“Uh, thank you.” He was still confused about something. “But if you don’t mind … how do you all know each other?”
“Damon and Gabriel have been my best friends since grade school,” J.D. explained. “We’re practically family.”
“I see.”
“Yeah, we’re basically her brothers.” Gabriel puffed up his chest. “While he was around, her Pop always told us to look out for her,” he added. Though the chief didn’t say anything, Damon’s protective glare stared a hole into him.
“Gabriel, Damon,” J.D. began. “Be nice. Please.”
“What are your intentions toward her?” Damon asked. “Are you going to play around with her? Do you intend to claim her?”
“Oh, ha! That’s rich coming from you,” Anna Victoria interjected, tugging at her mate’s arm. “You didn’t want to claim me and even went out of your way to be nasty and push me away.”
“That’s different,” he said, which only got him a chilly stare from his wife.
“Well, he better,” Gabriel said. “But if you’re not gonna treat her right—”
“Guys, put your dicks aside, all right?” J.D. said in an exasperated tone. “Cam and I have decided that we’re going to take things slow and get to know each other.”
“Wow,” Gabriel said. “That actually sounds … sensible. So unlike you.”
“Hey!”
Anna Victoria cleared her throat. “Now that we have that out of the way, why don’t you two get some food and then join us at our table?”
“Sounds like a plan.” J.D. tugged on his hand. “C’mon, champ, let’s get you a plate. You’ve never had a traditional Thanksgiving feast before, have you?”
“Can’t say I have.”
“Great! I’ll help you pile your plate.” She turned to the trio. “We’ll be right back.”
Chapter Three
Despite his initial reservations, Cam actually found himself enjoying the festivities. Perhaps he suddenly felt some kind of holiday spirit or it was being around his mate. He suspected it was the latter because growing up, his holidays were nothing like this.
Are your mummy and daddy picking you up, Cam?
What are you eating on Christmas Day, Cam? My mum’s making my favorite mince pie!
Dad’s getting me the newest video game console. What’s your dad getting you, Cam?
Each year, the endless questions went on and on from the other boys at St. Andrews when everyone was preparing to go home at the end of the term. And each year, he couldn’t come up with any answer.
“Where’d you go off to?” J.D. asked as she waved her hand in front of him. “Are you getting sleepy already? That’s the tryptophan working.”
“What?” He blinked, finding himself transported back to the present. “You know that’s not true, right? They’ve disproven that turkey makes you sleepy. Unless you eat copious amounts—”
She shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. “Here, have these before you make me swoon with your sexy talk.”
As she promised, J.D. filled his plate high with turkey, stuffing, and other sides, and they sat down to eat with Damon, Anna Victoria, Gabriel, and his mate, Temperance. The food was delicious, if a little too greasy and rich. When he commented on it, his mate merely snorted. “That’s what the holidays are for!”
“Hey, has anyone seen Dutchy and Krieger?” Anna Victoria asked. “Did they leave for the airport already? I know they didn’t want to get caught up in the traffic and crowds.”
“I have,” J.D. said, raising a hand. “We ran into them. Or rather, they ran into us.”
“They did?” Cam frowned. He didn’t recall seeing anyone else.
“Yeah, while we were in Damon’s off—oops!” She looked guiltily at Damon, then turned away.
“While you were in Damon’s what?” the chief asked, his brows furrowing together.
“Uh …” J.D. raised a spoonful of mashed potatoes to her mouth and mumbled, “Nothing.”
“J.D…” Damon warned.
J.D. swallowed. “Uh, so I went into your office and raided your candy bar drawer.”
A vein popped out in Damon’s forehead. “You stole my peanut butter cups, didn’t you?”
“I was hungry!” she pouted.
“And then what?”
“I was coming out and I bumped into Cam, and we realized we were mates … and then one thing led to another, and Dutchy and Krieger walked in—”
“Hold on a moment,” Cam said. “Two people walked in on us? Why did I not notice?”
“You were distracted.” J.D. winked at him.
“J.D.!” Damon exclaimed loudly. “What the hell? In my office?”
“On your desk, actually,” she said proudly, then turned to Anna Victoria. “You were right. It is the perfect height.”
The vein on the chief’s head throbbed. “You told her?”
“What?” Anna Victoria said. “She plied me with wine, and you know how I get when I have too much chardonnay.”
“Bah, don’t worry.” J.D. waved a hand. “The cleaning crew will clean everything up before you get there on Monday. Besides, from what else Anna Victoria told me, they should be used to it.”
Anna Victoria looked sheepishly at her mate, who looked like he was about to explode.
“Ha! I knew you guys were getting freaky in there,” Gabriel said, holding his hand up. “High five, Chief.”
Damon glared at him, which made the other man lower his hand.
“My, uh, apologies, Damon,” Cam managed to say. This was not only embarrassing, but inappropriate conversation in public. “I swear it won’t happen again.”
“It better not,” he muttered.
“Hey, guys,” someone said as they came up from behind them. “We’re heading home, Darcey’s pretty tired with the baby and all.”
“Yeah, I think it’s the tryptophan,” a feminine voice added.
Bugger. As if his evening couldn’t get any worse, he realized who had come up to say goodbye—Darcey Wednesday. And Anders Stevens.
Darcey walked around the table to where Anna Victoria was sitting to give her a hug. “Happy Thanksgiving—Cam?” she said when her gaze landed on him. “Oh, Cam, nice to see you. How have you been?”
“You look well, Darcey,” he said.
The tension in the air grew as Anders came to stand beside her, his arm going around her shoulders protectively. “Look who came down from his high and mighty tower to join us peasants.”
“Anders,” Damon said in a warning tone.
“What?” The tiger shifter shrugged. “Didn’t think you’d be the type to show up to these things. Thank you for gracing us with your presence,” he sneered.
“Hey, Stevens,” J.D. began. “I heard there’s a land called Douche-istan looking for a king. Should I tell them the search is over?”
Anders turned to J.D. “You’re defending this guy now?”
“Defend?” J.D. asked. “What did he ever do to you?”
Bloody hell. This was not how Cam wanted this conversation to go. If only pesky little things like the laws of physics didn’t prevent him from traveling back in time to tell J.D. why Anders hated him before all this. Or stop him from asking Darcey out on a date in the first place.
Thankfully, Gabriel shot up to his feet and spoke up. “Anders, Darcey, I need to talk to you guys about … something.”
“What about, Gabriel?” Darcey asked.
Gabriel looked to his fiancé. Temperance immediately got up as well. “Uh, shower curtains.”
“Shower curtains?” Darcey looked confused.
Temperance came over to her side and looped her hand through her arm. “Yeah. I need your opinion about which ones to get for our bathroom. Right, Gabriel?”
“Definitely.” Gabriel took Anders by the arm and dragged him away, with Temperance and Darcey following suit.
J.D.’s expression was that of pure confusion. “Am I missing something here?”
Anna Vic
toria cleared her throat. “We should go get more pie.”
“Right,” Damon added, helping Anna Victoria up. “Um, maybe we’ll see you around, Cam,” he said before they walked away.
Now that they were alone, J.D. crossed her arms over her chest and turned to him. “Well?”
What could he possibly say that wouldn’t end up with J.D. walking away or slapping him? This was why he avoided interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex. Apparently, he was terrible with women. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you this because I wasn’t expecting to run into Darcey and Anders. In fact, I’d successfully avoided them these past months and—”
“Just spit it out.”
He huffed out a breath. “Darcey and I used to date—I mean, we went out on dates.”
Confusion, then hurt, crossed his mate’s face. Her animal, on the other hand, hissed at him. “You and Darcey?” she said in a quiet voice.
His bear roared in outrage. “Bloody hell.” He massaged his temples with his fingers. “It’s not like that. I mean … we went out on three dates. That’s it. The last one was the Blackstone Rangers ball, and after that, she told me she didn’t have any feelings for me. And frankly … it was a relief. I didn’t feel any attraction toward her.”
“Relief?” she echoed. “Why did you ask her out in the first place, then?”
How could he explain it best without sounding like a cold bastard or awkward nutter? “J.D., love.” He took her hands into his. She stiffened at the contact, which made his chest twinge, but at least she didn’t pull away. “In case you didn’t notice. People here … they don’t like me very much.” Actually, it wasn’t just here; he’d always been a loner. There was no need to develop social skills if one didn’t socialize, and that was the way he preferred it. At least until this very moment.
“What?”
“I have this reputation, and I put people off because I say things on my mind, and that’s after I’ve already debated with myself on the subject. And Darcey … well, we bumped into each other in a coffee shop, and she’d left her wallet at home, so I offered to pay. In that instance, I was … a sort of hero for her, and it made things less awkward, I think. She didn’t know who I was and she was charming and lovely—her personality I mean,” he clarified. “I felt at ease around her, perhaps it was because she was a shifter or because she was also new to Blackstone and living around so many like us for the first time. So, I thought I would ask her out, and we went on two dinner dates.
And then Damon told me I had to show up at this damned ball, and so naturally, I asked her to come. She and Anders had already met, and I had no idea they were mates. I even accompanied her to drinks with a colleague, but only as friends. I felt responsible, and it turns out I was responsible—for getting her kidnapped.”
“Wait, a minute. You had something to do with that?”
“In a way. I introduced her to the man who connected her with the Alpha who abducted her,” he said.
“Oh.”
“Anyway, you know the story after that. And a few weeks ago, Darcey told me the news that she was mated and expecting Anders’s child.” To be frank, that had been a relief to hear too. “So, it’s understandable that Anders feels some anger and resentment toward me. I did inadvertently put his mate and child in danger.”
J.D.’s lips pursed, and her brows narrowed. Here we go, he thought to himself. She was angry at him, obviously, for dating one of her friends. “J.D.? Will you say something, please?”
She gritted her teeth together. “First of all, it’s not your fault that Darcey was kidnapped, it was that asshole fake Alpha who wanted her gone.” Her fingers gripped his tightly. “And second, if no one likes you because you speak your mind, they can fuck right the fuck off this planet.”
“I—what?” He stared at her, dumbfounded. Did she just defend him?
“And by the way, if you didn’t introduce Darcey to that guy, then she wouldn’t have found her biological family in Australia,” she pointed out. “She and Anders got back from their trip to Perth a few days ago. Got engaged too.”
“Wait a minute,” he said. “You’re not angry with me?”
“For what?”
“You know … Darcey and I.”
She pursed her lips. “Did anything happen?”
“Absolutely not. We’ve never shared more than a friendly hug,” he said.
“All right then.” She patted him on the shoulder. “We’re good.”
Cam didn’t move an inch, still not quite believing what had happened. “Thank you. I was afraid you’d burst into some kind of jealous tirade and storm off.” He hated showing petty feelings like jealousy or envy. They were irrational and unnecessary.
“I’m not upset because you went out with Darcey,” she began. “You both were single and free, and though a tiny—a teeny tiny—part of me is jealous, that happened before we even met. I was just caught off guard because everyone knew before I did, and I hated that feeling.”
“Of course, I understand.” She’d been humiliated, and that was after she’d defended him. “And I’m sorry if you were hurt.”
“Thank you. I mean, it’s no one’s fault. It’s not like we had time to discuss our past. I mean, we only had our meet-cute what, over an hour ago?”
“Meet what?”
“You know,” she nudged him with her elbow. “Our meet-cute. The cute story we’re going to tell everyone when they ask how we met. Or is it meet-sex in this case?” She shook her head. “Anyway, maybe you’re right. About the going slow thing. I just … I don’t wanna fuck this up, Cam.”
The sincerity in her voice made his heart twitch. “You won’t … I mean, we won’t,” he reassured her.
“Good.” She grinned up at him. “Actually, I just realized something hilarious.”
He caressed the side of her face. “And what’s that?”
“Anders asked me to the same shindig,” she said with a chuckle. “Can you imagine if I had shown up on his arm at the ball?”
“What?” A strange, tight ball curled up in his chest. “He asked you out? On a date?”
“Only because he had no one else. And I said no, obviously. But what if I did come and we met and—” Her brows knitted together. “Wait … are you jealous?”
“Jealous?” His voice pitching higher than he expected. “I do not get jealous.” His bear, on the other hand, begged to disagree. Oh, shut up.
“Uh-huh.” The corners of her lips tugged up. “Anyway … can we move on? Fresh start?”
The idea of J.D. and Anders going to that ball was still making his head buzz, but he swallowed those unnamed emotions. “All right. How about we get some dessert?”
The rest of the evening proceeded with much less excitement. Damon, Anna Victoria, Gabriel, and Temperance came back, and they were also joined by Daniel Rogers and his mate, Sarah and her brother Adam. There was no more talk of the past, and Cam found himself at ease.
When things finally wound down, he escorted J.D. back to her truck in the parking lot.
“You got a ride home?” she asked as she unlocked her door.
“Yes.” He nodded to the dark blue Range Rover on the other side of the lot. “I’m renting a flat in South Blackstone, though I’m hardly there. With work and my research taking up a lot of my time, most nights I just nap in one of the dorm beds, especially after a night shift. But since the offices will be closed down for the holiday, I suppose I’ll have to go home.”
“Right.” Turning around, she faced him and placed her hand on his chest. “So … are we still doing this going slow thing?”
“Of course.” He cupped her face with both hands, thumbs caressing her cheeks, and stared down into those marvelous eyes of her. “I want to get to know you better.”
Her lids lowered, her lashes casting shadows over her cheekbones. “What do you want to know?” she asked in a low, sensuous tone.
“For one thing …” He lowered his head toward hers. “What does J.D. stand for?�
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“Whoa.” She pressed her palms firmly on his shoulders. “I thought we were slowing down.”
“What’s wrong with your real name?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just … I’ll tell you some other time, okay? When I’m ready.”
“Fine. But how about you tell me what your animal is.” His bear, too, was itching to know.
She took a step back. “I said slow down, not put it on light speed there, champ.”
He frowned. “So, you won’t tell me your real name or your animal? Is there something the matter?”
“No, it’s … it’s silly,” she said. “But maybe it could be part of the process. Of how we get to know each other. It’ll keep things exciting.”
He supposed that made sense. While their animals knew they were mates, their human sides needed to catch up. That’s what this was about, right? “All right.”
“So, speaking of which … what do you have planned for tomorrow?”
“Me?” He paused. “Nothing. I suppose I could finish up some paperwork—”
“What?” She sounded offended, as if he’d insulted her grandmother. “Nuh-uh. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and you’re not working.”
“I’m not?”
“No. You’re coming with me to spend the day with Damon and Gabriel.”
“I don’t think—”
“Oh c’mon, Cam. Please?” She batted her eyelashes at him. “Damon and Gabriel are like my family. I mean, no. They are my family. If you want us to work out, you’re going to have to get along with them.”
“All right,” he relented. “But if I agree, can I ask for one thing in return?”
“Anything. What is it?”
“How about a goodnight kiss?”
She chuckled. “Like I would let you leave without kissing me.”
“I—mmm!”
J.D. practically attacked him, her arms going around his neck and pulling him down to meet her lush mouth. Once again, pure lust and need surged in him as he devoured her sweet lips. He got lost in her—her scent, her taste, her very being, that before he knew it, he had her pinned against the side of her truck, her legs wrapped around him, and his hands under her bra, teasing her nipples.
Blackstone Ranger Scrooge: Blackstone Rangers Book 6 Page 4