Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  He switched back to the encryption text and frowned. “Well, this is curious.”

  “What’s that?” Jeremiah asked.

  “This text shows the coded signatures of everyone in the apartment for this time period. These signatures haven’t been tampered with at all.”

  Eden sucked in her breath. “That must mean you were home all night. This is wonderful. It proves you are innocent.”

  “Hold on, honey,” Jeremiah murmured. “Don’t go putting the cart before the horse. We still have some serious problems to solve.”

  Damian did his best to block this conversation out of his mind. He bent his brain over the code. There had to be something here he could use. He couldn’t quit until he found it. He couldn’t walk out of this office until he accomplished what he set out to do. Eden went to a lot of trouble to get him here. If he couldn’t do this for himself, he couldn’t let her down.

  He sweated and searched. Then he saw it. He jabbed the screen with his finger. “There. There it is.”

  Eden bent closer. “What?”

  Now that he had his prize in his hand, he took a deep breath. He could smell her standing next to him. “It’s Eli. Take a look.”

  He changed something on the screen, and the video feed from the apartment played again, but he couldn’t bring up more than a blur. A fuzzy outline passed down the hall from Eli’s bedroom and slipped out of the apartment. A few hours later, it returned and disappeared into his room again.

  Elder Hood stiffened. “Do you know what this means? You didn’t tamper with it yourself to cast the blame on your brother, did you? That could get you in even deeper hot water.”

  Damian didn’t turn around. He pointed to the screen. “Here’s the time signature for the video record.” He flipped back to the code page and pointed to a different spot. “And there’s the time signature for the encryption. It was encrypted the night of the murder after Eli returned. You can get one of the other experts on the programming team to verify the results. They’ll confirm the date of encryption. They’ll be able to prove I didn’t encrypt it today.”

  “You could have encrypted it before. You could have encrypted it the night of the murder.”

  Damian slid the chair back. With infinite care, he rose out of the chair and faced Elder Hood. “If I killed Ryder, I would have had to encrypt my own movements, as well as Eli’s. I would have had to cover up the fact that I left the apartment. Instead, a completely unencrypted signal shows me asleep in my bed while he slipped out of the apartment. No one would try to hide his leaving unless he actually left. This signal shows Eli lied, not only about my whereabouts the night of the murder, but also about his own.”

  Elder Hood’s eyebrows twitched. For a long moment, he locked his eyes on Damian’s face. The two men regarded each other in matched determination. The wheels turned behind the old man’s eyes.

  All at once, he started out of his stillness. He seized the tablet off the table and raced for the door. Eden cried out, “Where are you going?”

  “I have to show this to the Elders,” he called back. “There’s no time to lose before they call up the next session.”

  The door slammed, and a deathly silence fell over the office. Damian looked around and found himself standing alone and unguarded with Eden. He blinked at her and she stared back at him. He could hardly believe this was happening. He was alone with her. He wore his regular suit and no chains. He might have come over to her house just to visit her, and now they were alone.

  Maybe he hadn’t been accused of murder after all. Maybe all of that had been a bad dream. Now here he stood. He gazed into her eyes, and the whole sordid nightmare vaporized off the face of the Earth.

  Her eyes slanted sideways toward the door where her grandfather disappeared. Jeremiah must have rushed out without realizing what he was doing. He got too excited by the results. He forgot he left an accused killer unfettered in his office with his young granddaughter.

  Damian swallowed hard, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Eden. “I… I guess I better go turn myself in.”

  His words startled her. “I guess so.”

  Neither of them moved, though. They stared at each other in stunned silence. What should they do? A thousand thoughts and emotions tumbled through Damian’s mind. He didn’t want to leave this room. He never wanted to leave her again as long as he lived.

  She saved him. She got him here. She gave him the chance he needed to prove his innocence. Now, he had her in front of him. As long as he stayed in this room, they were together, the way they should be.

  The guards might burst in any second now. They might slap their manacles on his arms and legs and haul him off to the cells below the council building, but nothing could ever rob him of that expression in her eyes.

  She saw him. She saw him as no one had ever seen him in his life. She never saw him as a killer the way the rest of the world did. He was always innocent in her mind. He was just as good and strong and true in the cells as he was the first time he met her in this very apartment.

  For some reason, he never thought to put his arms around her. Gazing into her blessed face meant so much more than any touch ever could. What would happen to them? All those questions existed a million miles outside this room. Right now, nothing existed but the two of them standing face to face.

  The weight of accusation still hung over his head, though. He glanced toward the window. “I guess I better go.”

  She nodded, but that glorious light of recognition still glowed out of her skin and eyes. He summoned all his strength to break away, but the instant he turned toward the door, she called out, “Damian!”

  He turned back, and her eyes caught him one more time. He couldn’t get away. He didn’t want to get away. He wanted to stay with her forever. Her hand drifted toward him and fell at her side. How he longed to grab that hand and cling to it for all he was worth! He would never let her go.

  She looked around the room. She looked everywhere before she came back to looking up into his eyes. He couldn’t hold himself back anymore. “It’s all right now. I can go back. I can wait for your grandfather to pass the results to the rest of the council. It won’t take long before I’m out of the…”

  She chopped her hand through the air. “Don’t! Don’t say it. Just a little while longer.”

  How their hands met in the space between them, Damian never knew. The next thing he realized, mind-blowing warmth trickled up his arm to infuse the rest of his body. The frozen horror of his situation melted to excruciating pain. Only Eden’s presence held him together to weather the blast.

  He squeezed her hand. She was real. She stood in front of him with her fingers entwined in his. She shone warm and welcoming, right there where he could see every pore of her skin and every hair along her forehead.

  The tension between their hands slackened. He didn’t realize he moved closer to her until the details of her face stood out crisp and clear. Her eyes glistened, and her lips quivered between smiling and panting.

  “Damian?” she whispered.

  “It’s all right,” he whispered back. “It’s gonna be all right.”

  He didn’t mean to kiss her, but his lips collapsed into the unstoppable sweetness that was her. Her beautiful presence swept him off his feet. He stared into the starry depths of her eyes, into a world beyond comprehension. Time stopped. He couldn’t understand what he was doing or how she responded. He knew only the delirious bliss of being with her, being with her without any barrier to hold them back.

  70. Chapter 14

  Damian’s arms folded around Eden’s shoulders. He pulled her against him, and the magical kiss spread its rapture over her. She fell headlong into the warm steamy brew of tongues and lips and teeth and saliva all mixed together.

  She couldn’t keep up with it all happening so fast. Her mind spun. She would have fallen over if he hadn’t caught her behind her head. His fingers tightened in her hair to crush her mouth against his, but his lips delved so softly a
round her mouth she didn’t mind. She pillowed her aching soul on those lips.

  His tongue touched hers in a sharp point. Then it glanced away somewhere else. She surrounded his chiseled bulk with both arms and sought refuge from the outside world in his rock hard presence. He could handle anything. He could protect her from any danger outside this room.

  Her knees wobbled, but he held her in his powerful embrace. He supported her, and she rested back in his arms to drink his kisses to the dregs. What was happening to her? His arms and hands changed her very cells. She would leave this room different than she had entered it.

  She paddled up from the depths of bliss to find his eyes smoldering into her. He never released her mouth or her hair, but she understood. He couldn’t keep doing this. As long as he was still accused and wanted, he held himself back.

  She broke the silence. “You have to go, don’t you?”

  He sighed, and his lips trailed off hers to regard her from a few inches away. “Yeah.”

  She nodded, but she couldn’t swallow down the lump in her throat. “You better go then.”

  He held her tighter. “I don’t want to. You understand that, don’t you? I don’t want anything in the world but this, but I can’t do anything with you when I’m not my own man.”

  “I understand.”

  “We’ll have all the time in the world.” He kissed her again. “We’ll have all the time in the world when I’m free and we’re married.”

  Eden froze. He said it. He said those words out loud. They would get married. They would leave this room today. He would face the council and clear his name. The Elders would release him to continue his own life, and they would get married.

  As those thoughts raced through her head, she read them confirmed on his face. This was her mate, her mate for life. No force on Earth could keep them apart.

  Eden burst into a glorious smile. It lit up her whole life. It banished every shadow crowding the periphery of her dreams. It erased all the worry about the Midnight, her surface life far away, her future—none of that meant anything as long as she had him. He was her mate, her love. They would get married.

  The same smile spread over his face. The cold hard determination masking him these last few days evaporated. He showed all his bright white teeth when he smiled. He was free, free at last in her love.

  The unbridled happiness flooding through her rocketed her toward him. He came at her just as fast from the opposite direction. They smashed together at the mouth. They devoured each other in desperate fury. They couldn’t get enough of each other.

  Damian clamped his hand behind her neck and gobbled her kisses as fast as he could. His other hand scooped behind her back. Eden had to touch him. She had to hold him and caress him and love him while she could.

  How long would he have to stay in the cells before they let him out? How long before she could give herself to him and declare her love for him to the world?

  He pressed her hips into him, and every muscle tightened across his chest. His shoulders flexed when he gripped her. Her breath caught in her throat at the intoxicating passion washing over her. She couldn’t get her mind to function. She couldn’t decipher one emotion from the next.

  His whole body hardened. His smoldering heat excited her all over. She could hurl herself at him in all her tempestuous desire, right here in her grandfather’s office. No one would be able to deny them.

  The longer they stood there kissing and touching and gasping for breath between their entangled lips, the hotter the fire burned between them. He lifted her off the floor. She grappled her legs around his waist. If he took her right here and now, she would welcome him. She would love every minute of it.

  His hand glided down her spine to scoop her up around his waist. He touched the raging flesh between her legs and sent her into spasms of delicious sweetness. She wanted him. She wanted to sit down hard on that bulging spike between his legs. She wanted to cross the last threshold holding them apart. She wanted to drive the last nail into the structure of their future together.

  She raked her fingers over his scalp. She burrowed her other hand under his jacket, but his shirt stopped her from touching his skin underneath. She wanted him so bad. She wanted to bite him and maul him to pieces. She wanted to consume him in all his raging manhood.

  He got under her shirt and twisted her nipple until she whined. He tugged her bra aside, but he couldn’t get at her breast with his ravenous fangs. He ripped her shirt open and sucked her nipple into his greedy mouth.

  Before he could get any further, he broke off again. His eyes pierced her soul. He didn’t have to say it. A force stronger than their love tugged him toward the outside world. He wasn’t free—not yet.

  They kissed a long time without moving, but that nagging question hung heavy over their union. He held her against him and she locked her ankles behind his back, but they couldn’t keep this up. They had to leave this room eventually. They had to face whatever haunted them outside.

  He swayed her in his arms, but his kisses diminished. Eden refused to get sad about this. They were together. They would always be together, no matter what the future held. Whatever bothered him, bothered her. She had to solve this case once and for all before she allowed herself to get lost in him.

  He didn’t let her go. She put her legs down all by herself. If they were going to do this, they better go ahead and get it done. The sooner, the better. Then they could stop worrying about it.

  He understood, too. He set her on her feet and gave her one more kiss before he took her hand. He murmured down into her face, “You ready?”

  She nodded, and they walked together to the door. He pushed the button, and it hissed back to reveal the front room. Eden braced herself, but when the door slotted into its place in the wall, she stared out at an empty apartment.

  She couldn’t get herself to believe what she was seeing. The place was empty. The guards were gone. Her grandmother and Serenity must be off somewhere else. Not one sound disturbed the peaceful chamber.

  Damian stood still at her side. He looked right and left. He expected, as she did, that the guards would leap out and lay hold of him the instant he showed his face. Where were they? When Jeremiah told them to withdraw, they didn’t just wait in the living room. They left the apartment—maybe even the building.

  Maybe they weren’t looking for Damian at all. Maybe Elder Hood taking custody of him gave them all the permission they needed to go back to their own offices and wait for Elder Hood to return him.

  Eden glanced at Damian, but he blinked in wonder at the scene. Now, what should they do? He turned to her at the same moment, and the same power brought them together once again. If no one was looking for Damian, why shouldn’t they share one more kiss before he turned himself in?

  He kissed her. Her arms went around him of their own accord. She took shelter in that kiss and in his big self. He was all hers. His body and his heart rested in her hands. She cherished them in perfect bliss.

  When they split apart some time later, they strolled out of the apartment toward the elevator. No one said anything about using the teleportation booth to transport Damian back to the cells. They didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say.

  He pushed the button to call the elevator, and they rode the car to the ground floor. No voices accosted their ears. No people passed through the foyer. He opened the door and led her out onto the sidewalk where they stopped one more time.

  Eden glanced up and down the street. Not one person walked around the square. No hovercraft floated overhead. She didn’t hear any trains, either. The breeze rustled the leaves on the trees. Other than that, not one sign of life disturbed the city.

  She stole a peek at Damian. He frowned at the surroundings, too. What was going on? Where was everybody? They were absolutely, completely alone in a city teeming with millions of people.

  He looked over at her, but he only gave her one kiss before they walked on. Something strange was happening. He had to tu
rn himself over to the Police. Her grandfather might be telling the Elders what they found, but until they officially released him, Damian was supposed to stay locked up.

  He led her back to the council building. He paused at the base of the steps to draw her into his arms. He didn’t mangle her lips or stick his tongue in her mouth. He only held her hand and delivered little nibbling pecks to her mouth. “I better go in.”

  “I know. I’ll try to come and see you soon.”

  “You don’t have to do that. You’ve done enough. You’ve done more than anybody.”

  “I want to. I’ll come see you as soon as I find out what Grandpa’s doing. When he gets home, he’ll tell me what the Elders decided. Then I’ll come and tell you so you don’t have to wonder.”

  He kissed her again. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

  “Don’t thank me. I had to do it.”

  He shook his head. “I only wish…”

  She closed her eyes. “Don’t. We’re the same, you and me. What happens to you, happens to me. I couldn’t let you stay in there. I had to do something.”

  He squeezed her hand. “You’ll be all right, won’t you?”

  She burst into another smile that lit up the world. “I’m gonna be just fine, just as soon as you get out of there. That’s all I care about.”

  “Eden…” he began.

  She silenced him with a kiss.

  He whispered between kisses. “Baby.”

  She broke her mouth away. She stole one more kiss on his forehead before she moved back. She couldn’t stop smiling. “I’ll see you soon.”

  She backed away, but she didn’t let go of his fingers until the very last second. She devoured him with her eyes for every last scrap of sight of him she could get. At last, her fingers snapped off. She turned around to walk away, and came face to face with Eli.

  71. Chapter 15

  Eli’s face contorted into a mask of furious hatred. He glared back and forth between Eden and Damian. His lips shivered off his teeth. “What are you doing out here? You’re supposed to be locked up.”