Playing With Fire: Paranormal Dating Agency (Otherworld Shifters Book 4)

by Godiva Glenn

  He was still handsome. His muscles weren’t what they were before, but her blood still raced to see him. She didn’t expect him to still want her, not after revealing the nature of her relationship with Gabe and Troy. But she’d also not expected him to still hold such a large piece of her heart.

  She slid free and pulled on a robe. She grabbed the silver communicator from her drawer and headed outside for privacy. It would probably be hours before any of her men would be up, but just in case, she didn’t want to make noise.

  The morning carried a sharp chill, but her destination would be warm. She walked around the back of the cabin and turned the small knob mounted on the wall, then followed the sound of bubbling water.

  She set her robe on the nearby bench and removed her shirt and pants as well before slipping into the hot tub. The gentle current and relaxing sound eased some of the tension in her muscles, and she enjoyed it for a few minutes before turning on her communicator.

  Mara’s image appeared, hovering over the silver disk Chell held. “I was going to call you in a few hours,” Mara said. “You should be sleeping.”

  Chell looked up at the sky, which was still dark with a smattering of stars. “I’m too tired to sleep. Give me good news.”

  “There is nothing good to share, but an update. Dagger is to be brought in to the Earth enforcers.”

  “He should have already been,” Chell said.

  “Yes well… he had gone into hiding. They managed to find his location from one of his clan and will be handling him now.”

  “That’s a step, I suppose.”

  Mara shifted her stance, her image bouncing in the display. “I wish I could say more, but there’s still too much that needs confirmation. One of the Earth clans is making matters worse, blaming our leadership for Solomon.”

  “They blame me?” Chell sat up.

  “No, Solaran leadership. The dragons.”

  “That’s idiocy.” Chell sank back down into the turbulent water. “The king had nothing to do with Solomon and his lackeys becoming terrorists.”

  “I agree, and nearly every shifter of importance agrees, but unfortunately, every opinion has to be considered. I hate interplanetary politics.”

  Chell pulled her hair into a messy bun atop her head and studied a twinkling star in the distance. “Everyone is scrambling. Until we know the extent of the crimes, we can’t do much except gather them together.”

  “Yet the bears seemed to have been prepared for any sign of trouble. The entire clan practically vanished into thin air after we found Valdus.”

  “I refuse to believe that every bear was that loyal to a waste like Dagger.”

  Mara smirked. “Well, no, they weren’t. But Dagger must have known who wouldn’t back him, as they aren’t able to say much. His own grandmother volunteered to find him and gut him.”

  Sounded like a woman after her own heart. Chell hated being restricted by the rules of being a visitor on Earth. Her title earned her respect and lodging, but not authority. She would have hunted Solomon and Dagger down herself if it wouldn’t have become a fiasco.

  Solaran shifters didn’t have diplomatic immunity. If she went vigilante—even when it was obvious to anyone that she had every right—it would bring nothing but problems to the whole of Solara. She wouldn’t put her clan through that, and she wouldn’t put her king through that.

  Their king was a bit of an ass at times, and she didn’t agree with every one of his decisions, but she respected him for doing his best. Goddess knew she didn’t want his job.

  “Will you be returning soon?” Mara asked.

  With everything else going on, Chell hadn’t even explained to Mara that she’d proposed mating with Troy and Gabe. Though her cousin must have had suspicions. “I’m giving the men more time to adjust. All things considered, they should probably get to know Valdus a bit more before they are all living together.”

  “So, Gerri’s match was a success? And maybe then some, since you say ‘men’ and not just Troy.”

  Chell blinked and realized that she hadn’t even told Mara that she was choosing Gabe as well. “I’m sorry, Mara. Too much has slipped my mind. You were right about Gabe. He is my type.”

  Mara grinned ear to ear. “Don’t worry about me. I’m envious, but I’ll live.”

  “Envious? You said you didn’t like him.”

  Mara waved her hand dismissively. “Not of that. I’m jealous because I was too busy to find a human of my own to have fun with. I wanted to play with a CEO or something and rub it in faces back here.”

  Chell snorted. “You have Gerri’s number.”

  “Noooo. No thank you. I’m curious, but not that curious. Besides, I like them big and mean in a good way. I think most humans are mean in a bad way.”

  Chell didn’t know what to say to that. Mara always had an excuse to turn down every male that looked her way.

  “Valdus is healing well, then?”

  “Indeed.”

  “His mind and his body?”

  Nodding, Chell glanced towards the cabin. “He was eager to pick up where things left off. He didn’t give me a choice, actually. Just… inserted himself back into my heart.”

  “Is that a terrible thing?”

  “No. It’s what he needed to do, I think. I have missed him. I think I would have pushed him away out of some unnecessary instinct to protect myself, but he’s always been able to see solutions where I see nothing. He knows how to save me from myself.”

  Mara’s eyes fluttered.

  “Don’t start crying over it,” Chell muttered.

  “I’ve been holding back tears since I saw you pull him from that cage. I’ll cry if it pleases me to, cousin.”

  “In that case, I suppose I’ll let you go.”

  Mara flicked away a tear. “I’ll call if there are any developments. For now, stay at the resort. It’s safe there, and you’ll want witnesses to attest that you didn’t wreak havoc on Earth by chasing rogue shifters.”

  “Of course. Be well, Mara.”

  “And you.”

  The display flickered and Mara’s face disappeared. Chell sank down into the water until bubbles filled her nose, then shot back up, feeling energized. The sky had lightened, and purple and pink ribbons streamed through the clouds. Birds began to call to each other, but their chatter was background noise to her still tumbling thoughts.

  She shoved everything to do with mating and enemies aside as she pondered the most important matter currently pending. Did she dare try her hand at making breakfast?

  Chell turned the volume down as the movie she’d watched ran the credits. In an effort to give the men time to bond, she’d locked herself in her room after breakfast, and told them to do whatever necessary to resolve any differences.

  She didn’t anticipate problems, but it would have been foolish to think they could set out for Solara without the men having time to communicate with each other. After all, she wouldn’t always be around. They needed to get along as friends, at the very least.

  Tossing the remote aside, she tiptoed to her door and placed her ear against the wood. Nothing was going on. Either they were having a silent staring contest, or they weren’t in the living room any longer.

  They’d brought her lunch a few hours ago, which she’d eaten alone. While they spent time with each other, she was happy to get a break. Though she had a busy clan back home, she also had plenty of time for privacy.

  She hadn’t had too many moments to herself since she came to Earth. And even now, she wasn’t spending time on herself so much as she was trying her hardest to interpret the lives Gabe and Troy had before she met them.

  She returned to her bed and looked at the next item on her research list. The average Solaran knew nothing about Earth, aside from the fact that it existed. Chell had taken to studying the planet when dealing with the traitors in her clan. Normally, treachery was a death penalty. Their new queen had suggested the alternative of banishment to Earth, at least for those who were
n’t prone to violence or seemed reformed yet untrustworthy.

  It was an interesting proposition, and Chell didn’t expect the Earth shifters to accept it. They had, however, which meant learning a new culture in order to best see who would be fit to be transported.

  Mara and a few others that Chell had considered capable of managing such prisoner transfers had set to task and learned whatever was deemed relevant regarding Earth.

  Which, in a nutshell, meant they hadn’t focused on individual careers. Which was why she was currently watching every movie and television show that pertained to Troy and Gabe’s chosen profession, or at least the ones she could sit through more than a few minutes of.

  Between the danger, profanity, and endless male posturing, her assessment so far was that they were insane. The entertainment value relied on exaggeration, however, so she kept that in mind.

  When she was thinking of Troy as a fun escape, she hadn’t considered what would happen if she marked him.

  Now she wanted to mate them both, and that meant their lives here would be over. There were no firefighters on Nova Solara. Most fires were small and easily handled by whoever was nearby. No single shifters were responsible for them. She couldn’t even predict when the planet would move to that level of technology, if ever. They were content how they were.

  She had at first thought that a job was just a job. But to them, it was their life. Even though Troy would disagree with that sentiment, he had spoken of little else on their first date. And when he and Gabe were together, they seemed to recall stories of each other or the other men they worked with. Every memory past a certain age seemed to revolve around their revered 42.

  Their job was a choice to dive into a miniature world of its own, set with culture and rules.

  She fell back on the bed and stared out the nearby window. Valdus wanted to return home. She wanted to return home. They couldn’t wait forever. The more she tried to place herself in Troy and Gabe’s shoes, the more she suspected that no amount of time would make the decision easier.

  A knock sounded on her door. She hopped to her feet and opened it, finding Valdus.

  “They’ve gone to explore before dinner.”

  “Is everything okay?” She stepped to one side and allowed him to enter.

  He brushed past her. “Nothing was ever wrong.”

  “Does that mean you get along?”

  “They are easy to get along with, certainly.” He moved to the mirror and seemed to study his chin. When he’d first arrived, they’d had to cut away chunks of matted beard, and though he’d later trimmed it to even it out, it wasn’t his usual lush masterpiece.

  She moved beside him and tugged his chin hairs. “It’ll grow back. I know you pride yourself on it.”

  “Did you know your men aren’t allowed to have beards?”

  She grinned. “That doesn’t sound right.”

  “But it is. Gabe seems fond of the scruff he’s cultivating, though.”

  “I see. What else did you discuss?”

  “Solara, largely. Random shifter trivia. They asked if I play video games and showed me one.”

  “They’re young.”

  “They are,” he mused. “And it was tempting to reveal your age to them, and mine, but their knowledge of shifters seems barebones.”

  She glanced at her feet. “We’ve been preoccupied.”

  “Do they know what mating a shifter will do for their lives?”

  “No. I’ll tell them.”

  He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head. “Why haven’t you already? It’s not sad news.”

  “But it’s different, and so far, they have not had predictable responses to different things,” she reasoned. Case in point, the fact that they hadn’t immediately agreed to mate with her.

  Valdus’s stern expression made her grumble. He was roughly ten years her senior, though he didn’t look it. He’d acted it, however.

  “I can still remember the first time we met,” she said softly. “You stomped into my home and spoke down to me. Assumed I was a spoiled child.”

  He grinned. “You were young to be a leader. Since your parents waited to have children, we assumed they would rule longer before retiring to the Sea of Flames.”

  “But they’d raised and educated me to take over.” She lifted herself to sit on the wide dresser in front of the mirror. Her parents were still alive, they’d just chosen to spend their last years away from troubles. The Sea of Flames was the equivalent of a Solaran shifter retirement community. And last she’d heard, they were content. “No one protested when they bestowed the clan to me, but I suppose I should have expected some pushback.”

  “I was wrong for treating you like an ignorant girl.” He took her hand and laced his fingers between hers. “But you made me pay for it.”

  Her lips pursed, holding back a small laugh. At first, she and Valdus had been like water and oil. He managed housing and brought her problems that he expected her unable to solve. Problems involving expansion and the clan’s future. “Even then, I understood why you were passionate about your case.”

  “And in time I recognized the wisdom you held, even at a young age,” he said.

  “I think I’ve earned it now.”

  He brushed her knuckles across his lips. “You have. And though it angers me to think of the time stolen from us, I think the men you found are a fair balance to you.”

  She watched him kiss the back of her hand. “I didn’t mean for you to see us like that, though. And we haven’t spoken of it but—”

  “No, don’t apologize for having needs. I’d have met them myself had I not been practically on my deathbed.”

  “Still.”

  “It was strange,” he admitted. “But not in the way you may think. It was strange because it brought me pleasure to see you like that. You have always hidden in the role of leader, but intimacy brings out your vulnerable side.”

  She looked away. Her vulnerable side was hidden for a damn good reason.

  “I enjoyed watching them use you.”

  Her cheeks burned and her head turned back sharply. “Truly?”

  “I grew hard, and it confused me, but I see what you see. We are an odd assortment, but I believe we fit somehow.” He hmphed under his breath. “I never would have imagined such a response from my body, but I couldn’t deny it.”

  “I still sense something from you, though. Unease.”

  “I was the first in your life. I need to know that I won’t be taken for granted. And I won’t allow your new men—either of them—to attempt a power struggle with me.”

  She couldn’t imagine how to resolve that particular issue. Troy clearly deferred to Gabe, so the real question was how Gabe and Valdus treated each other. It wasn’t her call. The men needed to sort it out themselves. “I won’t tolerate brawling.”

  His eyes twinkled. “I wouldn’t start a fight. Time will likely sort all.”

  “Why didn’t you join them exploring the land?” she asked, now suspicious. “Was it your ploy to get me alone?”

  “Their suggestion, actually. To be together without being crowded.” Dim but clear, a gold tone grew in his eyes. “There is something I need to tell you, and I hope it doesn’t change us.”

  “Tell me.”

  Lifting her hand, he trailed kisses from her palm downward, his lips tickling her inner elbow.

  “Valdus,” she said scolding.

  “I have been without release since the night I was taken. Thoughts of your lovely face, your gorgeous breasts… tormented me. Some nights I awakened after tasting you on my tongue. But I was trapped and unable to do a thing.”

  “Oh…” She thought she knew where he was going.

  “Day in and day out I was physically tortured as well, and you’ve seen the extent of that. It was a constant cycle of being beaten down then healing to be beaten again.”

  She cupped his face but no longer guessed what he meant to reveal. “They’ll never hurt you again.”

/>   “I know. I bring it up to explain that my hunger has changed. I’ve always given, but now I wish to take. And the need is burning me alive.”

  “We can explore that. You’re well enough to walk, so I assume you can do other things.”

  His hand tightened around her wrist. “I do grow stronger, and I grow… feral.” His voice lowered, edged with darkness she’d never heard from him before. “I want to take my pleasure. Do you know what I mean?”

  The pieces clicked into place. Valdus had never been one for roughness in bed. He naturally dominated, and that was enough. What he hinted now seemed to indicate something that made her curious.

  “Show me.”

  His arm scooped against her lower back and pulled her forward as he pressed his lips against hers. Hunger was the perfect word for his passion, though it had crossed into something deeper. He commanded the action and took her breath away.

  He slid her from the dresser and spun her around so that the hard edge bit at her through the thin oversized t-shirt she wore. Her blood raced as his hands groped her thighs and spread them before ripping away her thin underwear.

  The coarse hairs of his beard rubbed against her shoulder as he lightly bit her. He had to be fighting the urge to mark her, but she trusted him.

  His fingers worked into her, sinking deep into her wet heat with ease. She bit her lip as he forced all but his thumb into her, assaulting her walls with delicious pressure. Like most bear shifters, she enjoyed pushing her body to the limits. She’d teased Troy and Gabe with the notion, but Valdus actually knew.

  He shoved against her until she lost her balance and fell onto the dresser. He hefted her up so that one leg was on it and she stood tiptoe on the other. The angle would be sharp, and he knew it.

  His fingers pulled free, but his thick length replaced them quickly. Chell’s mouth opened as he plunged into her with magnificent agony. The dresser shook, but she wasn’t concerned for the furniture.

  The mirror revealed the scene. Her own face scrunched up in the pleasure and pain, and Valdus behind her, a tremendous mountain of muscle. His need shone in his golden eyes—need and not much else. His lust had transformed him into a beast, and she welcomed every second.