Her hand slid to her belly under the water, and she stared down at her naked body through the bubbles. She'd always thought she was pretty sexy, if it weren't for the height thing. Would a guy like Vic find someone like her attractive? Estrella raised one long leg into the air, studying it. Her muscles were tight, her skin tanned. She had a good body. Average face, maybe, but a good body.

Now Vic, he had an amazing body. She pictured his big, muscular arms, rippling with tattoos, and a shiver of desire flashed through her. Her hand slid lower, to her sex.

It was just the heat that was making her so turned on, she told herself. Passing phase. Even so, she pictured Vic's strong, muscular arms and her fingers slid between the lips of her sex, finding her clit. She was already aching with need; the heat gave her a hair-trigger reaction to anything sexual. A quick stroke of her fingers and she sucked in a breath. This...was not helping her ridiculous crush on Vic.

And yet. She couldn't resist sliding her fingers over her clit again and then circling the sensitive bud with sudden, sure moves. The heat that was making her crazy unleashed like a hurricane, and within seconds, she was gasping through the waves of a powerful orgasm, her other hand clenching on the side of the tub, splashing water over the side with the force of her movements.

The force of it rocked her to her core. She'd had sex before. She'd definitely had orgasms. But never quite like that. All that for a few quick brushes of her fingers? Jeez. When she finally found the man to father her child, she was going to tear him apart.

That left out humans and smaller shifters for sure. Estrella sank deeper into the frigid waters. Her choices seemed to be narrowing by the minute.

By the time she finally got out of the tub, her apartment was a comfortable 42 degrees, her orgasm was a distant memory, and her skin was beginning to itch with desire again. Instead of sating the urge inside her, the furtive masturbation in the tub had only made things worse. As she toweled off her skin, she groaned every time the terry-cloth of the fabric brushed against her.

This was not going to work. She needed to burn off some energy. Best cure for that as a shifter was to either have lots of sweaty sex, or to shift and go for a run in animal form.

And since she couldn't do anything about the former, the latter would have to do.

Estrella dressed as gingerly as possible and then grabbed her keys and phone, heading out of her apartment and to her car. There was a definite icy bite to the weather, the skies, overcast. The sun was just about to go down, dropping the temperature further, which would be welcome given her state of mind. She would love a cold snap.

Jumping into her car, she dialed Vic's number as she drove.

"Everything okay?" he asked as soon as he picked up.

"Fine," she said, then exhaled sharply. Had her nipples just hardened at the sound of his voice? Jesus. She was a mess. "I'm coming over for a run. Be there in five."

"I'll run with you," he said, and hung up before she could protest.

Damn it. Bad enough that she had to call and let him know that she needed to run. As shifters that stood out like sore thumbs amongst the local wildlife, they didn't have the freedoms that the badgers, the foxes, or even the were-cougars did. A normal person would probably panic if they saw a badger or a were-cougar. They'd certainly call the cops if they saw a tiger -- and the media would go wild. One of the Barlows had the clever idea of a big cat rescue project as a cover for their clan. So, when they needed to run, they headed out to Little Paradise and Kenna Barlow's farm. Kenna was Vic's sister.

She parked in Kenna's yard and didn't bother to head in to introduce herself -- Kenna was used to the tiger clan prowling around at all hours and wouldn't bother to check on her. Instead, she glanced around for Vic's car. No sign of it yet. Damn. She lifted the floor mat and tossed her keys and phone underneath it, then headed to the gate on the side of the farmhouse.

The need to shift into liger form was bristling through her skin. Vic wouldn't like it if she took off on her run without him, especially after he'd told her that he was on his way. You didn't piss off your alpha with stupid, passive-aggressive moves like that. Not if you valued your place in the clan. If there was one thing Estrella didn't mess with, it was her tenuous spot in the clan.

Of course, nothing said she couldn't go ahead and shift herself. It would probably be better, considering her nipples would stand at attention as soon as Vic came into view, and she'd probably start giving off the scent of a cat in heat. With those embarrassing thoughts flaring through her mind, she hastily stripped out of her clothing and tossed it into a pile near the barbed-wire fence. Then, she crouched low in the grass and waited for the transformation.

It came a few moments later, ripping through her with a force that was almost orgasmic. God, it felt good to switch to her liger form. Yawning, she lazily stretched her large paws out in front of her, arching her back. Her tail flicked back and forth. She smacked her chops a few times, the scents of the night more powerful now that she'd shifted, the lighting as clear as day despite the sun’s disappearance. The scents of the trees in the distance filled her nostrils, and she looked at them with longing, then sighed and flopped her large body to the ground, waiting.

Vic pulled up a few minutes later, just when her patience was reaching its breaking point. Good. Casually, she lifted a paw and began to wash it, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary as Vic entered the gate and then shut it behind him. He gave her an amused look. "Sorry I'm late."

She ignored him, licking the pads of one foot as if it were the most fascinating thing ever. Her tail twitched.

"There was a cop behind me, so I had to go the speed limit all the way here," he explained, then grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head, exposing rock-hard abs and more tattoos.

Estrella froze, mid-paw-lick. Okay. Okay. She could do this. She knew Vic had all those yummy tattoos and washboard abs. She'd seen him naked dozens of times. She'd seen every shifter in her clan naked dozens of times. So why was Vic's delicious body driving her wild now? She dropped her paw, and her claws curled. She might have kneaded the grass with her claws a little while he stripped out of his jeans and tossed his clothing over hers.

Damn. She had to do something about this, she realized as he began to change.

Even when her heat was taken care of, this infatuation with Vic was going to continue to be a problem.

"It's embarrassing," Estrella told Jayde over coffee. "As soon as I see him, my kitty goes wild. And this time, I'm not referring to my liger."

Jayde snorted and stirred her iced latte vigorously with her straw. Her bracelets jangled with her movements. "So did you tackle him in the woods and show him your wild side?"

Estrella sighed. "No. I ran like a chicken. Did my liger thing and avoided him as much as humanly possible."

"Pathetic."

"I know."

"You should tell him you like him," Jayde said. The tip of the straw disappeared between her bright pink lips, and she slurped loudly. Jayde was a good friend, but she didn't know the meaning of low-key. Even now. They were having a quiet morning coffee between friends. Estrella was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. Jayde wore a neon green mini-dress with a ruffled hem and enough bracelets to make a jewelry store pause. Her long black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. "You want him, right? Just tell him. I bet he'll be flattered."