Page 60 of Stray Cat

Xav still wasn’t sure how he was going to do that.

“Don’t you want to know what he said about it?” Xav asked.

He didn’t imagine Lindsay’s disquiet. “Tiger’s always sure everything will work out,” she said. “Jinxie is too. Shifters who have the mate bond can’t always imagine what it’s like not to form it.”

Xav’s heart thumped. “Are we forming it?”

Lindsay watched him in sadness. “I don’t know.”

Did that mean that Lindsay didn’t feel the mate bond forhim? Cassidy had once explained a bit about it, but Lindsay was right, those who had it couldn’t really convey its meaning to those who didn’t.

“How can we tell?” Xav asked. “What is it supposed to feel like?”

Lindsay lightly touched his chest. “I’m not sure, actually. But if both of us don’t form it, we’re better off not mating at all.” She drew a sharp breath. “Don’t ask me to answer about the mate-claim, not right now. I have a lot to think about. ’Kay?”

“I wasn’t going to.” Xav lifted her fingers to his lips and pressed kisses to each fingertip. “I know it’s a tough choice. I made the claim to keep the other Shifters off your back. It stays until you decide. ”

Lindsay moaned and fell onto him, burying her face in his shoulder. “Why are you so sweet to me?”

Xav shrugged, tamping down his fears about his future with her. “I’m a sweet guy. Now, I can think of a few things we can do while you’re thinking.”

“Mm?” Lindsay said into his shoulder, sounding more like her playful self. “What things?”

Xav slid his hand under her hair and coaxed her to raise her head. He read desire in her eyes, the raw need flaring again.

“Maybe something like this.” Xav rolled her over beneath him, then he licked her from neck to navel.

Lindsay squealed with laughter as he buzzed his mouth on her abdomen, then her laughter turned to a hungry moan when he trailed his tongue between her thighs to taste her.

* * *

Xav swamupward from profound slumber hours later when he heard a faint clatter in the kitchen.

His first thought was that Lindsay had risen to fix herself a snack—Shifters were always hungry—before he realized that Lindsay slept contentedly next to him.

Xav had this place well stocked with state-of-the-art security and cams, but any tech could be bypassed if someone had the know-how. He could name a few Shifters, like Neal, who did.

However, Shifters would make no noise. Therefore, the person trying to be quiet in Xav’s kitchen was human.

Xav softly slid open his nightstand drawer and removed the pistol he kept there.

Lindsay instantly came awake.Instantly.Unlike Xav, who’d lain in sonorous confusion for a few seconds, she was up and on her feet, staring into the darkness beyond his bedroom door.

To his alarm, she motioned for him to stay put and slipped into the hall. Lindsay was stark naked, her pale hair a smudge in the darkness. She’d removed her fake Collar sometime during their play, so not even that marred her nude body.

While Xav figured she’d stun the hell out of whoever was in his house with her wild beauty, he wouldn’t sit and wait for her to be shot.

He heaved himself quietly out of bed, just as naked, and followed her.

Lindsay had already made it to the front of the house by the time Xav emerged from the bedroom. A light flared on in the kitchen, and Lindsay’s voice rang out.

“Oh, boys, you’re having a party without me?” Then a crash of furniture and Lindsay saying “Shi—” before she was silenced.

Xav burst into the kitchen, his pistol ready. Lindsay lay on the floor, sprawled inelegantly, a tranq dart in her shoulder. Before Xav could fire, he felt a sting in his back and a lassitude that announced he too had been tranqed.

Damn, I’m getting sick of this,was his last coherent thought before the floor rushed upward to meet him.

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

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