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For who?
Gannon sees me as his friend. She sat the glass down. If he knew I was his mother,
he d not confide in me and I d lose the closeness this secret has brought us.
I think there s something else. Devra drew back her shoulders. If Gannon knew who
you were, you d have to explain to him why he s like he is and you fear he d hate you.
Yes, there is that. She smiled. But I feel his ignorance of the facts a better position
for him.
Again, another excuse for you not to tell him you re the one at fault. You seduced the
voodoo priestess s husband. She put a curse on the child born from your adulteress affair.
Lillia laughed. When I was fifteen, her husband, Paulo, raped me. My parents, in their
shame, put me out of the house. Paulo found this to his benefit. He kept me in a hut in the
village. For months, I was his slave because I needed a roof over my head and food in my
belly.
Didn t you ever try to go home?
Lillia slid her hand along a dresser top. My parents died from a fever outbreak before
Gannon was born. That s when I came back here.
And Paulo?
A Sinful Tiger 97
He came around for awhile until I was round with his child. Then he found another
girl much younger than I. It was my good fortune and his mistake. Her brother killed him.
Lillia stepped closer. Devra turned to look out the window again.
Gannon is a beast. Lillia breath tickled her neck. He stalks women, seeking a mate,
then he kills them in frustration when they won t accept him as the tiger.
I don t believe Gannon has ever hurt anyone. I don t care what you or that other
woman say. Devra hugged the shirt to her body. Gannon isn t a beast. I ve seen him in his
transition. He s still human. I ve been near him when he s the tiger. He can think and reason,
and he wouldn t harm anyone.
He doesn t want to. Lillia s hands crawled around Devra s waist. It s just his nature.
Devra twisted away and ran from Lillia s cackling laughter. She didn t have any
direction in mind, just escape. When she saw the narrow stairs leading up, she took them
and discovered they led to a small glass room on top of the house. She opened the door and
stepped onto the planks forming a sailor s widow s walk.
The breeze off the sea brought the fragrance of the island up to her nose. She found an
immediate tranquility from the sweetly scented night. The fresh air cleared her cloudy
thoughts. She tried to think of how she would tell Gannon about Lillia. He hadn t believed
her when she told him before.
The breaking glass of the small cupola s windows turned her swiftly, and she faced the
tiger. He appeared bigger than she remembered. Shivers of fright churned her insides. His
large paws took determined steps and behind him, Lillia stood watching.
Devra tried to step back, but the railing stopped her. She didn t need to look to know
the drop to the ground would kill her.
The tiger rolled his head in a slow circular motion while letting out a thunderous roar.
With her hands up as if she could stop him, her trembling fingers hypnotized her. The
uneasy memory of Lillia s words came back to her: You won t find him unpleasant.
98 Brenda Williamson
She couldn t see much beneath the tiger s massive body. The gold and black fur hid the
folds of skin hanging loose on his muscle-laden frame until he turned to look back at Lillia.
The new angle of his stance allowed Devra to see why Lillia gasped. She saw the tiger s
erection -- all pink and wet hanging from the sheath, and nearly touching the deck.
The tiger rotated toward Devra once again, prepared to pounce, ready to mount, and
came well equipped to mate her.
Gannon, don t. Devra spoke barely above a whisper.
Lillia watched with a quiet and wide-eyed evil excitement. Her mouth twisted up on
one side with a satisfied sneer, and her tongue licked over her lips with some morbid
fascination. Was she excited to see her brother -- no, her son -- in the form of the tiger. How
many women had the tiger mated before? Did he kill them?
The widow s walk had limited space. It formed a narrow porch circling the perimeter
of the glass room. Devra shuffled her feet, one after the other and maneuvered along the
railing. It would be silly to think she could run around the cupola to keep away from the
tiger, but she saw no other choice.
Give up, Lillia told her. Get on your hands and knees, and present yourself to him.
It ll be less painful if you accept his mount.
Devra shook her head and kept moving. Her dreams may have had the inflection of a
tiger, but she knew in her heart it wasn t an animal she wanted. Gannon s beastly form
represented the nuance of wild, unbridled lust. His gentleness as a tiger in her sleep and in
her waking moments gave her something she didn t have with Jerry. Gannon gave her
unconditional love.
Take her, Lillia ordered.
The tiger stalked Devra on command. With each advancing move, one shoulder
dropped while the other rose. His head hung menacingly low instead of passive. The pads of
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