Peeping Tomcat

[cassistant]

continued from here

[ The slight scrape of his teeth made her breath hitch, and she didn't hesitate for a second to close that last bit of distance between their lips to kiss him. ]

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[theriomorphism]

[Ah, there it was. A little surrender. A small thing, maybe, but important for him. With that one little move, he took it as permission- unless stated otherwise. His arm banded around her back, pulling her in close because he wanted to feel the length of her against him. The kiss was one he didn't allow to be sweet. He turned it hungry, let just the hint of the press of his teeth show through before his tongue licked against her. This was a claiming, and a much more thorough job of it than his little finger tracings over her books and chairs.]

[cassistant]

[ Oh.

She wasn't a shifter, but she felt that possessive edge come into play all the same. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing herself hard against the solid shape of him while her lips parted to welcome his tongue. ]

[theriomorphism]

[She wasn't a shifter, but she was female, and he might not be human, but he was a male, and sometimes... that was all the similarities needed. She smelled good and, he was right, she tasted sweeter. He felt her arms go around his neck, felt the press of her body closer, and he used the arm around her to lift her up, his other hand sliding down to her side, fingers digging into her thigh as he held her and urged her to wrap around him.

He could carry her easily enough on his own, but he wanted her to be a willing participant in her seduction, after all.]

[cassistant]

[ It felt ever so slightly like having stumbled into a cheesy erotic novel, but not in a bad way at all.

Still, it made her let out a breathless little laugh against his mouth as she wrapped her legs around his hips, the lightness of that amusement mixing with her mounting arousal to something almost intoxicating. She was giddy with it already, greedily kissing him again with a soft little moan. ]

[theriomorphism]

[Sex, when done right, should be fun. It could be serious, or needy, or plenty of things, but it should also be fun. He smiled when she laughed, flicking his tongue against her nose before he hefted her all the way up.]

Shall we take this to the bed? Unless you've a sudden yen for christening any of your furniture.

[cassistant]

[ Being hefted resulted in a not super dignified little squeak from Cassandra, and she laughed again, nodding. ]

Bed sounds good.

[theriomorphism]

Good.

[Cats also had a sometimes annoyingly accurate sense of direction, and between his knowledge of where her room was from the outside of her house and the inside of it that he could see and scent, he made his way unerringly to her room, nibbling on her neck all the while.]

[cassistant]

[ Cass wasn't about to complain about not having to give directions right now. It felt much better to just close her eyes and expose as much of her neck as she could to Lucas' attentions.

As soon as they were in the bedroom, however, she let her legs drop from around him so that she could stand on her own two feet. Not because she wanted to get out of his embrace, but because she really needed to get him out of his shirt. ]

[theriomorphism]

[He was very good at reading scents and body language- not so much with minds. But since her scent didn't diminish in that siren call that had him dipping down to nip gently at her lower lip, he didn't step away. If she wanted him to move, she'd tell him.]

If you get complaints from your neighbors, it's not my fault.

[cassistant]

Oh, you'd better believe I'll blame you.

[ Said teasingly as she tugged his shirt upward. ]

And this needs to come off.

[theriomorphism]

Does it? And what about yours?

[He let her skim his shirt upward, reaching up behind his head to pull it off overtop to drop on the floor. Lucas, like all felines, was very proud. But as he was one of the shifters that took care of himself so that it wasn't just good genes but good living that gave him his physique, he felt inclined to be allowed to preen once in a while.

He reached down to pluck at one of her buttons.]

Fair play...

[cassistant]

[ Cassandra certainly wouldn't deny him a bit of preening. Damn, the man looked good.

She allowed herself to run her hands over his chest before doing anything about her shirt, leaning in to place a line of kisses along his collarbone.

She wasn't even close to having as athletic a body as him, but if that had been an issue she was assuming they wouldn't be in her bedroom right now. Not bothering with the buttons she simply pulled the shirt over her head, and to make things enfirely fair she let her bra join it on the floor only a moment after. ]

[theriomorphism]

[The petting was welcomed, as was her open appreciation. If he had a tail, it'd be twining around her leg. But without it, he watched her remove her own shirt and bra, then let his own appreciation light his eyes. They may have also glinted a little gold for a moment as his other nature slid in to say hi. Mating was always something that brought his other side closer, and it was a blessing that she knew enough that he didn't have to think through every move. He'd still be careful, of course- she was fragile in her humanity. But she knew what he was and hadn't gone running.

He drew a line down her chest from the dip in her collar bone to her navel, hand coming back up to cup her breast.]

Oh, to bed with you, love. I find you've whetted my appetite.

[cassistant]

[ The case was fairly straightforward, really. A local warlock wanted Dominic to figure out whether or not his boyfriend was cheating on him with a shifter. Since Cassandra had traces of Lucas lingering all over her more often than not these days, Dominic figured she might have an easier time making some acquaintances than him and thus possibly find out more than he could with the more classic "lurking around waiting to take photos" approach.

It might have been even better if she could ask Lucas to come with her and maybe make some introductions, but alas he was out of town. Wandering musicians and their wandering ways.

Everything went more or less to plan, though when she responded to questions regarding whether or not Lucas was her mate with a "no" (she didn't know what they were, really...) it had the unforeseen consequence of making her a bit more interesting to some members of the circles she'd started to move in. It would seem that to some, having "competition" made things more interesting.

Beyond some flirting it was still not hard to shut that down, but that didn't mean they didn't still try to get their scents all over her house whenever they were invited over. Cassandra wasn't really aware of that, of course, since it wasn't meant for her. ]

[theriomorphism]

[Those scents, however, were the first thing he noticed when he stepped onto her street to head to her house. There was a barrage of them, lingering on telephone poles, trees, at the base of bushes. One set of claw marks that seemed to be from another large cat was all but taunting him as he walked past them, and he had to slide his hands into his pockets and curl them into fists to keep from answering that taunt.

He'd only been gone eight days. Just barely over a week. Barely. And suddenly where only his scent had lingered, there was an assault of challenges waiting for him. He should consider himself fortunate that no one was walking past him at that point in time, otherwise they'd be treated to the sight of a scowling man with almost glowing yellow eyes as he turned off the sidewalk up to her house.

More scents met him at her door; at the base of the stairs, at the bushes that lined them, and he knew that there'd be more still around the back of the home. He had to stand there, bracing himself against that urge to tear up all the bushes and roar his challenge back at them, to run around and cover up all those marks with his own. Breathing through his mouth, he took a hand from his pocket and rang the bell, ignoring the fact that the casing around it cracked under his finger from the pressure.

He wasn't angry. Not even a little. He'd keep telling himself that until he believed it. She wasn't his, after all. Not really. They'd made no commitment to each other. She'd made no promises and neither had he. Yet there was a growing urge to see just how much of her life had been claimed by others. His eyes were still gold, unable to change back to blue at his heightened state.]

[cassistant]

[ When Cassandra opened up the door to find Lucas outside, her first reaction was a delighted smile. She was happy to see him in general, but it also made her feel a little fluttery inside to know that he couldn't have been back for too terribly long, and he'd already come to see her. ]

Lucas! Hi!

[ And then she fully registered the scowl. And the golden eyes.

Her expression melted into one of concern, and she reached out to touch his cheek. ]

Is everything okay?

[theriomorphism]

[Perhaps if she hadn't touched him, he may have been able to have reined himself in better, but... well. Her hand lifted to his face and her scent followed with it- there on her stoop with the challenges left there to taunt him. He had a brief moment where the scent of a wandering wolf who'd left his mark mingled with hers and his eyes flared.

He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, herding her into her home as he kicked her door shut. That was thanks to the saner part of his mind, shutting out the scents that were triggering his instincts. He butted her up against a wall, dipping his head down to the hollow of her throat and drawing in a deep breath, pulling her scent in and searching for any others. That quiet and rarely used voice of logic in the back of his mind told him he didn't have any right to this, but the feline part hissed back at it as he growled against her skin, rifling through the scents she wore. Shampoo, a light perfume, deodorant, her soap, and her. Just her.

His hands relaxed their grip, but he still held her there against the wall.]

You've been busy.

[His voice came out with the edge of a growl to it, something closer to what he'd hear himself say in his hybrid form. Control. He needed control.]

[cassistant]

[ Cassandra was willing to go with the flow when it came to a lot of Lucas's instinctual shifter reactions, but this?

Nope.

He did not get to just come on over and manhandle her in her own home, and then make some sort of cryptic accusation that she had no idea where it was coming from.

She knew that she wasn't strong enough to actually move him, but she put her hands against his chest to give him a bit of a shove anyway. ]

What are you talking about?

[ Fun fact: That wolf shifter he smelled?

He'd been inside the house too. He was actually becoming a good friend of Cassie's. ]

[theriomorphism]

[He felt her hands on his chest, knew that he should back off, but he was busy dragging his nose up along her throat to her jaw, her pulse thrumming under the surface of her skin in a way that had his mouth watering.

She was speaking. English. Words. He could scent the sparks of annoyance, and he removed his hands from her shoulders, bracing them on the wall on either side of her head as he dragged his control from the depths of himself. He drew back, just a bit, shaking his head to put some sense back into it- and got a scent of that same wolf coming from his right. His head snapped in that direction, a growl rising from his chest to rumble out of his lips as he snarled at the couch. The wall. Things had been touched- things he'd touched and left his scent on. Overlapping. Taking it over, and he moved over to grab the back of the couch, growling down at it. Claws pricked the fabric, his body partially shifting in his fury.]

Wolf.

[The word was guttural, his shoulders hunching. He was going to kill that wolf. Find him and sink his claws into invading flesh.]

[cassistant]

[ Usually she liked it when Lucas had his face pressed against her neck like that, but that was because usually she never asked herself if she was lover or prey.

Usually, she wasn't afraid.

The fact that she was made annoyance turn into anger, because this was her home, and Lucas was someone she had trusted to come into it. This felt very much like a betrayal of that trust. ]

No, that's a couch. And if you break it, you're paying for it.

[ Her voice was icy, a tone of something almost like dry humour layered over it as a shield to conceal how vulnerable she was feeling. ]

[theriomorphism]

[Male primal instincts were clouding his thoughts, making an otherwise rational individual turn into a blathering moron. He snarled, claws digging in further before he let go of the couch, barely resisting the urge to kick it. He turned to her, not coming closer because he didn't trust himself just then. He had to be careful with her- she was human. But he'd been thinking of her as his human, and with the scent of the canine interloper, he was finding himself in an odd position, one he hadn't been in before. He was jealous. Infuriatingly so.]

It would have been wiser to leave a message if you preferred this to be over rather than rubbing my nose in your new lover.

[cassistant]

[ Cassandra didn't really have any primal instincts to blame for the fact that her response to his accusation was not exactly the most mature. Rather than just tell him that she didn't have another lover, the words that came out of her mouth were: ]

"This" meaning what? I don't let anyone come near me but you can go off and do whatever you like?

[ The truth was that he was not the only one struggling with jealousy.

He'd never made any promises, and she had told herself that she was totally fine with that and they were just having fun and...

And he was her guy, goddammit! ]

[theriomorphism]

This meaning your new wolf! And the multitude of other suitors I smelled on my way up. Do you know how many individual scents you have scattered all over your bloody home? Leading up to it? And in here? That... that bloody wolf!

[Okay, he knew better. He should know better. She couldn't possibly know just how bad it was, but part of him also knew it was his fault. He'd started this little dance by playing house with her. That hickey and his scent around her home... it was a challenge. He just hadn't actually expected it to have been met. There'd been no sign of any other shifter besides himself before he'd left- and he came back to a bloody zoo.]

And what is that supposed to mean? Whatever I like? It was business.

[Sort of. Not really. Well, shifter business, but humans never looked at it the same way.]

[cassistant]

Oh my god, listen to yourself! Someone else has been in my house and you immediately think I'm sleeping with them? What is wrong with you?

[ She took a couple of steps closer to him, feeling more secure now that they were talking.

Well. She was getting close to yelling, actually. ]

And it means that you don't get to come here acting like a brute about it, because if I you can have "business" with people I can bloody well have a friend sit on my couch.

[theriomorphism]

[If he was in a form with a tail, it'd be lashing furiously. He glowered, hands curling into fists to keep from moving. From picking up the couch and throwing it out her door.]

Clearly you haven't been learning enough about my kind if you think there's any veracity in anything you just said. Your friend hasn't just sat on your couch, Cassandra. He's bloody well erased every trace of my scent in this room. If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd never been here. Shall I take you to the markings outside? Show you the ten other suitors that have decided to stake their claim?

[She truly had no idea, and that was the part that infuriated him the most.]

Would you like to place a bet on whether or not your friend did the same thing in your room? In your bed?

[Lucas was certain of it. Whether or not she'd been active in letting the wolf scent all over the house, he wouldn't put it past a shifter that had crept into another's territory to sneak in and mark his territory over a previous scent. Either when she was occupied in another room or sneaking in while she was out. He might have done it himself if he'd had the right incentive.]