Javier glanced at the long table, old and scarred yet obviously lovingly polished. Though they’d lost their mate, these men had reasons to go on living. Children, grandchildren. All things Javier would never experience. All of the things Durchenko had stolen from him.
He lowered his casted leg to the floor and reached for the crutches. “If you’ll excuse me, sirs. My strength is still not what it should be.”
“Of course. Answer one question though,” Burke said.
Javier got to his feet and waited, resting on the crutches.
“You say you’re in finance now, but what did you do before?”
“I was in the Mexican Army’s Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales—the equivalent to your military’s Special Forces. My specialty was counterterrorism.”
Both Burke and Fridrik nodded. “Rest. Dinner is served at six. We hope you’ll join us.”
“Thank you,” Javier said, realizing they had accepted him into their home and no longer worried he’d cause harm to them or their family. “Again, I am in your debt.”
Chapter Seven
Fugly snarled at Heidi when Beth passed the dog off to her so she could grab her purse and grocery bag from the back seat of the Land Rover.
“Oh, hush your fuss,” Heidi admonished, but Fugly kept up with the chest-rumbling grumble. “I can’t believe you brought it home. The guys are never going to let you live this down.”
Beth closed the car door with a bump of her hip. “He’s mine, and that’s that. They don’t like it?
They can leave.”
Like that would ever happen. Heidi followed Beth into the house. “Hi, Dad,” she said to Fridrik who was getting a cup of coffee when they entered the kitchen.
“Hello, ladies.” He peeked into Beth’s grocery bag.
Beth playfully slapped his hand away from a bag of trail mix—Fridrik’s weakness. “I’ll put some in a bowl for you in a minute.”
“What’s that?” Burke came into the room, a scowl on his face as he stared at Fugly.
“That’s my dog,” Beth said, taking Fugly from Heidi’s arm. The dog grew silent as soon as it was away from Heidi. “He’s moving in with us.”
Fridrik made a silly face of disgust. “Why? Looks like bear bait to me.”
“Dad!”
Heidi laughed. “I told you...”
“What’s its name?” Burke held his hand out to the dog to let it scent him.
“Fugly,” Heidi told him. “Kel and Reidar named it.”
“Him, not it,” Beth corrected.
“Name fits.” Fridrik took the dog from Beth. Fugly didn’t seem to have a problem with anyone but Heidi.
“Whatever. I’m going to check on Javier.”
“He came out for a while, had coffee with us,” Burke said.
Heidi stopped in the doorway and turned back, raising an eyebrow. “And he’s still alive, I assume?”
Burke smiled. “He was fine last we saw him.”
With a hidden sigh of relief, Heidi went down the hall to her room. She knocked lightly before opening the door and found Javier doing pushups against the wall, balanced on his good foot.
“I guess you’re feeling better?”
He stopped and turned, his face damp with sweat. Her heart nearly stopped, then seemed to jump right out of her chest. He’d been handsome before. Shaved and wearing clothes that fit him, he was drop-dead gorgeous.
Without a word, he grabbed the crutches and hobbled back to bed. His lips were pressed tight, his jaw clenched.
“You’re hurting,” she said as she took the crutches from him and leaned them against the wall.
“You didn’t take your pills today.” They still sat on the tray with the empty breakfast dishes.
He lifted his leg onto the bed and sagged against the pillows. “They make my mind weak. I do not like them.”
“A body heals better when it rests. Not when it does pushups.”
His scowl was fierce. “I am not used to taking so long to heal.”
“It’s only been a couple of days, Javier. Give yourself time.” She leaned over to check the cast, looking for any sign that his wound was bleeding beneath it.
“Three cracked ribs didn’t take so long.”
She turned her head to look at his face. “When did you have cracked ribs?”
Again he pressed his lips together—this time, it was obvious, to silence himself.
“Why won’t you tell me anything about yourself?” Heidi sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, resting her hand on his strong, unbroken thigh.
Javier sucked in a breath, the muscle beneath her hand tensing. When she glanced down, there was no mistaking the hard-on tenting his shorts. It wasn’t something the man could hide no matter what clothing he wore.
Heidi snatched her hand off him and stood. “I...uh...”
“Oye, chata. You act as if you have never seen an aroused man before.”
She jerked her gaze from his crotch to his face. “Of course I have.”
The tiniest of smiles tugged at the right corner of his lips, and his eyes sparked with humor. “Have you? Numbers too numerous to count?”
Her mouth fell open as she struggled to find something to say. She knew how to spar verbally, she had to in order to survive her family, but she couldn’t think of a single comeback when her brain was addled with...lust.
His face didn’t show one hint of the embarrassment she felt aflame in her cheeks.
He reached out, grabbed her hand and pulled her forward until she stood with her thigh against the edge of the mattress. “Thank you for saving my life.” The kiss to the back of her fingers was as startling as his slight show of humor, and all she could do was stand there and stare while tingles raced up her arm straight to her nipples from the warm dampness of his lips. “I also apologize for my outburst yesterday. I was not myself.”
She glanced back at his groin. His cock was big and hard, pressed against the fly of his camo shorts.
It took a hard swallow to clear her throat so she could speak. “You...uh...seem fine now.”
“Perhaps...” He reached up with his other hand, wrapped his long fingers around her bicep and tugged her down over him. “...perhaps you should make sure. Now that I am awake.”
Heidi had to brace her hand next to his head to keep from collapsing onto him. Her heart thudded in her chest, her face flamed with heat, and her pussy clenched in need of that cock that was so close yet hidden beneath his clothes.
“Kiss me, chata.”
“My name is Heidi,” she whispered, her lips almost touching his, his breath mingling with hers.
She didn’t have a clue what chata meant, but after his prior dreamy murmur, she wanted affirmation that he knew exactly who was about to kiss him.
He grinned against her lips. “I know...Heidi.” He raised his head just the fraction of an inch it took to meld their lips, and Heidi lost all thought. Yesterday he’d been demanding, crushing her mouth to his. Today he was tender, questing, seeking. When she parted her lips, he didn’t sink his tongue into her as he had before. This time he teased, coaxed her, and she became the aggressor. When her tongue touched his and he lightly sucked it into his mouth, the arm supporting her collapsed and she went down over his chest, her breasts pressing against his hard pecs, pulling a moan from deep within her.
Javier tasted like nothing she’d ever experienced. Sweet yet tangy. A flavor she could grow addicted to. His scent was musky, manly, delicious. Heaven and hell all in one gorgeous package. When he wrapped his arms around her, anchoring her to his chest, she didn’t jerk away as she had from other aggressive men in her past. She felt safe. At home.
Slipping her hands behind his neck, she wove her fingers into his thick black hair and tilted her head for a better angle, eating at his lips, nipping his tongue. She couldn’t get enough, couldn’t get close enough. She threw her leg over his, needing relief where she throbbed and ached.
Javier jerked his mouth from hers and let o
ut a deep groan, his grip around her changing from a tight hug to his hands fisting in her T-shirt. It took a moment for Heidi to realize it was a sound of pain, not pleasure.
She carefully moved off him, and his arms dropped away. His breathing was deep, fast, his eyes squeezed tight.
“I’m so sorry.” Heidi laid her hand against his smooth shaved cheek. “Let me get you a pill.”
Javier shook his head. “No. No more of your pills, chata.” He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. “I fear I am not up to such activities yet with a woman who cannot control herself.”
Her lips parted at the insult, until she realized he teased her. She suppressed a smile. “How bad is the pain?”
“I will live.”
“I know you will. I asked how bad the pain was.”
“How long until supper?” he countered instead of answering her question.
With a roll of her eyes, Heidi stood and folded her arms over her chest. “You’re impossible.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “Supper is in about an hour.”
“I will join you then. Go now, and let me rest.”
“Excuse me?” Her family might treat her like a servant at times, but this guy wasn’t going to get away with it.
“My leg hurts, chata. Let me be for a while, please, to regain the strength to join your family for supper.”
His tone had lost all teasing, so she moved toward the door. “Would you at least take some aspirin for the pain?”
He gave a slight nod, but his eyes were closed.
Heidi scowled at him and opened the door. Her body was too hot for comfort, and her pussy still clenched in need. Damn, but the man could kiss. And it didn’t matter if he was asleep or awake. He was potent.
Too potent.
Even when he vocalized his need with typical alpha arrogance, she wanted him. Before he left, she’d have him. No way could she let the feelings he elicited from her go without experiencing it all at least once. She knew in her heart she’d never meet another man like Javier Montero. Only a fool would let him go without taking what he had to offer.
Heading toward the kitchen, she stopped and realized he’d effectively distracted her, answering none of her questions about his past or why he wouldn’t open up with any pertinent information.
Frustrated and somewhat annoyed, she almost went back to ask him the one question she needed answered before she could have sex with him: Who is Isabela?
* * *
Javier managed to calm his racing heart and raging hard-on enough to drowse off and on for the next hour after Heidi returned with two pills she promised wouldn’t affect his brain.
He wasn’t completely sure what had possessed him to kiss her like that other than to stop her inquisitiveness about his past...and perhaps see if the dream kiss had been anything like reality. In the dream he’d been kissing his mate, not Heidi. The reality was almost too much to comprehend.
The passion she exuded. The lust he experienced when she was near.
He could almost convince himself it was simply that he’d been celibate for the past two years.
Almost. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been around other women in that time. There had been opportunity.
Women found him attractive, and if he’d needed the physical release, sex would not have been difficult to come by. Until now, he hadn’t required a woman, hadn’t wanted one.
A part of his mind accused him of infidelity. But his body damn near demanded he take Heidi.
Possess her. And that did not seem right. He should not have such a strong draw to her—to any female. He’d had his mate, loved her with all his being, and lost her.
No one could take her place.
There was only one woman for him.
But Heidi is not just a woman, that small voice reminded him.
Was it some kind of chemical reaction to a female shifter? Or rather, a female with shifter blood running through her veins?
Impossible. They were not even the same...species. Cougars did not mate with jaguars. Did they?
Javier opened his eyes and frowned at the knotty pine ceiling. Cougars and jaguars did not occupy the same space, normally. Why wouldn’t—couldn’t—they mate if they did? He had heard of ligers, a lion and tiger hybrid.
Heidi might be descended from shifters, but she could not shift. Her fathers had admitted that much.
Cougar versus jaguar was not the real issue at all. Shifter blood or no, she was human...all female, and when he was near her, he had little doubt of his very human, very male need.
He scoffed at his own thoughts. She attracted him enough that he longed to have sex with her. Hot, sweaty sex...for hours, if he could manage it.
His one mate was dead. He would never love another woman. But he was male, and for the first time in two years his human need for sexual release, for physical companionship, pounded at him. He would never mate again, no matter the sexual attraction. But he would have taken what Heidi offered if she hadn’t knocked his cast and sent pain spiking up his entire right side, effectively cooling his lust. Damn his wound, and damn the idiot who shot him.
Javier sat up and lifted his casted leg over the side of the bed. The aspirin had eased the throbbing, but the insistent ache was still there. Taking his crutches, he used the restroom then exited into the hallway.
“Dakota! What are you doing here?” he heard Heidi exclaim. He couldn’t remember a mention of anyone named Dakota.
“Axel called and said they were coming here for dinner,” an unfamiliar woman’s voice said. “I couldn’t wait to get out of the house. Guess I beat them, huh?”
Javier cleared the end of the hallway and spotted a petite, dark-haired, dark-skinned woman standing just inside the front door.
“Give me a baby.” Heidi reached out to take one of three baby carriers from the stranger.
“Hey, Javier,” Beth said as she placed a hand on his back and carefully passed him. “I want one.”
She took another of the carriers.
“And you must be the reason Axel and Gunnar are coming here for supper.” The nearly black eyes of the stranger met his.
He gave a polite nod in her direction.
She showed curiosity but no fear. There were too many scents in the house—the Falkes and the smell of barbeque and onions—for him to scent her. Perhaps if he were in his cat form... His senses were stronger then.
One of the babies squalled, and the mother pulled him from the carrier, propping the child on her hip.
“Kelan could never keep his big mouth shut,” Heidi grumbled.
Beth glanced at Heidi. “Axel was bound to find out sooner or later.”
With a sigh, Heidi waved a free hand toward him. “Dakota, this is Javier Montero.” She went to the couch and removed a second child from its carrier. Dark hair. Dark eyes, like its mother. “Javier, this is my sister-in-law, Dakota, Axel and Gunnar’s mate.” She faced Javier with the baby in her arms, snuggled against her shoulder as natural as could be. “And this little fellow is—” Just then a strange little animal burst into the room and ran directly to him, barking its scraggly head off.
“Fugly! Stop that. Friend.” Beth said, coming toward him with the third baby in her arms.
“Fugly?”
Beth scooped the dog—he supposed it was a dog since it barked—with her free hand and brought it to her chest. Her cheeks were slightly pink. “Fucking ugly.”
“Whoever named it was correct.”
Beth and Heidi burst out laughing, and he reached his hand toward the strange little dog, who seemed content in Beth’s arm. The baby, not as young as he originally thought, reached out and grabbed his thumb. Tiny fingers curled around his much larger digit, sending a hot spike of lost dreams rolling through his mind.
“Come on in the kitchen so Javier can sit down and you two can help me set the table,” Heidi said, moving toward him. “You feeling better?”
He tugged away from the baby’s grasp and nodded. “Yes. Much.”<
br />
Heidi’s smile seemed to light the room. “Come on. I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”
Javier followed the women into the kitchen and sat in one of the two chairs Heidi pulled out for him then rested his leg on the other. What he didn’t expect was for her to plop a chubby baby into his arms before she turned away.
“I—”
“They don’t bite...much,” Dakota said, tossing a teasing smile over her shoulder on her way to the counter. “A little teething, but you look like a big, strong man. That’s Takoda, by the way.”
Javier lifted the child to eye level. His eyes were as dark as his mother’s, and a thick cap of flyaway black hair covered his head. He felt so light in his hands, so...insubstantial.
The baby blew a bubble and giggled while flapping his arms, trying to reach Javier’s face.
“You have so much trust, little one,” he whispered as he brought the child to his chest. A little fist grasped at his shirt, those big eyes never leaving Javier’s face. His babies would have looked like this, he thought. Dark in color. Yet this child’s features were softer than a Montero’s. The chin like his mother’s, a little pointy, where Isabela’s babies would’ve had sharper angles, squarer jaws.
He ran one hand over the baby’s head, his hair as soft as a kitten’s. When the child found interest in the collar of Javier’s T-shirt and dipped his head forward to examine whatever the little fingers had found, his head bumped Javier’s chin.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his jaw against the baby’s silky hair, breathing in a scent that wasn’t quite right, but was close. A shifter child.
“Get your hands off my son.”
Javier froze only long enough to see an obvious alpha male shifter step into the room with a menacing fury, barely leashed. Before he could speak, the man’s mate moved between them, smoothly scooping the babe out of his arms.
“Axel,” the woman said in a pleasant tone, “this is Javier, Heidi’s—”
“Dakota.” That one word silenced the mother. She frowned yet stood her ground, until forcefully moved aside by a second man with features almost identical to Axel’s.
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