by Honor James
Licking his lips, he grinned up at her. “Yes, you are,” he breathed out to her. “That’s it,” he encouraged her as he began to lift his hips to meet her over and over. “Do as you will, baby. Take everything,” he ordered.
She shivered and rocked on him again. “Oh god, yes,” she said with a growl and moved more. The feeling of him thrusting to meet with her was enough to send her spiraling out of control. She clenched him and then shuddered as she began to shake. “Janos,” she breathed, needing him with her because she wasn’t able to hold off her orgasm.
Gripping her waist tighter, he arched up and came, his seed spilling deep inside of her as he let a full growl pour from his throat. Closing his eyes, he squeezed them shut tighter as he felt a small buck of his body rock him in even deeper.
Her nails raked roughly over his chest, marking him as hers before she fell forward in a boneless heap on him. Eyes closed and panting, she lay there. They might have been dreaming, but their loving was just as intense in the dream as it was in reality. To be able to have him in both places was exhausting, but perfect.
Sliding his hands up, he wrapped his arms around her and held onto her body as the music filtered through his brain slowly. Stroking his fingers over her upper spine, Janos closed his eyes and simply enjoyed the press of her petal-soft flesh to his.
She smiled and shivered, a blanket manifesting to cover her as she did so. “I love you, Janos.” A whisper of a yawn fell from her lips. “But I need sleep, my love. I’m sorry.” She squeezed him tightly. “Don’t leave me? Stay inside of me while we sleep in our dreams, please?”
“I’m not going anywhere at all, my love,” he assured her, gently sliding a hand up to lace his fingers through her hair. “I’m exactly where I want, always and forever, to be, Mina. Let it take you under, baby. You need to rest.”
She did just that. She let the sleep overtake her and was soon sound asleep in the dream and reality. Finally Mina had come home. She finally was where she belonged, in the arms of her mate.
Chapter 42
“Okay,” he said, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. “Now, remember, if he annoys you, yells at you, or basically does anything that I would disapprove of, hit him over the nose with a rolled paper. He growls at you and you call me,” he told her with a grin.
Looking back toward the bookstore, he sighed. “Are you sure you’re ready to start today?” he asked, wondering if he was ready to let her start her new job. It was only a couple blocks from the bar. He could be there in bare minutes, but it was still too far for his comfort. He was working on it though.
She reached over and placed her hands on his that were gripping the steering wheel. “Yes, Janos.” She brought his hand from its strangle grip on the wheel and touched it to her cheek. “You need to get back to work, and I want to work. I am close, close enough that I can walk over to have lunch with you if you want, sweetheart.”
Looking to her and then the neighborhood, he frowned. “Call me so I know you’re coming, please. I don’t want you on the streets any more than necessary, honey. I know I’m sounding paranoid, but I am not comfortable with you being so exposed. I’ll meet you at the door when you come over,” he told her, stroking her skin lightly.
Sighing, he leaned in and kissed her slowly, tasting her as his eyes closed and drawing in her scent. “Go before I change my mind and lock you in our bedroom for the next fifty years.”
She grinned and shook her head. “I will call first, Janos. Now go.” She leaned in and kissed him again. “And don’t be too hard on Maxi, Janos. Be good to him or we will be all argumentative, all right, my love?” She smiled as she spoke to him.
Snorting, he shook his head. “I’m going over and beating him to death, right after I leave here. I’m going to pound his pointy little head just for being too friendly with my girl.” He smiled slightly to let her know he was kidding. “Go, love,” he murmured, kissing her once more. “I love you, Mina. Be safe.”
Shaking her head, she grinned and touched his cheek. “I love you, Janos. Go.” She turned from him before she wasn’t able to and headed into the store. “Benedek?” She called through the store looking for her missing in-law of sorts.
“In the back,” Ben called out, hearing her and shaking his head. He’d seen his brother and her in the car and knew this was killing Janos, but it was good for the boy, built character. “There’s coffee, water, tea, juice, and pop in the lunchroom as well as snacks for during the day. Today we’re ordering in pizza for our lunch, so if you have any preferences, dislikes, allergies, and such, speak now or live with whatever I decide to go with,” he told her as she came around the corner.
“You can stow your jacket and purse in my office. It’s always locked, so if you need to get it, you’ll need this.” He passed her the copy of the key to his office as he continued to poke through the box. “You know, I’d have sworn I had a copy of Moby Dick in here,” he grumbled. Sitting back on his haunches, he looked to her. “What’s up, honey?” he asked as he saw her slightly amused look.
“Nothing.” She touched his shoulder and took the key. “Thank you, Ben, for everything.” Reaching just above his head to the smaller of the boxes, she tugged out the Children’s Classic. “I think you are looking for this?”
Taking the book, Ben stared at it before narrowing his eyes on her. “Get to work,” he growled at her with laughter in his eyes.
She danced away at his teasing growl and, after stowing her things in his office, headed to the front. Magazines were picked up and stacked back where they belonged, books arranged, and she was all smiles when the small girl came in and tugged her shirt sleeve. “I’m wooking fur Sweeping Bweuty.” She was all of maybe four and had Mina’s heart in that moment.
“Of course, sweetheart. Would you like me to read it to you while you wait on your mommy?” Mina glanced and saw the woman who was likely the mother sitting on a stool in romance, devouring the newest novel from one of the premiere supernatural romance authors.
“Yes pweeze,” the little girl said and stripped her coat and gloves off followed by her hat. Mina’s heart clenched as she realized this little girl looked so like her that she could have been her daughter.
“All right, let’s settle in,” Mina whispered and was taken aback when the little girl settled herself on Mina’s lap, leaning back against her with her thumb in her mouth, waiting.
And so Mina began to read, the story not even half over when she realized the child fell asleep, and so, leaning back, she too closed her eyes, and that was where she was when Janos came to meet her for lunch.
“Hey, bro, I’m looking for my wayward female,” Janos said as he looked around the store. He could smell her, and it was interesting to note he didn’t seem to be all uptight about her scent mixing with his brother’s.
“Children’s section having a nap with a little girl she was reading to,” Ben said with a vague wave in that direction as he frowned at his computer. “I would have woken her, but I figured that you hadn’t actually been letting her get any sleep.” Ben pulled back as claws whipped past his face and chuckled.
“Asshole.” Janos shook his head, moving to the children’s area, pulling his jacket off. Stopping when he caught sight of her, he moved closer and touched her cheek. “Mina, honey,” he said, softly stroking her skin. “Come on, love, time to wake up and get lunch, baby.”
Mina cracked her eyes open and shifted slightly. “We fell asleep.” Well duh. She looked to where the mother was, and she was still happily reading, as if without a care in the world for the perfect little treasure that Mina held in her arms. She stroked a finger down the little girl’s hair. Mina looked up and smiled. “One day I want one.” Not today and not tomorrow, but someday.
Looking to the girl that was nearly a replica of Mina, Janos felt his heart jump and he swallowed. Lifting his eyes to hers, he searched them and nodded slowly. “If they are half as sweet and beautiful as this angel, we will be truly blessed, love,” he murmu
red softly.
Sitting down on one of the pillows, he looked once more to the girl. “She is a true beauty,” he whispered. Feeling choked up for no reason he could discern, he smiled faintly. “You’ll make truly amazingly beautiful babies, Mina.”
Mina smiled sweetly. “I hope so.” She watched as the woman stood, placed the book back on the shelf, and turned to leave the bookstore. “Wait, Janos, you have to stop her. She is this child’s mother.” However, Mina wasn’t certain of that now. The woman acted as if she were oblivious to everyone, simply walking away from an innocent child.
Looking to the woman, Janos shook his head. “No she’s not, love,” he said, turning his eyes back to Mina. “If she was, the child would have her scent and vice versa. The woman has a child, but it’s a boy and, I’m betting, she’s heading home to greet him for his lunch break. This little girl’s mother isn’t in here, baby,” he told his now stricken mate. Gently, he cupped her cheek. “Surely you saw the girl’s mother, Mina. She’s probably just in another section is all.”
“No, the little girl simply came up to me and asked me to read to her. How can someone let their child simply roam free?” Mina bit her lip and asked, “You don’t think that the parents abandoned her here, do you?” Which pulled at Mina, as she was an orphan herself. It made her want to hug the little girl up and claim her as her own.
“I don’t know, love. Why don’t you wake her up and we can ask her where she lives. Maybe her mother is in here and we just don’t know it,” he suggested, though he knew that there were two males besides himself and Ben, as well as two women, one a teen and one older, who was most definitely not this child’s mother.
“I don’t have no mommy,” the little girl said without cracking her eyes open. “It’s warm in here, so I come in here sometimes.” She looked up finally. “I can weave now fo.” She scooted off Mina’s lap. “Fank you for reading to me, lady.” She moved close to the chair so that she didn’t touch Janos, eyeing him far too warily for a child.
Seeing the way the little girl eyed him, Janos remained absolutely still as he watched her with interest and concern. She had a look that no little girl or boy should ever have, and it made him wonder if he shouldn’t find someone to kill.
“No, wait, sweetie,” Mina said and chewed her lip. She hoped Janos didn’t hate her. “I am Mina. This is Janos. He and I are one day going to be married.” She hoped, somewhat. “His brother is a police officer. I’m sure that your mommy and daddy are looking for you, sweetheart. We can ask him to try to find them, and in the meantime we can bring you home with us.”
A sadness swamped the little girl as she shook her head. “My mommy and daddy are gone. They left wif the big doggies who ated them.”
Feeling Mina’s look, Janos shifted his eyes for a moment to her. “Wolves,” he murmured softly before looking back to the little girl. “Where are you living, little one?” he asked the girl gently, keeping his voice soft and his body language unthreatening to her.
“I gots a hole I can go into there at the big white building. It’s warm and no one else can fit in, so it’s okay, safe,” the little girl said as she twisted the precious gloves in her hands.
“Oh, honey.” Mina’s heart sank and she chewed her lip. “Will you come home with Janos and I? Let us take care of you? Let us be your family?” She really, really hoped that she wasn’t ruining her life with Janos, but she couldn’t see allowing a child as small as this one to live on the streets alone.
The little girl eyed Janos and then stuck her thumb in her mouth as she thought it over before she whispered, “You not taking me home to eat me up to are you?” She was human, but she knew on a base level that Janos was a Wolf.
Normally Janos would have either snapped at her or cracked a joke, but the fear that was coming off of her because of what happened to her family had him shaking his head. “No, baby girl, I won’t eat you. You are too precious to be eaten.” He wanted desperately to give her a hug. She looked so terrified, her large eyes even bigger as she looked at him.
“I wike her,” she whispered conspiratorially as she looked up at Mina. “I fink I ken come home wif you.” She slipped her hand into Mina’s and then another reached out and she very lightly touched Janos’s cheek and nodded. “But you gots to make sure that the big doggies that keep coming by here don’t eat us up, okay?”
Mina’s eyes turned to the large windows, and sure enough, two pairs of men in blue and black kept walking past, looking in and eyeing them carefully. “Janos?”
“I know, love,” he said, not looking. He’d caught their scent when one of the men had left the store. “They’re looking for her,” he commented with a smile to the little girl. “Who wouldn’t. She’s adorable,” he teased. “Do you have a name, little one, or am I going to have to call you ‘shrimp’ from now on?” he asked with a wink, trying to put the girl at ease even as the hair went up on the back of his neck.
“I am Kafrine and I don’t ’emember my last name,” Katherine said with a smile. She moved closer to Mina and nodded. “They don’t like me a ’cause they fink I’m a gonna tell on the bad men a ’cause they a gonna make a King come outta hiding and they a gonna hurt him.”
Her words, so innocent, sent a chill down Janos’s spine and he stilled even more, his gaze locked on her face. “They think the King is going to come out of hiding?” he asked softly, keeping his voice light.
At her little nod, he nodded in return before looking to Mina. “Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m hungry. Anyone else interested in some lunch before I have to get back to work?” he asked, looking to the girl once more.
Mina nodded and stood with him, knowing the significance of what he was saying. “I’m hungry, too. I will tell Ben. So, Katherine, would you like to come with me to tell Uncle Ben that we are going to lunch or would you like to stay here with Janos?”
“I wanna stay wif you, okay?” Her eyes turned up to Mina were large and brown, fearful that she would lose Mina if she let go.
“Go on, love,” he told Mina and waited until they walked away before he stood slowly. Looking toward the windows, he walked over and looked outside.
He could see four Wolves, all in black and blue, that were standing at each end of the street. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered with a frown. Rubbing his neck, he turned to look around the store, noting where everyone was before heading for Ben and his mate.
Mina smiled at Ben and nodded. “Thank you, Ben.” He was sweet, and his eyes were eating up Katherine, as if he ached for a child of his own. “We will come back after lunch, and then tomorrow I will look into schools for her.” And she would have to ask Janos if they could somehow work out for Katherine to have protection while in school, too.
Stopping a few steps from Mina so he didn’t startle the little one, he looked to his brother. “Lend me the keys to your truck, bro.” He didn’t say why, but he saw a flicker of understanding from Ben. He’d have caught the scent of the enemy pack as well as Janos had.
Digging into his pocket, Ben tossed the keys to his youngest brother. “Put a dent in it again and I’m denting your head,” he said amiably.
“That was not my fault and you know it,” Janos pointed out with a glare at him. “That woman was crazed with her cart, trying to take me out.”
Katherine covered her mouth and giggled loudly. Mina smiled and looked down. “I know, they are a lot of fun to listen to, aren’t they?” Mina looked up at Ben and then back at Janos, her heart melting for him as she did so. Gods, she loved him.
“She did,” Janos said in a plaintive tone, shaking his head. Sighing, he headed for the back door. “Come on, ladies, we need to find some food. I’m dying of hunger here.” Looking over his shoulder he gave Mina a hot look before he continued through the back of the store to the employee parking lot and his brother’s SUV.
She shivered and licked her lips. She felt that look all the way to the very center of her body. She knew that she had promised Janos a lovemaking ses
sion on her lunch at The Edge, but it was going to simply have to wait. “Katherine, my dear, where would you like to eat?” Later she would talk to Janos, trying to figure out how they would ensure that there was no family out there and waiting for or searching for Katherine.
“Oh, can we have sompwace wif vege-tables? I not had some of dose but once, so can we?”
Mina understood what the child was saying. When you had nothing, you did without. It was that simple. “Of course we can, love. Janos, is there a place close where we can get our little angel veggies?”
“We’ll go to the buffet place,” he said as he opened the doors, holding the back one for Mina to help Katherine in. “They have a wide assortment of cooked and raw vegetables as well as other foods and lots of desserts. Ready?” he asked Mina, lifting a brow.
Mina reached out and pulled him toward her. “I need a kiss first, Janos,” she said as she went up on tiptoes and kissed him with all the desperation that she had inside of her.
Wrapping his arms around her, Janos lifted her up closer to him and kissed her hungrily. He knew there were little eyes on them, but he didn’t care. He needed her touch just as much as she needed his. Letting her slide down, he breathed her in, his lips sliding over her cheek. “I love you, Mina.”
When she pulled back, she smiled. “I love you, Janos.” They would have to make many changes, car seats for one, but when she looked at Katherine, it was more than worth it.
“All right, ladies, into the truck. Food’s waiting and my belly’s starting to grumble.” He snapped his fingers lightly, trying for the hard-pressed male look. “I’m starving, women, absolutely starving.” He tried a pleading pitiful tone when they just looked at him.
Katherine laughed, a giggle really, and she patted her belly. “I don’t hear mine growl no more. I got used to it after two or free months.” She nodded, not realizing how her innocent words affected Mina.