“Oh, sprite…” He folded her into a hug, never wanting to let her go, refusing to. “I love you too.” He kissed the top of her head, relishing the scent of her hair though it smelled vaguely smoky from the fire at the post. “I don’t know why you still love me, but I’m so happy you do.”
“Brandy and Reardon explained how you came to be a… a werewolf.” She whispered the word, her gaze darting to Robert still passed out at their feet.
“It wasn’t my choice. No one would choose this.”
“But being what you are doesn’t make you less, Jaemus. It makes you more. It makes you special. More special than I’d already thought you were.” She looked over her shoulder as two cop cars squealed into the library parking lot. “Let me do the talking so we can get out of here, check the damage at the post,” she cringed here, “and then maybe you could help me forget that my recently booming business is nothing but ash.”
“Aye. I’d be happy to take your mind off your troubles, sprite.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and they both walked toward Sheriff Olsen.
“Somebody call for the police?” he asked.
“I did,” Nika said. “I’ve needed you twice in one night, Sheriff, and I don’t like it one bit. Robert Senclair is passed out over there.” She pointed to the man’s body. “Along with his gun that he had aimed at Jaemus when I arrived.”
“Always knew he was bad news,” the sheriff said, “but I could never catch him in the act.”
“Well, Jaemus and I have plenty to tell you about him.” Nika folded her arms across her chest. “Starting with how he had his henchmen set my trading post on fire.”
“You know it was him?” Sheriff Olsen’s eyebrows rose.
“Aye,” Jaemus said. “He was on the scene. I saw his shoe inside the post while it was burning and his men—six of them—were boasting about setting Nika’s business on fire at Rosie’s tonight. I heard it all.”
“Know where I might find these men so I can send my officers after them?” The sheriff motioned to two police officers walking toward them.
“They’re on the other side of this building.” Jaemus gestured to the library. “They wanted to kick my ass when I confronted them.”
Olsen looked Jaemus up and down, his gaze resting on the split in his lip. “Looks as if they got in a couple of shots.”
“Aye, but I got in more.”
“Good. Never liked any of those guys either.” The sheriff nodded at his two officers who went off in search of Senclair’s men. “I’ll need you two to come to the police station and make official statements.”
“Of course,” Nika said. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Jaemus pointed back to Senclair’s body. “He may need an ambulance.”
Sheriff Olsen didn’t attempt to contain his grin. “What goes around, comes around, don’t it?” Chuckling, he meandered over to Robert’s location while Nika nudged Jaemus toward Brandy’s SUV.
Stopping shy of the vehicle, she turned to him and ran a gentle finger over his lip. Her brow crinkled as she felt the dried blood. “Do you need an ambulance?”
Jaemus squeezed Nika to his body. “No. It should be healed by the time we get to the police station.”
She frowned. “Which could be a problem.”
Right. The sheriff was an observant man. He’d specifically referenced that split in Jaemus’s lip. “I’ll split it again before we go into the station.”
“I don’t want you to purposely hurt yourself, Jaemus.” She cupped his cheek and he was having trouble not shouting his elation over having her there with him.
He’d been talking himself into living without her. Actually, that’s not true. More specifically, he’d been preparing to let Robert Senclair shoot a hole in his head to end the pain burning in his chest over the belief that Nika didn’t want him.
Everything was different now. She wanted him. She loved him.
He teased her lips with soft kisses, loving how her body melted against his. “Nothing can hurt me know, sprite. Not now that I have you again.”
****
Nika guided Brandy’s SUV onto a dirt side road and cut the engine. The woods were dark around them, no streetlights in the immediate vicinity.
“What are you doing, sprite?” Jaemus asked, but the rasp in his voice told her he absolutely knew what she was doing and he absolutely wanted her to do it.
“I can’t possibly walk into that police station and give any statements that make sense when wanting you is taking up every square inch of my brain right now. I’m just so relieved Robert didn’t kill you, that you’re here. With me.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond. Instead, she removed her seatbelt and climbed onto his lap, grinning brilliantly when she discovered what was hard and so ready for her beneath his jeans.
“See what you do to me?” He smiled, the split in his lip totally gone now.
“Aye.” She purred the word deep in her throat and Jaemus’s hands immediately dove into her hair, which had to be a total and complete mess by this point in the evening. He didn’t seem to care though.
When their lips met, Nika couldn’t contain the satisfied sigh that buzzed against his mouth. This. She needed this. Always this.
Jaemus’s seatbelt clicked, and she backed up a fraction of an inch so it could slide between their bodies. He pulled the seat back as far as it would go, then reclined it slightly, pulling her up against him like a blanket. His body was solid beneath her, solid and safe and sexy.
She slid her hand below his T-shirt and rolled the soft cotton up until he removed the shirt. Tracing a fingertip over his chest and abs, she let herself memorize every muscle, every curve, every expanse of sexy male skin.
And there’s a wolf under there too.
“Will you show me your wolf later tonight?” She nibbled his ear, loving the low rumble vibrating from him.
“You don’t want to see that, sprite.” He eased her tank top and bra off so he could give her breasts some attention.
She angled her head so he could trail a line from her breasts up to her ears, making her hot for him. So hot. “Yes, I do. I want to know all of you, Jaemus. Every. Last. Whisker.” She pushed up on her arms, her hair dangling in between them. “Promise you’ll show me later.”
Emotions warred on his face, but she wasn’t going to back down on this one. If he wanted her in his life, he’d have to learn to trust her and her love. He had to be willing to share all of himself with her. Just as she was willing to share all of herself with him.
“Promise.” He cupped her cheeks and coaxed her toward him. “Later.” His voice was barely audible and sent shivers throughout Nika’s body. “Much later.”
He descended on her lips again, bringing her to the breaking point with only his kiss. His strong hands gripped her hips, holding her close. He scraped his fingers along her thigh, bunching up her skirt, and nudged her panties aside. When he found her wet, he growled in her ear.
“Say you’re mine, sprite. Please.”
Nika had been on her own for a while. She and Daisy had survived after Tato’s death. She’d done the best she could, never needing to belong to anyone. Never imagining the day she’d want to give herself over so completely.
That day was here. Right now. Tonight.
She moaned when he tested her depths with his fingers. “I’m yours, Wolfman. For as long as you want me.”
“Forever then?”
She unzipped his jeans, needing his length inside her. “Forever.”
“Good.” He devoured her mouth, his tongue caressing hers as she closed her hand over his arousal, drawing a deep moan out of him.
When she sat up a bit, ready to accept him, she gazed down at his beautiful face, loving the light in his golden brown eyes. She traced his scruff-covered jaw with her index finger, circling around his cheek, hooking his hair behind his ear.
“I could look at you for hours and keep noticing something new I love about your face.” Her fingertip lingered
on the scar cutting through his beard.
“It’s not a perfect face.”
“Depends on your definition of perfect.” She pressed a kiss to that scar, her forward motion causing his erection to rub against her ready heat. “I have to have you now, Jaemus.”
“I wouldn’t dream of arguing with you, sprite.”
With a sexy grin, he pushed himself into her folds, every inch making her lose her grip on reality.
Because surely this man is a dream. A wonderful dream. A dream she didn’t ever want to wake up from. Especially if waking meant having to deal with giving statements about Robert to the police. With acknowledging that her trading post was toast. With accepting that her financial future was officially in the shitter.
None of that mattered in this moment. This moment in the strong embrace of the man she loved. The werewolf she loved.
Jaemus went still inside her and she met his gaze.
“What’s the matter?” Everything felt wonderful to her, but was he not comfortable in the passenger seat with her body draped over his? Were they not far enough from the main road? Would someone find them?
“That protection… the condom thing. We don’t have one.”
Nika gyrated slightly on his lap, loving that his face went slack, his eyes rolling up slightly in ecstasy. “I’m on the pill. Medication to keep me from getting pregnant. The condom was extra protection. Besides…” She bit her lip.
Jaemus brought his thumb up to press the pad of it against where she’d bitten. “Besides what?”
“What would happen if I… you know… got pregnant with your child? Would it be a werewolf?” And why did carrying Jaemus’s child send a thrill through her?
He cocked his head to the side, the way Brandy and Reardon had earlier in the night, as if he were listening to a conversation she couldn’t hear. Slowly, he shook his head.
“No. I don’t have the ability to pass the shifting to an offspring. The babe would be a normal human.” Something flared in his glowing gaze. Something like… yearning.
“Do you want children, Jaemus?”
“Aye.”
“With me?”
“I want everything with you, sprite. Everything.”
Those words filled her. Filled her with something she never knew she wanted. Filled her with a new sense of purpose.
We could have it all. Together.
Fueled by these thoughts, she moved atop him, coaxing him into a steady rhythm that tugged her closer and closer to the edge. An edge daring her to leap, soar, fly, fall. Her breathing reached a pant-like level as he drove into her with powerful thrusts that made her forget the horrible events of the evening. None of that mattered in this instant.
There was only him. Her. Their joining.
Nika had no idea what tomorrow would bring and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t care. She planned to enjoy now and let tomorrow unfold as it would.
Jaemus’s hold on her tightened as he neared his release, and Nika took a moment to study his face. His golden brown eyes were half-lidded, but a light still shined in them. His cheeks were pinked from their lovemaking, a light sheen of sweat dotting his brow. His blond hair was pushed away from his face, revealing those chiseled features Nika had come to love.
She traced his jaw until his fingers clamped on her hips and he shuddered beneath her. Following right behind him, she cried out his name, spasming through a bliss she could easily become addicted to then collapsing against his muscled body. When his arms came around her, pulling her close, she couldn’t think of anywhere else she wanted to be.
They stayed like that for a few moments, each of them catching their breaths. Nika listened to Jaemus’s heart beating, the sound bringing her such comfort. She was no longer alone in this world.
“Let’s get this police business over so we can do more of this.” He arched his hips up slightly, pressing himself against her.
“More. Yes. I’d love that.” She pushed up, still straddling him and glancing to the driver’s seat. “Too bad that seat is waaay over there.”
He caressed her cheek, grinning as he handed her shirt and bra to her. “You might need these in order to drive.”
“Says who?”
“Society, I believe.”
Pouting as he laughed, she took the clothes and slid back to the driver’s side. When they were both properly clothed again, she started Brandy’s SUV.
“We totally don’t tell Brandy what we did in here. Pinky swear.” Nika held out her hand, pinky finger extended toward him.
Jaemus blinked those lovely eyes—no longer glowing—at her. “Pinky swear?”
As she eased the SUV back onto the main road heading for the police station, she glanced at him. “What, your Ireland of the past doesn’t pinky swear?”
He shook his head, some of his hair falling against his cheeks. God, he’s beautiful. And wolf-like. She’d always considered him wolf-like because of the phenomenal job he’d done playing the Wolfman in her show. Now that she knew he was an actual wolf, she realized it was much more than that silly role. The way he looked at her was predatory, tracking her movements. The way he smelled the air. The way his lithe body moved. Of course he had something extra. Something amazing.
“Pinky swearing is like making a promise… taking an oath,” she said.
“Aye, pledging allegiance so to speak?”
“Exactly. By pinky swearing with me right now, you pledge allegiance to me and promise never to tell Brandy that we defiled her SUV.”
When his rough pinky finger curled around hers, she shot him another glance. He brought their joined hands up to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
“I don’t mind this pinky swearing, but I have ideas on much better ways to seal our deals, sprite. Much better.” He trailed light kisses over the inside of her wrist up to her elbow and along her shoulder.
“We should definitely explore those ideas. Like, all of them.”
His raspy chuckle did things to her insides a laugh shouldn’t do, and she pressed her foot down harder on the accelerator. They had to get the police statements against Robert out of the way so they could spend the rest of the night on his ideas. The sun would rise soon enough tomorrow morning, and Nika was certain her trading post wouldn’t look any better in the light of day.
Her heart ached over the post, but she boxed that up for now. If she let it free, she wouldn’t be able to make it through giving statements. She’d fall apart thinking of Tato and how what he’d built had been destroyed by a self-centered asswaffle. An asswaffle that had nearly killed the one man who had managed to steal her heart.
“What’s that?” Jaemus’s voice pulled her out of her growing anger over Robert.
Squinting out the windshield of the SUV, she saw it too. Red, flashing ambulance lights, but not at the top of a vehicle as one would expect. These were at the side.
As if the ambulance had tipped.
Chapter Fifteen
The SUV slowed and Jaemus jumped out before Nika could bring the vehicle to a full stop.
“Jaemus!” she called, but he kept moving, running toward the overturned ambulance, an uneasy feeling permeating his gut.
The back doors of the ambulance were open, one of them barely hanging on. A peek inside revealed supplies scattered about the interior and an upended gurney. A female EMT was pinned by the gurney and when Jaemus yelled to her, her eyes fluttered open. Her hand immediately went to her temple where a river of blood streamed down her cheek. Her gaze darted around her surroundings and when it settled on Jaemus, she blinked rapidly as if trying to process what she was seeing.
“My partner…” She raised a shaking hand and pointed to the driver’s seat. “Is she… oh, God… where is she?”
Jaemus ran around to the front of the disabled vehicle and climbed onto it. He peered into the window, but didn’t see anyone in the driver’s seat. Taking a deep inhale, he smelled a particular odor, something familiar, something… unpleasant.
Robert Senclair.
He raced to the back of the ambulance and ripped the broken door off completely. Using his werewolf strength, he slid the gurney out, careful not to further injure the EMT.
“How bad are you hurt?” He stepped into the ambulance and crouched beside her. He found some gauze pads and handed them to her to press to her bleeding wound.
“I’m okay. Just got knocked around when the ambulance flipped.” Slowly, she got to her feet, accepting Jaemus’s steadying hand.
He guided her out of the vehicle as Nika ran toward them. Before she caught up to them, he put his hands on the EMT’s shoulders and waited for her to look up at him. “You were carrying Robert Senclair, aye?”
“Yes. He lunged after the officer that was riding with us. Used a syringe as a weapon then grabbed the officer’s gun. I don’t know where the officer is.” A few tears escaped from the EMT’s eyes and she hastily wiped them away. “I think… I think he may have shot Dawna. That’s why the ambulance flipped.” She sniffed, fighting her tears. “I don’t know what happened after the accident.”
Jaemus inhaled deeply again. A light breeze blew tonight and Robert’s scent hit him again from the east.
Nika stopped next to him, her breathing labored from running. “Helene? Are you okay?”
“Call the police,” Jaemus said to her, “and another ambulance.” He started to run toward Senclair’s stench, but Nika grabbed his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“This ambulance was carrying Robert.”
Nika’s face paled, and he hated to see her frightened. “He caused this?”
Helene nodded. “And I don’t know where Dawna is or the officer that was escorting us.”
“I’m going to look for them.” Jaemus pulled Nika into a quick hug. “Please get help for Helene and report what’s happened. Stay here. Don’t follow me.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Helene crumpled to the ground, clearly needing someone’s help.
Jaemus took off, Robert’s smell like a trail of breadcrumbs for him. The scent of blood mixed in as well and the deeper he got into the woods, the more he worried about the other EMT and the officer. What had Senclair done to them?
Wolf Fire Page 19
