Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance) by Lynn Red Read Free Book Online Page A

her mouth fall open at the sight of the man from her dreams, from her visions, whatever they were. She looked him up, and down, shamelessly staring at the thing hanging between his legs.
    And then, she went white, and fell in a heap onto the floor.
    *
    “T hat didn’t take long,” Lex said, smiling gently and sweeping the back of his hand against the side of Cass’s face.
    She blinked heavily, and moved her eyes around, taking in the scene. “Shallow cave,” she said, her voice hollow and crackling. “Shallow cave, weird sandstone floor. Yep, not in my trailer, ran away, still safe.”
    Lex cleared his throat. She lifted her eyebrow, but didn’t look his direction. Even though her head was resting in his lap, and he was stroking her face with those warm, soft fingertips, she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the face.
    “This is real, isn’t it?” she asked.
    He saw that her eyes moved underneath her closed lids. When she opened them, she’d be staring straight at him. He ran his thumb along her full bottom lip, and trickled a brush down the front of her neck. “I can pretend it isn’t,” he whispered. “If you can’t deal with what I am, what I really am, I’ll get you to safety and you never have to think about me again.”
    With her eyes still closed, though they were fluttering as though she was really having to fight herself not to open them, Cass’s lip began to shake. “Why... why would I want that?” she asked. “Tell me this is real. Tell me I’m not going to open my eyes and find out I’m in a hospital bed, or back at home and the whole last chunk of my life was a long, protracted dream-slash-nightmare.”
    She laid her hand on top of his for a moment before intertwining her fingers with Lex’s. Somehow, they perfectly fit together, like they were always meant to be. She took a deep breath, held it in for a few moments, and let it out with a long, shuddering exhale. “Why aren’t you answering me?”
    “I don’t know how,” Lex said softly. “I don’t have the words, not all of them. I haven’t let myself be like this around another person for... well, since before I was caught.”
    Cass sniffed, and nodded lightly. Her hair stuck to the sides of her face – she must’ve been sweating while she was knocked out, which wasn’t all that surprising – and when she squeezed her eyes tight again, a tear rolled down the side of her face. She swallowed hard and parted her lips to speak, but no sound came out of her moving mouth.
    The next second, Cass’s nose filled with that familiar scent of man, of sweat dust. In the next breath, Lex’s lips enveloped hers, his tongue sliding along the surface and behind hers, tasting deeply. For a brief, wonderful moment, he pushed his tongue between her teeth, against hers, and then pulled away with a soft suck. As he sat back, Cass’s deep blue eyes opened.
    “I’ll take that as a yes,” she whispered. “You never kissed me like that in my dreams.”
    “That’s because you were imagining me,” he said. “Our souls were so close, but so far apart. I dreamed of you, I ached for you, yearned to have you, but... I couldn’t, not then. Not until—”
    “Why didn’t you show me... you? I mean, you saw me in all sorts of ways. What was so bad about me knowing what was really under that fur?”
    “You’re taking this surprisingly well,” Lex said. “I mean, I am a shape shifting lion, after all. I thought maybe you’d be a little more shocked.”
    “I passed out at first,” she said. Her eyes were locked on his, and then studied his face.
    She sat up, spun around and in one smooth, fluid motion, straddled Lex’s lap, settling down until his face was only inches away from hers. Between her legs, she felt a stir, and remembered snatches of the dreams, bits and pieces of those fuzzy, warm, long-forgotten memories.
    “I guess I was ready for,” she gulped. “Well, I mean, the dreams. If you’d been any different, or if it