Oy. When you’re right, you’re right. They were everywhere nowadays. Shifters, that was. Every walk of life, every profession, every freakin’ pet store. It never surprised Nyla anymore. She’d met Lucas at a shifter function. They’d hit it off immediately and that was that. Shifters were fairly common and, for the most part, they acknowledged each other with a brief nod and went about their business.

  Unless the business was scent. That held meaning where Nyla came from. It held meaning for any shifter of the feline variety. Sometimes the scent of another was merely lust and nothing more. Sometimes it was something far more significant. That meant they had to explore what the scent meant, and it meant them doing the mattress stomp.

  Nyla was going to go with lust here. It had to be lust.

  Unadulterated, sizzling hot lust. How could it be anything else? They’d been friends far too long for it to be anything else… right?

  “So,” she said with a cocky air of indifference and a roll of her tongue on the inside of her cheek. “I shift, you shift, we all shift. Big deal, Lucas.”

  He took a thick, long finger and ran it down the side of Nyla’s face. She held her ground, but squirming might be open to supposition at this point. Her knees trembled as his stare held hers. “I guess it isn’t a big deal for humans, but scent is a very big deal with cats, as you well know. So stop with the pretense, Xena and tell me how this happened all of a sudden?”

  His words were a demand rather than a request. Very un-Lucas-like. It made Nyla’s knees weaker still and the place between her legs not nearly as desert-like as she’d thought. He was right again. Scent was very important to a shifter and Lucas’ was suddenly euphoric, divine, gloriously musky and male. Really making her nose shimmy like it never had before…

  “Nothing happened, Lucas.” Ya cocky, over confident, tightly packed, friggin’ hunk o’ burnin’ love.

  He tipped Nyla’s chin upward with the finger that had trailed a path of heat along her cheek. “You’re full of shit, Nyla. I know what you smell. It’s the same thing I’ve been smelling for over a year.”

  Well, good on you. “Lucas? You’re on crack. I’m Egyptian. We can’t smell anything other than our own kind and you’re not of my breed.”

  “Niiice bigotry there, Nyla. Egyptian breed, my ass.” His breath fanned her face as he taunted the difference in their lineage.

  “Yeah, Bast, you know?”

  “Yeah, so what? Mongrel. Tomcat. Big ASPCA fan, ya know?”

  “Oh, yes. I know.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You smell me.”

  “I’m holding out for one of my own, Lucas, and you know it.”

  “Will it make a difference what breed I am when I’m between your legs, lapping at you?”

  Lucas shot the arrow of words at her and it left Nyla stunned. Who the hell was this? This wasn’t her Lucas. The Lucas who she’d hung out with everyday and treated like a brother. He sure as hell didn’t feel much like family now. Lucas’ thumb skirted Nyla’s lower lip, the pad rough and sending out a clear message of feral desire.

  Oh, fuck. Fucking liver treats and cat nip… Now here’s where she should gather all her warning signals into one big damn pile of flashing neon lights and stop, but when had she ever backed down from a challenge? When had Lucas become Mr. Hot Pants? When had a dose of good common sense kept her from rushing headlong into a nice big pile of shit?

  “That’s debatable, I guess. Cultured tongues are always the best if you ask me,” Nyla shot back. Yeah… take that, Nyla sort of teased him in the way they’d always best communicated. Via a little snappy repartee and a zinger or two.

  Leaning forward, Lucas let his mongrel tongue graze the corner of her mouth in a delicious swipe that lingered near as her lips gaped open. Nyla fought a shiver, clenching her fists. “That’s what my mongrel tongue can do, Nyla,” he whispered.

  Maybe shutting up and letting nature take its course would be what was best here. However, Nyla never did what was best. She abso-fucking-lutely was not going to risk her friendship with him because her nose was off kilter. Maybe she had allergies?

  “I think you should keep your mongrel tongue to yourself, Lucas. It doesn’t belong in my cultured mouth, nor does it belong anywhere near my finely cultured nether regions. Forget it. You’re my friend and nothing more.”

  Lucas pressed his heated body closer to Nyla’s, straddling her thighs with his own, powerful and sculpted. His looming frame gave off an oven of flames that set Nyla’s own body to trembling. He seemed less than impressed with her efforts to piss him off, completely and totally unaffected.

  Lucas’ green eyes pierced hers, searing her flesh. “I think you lie and I also think you’d be a fool to pass me by because I’m not from the land of big pyramids, hieroglyphics and a river called Nile. But that’s just me, Nyla. I’ve said it once or twice in this thing you call friendship. The beauty of this is that now you can smell it too. If you wanna pass up sex with me, that’s your choice…” His words trailed off as the air between them pulsed, thickened with the scent of lust and sinful joining.

  The spot he’d grazed with his tongue burned, and Nyla couldn’t help but think he was right again. Why pass up a chance to boink? “Lucas? What the hell is going on here?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth that wasn’t burning.

  “I think you want me.”

  “I do not,” Nyla said on a gulp.

  “Do too.”

  “Not.”

  “Yep.”

  “Nope.”

  “You do too, and I’m going to run with it.”

  “No, Lucas. We’re too different. You drink beer for crap’s sake!”

  “And you lap Dom from your diamond encrusted kitty bowl.”

  What of it? “I can afford the finer things in life and you knew that from the start, Lucas.”

  “But you won’t find a mongrel tongue like mine this side of King Tut, Nyla.”

  Oh, fine, just fine. He might be right for the fourth time in less than ten minutes. Her sexual activity equaled zero as of late because she left an encounter feeling less than satisfied. She craved more. Hell, just last week she’d told Lucas the same thing. Nyla didn’t know what more consisted of. It had been puzzling her for months now. “This is crazy, Lucas. Crazy. I refuse to risk a perfectly good friendship to get laid.”

  Nyla saw the flash of victory in his eyes, brief and flickering. “You’ve said that a hundred times before, Nyla. Now you can smell me. That makes things different.”

  Yeah, it made things different all right. So why hadn’t she smelled him before this? “It’s going to fuck everything up, Lucas. Everything. There won’t be anymore movies. No more long nights on the phone talking about our dates.”

  “Your dates, Nyla. We talk about yours. I haven’t had any.”

  “You have so. What about the chick with the hot ass?”

  “What about her?” Lucas asked as he stared down at her. His eyes sharing something Nyla had never noticed before.

  “Um, you talk about her all the time. You said her ass was like radiator fluid. Ya know, deadly to us kitty cats?”

  “So?”

  His tone was clipped and held answers Nyla suddenly wasn’t sure she was ready to ask the questions to. “You just had a date with her last week, Lucas.”

  “It wasn’t really a date, Nyla. Remember? She’s still getting over the teenybopper boyfriend anyway. It was a ‘Poor baby’ date. Moral support.”

  Nyla poked his abs. “Yeah, the very date you were supposed to spend inching your way into her heart so you could have that ass that’s as hot as a volcano!”

  Lucas stared straight at her. “I’m not as interested in her as you’d like to believe or as interested as you’d like me to believe.”

  Nyla rolled her eyes at him. “Pluuease! All you talked about was her ass.”

  He shook his head. “No, Nyla. You talked about her ass and how great it would be if she noticed me. She has a nice ass, that’s true, but with her it’s work. We don’t connect like you and I do, Nyla. I’ve said this over and over, haven’t I? We get each other. We have from the moment you cracked wise about it over weenies in a blanket at the shifter meet and greet.”

  “Singles Mingle,” Nyla corrected him.

  Lucas held up a hand. “Whatever. Look it’s just different with y --”

  “Me…” Nyla interrupted as her voice trailed off and what was happening here became a realization. Yes, Lucas had said it a lot in the course of their friendship. There was no one like her. No one who understood him better than Nyla did. It was the same for her too.

  “Yep, you.”

  “Oh, my God! You mean all the time you spent with the chick with the perky ass, you were thinking about me? Me!?” Her incredulous statement just flew out of her mouth before she had the opportunity to allow her brain to kick into overdrive and stop it.

  Lucas cocked an eyebrow at her and sighed. “Maybe.”

  The light in his eyes shifted and Nyla had to look away, catching her breath, now ragged and shaky. What in Ra was happening here?

  “I’ve tried to tell you, Nyla. I told you in the beginning that I thought you were shortchanging us because we get each other so well. We have chemistry, but you shut me out and I wasn’t going to push my way in. I figured you’d come to see it someday, and I was right. You smell me. There’s just no denying it, is there?”

  Nyla snorted and leaned into him just an eighth of an inch closer. Totally against her will and completely in need of whatever he was offering. “I’d be crazy to do this. I can’t believe I’m even acknowledging the idea!”

  She’d spent some time in their friendship denying how she instinctively knew Lucas wanted her, but to have it laid out like this wasn’t something she was ready for. But, fuck he smelled good. It was making her dizzy with lust, worry -- okay, lust.

  “Well, my scent has definitely been acknowledged,” he said, tweaking her nose with his fingers. His confidence and arrogance was hacking Nyla, yet, turning her on all at the same time.

  Nyla’s nipples again pressed painfully against her bra as she turned back to him and placed a finger between them, letting it rest on one rung in the ladder of his abs. Oh, Lawd that was nice… “This is crazy…”

  “It won’t be so crazy when you’re in my bed, Nyla.”

  “Your bed? Hah! Shit on that. We’ll use mine.”

  Lucas laughed. “Tough. I like my bed and I want you in it, on it, all over it.”

  Oh, good gravy… The visual of his bronzed body between her legs on some K-Mart blue light special sheets stole Nyla’s breath away. For the first time in their friendship, Nyla had nothing to say. She was speechless and stopped resisting the urge to allow Lucas to take command.

  How utterly unlike her to allow someone else to do the directing of a well orchestrated boink and she was enthralled, intrigued.

  Horny.

  Horny for Lucas…

  Lucas, her fun date. Her friend. Her partner in crime. Her mental match.

  “I suppose dirtying your sheets is better than messing up mine. Yours can probably be washed with laundry soap,” she replied smartly.

  “And yours have to be taken to the cleaners, right, Cleopatra?”

  Nyla ignored his obvious scorn and focused on the friggin’ flame between her thighs and finding the way to douse it without ruining the friendship she and Lucas shared.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “How about we skip the movie, Nyla and you think about it,” Lucas commanded as he leaned into her, his lips hovering mere inches from hers. He hovered there, his breath fanning her face, warm and smelling of mint. His green eyes searched hers, demanding she look at him, and Nyla found her neck arching backward, her spine curling inward and her hips jutting forward. Lucas laid his lips over hers, unmoving, firm, full, hot as his big hands pulled her lower body to meet his.

  Nyla’s compulsion to stab her tongue into his mouth and clutch at his head was overwhelming, but she didn’t, because somehow it seemed as though he should make the first move and she wasn’t sure why.

  Tilting his head, Lucas caressed her mouth with his, as though he were branding her with the lightest of touches. Lucas inhaled her flutter of a groan. “Good girl,” he praised. “I’ll always be the one on top.” And with that, he let his hand find her ass, giving it a firm squeeze before moving out of her space and then turned to remind her, “Think about it, Nyla. Don’t make me wait too long.”

  Nyla gulped as she watched his broad back exit the pet store and the warmth of his hand linger with a tingle on her ass.

  Holy Fancy Feast…

  Chapter Two

  Two days later and on five hours of sleep, Nyla called Lucas on his cell phone out of utter frustration. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him nearly every waking moment and it was eating its way though her intestines. When his lips had touched hers, Nyla had experienced a fire she’d never known before, and now she needed to find out why this was happening.

  “Hey, Nyla. What’s up?”

  Hey, Lucas, you fricken’ friend fucker upper. Not much new here other than if I don’t do you instantly, I’m going to crawl out of my skin. Nyla bit the inside of her cheek and croaked into the phone, “What’s up? What’s up?” she squawked. “Well, Lucas, two days ago you were my damn friend. Two days later, I’ve slept like next to not at all. I even missed my cat nap, for fuck’s sake. I’m tired and frustrated and pissed at you. However, I’ve come to a conclusion. That’s what’s up! We’re going to get some shit straight right now, got that?” Nyla ran a hand over her hair and sighed the sigh of the utterly frustrated.

  “Sure, Nyla.” Oh, his voice was so damn relaxed and calm, thus fueling Nyla’s pissed off further. “Bring it on. What do we need to get straight?”

  My head, she wanted to scream. My hormones… “I’m coming over there, Lucas and we’re going to figure this out. I don’t know why I smelled you like I did in the pet store, but if I still smell you when I see you again? I’m going to nail you. Hear me? Nail your ass to whatever hard surface is available and kiss the living shit out of you, and if it isn’t fricken’ fab-u-lous, I’m going to kill you. I’d better see shooting stars and all that sappy crap or you die, kitty cat. Do you hear me, Lucas? I know we don’t have a choice in this scent bullshit, but we could have resisted it and kept right on being friends, but nooooooo, you just had to go and tell me you were hot for me, didn’t you? That was really in the spirit of friendship wasn’t it? What a pal you turned out to be. So get your ass dressed or whatever and answer that door when I get there!” Nyla wiped spit from the corner of her mouth with her thumb and waved down a cab. She looked like shit. She felt like shit, but she was going to prove Lucas wrong. They were going to hump like the last two people on Earth and Nyla would come out on top. Lucas was not her lifemate. He was her friend.

  “Okay, Nyla, but would it be okay if we ate after you see stars? I’m pretty hungry.”

  Food? Yeah, food would be peachy. Just what she needed for her topsy turvy stomach in her all of her fucked-up-ed-ness. “I don’t care, Lucas. You can have a smorgasbord of mice if you want. I just need to get this over with. So shut up and put on your chap stick because you’ve fucked with my chi enough, thanks.”

  “You got it, babe.”

  Fuuuuuck him and his confidence, dammit! “I’ll see you in a half an hour,” Nyla barked into the phone.

  “Don’t be late…” Lucas chuckled into the phone.

  Nyla clicked her phone off and stared out the window, her face flushed and her head fuzzy. She had no clear thoughts other than it would all be fine when she got this out of the way, and then she and Lucas could go back to being friends again.

  She really wanted to see that new Adam Sandler movie.

  Nyla rapped on Lucas’ door exactly ten minutes later than she’d told him she would. Glancing down, Nyla smoothed a wrinkle in her filmy skirt as she waited for Mr. Self Assured to open the door.

  As he popped the black, steel door open, he looked at his watch almost irritably. “You’re ten minutes late, Nyla.”

  Fancy that… “I didn’t know we had to synchronize our watches.”

  Lucas cupped the nape of Nyla’s neck, grasping the long flow of her black curls in a loose grip and pulled her to him as he kicked the door shut with a foot. “You made me wait, Nyla. You’re ten minutes late,” he reminded her again. His voice was filled with an unmistakable command that left her speechless.

  Words escaped her… Okay, so hold the phone here. Nyla’s fist of reason knocked on the door to her common sense. She was about to consider having hot, screamin’ sex with a guy she’d known like a year, that she’d met at a singles’ mingle for shifters and had become the best friend she’d ever had. Not only did she want to have sex with him -- okay, she really dug him -- but she was all of a sudden envisioning him like he was the Captain of the Starship Enterprise and she was a wee Klingon.

  Um, helllllooooo in there.

  Are you rolling in reefer instead of catnip these days?

  When had Lucas all of a sudden become this force to be reckoned with? Where had all this raw sexuality come from? When had he become the one on top? She’d always been in control of her portion of their friendship and of her emotions within the box she’d designated “friends only.”

  Lucas stepped away from her, allowing her the space he sensed she needed, and it made Nyla shake her head.

  He smelled soooo good, she reasoned with herself. How could she deny that? He could be forceful if he wanted to…

  Maybe.

  Well, okay, Nyla had to admit, it was kinda floatin’ her boat and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe because she spent so much of her time keeping herself in check due to her stiff upbringing that it was a nice break to let go. But to let go to Lucas? Her movie buddy? The world as Nyla knew it was coming to a screeching halt. But, shit she wanted him…

  Why bother to analyze it when sex was in the offing? It didn’t have to be a production. It needed no therapy session at all.

 

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