CatOutoftheBag by Tatiana Caldwell Read Free Book Online Page B

yet.”
    His brows furrowed together briefly, but then he gave her a
sympathetic smile. “Okay. In the morning we’ll go out and put a little bit of
distance between ourselves andthis
cave for a few days, just you and me, and work on getting you used to shifting
and stuff.” He removed the bracer from his arm and rubbed the skin underneath.
    Noticing the feline teeth impressions, Sofia winced. “I’m
sorry I bit you.”
    He quirked a smile at her. “It’s nothing, just stings a
little.”
    “Should we call the doctor to take a look at it?”
    “Nah, didn’t even break the skin. A superficial wound like
this will heal easily the next time I shift to Cat and give it a few licks,” he
said. “Come on, sit down and eat. You’ve got to be hungry.”
    He sat at the table and patted the ground next to him.
    Sofia was absolutely starving. The sight and smell of the
tuna sandwich, fruit and glass of water were positively tempting. Letting her
stomach call the shots, she sat beside him, shaking slightly.
    She took a swallow of the water and a big bite of the
sandwich when she noticed Nathan sitting there with his eyes closed tight and
brows furrowed, as if concentrating hard. He looked hungry.
    “Do you want some?”
    He nodded but didn’t open his eyes. “Oh god, yes I do. But
not unless you’re willing and ready to give it. You go ahead and eat, get your
strength back up first. Don’t worry about me, I can calm myself in the meantime.”
    “Calm yourself?”
    “From being tempted to just reach over and take it from you.
I’d never do that, but damn—it looks, smells, so good. And I can’t stop
thinking about what it would feel like on my tongue. What it must taste like.”
    She looked down at her plate then back over at him. “Can’t
you go out there and get some?”
    “What I want isn’t out there,” he said softly. “We can just
sit here and talk for now. It’ll help me tune out the sounds of them doing it,
which isn’t helping me to keep my mind from going places.”
    Sofia blinked a few times, feeling her body go tingly as she
realized the true source of his stress. “You’re not really talking about being
hungry, are you?”
    He opened his eyes and grinned at her, the spark of play on
his face again. His voice was deep and husky when he responded. “I am hungry.
Just not for food.”
    She held back a smile. “You’re awful, Mr. Dawson,” she
muttered. He was so bluntly honest, it was almost a fault. Sofia admired that
about him. But she held her ground. With slow, deliberate bites and sips, she
devoured the modest meal, hoping like hell it would help appease her bigger,
much more demanding appetite for the man who brought it to her.

Chapter Six
     
    Nathan watched with intrigue and amusement as he trailed
Sofia through the thick brush. They’d packed up a couple days worth of food and
supplies and crept out of the cave just before dawn, without alerting any of
the others of the departure for their private trip.
    They’d spent all of the day before just working on getting
Sofia to learn to consciously make herself change to and from cat form. It
wasn’t until nightfall that she could shift at all. When she finally did it,
they’d cheered at her accomplishment.
    But apparently it was a premature celebration. For the
fourth time within a span of about fifty minutes, she was in cat form. Her
ginger-colored coat of fur glistened in the sun—wet with her attempts to keep
herself cool with her tongue—and her tail dragged along the ground,
exemplifying her exhaustion. He counted the seconds of duration of this shift,
and once again Sofia morphed involuntarily from mountain lion to woozy, naked,
lovely human before he reached minute five. Unprepared to be back on two legs
already, she immediately began to topple over. Before she took a nasty fall,
Nathan leapt forward to catch her.
    “Whoa there,” he said as she crashed into his chest. He
wrapped one arm around her bare back to hold her up