Trancing the Tiger (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 1) Read online

  “Meet Monkey, Lucy.” After pulling back her hand, Mei cocked her head. “So, the Red Death, huh? What’s it like? I mean, I’ve examined the virus under a microscope, but I’ve never met an infected person. Do they really cry tears of blood?”

  Lucy stared at the girl’s hand. How the hell—

  “Amazing how anyone could survive. Well, I mean not you, because we’re practically immortal—”

  “Mei.” The bellow from below jerked Lucy from the spell. “That’s enough. Bring Lucy down so we can see what she can do.”

  Sheng. That was Sheng calling to them.

  “Ah, damn him,” Mei muttered. She raised her voice to call through the window. “I said ‘practically,’ Li. I know we’re not really immortal. Sheesh.” She grumbled while waving toward the ladder for them to join the others below.

  Wait. Sheng could hear them? This whole time? Lucy slapped her hands on her flaming cheeks.

  Mei grinned. Mischievously. “We’ll try this again later.”

  Uh-huh. Later. When she had a clearer head. Lucy glanced at the girl’s normal hand. Must’ve been a hallucination.

  She climbed down the rope ladder and hopped off the last rung. Sheng greeted her, crowding her the second her feet made contact with the floor. He set his hand on her waist.

  Tiger. He wants to touch me.

  Heat flared from the point of contact on her lower back, the erotic flames spearing through her body. She pressed her hand against his pec in an effort to peel them apart, but his chest rumbled beneath her palm.

  Almost like a purr.

  He’d barely broken a sweat while the others wiped down with towels and guzzled bottles of water.

  “Eyes on me, Lucy.” Using his finger, Sheng tilted her chin to his face. Her gaze stayed riveted on his mouth, on those lips he refused to press against hers.

  Would he be a good kisser?

  Was there any doubt?

  He angled her face higher, tearing her analysis from his lips and forcing her to stare into his eyes. Hypnotizing. That’s what his eyes were. Shifting from black to a glinting, pale blue-gray. How could eyes even do that?

  His rough finger continued to stroke her cheek and she felt herself drifting. Falling.

  His warm breath mingled with hers, and the deeper she fell into his spell, the stronger her senses became. His masculine scent, spicy and intoxicating, floated through her nostrils, settling on her tongue. So vibrant she tasted him. Her ears detected his heartbeat. Strong, pounding. Louder than hers, which slowed to a dull thudding. Her muscles fell limp, and her body crashed to the floor.

  Around her, muffled cries echoed as though from a distance. Her vision didn’t fade, but sharpened. Colors brightened, shapes enhanced. She tuned out the background noise, her focus on what was right in front of her. Of Sheng crouched above her body, his hands gliding over every curve and dip. His firm caress would have been sensual if not for the panicked tone of his commands.

  Her gaze slid into his, mesmerized by those glinting eyes.

  And then her breathing stopped.

  ***

  Sheng ran his hands over Lucy’s body, fighting the dread icing his muscles. He cupped the back of her neck and brought her mouth closer to his face. Had she hit her head? His fingers found no lump. What the bloody hell was happening? One moment, they’d been flirting. The next, she’d slumped to the ground without a fucking warning.

  “Mei. Kassian. Fang. Get help.” The shrill note of panic laced his voice. Lucy laid limp and lifeless in his arms. Hovering his hand over her mouth, he didn’t detect any sign of her breathing. Terrified she would die right here, in his arms, he laid her down, adjusted her neck, and parted her lips. Determination surged through him as he bent forward to begin resuscitation. He refused to lose her.

  Dammit, Lucy. You’re not leaving me. Not like this.

  Mei squatted at his side, ready to help him with chest compressions. He pinched Lucy’s nose, making sure her airway was clear.

  Her eyes glazed over and her heart stopped beating.

  Tiger roared in helpless confusion. Sheng slammed the beast back into its cage, requiring a clear head.

  As he drew back to suck air into his lungs, Lucy gasped. Her body jerked, hands shooting forward, smacking his chest. The force flung him backward while she vaulted to her feet and launched into the trees.

  Sheng righted himself. His shock was mirrored in Mei’s widened eyes. He sprang to his feet, scanning the rafters. Where was she and what the fuck was going on?

  “Lucy,” he growled, half in frustration, too confused to release his panic. It took him only a second to detect her twenty feet above, dangling from a tree branch. “Lucy, get the fuck back down here.”

  He wasn’t sure if he should be furious or elated. Was this some kind of joke? How the hell had she pulled it off? She’d been deathlike in his arms.

  One of her legs scraped against the bark as she tried to swing her foot over the branch and right herself. Her foot slipped and so did her grip. She fell, but managed to hang on, arms embracing the branch, legs dangling in the empty space below.

  “H-help me.” She chittered the words as if petrified.

  “Mei.” He didn’t have to issue the command, because she was already in the tree, swinging toward Lucy.

  Lucy’s grip loosened and she dropped lower. “Hurry, please.” Her high-pitched squeak grated the last of the rage from him. This wasn’t a game. Not to her or him.

  He vaulted off the side wall and leapt into the tree. Advancing on his belly, he crawled along the branch to her. “Grab my hand.” He reached out with his right hand, maintaining a firm grip on the branch with his left.

  Mei leapt onto the branch angled below Lucy. “Gotcha.” She snagged Lucy’s legs and balanced on her tiptoes to prevent Lucy from swaying forward. Pushing upward, she boosted Lucy toward Sheng.

  It was enough for him to snatch her hand. “I’ve got you.” He stared straight into her eyes, those panicked golden depths. Whatever had happened, it had terrified her as much as him.

  Didn’t mean he had control over his anger. Not even an ounce.

  “What the hell were you playing at, Lucy? You scared the shit out of me. Fuck.” His tongue rolled off a steady stream of chastisement as he secured her in his arms and dropped to the ground. Half of him itched to shake some sense into her. The other half feared bringing on another episode.

  Kassian sprinted into the room, a phone clutched in his hand and a handful of monks at his side. “Should I call off the ambulance?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  He and Mei responded simultaneously.

  He cast her a lethal glare. “She should go to a hospital. She might have neural damage.”

  Mei stepped forward, hands held out in placation. “You know why we can’t do that.”

  Dammit, she was right. Paramedics were one thing. A visit to the hospital was out of the question.

  “Besides, this feels familiar. Give me one minute, okay?” Her hands shot into her jacket pocket, and she withdrew her phone. She boasted the fastest fingers around. They were practically attached to that thing. Monkey was famous for its wisdom, and Mei was forever fascinated by every ounce of knowledge she could get her hands on.

  He suppressed a scowl at the cellular device. Reliance on such technology was responsible for the rift between man and nature. In this case, he’d let it slide.

  “Aha.” She smiled in triumph and slashed her hand horizontally through the air to signal Kassian to cancel the ambulance.

  The monks turned to Sheng for a command and he waved them off. “This had better be good,” he grumbled, clutching Lucy against his chest. He sank to his knees to get a better view of her face and probed her with his fingers, checking for signs of a concussion while his other senses focused on her vital signs.

  “I’m fine.” She brushed off his efforts.

  He nodded. Her vitals appeared to be normal, if a little stressed.
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  Mei waved the lit screen in front of his face. “Trance. It’s called a trance. My neighbors where I grew up owned a rabbit farm. They showed me this thing once.”

  “Trance?” He let the word hang, waiting for a more thorough explanation.

  “Oh, yeah. Lucy’s got the Rabbit and they have this cool, built-in self-defense technique.” She crouched beside them and wriggled her nose. “So smart, really.”

  “What are you talking about?” Lucy clutched at his bare chest, trembling, her pores emitting the sharp, citrusy note of fear.

  Mei rambled on, spewing technical vocabulary, but Lucy’s augmenting heart rate drowned out the explanation. Talk about the spirit animal only frightened her further. “Mei, give us the short version.”

  “Sure, boss.” She pouted, but an instant later became animated once more. “A trance is an involuntary, automatic response, like a sneeze. Trancing is a last-ditch tactic rabbits use when they’re caught by a predator. Basically, they play dead. If the predator releases its jaws, drops them, or turns away, the rabbit will bolt to life and make a run for it. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Actually, it was. He inclined his head to study Lucy. She had layers of toughness built in that perhaps neither he nor Lucy, herself, had given her credit for.

  “Why did she go into this…trance?”

  Mei rose, placing her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t know. Did, perchance, the big, bad Tiger come out to play? Hmm?” She tossed him his shirt before strutting off, entirely full of herself.

  Big, bad Tiger? He scowled at Mei’s retreating form and tugged on his shirt. Was it possible that when he’d let Lucy catch a glimpse of his beast, Rabbit had observed Tiger too?

  Yep. He whistled low. The predatory Tiger must have spooked the timid Rabbit.

  “Did that make sense to you, because it sure as hell didn’t to me.” Lucy squirmed in his lap, attempting to break free.

  While the others returned to their training, he tightened his grip, unable to let her go just yet.

  Sheng’s arms remained fastened around Lucy. She squeaked and he eased his steel grasp an inch, peering down at her and studying her like she was some sort of anomaly.

  One he’d like to devour.

  Okay, that made her breathing even more labored. Her brain couldn’t grasp what her body had just done. Vaulting into the trees? Insane.

  All this talk of tigers and rabbits and Zodiac animals spun her mind even more…around and around like a carousel she couldn’t hop off of. Everything blurred, but what had begun to stand out was how these people seemed to buy into their Zodiac natures.

  “Do you really believe you’re a tiger? Like, rawr.” She pawed the air, chuckling at her horrendous imitation.

  Sheng’s lips thinned, but his eyes crinkled as though he was trying not to laugh. He leaned in dangerously close to her mouth. “Is that the sound you think a tiger makes?”

  “Isn’t it?” Her airy words fanned between them. A challenge? An invitation? Can’t tell, don’t care. She was precariously close to finding herself entranced by this sexy, baffling man.

  His hand grazed down her back, angling her body toward his, while his other came to rest on her thigh. Her bare, exposed thigh. The hem of the pink lace dress she wore barely covered her lacy thong. His fingertips skimmed along her thigh, sending cascading shivers bursting over her skin.

  “Are you going to make me do that thing again? That trance?” The way he stared at her, searching intensely, at once stimulated her and pinned her.

  “No,” he murmured. “I will not show you my Tiger again until you are ready. Until your Rabbit has come out from its den.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, then dropped it lower to part her lips.

  “About my earlier conversation with Mei, I didn’t mean I wanted you to kiss me… Unless you want to, that is. Ah…are you going to kiss me now?” Lucy cringed. Way to be smooth, Luce.

  The corners of Sheng’s mouth curved, and his eyes flashed with amusement. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

  Bastard. Mocking her.

  His thumb toyed with her lip for a moment before he sighed. With eloquent grace, he rose, cradling her in his arms. “You should rest. I’ll take you home.”

  Rest? She struggled against rolling her eyes and protesting that she was fine. What was with him repeatedly telling her to go to bed, anyway? She wasn’t a baby who needed to sleep all the time.

  As if her body went into full revolt, she yawned. She grimaced and covered her mouth with her hand. So much for not being a baby.

  His raised brow pummeled her depleting pride, but it was the satisfied smirk on his lips that sealed the deal.

  Just missed your shot, buddy, and there won’t be another.

  They rode in the elevator to the ground floor where a private car awaited them. Sheng deposited her inside and climbed in from the other side. She drew her knees to her chin, careful to conceal her lacy thong. He’d missed that chance, too.

  He conversed with the driver then swiveled to her, one arm stretched across the back of the seat, enticing her to crawl inside the warmth of his embrace.

  She shrugged and focused on the window instead. She didn’t need a man to tell her when she was “ready.” Maybe Sheng was too Old World for her. A gentleman was charming, but she had no use for a controlling, domineering Master.

  After they arrived at her uncle’s condo, she reached for her car door and depressed the handle. It didn’t budge.

  Locked. The bastard.

  She glared at him as he slid out of his side, strolled around the car, and swung open her door. The hand he extended received an even more lethal glower. She shoved her legs through first, braced the side of the car with her hand, and stepped out.

  “Lucy.” Her name was a growl in his throat as she brushed past him. He didn’t manhandle her, but he walked right behind her, matching her stride for stride. Crowding her with his magnetic warmth.

  Clutching her purse tighter, she quickened her steps through the sliding doors. Even hurrying, she didn’t beat him to the elevators. Sheng was fast. Exceedingly so.

  He pressed the button to go up, his large body blocking the elevator entrance.

  “Lucy.” Any hint of tolerance had vanished from his voice. “Look at me.”

  She folded her arms and tapped her foot, glaring at the slow progress of the blinking lights as the elevator descended.

  He was too used to getting his own damn way. The events of today had served to confuse her far more than clarify this situation she found herself in.

  Part of her longed to head to her uncle’s flat. To be embraced in familial warmth. Even if she didn’t really know the man, he was family. He shared some characteristics with her father.

  Dad. Mom.

  She shoved her grief back down as she maneuvered past Sheng and through the opening elevator doors. The saner part of her struggled against running away, crying in her uncle’s arms like a child. She’d come here to prove, to herself and everyone else, that she was a survivor. Which meant not hiding anymore. Right?

  Rabbit. She wrinkled her nose. How could there be a rabbit inside her without her even noticing? Ridiculous.

  Sheng didn’t require her help, more like a therapist’s.

  She opened her mouth to tell him so but, as her gaze passed over his face, the distress in his frown lodged the accusation in her throat.

  He looked…hurt.

  Mei’s words from earlier haunted Lucy’s mind.

  For him to not touch me would be sheer torture.

  ***

  Sheng inhaled and exhaled through his nose. His entire body was strung tight. Tiger thrashed against the cage inside.

  Lucy wouldn’t touch him. Wouldn’t even glance at him.

  Mine! Tiger roared, pacing, prowling. Searching for any weakness in Sheng’s shields. His instincts told him to drive forward, snatch the Rabbit, and force it out of hiding.

  What if she fell into a trance again? Sheng ground his jaw. He refused to risk t
hat happening even though she didn’t understand how desperate he was to kiss her. How terrified he was of losing control if he did.

  What if she fell into the trance and never came out?

  Mei seemed pleased by the discovery but, to him, it was another cracked board on the bridge between Lucy and himself. Too much weight, and they’d both fall through.

  You can’t make someone see what they don’t want to.

  She wasn’t ready yet. He was more than willing to give her time, but she was an impatient little thing. Just because he’d eased back from kissing her once, she’d thrown herself into this huff.

  And now, she wouldn’t touch him.

  His heart sped as she lifted her thick lashes and made contact with his gaze. So much trepidation swirled in those golden eyes of hers.

  “Where to?” Would she run to her uncle? With everything she’d undergone today, he wouldn’t blame her. Xiaodan was a thorn in Sheng’s ass, but he’d deal with the old man later. There wasn’t a thing Xiaodan could do. Lucy was Sheng’s to train. The chain of command held firm.

  “I don’t understand what you want from me.” Her lips pressed thinly and her knuckles whitened where she gripped the strap of her purse.

  Vulnerability was good. He could work with that. The tension eased from his shoulders. “Why don’t we start with what you want from me?”

  Her eyes widened. “I never came to you.”

  “No,” he agreed. Mei’s advice? Never try to win an argument with an infuriated woman. Calm her down first. Make her feel safe. Tiger grunted in approval. Need to touch her.

  Before he could stop the urge, his fingers stretched out to stroke her cheek. She tensed, but allowed the caress. Fuck, yeah.

  He edged forward, careful to keep Tiger leashed, but refusing to give in before he’d gotten what he needed.

  Then the damn elevator door dinged.

  He glared at the sliding doors, Tiger chuffing. Snatching her hand, Sheng dragged her across the corridor to her door. She fumbled in her purse for her keycard. He snagged it from her hand and punched the card into the lock.