Man-Eater by Zola Bird Page A

cooled, and she felt safe. So safe that she simply closed her eyes and lay there in his embrace. There would be time to figure it all out later, she thought. For now, she would lie with him. She would lie with him as he held her tight, her heat slowly melting into his.

Chapter Six

    Beep! Beep! Cyrus awoke with a start. What the hell was that? He looked at the woman under his arm. Kendra. His tiger had roared last night. He had connected with more than a tigress in heat. In his heart of hearts, he knew that he had connected with the one. The one woman who would complete him. The one woman he would make his. Cyrus smiled inwardly. He hadn’t expected it to ever happen. But it had. Despite all that he was going through, despite the fact that his future had looked bleak, it felt as though things were finally about to get a whole lot better. He glanced lovingly at the curvy tigress shifter breathing softly beside him. She was more than a tigress, more than a woman who had been stranded on the side of the road, more than a dancer. She was his mate.
    Beep! Beep! Beep!
    There was that alarm again. Why had he set it? He grabbed his phone.
    Holy shit. Now he knew why. Damn. Why did it have to be today of all days? He kissed Kendra softly on the lips and gently extracted his arm, doing his best not to wake her.
    “Do you have to go?” she murmured, eyes still closed.
    “I’ll be back.”
    “You don’t have to say that if you won’t,” Kendra said.
    He kissed her deeply. “I’ll be back and I’m taking you on a real date.”
    He watched her smile as he pulled himself up. Cyrus couldn’t stop himself. He kissed her once more, relishing the electric touch of her soft, sensitive lips. Then he jumped up out of bed and grabbed his coveralls. He had a very busy day ahead of him. He drove home, showered and threw on a suit. Today was the day he had been waiting for. The day he could put his past behind him.
    Cyrus drove to the county courthouse in the bright sunlight, his thoughts straying to Kendra despite his best efforts stay on task. Man alive, that tigress was beautiful. He knew he needed to get to know her better, but in his mind, the getting-to-know-you part was a mere formality. His tiger knew. It had struck him from the moment he’d picked her up on the side of the road. She was the one. She was his. He shook his head out. He had other problems now. His ex. He needed to stay sharp.
    After the usual waiting around, the respective parties arrived in the conference room. This was it. The divorce settlement conference. It was his chance to put it all behind him and avoid a lengthy court battle. And he would put it behind him. Now that he had found Kendra, he would accept no other alternative. This part of his life, the stupid mail-order marriage to Morgan that had lasted a week and cost him so much, was almost over.
    Cyrus stared at the woman who was his wife in name only. A skinny hybrid panther shifter, she had seemed great on paper. So great he had committed on the spot. She had flown in from far away and they had tied the knot without even knowing each other. Their union, however, was an unmitigated disaster. They were together for all of a week, but the aftermath had literally taken years of his life. Now, all he wanted to do was get out of the relationship with his soul intact.
    “My client is willing to agree to the deal,” Cyrus’s attorney said.
    “New evidence has come to light. That deal is no longer on the table,” Morgan’s lawyer replied.
    Cyrus felt a hollow form in the pit of his gut. Was the other shoe finally about to drop? His wife’s lawyer passed across a series of photos to his own attorney and the judge. Cyrus recognized the photos as the shots that had been taken last night. In the photos, Cyrus stood naked, his hand on Kendra’s shoulder. Cyrus shook his head in disdain. Morgan was having him followed. Playing dirty. Anything to win an advantage with the judge. Anything to make her look like