Serengeti Storm (5 page)

Shana was not the moony-eyed, heart-on-her-sleeve, Dr. Phil-confession-of-love type. Sex was her currency. She would win Caleb back, but she would do it her way.

With that in mind, she went back to her borrowed bungalow, took a quick shower, put on her skimpiest, sexiest scraps of lingerie lace, and began digging through her bags for the naughtiest invitation-to-sex outfit she could find.

She was debating between a schoolgirl outfit that no self-respecting schoolgirl would be caught dead in and the slightly less subtle black vinyl catsuit when she heard a footstep on her front porch.

Her heart quickened. Had Caleb had a change of heart?

Shana threw open the door before rational thought had time to weigh in on the decision, still wearing only a few scraps of see-through black lace and a garter belt.

If little Ava was shocked to see her dressed so provocatively, nothing in her face gave her away. The five-foot mateling craned her neck up at Shana and squared her tiny little shoulders, flipping her long white-blonde hair away from her face.

“I’m here to accept your challenge,” she rasped, her throaty sex-kitten voice an odd contrast to her Mini-Me persona.

Shana groaned and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. Does your keeper know you’re here?”

Ava tipped her chin back even farther. “This is between you and me.”

“Uh-huh. So I kick your ass. Landon hears about it. Landon kicks my ass and throws me out of the pride. As fun as that sounds, I think I’ll pass.”

Shana flipped the door closed, but Ava caught it before it could latch and flung it open again, stepping into the room. Tenacious little midget.

“I can’t let your challenge to my authority as Landon’s mate stand,” Ava declared. Her voice was sure and calm, nearly masking the fact that she was terrified out of her wits. Only the scent of fear coming off her in waves gave her away.

Shana crossed back to the bed and picked up her wardrobe options. The catsuit perhaps?

“Shana! I demand you acknowledge me!”

Shana waved the catsuit in Ava’s direction. “Yeah, yeah, you’re the Alpha’s mate. Whoop-de-do.”

“Landon is mine. You’ll never change that.”

Shana tossed aside the catsuit. Too obvious. Naughtiness was an art form. She picked up the three-inch-wide strip of plaid that would barely cover her ass. If she stretched the definition, it could almost be called a skirt. Subtle.

“I’m not interested in Landon,” she said, shimmying into the skirt. “I never really was.”

Ava planted her hands on her hips, her nearly colorless gray eyes narrowing. “You expect me to buy that? After you threw yourself at him? You warned me off!”

“I only chased him because he was the Alpha and the Alpha deserves to be with the best.” She buttoned the single button of a stomach-baring, snug white blouse over her breasts and tied the ends in a slip knot. “You were easy to warn off. You really should grow a spine one of these days, Ava.”

“I thought you had accepted me,” Ava said, flicking her eyes downward in an automatic gesture of submission. The soft vulnerability in her voice made Shana’s flesh crawl. She was so damn weak, so docile. “I thought you respected Landon’s decision. Respected me.”

Shana snorted. “Why would you think an idiotic thing like that?”

“The necklace,” Ava said. “The one you took from me. You gave it back. I thought you were sorry you’d always bullied me. It was a gesture.”

Shana rolled her eyes and dug her white thigh-highs out of her bag. “You thought that meant I liked you? It was a message. If strength wasn’t valued anymore, then nothing this pride had was of value to me. I was renouncing the pride. Goddess, you’re thick, aren’t you?”

“If you renounced the pride, why did you come back?”

“Golly, I must have missed your shining face, sunshine,” she said acidly, clipping the first stocking to her garter belt.

“Landon will never want you,” Ava snapped, the little mateling making a show of spunkiness.

Stocking number two snapped into place. “Don’t worry, honey. You can keep your Alpha. I have bigger game in mind.” She stepped into her stiletto Mary Janes and did a turn in front of the mirror. “How do I look?”

“Like a cheap hooker.”

A short laugh burst out of Shana’s mouth. “Careful, sugar, you keep talking like that and I might have to start liking you.” She opened her makeup case and went to work on her face. Bright red lips, kohl-lined eyes.

“Caleb will never want you either. My brother would never fall for someone as trashy as you,” Ava declared as she watched Shana vamp herself up.

“Sweetheart, I’m not surprised you don’t know this about your brother, but, trust me, he likes it trashy. That is one dirty, dirty boy.”

Shana caught a glimpse of Ava’s slackened jaw in the mirror and laughed. “Goddess, your face. From the look of you, your Alpha doesn’t even know the meaning of kink.”

Ava snapped her mouth shut. “I’ll thank you not to infer things about my sex life.”

“You’re welcome, but I’m gonna infer all I want, poppet. Goddess, am I ever lucky the Alpha picked you? I’d have been bored to tears inside a week. Of course, nothing says I couldn’t have still fucked Caleb on the side.”

“He would never betray Landon.”

Shana just smiled. The little mateling had a lot to learn about men.

“You’re wrong,” Ava insisted. “You don’t know him.”

“I know him a helluva lot better than you do, sweet cheeks.”

And she knew exactly what to do to him to make him forget his own name, let alone any loyalties he might have once had. Not that that would be an issue this time. No more betrayals and power plays. That was the plan. Just pure, unadulterated and unadulterous sex.

Shana added a pair of dangling earrings and blotted her lips, turning back to Ava. “Now, how do I look?”

The little blonde grimaced. “Like an expensive call girl.”

Shana grinned. “Perfect.”

She strutted toward the door, but the mateling suddenly barred her way. “Where are you going?”

Shana arched an eyebrow and waved a hand at her outfit. “Did you think all of this was for your benefit? I’m gonna go give your brother the night of his life. By the time I’m done, he’ll be singing my name to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus.”

“He’ll throw you out on your skanky ass.”

Shana snorted. “Honey, have you looked at me lately? Men don’t throw me out of their beds until I’ve wrung them dry.”

Ava shook her head, her expression fierce and protective. A kitten testing out her claws. “You don’t deserve him.”

“Nope. You’re absolutely right about that. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m gonna get him. You can have your precious Alpha, but Caleb’s mine. Now why don’t you get out of my way, half-pint, or would you really like to see how long it takes me to kick your ass?”

The blizzard promised for the night before had arrived in force. Caleb listened to the wind howl and felt like howling himself.

He’d nearly challenged the Alpha.

He couldn’t even remember what had provoked it. Memory had been washed away on a tide of animal instinct. All he remembered was Shana and an icy cold rage that Landon would dare touch her.

How had he let himself get so tangled up in her again? Hadn’t he learned his goddamn lesson by now?

Caleb sat on his bed with his head in his hands. Her scent still clung to the sheets. There was no way he would be getting any sleep tonight.

The door banged open. His head snapped up.

His brain shut off.

What the fuck was she wearing?

“Hello, Caleb.” Shana kicked the door closed against the wind. She snicked the lock into place.

“Get out.”

Her lower lip poofed out in a patently false pout. “Are you mad at me?” she asked, the baby-sweetness in her voice a lollipop complement to the fuck-me-suck-me outfit.

“Yes,” he growled, even as his cock stood up for duty, and added, but not mad enough to pass up what you’re offering.

The fake pout vanished and her emerald eyes flashed irritably. He wasn’t playing her game the way she wanted it played. “Fine. You’re mad. I get it.” Then a feline gleam flickered to life in her eyes and a sensual smile curled her lips. “You wanna punish me? I’ve been a bad, bad girl.”

“Get out, Shana.”

She smoothed her hands down her thighs and bent so her ass flared out beneath the miniscule skirt. “I think I need a spanking.”

His balls tightened as if she’d squeezed them in a goddamn vise. “Very funny. Get out.”

Shana ignored his words, focusing on the flare of heated interest she’d seen in his eyes. He’d always had a thing for her ass. They’d never tried spanking before, but she had a feeling it was exactly Caleb’s brand of kink. From the look in his eyes, she was right.

And from the way she was drenching her thong, it was her kind of kink too.

“I know I’ve been a bad girl. You have every right to be mad at me.” She walked toward him slowly, twirling one red curl around her forefinger. “Won’t you punish me, Caleb?”

She stopped in front of him and bent over just enough to tease, cleavage on full display. Caleb’s hands gripped the sheets beside him. He didn’t move to touch her.

“I’m in no mood for games, Shana.”

Shana caught her lower lip between her teeth. What was she doing wrong? Why wasn’t he taking what she was so obviously offering? Caleb never said no. Or if he did, he never actually meant it.

She straightened out of her pose and looked into his eyes. There was undeniable lust there. He wanted her, no question about that. But there was also a rawness, a wariness behind the heat that had more to do with hearts and flowers than the sweaty slap of skin on skin.

Shana resisted the urge to make a very unsexy face. She’d really hoped the mushy love stuff could wait until she had him doped up on afterglow, but it looked like he wasn’t going to touch her until they had their girly talk about feelings.

“I love you.”

Caleb frowned. Okay, her confession had been a lot grouchier than she planned, and accompanied by an irritable glare, but did he have to look so damned pissed off by her girly emotional moment?

“No, you don’t.”

Shana gritted her teeth. “Yes, I do. Honest.”

He arched an eyebrow skeptically. “You love me.”

Shana tossed her head, feeling the tips of her hair catch on the bottom of her skirt. “I might not do it the way other people do it, but I do love you. And I wanna be with you.” She waved her hands in a vague gesture. “Like, forever.”

Caleb snorted and Shana leveled a glare in his direction.

“I can be faithful,” she snapped defensively.

“The only person you’re faithful to is yourself.”

“I was always faithful to you,” she insisted. “Technically. I didn’t sleep with anyone else when I was with you. And when I wasn’t technically with you, I only cheated on the others with you. So in my way, I was always faithful to you. Even when I was with them.”

He frowned. “That makes no sense at all.”

“I only ever loved you.” His eyes softened a bit and Shana quickly pressed her advantage. “And I promise you right now that I’ll only sleep with you. Until you’re dead. I’m not gonna be a celibate widow. That’s just cruel and unusual. If you die young, I want lots of hot widow sex.” The softness in his eyes hardened again and Shana internally cursed. She sucked at the mushy girl stuff. Sex she was good at. Love was trickier. “But I promise not to cheat on you until you’re dead. You have my word.”

“You break your word every day.”

“Yes, but only when it doesn’t matter. This matters. You matter. So I won’t.”

He closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. “Shana, I don’t think—”

She cut him off before he could tell her no. No was not an acceptable answer. “Don’t you want to spank me? It’ll make you feel better, put us back on even footing. You can spank me once for every guy I was with when I should have been with you.”

He snorted. “That would take weeks. My hand would fall off before I finished.”

“Ha-ha.”

She saw a flicker of a smile around his mouth and her heart jumped. Shana reached out and tentatively brushed his hair back from his forehead. He never used to let it grow so long. “Caleb?”

“You’re trouble, Shay,” he said without opening his eyes.

“You like trouble,” she reminded him. She bent to brush her lips softly across his.

She kept the kiss no more than a seductive tease. When she pulled back, he leaned forward, chasing her mouth. She let him catch her lips, enjoying the slow, drugging pull of his mouth. He deepened the kiss, his tongue sneaking into her mouth. The man sure knew what he was doing. She could kiss him for days.

But she wasn’t that patient.

Shana straddled his legs and began to lower herself down, sliding down his chest, but Caleb caught her waist and held her still. He pulled back from the kiss, opening golden eyes gone dark and intent.

“Caleb?” she asked, hating the shiver of uncertainty in her voice. Had he changed his mind?

“You’ve been a bad girl, Shana.”

She licked her lips, a spike of nervousness threading deliciously through the sensual anticipation heating her blood. She nodded slowly. “Very bad.”

He spun her abruptly away from him. She was still stumbling on her four-inch heels when he hauled her back and yanked her facedown across his knees. Her breath left her on a gasp. Caleb’s hand hovered just over the skin on the backs of her thighs, so close she could feel his heat, but not quite touching. The teasing not-quite-touch moved up to the curve of her ass, left exposed by the thong and the too-short skirt. Shana squirmed, cream drenching her thong. He was really going to do it.

“Do you need to be punished?”

Her breath came in little pants now, her body tight with anticipation. “Yes.” Oh Goddess, did she ever.

The first smack was more startling than painful. A sensual wake-up call. Caleb’s hand landed and stayed, massaging her ass, soothing any trace of hurt.

“How naughty have you been?” he asked, his voice gravel rough, the erection riding her hip letting her know she wasn’t alone in her need.

“Very.”