by J. H. Croix
He had to fight to keep from tearing her panties off and plunging inside of her. His cock was so hard it bordered on painful. But more than that…he wanted to imprint this experience on her and savored the anticipation of knowing how much better it would be if he didn’t rush. He circled his thumb against her clit through the cotton. Her hips shifted restlessly with her gasp. He trailed slow kisses up the inside of her thigh and slipped a finger under the edge of her panties. Her folds were drenched with desire. His intentions weakened when she gasped.
“Dane…”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t make me wait…”
He smiled against her skin and hooked a finger on the edge of her panties, swiftly dragging them down.
“Just a minute…”
The cat in him flexed and arched, the primal drive to plunge into her so intense, he had to clench his teeth. He finally brought his mouth against her, her hips bucking into him the moment he slid his tongue up and down her folds and coasted across the nub of her desire. The salty tang of her was like a drug. He laid a palm on the soft curve of her belly using his other hand to tease in her folds and give in to the long, slow taste of her.
Chloe went wild against his mouth and hand, her cries echoing through him. Time dissolved as he lost himself watching her fly apart. When her channel clenched and she cried his name, his snatched a condom out of his jeans on the floor and rolled it on, stretching full length over her body as she shuddered. In a swift move, he tugged both hands above her head, holding them in place with one hand, finally giving in to his need to dominate. He paused and said her name. Her mossy green eyes blinked open. He cupped her cheek with his free hand and held her gaze. Her bare body felt so good against his, he was stunned. She licked her lips and shifted under him.
“Now…” she said.
He surged inside of her, her wet channel hugging him tightly. Her eyes widened, her breath came in ragged gasps. She shifted her hips, opening her thighs wider and arching against him. His last hold on control broke and he pulled back to thrust deeper inside of her. He lost himself in the rhythm. He held her pinned against the bed as he gave in and allowed the tempest inside of him to take over, surging and stroking into her, deeper and deeper each time. She suddenly gasped his name and he felt her climax ripple around him. His own crashed over him in a wave.
***
Dane growled her name and arched back, plunging deeply into her. Chloe was awash in the orgasm that had blown her apart. The feel of him inside was beyond anything she could have imagined. By the time he finally entered her, the ache to have him inside was so intense, she was near out of her mind. The fullness filled an empty place in her body and her soul that she hadn’t known she had. He collapsed against her, his hand easing its grip on her wrists. He shifted his weight to the side and lay still. His breath gusted against her shoulder. He trailed a hand down her cheek, lightly tracing her collarbone, curling softly around her breast and coming to rest on the curve of her abdomen.
She lay still, trying to catch her breath and to think. The entirety of her sexual life, she’d assumed she simply couldn’t relax enough to have an orgasm. Dane’s mere presence with her had made it happen with such ease, she couldn’t have stopped it if she tried. The feeling was so utterly delicious. Her mind rolled back to earlier tonight when he’d all but blown her mind. She still couldn’t quite wrap her brain around what he was even though she’d seen it with her own eyes. And though a part of her wasn’t so sure what to think, if she listened to her heart, her body and her soul rather than her oh-so-controlling mind, she trusted him more completely than she’d ever trusted anyone.
She rolled her head to the side to find his blue-gray eyes on hers in the soft glow of light from the single lamp. Holding her gaze, he leaned forward and gave her a lingering kiss before rolling away. He stood and walked across his huge bedroom to a door she presumed led to the bathroom. She heard water running, and then he returned, striding toward her. The sight of him took her breath away. He was all lean, sinewy muscle, his skin burnished gold. When he reached the side of the bed, he slid an arm under her hips and lifted her easily.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he started to carry her across the room.
“Shower.”
Though she loved being held in his arms, she protested. “I can walk…”
His intense blue-gray eyes slanted down to hers. “You’re ankle still isn’t up to speed. Plus…” He paused with a sly grin. “It gives me another reason to touch you.”
His words sent a shiver through her and warmth curling around her heart. Dane stepped through the doorway into a large dressing room with closets lining the walls. In another few steps, they entered the master bathroom, another huge room. Chloe’s impression of the home had been so brief when they’d entered, it was only now sinking in that this was an old farmhouse with gleaming hardwood floors in most rooms and elaborate tile in the bathroom. As with many older homes, the rooms were much larger than those of modern homes. The bathroom had clearly been updated with a soaking tub occupying one corner and a shower tiled in soothing blue glass. He set her down just outside the shower. Steam billowed out when he opened the glass door and gestured for her to enter. He kept a hand firmly on her elbow as she stepped inside.
She was still readjusting to the sheer heaven of hot water after so many months of hiking and quick baths in cold rivers, streams and lakes along the way. She sighed at the feel of water coasting over her skin. Mist curled around them. Dane moved with efficiency as he quickly soaped himself and then turned to her. Though his movements were quick, every touch was a caress. Chloe didn’t realize how tired she was until he lifted her again and carried her back to his bed. Cool sheets fell against her skin, followed by a down quilt and then the heat of Dane’s body curling around her.
Chapter 8
A few days later, Dane bumped the swinging door that led to the break room with his shoulder. He’d had a busy morning at his family practice between ear infections, a broken arm, and a little boy whose curiosity got the best of him when he encountered a porcupine in the woods. The porcupine, a creature rather inclined to avoid confrontation, had scurried away, but the little boy followed it. For his trouble, the boy only came away with a few quills in his arm, but he was wailing loudly enough, he terrified his mother. Dane filled a cup of coffee and headed straight for his office. After flying through paperwork to get charts up to date in the electronic records system, his phone buzzed. Seeing Chloe’s number, he answered immediately.
“Hey there,” he said.
“So what time did you say we were meeting for dinner at The Trailhead?”
Dane glanced at his watch, smiling because he couldn’t help but smile whenever he heard Chloe’s voice. “Six.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you there.”
“I’ll pick you up,” he countered. “Your ankle’s almost better, but you’re not helping with your insistence on walking as much as you have.”
Her ankle sprain was almost healed, but not because of her efforts. He’d quickly discovered when left to her own devices, Chloe ignored most of his recommendations, namely that she liked walking around town. Though he didn’t want to argue the point because she’d also finally agreed to stay at his house instead of at the inn. When they were together, Dane knew beyond any doubt, she was meant to be with him. But when they weren’t skin to skin, he could see the wheels turning in her brain. Though she claimed she hadn’t had a plan when she finished hiking the trail, he was fairly certain she’d never contemplated meeting a mountain lion shifter who insisted they were meant to be together.
“Dane, you have to stop insisting on driving me everywhere. How about I rent a car?”
“I’ll find one for you to borrow. How’s that?”
Chloe laughed. “Fine. I suppose there’s no point in debating whether it’s okay for me to walk to meet you for dinner,” she said cheekily.
“I know you’re tired of taking it eas
y with your ankle, but I don’t want you to aggravate the sprain. If you don’t mind me picking you up…”
“I don’t mind, but after that, I’m renting a car tomorrow, or we find one for me to borrow.”
Dane hung up a few moments later and wondered how soon was too soon to ask Chloe to consider something more permanent with him. The last few days had been a bubble of shimmering passion, which only served to ratchet up his need for her. He was trying to balance the need to give her space with his own need to find a way to know if she felt what he felt. The mere thought that she’d stay for a visit and then leave Catamount made his heart clench. He wished like hell he wasn’t trying to deal with the fallout from Callen’s death in the midst of this. It chafed on his conscience that he couldn’t talk much about his concerns about what happened to Callen. He worried she picked up that he was holding something back and misunderstood what it might mean.
His phone buzzed again. This time Jake’s number flashed on the screen. “What’s up?” he answered brusquely.
“You got a minute?” Jake asked.
“Just finishing up at work. Do you want me to stop by?”
“That’d be good. I’ll be in my office for another half hour. Can you make it before then?”
Dane clicked off his computer and stood. “On my way.”
Minutes later, he rested a hip against Jake’s desk. Jake’s office was a few blocks away from his. Jake had multiple computer screens covering his desk. The hum from his computer server was constant. Jake claimed he needed a separate office from home, or he’d never take a break. Dane had seen the lights on at his office at all hours, so he could imagine it would be much worse if Jake didn’t keep some type of divide between home and work.
“So?” Dane asked.
Jake swung around in his chair, his eyes serious. “You’re not going to like this,” he said flatly.
Dane gut coiled. “Just tell me Callen didn’t risk our safety by accidentally revealing who we are to the government.”
“I can’t say he did that, but I can’t say he didn’t. I don’t even know what to do with what I found. I’ll say this much: this needs to stay between you and me until we get a better idea of what was going on.”
The knot of worry in Dane’s gut tightened. If Jake thought they needed to keep this quiet, it could only be bad news. He eyed Jake carefully. “You know I won’t say anything. What the hell did you find?”
Jake took a deep breath and leaned his elbows on the desk. “So I hacked into the email of the Fish and Wildlife guy, Hayden Thorne, and did a lot more digging into Callen’s computer files. Far as I can tell, he’s nothing more than a red herring. I think he might be able to help us, but I don’t think he’s our problem. Callen was working with some guy out in Montana to sell...” Jake paused and shook his head. “Damn if I know how to describe it, but here goes. I think Callen was trying to sell our services for some high end money.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
Jake ran a hand through his hair. His eyes were bloodshot, his clothes rumpled, and his hair looked as if he’d run a hand through it too many times to count. “Callen had multiple email accounts under different aliases. The surface one, the one we first looked at, was the only one he used to communicate with Hayden. He seemed to be trying to pump him for information. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Hayden’s a shifter himself. But that’s another issue altogether. Anyway, he used some other accounts to communicate with a guy—no idea who this guy is, never mentions any names—and the deal was Callen offered this guy shifters to use for drug smuggling. For some serious money.”
Dane’s stomach felt like lead. “You can’t be serious. There’s got to be a mistake.”
Jake shook his head slowly. “Trust me, I said the same thing to myself. I’ve been up almost day and night combing through these email accounts. Once I tracked down the alias accounts, I almost lost it. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure I could trace everything back to Callen. He did a decent job of covering his tracks, but he wasn’t savvy enough to know how to mask his internet service provider address completely, so that’s how I linked everything back to him. I can show you all of it. I’ve saved it on a separate flash drive and backed it up to in the cloud and on two separate hard drives to be on the safe side.”
Dane tried to absorb what Jake was saying, but he was stunned. He and Callen hadn’t been particularly close, but he’d trusted him. To think Callen was slinking around, trying to find ways to make money off of their shifter clan, blew his mind. And broke his heart. If Shana found out about this, she’d be devastated on a new level. It would shake the foundation of the love she had for Callen. Then there was the issue of how much risk Callen brought down on them. The existence of shifters was protected knowledge. That’s how they survived. For Callen to expose them to the seedy and dangerous world of drug smuggling, well, it was damning and terrifying.
Dane looked up and met Jake’s eyes, deep blue and dead serious. “You’re pretty confident about this then?”
Jake nodded slowly. “As confident as I can be without catching him red-handed in the middle of sending these emails. The digital fingerprints are damning. The only other consideration would be someone else at the same ISP address. But I already did my homework on that. It meant I had to rule Shana out, so I crosschecked her work schedule against the times the emails were sent. Every single email was sent during one of her work shifts. If there’s one good thing about working at the hospital, it’s that they keep employee logs online. Everything is tracked, even when people call out sick. She was verified on duty whenever Callen was busy online. I even checked client records to confirm she was seeing patients during those times. Much as it turns my stomach with Callen, I can see it. He was always looking for ways to capitalize on shifter powers. Remember that bullshit he used to spew about it in high school? He toned it down after we got through college, but I’m thinking it’s more that he realized if he didn’t shut up about it, we might look a little too hard.”
Dane shook his head sharply. “Damn. I just…don’t know what the hell to think. I’d have been pissed if you told me you had to rule Shana out, but I’m glad you did. This way, we don’t even have to ask her about it.”
Dane paused and stared across the desk at Jake. Jake’s eyes stared steadily back, bleary, sad and angry.
“This sucks,” Dane said quietly.
“Tell me about it. We’ve got a town full of people mourning Callen’s death when they have no idea what he was doing behind our backs.”
“So any idea where Callen went? Did he actually go to Montana? Or was that a cover too?”
“Oh, he was there. The digital trail goes dark as far as who he met with and what he did. All I have are locations of where he was meeting people, but that doesn’t help much. I know he was supposed to deliver a ‘package’ to someone. He offered to demonstrate the utility of our travel capabilities. I mean, who the hell would think a mountain lion was smuggling drugs? The route was supposed to be across the border into Canada. It’s obvious something went wrong because he got tagged and headed east only to get hit by a car in Connecticut. Though for all we know, he was supposed to be in Connecticut. There’s definitely a market for drugs there, but it’s damn busy for travel. Not to mention that mountain lions haven’t been seen in the East for almost a century if you’re not counting the myths about us. If he hadn’t been hit by a car, the presence of a mountain lion anywhere near Connecticut would have drawn tons of attention, which is exactly what happened.”
Dane was still struggling to wrap his brain around what Jake told him, but enough of it was sinking in to permeate into a cold fury inside. He met Jake’s tired gaze. “Back to your earlier point, I forgot how much Callen used to make noise about how we didn’t even know how to use the powers we had. I chalked it up to him being young and arrogant. His dad was on the obnoxious side too, so I didn’t think much of it.” He paused and sighed. “What the h
ell are we going to do now?”
Jake shook his head slowly. “Damn if I know. For the moment, let me keep digging and see what else I find. We need to keep this quiet. I’d like to reach out to Hayden Thorne. He seemed to be on the up and up. I got the sense he was concerned about Callen’s questions. For all we know, he’s aware of whoever these people were that wanted to use shifters for their smuggling operations. In the meantime, we can’t say a word, not even to Shana.”
Dane nodded. “You’ll get no argument from me there. Do we know if Callen revealed our location to anyone?”
“Not that I found so far. But all it would take was someone like me on the other side to chase down his digital trail. We can’t sit on this for too long.”
Dane stood. “I know. Let me know what I can do. Let’s talk again tomorrow. In the meantime, I told Chloe I’d meet her for dinner, so I gotta get going.”
Jake’s eyes sharpened. “Have you told her anything yet?”
“Oh right. I haven’t seen you the last few days. Thanks to you telling her to ask me about Shadow Rock, I had to think on my feet, but she handled it. I should seriously thank you. I probably would have kept putting it off because I was afraid she’d run. She still has a lot of questions, but I think it’ll be okay. Now I just have to convince her to stay in Catamount.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “You’re really serious about her?”
Dane nodded firmly. “I told you the first time I saw her, I knew she was the one for me. I’m not playing games here. I wish like hell this mess around Callen wasn’t happening because I think she knows something’s up. I’m trying to figure out how to explain without getting into all the details. And now with this new information, we have a lot more to worry about.”