Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance) by Lynn Red Page A

pizza buffets, and Lex ate so many pancakes that paying for all of them would probably have put them right back in the circus.
    Oh, and they had a cheap Toyota, just like the one Cass sold all those years ago – a 1989 Corolla, with faded blue-green paint – to get them from place to place. They picked that up at a dealership right outside of Beeville, for a grand total of eight hundred bucks.
    It wasn’t much materially, but just then as she rolled over and saw the Target bag next to the hotel door, she didn’t care one damn bit how much stuff they had or didn’t. She had everything she needed, right there with her. And after all – what’s a house except a place to put all that stuff?
    I don’t need all that , Cass thought, as her lion made a huge amount of noise trying to towel off in the tiny bathroom. All I need is right there .
    He came out, wrapped in a towel just long enough to cover his gear. “You look like you came off a calendar.” Cass stated flatly, shamelessly devouring this huge specimen of a man with her eyes, which settled on where she thought he was going to shave. “Okay, how did you do that?” she stared at the impeccably grown stubble on his cheeks and jaw. “You managed to shave down to the perfect amount of stubble? How do you even do that?”
    Lex shrugged. “I shaved before the shower. You know that kid in school, the freaky one who enters third grade with a beard? That was me.”
    “Perfect body, beautiful face, eyes that take me to another world... and a beard that’s always just the right length? What else could a girl want?”
    “I’m also fairly nice, and have a reasonably good personality, although I guess that doesn’t matter in calendar hunks, huh? Oh, also I don’t have to cram socks in my underwear. Hell, most of the time I don’t bother wearing any. That’s one human thing I never understood. Seems so... unnatural?”
    She eyed him with one eyebrow raised. “That’s weird,” she said. “I guess I’m not wearing any either. Say,” she cut off Lex’s excited advance. “What were you talking about with the bag? When did you go anywhere?”
    He smiled and sat on the creaking bed, which gave even more under his weight. A sneaky hand made its way up one of Cass’s thighs, probing into places she’d always wanted him to probe. “Boldly going,” she started, and then trailed off.
    “Where no man has gone before? I’m not an alien, remember?” He laughed softly, then lifted Cass’s foot, kissing her ankle, then her calf.
    “Well, one, to be fair. Also, you just sprung the Trekkie trap.” She smiled, inhaled deeply. Lex chuckled softly, the laughter vibrating Cass’s foot as he massaged. A moment later, he kissed her ankle, then her calf, and made his way to the inside of her knee, a place she hadn’t even known she wanted to be kissed until he did. The trill of pleasure that escaped Cass’s lips sort of alarmed her, because she hadn’t known she could make that noise, either.
    She’d wanted him – wanted this – since the first time he stood up in front of her. She had ached for him for all the time they’d been on the run, but Lex had been reticent to give her more than his fingers, or his tongue. Those were incredible, but by the time they found themselves in this old, rickety motel, she was just about beside herself for wanting all of him.
    But as she looked at him, something else stuck in Cass’s mind.
    “Wait,” she whispered, her voice barely louder than the whop-whop of the ancient fake-wood ceiling fan circling slowly above them. “I... I know this is painful, I know you’re not used to talking, but it’s been eating at me ever since that thing with Lyle.”
    Lex paused, but fluttered one more soft, lilting kiss behind Cass’s knee, then sucked gently before taking his lips off of her skin. “How he got me?”
    She nodded, pushing a fallen curl back behind her ear and sitting up on her elbows. “And that bag, too, get that while