Page 76 of Bria and the Tiger

“Is the attendant around?”

“Nope. What do you need?”

“Uh, my zipper done up.”

He stood and she hesitated before walking to him. She turned and he zipped up the dress before stroking a finger across her bare upper back. Goosebumps rose on her skin and her tiger purred before she could stop it. Jace’s rumbing purr in return made her flush with pleasure.

Before she could do something really stupid like push him into the dressing room and have sex with him, she stepped away and turned to face him. “What do you think?”

He didn’t reply, and disappointment flickered through her. “That bad?”

“That good.” His voice was a low growl that made her pussy dampen and then clench uselessly around nothing. “You look incredibly sexy, little tiger.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

His gaze lingered on her breasts and she could feel her nipples tightening against the material of the dress. He traced the ruching across the abdomen with his hand and she could barely contain her moan. When he finally lifted his gaze to her face and she saw the lust in it, her tiger made a soft and embarrassingly eager mating trill to Jace’s tiger.

“Oh God, I’m sorry.” She wanted to kill her stupid tiger and her stupid mating call.

Stop it! She snapped inwardly at her tiger. You’re embarrassing me.

Her tiger hissed at her but retreated. She gave Jace another look of apology. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “You have to get this one for the party.”

She smoothed her hand down the skirt. “Yeah? You like this one better than the yellow one?”

He nodded as he studied her mouth. “Much better. There is one problem though.” He stepped closer to her and she licked her lips when he rubbed her collarbone with his thumb.

“Wh-what?”

“If you wear this dress to the party, I’ll have to mark you to keep the other shifters from trying to take you from me.”

She stared up at him. His eyes were turning from hazel to jade and when his tiger called to hers, she purred in reply without even thinking about it. Cat shifters could mark and sometimes did – although they weren’t nearly as over-the-top about marking as wolf shifters were – but they usually only marked their mates. It was a testimony to how drunk Jace was the night he kept marking her at the club.

“Maybe I should mark you right now.”

His voice was low.

Hypnotic.

“Lift your head, little tiger.”

She wanted him to mark her so much.

She wanted to know that she smelled like him.

She wanted any shifter who went near her to smell Jace and know she was his.

She was lifting her head when common sense returned. His mark would last a day or two and the other shifters at the office would smell it.

He was already bending his head and she put a hand on his broad chest. “Jace, wait.”

He growled at her and she shook her head. “No, you can’t mark me. The others at the office…”

“A kiss then,” he said. “Kiss me, little tiger.”

“I shouldn’t,” she whispered as he dipped his head down.