by Terry Spear
"Once he made sure they were all dead, he had to rescue me. Believe me, that wasn't easy for either of us. What a nightmare."
"You called Martin for help?"
"Yeah, but we didn't have anyone in the area. We had to get out of there before anyone found all the dead bodies and began asking questions. Though we're a police force that has good relations with some local police forces, we didn't in that part of the world. We did call Martin on the satellite phone and he had our coordinates for getting us out of there, if we couldn't reach the airstrip on our own. But it would have taken too much time."
"I feel embarrassed to have you look after me when you went through a real ordeal."
"Don't be. After I got back home, this is exactly how I felt. James and I were both off-duty for a couple of weeks. I was off for three until the bone would heal. I hated feeling like I needed to have someone assist me with everything, even just to get a cup of tea. I'm happy to help out. Don't feel like you have to be on your best behavior either. If you want to be grouchy, or cry, or anything, feel free."
He laughed. "Believe me, if I fall and pain shoots up my injured leg, I'll be saying some choice words. Tears might even spring up in my eyes."
She chuckled and moved closer to him, their fingers interlaced on his lap. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, but I'm glad we're still going to have dinner together and more."
He arched a brow, smiling a little.
She laughed. "Movies? Breakfast, lunch, and dinners for the next couple of days?" She shook her head. "You are such a jaguar."
He only smiled and picked out a vigilante series they both were interested in and they began to watch it. He decided nothing could be better than this while his leg was healing.
After they watched several episodes, wishing they had the technology these guys were supposed to have to take down the bad guys, Erin lifted her head from Bryce's shoulder and told him she was going to make spaghetti for dinner.
"You can keep watching the show. I can see it while I'm cooking."
But he knew her back would be turned to the TV for the most part, and he also wanted to keep her company.
As soon as she started making spaghetti sauce and cooking the noodles, he stood up from the couch and grabbed his crutches. She turned to watch him.
"You know you don't have to keep me company." She stirred the noodles in the boiling water.
"I want to." He sat up at the kitchen counter.
“Can you have some wine? Uh, maybe not since you're taking pain medication.”
“Yeah, probably not a good idea."
“Do you mind if I have some wine?"
"Not at all."
"Okay, I’ll get you some more water.” She poured a glass of cabernet for herself, water for him, and then served up the spaghetti. “This wasn’t all a setup so you could see more of me during my time off, was it?”
She finished making the salad, then pulled the garlic toast out of the oven.
He chuckled. “Yeah, definitely. The perfect way to get some extra free time off from work so I could spend it all with you. Dinner in the evenings wasn’t enough. Man, am I going to be ribbed about this all next week at work. I had hoped we’d arrive at the station to pick up my car before the shift change.”
“You loved it.”
Bryce smiled. Yeah, he did. The looks on his fellow officers' faces was precious. “They were wondering why I’d give up my job. Now they know why.”
She smiled. “Did you want to watch some more of our show while we eat dinner? I’m so used to watching something when I eat when I’m alone, but when James is here, since we’re family, we do it together. I'm thinking we should sit at the dining room table because of all the food we have, or I could set you up with a tray so you can prop up your leg.”
“Dining room table is fine. Less trouble. That’s usually what I do too. Just watch something while I'm eating.”
She served up the salad and garlic bread. “How are you feeling?”
“Like maybe I should take some more pain medication."
“I kind of wondered. I’ll get it for you.” She went into the kitchen and got him some more medicine and returned to the table to hand them to him.
“Thanks, Erin. The spaghetti is great.”
"My specialty."
Erin got the TV controller and started their show again, hoping that it would take Bryce's mind off his pain. Even though they healed up faster than humans, the pain was probably the same as humans felt.
They were nearly finished with their meal when Erin got a call from her boss and she wondered what was up now. She hoped he wasn’t going to give her a mission when she had a very important mission herself—take care of Bryce. And she was enjoying it very much.
“Bethany told me Bryce was injured on the job today and you’re taking care of him.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, well normally I’d start him on training first thing as soon as he started to work for us in another week and a half but he’ll need some physical therapy and he’ll have desk duty for at least a week. If he wants to wait a week beyond that to start working for me instead, he can do that. We'll just have to play it by ear.”
“All right. Thanks. I’ll tell him.”
“One other thing. Just to let you know, the family that you helped save Halloween night, the homeowner, Mr. Finch, wasn’t exactly being honest with us. The robbers weren’t run-of-the-mill robbers.”
“With the firepower the robbers had, I didn’t think so. What was Finch involved in?”
“He stole funds from a firm he was working for as their accountant. They’re a shell corporation laundering drug money, and he was skimming off the top. We’ve incarcerated him in our jaguar prison and the family has been put in a safe house. That’s why those men were looking for the safe. We questioned Finch for hours before he finally broke. Anyway, the money he stole from the shell corporation will be used to help pay for his incarceration. In the meantime, we had to also stage his and his family’s death and make it look like the guys who came for the money, and ultimately killed the family, took off with the money and disappeared.”
“Which they did once our people made their bodies disappear.”
“Correct.”
She couldn’t believe that what seemed like just a nice family man could be a thief, working for an illegal corporation. “Is it all right to tell Bryce?”
“Yeah. I’ve told the rest of the team who went in to take down the robbers. Have a nice time off. Talk later.”
“Thanks, boss.” She set her phone down on the dining table and told Bryce what Martin had said.
“I’m glad the family wasn’t injured for Finch’s wrongdoings. As to the JAG branch and work, do you know any physical therapy exercises I can do?”
She smiled at Bryce. “You need to heal first.”
After they ate dinner, Erin cleaned up everything.
"You know it kills me to not be able to help clean up or set the table or do anything. For a date, it doesn't give me any brownie points at all."
She shook her head. "You can't manage anything to be of any help. You just broke your leg, for heaven's sake. As far as dates go, it’s been really nice—you’re a great dinner and movie companion, what more could I ask for? Go on and sit on the couch and I'll be over there in a few minutes." Once she was done, she curled up next to him on the couch, leaning her head against his shoulder while they watched the show and she was thinking again about bedroom arrangements.
7
Both Bryce and Erin were falling asleep on the couch while they were watching the vigilante series when she smiled up at him. “Hey, do you want to go to bed before we can’t make it to bed?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, sure. I was feeling so relaxed, I didn’t want to break up the party.” He sounded as sleepy as she did.
“I know how you feel. Okay, it’s your choice on bedrooms. The guest room on the left or master bedroom right beyond the living room.”
“Your room, but I don’t want to go there if I might bump you with my cast or groan in pain in the middle of the night and wake you.”
“I’ll take care of you. Come on, let’s go to my room and we’ll get some sleep. I’ll get the medicine and water for you so you’ll have it if you need some in the middle of the night.”
“Thanks. I’ll take some medicine before I go to sleep.”
“I’ll get your bag too. You can use the master bath and I’ll use the other to take showers so you don’t have to go so far to get to bed.” Which was another reason to have him stay in her bedroom.
She set his bag on the floor next to the bed while he made his way to the bathroom. Then she put the medicine and glass of fresh water on the bedside table.
After she took her shower and dressed in pjs, she returned to her bedroom. Bryce had slipped under the covers so his casted leg would be on the outside of the bed. “I hope that my sleeping on this side of the mattress is okay.”
“Perfect. I always sleep on the other side.” It didn’t take long for her to crawl under the covers. She wasn’t sure if Bryce wanted to snuggle or not with the way he was feeling.
But at once, he took her hand and pulled her to join him. “This makes it almost the perfect night.”
She chuckled. She suspected he wished they could make love and that would have made it the perfect night.
A month later, Bryce was happily working with Erin at the JAG branch, all healed up and ready to ask her to mate him. They'd had a lovely Thanksgiving with Jane, James, Bethany, and Jack, the only wolf in the group. Bryce had totally fallen for Erin and it had about killed him when Martin made him take a desk job and then training, while Erin and her brother had an assignment in Brazil. Bryce had texted her every chance he’d had, trying to keep up with her, even though there had been long periods he couldn’t contact her. Martin told him to quit bugging him about sending another team down there to check it out every time Bryce couldn’t get a call or text back from her. He’d tried her brother’s number several times too.
“Sir,” Bryce said, knocking on the door jamb for the second time that morning. “Send me. I can back them up.”
Martin leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, his chin tilted down. “Okay, listen, next mission, you and Erin can be together. All the next missions, you can be together. But this time, you have to sit it out. Why don’t you take off the rest of the day?”
“But…”
“That’s an order, not a suggestion.”
Bryce ran his hand through his hair and left the building. Man, had he screwed things up with the boss. He was always a professional in every situation he ever encountered. But when it came to worrying about Erin, he just couldn’t help himself. Sure, he knew she was good at her job. He’d seen her in action already, twice. He still couldn’t stop fretting about her.
He saw Bethany leaving her car in the parking lot and heading for the headquarters building. She smiled at Bryce. “Hey, so how’s it going? Are you ready for your first real, field assignment?”
“I can’t get ahold of Erin or James.”
Bethany frowned. “That’s probably because they’re on the plane returning home.”
Bryce’s jaw dropped. “Why didn’t she call me?”
“Phone’s out? Not sure, but another agent, who was out there, said they boarded a plane and should be arriving—”
Bryce’s phone jingled and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Erin! Where are you? At the airport? I’m coming for you.” He smiled at Bethany and raced to his car. “She’s at the airport! She’s come home.”
Bethany laughed. “I can just imagine what the rest of the day will be like.” Then she headed inside the building.
Bryce had big plans. As soon as he’d started working with the JAG branch, Erin had been sent off on the mission that had lasted two long, damn weeks. He’d been annoyed with the boss for sending her away, instead of finding her somewhere close by to work. But that was only because he wanted to see her every day and every night. He couldn’t get enough of seeing her.
Then he smiled. The boss must have known she was coming in and that’s why he told him to go home. To give him the rest of the day off to spend with Erin. Okay, so Martin wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
When Bryce arrived at the arrivals for international flights, he thought he’d be taking James and Erin, and whoever the other agent was home, but Erin was the only one standing there with her luggage, smiling.
He parked. Before he got her luggage, he pulled her into his arms and kissed the living daylights out of her. “You are the only one for me. I totally love you. Man, did I miss you.”
She laughed, hugging him tight still. “I can tell. Same here. Sorry, we were either running through the forest in our jaguar coats, or unable to use our satellite phones. But I’m here now. Jane picked up James. And the other agent went with them. The boss said you were anxious about me.”
“Just a little.”
“He said you wanted to be sent out there to rescue us.” She loaded her carryon into the back seat of the car while Bryce put her other bags in the trunk.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Lots of times.”
“Sorry.”
She smiled and kissed him again. “No reason to be sorry. It's wonderful to feel loved. But he warned me I wouldn’t get any time off and instead, I’m stuck taking you on your first mission.”
“Ahh, hell, I’m sorry, honey. I sure screwed up your time off.”
“No, you didn’t. Martin already knew I wanted to work with you on your first mission.”
They got into the car and Bryce drove them to her home. “I had planned to ask you if you wanted to marry me. But I needed a little forewarning about your arrival home.”
“This is enough for me.”
“Yeah, but I wanted to do it right. I got champagne chilling for whenever you arrived home and steaks in the freezer. But I would have gotten fresh roses and a cake if I’d known when you’d actually get home.”
“You know, all that matters is seeing you at the airport to pick me up. I couldn’t wait to return and it was driving me crazy that I couldn’t get ahold of you any sooner. We lost one of the satellite phones in a river, and mine stopped working. Finally, Warner was able to contact Bethany and the boss and tell them we were on our way. His battery died before he could call you and Jane.”
“Martin knew. He sent me home, I thought for bugging him one too many times about not being able to contact you.”
Erin smiled. “He said you were going to make a fine field agent and he couldn’t wait to put you to the test. Especially while teaming you up with me so he could get you out of the office and make his life easier. He really is a great guy to work for. Believe me, he understood how you were feeling.”
“I’m just so glad you’re home. And I’m glad he wasn’t getting ready to fire me.”
“No way. So you want to get married?"
"Hell, yeah. No waiting unless you just have to." And then he wanted to change her mind, but he was reminded of James and Jane and he didn't want to get himself into that quagmire.
She laughed. "No. As soon as I got home, I was going to suggest us getting married if you didn't."
He took a relieved breath. She rubbed his thigh and he smiled at her.
"Whose house do we keep?" she asked.
"Yours? You have a swimming pool and I can't wait for you to show me some jungle gymnastics in the water as jaguars."
She smiled. "Okay, that's a deal. As long as you teach me how to use a sword."
"You got it."
When they arrived home, he carried her bags into the house and she looked at the wilting red roses in a vase. “You are so sweet.”
“They’re dying. I got fresh ones every few days, hoping you’d arrive home when they were still alive. I wanted them to be a surprise.”
She chuckled and began stripping out of her clothes. “I love them, even if they are now weari
ng a vintage look.”
He hurried to lock the front door and began taking off his clothes. “Bedroom, right? We’re not going for a jaguar run first, I hope.”
She smiled, taking off her panties last. “Not unless you insist on going for a run first.”
“No.”
“Take me to bed.”
“My pleasure.” He scooped his naked she-cat up in his arms and stalked toward the bedroom. “Making love to you first; anything else comes afterwards.”
“I so agree.” She smiled at the unmade bed.
“Sheets are clean,” he quickly said. “I just didn’t have time to make the bed.”
She laughed. He never made the bed. Not unless they were making it together. But he was good about doing laundry and he had changed the sheets. He set her on the bed that smelled of vanilla and he tackled her. “I didn’t want to wash the sheets, truth be told, because I wanted to sleep with the scent of you until you returned home. But I knew you’d prefer clean sheets.”
“If the roles were reversed, I would have felt the same way about you. As it was, I was sleeping with James in a tent in the jungle.”
“Next time, I hope it’ll be me.”
“Me too.” She wrapped her arms around Bryce’s neck.
He leaned down and kissed her breasts, licking each nipple. Then he pulled one into his mouth and sucked. And then the other. She was so ready for him to take her all the way. She ran her hands through his hair, loving the silky feel of it, and she smiled to smell her shampoo in it, and her coconut bodywash. “Hmm, you smell like me.”
“I kept forgetting to pick some up when I went grocery shopping. It was just sort of funny when I had to keep using your soaps. I didn’t mind. I felt like you were with me.”
Then they began kissing again and he didn’t want to be apart from her for this long ever again. He wanted to memorize the taste of her—wild and exotic from the Amazon, the scent of orchids and fresh rain—and to feel her softness all over again. He wanted to memorize her shallow breathing as he began to stroke her between the legs, to feel her dewy curls, to smell her pheromones that said she was ready for him. He wanted to memorize the rapid beating of her heart, the way her blood rushed through her veins, the way her lips parted, and her breath hitched as she writhed under his touch.