Panther Magic Read Online Free Page B

though she wanted to be anywhere else but here. She’d
looked good enough to eat in her bikini with her long chestnut hair tumbling
over her back, but in this slinky little black number…
    Fuck, he wanted her, and
judging by the waves of lust and sheer possessiveness that rolled off his five
minutes’ younger brother, Arran, he was barely holding it together either. Zeb
jumped through the last hoop and approached Kate again. At Arran’s gentle
encouragement she crouched down and put out a trembling hand. Zeb grinned as he
licked her fingers, and she gasped out loud, when he padded closer. Her heart
was beating so fast, his little human was in danger of going into cardiac
arrest, but it wasn’t fear he sensed from her. Awe, confusion, and the sweet
perfume of her unwilling arousal, those he got loud and clear, and he licked up
her arm. The very scent of her exploded on his taste buds, and his beast purred
his delight when she finally smiled, and buried her hands in his fur. It was
torture and heaven, all rolled into one to be this close to her, and he nudged
closer.
    Another gasp escaped her when he
allowed his eyes to bleed briefly back to their human form, and she stood up
abruptly and took several steps away from him.
    What the fuck, bro?
    Arran’s annoyed voice in his head
made him turn his back on her, and he prowled the stage one last time for the
benefit of the audience, before the curtain fell. Jumping into the compartment
he used for shifting under the stage, he threw his clothes back on, and joined
his brother, Kate, and Natasha, as she re-appeared from the back of the stage,
just as the curtains went back up again for their final bow.
    Kate stiffened as he drew near
her, but kept a polite smile fixed on her face, while they all bowed to the
audience one last time. The bumbling Siberian tiger she shared a flat with
bounced in excitement and babbled nonsense as they exited the stage.
    “ Oh, that was so cool. Thanks so much for inviting
us. Wasn’t it just fantastic, Kate? I told you, you’d like it. This was the
best fun, ever…”
    Natasha kept up her monologue,
all the way through the myriad of corridors until they reached the safety of
their dressing rooms, when she finally seemed to pick up on her friend’s
monosyllabic responses, and an awkward silence descended among them all.
    Arran threw Zeb a worried look
over Kate’s bent head, and she jumped when Zeb put a hand on her arm.
    She shook it off, stepped away
from both of them, and glared.
    “ Do you take me for a fucking fool? You better
explain to me what the hell is going on, before I scream blue murder.”
     

Chapter
Three
     
    Fuck it all to hell and back.
This certainly wasn’t going the way they’d intended. Arran ran a hand through
his hair and threw Zeb another this is your
fault look.
    His brother’s growl in his head
of sue me, little bro, did nothing to make him feel better. So much for
Arran’s carefully thought out plan of seduction. He should have known that Zeb
would jump the gun, and let Kate see his true self. The plan had been to show
her that the panthers they used were not in any way harmed, and to blow her
mind a little, not let her see they were shifters. His hothead brother, of
course, had shifted too close to her, even with the distractions of the music
and the smoke. Their girl was no fool, and only a fool would have missed the
way his eyes changed in his panther form.
    “ Erm , Kate, what has you so
riled? This is not—”
    Natasha’s attempt at soothing the
waters was interrupted by Kate’s growl. It made Arran grin, and Zeb’s lips,
too, curled up into a smile. That feminine sound was sexy as hell and would
have done any female panther proud. Not that their girl was a shifter. No, she
was very much human, and pissed as fuck right now. She was almost shaking in
anger, waves of fury coming off her that made the little Siberian tiger take
several steps back and put her hands up in a defensive gesture, as she