by Zoe Chant
Tex and Breck looked at him, and Breck nodded. “She might,” he agreed with a shrug. “Graham’s done time.”
“For what?” Tex asked in surprise.
“Murder,” Breck said merrily.
“Murder?” exclaimed Jenny. “I didn’t know that.”
“Makes you reconsider having sex in the flower beds, doesn’t it,” Tex laughed
“Nah,” Travis said, with a sideways glance at Jenny, who looked embarrassed, but rolled her eyes at him good-naturedly.
“Not for a minute,” Breck added with a satisfied look.
“I’m soaking,” Laura said firmly. “Let’s go home.”
“I’m driving the van back,” Breck announced. “Travis almost killed us driving here, and it wasn’t even raining then.” He was fully dressed again, having stripped his clothing sensibly before shifting. Tex’s clothing was rather worse for the wear; his staff uniform was equal parts shredded and soaking. Travis’ clothing was in better shape, his lynx being smaller in size, but still badly ripped.
Laura’s dress would be fine with small repairs, and Jenny, Travis realized with some surprise, had never lost her dress.
Part of him was selfishly disappointed.
Chapter 28
By the time they arrived at the resort, the worst of the storm had blown over.
There were several downed trees along the way, or at least big parts of them, and Jenny didn’t mind watching Travis haul the ones they couldn’t drive over out of the way with Wrench and Tex, marveling at his strength.
The resort itself was scattered with broken tree limbs and shredded flowers.
“I am going to hide from Graham for a week,” Breck said, surveying the damage.
“We’re going to have to repair several of the roofs,” Travis said thoughtfully, looking down over the cottages. “I could use your help on that, Wrench.”
Jenny thought Wrench looked touched. “I got no fear of heights,” he rumbled. “But you’d have to teach me how.”
“He’s a very good teacher,” Jenny assured him.
The rain had reduced to a faint drizzle, and the wind was almost nothing now.
Scarlet met them at the empty bar, looking a little wild-eyed, and as disheveled as Jenny had ever seen her.
“I trust you have an interesting story to share regarding the reason all of my primary staff have been missing for several hours,” she said, looking at the trussed up eagle shifter with narrow eyes.
He responded with a string of expletives that made Tex tsk disapprovingly and slap a piece of duct tape over his mouth.
“We’ve got another charming character for the civil guard to pick up,” Breck told Scarlet. “And some more paperwork for our friend Tony.”
Wrench, recognizing her authority, handed her the briefcase, a little reluctantly.
“I’m willing to bear witness against the cartel what hired me,” he said gruffly. “And I’d take a job, if you had one.”
Scarlet looked at the briefcase distasteful, but took it. “I don’t run a charity,” she said crossly.
“I ain’t afraid of hard work,” Wrench assured her. “And I’m not too good to get dirty.”
“We’ll see,” Scarlet said, her chilly voice without promise. “Let’s put this guy in the usual place,” she gestured at the eagle shifter, who was seething and working his mouth behind the duct tape. “Breck, catch me up on the details, and I’ll call Tony.” Her low heels clicked away across the wet tile decisively. “Have you seen Bastian?”
Breck poked the eagle shifter and marched him after her. “Not since this morning.”
“Jenny!” Gizelle’s hair was more wild than ever, and she looked as if she’d spent the storm cavorting in a field.
It occurred to Jenny that she might have done just that.
Gizelle ignored Wrench to skip to Jenny. “You’re all wet!” She exclaimed, as if she wasn’t equally soaked.
“Say,” Laura said suddenly. “How’d you do that?”
Jenny realized Laura was talking to her. “Do what?”
“Shift your dress with you. You were dressed when you got free from that jerk with the wings.”
Jenny looked down at herself. The sundress and her sandals had indeed shifted with her, without any conscious thought. “I don’t know,” she said in surprise.
“I’m a very good teacher,” Gizelle said proudly.
“Can you clothing shift, too?” Laura asked her. “I thought it was only dragons and mythical creatures that could do that.”
Gizelle blinked, then shook her head. “Nope,” she said airily.
“Then how did you… never mind.” Laura shook her head firmly. “Tex, I’d like a hot drink with a gallon of alcohol now, please.”
Tex tipped his sodden hat to her. “Yes’m!”
Gizelle trailed after them to the bar. “Can I have some?” She asked innocently.
“I’ll make you a hot chocolate, fawn,” Tex told her. “Wrench, can I get you something?”
That left Jenny standing along with Travis, and she was glad when he slipped his hand into hers. The clouds above them had thinned, and though it was still raining lightly, the wind had died down and shafts of sunlight turned the wet leaves and gleaming tiles to jewels and treasure. Jenny suspected that if she looked around, she’d find a rainbow somewhere, but she didn’t want to look anywhere but the smiling face of her mate.
“Hungry?” He suggested.
“Yes,” she answered with a playful smile.
Oh, yes, agreed her otter.
He smiled back down at her. “Hot shower first?”
“Mm, yes,” Jenny agreed, picturing his naked body in a cascade of hot water and foamy soap. “And then something out of the staff fridge would be plenty. Maybe Breck still has some cake stashed in there.”
Travis bent down and kissed her. “I can think of something that tastes sweeter…”
Epilogue
Travis put down his tools and stepped back to get perspective on their progress.
The last ravages of the storm had been all but erased from the resort. Graham had carefully pruned back the most obvious breakage and groomed the lawns, with help from Gizelle. An impressive pile of dead brush and branches had been stashed near the beach to dry for their next bonfire.
There were a few broken windows that were waiting for replacements from the mainland, but Travis and Wrench had repaired most of the roof damage, mopped up the water damage, and started to repair the facade damage done to the spa. The man had proven himself quick to pick up on the things Travis taught him, as well as a hard worker. He seemed determined to make up for kidnapping Jenny, and Travis was inclined to forgive him. He’d coaxed enough parts of the man’s story from him to be sympathetic, though he still didn’t know who he would have been buying dance lessons for, or how he’d ended up in jail the first time; prying personal information out of him would require something stronger than an impact driver.
“Let’s stop here and take lunch,” he suggested, keenly aware of a certain item in his pocket and the hole it was burning there. “We’re getting to the hottest point of the day and there’s still a few days worth of work here.”
Wrench scowled. “I’m okay to work longer.”
“Are you trying to make me look bad?” Travis laughed. “Seriously, the job will wait.”
“Yeah, okay.” Wrench looked past Travis and nodded understanding at the same time Travis recognized Jenny’s presence behind him.
“I was just taking a break from my work and thought I’d come see if you wanted to take a picnic lunch in the gardens,” Jenny suggested when he turned to grin foolishly at her. She was a vision in a simple silk wrap that made every curve look perfect. She had a basket over one forearm.
He suspected the picnic lunch she had packed was the second course to the meal she had in mind; merriment danced in her eyes.
“I’ll pack up the tools,” Wrench offered gruffly.
“How’s the work going?” Jenny aske
d, twining her fingers with Travis’ as they walked away. He remembered how embarrassed she’d been when she hadn’t been able to shift the webbing between her fingers. She was so amazing, so capable, so in control now.
“We’re waiting on some things from the mainland - it takes longer now that we don’t have our own boat - but the rest is nearly all done. Just some cosmetic stuff at the spa to finish up. How’s your work going?”
“It’s quite a puzzle,” Jenny told him enthusiastically. “I’ve never seen a contract with some of these specific terms, and there are references to some older documents. I’m having the firm run a search for the ones that may be relevant. At a glance, there are some weird loopholes that would allow Beehag’s lawyer to legally take the resort lease out from under Scarlet, but the requirements are crazy specific. It’s going to take some more research to be sure about any of it.”
She was alive with excitement about the topic, eyes sparkling and her feet skipping eagerly over the gravel as they walked. Seeing her so happy made him feel a hundred feet tall and on top of the world.
It also made him want to kiss her, and slip the dress strap off her shoulder, so he was happy when they arrived at the garden and Jenny put the picnic lunch down on the the bench and stood on tiptoe to slip her arms around his neck.
When Travis had finished claiming her mouth for his own, he suggested reluctantly, “Lunch first?”
“I’m having my first course now,” Jenny answered. “The rest will keep.”
He was hard against her, desperately hungry for the meal she offered, but he still drew back when she would have kissed him again, pulling his shirt from his pants.
“Wait,” he said.
She paused, searching his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing in the world,” Travis assured her. “Everything is perfect. Which is why I want to do this…”
He reached into the cargo pocket of his pants; it was a small box he’d been carrying around all day, since it had come express mail with the last charter plane.
Jenny looked at it curiously, then raised surprised and suspicious dark eyes to his.
Travis cleared his throat. “I love you, Jenny,” he said without preamble. “I know you’ll need to return to LA to give testimony in the next few months and I thought you might want to go up to Alaska afterwards and meet my family.”
“Meet your family?” Jenny repeated, a slow, cautious smile blooming on her beautiful face.
“As my bride,” Travis added. He popped the box open to display the modest diamond ring.
Jenny gave a wordless squeak, clasping her hands over her mouth.
“Crap,” Travis remembered, hastily dropping to one knee. “I was going to kneel for that part.”
He pulled the ring from its velvet casing, thinking too hard about other velvet casings, and offered it to Jenny.
Jenny gave him a trembling hand, nodding wordlessly, and Travis slipped the ring onto her finger.
“It fits perfectly,” she breathed, smiling with her whole face.
“It’s useful being able to quiz your twin sister for information,” Travis confessed, as he stood.
Jenny grinned. “Oh, how’d Tex take that pressure?”
“Cussed me out for beating him to the punch like I didn’t even know that cowboy was capable of.”
“Did he mention the possibility of a double wedding?” Jenny asked.
Sensing a trap, Travis searched her eyes. “Do you want one?” he asked cautiously.
Jenny looked seriously back. “As a teenager who was sick of being a twin, I would have wanted to kill you for suggesting it. But now?” her face softened. “I sort of like the idea. I wouldn’t have met you if I hadn’t come to save Laura and Tex. And they wouldn’t have met if Laura hadn’t been pretending to be me. If Laura and Tex wanted to, I’d do it.”
“We could have the ceremony in the gardens, a reception on the bar deck, if you wanted,” Travis suggested.
“Ceremony on the beach,” Jenny counter-offered. “I want this garden to be our place, alone.”
Travis bent down to kiss her. “I’d be fine getting married by the dumpsters behind the kitchen,” he said easily.
Jenny scrunched her face at him. “I would not be okay with that.”
“So picky,” Travis grouched merrily.
Jenny put her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. He could not get enough of the taste and feel of her that close. He pressed his hard member against her, drinking up the lush curves of her through her thin dress.
When she drew back after a moment, Travis felt it as keenly as if he’d lost something.
But she didn’t go far, gazing into his eyes. “I love you, Travis,” she said seriously. “I am so happy to be marrying you.”
“I love you, Jennavivianna Rose,” he told her just as seriously back. He had loved her full name from the first moment he’d heard it.
Her face lit up with mischief. “Want to crush a flowerbed?”
Travis gathered her back into his arms in answer, sweeping her off of her feet and back into the nearest bank of flowers, peeling her dress over her head as he lay her down.
She pulled his shirt off over his head and tugged at the waistband of his pants. “Why are you still wearing these?” she teased.
Travis was happy to facilitate their removal, and then his free member, thick and firm, was pressing at his lover’s entrance, letting the anticipation build.
Jenny squirmed beneath him, and the flowers crushed beneath her were fragrant and green and Travis knew that he would never be able to smell this scent or walk through this garden without thinking of his gorgeous mate and the way that he loved her and wanted to protect her forever.
“Travis,” she whined beneath him, arching and trying to take him into her.
“Jennavivian-” He didn’t finish before she had succeeded in raising herself around him, and his world narrowed to the feeling of being in her, of joining with her as intimately as it was possibly for two souls to be.
“I love you,” Jenny said near his ear, breathless and needy.
Travis fell into her completely.
A Note from Zoe Chant
Thank you so much for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it and would love to know what you thought – you can leave a review at Amazon (I read every one, and they help other readers find me, too!) or email me at [email protected]. You can let me know who you'd like to see find their mate next, or if you have a favorite shifter type you'd like to see more of.
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Page down to read a special sneak preview of Tropical Dragon Diver, book 5 of Shifting Sands Resort.
The cover of Tropical Lynx's Lover was designed by Ellen Million.
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