Page 27 of Countdown to Murder (A Paranormal Halloween #3)

“Darlin’? Don’t tell me you’re going to shy away from the truth now. Talk to me.”

I squeezed my eyes closed because I could hear one of my teachers reminding me not to let someone push my buttons by insinuating I was a coward.

But I couldn’t help myself. Panda was right. I needed to say what I was thinking even if it scared me.

“My butt might be a little tight from the long car ride.”

He chuckled, moved back, pulled the sheet off my ass, and ran his hands down both sides of my spine, from shoulders to the backs of my thighs, and then slid them back to my butt cheeks and started massaging.

The heel of his palms pressed into the largest muscles and smoothed across them.

I moaned again before I realized I was going to.

“Your wish is my command.”

Whatever had been going on between my legs ramped up even more, and my hips pressed towards the bed and then up into the air of their own volition.

My skin seemed to vibrate like a drum stretched too tight, so it picked up nearby vibrations.

Heat pooled in my abdomen, and I didn’t know if it was lust or fear or a combination of the two.

“Fuck, I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “So many new sensations I don’t understand.”

“Let them build, Darlin’. When it’s time, I’ll show you how we deal with them. I promise I can give you relief without using my dick tonight.” Once again, the timbre of his voice seemed different. Intimate. Deep. Just for me.

His talented fingers went from my bottom to the backs of my legs, then the insides of my legs, and finally to the parts of me that craved touch. The parts no one but me had ever touched, and I’d only done so when cleaning myself. Never had it occurred to me to touch myself the way Panda did.

His scent surrounded me, and he held nothing back. I was slammed by feelings and sensations I’d read about but never fully understood. Lust. Affection. Caring.

And feline. All feline. Cocky and assured and confident, and none of that bothered me even a tiny bit.

The first time his finger slid inside me, I was on my stomach. I don’t know when he turned me over, all I know is that when he finally shattered my reality, we were face to face, his gaze watching me, analyzing, though his scent was of a feral lion, watching the woman he’d claimed.

Heated blood traversed my veins in a rush of thunder. My heart galloped as if it were all the wildebeests in the world, running from the lion.

And my pussy clenched around his fingers, trying to hold on so they could never leave.

I wanted to feel this way forever, as if I was on top of the mountain and sliding down it at the same time.

On a rocket ship to outer space, pressed into the mattress while his hand did wondrous things inside me, and his thumb pressed on a magical spot I thought might explode in pleasure even beyond what I was feeling.

And then the pleasure crashed around me in a final soul-shattering crescendo, and it was over. Breathless and limp, I thought I’d roll over and fall asleep, but he spread my legs wider, positioned his body between them, and licked me there.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.

And then he did it again. And again.

My mouth opened to tell him not to do that, but my eyes rolled back in my head and my voice wouldn’t work to do anything other than moan in a deep tone I didn’t even know I could hit.

When he brought me to orgasm this time, I must’ve passed out, because the next thing I knew, the sun was shining and I was starving.

Panda was behind me, curled around my back. He ran a proprietary hand from my shoulder to my hip, and slid it down to caress my naked bottom. It felt naughty, but I didn’t mind it at all. My bottom pushed back into him, and my stomach growled.

He kissed my neck, just under my ear. “I can smell your hunger. I’ve never smelled you even the least bit hungry before, and this is as if you haven’t eaten in a week.”

“I can’t remember ever being this hungry. I think my stomach might eat itself if I don’t put something else in it to consume.” It wasn’t just me who was hungry. The snake was starving, too.

He kissed my shoulder, rolled out of bed, and walked towards the kitchen — naked.

“Then we should give it something to eat. Ruth said she put a breakfast casserole in the fridge. Let’s nuke it, and I’ll make bacon and steaks to go with it.

” He lifted the lid and sniffed. “Eggs, cheese, sausage, mustard, and some kind of bread to hold it all together, I think. It’s a start. ”

“I don’t eat much. The casserole should be enough.”

He gave me a steady look, but only said, “Maybe.”

A minute in the microwave, and then twenty seconds of eating, and the piece I’d nuked was gone but I was still starving. I put a bigger piece in.

Panda handed me a glass of orange juice, and I meant to take a sip but I drank the whole thing.

“What the fuck?” I wasn’t asking him, but he answered.

“My guess? They hooked your human form to your snake’s metabolism, somehow.

Probably limited some of your brainpower in the same way.

Not your ability to think in a battle situation, but freedom-type thoughts.

I probably broke that when I gave you orgasms, so now you’re going to have the metabolism a shifter is supposed to have.

” He shrugged. “It’s just a theory. I don’t know if a king cobra is different than other snakes when it comes to shifter metabolism, but I know a rattler who eats like a horse. ”

I ate half the casserole, two large steaks, more than half of the dozen scrambled eggs he made, and most of the pound of bacon.

And then there was no way I could possibly run.

A knock sounded on the door, and I used my Jacobson’s organ to analyze the scents. “Ryan and someone who smells of divinity, but who isn’t Apollonius.”

“You got that half a house away and through the door?”

I nodded, and he grinned. “Useful. Okay, let’s see what they have to say. We’ll do dishes later.”

Just before he opened the door, Panda told me, “Mordecai is a friend. Bow if you must, but don’t kneel.”