Wild Things (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance): Shifter Lovers Romance by Catherine Vale Page A

cushions.
    “What
are you doing?”
     “This.”
Gabriel pounced on her silver comb. “You can use this as…something.”
Brandishing the long pointed handle, he held it up. “It’ll kill a human, but
not an alien. It won’t even slow one down, so don’t bother. If worse comes to
worse, can you…” The question hung between them.
    She
took the comb from his hand. “I can. And I will, if it means I have the chance
to get away from here. But what about you?”
    “I’m
a shifter. I’ll be able to take care of myself.” He stood up, pulling the tunic
over his head. She’d felt the armor under his clothes before, and been
frustrated by it. It had never occurred to her it would come into play.
    “We
need to get out of here, not wait for them to attack. Surprise is our ally.
They’re expecting a defenseless guard and a meek princess.” At this he shot her
a wry grin. “I am anything but defenseless. And you are anything but meek.”
    He
started moving around the car, eyeing the ceiling, the tapestry-covered walls,
running his hands along the edge of the windows. But it was the door that
interested him the most. After rattling the handle, he knelt down, inspecting
it closely. Then he turned to her.
    “Give
me one of your hair pins.”
    She
reached up, pulling out a jeweled pin, setting a tumble of hair cascading down
her back. She handed the pin to Gabriel. With rising curiosity, she watched as
he bent the pin, then stuck the mangled thing into the lock.
    “What
are you doing? Besides picking the lock.”
    “If
I can get this door open…” There was a sudden click. Gabriel removed the pin,
turned the handle a fraction of an inch. The door opened the tiniest crack. He
dropped the pin to the floor. Frowning, he glanced at her.
    “You
need to do something with that costume. You need to be ready to run. Or, more
accurately, to ride.”
    “Ride?
What am I going to ride?”
    He
gestured over his shoulder at the window. “One of those machines.”
    “Where
will we go? Home?”
    He
was silent for a moment, and in his eyes, she saw the truth, even before he
spoke. “We can’t. Your father would be bound to send you back to the Ottway. It
is only you and I that know the truth.”
    “The
Ottway would lie, to save face. He would never admit that I managed to get away
from him myself, and they surely know by now that you are gone.”
    “Yes.
So we run across the desert. To my home. To my people.”
    “Oh…”
It made sense, horrible sense. Glancing down at the silks flowing around her
legs, she reached for the layers, tearing through the fragile material. Gabriel
watched, eyes wide, as she ripped with abandon, until the layers of skirts were
up around her knees. Impatiently she motioned, turning around, back to him.
    “Undo
this damn thing.” She glanced over her shoulder. Gabriel reached out, undoing
the laces of her corset. She unfastened the hooks in the front, fingers clumsy.
Then it came undone suddenly, and she let it fall to the floor.
    “You
know; I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time.” For a moment his
hands rested on her waist, very warm through the layers of silk, reaching up
briefly to cup her breasts. “And I will, when all this is over.”
    “If
we could just stay like this…”
    “But
we can’t.” He kissed the nape of her neck and then his hands were gone. For a
brief moment she could feel the heat of him through the silks that remained,
and then that was gone as well.
    She
sank to the floor, grabbed the corset, stuffing it into the travel bag, along
with whatever else she could find from Gabriel’s hectic search. Gabriel watched
her, started to say something, but then stopped.
    “It’s
all I have left, everything I own.” She looked up at him from the floor. “I can
take it, yes?”
    “Yes.
Fine. Here.” He scooped up a piece of tattered silk, dumping the cheeses and
fruit onto it, tying the corners into knots. That and the wine were stuffed
into the travel