Chapter 8 #2
She turned her head and came face to face with a curious-eyed jaguar cub. He was a little bigger than Kensi, but still a baby compared to the full-grown jaguars she had seen here and there roaming in the woods around the site.
“Well, hello there,” she said to the child, who jumped back a few steps on being discovered.
She tried to inject friendliness into her tone, not wanting to scare the child further.
“Did you want to see what I’m drawing?” Slowly, Shelly raised the sketch pad to the youngster’s eye level, and sure enough, the fascinating amber eyes moved to focus on yet another angle of the community center she was planning.
“Miguel!” a man’s voice came from a few yards away, and the cub looked up with a guilty expression on his furry little face. The man saw him and moved closer, smiling at Shelly. “I’m sorry if he’s bothering you.”
“Oh, he’s no bother at all,” Shelly reassured the man. “I’m Shelly, the architect. I’m just sketching a few designs for the new Clan hall.”
“I’m Julio, lead carpenter on this job, and you’ve met my son, Miguel.
My mate, Leena, is on the other side of the site, looking for him, but I expect she’ll be along soon.
” He didn’t offer to shake hands, but she didn’t take offense.
Maybe that was some kind of shifter thing.
She was in their world now. She’d have to learn their customs.
“Well, if you’re lead on this job, and the council approves my designs, I suppose we’ll be working together for a bit,” she said, though she really wasn’t sure how involved Mark wanted her to be past the design stage. That was something they had yet to discuss.
Julio didn’t say anything to that. He just nodded. Hmm. Perhaps he was reserving judgment about her. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to prove herself, and her designs, to skeptical tradesmen. She offered him the sketch pad.
“These are just a few rough drawings, but this is the direction I’m thinking of going in for the community center,” she told him.
He took the sketch pad with raised eyebrows and a delicate touch that made her think—nonsensically—that he probably thought the pad would bite him if he grabbed it too hard. She had to stop herself from grinning at her own thoughts.
As Julio paged through her sketches, his expression changed dramatically. He went from skeptical to impressed, if she was reading him right. She felt like crowing as he handed the pad back to her.
“These are really good. The Clan is going to love this,” Julio told her.
Was he getting choked up? This big brute of a man certainly sounded as if he had a big frog in his throat.
“Thank you,” she replied quietly, giving the man a moment to collect himself. “I tried to capture the spirit of this place, and of your people. I hope to do them both justice in a design that will last many lifetimes.”
That, right there, was why she loved architecture.
It was her chance to leave something tangible, and hopefully beautiful, in this world for generations to come.
Like none of her other projects, this one would do that in a big way.
If she got it right. There was a lot riding on her imagination and ability to come up with something both practical and beautiful.
“I think you have the start of something amazing,” Julio went on to say. “The Goddess truly blessed us when She put you in our Alpha’s path.” He paused as she looked at him with surprise.
They believed in the Goddess? Not the Catholic faith that dominated much of South America?
Hmm. That was interesting. Shelly’s father had always insisted that the Howells hailed from a sect of Goddess worshipers, and if that faith had seen their ancestors rise to power, then it was better to stick with the old ways.
As a result, Shelly had been raised in the old ways.
They celebrated what most people called pagan holidays, which usually coincided with the more traditional religious festivities that most people in the United States celebrated.
They did so quietly, of course. Their faith was their own business, her father had said many times. Nobody else’s.
Shelly hadn’t minded. For some reason, she’d always felt closer to the female deity her father had taught her about than the male deity her friends had talked about on occasion.
The Goddess seemed present to her in a way she couldn’t properly explain, but that instinct of hers, once again, told her it was the right way for her.
Shelly found Julio’s reaction to her design interesting. He seemed truly touched by what she had been envisioning, which gratified her to no end.
“What is that area there, by the jaguar’s paw?” Julio asked, peering down at the sketch pad in her hands where she’d been roughing in areas that would be fully detailed later.
“I thought the forearms and paws could act as low safety walls around a play area for the smaller children,” she told him.
“I’m just not sure what kinds of gym equipment might be appropriate for your children.
I assume things they can climb on, though not too high, of course.
Maybe swings and perhaps a sprinkler area considering how hot it must get here at times. ”
“That sounds about right, but my sister Helena would know more about exactly what you’ll need for each age level.
She’s a teacher. Or you can ask my Leena about what our cub likes.
Ah.” He turned, revealing the fact that Mark was walking back to Shelly, a tall brunette woman at his side.
“Here she comes now, with my cousin. Mi amor, come see what this talented lady has come up with for our ninos.” He directed the last part to his wife.
Introductions were made as Julio leaned over to pick up Miguel, still in kitten form, to hold in his arms. Shelly liked the woman right, off and Leena was very enthusiastic about the planned playground.
They started talking particulars about what kinds of equipment and toys each age group might need.
Low balance beams for the youngest were sufficient and safe for their four-legged forms. Wider tree trunks a little higher up were good for the toddlers, though nothing taller than five feet or so, for safety.
Older kids climbed higher, and for them, Mark was pushing for an actual climbing wall, though there would have to be two separate courses—one designed for humans, which could be vertical with the standard holds that were employed by many commercial climbing facilities, along with the usual harnesses and safety gear—and one built with big cats in mind.
It would have to be more of a natural slope, which Shelly thought could be built right into the side of the building itself.
The afternoon passed in a flurry of ideas and sketches as Shelly firmed up her initial design for the community center.
Eventually, Miguel, Julio and Leena said their farewells, promising to see Shelly again at dinner back at the mansion.
At which point, Mark took her by the hand and led her to a somewhat secluded area near one of the sheltering walls of rock that had once been the fiery heart of a living volcano.
“What is this?” she asked, the slight tremor in her voice betraying her feelings.
For some reason, this place resonated with her in a special way. The entire site felt like coming home, in an odd way, but this particular place had a magic about it all its own.
“This is the spot where I will build my home,” he told her. “I want you to design this, as well. A place for me and my family. A place where the Alpha can be just another man. Just another jaguar. And his mate can be happy.” He turned to her, and he was a lot closer than she realized.
She reached out to steady herself on the uneven ground, and he put his hands out to catch her. A sudden wave of dizziness had hit her when he looked at her with blazing gold swirling in his eyes. It was the gold of his jaguar. The wildness of his spirit showing through.
She tried to understand his words, but the feel of his warm fingers on her arms and the closeness of his body made thinking difficult.
Feeling was easier at the moment, and her desire was peaking in a way that was both unprecedented and a bit frightening.
But fear would not hold her back. Not this time.
Not with this man. She knew, somehow, that he would not betray her, or belittle her, or make light of her feelings.
No, this was a serious man with grown-up sensibilities. No matter what the tabloids said about him, everything she’d seen to this point indicated a steady, responsible, caring man who did have a playful side but was also loyal to those around him and loving toward those he called his family.
She admired him in a way she had never admired any other man. And she was drawn to him. There was no doubt about his allure. The chemistry between them felt like it would be explosive when they finally combined.
“I want you to design a home here that you could be happy in, querida,” he whispered to her, drawing her ever closer. His eyes bore into hers as his lips descended, and then, he was kissing her in a way that felt very much as if he was staking some sort of claim.
She was all for it. Whatever he wanted. As long as he kept kissing her like this. That was the last coherent thought she had before the ability to think at all disappeared completely.
He took her down to the ground, and she was glad to go with him, loving the way he mastered her and seemed to watch for her slightest response. He was learning what she liked in a methodical way that spoke of experience, but also of care.
Her shirt was pushed up and then it was just gone, and she felt the warm kiss of moist tropical air on her skin, followed by the wetness of Mark’s mouth as he blazed a trail of sucking kisses over her neck and chest. When he teased her nipples with his teeth, she had to bite back a whimper of delight. He certainly did know how to please.