Page 40 of Pleasured By the Panther
My Mature Elite, he thought bitterly. That was what she was—her Second Heat had confirmed it. She was at the height of her power…her fertility…her beauty. And she was his. His fate…his dream…his mate.
But she had walked away.
“Will I ever see you again, lovely one?” he whispered into the vast, empty Docking Bay. His voice echoed off the steel and vine-grown walls, swallowed whole by the great ship around him, and the silence that answered was crushing.
Korrath straightened slowly, his jaw clenched, his heart a heavy weight in his chest. He could not undo what had been done. All he could do now was wait, and hope that the Goddess—or Miranda herself—would one day grant him another chance.
Until then, he would live with the hollow ache in his heart that she had left behind.
29
MIRANDA
Miranda sat in the passenger’s chair, her gaze fixed on the wide viewscreen at the front of the shuttle. Stars streaked by in bright, cold trails, beautiful and distant, indifferent to her turmoil.
The Taurus pilot had tried making small talk at first. Questions about where on Earth she was from and whether she had enjoyed her time aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship. She had answered with clipped syllables and hadn’t tried to elaborate. After a few attempts, he’d grunted and fallen silent, leaving only the steady hum of the engines to fill the space between them.
That suited Miranda just fine—she didn’t have the energy for conversation.
She tried—she really tried—to think about the wedding. Hanna’s wedding. She pictured the flowers she had arranged days ago…the pale pink roses and soft white lilies. She thought about the seating chart she and Hanna had agonized over, about the rehearsal she’d missed last night.
God, I hope everything’s still on track. I hope Hanna’s all right. I need to be there for her. She needs me.
But Korrath kept intruding.
No matter how hard she pushed him aside, the big Monstrum came creeping back, his presence filling the quiet shuttle like a ghost. She could almost feel the rasp of his rough tongue on her nipple…the weight of his body covering hers…the impossible fullness of him stretching her on his cock. Her thighs clenched helplessly at the memory, heat stirring low in her belly.
Stop it. Enough—it’s over. He was too young for you. Too wild. You knew him for one day and one night. That’s all. So get over it.
But one day and one night had been enough time to change everything.
Her ex-husband’s face rose unbidden to her mind…Martin’s pinched expression as he told her to keep the lights off, as if her curves were an embarrassment to him. Korrath’s voice followed right on its heels, deep and velvet-dark, calling her beautiful…lush…his Mature Elite. The big Monstrum had made her feel seen in a way she never had been before. Cherished…Desired.
It was just sex, she told herself firmly. The best sex of my life, yes—but still. Just sex. A nice little adventure before I go back to my boring, ordinary, everyday life. Back to bills and errands and laundry and teaching and…
And being invisible. Because there was no way a human man would look at her the way Korrath had—like she was beautiful and perfect and everything he had ever wanted or wished for in a woman.
Miranda tried to push the thoughts away, but she couldn’t quite do it. She couldn’t stop remembering the way the big Monstrum had touched her, slow and reverent…or the way he had tasted her until she was sobbing his name. The way he had filled her so completely she thought she might break apart…and the way he had murmured to her in the dark, telling her to rest while he stayed inside her, keeping her full.
Miranda shifted in her seat, pressing her thighs together, her cheeks hot.
God. Am I still in that Second Heat he talked about? Is that why I can’t stop thinking about him?
The thought made her uneasy. She shoved it away, clamping down hard on the memories, forcing her mind back to Hanna. To the wedding. To what mattered.
“Enough,” she whispered under her breath. “You’re done with him and Hanna needs you now. Focus on her.”
But even as she said it, the phantom weight of Korrath lingered, curled around her like he had been in the night, refusing to let her go…
30
MIRANDA
The shuttle touched down with a soft thump in the private landing bay just outside the HKR building. Miranda pressed her palms to her knees, trying to steady herself as the hatch hissed open.
Warm, humid air rushed in, carrying the faint scent of salt from the Gulf. It should have been comforting and familiar—but instead it felt almost alien after the lush, perfumed air of the Monstrum Mother Ship.
Home, she reminded herself firmly. You’re home. Hanna needs you. That’s what matters now.
