Read Bengal's Heart for Free Online Page A

strong point.
    “I hear you’ve been spending quite a bit of time with the Feline Breed doctor, Ely Morrey,” he stated. “Why?”
    Why? Why, because she was afflicted, that was why. Because her body insisted on retaining some damned hormone within it that she had picked up when she had lost her sanity eleven years ago.
    She remembered the moment clearly. The second she had touched her fingers to her lips and tasted Cabal’s blood on them. Such a small thing. It shouldn’t have been enough, and actually, it hadn’t been enough to begin mating heat. But it had been enough to affect her in curious ways. Ways that Dr. Morrey was still attempting to decipher.
    Mating heat was the Breed curse. Some Breeds claimed it was their strength; others saw it as a weakness. Of course, it did depend on whether or not the Breed was mated.
    “I’m working on a story.” That was definitely a lie, and there was no way to hide the scent of it.
    A dark blond brow lifted with mocking curiosity.
    “I hate it when you lie to me,” he warned her softly. “You’ve been making visits to Ely for the past several years on a regular basis. You would have written the story by now.”
    Cassa’s chin lifted at the deliberate arrogance in his tone.
    “Ely’s a friend of mine, Cabal, just as the other wives at Sanctuary are friends. I don’t need an excuse to visit with them any more than you need an excuse to visit with your pride leader, Callan.”
    It was a deliberate attempt to get him off the subject of Ely. Everyone knew that Cabal recognized no Breed as his pride leader. He had lost his pride, his family, during a rescue that had gone to hell, and he claimed no other.
    “Stop trying to distract me,” he growled as he moved closer.
    Cassa could feel that nearness. She swore her body heated by several degrees when he moved closer.
    “I wouldn’t dare attempt to distract you.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her robe as she glared at him. “Don’t you have better things to do than to harass me? Shouldn’t you be out shooting at Breed enemies or lurking in the shadows for some reason?”
    His jaw tightened. To say he was displeased would be putting it mildly. But she had never pleased this particular Breed in any manner. She doubted she would begin tonight.
    “Are you in mating heat?”
    The question had her staring at him in shock. Excitement raced through her now, just as it always did anytime they came anywhere close to a confrontation. She could feel her body flushing with heat, her heart racing furiously.
    “If I were, would I be here arguing with you?” she snapped back. “I’d be with my mate, wouldn’t I?”
    Unfortunately not. Her mate was standing in front of her, and he was known as the Breed poster boy for sexual excess. The son of a bitch had had more women under his belt in the past eleven years than most men could achieve in two lifetimes. He was a tomcat, plain and simple.
    She watched as his jaw tightened further, as his nostrils flared in his attempt to catch the scent of mating heat.
    Cassa wondered how the mates of Breeds could stand knowing that any Breed in the vicinity could tell when they were in heat and aroused. It had to be horribly discomforting. She knew for a fact that the physical discomfort could become excessively painful, and in some cases, dangerous.
    She would have preferred to have stayed as far away from mating heat as possible.
    “You’re up to something.” His lip lifted in irritation. It was incredibly sexy the way he flashed a single canine while glaring at her.
    She scoffed at him in reminder. “I’m a television investigative reporter. We’re always up to something, Cabal. It’s part of our job description.”
    For some reason, he liked to forget that little fact. Then she forgot it as well, as he moved closer. Just that quickly, his harder, stronger body was flush against hers, as she backed herself right into the wall.
    She stared up at him in shock. A distant part