The Jaguar Star (Tales of the Were: Jaguar Island Book 4) by Bianca D'Arc (the first e reader .TXT) 📕

mouth nearing hers… Oh, my Lord… She could see nothing but the green intensity of his gaze as he stared at her lips. Then, his lips were on hers, and it was nothing like she’d expected.

It was hard and rough. Commanding. A little violent, at first. Something sparked within her, and though she resisted the harsh treatment, after only a few moments, things…changed. The violence became intensity of a different sort. His hands gentled, though they held her no less securely. Her back was against the hard stone of the wall. Her front against the hardness of his muscular body, and if she wasn’t imagining things… Oh, my. There was another kind of hardness, as well.

Had that been in the script? She thought not. She met the thrust of his tongue with enthusiasm, rather than fear, and pushed her fingers into the long, silky hair at the back of his head, holding him to her, rather than pushing him away.

Thought ceased. Only sensation remained as the kiss went on and on, morphing and changing from something steeped in violence and anger into something more akin to seduction and coaxing. Of course, she didn’t need a whole lot of the latter. Her body responded to him as if it had been made just for him.

Ren’s kiss worked on her like magic, making butterflies in her midsection take flight and her knees go weak. She clung to him as he kissed her, the taste of him like a drug, the feel of him something she could not get enough of. Ever.

Ren lost all sense of time and place. The woman in his arms… Katrina… Human. Fragile. Hotter than molten lava. More seductive than any practiced siren he’d ever known.

She tasted of heaven, and her little sighs rooted him to the earth. She was paradox and contradiction. She was heaven and the answer to all the really important questions he’d ever had in his life. She was…

Sweet Mother of All.

She was his mate.

Now, he finally understood what his inner jaguar had been trying to tell him. The inarticulate cat had been yowling at him for days. Now, it all made sense. Katrina was theirs. She was Ren’s destiny.

The people filming this first kiss faded from his perception. There was only him and her. Jaguar and mate. Magic and life.

How had this happened? He didn’t know, but he blessed the Fates that had brought this one special, perfect woman into his life. She kissed like a dream. Her body fit his as if it had been made especially for him, and if legend was to be believed, she had been. His perfect mate. The One destined to be his, and for him to belong to, for all eternity.

“Cut!” Sonia’s voice came to Ren out of the haze of discovery. He lifted his head slowly, unwilling to leave Kat’s lips, as if their kiss had meant nothing. This had been no stage kiss.

The world could think whatever they wanted. Ren knew the enormity of what had just happened, and soon, if the Goddess was smiling on him, Kat would understand, too.

“You okay, little Kat?” Ren whispered to Kat as he looked deep into her dazed eyes.

After a stunned moment, she nodded. “Never better,” she quipped, though her voice was fuzzy with desire.

His inner cat smiled at the sound. He’d done that to her. He liked knowing that she was as affected by his kiss as he was by hers.

“Don’t move,” Sonia told them from behind the camera. “We need a little more footage.”

“I don’t mind, if you don’t,” Ren whispered to Kat, hoping to hear that rough edge in her reply, once more.

“I don’t mind,” she told him, her eyes filling with mischief.

“What?” he dared her to speak what was on her mind.

“I mean, who would mind snogging with you? They’d have to be crazy, right?” Her words were a whisper meant only for him. He smiled at her, their bodies pressed intimately together.

“Snogging?” he repeated the word. “We’re not in England yet,” he teased her.

“I watch a lot of British murder mysteries,” she admitted. “I’ve picked up some of the slang.” She shrugged, and he felt her breasts move against his chest. Damn. “I think it’s a fun word.”

“I suppose,” he replied, too distracted by the feel of her soft body against his to make real conversation.

“Okay, we’re ready to go again. All we need is more kissing,” Sonia told them in a loud voice. “We’re going to pan around on the track,” she told them. He’d seen the track they’d set up for the cameras already and knew what she meant. This shot would set the camera in motion while they stood still. Kissing. Hallelujah. “And… Action!”

Ren resumed kissing Kat, his lips learning the feel and shape of her mouth. The camera did what it did, and he was barely aware of it. For the first time in, perhaps, forever, he was more aware of the woman in his arms than all the people around them on the set. Never had he kissed a woman more distracting than Kat.

Of course, he’d never kissed his mate before.

The thought circled his mind, his soul feeling an epiphany. He had a mate. Thanks be to the Mother of All. Now, he just had to figure out how to tell Kat and make her understand that they were meant to be together for all time. He’d have to find a way to explain what he was, as well.

There were hurdles ahead of them, to be sure, but the biggest one—actually finding each other—had been covered. Many shifters never found their mates, which made life incredibly lonely. Ren had figured he wouldn’t be so blessed as to find a mate if he hadn’t by this point in his life, but he was happy to admit he’d been wrong. So, so wrong. Thanks be to the Mother of All.

He couldn’t stop thinking grateful thoughts toward the divine. He couldn’t stop kissing Kat, even if it was part of