“See you soon, sweetheart. I’m sorry about your job.”
Manu rang Hone as soon as he’d finished speaking with Jessalyn. “How easy is it to put a tracking device on a phone?”
“Hello to you too, cuz,” Hone said drily.
“Danny, our surprise visitor when we were at Piha, arrived at the pub where Jess works. He created a fuss and got her fired.”
“Tracking software is easy to install. Jessalyn wouldn’t even know it was there. But he could’ve followed us home or tracked your vehicle registration number.”
“I thought of that, but I sensed no one following us. Are you at home?”
“No, I’m watching a wife in Botany. Her husband is convinced she’s cheating on him.”
“Could we meet you there and give you Jess’s phone to check out?”
“Bring me something to eat.”
Manu laughed. “You’ll get fat.”
“Not your problem,” Hone said. “Crap, she’s on the move. Call me.”
Manu left his house, waving to his father and his father’s cronies as he backed from the driveway. His father made a rude gesture but for once his parent’s animosity failed to pierce his excellent mood.
It was Jess.
They’d made love. She might not be familiar with taniwha ways, but he and his taniwha were halfway in love with her. He admired her courage and her manner of straight speaking. Her struggle to find herself when others might have crumbled under the knowledge of their sudden otherness.
Her possession of the relic bothered him though.
He hadn’t asked to look at it after they’d left her mother’s house even though his taniwha had expressed curiosity. The reappearance of a long-lost relic spelled trouble. For Jess, and by extension, him since he wanted to keep her.
Manu stopped at the local bakery and purchased enough sandwiches to feed three plus a selection of cakes. On the rare occasions he’d dated, his dates watched their diets and each would throw up their hands in horror on seeing the cream and fat in his box of cakes. Jessalyn wouldn’t hesitate to gobble up two or three, and he admired her ease with her body.
A gorgeous curvy body he’d had the honor of loving the previous night. That it had happened before the full moon pleased him. While Jess’s dragon had seemed dazzled by the moonglow, Jess had made the choice to share his bed. That pleased him most of all since he wanted her to have choices rather than regrets.
The last words he needed to hear were my taniwha made me do it.
Jess was waiting when he pulled up outside the Papakura Railway Station.
“I had to do a food stop for Hone,” he said when she slid into the passenger seat. “Are you okay? I know you enjoyed that job.”
“How did you know?” She sounded pissed, and he didn’t blame her.
Manu pulled out into the traffic and turned onto the Great South Road. “Because even though you were struggling with your taniwha, you kept going to work. Never once did you skip your job.”
“They won’t give me a reference now. I’ll have a blotch on my employee record.”
“I have contacts if you want, or you can find another job on your own. You have a work ethic and that will soon become obvious to any employer. Tell them the truth and say you’ll work for a trial period. What type of job will you apply for?”
The piss-and-vinegar faded from her expression. “Honestly, my preference is to work with wood. I enjoyed making the wooden boxes and small pieces of furniture rather than the large pieces that were Dad’s specialty. Toward the end, I made most of the ones he sold, and I finished the last large piece he’d started.”
“Why didn’t you do that? You have your father’s tools.”
“If I hadn’t needed to sell Dad’s vehicle to catch up on the mortgage, I might’ve taken that path.” She shrugged, drawing his attention to her breasts. “Hey! Watch the road. Don’t ogle my boobs.”
“And very nice tits they are.” He winked and did as she instructed. “You said instinct made you stay.”
“Yeah. If I’d known spectacular sex lay in my future, I might have traveled south earlier.”
“Spectacular, huh?”
“Perhaps that’s overstating a little. It was hot sex.” Her lips quirked as she tried not to escalate to a smile.
Manu hated to drive her focus back to taniwha stuff, but now that Danny had arrived on the scene, his gut shouted conflict ahead. “Jack sent me a list of storage places for us to check out once we hook up with Hone. If Danny is tracking your phone, he’ll find Hone instead. Do you have the key to the storage unit?”
“I have it,” Jess said. “Danny should keep his distance from me. I have a strong inclination to flatten him with my fist.”
“That’s my girl. Do you know the proper way to punch?”
“Huh! If we weren’t driving, I’d show you my skills.” She slid him a sideways look that held more than a hint of slyness. “Your nose is a little pretty for my taste. I prefer my guys on the rugged side.”
Manu chortled and shot her an amused wink.
Jess’s eyes sparkled, her mood considerably lighter. “Tomboy, remember. I tried several martial arts and did boxing for a while at school. I was the lone girl, and the school refused to let me box against the guys after I annihilated the younger boys.”
“Annihilated, huh?”
His phone rang.
“Will you get that for me? It should be Hone.”
Jess plucked his ringing cell from the console and pushed a button. “Manu Taniwha’s phone. I am his secretary. How can I help you today?”
Jess gasped, and Manu signaled he was pulling over.
“Please hold while I transfer you,” Jess said in a tight voice.
“Taniwha,” Manu growled.
“This is Nelson Waaka. I believe you have something that belongs to us.”
Well, he’d been expecting this since he’d glimpsed the relic. “Waaka,” Manu said. “What are you hinting at?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Waaka barked.
“Explain,” Manu demanded, channeling his mother at her most imperious.
“A member of my tribe is engaged to Jessalyn Brown. He says you are preventing him from returning to Piha with his fiancée.”
“Who?” Manu asked.
“Don’t play cute,” Waaka snarled.
“Look, I don’t appreciate you accusing me of what amounts to kidnapping. If your man can’t keep hold of his fiancée, it’s nothing to do with me.”
“The woman is in Auckland.”
“Auckland is a huge city with a million residents. I have enough to do without keeping tabs on your people.” Manu hung up.
“He won’t like that,” Jess said.
“Don’t care.” He tossed her his phone. “Block his number, will you?”
Before Jess could do that, his phone rang again. She glanced at the screen as if it were a poisonous katipo spider. As he watched her, she relaxed.
“It’s Hone.”
Manu pulled out into the traffic. “Can you answer for me? I’ll be able to hear most of the call, anyway.”
“Hey, Hone. It’s Jessalyn. Manu is driving.”
“You okay, sweetheart?” Hone asked. “Manu told me Danny caused problems at the pub.”
“I’m still angry enough to punch someone.”
“Not me, please. Cassie adores my gorgeous face.”
Manu snorted, earning him a grin from Jess and a cackle from his cousin. “Remind me to tell you about Hone’s courtship of Cassie.” Some of his easy humor faded as he recalled the ending of that story. The truth—although it hurt, he doubted he could have done anything differently. His mother…
Manu pushed the ever-present guilt away and pulled up the memory of the mother he’d loved—the parent of his childhood who’d been fair yet stern. She’d taught him leadership skills, given an example of how he should apply them. His current leadership style… Next to useless since he wasn’t leading but hiding out.
&nb
sp; Jess blowing into his life had changed his attitude and given him a reason to live instead of merely existing. Ironic, given he’d destroyed his father to get to this place in his life. For that, he’d always be sorry. Soon, he’d man up and talk with his parent, but first the Waaka family.
“Hello?” Jess leaned over to click her fingers at him. “Hone, he’s zoned out on us. Hone said his lady has gone to Sylvia Park. He’s in the mall but wants me to follow his target into the ladies’ shops. Then you and he can sort out my phone.”
Manu signaled a turn and drove onto the motorway. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“You’ll find me loitering near the Lush shop,” Hone said. “Please hurry. I’ve had to start buying things so I don’t look suspicious.”
Jess ended the call and returned his phone to the console. “At this rate, we’ll never find Dad’s storage unit.”
“We can always ask Karen again.”
“No,” Jess said, her face closing down.
Manu reached over and clasped her right hand in his left. “I’m sorry.”
“I loved my father, but it’s hard to justify his lies. Every time I think about it I get so angry. It’s frustrating as hell he’s not here to shout at.”
“I hear you. My mother…” Manu broke off with a shrug. “We can’t control our parents’ actions. All we can do is influence our own. It’s called adulting.”
“Nelson Waaka is a scary dude.”
Manu went with Jess’s change of subject. “I can do scary.”
“I only have your word for that.”
His taniwha growled, and Manu grinned as he released the sound.
Jess blinked. “That wasn’t you.”
“No,” her taniwha purred. “That was the sexy black beast!”
“Inside voice,” Jess barked.
Manu cocked a brow at her as he took the Mt. Wellington exit from the motorway. “Sexy black beast?”
“Her words. Not mine,” Jess said.
Manu didn’t bother to hide his satisfaction. Things were looking up for him and his taniwha.
It was almost two hours later when he and Jess left Sylvia Park.
“You can’t buy me a new phone,” Jess protested.
“I just did. Hone’s idea to leave the software on your phone intact will help us keep track of Danny, or at least misdirect him if the need arises.”
“I’ll pay you back once I get a job, although why did we buy this one? It cost enough to fund the debt for a small country,” she grumbled.
Despite her protests, Manu noticed the way she stroked the phone. “Here is the list of storage places. Work out which one to visit first.”
Jess started their search with enthusiasm. The man in the office checked their key number against his records.
“No, this isn’t one of ours,” the burly Samoan man said. “The key is the same but we don’t have this number.”
The story repeated with different variations until they reached the last one.
“If this isn’t the right one, I guess I’ll have to confront Karen again.” Her moue of distaste told him of her opinion of that course of action.
Manu parked his truck. “Come on. Let’s go.”
They entered the office.
A scrawny, tattooed youth raised his hand in greeting. “Hey. What can I do for you?”
“My father has a storage locker. I found the key with his possessions after he died but not the address of the storage place,” Jess said. “Is this one of your keys?”
“No,” the guy said as soon as Jess handed it to him. “Have you tried the one on Jensen Street?”
“Yes, we’ve worked our way through the list.”
“Can you show me your list?” the guy asked.
Jess handed it over.
“No, you’ve covered all the places in this area.” He paused and tapped his finger on the page. “There is one place that closed two months ago. The owners intend to bulldoze the site and develop it for housing. From what Dad said, legally, they had to wait out those who have paid for long-term storage.”
“Can we have the address?”
The guy rattled it off. “You can try their office, but I doubt if anyone is on site. They have a sign posted with a contact number. They should’ve sent you a notice about the closure.”
“It might have gone to Karen’s place,” Jess said.
That made sense to Manu. “Thanks for your help.”
“Remember us if you require ongoing storage,” the guy said. “Here’s my business card.”
Jess thanked him and stashed the card in her pocket.
Toby’s Storage was a five-minute drive away, and when they pulled into the parking lot, they found the place deserted. The owners had cleared half of the units and a small block remained standing in the far corner.
“What do you want to do? Ring the owners or crawl through the hole in the fence and try our key.”
Jess considered the hole before turning to him. “I’m owning adventurous today. That spying stuff has me jazzed.”
“There is no reason you can’t go into the spying business full-time. Hone or I could set you up for an interview with the boss.”
“No thanks. Peeing in a bottle sounds disgusting. Let’s go.”
Manu held up the wire of the fence to make the gap bigger. He took a moment to admire her arse while she wriggled through the hole. A growl escaped him, attracting Jess’s attention once she stood.
“Hey! Eyes on the prize, not my backside.”
“She is the prize,” his taniwha whispered through his mind.
No disagreement there. For the first time since his mother’s death, he and his taniwha stood on the same page. Jessalyn Brown completed them.
“It’s way more exciting than the rest of my surroundings. I’m imagining sinking my teeth into the fleshy spot where it meets your legs. That and more after last night.”
“Manu!”
The flush in her cheeks delighted him.
Manu climbed the fence and tumbled over, landing beside Jess.
“Showoff,” she muttered.
“Aw.” He pouted, enjoying himself. “I was giving you a chance to eyeball my arms and chest. You should praise my easy strength and agility.”
“Idiot,” she said and stalked to the standing storage units.
Manu grinned like a fool while admiring the sway of feminine hips.
She scanned numbers and came to a stop. “I think this is it.” Her fingers shook a fraction, and she took two tries to insert the key into the lock.
Manu held his breath, praying they weren’t in for another disappointment.
The key turned smoothly and Jess lifted the roller door. The scent of wood hit him first.
“Dad didn’t sell the last lot of boxes,” Jess said, surprise in her voice.
“Now we’ve found the locker, why don’t we re-lock it and ring the owner?” Manu suggested. “We’ll tell him we need to clear it, and if you work him right, he might offer a refund to get rid of you.”
Jess brightened and straightened her shoulders. “I can do that. Then I’ll repay you for the phone.”
Manu wanted to argue. The cost of the phone was nothing to him since he’d sold his rights for his first invention when he was barely out of his teens. That one smart business move had netted him millions, ample funds to live out of the shadow of his parents and pursue his passion for inventing and tinkering to improve things.
Back at his vehicle, Jess made a phone call and told the man she spoke to that she wanted to get into her father’s locker.
“Yes, I have the key,” she said. “Empty it? Oh, no. I hadn’t intended to do that. Didn’t Dad pay for a year?” She paused to listen and frowned. “Really? I hadn’t— Two thousand dollars? Right now? A check for two thousand five hundred dollars? But… Oh, a bank transfer? Yes, I think I have a bank statement. All right. Let me think. Yes, that should work. Thank you. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
Jess hung up and Ma
nu had seconds to brace himself before she threw herself at him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him with enthusiasm. Then, she released him and stepped back to beam at him and every bit of blood drained to his cock. For an instant, he wavered, dizzy with the speed of his arousal.
“The owner will be here in five minutes. I’m sure I had my bank account details.” She rummaged through a side pocket in her daypack. “Ah-ha! There it is.”
“Well done with your negotiations. You handled him like a pro. Not only sexy but intelligent too.”
A vehicle pulled up, and a man hustled over to them.
His bald head beamed in the afternoon sun and he pulled out a hanky to mop his brow. “Ms. Brown?”
“Yes,” she said. “I have my bank account number here.”
“I’ll unlock the gate for you so you can drive into the yard. While you’re unloading your father’s unit, I’ll put the payment through. I’ll get you to confirm it before you leave and you can sign this agreement and return the key.”
“Thank you,” Jess said.
She and Manu drove over to the locker and unlocked it.
“I guess it’s better if we pack it in the truck and go through the boxes once we’re in private,” she said.
“You can store it at the warehouse. We don’t have to worry about Danny now that Hone has confirmed he’d put tracking software on your phone. I have plenty of room, and the rest of your father’s tools are there, anyway.”
“Remind me to thank you later with a kiss.”
Manu took a moment to grab her and plant a kiss on her rounded lips. “Call that interest,” he suggested. “I’d prefer a naked kiss much later.”
13 – Sexy Times And Fun
Jessalyn prayed something in the storage shed provided answers. Expectation whizzed through her. On second thought, the exhilaration might be her taniwha and her hope of having the sexy black beast again. A blip surged through Jessalyn, frisking every nerve ending on the way to her pussy.
Holy fish and chips. With Danny’s arrival, she hadn’t had a chance to recall the events from the previous night. Manu Taniwha didn’t require a map for a woman’s body. He hadn’t missed a single hot spot and had pointed out others during his tour.
She flapped her hand to disperse the heat blooming in her cheeks.
Black Moon Dragon Page 17
