What should have been amber on him was snow white, reminding her of home, and his black stripes had an inky blue sheen as they caught the light, no doubt a product of his hellcat genes.

  “You’re beautiful,” she whispered, voice a little hoarse as she fought the tears that kept coming. Tears that were for him, because someone had made him believe there was something wrong with him. Fuck, she wanted to hunt them down and kill them, wanted to make them suffer as he did. She stroked her fingers through his thick fur. “I’ve never seen a tiger as beautiful as you are. You’re incredible. You had me worried there for a moment… I thought you were going to transform into a wholly different creature.”

  He tried to look away from her, and she lowered her right hand to beneath his broad chin and kept his eyes on her. He never had to be ashamed around her. Never. He was far more majestic than she had expected. Far more beautiful. If she had to tell him that every day of his life in order to make him believe her, then she would gladly do it.

  “I don’t understand what your problem is,” she murmured.

  And gasped when he suddenly shifted back.

  He knelt before her, his head bent, silver hair falling down against his forehead and blue eyes fixed on the black dirt between them. “I’m a freak.”

  Lyra stroked his cheek, running her fingers over the sculpted perfection of his cheekbones down to the strong defined line of his jaw. “You’re unique.”

  “I came out wrong,” he bit out.

  The pain in him increased.

  “Gods, I fucking hate whoever made you feel that way,” she snarled and he tensed, his eyes leaping to meet hers, filled with surprise and a touch of awe, before they dropped to his knees. “Was it your family?”

  He was quick to shake his head.

  “Tiger society… it… our markings are celebrated. They’re the pride of our species.”

  She could see where this was going.

  “They’re just jealous.” She settled her palm against his cheek. “You’re more beautiful than they are and they can’t stand it.”

  She never had been able to understand the mindset of people who treated others poorly purely because they were different to them. Everyone was different and that was what should have been celebrated. The tigers were stupid for celebrating everyone looking like a clone of each other.

  “I wish I came out like my twin. I wish I was normal.” He closed his eyes.

  No way he was shutting her out.

  “What’s so great about looking like everyone else? Why would you want to look like your brother… why would you want to be someone else, Grey?” She smoothed her hand over his cheek. “When you shifted, all I saw was a beautiful tiger, made all the more beautiful by your distinct markings. When I look at you now, I see you. I see the male who saved me, who loves his brother so fiercely he’s trekking halfway across Hell for his sake, and one who wants to protect his pride even though they’ve clearly been treating him badly. Personally, I would have left them long ago.”

  She sighed and lowered her hand to his jaw, and eased his head up. He still didn’t look at her.

  “You didn’t. You had a mission to protect your sister, and you stuck with it, even though the pride were cruel to you. The freaks are the ones who treated you badly just because you are different to them, when they should have seen past your markings to the male beneath.” She dropped her hand to his bare chest. “They should have seen the heart that beats inside you, full of love and a strong desire to protect.”

  She lifted her eyes to his as they opened to her and stared deep into them.

  “They should have seen the beautiful male I do.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Grey couldn’t breathe as he stared into Lyra’s tranquil blue eyes and saw the truth shining in them.

  She honestly thought he was beautiful.

  She had seen all of him, and she hadn’t found him wanting, hadn’t found him disgusting. She hadn’t left him.

  If anything, she had moved closer to him.

  The anger he could feel in her touched him as deeply as her words about him, gave them strength that made him believe her. She wanted to fight his pride, wanted to hurt those who had wounded him, and she wanted to do it for his sake.

  Gods, he couldn’t bear it.

  His female was just too wonderful.

  He slid his hand around the nape of her neck beneath her black hair, pulled her towards him and claimed her lips. She gasped into his mouth, a moan following it as she leaned into him and began to return the kiss. The soft sweep of her lips across his drove him wild, but tamed him at the same time, helped him keep control of himself when he wanted to kiss her hard, fiercely bruising her lips with it, desperation driving him.

  He kissed her as softly, as slowly, as he could manage, his heart thundering against his ribs, nerves threatening to get the better of him as his body reacted to her taste, her warmth, and how soft her lips were beneath his.

  She rose on her knees, forcing him to tip his head back and follow her, and her hands claimed his shoulders, the heat of them searing him as she moved closer still. Her tongue probed his lips and he opened for her, groaned as her tongue met his, all warmth and silky wetness, and her taste flooded him.

  He couldn’t get enough.

  He planted his hands on her hips.

  She gasped and he tensed, snatched them away again, fear he had hurt h
er lancing his heart, stabbing deep like a knife.

  She broke away from his lips, pressed her forehead against his and whispered against his lips, “Gods, don’t be gentle with me. Don’t hold back… because I can’t.”

  He hissed and groaned as she raked short claws over his shoulders and down his back, dropped her lips to his throat and kissed it, licked and nipped at it. He tensed, every inch of his body going rigid.

  She kissed downwards, pushing him back as she did, and he breathed hard as he planted his hands behind him to stop himself from falling over. A little moan escaped her as she feathered her fingers over his chest, over the pronounced ridges of his muscles, and lifted her eyes to his, her mouth still close to his skin. She bit her lip and pressed her nails in, and he groaned and shuddered as fire swept through him, rushed down his torso to his balls and cranked them tight.

  “Gods,” he breathed and trembled as she lowered her hungry gaze to the juncture of his thighs.

  Did she like what she saw?

  He was so hard for her, painful and throbbing with need, feared he might explode if she so much as breathed on him. Her moan was his answer, had another shiver tripping through him, lighting up his senses and stirring his hunger to dizzying new heights.

  Fuck, he had never been so hard.

  She kissed down his chest, stealing his focus away from her hands, and from his fears as he lost himself in her again, in the way shivers of pleasure tripped through him whenever she licked or teased him with a fang.

  Her hand wrapped around his shaft.

  Grey barked and his hips launched forwards, the touch so unexpected he didn’t have a chance to contain the reaction.

  His cheeks heated when she lifted her head, locking eyes with him, hers filled with surprise.

  For a heart-stopping moment, he feared she would pull away, would leave him after all.

  Would find herself a more experienced male to satisfy that need he could sense in her.

  She launched at him and her lips seized his, claws pressing deep into his shoulders as she kissed him so hard he couldn’t keep up with her desperate movements. She raked her nails down his chest and he growled into her mouth as he shivered, a hunger to fight her rising inside him, the pain pushing him to master the wildcat going to war on him.

  When he claimed command of the kiss, his left hand tunnelling into her hair to hold her against his lips, she moaned and shook, nipped at his lips and pushed him harder still. He growled, twisted her hair in his hand, locking her in place, and deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue past her lips to tangle with hers.

  That need to make her submit to him returned, stronger than before.

  He broke away from her lips and breathed through it, refusing to let it master him. He wouldn’t do that to Lyra.

  It seemed she had no qualms about doing it to him.

  He grunted when his back slammed into the dirt and stared at her. She swiftly straddled him, her hands planted against his chest, her blue eyes glowing as she stared down at him, the hunger in them calling to him, demanding he satisfy it.

  That trickle of fear broke through again, tried to tangle him in vines and make him choke.

  Lyra didn’t give it a chance.

  She worked her body against his, rubbing his rigid shaft, the friction driving him mad, dragging his hunger for her back to the fore and obliterating his fears.

  He needed her.

  She bent over him, her hair tickling his bare skin as she kissed downwards.

  His breath hitched.

  He craned his neck and stared at her as she travelled lower, all of him going still as she kissed over his stomach, swirled her tongue around his navel, and kept on going.

  Sweet gods.

  She flicked her tongue over the head of his cock.

  His hips jerked, length bobbing hard in response, and he grunted and clawed at the dirt. He shook his head, pleading her not to do that again. Everything they had done so far had almost been too much for him. He wasn’t sure he could bear her placing her mouth on him.

  The wicked look in her eyes said that she wasn’t going to let him find release in that way.

  She couldn’t.

  He focused on her, groaned as he felt the need inside her, one that had grown the moment she had realised he was new to this.

  She hungered for him.

  Wanted him inside her.

  Just the thought had him on the verge of spilling.

  “Fuck, Lyra, drive me crazy again.” Because she had done it on purpose the first time, knew the way to tap into his instincts and make him wild for her, out of control.

  She knew how to push him to a place where fear didn’t exist, where he didn’t think, he just acted. He needed to go there, because he wanted to do this with her, and he wanted it to be good for her. He was sure he could manage that if she just gave him a little push.

  She rose onto her feet.

  He stared at her as she slowly undid the belt on her shorts, his breath hitching as she eased the fly open and shimmied out of them. His eyes followed them as they dropped to her feet and she stepped out of them.

  He tracked up her legs and swallowed hard as he reached the apex of them, covered by her black t-shirt.

  Lyra eased the hem up.

  Revealing a neat thatch of black curls that glistened in the low light.

  He growled and was on her in a flash, a slave to his need to know how she tasted there. She gasped as her back hit the boulder and he pressed her against it, seared her with a kiss that had her clawing at him again. His cock met her warm slick flesh and he shuddered, his need to taste her forgotten.

  He thrust slowly, rubbing himself through her cleft, groaning as his legs weakened. “Oh gods.”

  Lyra lifted her legs and looped them around his hips.

  He stared down at her where she lay on the boulder, her eyes on his face, hooded and dark with need.

  Grey lowered his eyes to his hips, groaned and shuddered as he watched his cock sliding through her flesh, glistening with her juices. Oh fucking gods. He swallowed hard, planted his trembling hands against the boulder on either side of her waist, and lost himself a little in how mesmerising it was to watch his hard length rubbing against her.

  “Grey,” she murmured, a desperate plea that tugged at him.

  His female needed him.

  She couldn’t take much more.

  He wanted to feel her climax around him.

  He took hold of his rigid cock in his shaking left hand, and drank her sweet moan as he rubbed the blunt head downwards.

  “Grey.”

  She arched her back, thrusting her breasts up into the air.

  He groaned and shifted his cock a little lower.

  Her left hand shot to his, gripping his right forearm like a vice, squeezing his bones until a dull ache throbbed in them, and she threw her other hand above her head, grasping the back of the boulder.

  He breathed hard, struggling to settle his racing heart as he found her slick opening. He nudged his hips forwards, moaned and shook as he edged inside her, as he watched his cock disappearing into her beautiful body.

  Oh, dear fucking gods.

  His right hand tightened against the boulder, entire body tensing as he eased forwards, sank deeper into her wet welcoming heat, eliciting a low soft moan from her as she dug her nails into his arm.

  “Oh… gods.” She sounded like him.

  Did it feel as good to her, as mind-blowing, as it did to him?

  He wanted to look at her face, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his cock as he kept inching into her. When he hit an obstruction, he looked up at her.

  “I think you’re a bit big,” she murmured, breathless and trembling.

  “I’m hurting you.” He went to pull out and she gripped his arm tighter, so tight his bones ached.

  “You dare stop now.” Her blue eyes flashed at him. “Gods, I need you.”

  He growled low in his throat at that, at the thought this beautiful female wan
ted him that fiercely, would fight him if he tried to stop.

  Would seek to master him.

  She moaned, tipped her head back and dragged her t-shirt up with her free hand, exposing the flat plane of her stomach and the curves of her breasts.

  Their dark rosy tips puckered, calling to him. He wanted to taste them too. He wanted to hear her moan as he sucked and tugged on them, as he rolled them between his teeth and pinched them.

  Grey ran his eyes down over her curves, to the point where he was joined with her. Her legs tightened against his back and he groaned as her hips lifted and he sank a little deeper, another inch into her.

  He placed his hands on her knees where they were locked against his hips, and skimmed his palms down her thighs, and up her sides. He pressed his thumbs into her stomach, savouring the way she felt around him, and beneath his touch, and the connection that blossomed between them.

  Stealing his breath.

  She pressed her heels against his backside.

  Trying to control him again.

  He snarled, bared his fangs at her and gripped her hip with his left hand, holding her in place and stopping her from moving. He withdrew a few inches, groaned at the sight of his cock glistening with her arousal, and plunged back in. She moaned, her back arching in response.

  He did it again, a longer stroke this time, pulling out enough that he could almost see the head of his cock before driving back into her, making her feel every inch of him and how hard she made him, how much he needed her.

  She gripped his arm again and pushed her t-shirt up higher with her other hand. The sight of her fondling her breasts tore another growl from his lips.

  He released her hip and planted his hand against the boulder again as he began driving into her, each slow curl of his hips pulling him almost all the way out before he thrust back in. The sight of her teasing her own breasts had him forgetting watching his cock, had him locked on her and how erotic she looked.

  He wanted to touch them too.

  He growled as he leaned over her, dropping to his right elbow as he claimed her hip with his left hand again to hold her in place. She moaned and gave him a wicked little smile as she hooked her hand around the back of his neck and traced her fingers over his nape.