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  She watched Nathan in his sleep for a moment. His eyes were still gorgeous under thick brows and lush lashes, but not as potent closed. His mouth was slightly parted and his breath went in and out in quiet gusts of air. Ripples of lust waved through her as she imagined pressing her mouth against his, tasting his lips and tongue, his hands on her hips, gripping her waist, her body poised on his lap with her sex pressed against his, grinding him until they both cried out for more.

  The man was seduction incarnate, even in his damn sleep. She shook her head and turned to her side to lean against the window so she could rest more comfortably. Soon after she got positioned and closed her eyes there was a bit of turbulence and she slipped down in her seat closer to Nathan. At the same time, his hand rolled under her coat and against the little bit of exposed skin at the bottom of her thigh where her dress was slightly hiked up.

  Sofia froze.

  The backs of his knuckles were grazing the bare skin on her leg, but her body was burning all over. She kept perfectly still, keeping her eyes closed and barely taking a breath, not wanting to alert him and have him move. She waited a bit, watching for signs and sounds of movement or wakefulness. When a couple of minutes passed and she was confident he was still asleep, Sofia dared to raise her skirt up even higher and then slowly positioned herself so that the fleshier part of her thigh was underneath Nathan’s long, warm fingers.

  The feel of his hand on her body was electrifying. Who was this man, and why did he affect her like this?

  She imagined that hand, roaming inappropriately all over her, right there. Just the thought sent a flood of moist excitement to her core. What the hell was wrong with her? Here she was, writhing like a cat in heat against some strange man! But the pull was so strong, her need was so urgent. She lay there like that, the real touch of his skin on hers adding layers of dimension to the fantasy in her mind.

  His fingers twitched.

  Sofia’s heart jumped but she remained still, continuing to pretend to sleep. But Nathan brushed the side of his palm against the exposed length of her thigh, back and forth slowly, underneath their coats. She turned her head slightly, just enough to be able to get a good look at him through her peripheral vision. His lids were still closed, almost as if he were asleep, but she could see the slight movement of his eyes underneath. An even bigger giveaway was his bottom lip, which was partially pulled in now as if he was gently biting down on it.

  Seeming to sense she was watching him, Nathan paused the movement of his hand and waited for her reaction. Sofia hesitated. What kind of woman would he think she was? She wasn’t even sure at this moment that she knew what kind of person she was. But her deliberation was brief. She shifted and pulled her skirt up over her hips for easier access.

  Sofia closed her eyes again and leaned her forehead against the window as he moved even closer to her. The heat of his body upon hers had her burning hot and she crossed her legs in an attempt to control the tingling. He maneuvered himself so that he fell partially underneath her coat with her and partially under his jacket. His thick, warm fingers rubbed up and down and along her bare flesh, moving increasingly farther in toward the inside of her thigh, testing her, waiting to see if and when she would stop him.

  But how could she stop him? She wanted his touch so bad. Her sex ached, her entire body throbbed for this man’s caress. She squeezed her eyes tighter and slightly parted her thighs in consent, trying again to pretend to sleep as he moved his hand between her thighs now and pressed against her panties, stroking her lower lips through the cotton.

  A sultry Mmm escaped her throat as her panties grew damp with her excitement. He replied by slipping two of his digits underneath the satin fabric, making direct contact with her flesh and pushing through her wet folds, stroking her, milking her for even more moisture.

  There was no way she could pretend to sleep under Nathan’s touch. Her mouth fell open in a pant as she blatantly humped against his hand, urging him deeper inside and more firmly against her clit at the same time. She grew dizzy, her senses overloaded by the strong scent of leather from his jacket and the heated friction of a stranger’s movements inside her.

  Is this really happening? Right here, right now? Sofia couldn’t recall the last time she’d been so conflicted. This wasn’t the right time or place. She wasn’t even sure this was the right person. But never mind that someone walking by might notice them moving under the coats. Never mind that she’d known this guy for only a couple of hours. Never mind that this was hussy-like behavior, even for open-minded Sofia.

  This felt right somehow—with him, right now.

  Their movements were languorous, so as to not draw too much attention from the other passengers, making the build to her orgasm slow but steady and strong.

  Nathan. She silently mouthed his name when her passion elevated to peak level. The orgasm rocketed through her entire body, sending every nerve ending and all of her senses crash landing into a sea of bliss and naughty deeds well done.

  * * * * *

  Nathan’s head was in a whirlwind. Here he was, on a plane, knuckle-deep inside the gorgeous woman sitting beside him. A while ago he’d drawn the conclusion that she was the stuffy, wine-and-dine-me type, but yet here she was fucking his hand, an hour and a catnap after learning each other’s names. With every thrust he made, her body responded with an answering hump and soft, barely audible murmurs that only he could hear.

  His dick was hard as rock and strained against his pants, but he ignored it and concentrated on her pleasure. His fingers slipped in and out of her, probing her depths, testing her waters. Her pheromones were on high, and the aroma and energy of her arousal and excitement only fed his own. She was so damn wet, so fucking hot, so eagerly pliant, he thought he might erupt in his own pool of lust right then and there.

  She came hard on his fingers. Her sex gripped at him, her moisture trickling down his digits. He drew out her orgasm by continuing to stroke her through it, watching out of the corners of his eyes as her entire body convulsed underneath her jacket, her mouth open wide and her eyes shut tight. Not until she began to whimper with sensitivity did he withdraw.

  The moment he pulled his hand from under her jacket, he was smacked with the scent of vanilla perfume and her natural, spicy fragrance.

  Nathan licked his lips. He badly wanted to take his fingers to his tongue, but he feared that if he got a taste, he would absolutely flip out. He longed to have her all the way. He inhaled deeper to get an even stronger whiff of her scent then forced himself to sit on his hands. His dick twitched angrily in his pants.

  Calm down, Nathan. But no sooner had he had managed to slow his pulse to a near-normal pace than she repositioned in her seat, and he felt her hand slip under his jacket and across his thigh.

  “I don’t normally behave like this,” she whispered in his ear. The hunger in her raspy voice and the warm breath against his ear sent his heart right back into a race. She cupped him in her hands through his pants, massaging his erection, urging it right back to full height and beyond.

  He glanced over at her. She was sitting upright in her seat, looking away and off to the side inconspicuously. One would have thought she was just sitting there, deep in thought. But her sneaky left hand was in his lap, undoing his pants button and pulling down the zipper. From the way she was sitting he couldn’t read her expression, because he could only see part of her profile. But she was sitting so close to him, he could practically taste her hair.

  Freed from its denim prison, his member practically leapt into her seeking hand. He knew there were benefits to going without underwear. Nathan drew an audible breath the moment she made contact with his bare skin. She explored him with her fingers, sized him up from head to base, learning him through touch. He threw his head back and held his breath when she clutched him fully and began pumping her fist up and down his length with a pressure that was smooth and gentle yet intense and demanding at the same time.

  A low growl rumbled in his chest befo
re he could stop it. But that didn’t seem to scare Sofia at all—she grinned and increased the intensity of her ministrations, allowing her fingers to flutter completely around the head each time she reached the tip and was on her way back down, sending shock waves of pleasure ripping through him.

  His hips bucked against her hand, against his will.

  He looked around to see if anyone was noticing this. The big man next to him was asleep and the people on the other side of the row probably couldn’t see past that guy’s belly. Not that Nathan really would have cared at the moment if anyone did see.

  He faced forward again and closed his eyes, trying to maintain some semblance of control as she handled him. But he could hardly take it. She smelled so good. Her hands were like silk and her stroke was perfect.

  It had been months since Nathan had taken a sexual partner, months since he’d been able to fully let himself sexually go. He’d waited patiently for this retreat in San Francisco, but now that wall he’d kept up all this time was going to come crashing down slightly ahead of schedule. He’d kept it bottled up for too long, and Sofia was too good. A low, deep rumbling began from the back of his throat and spread down his chest, through his gut. Soon his dick began to gently vibrate and a mental alarm went off.

  He was fucking purring. Shit, he was losing it!

  “Excuse me,” he muttered at her as he quickly shoved himself back into his pants, stood up and practically hopped over Big Guy and into the aisle. He bolted to the bathroom at the back of the plane.

  He’d barely slid the door shut behind him when he saw his hands grow fur and morph into paws. He quickly latched the door and ripped off his clothes before he fully lost the benefit of having opposable digits. Within a quarter of a minute he was in full mountain lion form—four legs, high, pointy ears, whiskers and all.

  Nathan couldn’t believe it. Just a few more seconds and he would have transformed right there in his seat, in front of her and all of the passengers. When was the last time he’d lost control like that? Not since he was a teenager, that’s when. He was thirty-four damn years old now. What the hell was wrong with him?

  When he was able to shake it off, he shape-shifted back to human form, but was still quite tense. He couldn’t go back out there, not as worked up as he was, and risk losing it again. He leaned forward in the tight, malodorous bathroom, one hand pressed against the door to brace himself and the other one handling his still-raging erection. He thought about Sofia’s orgasm on his fingers, and imagined that it was his dick he was feeling her sex clutch, as he jerked himself off. He came quickly, in violent spurts that shot far enough to hit the door. Once he was done, he cleaned up and got dressed, cursing himself for his folly as he made his way back to his seat.

  Sofia looked as if she were asleep. For real this time. Damn, how long had he been in there? He squeezed himself back between her and Big Guy and tried to sleep off his embarrassment, but he ended up just lying there with his eyes closed, his desire for the woman dozing next to him still simmering just beneath the surface.

  She didn’t open her eyes until the plane was landing, at which point neither of them seemed able to make full eye contact with the other. They waited there awkwardly as the people in front of them exited the plane, until Big Guy got up and it was their turn to leave. Nathan pulled Sofia’s bag from the overhead bin and handed it to her, for which she gave him a soft smile and a thank-you, but nothing else. He let her out ahead of him, grabbed his own bag and trudged along as well. He followed behind her all the way until they reached the point where they seemed to be parting ways—she to the exit to transportation and he to the baggage claim.

  But he couldn’t let her go. Even though he knew he should, he just couldn’t let her go without trying to leave the door open for more.

  Nathan rushed up to grab her by the hand and she turned to him with wide eyes. He responded to her startled expression with an urgent relay of directions. “Mount Diablo. Wednesday morning, between nine and ten a.m. at the camp of the Phantom Panther Hiking Trail to the North Peak.”

  She blinked at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I’ll be camping at Mount Diablo. Just thought I’d let you know in case you changed your mind about not meeting up with strangers. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Sofia.” He flashed a smile and kissed the back of her hand. Then he turned around and hurried off in the opposite direction before he allowed himself to change his mind and rescind the invitation for her own good.

  For his own good.

  Chapter Three

  Sofia laughed at herself as she hiked up the trail. Here she was at eight in the morning on a Wednesday during her relaxation getaway, traversing up a mountain. A mountain! To meet up with a man she didn’t know much more about other than his name and that he was highly skilled with his fingers. Well, perhaps she also knew that he really liked being jerked off under a jacket on a plane, but judging by the way he’d bolted just before he was near climax, she assumed he didn’t like making a mess on himself. Her cheeks grew warm and a naughty smile played on her mouth at the memory of the event. She guessed she should have figured that it wouldn’t be convenient for a man going commando to come all over his pants and jacket in public. Sofia had been too caught up in the heat of the moment to make logical deductions like that at the time. All she knew was that she had to have more of that man, right then and there.

  And she still wanted more.

  She spent the past two days casually touring downtown San Francisco, visiting shops, tasting the food and checking out the views. The stress and worries of the job she’d temporarily escaped evaporated easily in the mild weather and change of scenery the West Coast provided.

  But Sofia’s nights in bed had been plagued by erotic dreams of Nathan and the restless torment of unsatisfied desire that even her purple vibrating and rotating double-pronged toy couldn’t relieve. So she’d disregarded her own good sense and headed out to Mount Diablo on a whim that she wouldn’t regret doing so, and that her airplane lover would actually meet her there.

  At first she wasn’t even sure she was going to find this Phantom Panther trail Nathan described. There were many trails listed in the guides she’d found, but none of them identified anything with the words “phantom” or “panther” in them. Fortunately she ran into people at the base of the mountain who looked as if they knew where they were going. They’d stared at her strangely when she asked about Phantom Panther, but did point her in the right direction.

  She passed several signs marking the path as “private property”, but figured that was due to it being reserved for the party Nathan mentioned. It was lonely on the trail, but somehow…tranquilizing. The temperature was in the low seventies, a good thirty degrees warmer than the late fall weather she’d left behind in New York. It was interesting to note that where she was coming from, the grass and trees were going brown and dying with autumn whereas here it was the rainy season, and the vegetation was starting to turn green with life. Even she felt as if she were coming back to life here. With each chirp of a bird, each whiff of damp grass, each step deeper into wilderness, and each second closer to the time she was to meet Nathan, Sofia felt more and more…alive.

  Perhaps she should spend time out with nature more often.

  The trail was on mostly a moderate grade, so it wasn’t too steep to frighten her, but she knew it would be easier going up than it would coming back down. She was grateful the trail was easy to hike because she couldn’t imagine navigating a vehicle—especially one she had just rented and so was unfamiliar with—toward the mountain summit.

  The climb was easy with the new hiking shoes Sofia purchased just the night before. Soon she reached a flat terrain and a the small camp station with a few benches and picnic tables where he’d told her he’d meet her. She looked around but didn’t see him and glanced at her watch. It was only a quarter to nine—a little early. The wilderness called to her, encouraged her to go further, to explore just a little more of it, so she dec
ided to continue toward the summit for about ten minutes before turning around to jog back.

  On her way back to the camp, there was a rustling amongst the wilderness that made her jump. What was it—snake? Fox? Bobcat? She hoped not something bigger and more ferocious. Nor dangerous and human. She fingered the switchblade she’d stashed in the pocket of her pullover just in case, and tried to recall whether or not she’d read that there was any cell phone reception on this mountain.

  With steady and sturdy steps she kept walking and watching, waiting. A moment later a large deer bolted out of the foliage and onto the trail, and darted right past her.

  She exhaled with relief.

  But within seconds the hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention as she simultaneously wondered what had frightened the deer and sensed something watching her.

  She paused in her tracks and gripped her blade as she turned and looked toward the trees.

  Right near the edge of the wilderness, just a few feet from the road, stood a large and menacing-looking feline creature. Dangerous eyes with yellowish-green irises locked on to her, its head lowered and sharp teeth bared. It was an aggressive, powerful male—though Sofia wasn’t quite sure how she knew it was male, she was certain only that it was one—with orange-ish fur covered in large, black spots. She’d been aware that there were large animals like mountain lions and wolves in these mountains, but this thing looked more like a leopard. Nah—there weren’t any leopards in California, were there? No, it had to be some kind of mountain lion with a weird fur pigmentation. But she’d also learned that mountain lions were nocturnal hunters. The sun had been up for hours now, so what was this one doing on the prowl?

  Sofia quickly recalled the safety tips she’d reviewed. Should you encounter a mountain lion, do not run nor stand still—confront it. She bent down and snatched up some twigs and pebbles on the ground near her foot and tossed them at the big cat, yelling, “I’m not afraid of you, so shoo! Go on, be a good boy now,” and waving her arms in an attempt to intimidate him.