Serengeti Heat Read online

  She didn’t know if it was different

  because she was in heat, different

  because she’d never been with another

  shifter, or different because it was

  Landon, but every sensation seemed

  magnified a thousand times beyond her

  previous experience. It was a miracle she hadn’t shifted at the climax as

  Landon had predicted.

  Ava turned her head, breaking her mouth

  free. Landon didn’t stop kissing her. He

  just moved his kisses along her jaw,

  nibbling down the column of her throat.

  “I didn’t shift,” she bragged, proud of

  her superlative control. Even the puniest

  lioness had some positive attributes.

  Unsuitable. Ha!

  “Mm.” Landon took his nibbling

  southward, reaching the upper curve of

  her breasts.

  She smacked him lightly on the shoulder

  to get his attention. He needed to be appreciating what a paragon of self-control she was, here. “When I came. I

  didn’t shift. Like you said I would. I can

  control it.”

  “Mm-hm.” His tongue flicked across her

  nipple.

  She gave him another smack, not quite so

  gentle this time. “Landon!”

  He groaned and looked up, his hands

  quickly taking up where his mouth had

  left off. “What? I’m doing good work

  here.”

  Yes, he was. “I didn’t shift,” she pointed out. Again.

  He shrugged. “Doesn’t happen every time. I didn’t shift either, but it was a

  near thing. I think I left some claw marks

  in the footboard.”

  It doesn’t happen every time? That was

  it? No recognition of her superhuman

  control? No acknowledgement that she

  wasn’t useless and unsuitable and

  totally unworthy of his attention?

  Ava shoved at his shoulder. “Let me

  down.”

  Landon frowned, visibly perplexed, but

  he didn’t budge. “You’re mad.”

  “Well spotted, Sherlock. You figure that

  one out all by yourself?” Big dumb

  alpha.

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  “How did we get from foreplay to mad?

  I’m confused.”

  Ava resisted the urge to tell him for the

  thousandth time that she had not shifted.

  Didn’t he understand the significance?

  Did she have to spell everything out for

  him? “I’m not unsuitable.”

  Landon blinked uncomprehendingly.

  “What?”

  “I’m not unsuitable.” This repetition thing was really starting to get annoying.

  One would think the leader of the pride

  would need to be able to listen a little

  more closely.

  He frowned. “I never said you were.”

  This time when she smacked him, she

  put her weight behind it, really giving it

  all she had. “Yes, you did.”

  “Ava.” He ducked, though she was

  hardly capable of bruising the big hulk,

  let alone doing real damage. “I would

  never say that about you.”

  “You did!” she insisted. “In the jeep.

  You said I was unsuitable and should be

  kept away from the other lions when I’m in heat. You said the only reason you

  jumped me was because I broke the

  rules and wasn’t cloistered off like I’m

  supposed to be.”

  Ava winced internally. She hadn’t meant

  to say quite so much. She didn’t really

  want to be reminding Landon that the

  only reason he was with her right now

  was the potent hormone cocktail they

  were both swilling. And she certainly

  didn’t want him to hear the

  disappointment in her voice that he only

  wanted her because she was in heat. The

  last thing she needed was him wondering

  why else she would want him. How mortifying if he suddenly realized she’d

  been secretly in love with him for months.

  Fortunately, Landon was a masculine

  member of the species, and therefore

  incapable of deducing the origin of her

  emotional meltdown. Instead, he focused

  on her attack on his integrity.

  “I didn’t say that!” His hands had long

  since dropped from her breasts to brace

  on the counter on either side of her. He

  loomed over her, his own temper

  snapping at its leash. “I was trying to

  explain why I attacked you that way in

  the jeep,” he protested. “I wasn’t talking

  about you being unsuitable. I completely

  lost control, Ava. I couldn’t even

  maintain my human form. You make me

  so crazy. All I can think about is getting inside you. I shouldn’t be allowed to

  want you like this. Your brothers have

  been among my few allies since I

  arrived here and how do I repay them?

  By banging their little sister.” The fight

  went out of him and he dropped his

  forehead down to rest on her shoulder.

  “God, what am I doing?”

  Ava ran her hands from the base of his

  neck across the sculpted muscles of his

  back. “You told me I was unsuitable

  because I make you crazy?”

  Landon groaned. “I didn’t say you were

  unsuitable, Ava. And if I did, it wasn’t

  what I was trying to say. I thought you

  wanted that fucking cowboy, that I was smelling your attraction to him and

  reacting to it.

  I was so sure you didn’t even want me

  and then I practically fucked you right

  there in the front seat. I needed there to

  be some reason for it. Some way to

  explain it. I’ve never reacted to another

  female’s heat the way I have to yours

  tonight. The scent is intoxicating, yes,

  but never so irresistible. But when you

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  Vivi Andrews

  walked in here, I couldn’t let you leave.

  I think I would have broken down and

  sought you out even if you hadn’t come. I

  had to have you, Ava.”

  He whispered this entire speech against

  her shoulder. Ava held herself perfectly

  still, afraid if she moved that he would

  remember she wasn’t the irresistible

  goddess his body had tricked him into

  believing she was.

  “You drive me crazy too,” she

  confessed, resting her head against his

  shoulder as she continued to trace the

  lines of his back. “I wanted you. In the

  jeep. In the bar.”

  He lifted his head, but Ava kept hers

  hidden. “You ran to Zoe’s.”

  “I thought you didn’t want me.”

  His fingers traced a trail from the base

  of her spine around her ribcage,

  reminding her that she was naked and

  wrapped around him. Her pulse kicked

  into high gear as he bent to press his face

  against her neck, inhaling deeply. His

  hands closed over her breasts. “Me not

  wanting you was never an option.” />
  The reprieve her body had granted her

  was over, all of the symptoms of her

  heat returning in a thundering rush at the

  touch of his hands. She writhed on the

  counter, her hips slipping off the cool

  surface, but Landon’s body was there to

  catch her, firm and immovable. He caught her against him, chuckling low at

  her lack of feline grace, and kicked the

  bathroom door shut. He spun to pin her

  against it, their entwined bodies hitting

  the door hard enough to rattle the frame.

  Ava purred in her throat, locking her

  ankles more snugly at his back and

  bracing herself with a hand on the towel

  rod. Clearly Landon was taking her

  request that he not hold back this time

  very seriously. She loved a man who

  could take direction.

  As Landon occupied her mouth, she ran

  her hands over every inch of him she

  could reach, basking in the breadth of his

  shoulders, the warmth of his skin, the

  firmness of his muscles against her fingers. He was a specimen in his prime

  and he was all hers. Ava ignored the

  niggling whisper in the back of her mind

  that tried to remind her that he was hers

  for a limited time only. Once he took a

  mate…

  The thought spurred an aggressive

  jealous streak she didn’t know she had.

  Ava bracketed his head in her hands,

  holding him captive as she increased the

  pressure and urgency in the kiss. In this

  moment, he was hers and no one else’s.

  Landon responded readily to her spike

  of need. His fingers, which had certainly

  not been idle, found their way to her

  wet, heated core and he speared one long digit high into her pussy. Ava jolted

  at the impact. Her head smacked back

  against the door, but she was mindless of

  the insubstantial blow, her entire being

  focused on his finger working inside her.

  She snagged his lower lip between her

  teeth, urging him on, inciting him to a

  frenzy. Landon growled against her

  mouth.

  He hitched her higher against the door,

  and then guided the heavy arousal that

  had been wedged between them

  unerringly to her tight sheath. Ava

  grabbed for the towel bar again, her

  other arm locked around his shoulder as

  she braced for his delicious invasion.

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  Serengeti Heat

  “Make it hard.” She panted the reminder

  against his skin.

  Landon bared his teeth in a silent snarl,

  locked his fingers on her hips and

  slammed her down onto his shaft, half-

  seating her in a single stroke. Before she

  could adjust to his sudden presence, he

  pulled out and drove home again,

  deeper, higher. It took three more strokes

  before her tight pussy could

  accommodate his full length. When he

  hilted against her, they moaned in

  unison. He held for a moment and Ava clenched her inner muscles around him

  to keep him there, drowning in the

  perfect sensation, the exquisite relief of

  his body thick and hard inside her.

  “Oh God, it feels…” There were no

  words to describe the soul-searing

  perfection of the feeling.

  Landon didn’t wait for her vocabulary to

  return. Instead, he set a pace that quickly

  deprived her of her powers of speech.

  Ava was reduced to panting, gasping

  moans as Landon made good on his

  promise for a hard, rough ride. Attentive

  to the tenor of her cries, he adjusted his

  angle until each sure stroke was another

  stab of ecstasy.

  Ava heard a high-pitched noise twining around the pounding against the door and

  realized it was her own high-pitched

  keening. The sounds Landon made were

  feral music to her ears. He drove into

  her until she was clinging to the

  precipice, so close to tumbling over the

  edge, holding desperately to her sanity,

  knowing that each second she held off

  her climax it grew in intensity. Landon

  shifted, his own face straining against

  the inevitable, shifted his hold on her,

  lifting her legs higher, changing the angle

  of her hips subtly before ramming home

  one last time.

  Ava screamed, her back arching like a

  bow as white light exploded behind her eyes. Landon gave a ferocious roar and

  slammed her into the door. The sound of

  splintering wood was completely lost

  beneath their orgasmic cries as the door

  gave way, tumbling them back into the

  bedroom.

  Landon landed hard on top of Ava, still

  seated deep within her, and his weight

  sent her off again, shooting toward the

  stars. Still caught in his own orgasm, his

  hips flexed hard into hers, pressing her

  down into the remains of the door.

  She was still shuddering from

  aftershocks when he rolled off her,

  hauling her with him and draping her

  across his chest. Ava focused on the

  little things—breathing, the gradually steadying drumming of Landon’s heart

  against her ear—until she could make

  her eyes focus enough to realize she was

  gazing at the shrapnel of their

  lovemaking.

  She snickered.

  “What?” Landon grunted.

  She laughed harder, tucking her face

  against his chest. Her hormones must be

  working overtime because he still

  smelled fantastic to her, even reeking of

  sweat and sex, man and beast.

  He swatted her backside half-heartedly.

  “What are you laughing at?”

  “I probably have splinters in

  unmentionable places.” She giggled,

  perversely delighted by the destruction

  they had wrought on his bathroom.

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  35

  Vivi Andrews

  “Hm, we’d better check.”

  Landon deftly flipped her over and

  began a very thorough investigation. Ava moaned through her laughter. She could

  definitely get used to this.

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  Chapter Eight

  “How is it you managed to hide from me

  for the last three months?” Landon

  mumbled the question against her breast.

  They had finally made it to the bed after

  thoroughly christening the floor and her

  heat had subsided to a soft thrumming at

  the base of her spine, screwed into

  abeyance by Landon’s superhuman

  efforts. But he still couldn’t seem to stop

  touching her.

  They curled around one another in a knot

  at the center of the bed, forming a

  private cocoon where the realities that

  kept them apart outside this room didn’t

  exist. Ava winced internally as his question threatened her ability to ignore

  those realities.

>   “I’m hardly the kind of girl to come to

  the Alpha’s notice.”

  He frowned against her skin, even that

  subtle movement a caress. “What does

  that mean?”

  “Landon,” she sighed. “You’ve seen my

  lion form—”

  “I told you I could make you shift.” He

  chuckled smugly, the vibration carrying

  through her body.

  She swatted him, unwilling to be

  distracted now that he had brought it up.

  “You know how small I am. I’m hardly

  the type of girl to attract the attention of

  the Alpha.”

  “I like how small you are.” One long

  finger plunged inside her, leaving her no

  doubt as to his meaning.

  Ava caught her breath and closed her

  eyes, letting sensation wash over her.

  “How can I still need you like this?” she

  gasped as he shifted his body over hers.

  This time their mating was slow and

  sensual, each deliberate movement of his

  body wrenching at her heart. When he

  eased off her onto his side several

  minutes later, Ava twisted to fit her back

  against his front, tucking her chin to hide her face. Her emotions were too close to

  the surface, filling her eyes to glistening

  and threatening to betray her.

  Landon threw a leg across hers and

  wrapped one heavy arm around her

  waist, holding her snug against him. His

  mouth traced patterns on the back of her

  neck, never still.

  She needed distance. She needed to

  remind her heart that it could not get too

  attached to this passionate, surprisingly

  playful, intelligent, dynamic, honorable

  man. With her face still hidden, Ava

  made herself say the words that needed

  to be said.

  “You’ll be taking a mate soon, I expect.”

  Her throat threatened to close off, but

  she choked out the next few words. “It

  will need to be someone strong.

  Someone who can lead the Hunt.” Even

  if they were only hunting the

  domesticated cattle on their own ranch,

  the ritual of it was essential to their

  culture.

  Vivi Andrews

  Landon stilled at her first words, but

  then he made an agreeable noise and

  began kissing a line across her shoulder

  again.

  Ava made herself go on. She needed to

  be clear. She would not be pitied. She

  wanted him to know she had no

  expectations to be his partner, no matter

  how much her heart might ache at the

  idea of anyone else taking her place in

  his arms. “Have you given any thought to