Free Falling Hard by Marilyn Lee Page A

job with the swift, brutal efficiency that had earned him a reputation of a hunter who always got his quarry. Always. This time would be no different.
    Then he saw her seated at a private booth at the back of the crowded shifter’s den. The sight of her made nonsense of all the rigors of the trip and of any possible complications hunting on his home planet for the first time might present.
    He slammed the door against the biting winds and leaned against it, feeling almost winded. Despite myriads of naked, fucking couples surrounding them, looking anywhere but at her was out of the question. She wasn’t particularly pretty. Yet she managed to command his immediate attention. He’d long since come to appreciate that beauty only went so far in a woman. In fact, in this harsh, unforgiving environment pretty quickly faded. Character, sensual allure, and feminine self-assurance were far more enduring and exciting than a mere pretty face. And damn if her piecing dark gaze and those full pouty lips didn’t raise his blood pressure and harden his cock.
    With his nostrils filled with the scent of sex, he dismissed the other inhabitants of the den as not worth his time or attention. With their gazes locked, he and his unexpectedly delectable quarry were the only two people present.
    Small wonder this magnificent woman chose to call herself a courtesan rather than a sexual or sensual empath. Many of the latter two classes slept with anyone with enough credits to pay their outrageous fees. This magnificent woman surely was more selective when deciding with whom to share her alluring charms.
    Inhaling slowly, Delsin allowed his gaze to slide down from her face to her neck. He could hear her heart beating. The longer he stared, the harder her heart raced. Shifting his gaze again, he watched her chest rise and fall with her breathing. Tilting his head, he envisioned slowly peeling off her clothes. Her large breasts would provide the perfect cushion for his face as he drove his cock deep inside her body.
    Her eyes narrowed and her full, sensual lips tightened. Then she smiled and he felt as if she’d reached out, wrapped her hands around his heart, and snatched it out of his chest.
    She had beautiful white teeth. They looked strong and straight. They would feel good nibbling at his ear, his lips, his nipples, and finally his balls before closing around his aching cock.
    He understood why the client, plagued with tiny, pale women with no ass or breasts worth mentioning had been so willing to pay a premium to possess this totally voluptuous, sensuous woman with mounds of warm, dusty skin. He’d always found a woman who didn’t depend on fleeting, outward beauty to captivate a man irresistible. This woman’s beautiful, lush skin would command her man’s attention until the day he or she died.
    Her smile conveyed one thought: hot, endless sex. And then even more sex. Oh, hell yeah. The thin veneer of civility he’d spent years cultivating since he fled Denhari vanished, exposing all the rampant hungers inherent in those born with his bloodline. Moving away from the door, he stalked across the crowded room, pushing people out of his way. A number of the shifters growled, but none attacked. He suspected they either knew of his clan ties or might recognize him. Some were vaguely familiar but none was from his clan.
    If his luck held, he’d take care of business and leave the Blue Desert before his clan mates knew he’d been on-world. Of course, that assumed any of them would care, which was doubtful. He’d been gone too long and had committed the unforgivable sin of questioning the way of life into which he’d been born. At this point, he doubted if even Daylon or Daria would care. Both had been his closest cub mates and been ardent in their defense of his right to be different. Daylon and Daria had pooled the credits they’d saved for years to help him buy the cruiser on which he and Renas lived.
    He tore his thoughts away from his