“I’m fine.” She dabbed at her temple, where she had a light sheen of perspiration.
“I don’t think you are.”
“I can’t discuss it with you. Not right now.”
Shit. She knows. Cadence must have told her. “Does this involve Cadence?”
She gave him a look. “No. Why would it? What’s wrong with Cade?”
“Nothing. I—” Now what the hell was he supposed to say. He spied Aunt Miriam approaching, his perfect chance to escape. “I have to go. See you Christmas day.”
She gave him an odd look as he slipped off.
— — —
Isaac paced the lobby of Cadence’s apartment. He was going to pick her up but he hadn’t told her what they were doing and he hadn’t told her his decision about arresting her.
Or not arresting her.
“Why didn’t you come up?” Cadence’s voice came from behind him.
“I haven’t been here long.”
“Long enough to wear a pattern in the flooring.” She planted hands on hips. “I’ve been watching you.”
Shit. She’d been watching him pace.
— — —
Cade felt bad for Isaac. She knew she’d put him in an uncomfortable position.
What about my position.
True. She was facing incarceration, but that was her choice. Isaac hadn’t done anything to deserve being in this situation.
She let him help her into the car without asking where they were going. She’d already asked him for enough. He was funding Ignacio’s Place.
A bit later Isaac surprised her by parking in an area that was dilapidated and of questionable safety. Cade cast him a sideways glance, burning to ask why he’d brought her here. The stoops were occupied by discarded furniture pieces and denizens whose breath frosted in the cold air.
Every other streetlight was out, and as luck would have it, the one near them was out. Not that it mattered, thank goodness for shifter vision.
Isaac exited and opened the door for her. He led her to the back of his sedan and popped the trunk with the remote.
“Give me a hand?” He indicated one of three boxes. He picked one up. “Stack that one on this one. And can you grab the smallest one?”
Cade was still perturbed. “Sure.”
Four flights later, Isaac set the boxes down and knocked on a door.
A kid answered, not much older than Ignacio was when he died. “Officer Romanoff! Look, Mom!” The boy flung the door wide, revealing a too-thin woman with tired eyes and creases where a smile should have been.
She regarded Isaac with suspiciousness. “Are you taking me in?” Then she noticed Cade and frowned. “Social services. I should have known.” She shook her head, disbelief and disappointment prevalent in her sloping shoulders.
“Nope.” Isaac picked up the boxes and walked in. “Not here in any official capacity. This is my—This is Cadence. She’s a teacher.”
Cade gave him a double take. What was he going to say? She’d have to ask. And if she was his anything then it didn’t seem he’d be carting her off to prison, did it? Or was he thinking she’d do her time and he’d wait.
What the hell am I thinking? We’ve kissed, nothing more. Her panther snarled.
Okay, okay, maybe there’s more.
“So why are you here?” The woman’s voice hadn’t lost its tinge of distrust.
“Cadence, this is Mary and that’s Eric.”
“Nice to meet you.” Cadence kept her tone light.
“What’s in the boxes, Officer Romanoff?” Eric jumped up and down. “Look, Cadence.” Eric grabbed her hand and pulled her from the short hallway into the living room. “See the tree and the presents? Officer Romanoff gave those to us.”
Cadence glanced at Isaac.
He pointedly avoided her gaze, instead, telling Eric, “Isaac, not Officer Romanoff. I’m off duty.”
“I didn’t think you were ever off duty,” Cadence hissed the words low, inaudible to human hearing.
Isaac cut his eyes her way, gave her a quirked eyebrow.
“So this isn’t an official visit?” Mary’s shoulders slumped even more, this time in visible relief.
“Nope. Just brought you a few extra things I had at my place.” He set the boxes on the table.
Cade put hers next to them.
Mary pulled the box open, poked through it. “These things still have tags on them.”
“Yeah, uh…” Isaac cleared his throat. “I never got around to using them.”
Cade’s panther scented the lie. She smirked. Isaac gave her a dirty look over Mary’s head. Cade feigned interest in the items Mary was ooohing and ahhhing over.
“Not everything’s black and white,” Isaac said.
SEVENTEEN
An evening of setting up Mary’s kitchen and jazzing up Eric’s bedroom ended quickly. Cade settled into Isaac’s car, the heat from the vents warming chilled limbs.
“They didn’t have the heat on.” It hadn’t occurred to her before.
“Not sure they can afford it. Mary’s out of work. I’ll help her line something up on Monday.” He told her about his meeting with Eric and the circumstances of Mary’s arrest for stealing a Christmas tree.
“That’s nice of you.” She chewed on her lip, Mary’s arrest made the subject of her incarceration prevalent in her mind again. She pushed it away. “What happened to the black and white guy?”
“He’s seen a different perspective.”
“Isaac. I know you’re struggling, and we’re pretty close to related, what with my sister and your brother being mates…” She heaved a sigh. “I’m going to turn myself in. I don’t want you to be the one who has to take the heat from our families. Except it means you won’t get the credit.” She tried to force a reconciliatory smile to her face. “At least, you won’t get the blame, right?”
Isaac pulled the car into her garage, nosed the vehicle into her spot, shifted into park, turned to face her. “No.”
He opened the car door, got out, opened hers.
“But…”
“No.” He strode toward the elevator, pressed the button.
She powerwalked to keep up with him. “Stop. Listen to me. If you turn me in, then you’re going to create a problem with our families. I’ll just go in quietly, turn myself in, and ta-da! You’re off the hook.”
The door opened. He entered the elevator. She took a step in his direction. “Thanks for walking me inside.”
Before she could take a second step he’d reached for her, his large hand encircling her arm, he pulled her into the elevator.
The door closed behind her. His eyes held her prisoner. “Listen.” He let go of her arm, scrubbed his face, the days’ growth scratchy.
She leaned against the shiny metal wall. “Okay.” She crossed her arms.
“I can’t. I can’t have you turning yourself in.” He looked away, pushed the button for her floor.
Her stomach lurched and it felt like the temperature dropped a thousand degrees. He means he wants to take me in himself. “So the alternative is?”
The elevator dinged. A crowd stood in front of her, blocking the way, but she couldn’t concentrate on them. She stepped out, her vision blurred with tears of helplessness.
What the fuck. I don’t cry.
The crowd parted around her and entered the elevator, swarming on.
“Cadence.”
She didn’t turn around fully. She didn’t want him to see her crying, even if it wasn’t tears of sadness or self-pity. Cadence shook her head. “No.”
“Hold the door open,” he said to someone on the elevator. She swiped at her face, composed her expression and turned to face him.
He was trapped by a baby stroller.
“Wait,” was the last thing she heard him say as the door closed.
That’s when she noticed—this isn’t even my fucking floor. She was two floors down from her floor.
“Fuck.”
And that’s exactly
where he was going. Her floor. She didn’t feel like talking to him. Didn’t want to listen to his excuses about why he was taking her in personally.
She crossed to the stairway and took the steps down two at a time, exited to the lobby and headed out the front door. She didn’t want to see Isaac Romanoff.
God. I have to face it. The man I’m in love with is turning me into the cops. Hell, he’s not turning me in, he’s the cop arresting me.
She wandered for more than an hour, then she’d come back in, made sure his car was gone before going up to her apartment.
She’d still have to deal with him tomorrow. Unless she could avoid the Romanoffs for Christmas.
I’ll call Laken, tell her I can’t make it. That I’ve got a tummy thing going on.
That would do it.
She slipped the key into the lock, opened the door, then closed it behind her.
Carina wasn’t there. The place was quiet.
Except…
She paused.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“You never let me finish what I was saying.”
She jumped.
Isaac.
Her panther shifted part way, her teeth erupting, claws erupting. She snarled.
”Easy,” Isaac said. “It’s just me.” He stepped out of the shadows.
She reshifted to her human. “You…” She couldn’t say scared me, because she wasn’t scared, but her alarms certainly went off enough to cause her panther to surge for a shift. “You caught me off guard.”
“I didn’t mean to. Where have you been? I’ve been concerned.”
“I’m sorry. I saw you tried to call.” At least a dozen times since I left you in the elevator. “I was thinking. What did you want to say?” That you were going to put me in prison?
His eyes narrowed, a flash appeared in their depths, then his lips pursed.
God, so very fucking kissable. She tore her gaze away from his lips, concentrated on his eyes.
“What do you mean what did I want to say?” His tone had an underlying steel quality to it that vibrated throughout her body, sending waves of desire coursing clear to the very tip of her nerve endings.
How the hell does he affect me this way? she thought back to a conversation she’d had with Laken before she and Ky had left for overseas. Laken had told her that a part of her had always known Ky was for her.
When Cade had pressed her for more, Laken said it was a combination of her heart and her panther, or so she thought. She’d said that the emotions were stronger than any she’d ever felt.
That’s exactly what Isaac does to me. Isaac. The man who would put cuffs on her in the next few moments.
She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She swallowed. “I’ll only ask one thing. Just one favor. Please let me have Christmas with my sisters. After that, I’m yours.”
He leaned against the breakfast bar, thick arms crossed over a chest that narrowed to a delicious vee.
Her panther chuffed a sound of appreciation. Cade agreed, completely.
“So you’re all mine if I give you Christmas day with your sisters. Just like that?”
That voice. So deep. So sexy. So… all man. All shifter. All alpha.
A surge of reactions throughout her body.
Another chuff from her panther.
We both need to relax. You and I know that’s not what he meant or how he meant it.
She nodded. “Yes. All yours. To take me in to the police station. You can get the credit for the capture. Get your promotion. Live happily ever after.” And all that other shit.
She’d barely finished her sentence, hadn’t completely finished her thought when he moved with more speed than she would have expected from a polar bear shifter.
It’s not like I know any other polar bear shifters—just him. And his family.
He stood in front of her, breathing her air, his body in her personal space, reminding her how powerful he was, his strong jaw jutting in a display that said he was angry. His teeth clenched so tightly, her shifter hearing picked up the sound of their grinding.
It was a struggle, having this man she wanted badly close to her. So close, and yet so very far, considering what he planned for her.
She looked up at him, his diamantine gaze piercing straight through her, as if he could read her very thoughts, essence, and even her panther’s emotions.
He puffed out a long breath, surrounding her in a blend of scents, eau de Isaac, piney woods, earthy, all man.
He stepped closer, leaving nary an inch between them. She felt her heartbeat sync with his, the pounding of her pulse so loud it filled her head.
When he put his hands on her hips, though his touch was light, she felt like she was surrounded by a safety harness. The warmth of his flesh traveled through the fabric of her clothing.
A moisture she couldn’t have controlled if she’d wanted to responded to his touch.
“You’re mine to take, but not in. I couldn’t live with myself if I took you in for trying to create Ignacio’s Place any more than I could have let Mary go to jail.”
“What? No. You can’t do that. I know what being with InterForce means to you. Laken said it’s your dream.”
“Dreams change. Better dreams come along.” A slight tilt to his lips yielded a little smile, but his eyes held an emotion she wasn’t sure about.
“No, Isaac. I can’t let you do that.”
“You can’t stop me. I have a backup plan, anyway.”
“Meaning…?”
“I’ll do contract work for InterForce.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure.”
He growled, lifted her off her feet, pulled her against his body with such intensity the breath left her body. His lips claimed hers with a hot and undeniable possession.
She boldly snaked her arms around his neck, pulled herself tighter against him while her lips pressed on his with a desperation she’d never have thought she felt.
Not she. Not Cadence Araya who’d never needed anyone, who’d fended for herself for far too long.
Between them, his desire was a rod of steel, insistent with need. Lips still locked, he swung her upward and carried her toward her bedroom, shouldering the slightly ajar door completely open.
He released her, a fierce desire shining in his eyes. She pressed a finger to her swollen lip.
“Be sure, Cadence. Be very sure. I’m not going to let you walk out of this room an unbonded woman. If you yield to me now, you yield forever. You become mine.”
She stood on her toes, pinning him with her gaze. There were two hostages in this. Two takers. Two givers. It would be mutual. All the way. “As do you.”
Isaac regarded her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, cat burglar. I want nothing less than all of you. You’ll get no less from me.”
“Forever,” she cautioned him.
“Always.”
— — —
Isaac ached for her with a passion unprecedented for him. Once he’d allowed his bear to fully become one with him on this, once he’d yielded to himself and the truth, an avalanche of restrained needs and emotions flowed through him with the fury of a natural disaster. He couldn’t have anything less than all of this woman.
His cock was hard, watching this woman who’d give as much as she’d take and match him in everything he ever did.
She was his fated mate. There was no way around that. In his mind, his bear released a roar that sealed their fate.
My mate. His bear snarled agreement.
Her caramel colored skin was infused with the pink flush of desire. Her lips swollen a dusky pink from their kiss. Her breaths were hard, heaving her breasts, leaving him yearning to rip her clothing off.
He fought to regain control, but couldn’t. Yielding to his bear, he unsheathed a claw and sliced through the fabric cleanly. He let his gaze rake over her body with a slowness that built a crescendo of desire within him.
Dark rosy nipples puc
kered in the room’s air, jutting forward, tempting him to touch. Her full breasts rose and fell, a lighter caramel color than her face, their rising and falling increased and he realized this was from the effect of his gaze on her body.
“Fuck.” He released the word in an exhale, and hadn’t even realized he’d said it out loud until she shivered.
“Isaac.” Her voice was sex-hoarse. She reached out boldly, pulled him from his pants, running her fingers over the length of his shaft.
His breath caught, burning his lungs while her fingers worked their magic, trailing their way back and forth along his cock. When she wrapped her fingers around his girth, a tiny explosion in his mind yielded a drop of pleasure on the slit of his mushroom head.
She thumbed it, rubbing the dewy moisture into the head, turning the pleasure of it into an exquisite pain of need that made his cock throb.
He cupped her breast with one hand while he slid another hand between her legs, to the place he wanted to bury his cock. He parted her folds.
“You’re wet for me.”
Cadence arched her body toward his, her breast filling his hand while her clit pressed against his hand.
He lowered his head, taking a pearlized nipple into his mouth, drawing it in, sucking fiercely while she rocked on his hand, pressing him closer and closer to slipping a finger into that dark delightful place.
She released a moan that pushed him over the edge.
He pushed her onto the bed, and traveled his hands over her quivering body. He laid a concentration of licks, kisses, and flicks on her nipples while he journeyed lower, taking his sweet time getting to the apex he wanted while she trembled beneath his attentions. He rained kisses on her stomach, over each hip, over the downy dainty treasure trail.
He curtailed his desire to take her while he neared the tiny triangle of trimmed hair. Cadence squirmed, her body arching upward, offering herself to him.
He lingered over her mound, inhaling the scent of her, the sex of her.
This woman, his mate, his everything.
He spread her folds, drenched with the results of her desire. He surveyed the bounty of her offerings, her dark pink clit swollen.
Sugar, Spice, and Shifters: A Touch of Holiday Magic Page 56
