Animal Instinct: A Ghost Cats Story, page 1
The wild thing she saved is the man she’ll desire most.
A Ghost Cats story.
Eve Matthews, head veterinarian at Jameson Wildlife Rescue and Preserve, measures success by no one’s rules but her own—much to her rich parents’ distress. A life filled with animals means she’s rarely alone. Still, a little human contact of the male variety would be nice.
The only one in her life right now is Midnight, a black panther she brought back from the brink of death. She doesn’t think twice about bringing him home to keep an eye on him. Changing clothes in front of his golden eyes. Confessing her deepest fantasies to his alert ears. It’s not as if he’ll ever tell anyone her secrets.
Forced to watch her every move, listen to her every word, Viktor is in torment, trapped in panther form while he heals. He aches to fill her nights with the pleasure she craves, but to shift too soon risks death. Until the night she pleasures herself, and he can take no more.
They come together in a cataclysm too fierce to be a dream. But the shifter who left Viktor for dead is drawing near, determined to finish the job he started.
This book has been previously published
Warning: Contains a voyeuristic cat shifter, a heroine who’s an exhibitionist unaware, and explicit sex that may just give you cat scratch fever. Iced catnip tea recommended.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520
Macon GA 31201
Animal Instinct
Copyright © 2010 by Michelle M. Pillow
ISBN: 978-1-60928-104-5
Edited by Lindsey Faber
Cover by Natalie Winters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: July 2010
www.samhainpublishing.com
Animal Instinct
Michelle M. Pillow
Chapter One
Eve Maitland stumbled drunkenly into her office trailer at the Jameson Wild Life Rescue and Preserve. The trailer was dark, but she spent more time in it than in her own apartment and didn’t need light to find her way around. Everything was neatly organized and put away. Her desk sat in the corner, dominating much of the small front area. An old brown couch was next to it. The poor piece of furniture had seen better days, but she couldn’t see spending the preserve’s money on a new one when they had so many rescued animals to take care of.
Plopping down on the couch, Eve kicked her feet up on the broken coffee table and sighed. She rarely drank, but a night spent with her overbearing socialite parents was enough to warrant the special occasion. There was a reason she’d moved into the pool house when she was sixteen and then away from them altogether on her eighteenth birthday.
“Evelyn, dear, why didn’t you bring a date?” her mother had scolded the second she walked in the front door of the mansion home.
“No hi, how are ya?” Eve growled under her breath, feeling a small measure of drunken comfort in talking to herself. The mansion’s icy marble halls reflected her mother’s personality perfectly—a pretty façade, cold and unchanging, and constructed of non-biological materials. “How’s the job? Save any lives today? We’re so proud of you, Eve. We missed you, Eve, glad to have you home.”
Nope, what she got was, why don’t you have a man? Oh, and the reminder that her looks had a shelf life that was fast expiring and the outdoors was not doing any favors to her future complexion.
If it wasn’t bad enough, the entire party had heard her mother’s comment and it was all anyone wanted to talk about the entire evening. Are you dating? If not, I have this nephew-slash-brother-slash-friend-slash-grandson-slash-escort. When are you going to settle down? What ever happened to that nice doctor you were seeing? What was his name? Henry Statton? Yes, what ever happened to Dr. Statton? You were so perfect for each other.
Eve frowned. A reflection of moonlight caught her eye as clouds drifted away from the moon. The blue beam landed on the small scrap of paper hanging on her wall. Evelyn Maitland, Veterinarian. You’d think that would have been enough to make her family proud.
Suddenly, a dark figure leapt from the floor to settle next to her. Eve jumped in surprise to see the black panther. A small giggle left her lips as the large animal set his head in her lap. She stroked him behind the ears, drawing comfort from the animal’s friendship. Most people would have been frightened to have a fierce-looking animal lurking in their home, but not Eve. For some reason animals took to her and bonded. Perhaps they could sense how much she loved them.
“What do you think, Midnight?” she asked the big cat. She called him Midnight because of his beautiful dark coat of fur. It was so black it was almost blue, but there were times in the light she could see the subtle circular pattern of spots hidden within the coat. “Do you think I should have told them about Henry? I could just see it. Mom. Dad. I know you like Dr. Statton, but after I found him in a thrift-store dress, his cock shoved down his male receptionist’s throat, I just couldn’t bring myself to marry him.”
The panther nudged her hand and lifted his face close to hers. She chuckled, feeling the animal’s warm breath on her neck. Eve loved all animals, always had since she was a girl. She found them easier to talk to. They listened, didn’t judge her, and she didn’t have to worry about them telling her deepest secrets. Animals didn’t betray their friends. Not like humans did.
She usually made the rescued animals sleep either in the lab or out in the large prairie they had set aside for the cats. But Midnight was different. He had come to her a mangled, broken mess. It had been the worst case of neglect and abuse she had ever seen. He’d been found in an old barn. No one knew where he’d come from, or if they did they weren’t talking. The best they could guess is that he’d escaped his owner and crawled to the barn for safety. That’s when she’d been called in. The stupid police officer at the scene had wanted to put him down. Eve wouldn’t let him—not when he had a chance to live.
For long months it was touch and go and she’d almost lost him on several occasions. He needed constant supervision those first weeks and so he had slept in her office while she nursed him back to health. Sometimes, thinking about all the cat had survived, she was astounded that he’d lived at all.
Ruffling his fur, her finger automatically followed the scar hidden by fur. With a heavy sigh, she grumbled, “Oh, I am really going to miss our little talks together, you know it. But it’s not fair to keep you locked up in this office all day and night. You deserve to live out in the open with the other cats. I think you’re going to like the new home I’ve got lined up for you.” He nudged her arm when her hand stilled. “Oh, don’t worry. I promise if you don’t like sleeping on the ground, I will personally bring this couch out there for you.”
Eve closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the couch. A little moan left her lips and a small tremor worked its way through her body. She absently kicked off her shoes and pulled her socks off with her toes.
“Why don’t I have a man, Midnight?” Her head pulled up so she could look into his entrancing golden eyes. “My mom’s right. I am kind of pathetic. Why couldn’t men be more like you? Fierce and wild, strong, silent, knowing when to give comfort and when to take it. Protective.”
A sound of misery and discomfort rumbled the back of her throat.
“And do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had sex? Not that the sex I’ve had has been anything to brag about, but at least it was something. Sometimes I think I’m so aroused I’m going to explode from the pressure. Not that you understand any of this, I’m sure.”
The panther’s ears twitched as if he truly listened. Eve frowned at him in thought, stroking her hands over his face. Sometimes when she looked at him, it almost seemed like he did understand her. Midnight’s eyes closed as he enjoyed her attentions.
“Uh, I think I’m going crazy. I’m going to end up alone—the old cat lady children run away from in fear. It has been way too long, that’s for sure. But the only men who want to date me are stuffy, boring doctor types and I’m too much of a coward to go after what I really want. I am not sure I even know what I really want. If there ever was a truly sexually repressed human, that would be me. But you don’t have that problem do you, boy? I bet not. I bet panthers never have to think about it. They just act on instinct, pure animal instinct.”
Eve pushed up from the couch, walking to the small bedroom in the back of the trailer. The room was set off from the larger front office with a small bathroom next to it. The queen-sized bed was covered with a mountain of pillows and blankets. A small dresser sat next to the wall, next to a full-length mirror. She began undressing, not caring that Midnight followed her and watched.
Throwing her silk shirt on a chair, she then jerked her long legs out of her slacks. Stumbling before the mirror, she looked at herself in the dim light. She was pretty or, according to he r mother, she would be if she put on more makeup and did her hair in something other than a sloppy bun. Her body was toned from spending hours on the prairie caring for over three hundred animals. Her skin was tan and her blonde hair streaked from her time in the sun.
Tugging at her hair, she loosened the blonde waves down over her back. “I lied, Midnight. I know what I want. I want just one night with no commitments, like a stranger I don’t have to talk to. I want him to be a wild, untamed lover. I want… I want him to be bold.”
Eve began running her hands over her body, feeling the weight of her breasts through the tight hold of her white silk bra. Her nipples hardened with instant longing. It really had been too long. She was frustrated beyond belief and masturbating had long since lost its appeal.
Eve sighed and fell back on her bed wearing only her white silk panties and bra. A dreamy sigh came to her lips as she closed her eyes. “Mmm, that’s exactly what I want. I want a big strong man who can pick me up, crush me against a wall and fuck my brains out. I want someone who doesn’t care what others think of him—a true rebel. I want someone sexy and wild and confident, with a motorcycle and tight black leather pants that mold to his deliciously firm ass. Someone who’ll just look at me and make me melt into a puddle. Mmm, that’s what I really want. But I’m a coward, Midnight. I’m too scared to go and find him. Besides, guys like that aren’t attracted to safe, boring veterinarians who live in trailers and talk to animals as if they were people.”
Eve started to laugh, a sad sound that held no merriment.
“It’s just as well,” she murmured, too tired to move. “I wouldn’t know what to do with a man like that anyway. I’d probably tense up and start crying out of fear.”
Midnight jumped on the bed and lay close to her side, not touching her skin. She sighed, long and loud, and absently patted his back before falling into a deep sleep.
Chapter Two
Viktor looked over the gorgeous, unmoving woman who rested next to him on the bed. He could see her perfectly in the dim light of the bedroom. Only a soft blue glow came in from the window. She was ravishing, so much so that he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Just his luck, he’d find the first woman he truly desired and cared for in his eternity of living only to be stuck in his shifted form, unable to do anything about it.
Viktor’s injuries kept him from shifting, yet, ironically it was his injuries that brought him to Eve Maitland. A fellow cat shifter named Bartel had stabbed him in the back while he was in human form. Eve’s intervention saved him from being put down like a feral animal. It was only the power of the cat form and the sweet, administering hands of a sexy angel that helped him to heal. Every day he wanted to thank her, but if he tried to become human too soon, he’d die. If he stayed shifted too long, stayed in this place too long, he risked bringing his troubles to his caretaker’s door. Bartel would want to finish what he started. He wasn’t the kind of man to leave loose ends. Viktor was a loose end. Luckily, Eve kept him in her trailer, hidden away. But once she moved him onto the preserve, he’d be easier to track.
Eve’s legs stirred against the bed as she slept. Viktor studied the long line of her body. She unintentionally tortured him day and night with her presence. She talked to him about herself, telling him secrets, whispering her fantasies, asking him questions that couldn’t be answered with his animal throat. It was pure torment. She undressed before him, letting his cat eyes see her body without hesitation or thought. During his time spent under her care, he’d been afforded numerous views of her form—in the shower, the bed, dressing and undressing. A few times when she didn’t know he looked, he’d watched her pleasure herself—wiggling her hips against her exploring fingers, stirring up her feminine scent until it clouded his mind, jerking and panting as she brought herself to climax with a silent cry of release. If he were shifted to human, he’d groan in anguish at the memories of watching her climax by her own hand. Since he was panther, he merely growled low in discontent.
He knew she was drunk, could smell the liquor in her veins mingling with her woman’s scent—a scent that was finally driving him to the point of risking exposure, a scent so sweet it could make a man risk shifting before his body was ready. Feeling a tingling in his limbs, Viktor stiffened in surprise. Was he healed enough to finally try it?
The smell of her again filled him and a mindless urgency overcame him. Viktor urged his body to transform. She’d petted him, stroked him. It was his turn. He needed to touch her with his flesh, had to know if her skin was as soft and supple and sweet as he imagined. It had been a long time and the transformation hurt like hell. He endured the pain exploding in his limbs, popping his joints, extending his bones and retracting his canines. An imaginary fire burned across his flesh, pulling his skin to the point it felt as if he might rip in half. Sore muscles twinged and hardened, cramping violently. He’d come too far. He couldn’t stop it now, not as he shifted to human once more. Black fur was slowly replaced by tanned flesh. His muscles lengthened and stretched, arching and curling until they molded into a hard, masculine frame. The bed shook and Eve moaned. Her hand reached out, absently petting his shifting shoulder as she slept. The touch brought him little comfort. His lips parted in a silent, agonizing scream. And then, finally, it was finished.
Viktor took a deep breath, trembling weakly as he readjusted to the energy it took to be in the larger form. His skin pulled tightly against his frame and his joints ached. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stay a man for too long—not yet anyway. But once he was completely healed, the human form would again be his dominant shape.
Lying naked on the bed, he looked at Eve with his dark human eyes. His cock stood erect and ready and he couldn’t discern whether it was from the rush of blood through his shifting body or the knowledge that he’d finally be able to satisfy that deep curiosity. Though his vision was sharper as a cat, he could see her soft lines perfectly. Delicate material cupped her breasts, revealing shape but not texture. His fingers twitched. One touch. That was all he’d take. One small touch. He had to know.
Running a masculine hand down his ribcage, he suppressed a groan. He was lying to himself. If he touched her now, in this state, he’d never stop. His eyes flickered down Eve’s body only to come up again, landing once more on the soft rise and fall of her round breasts. His long, tapered fingers wrapped around his thick cock. Shifters weren’t known for suppressing their sexual appetites and it had definitely been too long since he’d indulged his. The heavy length of his shaft lurched and throbbed beneath his hand as he stroked it.
His mind whispered wicked thoughts to his body. She said she wanted a wild man to take her. She asked for it. She wants it. You want it. Think of how her skin will taste. Think of how fragile her flesh is. Think of how wet she smells between the thighs.
Moving with liquid grace, he turned onto all fours and crawled to be closer to the woman on the bed. His breath came in hard gulps as he looked at her. He was a fool to think he could ever resist. He’d been forced to gaze at her creamy breasts and athletically smooth thighs for too long. He wanted a closer look. He wanted to touch her, taste her. He wanted to fuck her. He wanted to make her scream his true name.
Viktor licked his lips and sat back on his heels. Sexy lace panties hugged her narrow hips, the straps falling over where her hipbones protruded slightly from her skin. He knew when he pulled them down that he’d find a narrow patch of dark blonde hair guarding her opening.
Her thighs parted slightly as she stirred next to him on the bed. He couldn’t resist lowering his face between them to breathe in her exotic feminine smell. Without thought, his lips parted and his long tongue reached forward to taste her through the silken barrier.
Eve lurched against him at the contact, wiggling and moaning in her sleep. A soft pant came from her lips and her legs fell open to him as she inadvertently begged him for more. Viktor grinned and could not deny her plea.
“Mmm,” he moaned in the back of his throat, bathing her panties with his tongue until they were soaked and clinging to her hot, moist pussy. His breath hit against her. He could taste the sweet cream of her body trying to saturate the silk.
