by Anna Lowe
Ecstasy. So this is what that word means, she thought as her whole body exalted in the burning sensation.
Hunter combed her hair back from her face so they could lock eyes. His glowed the way overheated bricks might — a deep, reddish brown — and sweat formed at his brow. He thrust faster, leaning left and right, stretching her exquisitely and driving hard along her inner walls. Then his eyes grew darker, and his teeth clenched.
“Soon,” he murmured, squeezing her hands. Not pinning her in place so much as anchoring her.
Soon was good, because her body was soaring along on a high that threatened to spiral out of control. Her muscles clamped down one by one to squeeze his cock, making him groan.
“Is that okay?”
He nodded feverishly. “Do it again. Please, do it again.”
Clearly, she was the rookie, but the need in his voice made her glow. She was doing it right. She was making him feel good, too.
When she took a deep breath and clenched, Hunter shuddered inside. His movement grew jerkier, his brow shiny with sweat.
“Yes,” she started chanting as he pumped into her hard enough to make the four-poster bed squeak. “Yes…”
She closed her eyes, tuning in completely to sensation. That much power, sliding inside her. That much desire, focused on her. That strong a connection. She rolled her head from side to side, locking down over him one more time.
“Hunter,” she cried.
His next thrust was his deepest, and they both howled. Her vision dimmed as a wave of pleasure rolled through her body, making her shudder and cry. Thick layers of muscle stiffened throughout his body as he came at the very same moment she did.
“So good,” she whispered, wanting to wallow in this wild pleasure as long as she could. Her muscles unwound, one by one, and she melted into the mattress.
“Hunter,” she murmured, running her hands over his back.
He held her through an aftershock of pleasure, whispering her name. She convulsed, exulting in the feeling each time. When she stopped shaking, she melted into Hunter’s arms, fighting back tears. Why had she been afraid for so long? Why had she shielded herself in a false feeling of control when letting go was so much better?
“Hey,” he whispered, running a finger along her jaw. “You okay?”
She rested her cheek against his chest and sighed the deepest sigh of her life. “More than okay.” She laced her fingers through his, unwilling to separate from him.
He nuzzled her then rolled, making her protest.
“Sorry. I need to get rid of this,” he murmured, heading for the bathroom with the condom.
The bed felt emptier and colder without Hunter. The needle of the Victrola scratched around and around in the sudden silence. But even that produced a tune, in a way. She glanced at the condom package. How many more did she have? And how long would they have to wait before going for another round? She checked the clock. God, where had the time gone?
Hunter detoured to lift the needle from the record before sliding under the sheets and spooning her from behind. He kissed her shoulder then nuzzled it with his cheek, reminding her he was more than a man. He was a bear shifter.
She waited for apprehension to set in, but all she felt was spine-tingling satisfaction. The bear part was… Well, maybe cute would be going too far. But sexy, for sure. Having a man who harbored an inner beast had its own special appeal. He was like a life-sized teddy bear — but nothing like a teddy bear, because his body did the most amazing things to hers. Just listening to his voice rumble made her toes curl.
“Thank you,” he said, so quietly, she had to strain to make out the words.
She turned in his arms and cupped his face. “No, thank you.”
The kiss she planted on his lips was sweet, slow, and absolutely perfect. When she gradually drew back and made it into a nose snuggle, that felt good, too. So good, she wondered why people didn’t go on about the afterglow as much as they did about actual sex.
She ended up gazing into his eyes with what had to be a goofy smile while he shook his head.
“What?” she asked.
His lips turned up in one of those rare little-boy smiles she loved so much. “Pinch me,” he laughed, brushing the back of his knuckles along her arm.
Dawn bit her lip. Yes, it was a pinch me, I’m dreaming moment for her, too.
“You have no idea how long I wanted this,” she confessed quietly, hiding her face against his chest.
“Wanna bet?” His chest rose and fell with a sigh.
She laughed, popping her head up. “I can’t believe we have Regina Vanderpelt to thank for something.”
He chuckled then turned his eyes to the left. An owl hooted outside, sounding perfectly content. A lot like her. She didn’t even feel the slightest urge to tidy up the clothes and sheets strewn around the room.
“You have an owl nesting around here?”
She grinned. “Yep. My aumakua likes to keep an eye on me.”
People from outside the islands never really understood about ancestral spirits, but Hunter seemed to. He reached over and rearranged the sheets around her, creating a little nest for the two of them. Perfect timing, because her body was cooling off, and she could feel the night’s chill. The house was just high enough upslope to feel a temperature difference from the coast. Hunter’s fingers alternated between playing over her skin and over the tiny stitches of the quilt.
“Did you make this?”
She shook her head. “My grandmother did. I’m nowhere near as good as her.” She pointed to her latest work in progress across the room — a white-and-yellow plumeria appliqué that had taken months just to reach the halfway mark.
“Beautiful,” he murmured, though she had the sneaking suspicion his eyes were on her, not the quilt. His arms tightened as he went on. “I remember my mom humming while she quilted. She used to tuck me in under one and sing.”
Dawn stroked the thick arms curled around her body. She’d rarely heard Hunter mention his mother. Both his parents had died sometime before he came to Maui to live with Georgia Mae, but that was all she knew.
“Do you still have that quilt?” she asked. Quietly. Carefully. Hoping he had good memories mixed in with the bad.
Apparently, not too many, because his body tightened all over again. “No. Jericho Deroux burned our place down along with everything in it.”
A vein in his arm pulsed, and she gulped. Had his mother died in the fire, too?
She hugged him tightly and rocked a tiny bit. Suddenly, so much about Hunter made sense. That subtle sadness he always carried with him. The hollow eyes of a boy who missed home. The rigid politeness that came from holding fiercely to lessons he’d been taught a long time ago. His gentleness and penchant for taking care of others, like the kitten he’d taken home. Like her.
She shook her head. Whoever Jericho Deroux was, she hoped he was rotting in jail. Then she reeled herself back from negative thoughts, as she did on the toughest days of her job.
“So much pain in the world, but so much beauty, too.”
He forced a thin smile and touched her cheek. “Yeah. That much is true.”
Her breasts were mashed against his chest, her hands wandering without her even realizing it. But the moment she became aware of it — whew. That hot, thumping feeling rushed back into her veins. Hunter’s eyes sparkled, and a moment later, they were kissing again. And not just kissing but touching and licking until they were all worked up again.
Dawn glanced at the clock then at Hunter, who’d paused in the light nibbles he’d been planting on her breast.
She laughed and went back to kissing his ear. “We still have over an hour, and you know what?”
“What?” he murmured, looking up.
She arched her back, making her nipple rise to within reach of his lips. “I intend to use it well.”
Chapter Eleven
Hunter waited on the porch while Dawn dressed, rubbing his shoulder absently against the doorframe.
He stopped the moment he realized what he was doing, because this wasn’t his turf to mark. It was Dawn’s, and while she’d opened up to him, she hadn’t exactly begged him to make her his.
What if we beg her to make us hers? his bear tried. Would that work?
He grinned, because — yeah, he was that over the moon in love. The best feeling in the world, even if it did come with a sense of gnawing dread. He had far too many hopes and fears on the line, and there was so much he and Dawn had to discuss. Neither of them had brought up the subject of his shifter side, and he hadn’t dared to introduce the notion of destined mates.
Surely, she feels it, just like we do. Surely, she knows.
Hunter took a deep breath. Right now, he ought to be relishing the present, not worrying about the future.
He sniffed deeply, inhaling the rich scent of Maui by night. The scent of sex was still in the air, too — faint, but perfectly clear to his keen bear nose — and his chest puffed out a little bit.
Footsteps tapped over the wooden floorboards of the cottage, and he turned.
“Do I look okay?” Dawn asked, stepping onto the porch.
His jaw dropped, and he stood dumbstruck for a long minute. When he finally got his mouth into gear, all that came out were unintelligible sounds. Because, wow. She looked like a million bucks. Well, Dawn always looked like a million bucks, even in her police uniform. But now…
An ivory qipao dress sheathed her gentle curves — a gorgeous, body-hugging silk masterpiece that brought out her Asian heritage. Three knot buttons swept from her neck to one shoulder, and a long slit ran up the left leg. Hunter had never cracked open a fashion magazine, but hell, he could picture her fitting right in. No, wait — she’d be on the cover, for sure. Her glossy black hair was plaited in one long braid that fell forward over her left shoulder. The low pumps she wore matched the pure red of her lips, and a pair of dangly earrings sparkled in the moonlight.
“It’s… You’re… I mean…” He stammered away while his inner bear rolled its eyes.
Say, it’s beautiful. You’re beautiful. Come on already!
“You look great,” he managed at last.
She looked down at herself and twisted her lips uncertainly. “I’m supposed to fit in tonight, but I’m not sure I can match what Regina’s guests are likely to be wearing.”
He shook his head vehemently. “You’ll outshine every one of them. Even without the dress. I mean…”
Dawn laughed and stepped closer. “I think I’d better keep the dress on. At least while we’re at work.”
His heart soared, and he hoped he wasn’t reading too much into her words. They did imply a later, right? The time after work when the two of them could…
He cleared his throat hastily and plucked a single flower from the hibiscus growing beside the porch. “Maybe just one more accessory,” he murmured, tucking it behind her ear.
He pulled back to look her over then nodded. “Perfect.”
Understatement of the year, but Dawn didn’t seem to mind. She grinned, meeting his eyes. Then her expression grew soft and serious, and she leaned forward for a kiss.
Lucky for him, kissing Dawn came instinctively, unlike talking. Their lips met and moved slowly together in perfect harmony, and his whole body warmed. He closed his eyes because feeling and seeing so much beauty would have completely short-circuited his mind.
Dawn opened her mouth, deepening the kiss, and his arms tugged her tighter.
“Oops,” she murmured, pulling gently away. “You’ll smudge my lipstick.”
Hunter took a deep breath and tried to remind himself about things like work, duty, and appearing respectable. But damn, was that hard, especially when his bear could only think of one thing.
Back to bed. Need to please my mate. Make her mine.
A three-point plan his body was totally on board with, if only they had time. But there was a hell of a lot more at stake tonight than smudged lipstick. Regina Vanderpelt’s ring ought to be delivered at any time, what with the wedding the next day. And if the diamond turned out to be one of the Spirit Stones, who knew what hell might break loose in the shifter world?
He took Dawn’s hand, trying not to squeeze too tightly as they walked to the car. A dozen ugly scenarios raced through his mind, most of them ending the way the last Spirit Stone caper had — with him forced to shift to bear form in the thick of a fight and Dawn repulsed by the creature he had become.
His bear let out a low, sad whine. Please don’t make me hide again. Please don’t lock me away.
“What did you say?” Dawn turned.
He sealed his lips, muffling the sound. “Nothing.”
He glossed over the fib by walking around the car to open the driver’s side door for her and leaning down for one more kiss once she was in. Then he circled back to the passenger side and folded his big frame into the compact Japanese car. Dawn drove in silence down the lane and onto the road that led down toward the coast, where she slowed and took his hand.
“Beautiful night,” she murmured, nodding over the sea.
Moonlight glittered in a long, wavering line across the Pacific. The sea was heaving from the monster swell that had been building all day, but from this distance, it appeared serene. The pines on the side of the road swayed gently to and fro, and stars sparkled overhead.
Hunter raised Dawn’s hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Really beautiful. Almost perfect.”
When she sighed and drove on, Hunter watched the sparkling sea and tried to get his head around what lay ahead. If he was lucky, the wedding ring was just an expensive rock for the spoiled daughter of an oil tycoon, not a Spirit Stone. If that was the case, the whole circus at the Kapa’akea resort would wrap up in another forty-eight hours, and he could concentrate on wooing his mate.
But a good soldier didn’t count on luck — and neither did a bear shifter, not when his mate was involved.
“What do you know about the diamond?” he asked.
Dawn’s eyebrow arched. “What do you know about it?”
He bit his lip. Shoot. Whatever she knew about the diamond, police protocol probably forbade her from disclosing. And whatever she did know about it was unlikely to include the notion of a Spirit Stone.
He flexed his hands, and the knuckles cracked. Shifters didn’t have a written code, but they had their own protocol when it came to sensitive information like the power of the Spirit Stones. So he couldn’t divulge anything either. But, damn. If the diamond was a Spirit Stone, he had to warn Dawn.
The silence between them stretched on — too long, threatening to damage trust so long in the making. Dawn had trusted him with so much already. Couldn’t he trust her?
Silas’s face flashed into his mind, red with fury as he bellowed, You told her what?
Hunter squirmed in his seat. He loved his shifter brothers, but he loved Dawn, too.
A moment later, his decision was made. He’d hidden enough from Dawn in the past. It was time to come clean.
“Remember the fight?” he whispered, figuring he didn’t have to specify which one. The scene must have been burned into her mind — all those dead bodies, and him standing there in bear form.
Dawn’s hand stiffened and pulled away from his. She nodded grimly.
“Kramer and his mercenaries were trying to kidnap Nina. In part for her money, and in part for the ruby she inherited.”
Dawn’s lips barely moved when she spoke. “That six-million-dollar ruby?”
Hunter itched to hold her hand again, but he didn’t dare invade her space. “The ruby is worth a lot more than that.”
Dawn looked at him sharply. “More than six million?”
He shook his head. “Not what you can count in money. The ruby is a Spirit Stone. It has…” He scratched his head, trying to figure out a way to explain. “It has special powers.”
“What kind of powers?”
He ran his teeth over his lower lip. “Powers most humans aren’t aware of. But for shi
fters…”
Dawn’s shoulders tensed, but he had to go on.
“There are five Spirit Stones. The ruby is one of them. There’s an emerald, too. You remember that helicopter crash on Molokini?”
She gave a terse nod.
“That wasn’t just a crash. It was a dragon fight — a fight over Tessa and the emerald.”
She hit the brakes. “What do you mean, a dragon fight over Tessa?”
“Well, another dragon wanted her as his mate, and—”
She stared at him. “A dragon wanted her as his what?”
“Shifters believe in destined mates — finding the one person who’s meant for you. The one your heart is bound to forever, who you’ll love to the end of your days.”
Dawn turned white. “Does the woman get a choice in this?”
His stomach turned. The evening had been so perfect, and now he was messing it all up. “Of course, she does. She recognizes her mate. Tessa loves Kai. She felt the pull as much as he did. But this other dragon came along and…”
“And?” Her hand tightened over the gear stick.
He motioned vaguely in the air. “The other dragon challenged Kai. He wanted Tessa for himself. But the point is—”
Her mutter cut him off. “It sounds like medieval times.”
Hunter had to admit she had a point there. Some aspects of the shifter world were on the barbarian end of things. But other parts — like the pure, undying love of a shifter for his destined mate — that eclipsed any of the wonders of the human world.
So tell her. Explain, his bear urged.
Hunter clenched the armrest so tight, his knuckles turned white. Dawn was already on the defensive, and she might not appreciate the difference between a crazed, stalker type and an honest bear who’d sacrifice anything for his mate.