Forever and a Day (14 page)

“You do not have to do anything that makes you ill at ease.” His deep voice rumbled comfortably across the space between them. “My other form comes in handy in my work.”

“So much time goes by between when I shift, I sometimes forget about that side of myself.”

“I had surmised as much.” He hesitated. “I am certain your cat is just as beautiful as you are.” Her face heated. She glanced at the nav system and noticed they were only twenty miles from Riverton; a quick conversion told her it was thirty-two kilometers because she still had a hard time thinking in miles. “Did your Mum tell you anything about shifter pairings?” he pressed.

“You’ve asked twice,” she said, thinking what it might mean. “I’m guessing there is something important you want to make certain I know.”

“You are astute. Bright as well as beautiful.”

Tamara rolled her eyes. “Just tell me.”

She watched his profile, illuminated by muted lights from the car’s dashboard. “Though I did not mean for us to make love like a couple of randy teenagers in the car, it happened. So we must be careful.”

“Why? I can’t get pregnant unless I will it.”

He shook his head. “No. Not that. And shifters are immune from human diseases, so that is not it, either. Once we shift—and we will—we cannot make love in our animal forms unless we are certain we want to spend our lives together.”

Her ears perked up. This was the first time she’d heard anything like that. “Why is that?”

A muscle in his jaw worked. “When I meet your parents, I will inquire why they did not do a better job educating their offspring. Shifters mate for life. Making love in shifted form cements the bond and will make it impossible for you to love anyone but me, whether we remain together or go our separate ways. It works the same for me.”

Motivated by his seriousness, she dropped her bantering tone. “Och, I see. Mum tried to talk with me about the mate bond, but I wasn’t having any of it. Is any of this written down?”

“
Ja
. And carefully guarded. Are none of your brothers married to shifters?”

“None of them ever married.” She raked through her memory, recalling shrouded conversations between her parents and other shifters. “Things got so bad for us in Ireland, we hid what we were. If anyone trolled for a mate, they were damned quiet about it.”

He pounded a fist on the steering wheel. “It is why I choose to spend my time among shifters. Humans are afraid of their own shadows, but they have done a hell of a job intimidating us by slapping rules atop other rules. What I have never understood is why we did not mobilize, fight back.”

“That’s an easy one.” She blew out an exasperated breath. “When you’re taught to be invisible, well and it’s a hard habit to break.”

Lars took them to a charming log building for dinner where they’d shared rare steaks, crisp greens, and bread fresh from the oven, along with a bottle of excellent Cabernet. They were on their third motel, had just pulled into the parking lot, when Tamara laid a hand on his arm. “Let’s just find somewhere out of town and sleep in the woods. It’s late, nearly the middle of the night. We won’t be there so long as to arouse suspicion.”

“If you are certain.” He felt protective of her and didn’t want her to be cold, or to want for anything. He’d begun to resurrect the conversation about shifter matings and mate bonds over dinner, but the restaurant had been too crowded for such a sensitive conversation.

“I’m certain. The last two inns refused cash without running your identification. Like as not, so will this one. I’d rather be out of doors than in some of the down-at-the-heels places we went past.”

He leaned toward her, inhaling her unique scent. Privately, he’d been convinced after the first motel that none of them would accept anonymous guests, no matter how empty their parking lot was. Lars nosed the big car west, heading toward Jackson on Highway 26. Though he hadn’t spent much time in this part of the United States, he recalled convoluted country, filled with buttes and mesas both to the north and south of them.

Thank Christ the car had a huge gas tank. He hadn’t been forced to use plastic since hitting the ATM machine at the Caspar airport. It would have been a piece of cake for Chen’s men to trace their emergency landing in Caspar, and easy for them to discover Lars had rented a car. What would be more difficult would be deciding which way out of Caspar to deploy manpower hunting for them—unless someone either bribed or threatened the car rental agency to reveal their destination.

Sixty-five kilometers clicked by. He’d spent enough time in the States, he made the transition from miles to kilometers seamlessly. When he figured they were about as deep in mesa country as they were likely to get, he hunted for a promising side road. No point in getting too far off the highway. He glanced at Tamara. She was dozing again.
Good.
She needed rest.

Running on instincts that had rarely failed him, Lars flipped the car into four wheel drive and guided it along faint, sandy roads until he was satisfied they were about as hidden as they were likely to get without a whole lot more effort. Small ice and snow patches butted up against stark rock formations. He turned off the engine. Silence, so thick it was almost palpable, rose around them.

“Are we there?” she asked sleepily.

He reached over to ruffle her hair, but she still wore the knitted cap he’d insisted she buy. “
Ja
,
liebchen
.”

She cocked her head to one side, leaning into his hand. “It’s quiet. Sure and I don’t even hear any animals.”

“There is much empty land in the United States. It is very different from Europe and the United Kingdom in that respect.”

“I was thinking—” she began.

“And here I thought you were asleep.” His chest swelled with caring for the woman next to him.

“Well, that too,” she admitted. “Now that we’re here, I’ll be taking you up on your offer.”

Lars felt confused. “What offer,
fraulein
?”

“Och, and I like
liebchen
—beloved—better. The offer to let our cats meet.” He sucked in a breath. She’d been so gun-shy, he’d just assumed that part of things wouldn’t happen for quite some time. She must have mistaken his hesitation because she added, “Isn’t it safe here?”

“Safe enough. At least I believe it to be. You took me by surprise. Give me a moment or two outside and I will let you know.” He got out of the car and inhaled deeply. The frigid night air seared his lungs, but it was fresh and dry and smelled of the desert. Of little rodents and desert plants. He dialed in his cat senses and did it again. Nothing else human was anywhere close. Beyond the distant thrum of cars on the highway, he didn’t hear or smell anything that might indicate someone was tracking them.

He walked to her side of the car and opened the door. She scrambled out, ignoring his extended hand. He felt her draw magic, concentrate it, and lunged for her arm. “Take your clothes off first, otherwise they will be ruined.”

She looked sheepish, and then began to laugh; tension bled out of the moment. “If I hadn’t already told you how infrequently I do this, I’d surely have given myself away. It’s lucky I remembered when we were back at the airport terminal before I healed myself.”

He moved next to her, tugged the hat from her head and the gloves from her hands. She bent, untied her shoes, toed them off, and tossed them into the car along with her socks and the rest of her clothes as she removed them. She was so beautiful, he just watched her body emerge, mesmerized. Though he’d seen parts of her, he’d never seen her totally nude. The perfection of her sleekly muscled form stole his breath.

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Aren’t you going to join me?” she asked through chattering teeth.

He sought words to tell her how striking she was, how incredible, but English eluded him. All he could come up with was German. He swallowed hard. “I will lock the car with your things in it. The keys will be in front of the left front wheel.”

“What about your clothes?”

“If something untoward happens, they will be the least of my problems.” He began to strip, starting with his shoes. “Go ahead and find your cat form.” He grinned. “She will keep you warm.”

The air around her shimmered. A knockout of a mountain cat emerged with a thick, tawny pelt, and Tamara’s beautiful, blue eyes. The cat grinned at him, licked her chops, and purred long and low. His cat raged for release. Lars forgot about folding his clothes. He stuffed them beneath the car, along with the keys, and opened the pathway to free his cat.

“You’re silver,”
she murmured.
“Just like your eyes.”

He rubbed his flank against her and licked her snout. She nuzzled him back. His cat cock hardened. To quell the sexual heat flaring painfully in his loins, he suggested,
“Shall we run?”

Tamara made a noise between a purr and a snarl.
“Sure and I’d rather make love, but running is good too.”

“Remember what I told you about joining in this form.”
Hope speared him. He wanted nothing more than to be bound to this woman, but he understood the need for caution. Now that he saw her as a cat, he felt the mate bond and was even more certain she was his chosen one, but they had to have at least a small space of time when they weren’t running for their lives to make a decision that would bind them forever.

She leaped into the air and took off at a dead run. He charged after her. They chased one another, nipping, rolling, playing, until both were breathless. His sense of time was diminished in this form, but he was certain over an hour passed. Without exchanging words, they loped back to the car and called their human forms. He shook sand out of his clothes before getting back into them and opened the car so she could dress. By the time she was covered, he’d folded down the back seat and laid the sleeping bags out. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable bed since he hadn’t thought to buy air mattresses, but it wasn’t all that long before dawn. He wanted to be at the airport in plenty of time, and it was still a couple hours’ driving time. Plus, they’d want to stop for coffee and breakfast.

He tucked her into the nest he’d made when he’d unzipped the bags and laid one atop the other, got in the other side, and hit the clicker to lock the car. When he held out his arms, she snuggled against him. Tenderness flooded him as he wrapped his arms around her. “I was right. Your cat is just as gorgeous as you are.”

“Not that I’ve seen that many shifters in shifted form, but sure and I’ve never seen a silver cat before. You’re amazing.” She quieted, but he sensed she wanted to say more.

“What?” he prodded. “We should have no secrets between us.”

She propped herself on an elbow and gazed at him, her heart in her eyes. “I had no idea it could be like that. I’ve never shifted just to play, and it felt incredible, like I was born to be her.” She took a measured breath and went on. “My cat is happy too. I don’t ever remember sensing her emotions before, but her joy is so deep and so poignant, it’s as if she’s dancing inside me.”

He felt the smile begin in his heart before it found its way to his lips. “It is the same with me. I have always embraced my dual nature, but my cat has never been so exultant. We have been waiting for you all our lives.”

Tears formed in her eyes, making them glow. “My mum, she tried to tell me I shouldn’t settle for less than a shifter mate. I told her sure and wishful thinking it was, since the odds of meeting another of us was so remote.” A single tear tracked down one cheek.

He pulled her into his arms again. “The past does not matter,
liebchen
. Only the future. Our future.” He covered her mouth with his. Lars didn’t plan to make love with her, but his cock was still hard from when he’d been in cat form. Even beyond his physical need, Lars craved the woman in his arms with his soul.

She opened her mouth beneath his and curved her arms around his body, holding him tight against her. Unlike earlier, Lars didn’t hurry. He kissed her until the body in his arms melted against him and she made delightful mewling noises deep in her throat. When he raised his mouth from hers and strung kisses down the side of her face to the hollow in her neck, she murmured, “We could have saved a wee bit of time by not getting dressed.”

“I did not plan this.” He nuzzled her neck. “You are nigh onto irresistible.”

“You’ll be turning this poor girl’s head with all that fancy talk.” She slipped a hand between their bodies and curled her fingers around his erection, still covered by his trousers. His breath quickened. In the small corner of his mind that wasn’t swamped with lust, he didn’t understand why he couldn’t keep his hands off her. It hadn’t been that long since they’d sated themselves.

He tugged her top up to expose her breasts. Moonlight spilled into the car, lending her skin a silvery glow. Her nipples were already puckered. He bent and kissed first one, and then the other. She arched her back, wove her fingers into his hair, and murmured in Irish. Her hips thrust rhythmically as he suckled her and he sensed her increasing arousal. It stoked his own until he trembled on the edge of orgasm. It was as if everything he did to her amplified itself until he felt it in his own body.

Lars drew away and gazed down at Tamara. She gazed back, eyes liquid with need and warmth. Slowly, she reached between them, undid his pants, and drew his cock out. He felt her spread liquid heat around his exquisitely sensitive glans, and understood his own fluid had escaped. She gripped his shaft and milked it with her hand. So aroused he could barely contain himself, he reached down and laid his hand over hers. “I need to be inside you. If you keep that up, I will spend on your beautiful belly.”

“Such an old-fashioned word.” She helped him undo her pants and pushed them down so she could free one leg.

“Maybe I am an old-fashioned man.” Lars took hold of his cock and guided it between her legs until his cockhead seated firmly against her opening. She moaned, drew her legs up, and latched them around his back. He took his time pushing into her and savored every centimeter of him surrounded by her lush heat. When he hit bottom, he stopped moving and contracted his muscles until he felt an answering twitch from hers.