“What are you doing?” Cara raised her hand and traced Marco’s fall.
Marco made the slightest shift as he dropped. He now moved into position so that Dimitri was perfectly in line to break Marco’s fall. Marco crashed hard into Dimitri and the red and yellow dragon hit the ground first with a thunderous explosion followed by Marco.
"Marco," Cara screamed. She was out of the car and running toward the crash sight. She wasn't sure if her heart was still beating at all if she was even alive anymore. Smoke and dust filled the air from the crash site.
Cara ripped the tape around her wrists as if it were nothing at all. The ground was still moving from the crash and Cara nearly fell over as she tripped her way through debris and rubble. The adrenaline that pumped through her body had her sprinting to find Marco.
A truck was sprawled out on its side in front of her and Cara ran around it, desperately searching. She coughed as the smoke hit her lungs and she put a hand to her eyes. As she made her way past the huge truck body she saw Marco. He was standing up, his body in pain, but alive.
"You're alive, you're alive," Cara flung herself forward and into Marco.
“Oomph,” Marco put his hands around Cara.
“I’m sorry, did I just hurt you?” Cara pulled back, looking over Marco.
Marco smiled at her, “No. You were perfect. You are perfect.”
Cara flung herself again with slightly less force into Marco’s arms. She let the tears come freely from her eyes.
“And what about…” Cara pulled herself back again sniffing back her sobs and looking for Dimitri.
“You don’t need to worry about him anymore,” Marco put his hand to Cara’s face. She smiled and pushed her face against his hand. “You’re hurt,” he brushed his fingers across her face.
“I don’t feel hurt, I feel great. We both feel great,” Cara smiled down at her stomach. “She made such a fuss when you were up there—I think she knows who her father is.”
“She?” Marco paused.
Cara put a hand to her mouth, “I have no idea why I said that. Just my instincts I guess.”
"This has really been a most incredible twenty-four hours," Marco laughed loudly. "Let's get out of here."
Marco and Cara were both limping and in pain when they pulled up to Marco’s estate.
“Mr. Martinez…Cara? What on earth…” Mrs. Caulfield ran out with her mouth gaping wide.
Cara felt a great sense of well-being pass over her at the sight of the older woman.
“It’s so nice to see you again,” Cara said with a smile.
“You should both be in the hospital, at least let me call the doctor,” Mrs. Caulfield was stricken and Cara didn’t blame her, she knew they both looked terrible.
"I called Dr. Stevens—he's on his way." Marco exhaled happily with his arm wrapped perfectly around Cara's body. "In the meantime, I have something to show Cara," Marco lifted his eyebrows and smiled.
“Something to show me?” Cara was mostly interested in being shown the bath and a plate of something delicious.
“This way,” Marco grinned in a way Cara didn’t know the man was capable of.
The two hobbled into the house and up to Marco’s room, but before they went in Marco turned to the door next to his own.
“I sent this all out in the middle of the night, so I’m not sure what this will look like…but knowing my people it will probably still be great…” He opened the door and let Cara walk in.
Inside was the most spectacular baby room. There were books all along one wall, little dragons decorating the walls and bedding. In the corner was a live tree that had been planted into the floor.
“I thought it would be a nice touch, something alive that also cleans the air…do you think it’s weird?”
“Weird? I think it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Cara traced her fingers over the bark of the tree. “What happens when it outgrows the room?”
“We can change the house if we need to,” Marco said as if it were the most natural thing.
“The colors. It’s all in violet, gray, and orange,” Cara couldn’t stop smiling. “I love it.”
“…and I love you. I’m sorry for—the way I reacted or didn’t react—I’ve never done any of this before. When I realized the feelings I had for you, I…” Marco shook his head.
“That doesn’t matter now,” Cara put her hands around Marco’s face. “This is what matters,” she looked around the room.
“Look,” Marco moved to the light switch and flicked it off. When the lights dimmed the room lit up and sparkled.
“It looks just like your eyes,” Cara turned all the way around. “She’ll want to sleep all the time.”
Marco laughed, “There you go with the gender again.”
“Well now that my instincts have picked out a girl I can’t stop myself.”
Marco nodded his head, there was something glinting in his eyes and Cara pushed at his shoulder.
“What is it?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” he looked at her then looked around the room. He walked over to the baby’s crib and pulled out a little boy’s blanket. “It’s just that my instincts tell me that it’s a boy.”
Cara pulled the blanket to her face and smelled its fibers. It was softer than anything she’d ever felt.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Cara threw the blanket back at Marco.
The two went back to Marco’s room to wash before the doctor came over. Marco wanted to have the doctor check on the baby and to make sure Cara was in full working order after their ordeal with Dimitri.
Later that night they sat under the starry sky on Marco’s balcony. They both wore terrycloth robes and slippers. Cara’s eye was swollen and her head had been throbbing all day, but she hardly noticed the discomfort, she was so happy.
The doctor informed them that Marco had walked around all day with a broken arm and some painful ligament damage, but everything else was fine.
Cara turned her gaze from Marco back to the stars.
“Do you think you’ll be happy here with me?” Marco looked at Cara. Cara saw such raw, open love coming from him that, for a moment, she could barely breathe.
“I don’t think I would be happy anywhere else,” she squeezed his uninjured arm.
“Well, it was either stay in Miami or we could both move to Alaska,” Marco smiled up at the sky.
“…a tough choice but I think we made the right decision.”
“Look,” Marco accidentally tried to lift his broken arm then winced in pain.
“What?” Cara sat up with a start. She hadn’t realized how programmed her body still was to the danger she had faced only hours before.
“No,” Marco pointed with his good arm to the sky, “it’s good. A shooting star.”
Cara saw a spectacular ball of light shooting across the sky. It fizzled out and disappeared before Cara realized she’d been holding her breath.
“Did you make a wish?” Marco asked.
“I didn’t know I was supposed to,” Cara looked up to the spot where the star had been only moments before. “Did you?” she asked.
“I don’t need to,” Marco winked at her then leaned back into his chair.
Cara looked at the spot again and smiled.
*****
THE END
Sheltered by the Alpha Bear
Description
Love brought them together. The world tried to tear them apart. But a Bear won’t be denied…
I’ve tried to fight it. The passion, the danger, the raw sexual attraction—it is all wrong for me to feel this way about an unavailable man. But I can’t help myself. The Christmas season is about giving and receiving, not taking. This is so not like me to feel this way, but when I’m around Tony I just can’t help myself. The very fact that he is here right now… it has to be fate… right?
The past year has been so hard. I lost a promising career that was just taking off, blackballed from the industr
y so no one will hire me, and I was infected with the bear shifter curse.
And sweet Derek, helping me through it all has been wonderful, and of course, I know he would like to be much more than friends… but I've never seen him that way really. But I'm so glad he invited me and my one-year-old son, Devon to vacation with his family at a beautiful ski resort for Christmas.
I tried to keep my feelings bottled up, but the flirty glances, the sweet conversations, and the way Tony looks at me when no one else is around makes it so hard…but he is with Beth, Derek’s sister. It’s so wrong.
And now someone at the lodge has been murdered. By what appears to be some sort of vicious animal… in a house full of bear shifters, I have to wonder. Could my baby and I be living with a murderer? And is the man I’m falling in love with who I think he is?
Chapter One
“To Jackie Banks! The fastest rising star of Pierce, Montgomery, and Thorn!”
Everyone in the room raised their glasses of champagne and took a drink before breaking into a thunderous applause and praises of “Way to go!” and “I knew you could do it!”
"Thanks, everybody!" I said taking a sip off my own champagne. I actually hated champagne; I was much more of a wine kind of gal, but when in Rome…
I could not stop the smile that was spreading across my face as groups of people—partners, associates, legal aides and secretaries, and even file clerks.
I thought eventually I would start to get used to all of the attention and the accolades, but I was till embarrassed to death when everyone made such a big hoopla over the newest case I had just won for the firm.
I’d been with Pierce, Montgomery, and Thorn for five years and I’d dug my way from the bottom where all new Associates start winning case after case, working ninety hour weeks sometimes and rising through the ranks until I finally started to land some top clients. And finally a few weeks before, I had been asked to work the Simmons case, which meant a huge payday for the firm if I won.
I had not slept more than three hours a night for the past two weeks, but it all paid off and now our client was going to get millions in the insurance settlement they deserved and our firm was going to get a huge chunk of that money as well.
And there was talk floating around that I, Jackie Banks, was on my way to a nice slot as a partner of this firm. I could not have been more elated. Of course, that was just heresy at the moment and nothing had been spoken to me about it at all, but I was keeping my fingers crossed. I figured it was highly probable that I might have to knock a few more out of the park before I was officially offered a spot as a partner, but a girl could certainly dream. It felt like I was dreaming for so long that finally, my dreams were about to come true.
Ever since I applied to law school on a whim and got in I’d been focused on rising to the top of a lucrative legal career. It had become an all-out obsession for me.
I'd studied political science and psychology as an undergrad and received Bachelor's degrees in both. I thought I would go on to get a Master's or a Ph.D. in Psychology. I wanted to be a grief counselor and help people, but I'd always been fascinated in government and the law. And the more I got into my political science studies, the more interested I became. So, at the urging of my mother and one of my favorite professors I took the LSAT’s and applied to law school.
The rest, as they say, was history. But even still with all of my dedication and hard work I could not believe that I might actually become a partner of one of the best personal injury law firms in town. It was a dream come true. The work was great, the money was getting there, and I was helping people who needed it.
Of course, my romantic life had been suffering a bit.
I have always been a strong, fiercely independent black woman. My mother instilled in me a strong sense of who I was and that I could be and do anything I ever wanted to do in this world, and she made sure I knew it at a young age. My mother never put up with crap from anyone and neither have I, especially when it came to men. That went for men I was interested in and men I wasn’t.
Being such a strong willed, ambitious woman inadvertently scares off a lot of men, but I see it as a good thing because if a man isn’t man enough to let me be myself then he isn’t man enough to waste my time on.
There were a few men around the office I’d kept my eye on as potential romantic interests, but no one special. Besides with all the work I was putting in romance was the last thing really on my mind.
If it was meant to be then it would happen.
I grabbed one of the mini quiches that were sitting on the buffet table. They were the most exquisite things I'd ever put in my mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a few female associates sneering at me. I had to smile to myself.
When you were a successful, up and coming black woman who also happened to be a BBW then you were bound to get some jeers and dirty looks. It was just par for the course and I reveled in it. It just meant that I was doing well in life. I knew those women were thinking that if I didn’t put good food in my mouth then I would lose weight and be anorexic like them. Well, that isn’t how I roll. Life is too short to waste on doing something you don’t enjoy. I work hard and I play twice as hard. And I thoroughly believe in indulging in all of the pleasures that life can offer.
I’ve dealt with that sort of thing my whole life about my size, but I’ve never been ashamed. Despite what most people think I work out regularly, I eat fairly healthy overall, and I don’t sit on the couch eating donuts all day. But I don’t deprive myself and I don’t worry about being a size six.
"Way to go, girl!" Stephanie Powers, a paralegal in the firm, and fast becoming one of my best friends. Stephanie was a character; she was smart as a whip, had great instincts, and she had amazing people skills and the best sense of humor. She would have been a great lawyer but every time I tried to give her the nudge to go for it, she just rolled her eyes and said it wasn't for her. I was not going to stop trying. I mean ultimately it was everyone's decision to do what made them happy, but I had a feeling Stephanie was denying the world her special skills by refusing to further her education.
“Thanks!” I replied freezing still as she insisted on hugging me. Yea, Stephanie was a bit of a hugger.
Stephanie was thirty-eight years old, divorced with no kids. She had been married really young to a guy who was a total loser who refused to get a job, spent every dime she made and cheated on her. She said it was the best day of her life when she wised up enough one day to leave the bastard. He reminded me of a lot of our dirtbag opponents in court who ruined people's lives due to negligence and then refused to even pay financial compensation for the life they ruined.
"You are going to be my boss in no time," Stephanie said. "And when that happens I expect to get two-hour lunches every day and a half day only every other Friday."
“Right, you aren’t going to take advantage of my good nature or anything are you?” I joked.
“Of course not, that’s why I didn’t ask for every Friday half days.”
I almost shot champagne out of my nose.
“For some reason, I feel like I should have a date at these things,” Stephanie said. “It just feels like that kind of party!”
I found myself suddenly thinking about Tony Davis. Tony was the opposing attorney whom I had just beaten in court. The man was ruthless in the courtroom and he had a near perfect record. Most people would have been intimidated, but I was not. I kept focusing on the fact that I was not beating him, I was beating the case. I could not let anything personal enter into it. Although I wanted to.
The man was damn sexy. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and he had a dominant way of moving and speaking as well. Day after day I was able to watch him do his thing in that courtroom, the way he spoke to the judge, the sympathy that he used when referring to his clients who were clearly in the wrong. I almost wanted to believe him and tell him that he won.
After the verdict was rendered and I was packing up my stuff to come back to t
he office, Tony stopped me unexpectedly. I thought he was going to say something derogatory about how I got lucky. It would not have been the first or even the tenth time that sort of thing had happened. So many lawyers were so competitive. It was in our nature. I was the same way. It was our sport if you will.
“Great job,” Tony said extending his hand.
I took it and enjoyed the shake. “Thank you,” I replied. “You did excellent in here.”
“Thanks, but clearly you were the better attorney today,” Tony said.
“You can’t win them all, I guess.”
“Well, after you whipped my tail the least you could do is let me buy you a beer tonight,” Tony said. I smiled. I would have loved to go out for a few beers with him, but I knew there would be a celebration underway for after office hours to praise this victory. I would have blown that off in a second if it meant spending some time with this man. But I also had to play a bit hard to get. The game was way too fun to lose the first move so quickly.
"I'm flattered but I have other plans," I said. I expected Tony to at least look disappointed. Instead, he flashed a charming smile at me and just said, "Ok."
With that he was gone, walking out of the courtroom. I watched his sensuous form moving away from me and I wondered for a second if I should have just said yes. No, he knew where he could find me if he wanted to try again.
I hoped he did try again.
And just a few hours later I was already having a few drinks and trying to forget how sleep deprived I was.
It was fun looking around the office and seeing everyone having so much fun. The firm was a great tight knit place. I had been so lucky to have been hand selected to be one of the associates chosen right out of college five years before. Usually, they expected you to work somewhere else for a few years first but due to my scholastic achievements (I've always been proud to be a total nerd) and a few recommendations by some great professors who went to school with a few of the partners I was chosen.
The partners could not have been nicer people to work for. They worked hard to run a successful business but they cared about people too; they were not just in this for the money and it showed.
The Bear Shifter's Virgin (Fated Bears Book 1) Page 24
