Holiday Mates: Short Stories (Supernatural Enforcers Agency 5)

by E A Price

  “I’m sorry I left, my love,” she whispered as they settled back on the couch, “but I needed to speak to mother and I thought you might be hungry.”

  He pulled her against him and kissed her forehead under the interested gazes of Roderick and Mindy, and the stony glare of Edmund. His bear snarled in some kind of triumph. He didn’t know exactly who Edmund was, but he knew he was trouble.

  Cecile pressed herself as close to him as possible as she chatted with Roderick and Mindy.

  *

  “What exactly happens at these kinds of parties?” Boris asked when they were finally alone.

  There was the cucumber sandwiches, endless cups of tea, tiny cakes that he could barely even see in his huge hands and mindless small talk with a bunch of prim swan shifters who made jibes at one another rather than saying what they’re thinking. So far, he wasn’t impressed with this kind of party.

  After a couple of hours of that, Cecile excused them with the reason that they needed to unpack and she wanted to have a nap.

  Cecile emerged from the bathroom. His bear roared at the unhappy look on her face.

  “Is that really what you want to ask me?”

  “Who the fuck is Edmund?” he snapped a little more forcefully than he intended.

  Cecile flinched at his harsh tone and he was across the room and kissing her before she could react. “I’m sorry,” he muttered into her hair, as his bear whimpered for his mate. There was a time when he had beaten men up for looking at him funny. But he wasn’t that kind of bear anymore. He didn’t snap and lose his temper over nothing. Certainly not with his mate.

  “No, I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Edmund’s my ex-husband… my second ex-husband. I didn’t know he’d be here. My mother didn’t know until my cousin turned up with him in tow. She’s much too good of a host to tell him to… ah…”

  “Fuck off?”

  “Quite.”

  “If she wants, I’ll tell him.”

  Cecile giggled and melted against him. He scooped her into his arms and he carried her to the bed, placing her in the center and stretching out next to her. His hand burrowed under her shirt and grasped a breast. She moaned as he pinched her nipple.

  “This guy doesn’t want you back, does he?” he asked suspiciously.

  “I don’t see why he would. When we couldn’t conceive, he had an affair, and then divorced me so he could remarry a younger, fertile swan. He wanted children and I couldn’t provide them, at least I couldn’t provide him with children. The only thing that has changed since then is that I’m no longer available.”

  “Fucker.” His bear would happily rip the swan apart, feather by feather.

  She ran her fingers over his stubbly jaw, tracing her thumb over his lips. “I made a mistake when I married him. I mistook flattery for love. Not a mistake I have to worry about now.”

  The bear harrumphed. “I tell you you’re perfect all the time.”

  Cecile beamed. “That’s not what I meant. A lack of flattery doesn’t bother me in the least. Not when I have the love of the sexiest man on the planet.”

  He grunted in agreement, trying not to look too smug. “You told your mother about the baby?”

  “Yes, she was very pleased. Be warned, she was already talking about turning one of her bedrooms into a nursery – she’s going to expect a lot more visits.”

  “Jeez, not sure how much more cucumber I can take.”

  She giggled. “Thank you for coming. I wouldn’t have minded if you wanted to stay home.”

  “I’d follow you anywhere.” Plus with Edmund’s presence, he really was glad he was there.

  Boris’ hand stroked down her torso and landed on her still-flat stomach, his thumb circled her bellybutton. His bear rumbled in happiness at the thought of their cub – or cygnet, whichever - growing inside her. It wouldn’t be long until she started to show. He looked forward to seeing her rounded with his young. But…

  “You know whatever happens…” He struggled to find the words to say it without offending her. Usually he could say anything with just a grunt, but this required more delicacy. “There are other options.”

  “I know,” she whispered. “Until I met you I was certain I would be single for the rest of my life, and I didn’t want to raise a child alone. But, now that I have you, I do want children, and if we can’t have our own, I’ll be okay with that.”

  Boris grunted, and that time, it said enough.

  *

  “Wow.” Boris growled in approval as Cecile emerged in a lilac dress.

  “Wow yourself.” He was dressed in his usual uniform of jeans and boots, but he had donned one of the polo necks she had bought for him. Her swan fluttered in approval. The pale blue material stretched across the acreage of chest and she couldn’t help but run her hands over him.

  He shrugged a little self-consciously. “Just a new shirt. You have good taste.”

  “Well it’s getting better. Just look at how much my taste in men has improved.”

  She stretched and brushed her lips over his. He growled and licked his lips. He placed his big hands on her shoulders and toyed with the straps of her dress, his thumb burrowing under the material to find her bra strap.

  “You went with the lacy white set.”

  She always thought it was one of her more annoying anal compulsions that she always had to wear matching underwear – she seriously could not leave the house unless both her bra and panties matched. But Boris said he loved it. He found it sexy. But then he found it sexy when she ate spaghetti and the sauce dribbled onto her chin.

  “Mmm hmmm, the one with the small purple flowers.”

  Boris leaned down, his lips tickling her ear. “That’s one of my favorites.”

  “They’re all your favorites.”

  He groaned and his hands tightened. “Let’s skip dinner.”

  The old Cecile would have balked at the thought. There were guests downstairs. Her mother was downstairs. If they hid in her room they were sure to know what they were doing. But this was the new Cecile. The one who made out with her mate at work when he was on his break. The one who had sex on top of cars. The one who couldn’t go two seconds in the presence of her gorgeous mate without her arousal threatening to turn her body into an inferno. She and her swan loved the new Cecile.

  “I could say I have a headache and that you have to tend to me.”

  “Yeah, I will tend to you all night long if I have to.”

  Before she could tell him how much she liked the sound of that, the door flew open. Boris snarled at Dawson, who looked completely unimpressed and tried to look past him to Cecile.

  “Your mother says that the rest of the guests are waiting for you.”

  “Thank you,” she said wearily.

  Dawson curled his lip at Boris and left. The bear trembled in furious annoyance.

  Cecile pressed herself against Boris’ back. “We’re only here for a couple of days.”

  “Yeah,” he rumbled. “I guess I we can fu… make love all day long at home.”

  “I can’t wait,” she whispered.

  *

  “I’m supposed to sit there,” said a supercilious swan shifter. Boris thought he might be called Jeffrey.

  “I’m already sitting here,” growled Boris. His bear bared his fangs.

  The male rolled his eyes. “The place card has my name on it.”

  Boris plucked the tiny piece of card between his fingers and looked at the swirly writing. Huh. The guy’s name was Hilary. He was way off.

  “You’re right,” said Boris, thrusting the place card at the male. “Take it and go sit down there.”

  Hilary’s lips tightened. Really? Place cards telling them where to sit? Well, nuts to that, he was sitting next to his mate.

  Marianne frowned from her place at the head of the table. “At dinner parties we usually sit couples separately.”

  “This is just a family get together, mother,” murmured Cecile. She placed her hand over Boris’. “
I’m sure we don’t need to be so formal.”

  Marianne smiled serenely. “Of course, darling, whatever you like. Everyone just sit wherever you like.”

  She didn’t look altogether thrilled about that but she probably wanted to make her pregnant daughter happy. Course she could do that by telling Edmund to take a fucking running jump thought his bear, grumpily. The male was smirking at him and Boris had the urge to stab him with a fork – he had a choice of four different forks so it was really tempting.

  Cecile leaned over to Boris and whispered into his ear, “If you don’t like the food, we can order a pizza later.”

  His bear roared. His beautiful mate was perfect.

  “It’ll be fine,” he said gruffly.

  “Let’s order one anyway. I suddenly feel ravenous and I doubt the meal we’re about to eat will do anymore for me than the tiny cucumber sandwiches did.”

  Boris raised his eyebrows and her cheeks turned pink.

  “What? Pregnancy makes me hungry. I have a desire for a large meatball marinara pizza with a side order of garlic bread and some wings.”

  “Damn woman, you’re sexy when you talk about food.”

  Cecile beamed and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He tried his best to withhold the happy growl, but judging by the alarmed swan shifters, he wasn’t very successful.

  The meal was okay. As much as it could be when it had five courses and each one was comprised of a tiny amount of food that was negligibly edible. One of the courses was nettle soup! What the fuck was that about?

  For the most part the swans talked about people they all knew and made bitchy remarks about all of them. Roderick and his husband Jasper – Marianne’s brother – were generally disapproving of the mean-spirited comments, and they tried to engage Boris in conversation – not that he was much of a talker. The most animated person there was the red panda shifter Mindy – who was Roderick and Jasper’s adopted daughter. She had a seemingly neverending plethora – a word he learned from Cecile - of interesting stories about her clients – she was a personal shopper.

  Cecile was polite but no overly talkative. Probably due to the dickhead Edmund. When he wasn’t shooting dirty looks at Boris, he was staring at Cecile and asking her pertinent questions. Grrr. Thankfully, Mindy jumped in with another story when Edmund asked anything too personal and Boris looked like he was going to leap across the table and maul him. Or maybe that should be sadly, Mindy jumped in with another story… The bear was all for the mauling.

  His mate shot him numerous concerned glances, but she needn’t have worried. No, he wasn’t enjoying himself, but then he didn’t really enjoy himself any place he went. He tolerated being there because it made Cecile happy. He wouldn’t really enjoy himself until the weekend was over, and they were safely in their house where he could forget everyone but her existed.

  Boris reached under the table and squeezed her thigh, and when his hand moved a little higher, she giggled into her napkin.

  Marianne clapped her hands. “How about a game of charades?”

  Dear. Fucking. God.

  After five tiny courses, Boris’ stomach was rumbling and charades was the furthest thing from his mind. He was hungry and horny and the pizza could not come fast enough.

  *

  Cecile and her swan squawked as her cousin Louise virtually leaped at her.

  “Louise, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

  Louise flicked her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder. “You always were skittish.”

  She pushed past Cecile into the bathroom and started inspecting her flawless make-up. She needn’t have bothered. Louise was always the prettiest woman in the room and she knew it. There was something in her DNA that stopped her from ever looking dowdy or frumpy. Boris thought that Cecile was elegant and poised, and told her so all the time, but Cecile had always felt like the poor relation when Louise was around.

  “Did you hear I’m running for a seat on the city council?”

  Cecile clasped her hands. “Yes, you have my vote.”

  Louise grinned at her in the mirror. “So sweet. Are things serious with Boris?”

  Her swan bristled at the tone, suspecting some kind of slight to her mate. “We mated and we’re living together – so yes, very serious.”

  “Edmund’s single again.”

  “Oh.”

  Louise looked at her sharply. “Oh? Does that interest you?”

  “No, it was just a non-committal oh.”

  No, she could care less about Edmund. He had cheated on her, broke her heart and divorced her because he thought she was infertile. His marital status in no way interested her. A couple of months ago she might have had a sort of cheap thrill at hearing that his marriage – the second since theirs fell apart – was over, but now, nothing he did bothered her.

  “Edmund told me he never stopped loving you.”

  Her swan honked furiously. After the way he treated her, he had no right to go around making claims like that. “I’m not sure he ever started.”

  Louise gave the approximation of a sympathetic smile. “Edmund was the love of your life.”

  “Boris is the love of my life,” she said with feeling.

  “The bear?” scoffed Louise. “Aren’t you a little old for a rebellious phase? Most girls date unsuitable men when they’re teenagers. You’re leaving it a little late, aren’t you?”

  Her swan snapped. “Boris is my mate.”

  Louise ignored her. “Edmund would still take you back, even after your mini rebellion with the bear. I mean we all go through stages like this.”

  Yes, Cecile seemed to recall that one of Louise’s high school boyfriends was fifteen years older than her and in a motorcycle gang. Her parents sent her to study in Europe to get her away from him. From what Cecile heard, Louise humped her way through Paris.

  “This isn’t a stage, I love Boris. And even if I didn’t, nothing on Earth would ever make me want to take Edmund back.”

  “He’s a good catch.”

  “Then feel free to marry him yourself,” she hissed and marched away.

  She was used to her family interfering, but really, encouraging her to get back together with an ex who cheated on her was a bit much. And maybe Louise had struck a little bit of a nerve about that whole rebellion thing.

  No, Cecile never rebelled when she was younger. She had a quiet childhood. She wasn’t kidding about her mother chaperoning her dates – she rarely had a second date. Nope, she remained a firm virgin until her arranged marriage to another swan in her drift.

  So yes, maybe she was getting kind of a thrill out of doing things with Boris that she never would have contemplated. After all the years she spent being a dutiful swan and daughter, being naughty was kind of nice. But it wasn’t a rebellion. She wasn’t acting out. Was it so hard for them to believe that she and Boris were going to be together forever?

  Her inner bird squawked. Well, they better get on board, because there was no way she was letting Boris get away.

  *

  Boris stepped out onto the patio and rubbed his forehead. Was charades supposed to be torture? They were only using book titles and some of them were in French for fucks sake! These people were nuts.

  Nope, didn’t matter. He could handle this – even French charades with Cecile’s ex-fucking husband. Huh, maybe he was mellowing with age.

  His bear growled as the scent of smoke and red panda shifter wafted his way.

  Mindy gave him a wry smile before taking a long drag of her cigarette. “Couldn’t take the excitement either, huh?”

  Boris grunted and tried to relax. His whole body was tense. But then given that he rarely ever relaxed anywhere, it wasn’t’ a big deal – he was accustomed to being tense.

  “French literature isn’t my thing either. Because you know, I’m normal. I do speak Mandarin because my dads thought I should keep up the language of my homeland, but I can’t read it for shit.” She rolled her eyes in amusement.

  Boris tried to lower
his guard a little. He had to say he liked her. As much as he liked anyone who wasn’t his mate.

  “You were born in China?”

  “Yeah, moved here when I was two, and after my parents died, my godfathers adopted me.”

  He grunted again.

  She sucked on her cigarette for a few minutes while Boris stared out at the dark garden.

  “The family aren’t so bad once you get to know them,” she said. “Marianne comes across as a bit stuck up but she is a nice person.”

  She’d have to be to create such a lovely daughter thought his bear.

  “Probably even nicer now that you’ve knocked up her only daughter.”

  Boris gave her a sharp look as his bear snarled.

  “Don’t look so surprised,” she chuckled. “That bunch of swans can’t sniff anything, but I can. I think Marianne had given up on grandchildren. Once it’s born, it’ll be spoiled rotten, I can tell you.”

  By him too.

  Mindy gazed at him in interest. “Pretty unexpected, right?”

  “Not unwanted,” he snapped.

  She stubbed out the cigarette on the wall surrounding the patio and lit another, muttering about it being a terrible habit.

  “You know why most of those swans in there dislike you?”

  He snorted. “Because I’m a bear, because they think I’m…”

  Mindy waved her hand. “Yes, yes, yes. They’re worried that you mated with Cecile because of money.”

  His bear roared. “Fucking ridiculous.”

  “It’s why Louise’s dad mated with her mom – probably why she’s so screwed up. But they just want to make sure that you’re not a… well…”

  “A golddigger?” he growled.

  She giggled as she looked him up and down. “Admittedly, you do look like the world’s least likely golddigger, but you can’t be too careful. There is a certain type of sub-species of man who prey on women with money and who are – let’s just say – on the wrong side of thirty-five. Again, I’m thinking of Louise’s mother. I mean, we all love Cecile but she’s no siren and she...”

  “The fuck would you know?” he howled. His eyes flashed to the black of his furious beast. Cecile was the most beautiful woman on earth – no question!