Free Speed Mating - A Midnight Liaisons Novella by Jessica Sims Page A

genuinely confused. "What were you expecting this to be about?"
    "I was expecting," Vic began, then cleared his throat and continued, "to hear that you'd taken an interest in someone in the clan."
    She snorted.
    He scowled. "I'm serious."
    "So am I. They haven't shown the slightest interest in me , and you know it."
    "They're tigers. You're tiger."
    "No, I'm liger . Big, overgrown crossbreed of lion and tiger, remember?" She'd never forgotten that she didn't feel as if she belonged with the tigers. They'd been welcoming enough, but wary, and she suspected that the only reason they'd been open to her joining them was because she was female and they only had one other in their clan. But then again, she was sterile. All ligers were more or less ‘mules’ because of the crossbreeding, and they couldn’t have children. At least, that was what she had always been told.
    So why bring a sterile woman into a clan? It didn’t make sense, and she’d never been able to figure it out, hence her unease around the other tigers. If she wasn’t mate material because she was barren, what was she? Just a pair of bouncy tits to have around to look at?
    Not an endearing thought.
    Not that it mattered. Most of the tiger clan? Just not her type. They were too cocky, a little too confident, and with the exception of Vic, she was pretty much the only one over six feet tall.
    She never knew how to interpret Vic, either . He always seemed to be scowling and bad tempered about something, but he was still courteous to her. It was a mystery.
    "Big, overgrown, sterile crossbreed, I could have sworn," Vic drawled. "You sure about this heat thing?"
    "I know how to interpret my own body, thank you," she said, trying to keep the growl out of her throat. "I've been feeling...things. Different things. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what it's leading up to." Things like waking up with her nipples erect, her hands between her thighs, and a pulsing in her blood. Things like her libido revving at the sight of a man’s tight ass. Things like a constant, all-over sensitivity to her skin.
    And she was moody as hell. S he bared her teeth at him in annoyance.
    He regarded her with a stern expression. "Feeling things?"
    "I'm flippin' horny all the time," she exploded at him. "Is that what you want me to admit? I could rub one off against just about anything or anyone that walked past, and nothing helps. It gets worse every day." When he continued to regard her, she added, "And I'm a bit moody."
    "A bit?"
    "A bit."
    He rubbed his jaw again, looking for a moment as if he wanted to smile, then thought better of it. "I don't smell anything yet. How long do you think you'll have? We need to make plans."
    Her face turned bright red. This was the conversation she'd come here to have, but at the words " I don't smell anything yet " her mind had frozen. Was he going to smell her when she went into heat? Ugh. What did it smell like? God, she didn't want to know. "I’m not sure. This is my first time in heat."
    Vic set down the broken pencil and linked his hands behind his head, all enormous biceps and tattoos. Her mouth went dry at the sight. Vic had such big, strong arms that he clearly worked out. A lot. Most of the tiger clan tended towards bulk, but Vic carried it like an Olympian. She...liked all that muscle. Quite a bit.
    Down, girl , she told her libido. He's the alpha. No, no.
    Lord knew that if any man flexed in front of her, she'd drop her panties to the ground in a flash, unable to control herself until her heat passed. It sucked.
    "Are you going to have it?"
    "Huh?"
    A momentary flash of annoyance crossed his face. "You're going to be in heat," he said, words crisp and succinct as he sat forward, hands moving to the desk (and no longer flexing so attractively). "Heat means one thing - you're f ertile. Are you going to have the child?"
    "I...don't know." She raised a hand to stop him. "Before you can give me the spiel about how having a child has the