by Cecilia Lane
“You taste as good as you smell,” he told her with a smirk on his lips.
Her hands fluttered at her sides and her mouth worked wordlessly. She had no fathomable idea of what to say to that and she fell back to her idea of what normal looked like. She should reciprocate in some way. “What about you?”
He ducked his head and kissed her neck. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
He dragged her hand to his crotch and over the thick outline of his cock. He twitched under her fingers but still pulled her hand higher and closer to the waist of his jeans. Her fingertips touched warmth and understanding flooded through her.
His voice was thick when he spoke and his eyes swirled with a brighter gold. “That’s how much I enjoyed getting you off. And when you’re sure, absolutely sure, we can do more.”
It was a promise she aimed for him to keep.
Chapter 13
Settled into her rented room for the night, Rylee checked her email for one last round of messages before she turned off the lights and went to bed. Her eyes and limbs felt heavy enough that she didn’t think she’d had trouble falling, or staying, asleep.
She fingered her lips, imagining she could still taste Cole. Her stomach tightened with the flood of memory from that afternoon. He’d touched her and dumped pleasure into her system with barely a trace of panic.
He soothed her. Somehow, someway, he turned off all the responses that kept her actively away from people. He made her feel whole. It was something she’d cherish for always and tempted her to try more.
She bit back a tiny moan as she imagined his fingers sliding into her heat. That image faded and revolved into something else entirely. Hard everywhere, he parted her and sent fire through her with one single stroke.
When she was ready, he said. She could have more of him when she was ready.
She wondered what he’d look like naked. She hadn’t seen him shift, which she knew involved the shedding or shredding of clothes. The dark tattoos on his arms spread up under his shirt and she wanted to see just how far and how dark they all were.
He claimed a part of her heart that afternoon. Asking and never pushing, he gave her space when she didn’t know she needed it. He didn’t try to take more from her, even when her own brain tricked her into thinking she wanted everything he had to offer. It was a tease, sure, but one she needed. Alone in her room and away from the sense of him nearby, she knew it’d been the right decision on his part.
She wasn’t ready to sleep with him. Yet. But she could be. It was no longer an impossibility. He’d pushed her broken pieces back into roughly the shape she’d been before. It was up to her to glue them together.
Absently, Rylee clicked on a notification of new files shared onto the remote hard drive used between her and the lab in Nevada.
The documents started out innocuously enough. Policy and procedure, mostly. Things she’d seen before in lab settings throughout her college years, then more when she was recruited to work on for top security projects. Who to report to, what should be reported, how those reports should be formatted.
She kept reading.
There was an epidemic model showing the spread of the shifter contagion that grossly exaggerated the possibility, even if Cole hadn’t assured her that shifters didn’t regularly bite non-shifters.
Her initial findings on the difference in blood cells between bitten shifters and humans, as well as the concentration of cells in vampiric individuals, were also included as a potential detection measure to distribute to health care providers and emergency rooms.
Then she found one that made her stomach turn. She shot out of bed and dug through her bag until she found a USB stick. Stuffing it into the port, she quickly copied everything to her own drive.
Good thing, too. As soon as the copy finished, her access refreshed, and the files disappeared.
Rylee twisted her fingers and stared in horror at the words on her screen. She was looking at documents outlining the eradication of Bearden’s supernatural residents.
The plan called for legitimate provocation before any action was taken, and required clearance through channels higher than the field officer on the ground.
Once provocation was determined, evacuations of nonessential personnel and civilians would be necessary. A large contingent of uncooperative citizens needed removal before any operation could succeed. Controlled fires were suggested, as well as the leaking of a severe threat from an enclave citizen or citizens to the media. Stories originating from the local media were preferred for an air of legitimacy. A list of active reporters in the towns surrounding Bearden followed.
When the civilian element ceased to be a problem, the military camp would dive into their duty by securing and cutting off water and power, including the jamming of wireless signals. Any personnel with the ability to see through the barrier hiding the town would be used to ferry others into the enclave, where they would then surround and shut down any resistance.
Phone in hand, she considered her options. She could call Cole or Bearden’s mayor and let them have everything. They could get the story out first and prepare to defend themselves.
Or... she could dig deeper. The government was notorious for considering all options and angles. There were binders full of how to act in case of an invasion from aliens in space or mole people from the core of the planet. The documents accidentally shared with her could be just another case of over preparedness for an eventuality that would never happen.
She didn’t want to spark more trouble between the enclave and the military camp on the borders. Telling anyone inside Bearden would do just that. There was already enough suspicion and animosity on both sides without throwing fuel on the fire.
Except Major Delano wanted her to finish her science project so he and his men could get on with their jobs.
Her stomach turned again, and she froze. She didn’t know enough to proceed in either direction. She didn’t know who she could trust inside Bearden or in her home lab.
She scrolled through her contacts and dialed the number for the sister lab that held the physicists interested in the Broken. The sleeping figures that maintained the magical barrier around the enclave presented a new challenge for their understanding of energy and its capabilities. That alone would have them screaming for more information, but there was also the story of how the ancestors of the supernatural broke through the veil between worlds.
That a geneticist had been invited into the enclave over a physicist still chapped their hides. They hid it well when they spoke to her, though, simply because they couldn’t do without more information.
One of them would be perfect for her to feel out for any ominous currents without shuttling her questions up the food chain.
Their main line picked up by one of the underlings who, like herself, was probably doing a final pass of messages and work for the day before heading home.
“Hi, Darcy,” she greeted. “Rylee on the ground in Bearden. I just wanted to check if you had any questions on the last load of docs sent to you.”
She’d eaten quiet lunches with the woman before and maintained a pleasant politeness. If there was anyone she considered a friend, it was Darcy.
“Rylee! Good to hear from you! We just finished analyzing the last interviews and measurements. You should see a list of follow-ups tomorrow morning after our group session.”
Her shoulders slumped in relief. If the other team was planning to throw more questions and instructions at her, then there wasn’t an immediate plan to evacuate nonessentials and civilians from the area. Her own paranoia sparked by seeing Peter and Delano’s continued obstinance was making threats out of shadows.
“Thanks for the heads up. Give me a shout if anything changes,” she said.
“You know, you can always tag one of us in. You don’t have to take everything on yourself. I’d be happy to get out of Nevada for a spell.” Darcy tapped something on her keyboard. “Oh
! Have you met the new lab lead? Peter? I hear he’s angling to get there, too.”
Rylee’s mouth twisted at his name and the possibility of coming face to face with him. She worked hard to keep emotion out of her voice. “Yeah. We were in the same program.”
“Isn’t he just so nice?” Darcy gushed in a whisper. “He said he wants to take me out to dinner once he gets settled.”
Rylee felt like she’d been punched in the face. Peter had been nice when he started courting her. She thought he’d been perfect. She’d been utterly wrong. “Just... be careful around him. Woman to woman, he’s not as charming as he presents himself to be. He really doesn’t treat others like they’re people. Just objects.”
There. Done and warned. She navigated the waters of slander with some office gossip and hoped it’d be enough.
“Oh,” Darcy said. Rylee could almost hear her making a face. “That’s disappointing. Guess it’s back to the jerks and the intimidated online. It’s a curse being brilliant and attractive, huh?”
Despite herself, Rylee chuckled. “Yeah. It’s a curse.”
“What about you? I’ve looked at some of the pictures you’ve uploaded for us. Is every single guy there amazing looking? Are you sure you can’t use an extra hand?”
Rylee smiled into the phone. “You know what, Darcy, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can get an extra invitation for you. But until then, you’ll just have to forward me what you want done.”
There was no chance she was leaving Bearden willingly.
Chapter 14
Cole eyed the clock on his truck’s dash and then continued scrolling through some search results on his phone. It wasn’t quite time to pick up Rylee, and he wasn’t going to make her hustle on account of him unable to sit still for a moment longer.
Peter Glasser was a common enough name that he had trouble narrowing down suspects. He pulled Rylee’s university name from her career profile and used that as one basis of his search. He didn’t even know if that was a lead to follow, but it was a start. She hadn’t given him any details, and he wasn’t about to push her for more.
But if he ever came across the man, ever knew for certain he had the right one, he’d make him pay for what had been done to Rylee.
Cole glanced at the clock again and groaned when he saw only a minute had passed. Five more still to go.
Rylee had him acting like some anxious teenager all fucking week. Granted, she made him blow his load like one, too.
And like a teenager, he was biding his time. That’s how he chose to frame whatever had sparked between them. His first girlfriend didn’t jump right into his bed. Rylee needed soft kisses and coaxing touches. He needed to court her until she was ready.
Cole shut the mental door on his bear before the creature could stick his smug snout into his thoughts. He had enough of images of Rylee with a mate mark on her shoulder. It was never going to happen, no matter how good and perfect she smelled. She wasn’t his mate.
He’d let her talk him into working on the weekend on the condition it be a half day only, and she let him take her out to dinner. The last was a promise he wrangled out of her in a supply closet with his back firmly against the wall and her nearest to the door. Even though he gave her the chance to escape, she’d stayed and let him kiss her until her lips were swollen and sexy as fuck.
Finally, the clock ticked over to the exact minute he’d been waiting to arrive and he jumped out of his truck. He picked a flower on the walk up to the front door of Muriel’s Bed and Breakfast and ignored the innkeeper’s glare as he sauntered right past the desk. He’d made the same journey multiple times since Rylee arrived in Bearden.
Twirling the flower between his fingers, he rapped on the door and waited. And waited. There was a frustrated sound on the other side of the door, then Rylee flung it open.
She’d ditched the professional uniform of blouse and slacks for a plain t-shirt and jeans that hugged her thighs. Her hips were too wide and her top too small to be a runway model, and she didn’t move with the grace of someone with an animal in their middle, but damn did she make his bear sit up and take notice.
She twisted her hands at her sides, adjusted her glasses, then stuffed her fingers in her back pockets. “I’m not underdressed, am I? I can go change.”
Fuck Peter fucking Glasser for filling her with doubt and uncertainty.
“You’re perfect.” He stuck the flower behind her ear, taking notice of the way her breath hitched and a slow, nervous smile spread across her face. She didn’t know how to accept compliments. He was going to change that. “Ready?”
“Where are we going?”
“I’m showing you the realest Bearden you’ll meet. We’re heading exactly three blocks over from the main strip.”
“Real Bearden. As opposed to the tourist trap of a handful of shops for all the enclaves that don’t exist?” She stiffened slightly and relaxed when he hooked her arm around his elbow and led her out of the inn. “I like the small town charm here. Everything is so close together and everyone seems friendly. Definitely not like where I grew up.”
“Where’s that?” Cole shut her inside the truck and jogged to his side.
“Tampa. Way too big and sprawling to get anywhere without driving or taking the bus. We lived in a mega apartment complex, one of those huge buildings with ten copies all crowded next to one another. Everyone kept their head down and to themselves. It’s just you and your brother, isn’t it?”
He blinked at the whiplash of subject. “And our dad.”
“I’m the oldest of four. Three girls, one baby boy. I used to want a big family like that.”
Cole threw his truck into park on the street next to Hogshead Joint and reached over to squeeze Rylee’s thigh. She sounded too sad, and he knew what words she mentally tacked on to her sentence. Before Peter. She’d disappeared into herself after, and he was only seeing flickers of the girl she’d been. It made him want to kill the man even more.
“There’s still time,” he reassured her. His idiotic bear fed him images of her with a round belly, and Cole clamped down before the beast could force more impossibilities on him. Tiny babies with black or blonde hair wouldn’t exist because Rylee wasn’t his mate, and she’d leave Bearden behind.
“Maybe,” she said politely, but she smelled of utter rejection. Before he could tell her not to lose hope, she opened the door and dropped primly to the ground. “It smells so good.”
“Just wait till you taste.” Cole took a wide step and adjusted himself. Either he hadn’t kept the growl out of his voice, or she was thinking about him as much as he did her, because her cheeks tinged red and wildflowers blossomed in his nose.
He followed her up the stairs to the deck, then directed her to a seat in the corner. Fairy lights wrapped around the railing and extended into the nearest trees. With the parking lot on the opposite side of the building, they had an unobstructed view of the river.
The doors were thrown open, and a number of folks flowed in and out of the building. The servers dodged the patrons and delivered huge plates of food to the shifters in human form. A few bears lingered on the edge of the deck, either relaxing in their animal forms or waiting for others to be done socializing and go for a run.
Tommy’s Diner and Mug Shot Coffee Bar were great places, but it was Hogshead Joint that he always craved. There was no room to spread out in town, but the barbecue restaurant was where he could relax. It was designed with shifters in mind: wide aisles indoors and out gave space for any changes, and the deck opened right onto bare earth for those needing a quick getaway on four legs.
He snagged spare menus left on the next table over and flagged down a server when they were ready to order. He was pleased to see that Rylee didn’t go straight for the salad, opting instead for a pulled pork sandwich and deliciously unhealthy sides.
Meanwhile, Rylee chatted on about her childhood. School, school, and more school, with the occasional, special trip to science camp. Which he didn’t belie
ve existed until she pulled up the website on her phone. And then he couldn’t believe anyone would want to go, which prompted her to kick him under the table. He retaliated by snatching a hushpuppy off her plate and stuffing it into his mouth.
She was determined from a very young age. He applauded that drive, but it also made him feel a little sorry for her. While he was running wild in his teens, she was responsibly calculating her GPA. When he briefly left Bearden to try finding his place in the world and made a disastrous discovery, she was years deep into her first degree. He didn’t think she’d ever let her hair down and just simply existed without some goal in mind.
“There’s the mayor.” Rylee’s words interrupted his thoughts. She paused and tapped a finger against her lips. “You know, the way she made it sound when we first spoke, I expected to actually need a bodyguard. But that hasn’t been the case.”
Cole shifted in his seat to catch sight of Olivia making a round of the restaurant, no doubt familiarizing herself with Bearden’s residents. “You’re protected.”
“What does that mean? Do I need a bodyguard?” She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
“It means you’re protected. No one will raise a hand against you. It doesn’t mean you aren’t under threat, though.” He twisted around and found all the eyes watching them. “Look closer. The corner to your right, see that group there? Trent leads a bachelor pride of lions. He’s had a problem with humans since he watched his parents get poached.”
And fuck Trent in particular. He’d gone after Leah while she was still human, and then twice more after she’d gotten her bear. The woman wasn’t about to be sliced up by a lion, though. She’d tossed him out of the bar by his mane.
Rylee didn’t have that sort of protection. In fact, he feared anyone giving her a dirty look would send her sliding into a panic attack. So he used the same playbook he and Callum came up with when Leah was introduced to Bearden: show the human around on the arm of a shifter, declare her protected, and follow up if anyone stepped out of line.
