"Mr. Fisher?" I looked up from the stubborn woman from the behind the nurse's desk to see Marina coming from the elevator.
"Kevin," I corrected her before trying to finish my sentence but my mouth began to water as her scent flooded my senses.
"What are you still doing here, I thought you left long ago." She looked at me in confusion before looking down at my hands.
"You left your bag in my car, I came to give it to you but the nurse wouldn't let me up to get to you so I had to wait." I cleared my throat before speaking as I held the medium sized black pocketbook she brought to work.
"Thank you, very much, I thought I had it the whole time!" She thanked me, taking the bag after looking around at her self to see that her bag really wasn't with her.
"No problem at all, are you heading home now?" I licked my lips in anticipation, as I looked over her thick yet in shape figure that filled out the black cotton dress pants that shaped over her plump hips and thighs, pulling in a little as the hem cascaded over black heels.
"Yes, but I need to ask the nurses here some questions about my cousin's state before I go." She replied looking at me with an unrecognizable expression
I knew my body was readying for her as I looked up at the white with black stars button down shirt she wore that exposed the shadowed trail of separation between her plump breasts that disappeared in to her shirt. I normally didn't act this way toward a woman, but nothing has been normal since I came back from touring Africa, not since that night.
"Oh! Well, I'm not in a rush to go anywhere, I'd be happy to take you home, it'll give me something to do." I offered hoping she would say yes, just to appease the need to be near her.
"That really isn't necessary." She shook her head denying me once again.
"It's no trouble and the catch is still the same as before." I smirked speaking again before she could interject. "I'll be waiting in the car it's in the same place you got out at."
With that said, I walked off toward my car to wait on her. Normally I was a man that wined and dined the woman then took her back to her place and enjoyed the night, but I knew Marina wouldn't do that, and I'm glad. Since the first time I saw her since my return to The states, I felt the need to make her mine. Everything in me screamed to take her, take what belonged to me. I drove Marina to her home, making sure to memorize where it was before I parked in front of her building and spoke just as her hand touched the handle.
"Now, about that date." I smirked stopping her from exiting the car.
"Oh yes, the date I never agreed to." She looked at me with a blank expression.
"Tomorrow night at eight, let's pretend we don't work together, what do you say?" I asked.
"I say no, because we do work together and I don't need any trouble from your brother or the others at the office, I have other things to deal with." She shook her head in disapproval before reaching for the door handle again.
"Then how about I come to your house and cook for you?" I offered trying to figure out what to do to make her say yes.
"I don't like people in my kitchen, it's a woman thing." She replied shaking her head again.
She was playing hardball and I knew it. It was obvious to me that she was not the type of woman who loved gossip or being in the spotlight and I liked that a lot about her. She also turned me down more than twice and that made the challenge even more worth the fight. Now that I had the instincts of a wild animal, I had to fight my impulses harder than I ever have. The more she turned me down, the more I felt the need to take her, mark her make her know I was the protector and provider every man want's their woman to know they are.
"Thank you for the ride but I won't be having any relations besides work with you or anyone at the office for that matter." She got out of the car.
"How about this" I got out of the car calling to her as she headed toward the front door. "I'll bring dinner for us to have here, that way no one else can see us interacting out of business hours and I won't be in your kitchen, plus we get to know each other better."
I smiled knowing that was reasonable. As she just looked at me with caution. She took a couple steps toward me standing on the opposite off the door I stood behind.
"What are you up to?" She crossed her arms and looked at me.
"I really want to take you to dinner, I think a woman as beautiful as you should be wined and dined." I explained leaning on the car roof.
"That's sweet but I'm not like those women you take home, I don't like the extravagance and expensive things, they don't impress me." She challenged.
"Well I'm not like the other men you hate. I like to work for the woman I want. I won't stop until she's mine either." I bit my lip looking at her lightly glossed ones.
"We'll see about that." She smirked walking inside before raising a hand in a quick wave goodbye.
"Yes we will, and when I have you, we won't be leaving the bedroom for a few days." I muttered to myself as I got in my car and headed back home to my own apartment.
Thirty minutes later, I was parked in the garage before I headed up to my apartment. My apartment wasn't really like a bachelor pad but you knew that it was an all male space. Once I reached the twentieth floor I walked straight to my door around the corner in a secluded like area. I went on high alert, one of the many gifts that came along with the curse or blessing I was given while in Africa. Someone one was in my apartment. I quietly opened the door, and dropped my keys in my suit jacket pocket before locking the door behind me, cautiously walking around, and listening. I heard a glass lightly clink against another before liquid began to poor, I headed straight for the kitchen.
"Mm!" Gabriel piped up as he saw me over the rim of the glass he was drinking whiskey from. "You're home, why did you walk in so quietly?"
"Gabe, why are you in my house and not your own?" I asked with and annoyed yet relieved sigh.
"Big bro, you just came back from Africa, I missed you, didn't you miss your younger brother those three months you were gone?" Gabriel pouted as he poured a second glass with whiskey and pushed it across the kitchen counter where he sat looking at me.
I caught the glass before it fell and swished it around a bit before drinking it. He had gotten in the mini bar I had and picked out the large square bottle with a round neck and glass cork. I'm sure he doesn't even know what he's drinking. I went back in to the hall and hung my bag up on the coat rack before I returned to my slightly tipsy brother.
"Sure, but you could've waited until I was home then asked if you could come over. I know you're here for another reason." I took a seat on the third stool leaving one in between us.
"Whatever, I saw you and Marina leaving the office together, I thought I told you she's mine!" He hissed angrily at me.
The beast in me wanted to slaughter him at the statement that he brought up again. How dare he try to claim what was rightfully his. She belonged to me not my wimpy excuse of a little brother. I had to keep myself from launching at him the way my beast demanded I do.
'Kill him he is an easy challenge.' My beast demanded of me.
"No!" I growled internally to my beast. "He is my brother!"
'In the animal world, it does not matter whether we are brothers or not you must know where you stand on each and every situation.' My beast scolded me.
"Kev!" My brother called waving his hand in my face. "I'm talking to you."
"What? Listen, Marina doesn't like you and I doubt she ever will, when she got in to my car I took her to go see her cousin, she needed a ride and I supplied it." I explained.
"I was getting closer to her, and now because of you, I'm practically back at square one!" Gabriel began to raise his voice.
"She never wanted you in the first place, especially with your childish ways. She wants a man, not a man child, little brother and that is exactly what you are, a man child." I raised my voice as well.
"Fuck off Kevin, I know her a lot better than you do and I know she won't give you the time of day." He huffed taking in the last of the whiskey before grabbing his coat off the stool and pulling out his car keys.
"Oh, no you don't I grabbed his arms pulling the car keys from his hand as I noticed his unbalanced movements. "Go sleep it off in the spare room." I took his coat and pushed him down the hall.
"Get off me Kevin!" He tried to push me away, "I'm a grown man now, you can't push me around like you used to, I will have Marina, I'll have her and you'll feel like a lost little boy because I got the woman you could never have!"
"You keep believing that little brother, keep believe that." I said from behind him, as I made sure he went where he was suppose to.
"Don't fucking patronize me, asshole, I will be-" He had turned around to punch me but I grabbed his fist and managed to get him in to a sleeper hold.
After a couple of seconds, he was knocked out and I threw him over my shoulder, carrying him the rest of the way to the bedroom. I gently laid him on the bed and pulled his shoes off. Once I had him undressed enough, I pulled the covers over him and picked up everything that I abandoned. I folded them up and put them on the chair in the room with him before going to the kitchen and setting a glass of water down for him. Exhausted I peeled off my clothes and headed for the shower.
"To think, I was ready to attack and kill my own flesh and blood, no matter how angry he makes me, I've never...." I trailed off standing there in the heated fall of water.
'You are no longer just a man, the tribe has blessed you with the spirit of a Leopard you should be proud. You will learn the ways of a true male protector then and only then will she allow us to claim her.' The leopard explained.
"I don't see this as a gift I see it as a hindrance to who I am. Women throw themselves at me but it's not as if I take them and then never call again, I have pride as Kevin Fisher. I'm already a protector I just have no one to protect besides this company." I replied in my thoughts. "What do I call you anyway?"
"You speak of material things human, all the women who throw themselves at you are broken and only their mates can fix them, just like your mate, only you can fix her." He corrected.
"What do you mean broken? She looks like a respectable woman to me, how could she be broken?" I asked.
I had stepped out of the shower after turning it off and wrapping a towel around my waist. I slipped in to a pair of black boxers before heading to the kitchen to make something to eat. I put the alcohol away and looked around in the cabinets for something.
'You are broken, you have many flaws that cause you to act the way you do, a more better example would be your brother. Your mate on the other hand is not only broken but also scared. I don't know what happened but from what we've endured with her, it has to do with getting close to someone. Probably men.' The leopard explained once more.
I decided to go simple, made two sandwiches, and poured myself a tall glass of orange juice before heading back to my bedroom and sitting at my computer desk.
"There's no way for me to get to her unless I jump over every hurdle she throws my way but I also have to think about my brother and his obsession for her, I don't want her to think she's some object, she'll hate me." I muttered aloud as I looked through the mass of work that I had to do tomorrow on my laptop.
'As I have said before, human, He is a small and easy challenge to defeat and if he you do not keep him away I will end his life quickly, and I will do it using your body. Do not make me disobey my morals.'
The leopard answered. 'My name is Zuvan, it means the sun. And remember this well we are one there will no longer be you and I.'
It took me that moment to realize that I am no longer Kevin Fisher, the bachelor CEO, I was Kevin Fisher, the Leopard shifter with a mate he had to have and I would probably end up killing anyone who stood between my goal and me.
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And there we have it! Kevin's POV, I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did writing it. Umm Comment, Vote, Share! I'm really feeling good about this story so please let me know what you think! :)