Someone he could decimate. His heated
blood would eagerly boil over into
violence.
Serengeti Heat
The step creaked again. The intruder
didn’t knock. Landon’s eyes locked on
the door, watching the knob as it turned,
inch by inch, waiting, ready to spring.
“Landon?”
Her voice, husky and scratched, was a
blow to his composure, cracking the
façade of his inhuman control. She
already sounded as hoarse as if she’d
been screaming his name all night.
Ava pushed the door open a few inches
and peered inside. When she saw him
there, crouched for attack, she froze with
her hand on the knob.
Ava eyed him hungrily. He was barefoot
and bare-chested, wearing only the snug
blue jeans he’d had on earlier, the
partially buttoned fly straining over his
erection. She dimly recalled ripping his
shirt off earlier and silently thanked
herself for her foresight. The muscles
across his chest and shoulders stood out
prominently in his tense stance, his tan
skin gleaming in the golden light of the
lamp.
His appearance stole her breath, primitive and wild. She knew the feral
gleam in his eyes should have frightened
her, but instead she licked her lips, her
own excitement ratcheting up to a
frenzied pitch in instantaneous response.
Ava forced air into lungs that felt
suddenly tight and refused to expand all
the way. She tossed her head, defiant of
the threat implied in his stance, his eyes.
Her hair flicked around her shoulders
and his nostrils flared as if reacting to
the scent of her shampoo.
Feeling daring and far too excited to be
touched by fear, Ava shoved open the
door all the way and stepped into the
predator’s lair. The door fell shut behind
her with an audible click through the humid silence.
“What are you doing here?”
His voice was more beast than man, but
the shiver that shot down Ava’s spine
had nothing to do with fear.
“You told me to come.”
Landon straightened, as though suddenly
recalling his less than human posture, but
his new stance was no less threatening.
He took a step toward her then stopped,
feet braced, glowering down at her. “I
don’t remember telling you anything like
that.”
Ava wet her lips and his eyes tracked the movement. “You did,” she insisted.
There was no question that she was in
heat. The feline had taken over entirely
or she would never be able to say what
she was about to say without
stammering, blushing and collapsing in a
mortified heap.
Ava cleared her throat. She wasn’t going
to say this twice. She tipped back her
chin, looking straight into his eyes.
“You told me to come to you if I needed
to be fucked.”
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27
Vivi Andrews
He didn’t react beyond the almost
imperceptible stiffening of the muscles
across his shoulders. For what felt like
an eternity, he gave no response,
watching her with heated green-gold
eyes that revealed nothing.
Ava held herself perfectly still under his
gaze, afraid if she moved the moment
would shatter and he would toss her out
on her ass. She flinched when he took a
step toward her, startled to have the
statue resolve itself once more into a
man. Another step and he stood directly
in front of her, separated by mere inches
but careful not to touch.
“I did say that, didn’t I?” he mused,
husky and low.
Ava caught her breath and held it, her
eyes falling closed as he leaned in until
his face hovered over the curve of her
neck. He inhaled deeply and Ava felt
herself mimic the action without
conscious direction from her brain. The
scent of him hit her nostrils and shot
straight to her clit. A gush of fluid
drenched her thong and Ava gasped,
breathless again, sucking in another
lungful of him.
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
She couldn’t answer. Did she? How would she even know? She’d forfeited
brain function in favor of sensation the
second she walked in the room and now
he wanted her to contemplate the
repercussions of her actions?
Impossible.
Ava nodded, eyes still closed, praying
that was the right answer, the answer
that would make him touch her.
“Good.”
When he did touch her, it wasn’t where
she wanted it. Where she needed it. His
hand closed like a shackle around her
wrist. He touched her only there, and
with the cool brush of his breath
blowing against the side of her neck. His thumb rubbed a small, rhythmic circle
against the pulse-point on her inner wrist
and Ava felt her entire being narrow to
that point.
She wanted to leap on him, tearing both
of their remaining clothes off. Knock his
feet out from under him and beat him to
the ground. She wanted him fast and
rough and hot, but she stood motionless,
hypnotized by his stillness, captivated by
his unyielding control. Helpless to hurry
him, she let herself feel.
The hand circling her wrist was
impossibly warm, the air he blew
against her skin icy cool. He was firm
but gentle. The patience of his current
stillness refuted the frenzied wildness that had been in his eyes when she
walked in, but she knew it was still
there, lurking just below the surface,
waiting for him to lose the battle with
the beast. Ava couldn’t wait.
She opened her eyes. He was still bent
over her, inhaling her scent, his muscular
chest right in front of her face.
Ava leaned forward and bit him right
above his nipple. Her human teeth sank
into his skin, hard enough to leave a
mark, but not hard enough to make him
bleed. Landon hissed and snarled,
spinning her away from him to break her
hold. Ava released him with a wicked
little laugh. He jerked her back against 28
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Serengeti Heat
him, her back to his front, one arm a tight
band across her bare stomach as the
other still caged her wrist.
The stiff fabric covering his erection
pressed into the small of her back. Ava
leaned back against him, rubbing
sinuously.
“You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” he
growled, his breath stirring her hair.
“What are you waiting for?” She bumped her hips back against him
.
“You’re obviously up for it.”
He whipped her away from him again,
this time to tow her across the room
toward the wide, sturdy bed. Ava started
to climb on the mattress, but Landon
grabbed her and spun her until her hips
were pressed up against the footboard,
facing the bed. A hand on the center of
her back pressed her forward until she
was bent over the rail of the footboard,
her hands braced on the mattress, her ass
presented to him like a present.
He wasted no time unwrapping her.
“You’re going to be sorry you taunted
me,” he growled, stripping her
borrowed skirt so quickly she barely had time to gasp before he was pulling down
her tube top. The stretchy fabric caught
on her hips, but that didn’t slow him
down. Landon grabbed the shirt and her
thong, yanking them together down her
legs.
Completely naked and totally exposed,
Ava had never felt more powerful. She
fought the urge to writhe with sheer
pleasure, then gave into it when his
palms slid up the backs of her bare legs,
cupping her ass almost reverently.
Dipping his fingers between her legs, he
found the juices dripping down her
thighs and hissed something that might
have been a prayer or a curse. “God. I’m
sorry, baby, I can’t wait.”
The sudden loss of his hands and the
heat of his body behind her had Ava
turning. Landon stood a few feet back,
wrestling with the buttons on his fly,
though the difficulty this time was not his
hands, but the heavy erection pressing
against the seam. Ava reached out a hand
to help.
“No.”
Ava snatched back her hand, startled by
the abrasive command. Landon, his
hands now folded almost protectively
over his cock, closed his eyes and took a
deep breath.
“I can’t have you touching me right now, Ava,” he said, his voice strained. “I
won’t last.”
Ava was tempted to test his control, but
she didn’t think her own need would
wait for him to recover if he was right.
She resumed the position he had put her
in, watching him over her shoulder.
“Well, come on then,” she urged, when
he didn’t immediately drop his pants and
dive at her.
Landon opened his eyes, saw her
position and groaned, closing them
again. But his motivation was apparent.
His claws sprang out and he slashed
down the outer seams of the jeans,
whipping his pants and boxers off like a
Chippendale’s dancer. His cock sprang up, thicker than she remembered from
the jeep and already glistening with the
first drops of pre-come.
Ava squirmed, her body screaming for
him. What was he waiting for? An
engraved invitation?
Landon moved up behind her, the heat of
his body enveloping her. She dropped
her head forward onto her arms, bracing
her feet and arching her back to give him
easier access as he shifted behind her,
making accommodation for the drastic
differences in their heights.
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29
Vivi Andrews
When she felt his head at her entrance,
Ava moaned. Landon froze at the sound.
She wondered if there was anything
within reach she could throw at his head.
What the hell was he waiting for? Her
insides were coiling, twisting, every
nerve on high alert, waiting for his
possession.
Right when she was about to scream her
frustration, he moved, sliding the head
in, then working another inch deeper.
Oh, yes. He was bigger than anyone in
her limited experience and she was
naturally tight, but she stretched to take him in another inch, then another. He
filled her so perfectly, but she needed
him deeper. She needed him faster and
harder, but he just eased forward,
controlled and smooth.
Then he stopped. Again. Ava hissed.
“Landon.” His name was a plea. Hard.
Deep. Please, please, please.
She saw his hand gripping the footboard,
the knuckles white with strain. “I’m
sorry, Ava,” he groaned, easing back.
She stiffened in alarm. If he backed out
on her now she was so going Lorena
Bobbitt on his ass.
“You’re so fucking tight,” he bit out, sounding like he was on the verge of
asphyxiating. He slid out until just the tip
was still inside her. “Am I hurting you?”
Men were such fucking morons. “I have
never felt anything so fucking fantastic in
my entire fucking life, you fucking idiot,”
Ava snapped, her tone far from loverly
as she swore more in that one sentence
than she ever had in her life. “Now
would you please just fuck me
already?”
Landon made a choked sound that might
have been a laugh. “Yes, ma’am.”
He gripped her hips between his hands
and slammed into her so high and hard
that her toes lifted off the ground entirely. Ava screamed. Half a second
later, she came screaming. Every cell in
her body felt like it expanded and
exploded, shattering her into a thousand
tiny pieces. Landon rammed into her two
after her, roaring, his body stiffening and
jerking against her back.
30
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Chapter Seven
That wasn’t enough.
Ava’s first conscious thought after her
brain put itself back together was the realization that the Hiroshima sex she
and Landon had just had had barely been
enough to take the edge off. She needed
more and she needed it soon. Fuck,
being in heat sucked. She couldn’t even
enjoy a good afterglow. Although, she
did get the kind of sex that people wrote
sonnets about, so she probably shouldn’t
complain.
Her second conscious thought was that
footboards were not meant for lying
over.
“Landon.”
He grunted, his weight still pressing her
down onto the wooden rail.
“Landon. As much as I love this…” she tightened her inner muscles where he
was still lodged and her lover groaned
appreciatively, “…this isn’t the most
comfortable of positions for me.”
He swore with feeling and shifted his
weight off her, his cock slipping wetly
out of her body. He gently turned her and
lifted her into his arms, carrying her not
around to the side of the bed as she had
expected, but across the room to the only
other room in the bungalow, the
bathroom.
He perched her on the edge of the sink
and wet a washcloth with cool water.
Standing between her knees, the big bad
lion looked tentative, his movements
cautious, as if she were as fragile as porcelain.
The chill of the washcloth pressing
against the hot flesh between her legs
had her gasping at the surprising
pleasure of the contrast. Landon brushed
her hair back away from her face with
his free hand, still wielding the delicious
washcloth with the other.
“Are you sore?” he asked gently, not
meeting her eyes. “I know I was too
rough. I couldn’t control myself.”
Ava snorted. When Landon’s eyes
snapped up to inspect hers, she rolled
them at him. “You are such a baby,” she
scolded. “This—” she wrapped her hand
around his cock, which was already stiffening even so soon after their first
bout, “—is not the terrifying monster you
seem to think it is.”
He snorted and she grinned.
“I liked it,” she promised, then shook her
head sharply. “No. I loved it.” Ava
leaned forward, the high counter putting
her face on a level with his. She gave his
cock another friendly stroke and gently
scraped her teeth along the side of his
neck before whispering directly into his
ear, “I wanted it harder, Landon.
Deeper. Rougher.” His cock jumped a
little in her hand at every word. She
laughed darkly. “This was Vivi Andrews
fabulous. But next time…” She sucked his earlobe into her mouth, giving it a
gentle nip. “Next time, I expect you to
ruin me for all other men.”
“Done.” Landon lunged forward and
caught her mouth, his tongue plunging
inside and tangling with hers.
Apparently next time was starting right
now.
Ava linked her legs loosely around
Landon’s waist and draped her arms
across his shoulders. Their first bout had
taken the edge off enough that she could
enjoy the kiss for the moment without
feeling like she needed to crawl inside
his skin. Her lover was not so patient.
His hands skimmed lightly over her arms. They framed her collarbone, his
thumbs brushing the pulse points in her
neck before he turned his hands, tracing
the outer edge of her breasts and across
her stomach with the backs of his
fingers, all without releasing her mouth.
Then suddenly he slowed the kiss until it
was languid and drugging, pulling at her
soul through her mouth. Ava hummed her
pleasure against his lips.