Chapter Twenty-Seven

I wondered when Murphy would show up. It wouldn’t be long.

I wondered why I was so angry, so hurt, such an idiot.

Had I secretly been hoping he’d come here for me? Murphy was a thief and a liar. He cared about no one but himself. However, he’d been very good at making me believe he’d cared about me.

My eyes burned, and that just pissed me off. I’d cried an ocean over (Carl. I wouldn’t shed a drop for another man just like him.

I would not let Murphy ruin my homecoming, so I poured another glass of wine and got in the tub. But I couldn’t relax. I wanted to kick something.

Make that someone.

Had he been romancing me from the beginning in order to get the diamond out of the country? I seemed to remember a movie with a similar plotline. I’m sure it had ended happily. I didn’t see how this could.

When I got out of the tub I wavered a bit. The heat, the long plane ride, and three glasses of wine on an empty stomach had made me light-headed. Oh well, I didn’t have anything better to do than pass out.

So I tumbled into bed, naked, and fell asleep almost immediately. But in the way of wine-induced slumber, I didn’t sleep well.

Hot, sweaty, too big for my own skin, I threw off the covers, leaving myself naked to the night. I was thirsty, oh, so thirsty, but there was no water nearby. In truth, I didn’t think water would satisfy the craving. I needed something stronger, thicker, redder even than wine.

I drifted deeper, drawn into dreamland by the whisper of falling water. I was in the cave, in the pond, all alone.

Or was I? I heard a low, rumbling growl from the darkness, but instead of being afraid I was intrigued, and strangely aroused.

The cool water lapped at my breasts, caressing them, making them harden with desire. I walked toward the rocks, toward the eyes that materialized from the night.

I watched, fascinated, as the shape wavered in and out, just as it had when this had been reality and not a dream, never becoming solid enough for my mind to give a name to the shadow.

The snarl echoed off the cave walls, yet still I moved forward, climbing from the pond, walking across the dirt floor as the water streamed down my body. My skin no longer on fire, goose bumps made me tingle.

The sound of my own harsh breathing kept time with the thud of my heart. “Show yourself,” I whispered, and the beast stepped into the light.

Expecting a wolf, at first my mind didn’t register what my eyes clearly saw.

A glistening coat, rippling muscles, black spots on an amber background, the teeth and the eyes of a leopard.

The beast stalked forward, growling, the sound, now that it no longer echoed, distinctly that of a big cat.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t afraid. This was, after all, just a dream.

The cat leaped, hitting me in the chest, driving me to the ground, which in the way of dreams had shifted to soft, sweet grass instead of the hard, rough earth.

There was no pain, only curiosity. Why a leopard and not a wolf?

The answer was simple. The leopard society. The skin on the wall of Mezareau’s hut. Those memories in my subconscious had led me to this dream.

The beast sniffed my neck, nuzzled my breast. I closed my eyes and wished myself awake.

Instead a long, lazy cat tongue swirled around my nipple. My eyes shot open, but the cave had gone completely dark. At least I wouldn’t have to watch.

The tongue continued, both soft and sharp, teasing my nipples to aching peaks before moving down my body, laving my skin, teeth scraping just below my belly button, over my hip, then down the insides of my thighs. Pleasure, pain, the allure of the forbidden, I could barely breathe past the fear and the excitement.

This had to be a dream. No leopard would lick my neck; such a beast would rip it open.

Neither would a leopard taste gently between my legs, tormenting me to a screaming core of need. Such a thing would drink of my blood and nothing else.

I was trapped by unwelcome desire, caged by a dream that seemed far too real. The animal that lived in the darkness crept closer, and its erection slid along my inner thigh.

I tensed and slammed my legs shut. There was only so far I was willing to go, even in a dream.

The weight lifted and for an instant I thought it was over; then someone kissed me, open mouth, a lot of tongue. Human lips that tasted of me.

Confused, uncertain, at first I didn’t respond, but the mouth was so insistent, so skilled, and the hands

that now caressed me were the same. With a mental shrug, I wrapped my arms around my dream lover’s neck. Tugging him close, I opened my legs to welcome him in. But he wasn’t ready, or perhaps he didn’t think that I was.

He traced his long, clever fingers over my body, touched me, kissed me, let his tongue and his teeth take me to the edge; then he refused to shove me over.

The cave filled with the sounds of my desire, no words, only whispers, perhaps whimpers. I was on fire, my breasts, my mound, engorged and throbbing.

He urged me to my knees. His hands cupped my hips; his thumbs stroked my back, rubbing the base of my spine, making me arch. I rocked against him, wanting him to fill me, hard and fast, and at last he did in a single fierce thrust.

I moaned as the tip of his penis seemed to nudge my very womb. He leaned over my back, nuzzled my neck, kneaded my breasts with one hand while brushing my exposed center with the other. His long fingers increased the pressure until the orgasm hit, and then his teeth scraped my neck, pain bringing the pleasure into sharp relief.

As the last quivers of desire faded away, he shoved into me one last time, and the deep pulse of his orgasm drew mine on. He sagged against me, nuzzling my cheek, then licking my earlobe once before retreating.

I collapsed to the ground, winded, sated. Reaching out, my fingers brushed fur. Bright animal eyes glowed in the darkness, and a slow rumble swirled through the cave.

The black veil lifted, and I could see again. Next to me lolled a huge leopard, panting as if he’d exerted himself recently. I guess he had.

I glanced down, wondering if I was bleeding from his claws, shredded from his teeth, and I just didn’t know it. But I was a leopard, too.

I awoke thrashing, mewling, trying to force a scream past the blockage in my throat that tasted of terror.

Dawn hovered, filling my room with an unearthly gray light. I patted my body. Thank God. Still a woman.

“Shit,” I managed, and the weak, frightened sound of my voice disturbed me. I hadn’t been afraid for a very long time.

I didn’t have to throw back the covers; I’d already tossed them to the floor. I stepped to the window and threw up the sash.

Fog rolled in from the river, shrouding the buildings, muting the colors. The city appeared to have drifted back in time to a previous century.

Of course the French Quarter always looked like that, if you could ignore the tourists with the hurricane glasses and the T-shirt shops and the strip j oints. But at this time of the morning, when the sun was just beginning to rise, that was easy to do.

My body still tingled; my skin still felt too small. The languid aftereffects of an orgasm I wasn’t sure I’d had made my knees a little shaky. I rubbed at my eyes. “What the hell was that?”

A dream. Nothing more. Nothing less. Though why I’d have a sex dream I had no idea. I’d had more sex over the past two weeks than I’d had in the past five years.

Maybe that was it. I’d opened the floodgates, and now I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But sex with a shadowy stranger, sex with a leopard…

Pretty weird.

The shower called to me; I wouldn’t sleep any more. Strangely, I couldn’t bear the hot water and turned it to tepid instead. I let the stream tumble over me like a waterfall, washing away the remnants of the dream along with a sticky sheen of sweat.

When I was finished, I almost felt human again. Since I had to wait until the next full moon before I could raise the voodoo queen, I’d try to find peace in the day-to-day-ness of my life. And if I tensed whenever the bell rang to announce a customer, that was no more than had happened when I’d first come here and daily expected the arrival of Karl’s minions. Now I’d just be waiting for Murphy.

I finished brushing my teeth, lifted my head, and froze, staring into the mirror.

When had my eyes turned green?