Trouble in Paradise

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Excerpt

Reaching down, he closed his fist around the base of his shaft and began his nightly fantasy. Up then down. Up then down. He moved his hand rhythmically over his shaft. Darren slid his other hand down over the hard ridges of his stomach, past the springy hair that surrounded his cock and fondled his balls.

With the pillow over his face and Penny's scent filling his lungs, it was easy to imagine the warmth of her mouth closing around the head of his cock, her tongue licking the pearl-like drop of moisture from the tip. His right hand moved faster as he envisioned her mouth sliding up and down the length of his shaft. The familiar tingling crept down his spine and wrapped itself around his balls. Just a few more seconds and he would--

"Oh, my God! What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

* * * *

Draven and Derek jumped up at the sound of Penny's screech. It sounded more like outrage than fear, but any outburst was cause for investigation.

"Where's Colby?" Derek looked around, obviously confused.

"How the hell should I know?" Draven snorted. "I don't have the Colby watch."

"Apparently one of us should have," Derek replied just before they burst through the door.

Penny stood just outside the open bathroom door, her skin still pink from the heat of her bath. With a huge towel wrapped around her head and wearing the large bathrobe the lodge provided, she looked tiny. Her mouth stood open in a surprised oh and her eyes were wide as his mother's tea plates.

It was when he followed her wide-eyed gaze that his own mouth fell open in shock.

Darren was on the bed on his back, his not-so-hard cock in his right hand. Panting, he held his left arm across his eyes in either embarrassment or frustration.

Draven wasn't sure which. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of their situation. A year ago, neither he nor Derek ever contemplated sharing a woman permanently. Now here they were, staying in a hotel room with the woman they both wanted to share their lives with and a man who, if his actions were any indication, was so attracted to Penny he couldn't control his base urges.

"Let's just stay calm, everyone." Derek moved into the center of the room, wanting to keep Darren from shifting and wreaking havoc on the room or their flesh.

Darren stood up and tucked himself back into his jeans with shaking fingers. "I'll go." He sighed and shook his head. "I can't stay here anymore. I think the el calor is upon me. I won't be safe to be around until" He glanced at Penny and stopped, a growl rumbling in his chest. "I'll leave and send someone else to help you with this matter."

"Where do you think you're going?" Penny stepped forward, obviously unwilling to be ignored. "And what is el calor?"

Draven moved farther into the room before he answered. He didn't want their little bird to fly away when he told her what that was. "It's the heat." He paused, carefully watching her expression. "The mating heat."

Her brow furrowed. "Mating heat?"

Darren stopped in front of the door, still facing outward. He kept his back to them all.

Draven wasn't sure if it was from embarrassment or if the other man just couldn't bear to turn and face Penny's censure.

"Things are different here in Paradise." He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. "We all aren't what we seem."

"I already knew that," Penny said with a snort. "I don't know exactly what goes on here, but I do know that all of you aren't quite" she paused and bit her lip before continuing. "That you're not quite human."

Not quite human. That was something that Draven himself wondered at times. He'd never questioned his humanity before last spring. Before then he'd gone through life happily believing he was human. Hell, even the blood tests he'd had hadn't told anyone any different. However, since coming to Paradise and meeting the people here, he realized that for some reason blood tests couldn't tell the difference between a shifter and a human. He'd never discovered the whys of it.

Still facing the door, Darren explained. "I am full leoparo. There aren't many of us left. The old council decided to change our way of life as they tried to make us stronger. Instead, it made us weaker as the people left Paradise and scattered among the human population. Most of them are still in hiding. I can't believe that many of them have told anyone what they are. When they breed with someone who is not their mate or when they do not bring their mate over by completing the mating ritual, their children lose something."

Draven stood still, listening to the story he'd already heard at least a dozen times, but not wanting to interrupt. Darren was close to the edge of his control. Draven could sense it.

"Their children aren't quite human, but they also aren't quite leoparo. They live in some in between state. Sometimes they are aware of their differences from the humans around them, sometimes they are not."

"What has this got to do with you masturbating on my bed?" The anger was gone from Penny's face now. Her expression was wary. She stood near the bathroom door, her arms crossed beneath her breasts, the position pushing the creamy globes up to the vee in the opening of the robe.

Darren finally turned.

The bleak expression on his face had Draven feeling sorry for the poor bastard.

"Because you are my mate and every minute in your presence is driving me mad. The el calor is upon me every minute of every day. If I don't leave, sooner or later I'm going to pounce on you and take you whether you want me to or not." Then he glanced at Draven and Derek and sighed. "And I can't take you if you can't accept us all. I am a man of honor and I will not take you only for myself when I know others need the solace of your body just as much as I do."

"All of you?" Penny squeaked. Color rushed to her face and she nervously licked her lips as she looked them all over slowly as though actually contemplating it. "At the same time?"

"It doesn't have to be at the same time. Though, if you want to be brought over and Derek and Draven want to be brought fully over, we would have to all make love together at least once."

Draven was surprised that she'd taken this so well. She hadn't run from the room screamingyet and she was still standing. Barely.