Rome’s Pride: Chapter One

Fifteen years earlier…Refuge, NC

Rome sat on the porch rail of the Cock & Bull Saloon, sipping a bottle of brew. Around him stood or sat his crew. Guys he’d known since middle school who still lived in the small town of Refuge, or like himself, were home for a brief visit.

He was laughing at a comment Mike made when Sam nudged him. “You’re being watched, mi amigo.” Sam gestured toward the parking lot with his bottle.

Rome glanced over his shoulder. At first he didn’t see what Sam had observed. Then the headlights of an arriving pickup swinging into the small parking area pinpointed the golden glow of a cat’s eyes, fixated on him from the surrounding woods.

“That your woman?” Mike asked, humor in his voice.

“She’s not my woman,” Rome denied. Zuri was too young to be anyone’s woman. She’d only turned seventeen a month ago.

Sam smirked. “It’s certainly not for lack of trying. Why don’t you put her out of her misery and claim her already?”

Rome pinned him with a glare, knowing Zuri, with her shape-shifter senses, could hear every word. “That’s not funny.”

“Who’s joking? She’s a hot piece of ass. If you don’t want to tap it, there are more than enough guys around here who will,” Sam assured him.

“Most of you losers are wolves. Wolves and cats can’t mate,” Rome reminded him.

“Who’s talking mating? That’s one ripe female. I’m more than willing to play with her for a while. Show her what a good lovin’ man can do while you’re out playing GI Joe.”

Rome lurched to his feet, scowling furiously. “She’s still a kid. I find out any of you jackasses touched her while I’m gone and I’ll neuter you.”

He stomped angrily down the stairs, ignoring the hoots and jeers of his friends behind him. Damn fools were always jerking his chain. Rome knew he shouldn’t let them get to him, but he had no sense of humor when it came to Zuri.

He strode across the loose gravel parking lot to the waiting lioness. “Go home, Zuri. This is no place for you.”

A blank stare greeted him before she gazed past him to the building, her tail swishing idly.

Rome placed his hand on his hips. “What are you doing here? Does Josiah know where you are?”

One slow blink, then a wide jaw-popping yawn that showed lots of sharp teeth.

“Zuri, go home,” he rebuked sharply. No one got under his skin the way she did. He pulled out his cell phone. “Screw this. I’m calling your father. Maybe he can talk some sense into you.”

Rome flipped opened the phone and hit speed dial. Before the call could connect, Zuri leapt up, snatched the phone in her mouth, and with her front paws, pushed off his chest and loped off. He staggered under the unexpected attack. “Damn it, Zuri. Bring my phone back.”

He took off after the stubborn cat, ignoring the hoots and laughter of his friends. “If you break it, you’re buying me another.”

Zuri stayed one step ahead of him, taunting him. Since she was on four legs and he was only using two, she could have easily left him in her dust. She could have climbed a tree, which would have forced him to shift to catch her. She’d obviously wanted his attention and she’d gotten it.

As a jaguar shifter, he was faster than a human male. In his animal form he could run over sixty miles per hour. As a man, he couldn’t reach those speeds but he was tall and his stride was long. Suddenly he stopped. “I’m not chasing you all over this mountain. Give me the damn phone and go home.”

Zuri turned and trotted back to within three feet of him. She sat and bared her teeth. The black metal of his phone glinted in the moonlight. Her manner dared him to take it from her.

Rome sighed. “Why are you doing this, Zuri?”

She shape-shifted. He averted his gaze but not before he got an eyeful of plump breasts, lean muscles, and a triangle of neatly groomed, curly black hair hiding the gate to paradise. His cock immediately hardened and lengthened. A reaction he was having more and more around Zuri.

She closed the gap between them, placing her small hands on his shoulders. “You’re avoiding me.”

“I saw you this morning before you left for school.” Rome fought to keep his hands off her. This unwanted sexual attraction he felt for Zuri had grown stronger the older she got. When he looked at her, his jaguar didn’t see a child still in the schoolroom. It saw a mature, ripe female, ready to be fucked.

She pouted. “Exactly. I was on my way out the door. You’ve been home a week, and you’ve barely spoken to me.”

“We’ve both been busy. You have your school activities,” he said to remind them both of her age.

“I would have made time for you, had you given any indication you were interested.” She eased close enough that her erect nipples brushed his chest.

Rome caught her by the waist. A few inches more and she’d feel the effect she had on his dick. “Why would I want to spend my time home with a little girl?”

Zuri narrowed her black eyes at him. “You used to like spending time with me.”

“I was a boy then. Now, I’m a man.” He was being a bastard, but it was for her protection. Zuri had no idea the things he wanted to do to and with her. She was too young, and Josiah would kill him. Hell, he’d kill any man who even thought about doing to Zuri what Rome wanted to do to her.

She grinned and as her eyes slid over his body, they held a sensuous expression no girl her age should be able to manage. “I’ll say.”

The scent of her arousal drifted to his nostrils and his cat clawed his insides, demanding they take what she clearly offered. Rome gritted his teeth, and his hands involuntarily clenched on her sides. He should snatch his cellphone off the ground and leave this enticing bundle of jailbait standing here alone in the woods. She’d eventually give up and go home where she belonged.

“What do you want?” Damn it, that’s not what he meant to say.

“You.”

The purr in her voice had his penis jerking, trying to burst out of his pants. He snarled and shoved her away from him. His eyes had gone cat, making the black cellphone as easy to see as if it were daylight instead of late evening in the mountains. He stooped down and picked it up. “You’re a child, Zuri. You don’t know what the hell you want. For the last time, go— Umph!”

His back hit the ground, and Zuri’s lithe, curvy body landed on top of his. She slammed her mouth down on his and planted a kiss on him that curled his toes and had his jaguar lunging to the surface. Fuck!