Page 15 of A Lion's Heart
Instead, his body tensed because he sensed something else. Rogues.
“Fuck!” he yelled and released her. “Get dressed now!”
It took her less than three seconds to figure out what was going on and grab for her clothes the way she was instructed. Decan dressed without looking at her and when she moved to the wall…to the spot her cat had remembered coming out of, he saw the confusion as the palm of her hand did not activate entry.
Instead of providing the explanation she wanted—the one he had no intention of ever giving—Decan pushed past her, holding his right hand up until his claws broke through the skin of his fingertips. With his claws against the wall moving in a series of circular motions the doorway slid quietly open and he stepped aside. She was angry. He could scent it as well as see it, but she wasn’t stupid.
Nisa slipped through the opening and Decan followed. It closed behind them and when he turned again it was to a gun pointed at the center of his chest.
“Stand down!” Keller yelled to the six guards that were now standing in the brightly lit hallway.
One had Nisa’s back pulled against him, one arm tightly around her waist, the other holding a gun to her temple. Decan pushed the gun pointed at him away from his chest and moved quickly to pull Nisa out of the guard’s grasp.
“Don’t. Touch. Her.” He growled and the guard immediately backed away.
“What the hell, Decan?” Keller grumbled as he walked in front of the guards that were now moving to stand across the hall from the doorway. “First, the doorway alarm was tripped, then the sensors picked up activity around the perimeter. Where the hell were you and why didn’t you use the proper exit and entry points?”
Nisa hadn’t pulled away from him, a fact he was supremely thankful for because he would have hated to grab hold of her the way the guard had been doing. But if that’s what it took to show them that he meant for his warning to be taken with deadly seriousness, then that’s precisely what he would have done. She stood beside him, tucked under his arm as if they were joined…but they weren’t, he reminded himself. She was just his assignment. Nothing more.
“Not now,” he told Keller, because Nisa did not need to hear this conversation.
“Decan—” Keller began, his nostrils flaring.
“Ten minutes,” Decan said interrupting him. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll meet you in the lodge.”
There was a moment of tense silence as the lion and the cougar refused to break eye contact.
“Ten minutes and then I’m coming to find you…again,” Keller snapped.
Decan didn’t reply, but moved away, walking Nisa down the hall to stop in front of the elevators.
“What’s going on?” she asked, but still remained close to him.
“Not now,” he said again, his teeth clenching.
The elevator doors opened and Decan ushered them inside, but the moment they closed Nisa moved to the other end of the car and fired off a round of questions.
“What the hell is this place? Who is Keller Cross? And why did I just feel like we were being hunted in a place you said was secure?”
Her t-shirt hung off one shoulder, the baggy pants she wore were twisted and her tennis shoes were untied. But all Decan could see when he looked at her was the endless stretch of soft mocha skin enhanced by the delicious curve of her hips, her ass and her breasts. As his body tightened in response to that thought, the unmistakable stench of rogues still permeated his senses, forcing his lion to react.
“I told you I would take you out for a run,” Decan replied. “It slipped my mind so I’ll apologize for that. But you had no business going up there on your own. It was reckless and stupid and you should thank me for coming to your rescue.”
A part of him sensed the words he’d just said were wrong, but they were already out by that time and the low rumbling sound of her cat disagreeing wholeheartedly with what he’d just said, echoed throughout the car.
“I did not need to be rescued!” she countered. “I picked up the rogue scent out there just like you did. And I’ve never asked permission to leave Oasis—”
The second her lips clapped shut Decan nodded.
“Right. You’ve never asked permission but you’ve been leaving regularly. I know because each time in the last six months that you’ve done so, I’ve been there. Watching you. Making sure nothing happened while you were out disobeying one of your father’s staunchest rules. So yes,” he stated evenly. “You need to be rescued, from yourself!”
Her mouth opened, then closed again as she struggled for words. Decan was fine with that. The less she talked, the easier it was for him to think. Actually, no, that wasn’t right. The elevator door opened and he reached for her. She backed away and he cursed. He wanted to explain, but knew it wasn’t possible, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her off the elevator.
She yanked free the moment they were in the hallway on the floor where their rooms were. He didn’t try to hold on to her, which he easily could have, instead he let her walk ahead of him. Trailing behind her, even while she was quiet, wasn’t easier. His gaze immediately went to the sway of her ass in those ridiculously huge sweats. He’d seen her wear them before during the training sessions she lead back at the Assembly Headquarters. While most of the other female shifters wore the more form-fitting training gear, Nisa always wore something baggy. In the beginning Decan had thought she was hiding her body, but then he’d seen her in full guard gear and changed his mind. That uniform fit her every curve to perfection. He’d lost count of how many days he’d wished he were the material of her tank top so that he could hug her full breasts in the same way. She could be such a bundle of contradictions.
He was so deep in that thought that he hadn’t seen her stop in front of her door, so he bumped into her.
She turned immediately and stared up at him.
