Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Seeing Phoenix return safe from his excursion in the jungle had Nadirah flinging herself at him. The entire time he’d been gone she’d been a mess of nerves.
“How did it go?” she asked, cradled in his arms, a place that felt not only comfortable, but right.
It took him only a moment to recap the experience.
Apparently, he’d shifted and satisfied the harimau tribe that he was telling the truth, at least with respect to the change in his physiology.
Would that be enough to keep them safe? Her time in the village that morning had made it clear the people remained suspicious.
The adults, at least. The children—some of them in human shape wearing only loincloths, others in fur—ran around hooting and laughing.
To her shock, one of them spontaneously shifted in the midst of play, their lack of control explaining the minimal clothing.
The loincloths either split the tethers holding them around the waist or fluttered to the ground to be trampled on.
After the midday meal of fish and more fresh produce, Farah invited Phoenix and Nadirah to join her and the children as she orated some of their history and then went on to conduct a lesson in meditation and control.
The stories Nadirah already knew from Nenek, but she still listened avidly so she could translate for Phoenix.
When it came time to practice, some of the more active youngsters found it hard to sit still, but others adopted a lotus position, eyes closed, breathing as instructed. A few managed to reach a Zen-like state that allowed them to call forth their inner tiger.
While Nadirah knew she had no harimau blood, she couldn’t resist attempting—and failing—as did Phoenix, who sighed when the lesson ended.
“Guess clearing my mind doesn’t work,” he ruefully admitted.
“You’ve only begun to learn,” Farah stated. “Control over your inner tiger can take time. My oldest son didn’t master the ability to shift at will until his thirties.”
Phoenix grimaced. “Meaning, at my age, I could end up being eligible for the senior discount before I get it to work.”
“You might find it easier to go from tiger to human first, as that is the shape you wear most often.”
“Speaking of shifting back, I’ve got a question for you.” Phoenix lowered his voice. “While injury morphs me automatically, I also go from tiger to man if I taste blood. I don’t suppose that’s common?”
The claim raised Farah’s brows. “Blood transforms you?”
“Only in tiger form. As a man, I can eat a rare steak, no problem. But if I’m wearing my stripes, it only takes the taste of it, and poof, I’m two-legged again. General claimed it made me defective for combat.”
“That is very strange. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing.” Farah half turned and, in Malaysian, called over Johan, who’d stopped to talk to someone in the forest village. “Johan, our guest has an interesting quirk.”
The older man headed for them, and Phoenix groaned. “She just told him, didn’t she?”
“She’s about to,” Nadirah confirmed.
“This is so embarrassing.” Being an alpha male, Phoenix saw it as a weakness.
Farah quickly explained to Johan what Phoenix admitted, which led to the older man staring before murmuring, “I never hear of such thing.”
“Meaning I am a freak.” Phoenix slumped.
Johan frowned. “What he say?”
Farah jumped in to translate, and to Nadirah’s surprise, Johan put a hand on Phoenix’s shoulder. “Not broken. Mind fight.” Johan tapped his temple.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked a puzzled Phoenix.
Johan turned to Nadirah to explain in his mother tongue, which she then translated.
“Blood is life for man and beast. However, given how the change occurred, forced instead of inherited, the mind is struggling to adapt. It does not accept the tiger. It convinces the spirit that the instincts are wrong because man does not bite to eat or protect. Therefore, the man, even when he’s tiger, rejects its own nature.
When your tiger draws blood, and tastes it, it acts as a mental shock, triggering the shift. ”
An astute explanation, judging by how Phoenix’s jaw dropped. “I never thought of it that way, but it actually does make sense, because the first time I used my teeth to attack, I remember being horrified.”
Nadirah addressed Johan. “How can he overcome this aversion?”
At the query, Johan shrugged. “By accepting the tiger. By reveling in his gift. By coming to peace with his primal nature.”
When she relayed the message to Phoenix, he grimaced. “Might be easier if I wasn’t still so pissed at what the general did to me.”
Johan’s reply? “Stop fighting what you can’t change.”
“So, there’s no way to get rid of the tiger?”
“No.” Farah shook her head. “It is a part of you. You must accept. Welcome. Perhaps even rejoice that you are one of the blessed.”
Phoenix fell into a contemplative state that involved little talk but much observing. He watched the children, often smiling at their antics. He especially studied the tigers passing through, some carrying the results of their hunt in their jaws—without shifting back.
As she and Phoenix headed back to their habitat after dinner, he murmured, “I thought finding other tiger shifters would give me all the answers.”
“You got replies to your questions.”
“I did, but I feel like I’m still lost. Like I don’t belong.”
“That seems natural, given you’re a foreigner in a strange land.
“It’s more than that.” He swept a hand. “Look at them. They truly are harimau. They live as tigers. Hunt as tigers. They know who they are and accept it. I don’t know if I can ever do that.”
“Is your ability truly that awful?”
He hesitated before replying. “Yes and no. I mean, the enhanced senses of smell and sight are kind of amazing. And when I’m in my feline form, I feel invincible. But then there’s the fact I need to be constantly on my guard. Always have to keep a part of me secret.”
“Not from me.” Nadirah couldn’t help but remind that she knew and didn’t mind.
He cast her a soft smile. “And you don’t know how much that means to me. That I can be myself around you. Talk to you about it.”
She touched his arm. “I will do what I can to help you through this.”
“Thank you.” He placed his hand over hers, the simple gesture still somehow giving her a zing of awareness that had her staring into his eyes.
And then she had them closed because he was kissing her.
A kiss much more passionate than the chaste and quick one they’d shared that morning.
An embrace that ignited every fibre within with passion.
An unleashing of the desire that had been simmering.
When it ended, it took her a moment to force open her eyes, and she found him staring at her with smoldering intent.
“I want you,” he murmured.
Words to steal her breath and led to his expression clouding with uncertainty.
“I’m sorry. This isn’t the time or place for me to—”
Before he could apologize further, she cupped his cheek and whispered, “I want you, too.”
His smile gave her a quiver. “Is it too early for us to go to bed?”
“Only if you’re planning on sleeping,” her saucy retort.
They couldn’t climb into their nest fast enough, and when the canvas tarp dropped over the opening, they came together in a clash of teeth, lips, and heated breath.
They fell into the bed, and her eyes closed, enhancing the sensation of his lips caressing her, trailing from her jaw to her neck and bringing forth a shiver of sensual delight—and expectation.
His hands roamed, over top of her clothing at first, stroking and sensitizing every nerve ending.
When he paused, his fingers on the hem of her shirt, she showed permission by sitting up to help him remove it.
Her sports bra, not the sexiest thing, might as well have been lingerie the way his eyes glazed with passion.
She tossed it aside, revealing her breasts, which made him growl, “Fucking perfect peaches.”
He reached out to cup one before he leaned down and flicked his tongue over a tight bud.
He took it into his mouth, pulling at it, bathing it in heat and sensation.
She couldn’t help a mewl of pleasure, quickly stifled with a fist. The hut lacked insulation, and she didn’t need everyone in the village knowing what they did.
He laved her breasts with attention, switching between them, nipping the nipples with his teeth, which sent a jolt through her.
When she could no longer remain sitting, her body turning boneless with pleasure, he followed her down, still teasing her flesh.
Arousal had her hips writhing, and she grabbed at his face to draw him close for a kiss, dragging him atop her, wanting the weight of him pinning her down.
Her legs parted for him to settle between her thighs, their lips locked in a kiss that left her breathless.
When he shifted to the side, she almost protested, but he only did it so he could touch her, his hand drifting down her torso, teasing her bare belly, then traveling further, stroking her mound through her shorts, making her panties wet.
“Shall we take these off?” he purred.
She lifted her hips to help him pull down her bottoms, which got tossed aside.
Lying there naked might have made her self-conscious if not for the half-lidded admiration in his gaze.
He stroked her, teasing apart her nether lips, making her arch in need. When he leaned down to place a soft kiss on her inner thigh, she uttered a soft cry.
“You smell good enough to eat,” he let out a low growl as he settled between her legs. He blew hotly on her sex, and she quivered with anticipation. Rather than put his mouth on her, though, he teased, dipping a finger, dragging the honeyed tip over her clit.
When he finally flicked his tongue and tasted her, he groaned, and she bit her fist, lest she cry out too loud. She couldn’t entirely stifle herself as he licked her, long wet swipes that had her shuddering and clenching, needing him inside her in a way she’d never experienced before.
She couldn’t control her writhing, which led to him pinning her with his forearm and latching onto her sex, using his tongue to flick her nub, his lips to tug her lips.
A sensual attack on her clit that involved nibbling and sucking also involved him inserting a finger inside her, finally something to squeeze.
The addition of a second digit pushed her over the edge, and she bucked hard as she came.
But still, he didn’t stop. He kept lapping and teasing until she squirmed and panted again. How was this even possible? She never orgasmed twice in a row. Then again, she’d never been with someone like Phoenix.
He brought her to a fever pitch before kneeling to shuck his shorts, revealing his erect cock. She couldn’t help but reach out to grab him. He hissed as she stroked the velvet-covered steel shaft, his hips twitching in time to her rhythm, his whole body trembling.
“Lie down,” she softly ordered.
He quickly complied, and she straddled him, her sex hovering over his straining shaft. She held his gaze, smoldering and glowing as she impaled herself on him. She didn’t do it slowly; no need, with her channel already loose and lubricated.
Phoenix yelled, and his hips surged upward, driving deep, which led to her almost collapsing atop him as the jolt of pleasure hit.
She braced her palms on his chest, fingers digging into his flesh as she began rolling her hips, keeping him deep, squeezing him tight.
The slow rotation of her pelvis provided a breathtaking sensation on her clit that had her sex clenching even tighter.
His hands settled on her hips, their firm strength helping her to keep a rhythm, a steady churn and grin that had her forgetting to breathe as her second climax approached—and hit!
She went stiff as she orgasmed, unable to think or move, just feel, feel the bliss that multiplied as he joined her, his cock spasming and spilling, bathing her in heat.
The intensity of not one but two orgasms had Nadirah collapsing on him, chest to chest, both of them heaving with exertion and slick with sweat.
It took a while for their breathing to even out and their heart rates to slow.
He murmured, “Why have we waited this long to do that?”
She couldn’t help but giggle. “That was better than expected.”
“Not really. I knew from the moment we met it would be good.”
“Oh?”
“There’s something about you, Nadirah. Something I can’t resist.”
Words to make a heart burst. “I’m quite intrigued by you, too,” she replied, her head resting on his chest, the steady thump of his heart soothing. So calming, in fact, she fell asleep.
He must have, too, because she woke to find them in a tangle of naked limbs where every movement brought a shiver of awareness and led to a second bout of lovemaking.
Yes, love. Nadirah might not have known Phoenix for long, but the feelings she had for this man consumed her. It might have frightened, only it reminded her of what Nenek used to say about her late husband.
When you meet the one, you will know.
But did he feel the same?