her. ‘Really? You’re up for it?’
She made a soft mew. ‘Sure. This is fun.’
Once the area was clean he brought her to three more. Only one had to be abandoned. It held the dark shadow of a behemoth that Max had never encountered before, and was too scared to get close to.
They woke together on the couch. Michelle’s muscles were tense, but she wasn’t out of breath the way she had been when she left the stream. Max hopped off the couch and took his human form. He was still naked.
“Michelle.” His eyes were gleaming. “I said our love would become real in time.” He seemed to lose his words a moment. His eyes searched the carpet. “What I felt when I was with you in our true forms. That connection.”
She transformed and stood to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Like we already knew each other from a hundred lifetimes.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. “Like nothing imaginable. It gets muddied up when we’re human, but as jaguars it’s so clear to me.” He draped his arms around her back. “I want you to know the human me, too. I grew up in Dubuque . My dad was a rancher. My mom sold diet powders. I got interested in finance when I saw how rich the bankers were that my family had to deal with. I wanted to be a millionaire so I could buy the ancient B’alam temple grounds in Yucatan . The jaguar temple grounds. Balek-Balam. South of Chichen Itza .”
“Wow.”
“It should be a World Heritage Site, but no one knows the history of the land. Anyway—I’ve had a lot of girlfriends, intellectual women—often history majors. I always hoped there was someone who I could love enough, who I could trust enough to be real with. But you know how impossible that is.”
She nodded.
“I’m not perfect. I flub on the entertainment expenses on my taxes. I’ve broken up with a girl through text message before.”
She tsked.
“But I’m not a terrible person. And I’ve never felt this way about someone before.” He paused to wet his lips. “I want to marry you. Right away. Tomorrow.”
She smiled. “Of course.” We’ll just save the real wedding for later…because you better believe I want an actual wedding.
He turned from her. “But I have to be in the office to use the console. I need to get rid of that Asia stock the second it climbs three points.” He fumed. “Then there’s some other shuffling I need to do.”
She rubbed his bare shoulders. “It’s okay, Max. I’ll be here waiting.”
“Come with me to work tomorrow.”
Now Michelle’s eyes wandered from him. “No.”
“No?”
She pursed her lips.
Max pushed a breath out through his nostrils. “Because he’ll be here, won’t he? I saw his stream hovering over us like the Black Death.”
She continued to avoid his eyes. “Fate is pushing all of us together, Max. There’s got to be a reason I bonded with both of you. I don’t want to hurt you…I just can’t cut myself into two pieces.”
A moment of tense silence passed.
“I don’t want to hurt you either.”
She looked at him. He brought a tender hand over her scalp.
“Let’s have that shower. I want to enjoy every second I have you all to myself.”
Michelle squeezed herself against him.
Oh, God…please let everything work out.
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Chapter 6
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Max soaped her breasts with his sponge while his rain-style shower cascaded water over them.
“What an incredible body you have.”
She smiled. “You’re no slouch yourself.”
“Not to be crass—but these tits.” He leaned down to kiss the swell of one. “I just can’t get enough of you.” His sponge dipped below her thighs. He crushed it against her sex, getting soapy water to drip from her hairless groin. “Turn around.”
She obeyed. Her motor felt