A Prideful Mate Read online

  “Break him in gently, honey,” she said, kissing his cheek.

  Kevin took her advice about the shirt, but rebelled over his footwear when she brought him loafers.

  Loafers. What kind of pansy-ass wore loafers?

  He decided to wear his favorite pair of cowboy boots, and ignored her knowing smirk. They both knew he wore them like a kid clutched his favorite blankie whenever he needed reassurance. They were soft, worn, and he’d gone through more with them than most people did in a ten-year marriage. He was going to be buried in those boots.

  Of course if he didn’t pay attention to the road, it was going to be sooner than expected.

  He let out a sigh of relief when he found Payce’s apartment without too much trouble. Who really needed a left taillight anyway?

  The building was made out of brown brick and located in a nice neighborhood. Nothing fancy, but it had a solid working-class feel. Kevin bet there wasn’t a fancy coffee shop within three blocks.

  Letting out a long slow breath to calm his nerves, Kevin locked up his truck and all but bounced up the steps. He left his small suitcase in the cab of the truck. He didn’t want Payce to think he presumed too much.

  He had every intention of spending the day and most of the night with his mate, but he didn’t want to scare him off.

  Payce had sounded nervous on the phone, and Kevin didn’t want to pressure him. Tia already talked him out of bringing his daddy’s ring.

  He wondered how hard he’d have to tug to drag the werecat back to the mountains with him. Shit, he hoped Payce liked kids.

  Pressing the buzzer at Payce’s apartment door, Kevin shifted from foot-to-foot trying to control his nerves. He felt more excited than when he was a lion cub at Christmas and Daddy gave him a toy cow that screamed when he bit it.

  That random memory made him wonder where he could get one of those for his boys.

  “Hello,” a scratchy voice said over the speakers.

  “Payce, hon, it’s Kevin. Let me in.”

  There was a buzz, a click, and Kevin snatched the door open. Payce was on the fifth floor, but Kevin was too impatient to wait for the elevator. Within moments, he’d dashed up the stairs and pounded on Payce’s door.

  The door opened, and Kevin stared.

  “Wow, you’re even prettier than Adrian, but don’t go telling him I said so.”

  Payce was as tall as Kevin and bigger, with the muscled build of someone who worked with his body for a living. Kevin hadn’t expected that. In his mind, his mate was smaller, more delicate. This was so much better than his dream match. Black hair, black eyes, and a lush suck-me mouth, set in a sculpted masculine face, made Kevin harder than he’d ever been before. Pretty didn’t cover the guy. He was beautiful.

  He hoped his drool didn’t form a puddle on the wood floor.

  “Who the fuck is Adrian?” A scowl crossed those amazing features.

  “Umm. Who?”

  “Adrian. The guy I’m prettier than?” He said pretty like it was an insult.

  “Oh, my alpha’s mate. Wanna see?”

  “Come in first.” Payce grabbed Kevin’s wrist and pulled him inside. Kevin growled at the spike of desire that jolted through him like a lightning bolt.

  Kevin let the door bang shut behind him before he yanked at his wrist, pulling Payce toward him. Their bodies slammed together, carrying them against the front door.

  Gripping Payce’s shirt, Kevin growled, “Kiss me.”

  Payce didn’t argue. Gold sparks flickered in his dark eyes as his mouth came down on Kevin’s, like a man who was going to take what he wanted and Kevin better like it.

  Kevin moaned, letting the other man know how much he enjoyed his kiss and the hard body crushing him against the wooden door.

  Payce didn’t know what came over him. It was like he wanted to devour the golden werelion. When the name of another man crossed Kevin’s lips, aggression he didn’t know he had rushed through his body. The thought that this man would even think of someone else while looking at Payce made him uncontrollably angry, which was stupid since they’d just met.

  Kissing Kevin was better than anything he’d ever felt before. The man’s lips were soft but firm, as if they were made for Payce’s mouth. When Kevin groaned against him, Payce almost came in his pants from the sensation. Any doubt that he might not find the lion attractive in person disappeared as soon as he’d seen Kevin. He wanted to wrap the other man around him and wallow in his scent.

  Fuck.

  Payce yanked away from Kevin.

  “Y-you’re my mate,” he said, panting.

  Kevin leaned against the door and gave him a lazy smile. His eyes a dark, dark gold, a color Payce knew he would now always associate with the color of lust. “Yep.”

  The lion’s lack of surprise before Payce’s earth-shattering revelation said more than any words. “You knew. How could you know?”

  Shrugging, the lion reached for him again. “I saw your picture.”

  Payce stepped back. “I saw your picture too, but I didn’t get any revelations.”

  “Maybe it’s a lion thing.” Kevin stepped forward again. Payce learned for the first time how it felt to be stalked. For each step he made backward, Kevin took one forward. The teasing expression disappeared to be replaced by a chilling intensity that told Payce he was about to be claimed whether he wanted to be or not.

  Payce held up his hand, feeling like a ridiculous virgin in a bad romance.

  He was surprised when it worked and Kevin stopped.

  “What!” Kevin said, exasperation crossing his handsome features. Payce refused to be distracted by his mate’s obvious beauty. The man was like a golden god, and he wanted to climb him like Mt. Olympus, but he wasn’t going to be dragged into a mating before he was ready.

  “I’m not ready to be mated.”

  “You’re ready,” Kevin said, taking a baby step toward Payce.

  “Stop.”

  “What!” Kevin’s tone was taking a distinctive whine that Payce found hysterically funny. He was like a child refused his favorite toy. “Don’t you wanna to be my mate?”

  The hurt in those gold eyes was his undoing. Sighing, Payce flopped down on his couch, patting the spot beside him.

  “That’s more like it,” Kevin said, sitting as close to Payce as possible without hopping in his lap.

  Kevin leaned over to kiss him. Payce planted his hand in the middle of Kevin’s chest. “No.”

  Groaning, Kevin threw himself back on the couch pillows. “Why don’t ya just stab me in the heart and get it over with.”

  “Your kind of the dramatic type, aren’t you?” Payce asked, amused. The lion went from one wild emotion to the other without stopping at calm in between.

  “I’m kind of an all-or-nothin’ kinda guy,” Kevin admitted, peeking at him through his golden lashes.

  “Don’t think you’re going to tempt me with your sexy looks.” Payce shook a finger at the lion. “We need to have a serious conversation.”

  “No we don’t.” Before he could object, he found himself with a lapful of lion. “We don’t ever hafta have a serious conversation. Let’s just fuck like horny cats, move you up to my pride, and live happily ever after.”

  The expression in Kevin’s eyes was scarily serious. For a man who didn’t like to be serious, his expression said it all. He meant everything he just said.

  “Why would I want to move from Seattle? I have everything I need here. We don’t even know if we’re compatible yet.”

  Payce felt a blush burn his cheeks as soon as those words left his mouth. The fact they were both hard and wanting said everything was right and fine with their sexual attraction.

  “Just because our bodies are compatible doesn’t mean our minds are,” he clarified.

  There. That sounded like a reasonable statement, didn’t it?

  Kevin gave him an indulgent look, like he was not a particularly bright child.

  “The solution is obvious.”

&n
bsp; “It is?”

  Kevin nodded. “Don’t think.”

  Then the sneaky lion swooped in and kissed Payce, driving every freaking thought out of his mind. In that moment, he knew he would do anything Kevin wanted as long as he got to feel that gorgeous cock filling his ass.

  He broke away from their kiss to speak, only to have Kevin slide his strong hands into his hair and yank him back. The slight pain made him even harder.

  Shit!

  In ten minutes, the sexy lion had already discovered his kink. He loved being mastered. He wasn’t into a lot of whips or chains, but a strong man, who could hold him down while he was fucked within an inch of his life, pushed all his buttons double-time.

  “Like that, do you?” Kevin leaned back and gave him a wicked smile with a tip of a fang showing through. The lion slid off his lap. “Strip,” he commanded.

  Payce stood and took off his shirt, pleased at the small whimper he heard from the other man. When he glanced at Kevin, the lion’s expression was calm but unmoved. Maybe he’d imagined the noise.

  “Pants,” Kevin barked.

  Smiling, Payce casually stripped off his denim pants, revealing to Kevin that he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  “Ni-i-i-ce.” That Southern drawl was back, the sound of it heating Payce from head to toe. It was a voice he could get used to while he was bound to his bed with the sexy Southerner standing over him.

  “Where are you from?” He had to know.

  “I’m a Louisiana boy. Now stand proper. You know what I mean.” Kevin’s soft drawl hardened and so did every part of Payce’s body.

  Standing straight, Payce gripped his left wrist with his right hand behind him, placing his feet a shoulder length apart.

  Still dressed, Kevin walked a complete circle around him. “Very nice. No tattoos or piercings?”

  “No, Sir.”

  It felt natural to call the other man sir. It calmed his jaguar. Inside, the beast had been raging to escape ever since Kevin walked through the door. Now it curled up into a happy kitty, all but purring beneath the lion’s regard. Maybe that was the trick. Maybe he needed someone the jaguar knew was a stronger cat. Kevin was one of the few people on this planet who could subdue him, something no human could ever do, no matter how strong the Dom.

  For the first time in a long while, Payce felt calm. He knew even if he freaked and shifted into a jaguar, his mate’s animal was bigger, stronger, and could take him down before anything bad happened.

  “Now we need to establish a few rules in this relationship.” Kevin’s drawl was all but gone. It was a relief that the lion had such a strong tell. Payce would always be able to gauge the emotional position of his mate by the weight of his accent. He cleared his mind and focused on Kevin’s words. “You are mine, and if anyone else touches you, I will kill them, understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “If you touch them, I will kill them, understood?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m an easygoing guy, and I expect you to be an equal partner in our life together, but I will be in charge in the bedroom. Now—” Kevin held up a hand as if to stop Payce’s words. “—that doesn’t mean I will always top. I like a man inside me as much as I like to top, but I might tie you down first. You have any objections?”

  The image in his mind of Kevin riding him while Payce was tied to the bed was too much for Payce. His body convulsed as cum shot out of his cock, splattering onto the wooden floor.

  “I’ll take that as a no,” Kevin said, his drawl slow and easy.

  “You can take that anyway you want, as long as you take me,” Payce gasped through his orgasm.

  “Bedroom,” Kevin snapped.

  Payce broke stance, grabbed Kevin’s wrist, and dragged him down the hall. He would clean up the mess later.

  “Maybe we need to review who’s in charge again,” Kevin said. Payce could hear the amusement in his voice.

  “We’re not in the bedroom yet.” Payce let go of the werelion as soon as they crossed the doorframe. “Now we’re here. You can be in charge.”

  Kevin gave him a wicked smile that sent needy shivers down his spine, and miraculously, his cock struggled to rise again. He looked at it in astonishment.

  “Lions mate twenty to forty times a day when we’re in heat,” Kevin said matter-of-factly as he stripped off his sea-blue shirt, exposing a fine tight body and making Payce wonder again what Kevin did for a living.

  “I’m not a female lion, and if you try to fuck me forty times, I will crush your skull.”

  Kevin tilted his head. “That’s very specific.”

  Payce shrugged. “It’s a jaguar thing.”

  “Huh.”

  Payce noticed that his words had no effect on Kevin’s intention to mate with him since the man continued stripping, exposing a body Payce was more than willing to explore entirely with his tongue.

  “On the bed.”

  Shaking with excitement, Payce turned and deliberately climbed on the bed. He made sure Kevin got a good peek at his ass as he moved.

  The low growl behind him said his ploy was noticed.

  “You’re playing with fire, boy.”

  Payce rolled over, trying to look more confident than he felt. It had been a long time since his last lover, and forever since his last shifter sex.

  The tender smile Kevin gave him eased his nerves. “You just tell me if there’s somethin’ you don’t like.”

  Payce returned the other man’s charming smile. “Do I need a safe word?”

  Laughing, Kevin crawled up on the bed and settled on all fours over Payce’s body. Payce’s cock rose to greet him.

  “We’re not doing a scene, darlin’, just some man-on-man lovin’. There’s nothing I’m gonna try that’ll make you do anything more than scream my name.”

  Payce smiled at the confident man above him. “What makes you think I’m going to scream?”

  “Honey, they always scream.”

  Payce couldn’t stop the growl his jaguar pushed from his throat. The thought of anyone else being in the same position he was, made him want to kill something. Now he knew what Kevin meant. Before he thought the lion was just being dramatic.

  Guess not.

  “Calm, darlin’, calm.”

  Kevin’s voice pulled him back from his urge to shift. The lion’s hands pinning his wrists soothed him and suppressed his rage.

  “Your kitty is close to the surface, isn’t it, love?”

  “Yeah.” Payce panted. Breathing in his mate’s scent eased his angry beast more than any shifter anger-management session. He’d attended enough to know.

  Kevin leaned down, rubbing his cheek alongside Payce’s, first one side, then the other, marking Payce with his scent. Breathing in Kevin’s pheromones settled his jaguar completely. Sighing, Payce went boneless beneath his mate.

  “I’m not a virgin,” Kevin said, his eyes sparkling. “That’s not a problem for you, is it, baby?”

  “Baby? Really?”

  Kevin’s smile got bigger. “Snookums? Baby Cakes? Snickerdoodle? Love Kitten?”

  “You have to sleep sometime,” Payce reminded the lion.

  Kevin laughed.

  Payce didn’t think he’d ever met such a happy person. Despite his big handsome exterior, the other man was just a big goofy lion inside. This made him even more attractive to Payce, who never had much laughter in his life.

  Here was a man who knew how to have fun and could bring some fun into Payce’s world.

  A sharp bite on his nipple snapped his attention back to the lion.

  “Pay attention, kitten,” Kevin teased.

  “I will off you,” Payce warned, but he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face. He really liked this guy.

  “But think of all the fun you’d miss,” Kevin said in a wheedling tone. The lion leaned down and bit Payce’s other nipple. Payce arched beneath the werelion’s mouth.

  Shit, when had they become so sensitive?

>   “Where’s the lube?” Kevin released Payce when he motioned he had to get up.

  As soon as he was released Payce scrambled for his bedside table, grabbing at the small bottle inside. He let out a shout when it slipped out of his hand, hit the table, and slid beneath the bed.

  Payce turned to meet Kevin’s astonished gaze, and both men burst into laughter.

  Kevin rolled off of him. “You might want to get that, darlin’. I’m big enough you’re not gonna want to go without lube.”

  Looking appreciatively at the werelion’s body, Payce had to agree. “A lot of lube.”

  Leaning over to retrieve the lube, he caught it between his fingers until a smack on his ass had him dropping the bottle.

  “Hey.” He glared at Kevin over his shoulder. The lion had the gall to smile at him, showing a set of shiny white teeth.

  “Sorry, darlin’, but I can’t resist that kind of temptation.”

  “Is there any temptation you can resist?”

  “Few and far between,” Kevin agreed. “Now get the lube so I can appreciate that fine ass of yours.”

  Payce was certain his cheeks were redder than his slapped ass. Snatching up the lube again, he flipped onto his back and held out the bottle.

  “What am I gonna do with that?” Kevin asked, giving him a wink. “Get yourself ready for me. I’m not ashamed to say you’ve got me all worked up. If I touch you before I fuck ya, I’ll lose control.”

  Payce was both disappointed and pleased. He’d never had a man want him that much, but then he’d never met his mate before.

  Liberally smearing the cold liquid onto his fingers, Payce plunged two fingers into his hole, loosening up the tight bud so he could take his lover. His long fingers brushed against his prostate, making him whimper from the sensation.

  “Hey, don’t get off without me.” Kevin grabbed Payce’s wrist, pulling his fingers away only to replace them with his thick cock.

  “Ahhh.” Payce sighed at the feel of the werelion sinking inside him. Heaven. Nothing had ever felt so good. Looking into his lover’s eyes, Payce tilted his head. “Bite me. Make me yours.”