Free One Wild Vegas Night by SJ Thomas

C HAPTER O NE
    The couple in the middle of the dance floor swayed together in a sensual embrace, staring into each other’s eyes with a deep intensity, the heat between them almost palpable as they moved to the slow beat of the music. Sol Martinez watched them with a painful sense of yearning. After tonight he would never experience such passion.
    Lifting his glass to his lips, Sol swallowed the last of his drink with a grimace. The burn did little to ease the black storm swirling inside him, but Sol was sure if he drank enough the storm would eventually calm. Around him, the club in his hotel was alive with the early-evening buzz only Las Vegas could provide and Sol was determined to lose himself in it, even it was only for this one night.
    Raising his hand to signal the waitress for another, he cast a longing look at the human couples around him. Men and women brought together because of mutual attraction and free will. A precious luxury he was to be denied.
    The waitress put his drink down and he slipped some dollars onto the table. Flashing him a suggestive smile, she scooped up the money and sauntered off, fully aware of how good she looked in her tight black skirt. Unconsciously, Sol’s grip tightened on his glass, his anger simmering at what he was facing.
    As one of only a handful of pure-blooded jaguar shifters in the world, since childhood Sol had been pledged to mate a pure-bred jaguar female called Anita. A female who was both breathtakingly beautiful and a cold-hearted bitch he loathed.
    Although he’d known her his whole life, Sol hated her, hated how spiteful she was, how she lorded her pure-breed status over everyone around her, not caring if she inflicted hurt with her cutting remarks and humiliations. Anita’s beauty did not override her flawed character, and Sol had known from an early age that there would be no passion between them. Hell, just the thought of having her in his bed was enough to make his cock go into hiding.
    When he’d come of age, Sol had tried again and again to break the arrangement between them, pleading with his parents and Anita’s to release him from their pledge, but they had refused. The match was too good, the desire to breed more jaguars too strong, and tomorrow he would have to go through with the mating ceremony.
    Sol slammed the glass to the table. The noise earned a few curious glances from the humans around him, but he didn’t care. God damn it, he didn’t want this! Didn’t want to be joined to someone he didn’t desire and who would make his life a misery. But for all his power and strength, he couldn’t get out of it.
    Though he could go out on his own terms, which was what had brought him to Las Vegas. While he should have been at home preparing for the ceremony, Sol was in Sin City, the place where dreams could be made and where anything went. His last night of freedom, as far as he was concerned, and Sol was going to make it one wild night. Drowning himself in drink and burying himself in a string of willing females until Anita was nothing more than a bad dream.
    Sol lifted his glass to his mouth, the liquid touching his lips with a welcoming sting, when a flash of red caught his eye. His head turned, his gaze zeroing in on the human woman who was walking into the bar. She was dressed in a slinky red dress that hugged her generous curves in a truly divine way and his gaze moved over her appreciatively, his body responding viscerally to the color. Males of his kind loved red.
    Realizing he was staring at her body, Sol dragged his gaze up to her face and the view got even better. Her skin was pale but flawless, matching the light blonde hair that hung loosely down to her shoulders, giving her an ethereal quality. Large hazel eyes framed by thick lashes dominated her face, but were balanced by full, almost bee-stung lips. Her features gave her a sensual air that his animal side responded to instantly.
    Yet despite how she was dressed, and the sensuality that