by Reina Torres
Who knew a guy who didn’t even have a need to shave could have skills like that.
The door swung inward on a whisper and Chad turned around with a lot of warm color in his cheeks. See? he mouthed back at Dom. I got this.
Dom shook his head. I’m going in.
He watched the boy straighten up, push his shoulders back. It made him a lot more imposing that the skinny whelp that had run up to the place with a baseball cap turned around on his head and scuff marks on the toes of his shoes.
She knows me.
Dom shrugged. There was a point to the kid’s insubordination. Things were about to go south and the last thing they needed was for Paige to fight him and get herself hurt instead of rescued.
Look, kid, he saw the boy bristle at the words, just don’t get yourself killed, okay?
The boy raised a brow that was just about as good as a one-fingered salute and disappeared inside.
Shaking his head, Dom swore a blue streak under his breath. “I’m never having a kid… ever.”
Paige watched the doctor pace the floor.
“When are you leaving?” He looked at the man and paled when the gun lifted and pointed at his head.
“It’s on its way, but if you’re going to get twitchy, I can finish you now. I’m going to have enough trouble on my hands with her.”
Paige shook her head. “I’m not going to give you any trouble.” She meant it. She was just biding her time. She knew the boys had seen her. She had to have faith that they would get word to Devlin, that he’d find a way to get her free.
He turned toward her and gave her a long, hard look. “Baby, all you are is trouble.”
And, as if her child felt a need to prove the point, she felt an all-to-familiar feeling low in her belly. With a wince she gave him a look. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
The man hesitated, narrowing his eyes at her. “It’s gonna get crowded in that room.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, I can’t let you go off on your own, and I certainly can’t leave the doctor by himself. He was likely to be even more stupid than you. So, we’re all going to go together.” He laughed at her expression. “We’ll just stand in the doorway, keep an eye on you.” Waving his gun toward the hallway, he gave her pointed nod. “Well, let’s get moving.”
Paige took a few steps and shook her head. “No thanks… I’ll just wait.” She meant the words, but her bladder had other ideas. She shifted from one foot to the other with a groan.
“That’s the trouble with women, isn’t it, Doctor? They just can’t make up their minds.”
The doctor stepped in to help. “Maybe she could just leave the door open? The bathroom is just a few feet away and if we can hear her-”
“You’re not in charge here, remember?” The hammer on the gun clicked back and the doctor flinched.
The gunman swung around and pointed it at Paige. “Look, I don’t care if you pee yourself right here. I’m done babysitting the both of you. We stay right here until they come to get us.”
A knock on the door put them all on edge.
The gunman started, and looked from the doctor to Paige.
The knock sounded again, and Paige felt like fainting.
“Hey, Doc? You open?”
The doctor looked about the room, wondering what to do.
“Doc? Come on! I need your help. I think I broke my arm!”
Paige could see how torn the doctor was.
“Get rid of him!”
The doctor nearly jumped out of his skin when the gun swung back to him. “I’m… uh… sorry, son… I’m closed for the day.”
“Come on, Doc! At least let me in to call an ambulance or something.”
The gun man moved closer, the barrel inches away from the doctor’s head.
“Oh, hey, I think I see a police car headed this way, I’ll just flag him down.”
That changed the gunman’s tune. “Let him in, fast!”
The doctor ran for the door to escape the cold press of metal from the handgun. When he turned the lock on the front door everything seemed to implode.
Someone grabbed Paige’s arm and pulled her backward as the front doors flew open and let in a flood of sunlight.
She didn’t fight the hand, it was all she could do to keep her feet underneath her as another door was opened behind her. A moment later she was inside one of the doctor’s exam rooms barely able to stay on her feet.
The only other person in the room had his back to her, but she recognized his baseball cap and hoodie in an instant. “Chad!”
He spared a glance over his shoulder. “Hey, Mrs. K, stand back.”
The lanky teen didn’t wait for an answer. He was busy shoving things around as the room outside the door erupted into shouts and gunfire.
When the noise outside subsided, Paige was left staring at the mess before her. Chad had put every available piece of furniture in the room against the door, and that included a plexiglass pamphlet rack… every single thing.
Still, it didn’t matter. Devlin wedged open the door and shouldered his way in, pushing the mountain of equipment away. It left him standing in the doorway, his eyes a deep amber that seemed to glow from within. Paige squeezed Chad tight against her side, laughing as she pressed a kiss against the young man’s cheek.
And then gave him a hug… and then another hug.
“Paige?” Devlin’s voice rumbled out of his throat, a building roar.
“Oh, thank you, Chad. What would I have done without you?” She hugged him tighter.
“Paige?” This time it was Chad, squirming to extricate himself from her arms. “Ma’am, please?”
Laughing she leaned back and looked at him and the fiery blush that reached his hairline. “What’s wrong, Chad?”
Cringing, he tilted his head toward the door. “Devlin’s going to rip me apart if you don’t let go of me.”
Call it a rush of adrenaline or endorphins, or whatever chemical or hormone, but Paige was weak-kneed with true joy, thankful for so many things she couldn’t even begin to name.
With a concentrated effort she managed to let go of Chad and the poor young man dashed past Devlin, giving the larger shifter as much room as he could.
Devlin waded through the debris as if it was nothing more than sea foam on the beach and took his mate by the shoulders. “Paige.”
“Oh, Devlin, I knew everything was going to be okay. I knew that once you found out what happened, that you’d find us and bring us home safe and-”
His lips slanted over hers, his hands holding her in place as he stepped close enough to press her entire length against his hard body.
He murmured her name against her lips, placing promises and kisses against her soft lips.
Outside the small exam room the police and a number of familiar voices reached her ears, but she couldn’t think of anything more than holding her mate in her arms and feeling the subtle shift of movement inside of her body.
It was that flutter that stilled Devlin’s lips, urged his hand to settled against her belly, filled his eyes with amber light. “The baby.”
“Yes,” she sighed with a soft purr of sound, “and according to Dr. Shigezawa, progressing at an advanced pace. Apparently, your cub is likely to come closer to thirty weeks than forty.”
Devlin’s eyes were filled with wonder and pride. “That means we’re going to have to get started on the baby’s room sooner than later.”
She nodded and smoothed her hands over his muscular shoulders, her breathing quick and shallow, and her skin catching the heat of arousal from deep within her body. “But not today, Devlin.”
“And why not today?” He teased, his hands moved away from her belly to anchor on her hips.
Paige leaned in closer to her husband and with her fingers fisting in his shirt, she pulled him close enough that she drew her nose along the thick column of his throat, a few inches away from his skin.
“Because I’m going to take you home and dev
our you whole, Devlin Kerr. I’m going to taste every bit of your need and let you feed from my hunger for you.”
She saw the way his chest rose and fell in pants, pulling air into his lungs as she nestled her hips against him.
Paige watched him struggle with himself and found herself shivering as his tiger looked out his eyes and into her soul. She wasn’t afraid of that part of his nature, she never had been, but now she felt as if the tiger was part of her family just as much as Devlin was.
“I love you, Paige, so much,” he murmured to her, letting his voice purr along her skin. “What am I going to do with you, my innocent little bride?”
“Just love me,” she told him honestly, “as much as I love you.”
“Then let’s go home, Paige, and I’ll show you how much that is.” He picked her up in his arms and made his way through the broken shell of the building surrounding them and over to his car. They were gone moments later.
Epilogue
As soon as they arrived at the clinic, the nurse showed them into an exam room.
Paige made quick work of her dress and managed to avoid Devlin’s helping hands as she changed into the gown. It did something to her to see the look in his eyes as he saw her both reveal and cover her swollen form within reach of his hands, and yet the caress of his eyes was almost more… intriguing than his actual touch in that moment.
It was a visceral reaction to having him near.
The door opened and Doctor Shigezawa came in with a bright smile on her face. “Hey there, Mommy and Daddy.” She sat down on her rolling stool and checked to make sure that the warmer on the sonogram machine was ready. “I know Daddy’s busy today.”
Paige brightened and set her hand on Devlin’s arm, giving him a gentle squeeze. “It’s the first official day for the SCPS. They’re having a big press conference at Police Headquarters and any chance I get to see Devlin in a suit is fine by me.”
Devlin’s hand covered hers and his thumb slid under her hand to sweep against the sensitive skin on the inside of her wrist, eliciting a subtle gasp from Paige’s lips.
The doctor’s soft chuckle brought Paige almost back to the moment. “Hey now… let’s keep our eyes on the prize, hmm?” She looked up at him. “Go ahead and help mommy lie back on the table, just no funny business until you are home.”
Paige was grateful for the assist. Getting up and lying down were no longer things she could easily do on her own. It was so much easier to have help. It was also something she didn’t like to do with a full bladder. The baby had a unique ability to pick exactly the wrong moment to shift.
With Devlin’s help she eased back with a sigh.
The doctor gestured to her nurse who lowered the lights.
“I know I don’t need to lower the lights for Daddy, but it’s easier for Mommy this way.”
Paige laughed. “Actually, you’d be surprised what I can see now. I just wonder how much of my new sensitivities I’ll be able to keep after the baby is born.”
The doctor shrugged. “It’s different with every birth, every baby. We’ll just have to wait and see.” She typed a few keys on the keyboard and they started a new file. A few more clicks and the screen shifted to the familiar darkness of the imaging machine. “So far,” she gave a little grimace, “baby Kerr has been more than a little cagey about showing us the goods. So, we’re going to see if the little one is ready to settle the bets.”
“Devlin hasn’t said anything about what he wants. We both really don’t care which sex.” Paige looked up at her mate. “Although, I can’t help myself. I keep calling the baby ‘she’ and my father thinks I’ll give the baby a complex if ‘she’ turns out to be a ‘he.’”
The doctor nodded. “Well, let’s try to reassure the Mayor then. I’m always happy to make him happy.”
The nurse spread a blanket over Paige’s legs and then lifted the hem of her gown to reveal Paige’s stomach.
The distinctive squish of the warmed gel spraying into the doctor’s palm made Devlin’s upper lip curl. “Does it have to sound like that?”
Paige laughed, and her belly quaked in the half-light of the room. “Now I know what the ‘bowlful of jelly’ looks like.”
The doctor met Paige’s eyes and waited for the nod before she painted part of her belly with the warm gel.
“All right then… let’s have a looksee.” She moved the wand in one direction and then the other, making a few widening circles of movement. The throbbing pulse of the baby’s heartbeat echoed in the room and Paige heard Devlin’s indrawn breath. It made her own eyes tear up as he leaned closer to the screen, his hand taking hers in a gentle embrace.
“Goodness,” the doctor chuckled, “baby is getting bigger by the day.”
Her shock was a pleasant one and Paige relaxed into the examination.
“I think we’re looking at barely two or three weeks before you two have diaper duty and midnight feedings.”
“So soon?” Paige’s voice was filled with joy and wonder.
“It’s tough to pinpoint the exact split between human gestation and tiger. These images are giving me a very well-developed baby and I think we’re going to be stepping up your due date to match this sudden spurt in development.” She paused for a minute, sliding the imaging wand under Paige’s rounded belly and nudging a little to one side. On the screen, the baby wiggled and shifted ever so slightly. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
Another few minute adjustments and the doctor looked over her shoulder at Devlin. “You sure you want to know, Daddy?”
Devlin lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss against Paige’s knuckles. “Absolutely.”
“Well, congratulations you two.” She smiled and blinked back a tear. “You’re having a girl.”
The doctor set the wand back into the holder and picked up a towel, wiping the gel from Paige’s round belly, but the happy couple wouldn’t have noticed if she walked out of the room on her hands or turned into a show pony.
So, she left them alone to enjoy a few minutes of peace before they had to make a run to the press conference.
Devlin drew Paige into his embrace as he sat carefully on the edge of the exam table, tasting their joy mingling on her lips. He held her carefully, but his mate had no qualms about digging her fingers into his broad shoulders and holding him close.
Paige was his mate in every possible way, but no matter how long they would have together, no matter how many children they would raise, Paige Kerr would always be his innocent bride.
Book 2 - Too Much To Bear
Boone Wayland was a shifter, a problem solver, and a protector, not always in that order. When he decided he wanted to find his mate, there was only one place to go… the Paranormal Dating Agency masterfully run by Gerri Wilder. He’d visited the website in the few minutes that he’d managed to wrest control of his computer from the teenaged shifters he fostered and read a number of her reviews… okay, all of the reviews. He contacted the Agency because it was the boys that he’d been thinking of.
Mostly.
Partly.
Okay, not really.
He wanted a mate.
Hungered to hold her to him, make her smile, lose himself in her eyes and her body for the rest of his life.
But, finding a mate when he had a store to run and a houseful of boys to raise made the traditional model of ‘dating’ nearly impossible.
It seemed like a Hail Mary pass one might make in a sporting game, but if there was one thing Boone didn’t have in his life it was time. So, he picked up the phone and asked Gerri for her special brand of help.
Willa Barnes wanted a family so bad she could almost taste it. The future would be as sweet as the fruit pies that she was known for at her boyfriend’s Diner, and it was all within her grasp.
But that was before Charlie ran off with the hostess at the diner, leaving Willa to watch the shop while he was on his honeymoon in Las Vegas.
Hearing her woeful story, her favorite customer has a cra
zy idea. It turns out he knows a matchmaker and that feisty matchmaker just might know the perfect man for Willa.
Only, he’s not just a man.
Willa’s fascinated by the idea of meeting a bear shifter, but it’s not just becoming a wife that’s the offer on the table. He’s got a whole bunch of teenaged shifters that are waiting for her too.
Is this ‘insta-family’ just what Willa wants or will the reality of it be Too Much to Bear?
Acknowledgments
It’s always something of a leap of faith when you release a new book…
You have this work of love that you want to share with others, and you hope they fall in love with your characters as much as you have…
AND, in a case like this, it’s also the beginning of a Series!
Huge thanks to my readers, especially my Beta Ladies - Thuy P & Barbara C.
Reina Torres
Love - Romance - Books
Aren't they all the same thing?
Oh, I sure hope so!
I've been reading romance books for what seems like forever. When I was a teen, the days that I wasn't in dance class after school I'd go to the mall to wait for my mom to finish work for the day and my haunt of choice... the book store.
Whether it was Scottish Lairds, Medieval Knights, Regency Gents, Rough and Tumble Cowboys, or handsome modern Heroes, I loved them all! There was always another hero and heroine to follow through page after page of breathless love!
I really hope that my readers will enjoy some of the same thrills as discover characters to love between the pages of my books.
For More Information about Reina
www.reinatorres.com
[email protected]
Also by Reina Torres
Reina writes a variety of romance books from Heat to Sweet and back again…
**ALL of Reina’s books are available in KINDLE UNLIMITED**