Panther

Chapter Thirteen-Ike's POV

Her lips taste like watermelon.

Her hair feels like silk as I intertwine it in my fingers.

I love the way her soft flesh feels as I squeeze handfuls of her butt in my hands.

God, her breathy moans make my dick hard. I can feel myself losing control as I grab a handful of her hair and yank her head back, forcing her to expose her neck to me. I growl as I begin nipping and sucking on her soft skin. My teeth graze just above her collar bone, right at the spot where I will leave my mark on her one day. The mark that tells everyone who she belongs to. The mark that will bind our souls together.

My wolf begs me to sink my teeth into her. The smell of her arousal is driving us both fucking insane. The thought of taking her here and now makes me dig my fingers even harder into her ass cheeks. I'm struggling to control myself, and she isn't helping as she begins grinding against me.

"Cleo." I force out, letting go of her hair and instead grabbing either side of her face. Her eyes are wide and wild, filled with lust. "We gotta stop. I can't control myself much more." I'm practically begging her for mercy at this point. I don't want her to leave here thinking I've taken advantage of her vulnerable state.

"Then don't control yourself." She says, smacking my hand off her face.

I hear a knock at the front door then, and while I'm a bit annoyed at the intrusion, I'm also grateful for the forced distraction. Cleo groans and rolls her eyes, but climbs off me.

"I'll be right back." I say, smiling at her. She glares at me like a child, pouting. I enjoy her softer side as much as I enjoy trying to crack her hard outer shell.

My smile doesn't leave my face as I walk through my house to my front door.

"Ike." Angel's face is on the other side of my front door. She smiles at me, her eyes staring into mine. "What are you doing?" She asks, looking over my shoulder.

"Oh, Cleo is here. Did you need something...?" I want to get back to my room.

"Cleo... the panther?" She asks, ignoring the latter half of my question. She has a strange emotion in her eyes, one that I can't quite put my finger on.

"I mean. Yeah. My mate?" I shift feet, growing impatient. "I'm sure Matt has told you about her." She nods, pursing her lips and looking down at my waist. Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth lifted up in a smirk, and I too looked down to see what she's looking at.

I haven't exactly calmed down from my time with Cleo.

I hear footsteps behind me, and turn to see Cleo padding through my living room. Unlike me, she immediately notices my "situation." Her mouth formed a perfect O and her cheeks heated up in a blush. I flick my eyes over my shoulder, indicating I needed help with the person at the door.

"Hi." She says, holding back a chuckle and looking over my shoulder. "I'm Cleo." She pushes me behind her with one hand, blocking Angel's view of my lower half. She brings her hand back around to shake hands, smiling. I glance down and realize she's having to hold my shorts up on her hips with one hand.

"Mm. I'm aware." Angel looks her up and down, pointedly ignoring Cleo's outstretched hand. I feel my wolf growling inside, angry at the blatant disrespect towards our mate.

Cleo looks over her shoulder at me, an eyebrow raised. I can smell the tension rolling off the two females.

"Well, is there something we can help you with?" No one misses the use of "we." While it makes my lips lift up in a smile, Angel rolls her eyes.

"I came here to talk to Ike, not you, panther."

"Okay." I say, pushing Cleo behind me. "Angel, what the fuck do you want? You came here for a reason, get on with it."

She stands there for a moment longer, looking between the two of us. She says nothing, instead turns on her heel and walks away without looking back.

I turn to look at Cleo, who is standing there staring after her, anger in her eyes and tension in her stance. "Who was that? I remember her from when I first came to see you. She had a problem with me then, too." She asks, flicking her eyes to meet mine. Her eyes are practically glowing with rage, and I can only imagine how her panther must be feeling.

"That's Angel, my best friend's mate."

"Not to be rude, but she was kind of a giant bitch. Is she normally like that?" She moves past me and flops down on the couch she sat on the first time she had come over, pulling her knees up to rest her chin on. I close the door, my gaze following Angel's retreating figure for a moment.

I shake my head, shrugging. "I'll talk to her and Matt later. Clearly something is going on I'm not aware of." Cleo grows quiet then, refusing to look at me. I move over and squat down in front of her, reaching up and grabbing her chin when she still won't meet my eyes. "What's wrong, Cleo?"

"It's because I'm an abomination and everyone but you seems to know it."I growl, angry at her words.

"Can you not fucking say that about yourself, please?" She narrows her eyes at me, and I almost literally see the wall going back up around her. She smacks my hand off her face and I fall back a little.

"I'm a monster, Ike. I've known it my entire life. So, stop trying to pretend otherwise." She's glaring at me now, her eyes glowing like a pair of pumpkins. I watch her carefully.

I don't know Cleo the best, not yet at least, but I can already tell a few things about her.

She's tough, although I'm beginning to think the reasons for that aren't exactly cheery. She's careful, untrusting. Even though she's beginning to let me in, she will just as quickly halt everything and crawl back into her shell. And she's not good at talking about the things that matter most.

With that last thought in mind, I decide against saying anything that will further piss her off.

Instead, I grab her ankles and pull them down so they're dangling in my lap. She eyes me, her eyes still angry but also mixed with curiosity. I pick up one of her feet and kiss her big toe. Her eyebrows shoot up and a smile slowly appears on her lips.

"I think you're beautiful." I say, kissing each one of her pink painted toes. I sit on my knees, leaning forward a little and lifting the front of her sweat shirt so I can start kissing her belly. "You are the adventure I never knew I wanted to go on, Cleo." I pull down her shorts just a little and kiss her hip bones. I sneak a glance at her, and her eyes are closed, and her breathing is picking up. "You taste like sweet honey." I crawl up, putting one hand on the small of her back and one behind her neck. I lay her down carefully, like she's made of glass. "I don't think there's a single thing about you so far that qualifies you for the abomination category." She laughs a little. 

I move her hair to the side and nibble her ear lobe. She sighs softly, and I feel my wolf growling inside me. It drives us both insane when she moans like that. "I want you in my life, Cleo." I whisper in her ear, making her entire body shudder. "I want to know everything there is to know about you."  I move down and begin kissing her neck. I find my way to where I'll mark her, and I begin softly sucking. God, I want to mark her so fucking bad. My dick is rock hard, and I press it into her shorts so she knows just how bad I want her.

"Ike..." She breathes into my hair as I continue sucking her neck. I growl into her ear, and bring one hand up to grab either side of her face, forcing her to look at me.

"Do you want me, Cleo? Do you want me like I want you?"