Talon/Xavier (Bayou Heat) by Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright

only been in The Cougar’s Den for maybe a half hour, but it was enough for him to cause a stir. Not like he could help it. Females just couldn’t seem to catch their breath around him, and males were understandably intimated by his size.
    Still swaying, Mal ran her hands up the sides of her body as she watched him at the bar. Eating up the metal bar stool he inhabited, Xavier was by far the hottest male specimen that had ever walked the earth. Over six foot four, and all powerful shoulders and broad chest, the gorgeous male looked more like a professional athlete than the head of the Geeks. His skin was the color of wet bark, and his features were sharp and fierce. His dark hair had just been recently cut, buzzed close to his scalp, making his amazing, crystal blue eyes pop. And every time Mal saw him, she had an irrepressible urge to rush at him, leap into his massive arms and attack his perfect mouth.
    It’d been like that for the past seven years.
    Oh, who was she kidding? More like ten.
    As the male she danced with moved around her, Mal’s gaze slid to the female who sat beside Xavier at the bar. Blond, petite and quietly appealing. Why does Xavier have to go for the exact opposite of me? she screamed silently, wondering if it was psycho to actually plot the woman’s death while dancing with some random guy.
    Then Xavier reached across the top of the bar and covered the woman’s hand.
    A shock of pain brought Mal’s head around. Her gaze connected with Beau and his dark eyes and dreamy smile. “I need another drink.”
    He grinned. “I’ll get it for you, darlin’. Just stay here and keep those hips swayin’ and those hands runnin’ up and down yourself. I’ll be right back.”
    Why couldn’t Xavier say things like that? Well, maybe not exactly like that. Maybe not so creepy and proprietary, but something that indicated that he saw her as a female and not his best friend’s little sister?
    She closed her eyes and moved seductively to the music. She felt someone come up behind her, definitely male, maybe Beau, maybe not, but she didn’t stop to look. Tonight and for the next three nights, she just wanted to let go, give in, feel, be felt…
     
    * * *
     
    She needed a spanking.
    Maybe more than one.
    Xavier narrowed his eyes on the Hunter female who was gyrating on the makeshift dance floor, sandwiched between two greasy human males, while another ordered drinks a few feet down the bar. Did he blame them for going after her? Leering at her? Drooling like dogs? No, he did not. With her perfect body clad in way-too-tight clothes, hungry green eyes, and thick ebony hair flowing down her back, she looked like a goddamn sex kitten tonight, and he was going to pummel the bastard who’d let her out of her cage.
    Where the fuck was Aristide?
    Her brother—and Xavier’s closest friend—never let his sister out of his sight, except when she worked as a Hunter. And even then, Xavier could count on the rest of the Pantera to watch her. They all knew how special she was. Important. The kind of female you put up on a pedestal and stared at.
    Not fucking leered at.
    His eyes narrowed into pinprick slits as he watched her rock the dance floor. How the hell had she learned to move like that? Her hips. Her ass. Her hands threading in her hair and running down her body.
    Another jolt moved through him, but he forced it away. He always forced away those kinds of flashes when it came to her. Amalie was not just the last Pantera born, which made her untouchable in and of itself, but she was also his best friend’s little sister. And the code of honor between males killed even the most desperate of attractions.
    He stood, slipped the flash drive the woman beside him had brought with her into his jeans pocket. “You didn’t have to disable the camera to get these shots, did you?”
    The blond PI he’d hired to help in his search for Ashe and Isi’s father, Chayton, shook her head. “No. But it was a bitch and a half to