by Crissy Smith
Kieran hadn’t mentioned any other job offer. “You’d leave Caspar?” She hoped to remind him of his earlier words.
“He’s leaving me,” Kieran replied. “Taking a case, and I have no idea where he’ll be. I don’t like it and I will find out what I can but if he can leave me this easily without even talking to me, maybe it’s time I moved on.”
Even though she could understand why Kieran felt the way he did, Dakota knew it was pure emotion talking. Kieran had to know that the best way to keep an eye on Caspar, even on a mission, was within the Organization. Kieran might be hurt now but when he thought things through, she was sure he’d want to know where Caspar was and what he was doing.
Also, Dakota would have to find out more about this Jackson guy and the other Walkers. She wouldn’t have the same connection that Kieran had with them so she could look at his options with an open mind. As long as both job offers kept Kieran close to her. “Why don’t we order some lunch and coffee and you can tell me everything about this Jackson?” she suggested. “Then we’ll come up with a plan on how to figure everything else out. I have some resources I can tap into plus a few favors owed.”
“You’re sure you want to do this with me?” he asked.
“One hundred percent,” she replied.
Kieran surprised her by lifting her up off the bed so she could straddle his lap. “Thanks,” he said before he kissed her hard.
Dakota opened up to him, allowing Kieran to plunge his tongue in against hers. Well, he was already naked and it would be a waste not to take advantage. She ran her hands down along his chest as she brushed her ass over his erection. He moaned as she lifted up and sat lower on his legs. Dakota grasped Kieran’s cock and stroked him several times until he was lifting his hips.
She backed her body up more while keeping her hand on him. Once she had enough room, Dakota bent and took the tip of his hard-on into her mouth. She licked around his mushroomed head before diving down and swallowing him.
Pre-cum flowed from his slit as Dakota wrapped her hand around the base of his cock while she sucked on him. Kieran moaned, and she opened her eyes to peer up at him.
He still had his back to the headboard but now his eyelids were half closed as he watched her pleasure him. Just knowing that she had every bit of his attention was beyond sexy.
Dakota relaxed her throat as she swallowed his cock down. She loved the flavor of him and having Kieran in her control. Her body felt alive and that constant electric connection seemed to spark more intensely.
Her body was flushed and she tingled with need. Dakota slipped her free hand down her body until she was fingering her clit.
“That’s it, baby,” Kieran encouraged with a husky voice. “Let me see you touch yourself.”
Dakota moaned around the cock in her mouth and she complied with his request. While still licking and slurping at Kieran’s erection, she thrust two fingers inside her pussy. She matched the rhythm of her hand with her mouth as Kieran was pumping his hips and grunting.
His hands went to her hair where he gripped her tightly, holding her up against his flesh. Kieran came, filling her mouth with his seed as she climaxed.
“Damn,” she said once she’d pulled away and collapsed on the bed.
“You can say that again,” Kieran told her.
The mattress dipped as Kieran sat forward and pushed her onto her back. He covered her body with his to kiss her deeply. “Shower then food and research,” he said.
“Deal,” she managed while his weight pinned her down.
Kieran popped up and grabbed her arm as he leaped from the bed.
“I see you feel better,” she commented.
“I’ve got a plan,” he said as he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Sort of kill all the birds with one stone.”
“I really hope you don’t mean that literally,” she said as he yanked her forward. “And you thought of a plan while I was sucking you off? I’m rather insulted.”
Kieran just laughed at her. Yes, he was getting back to the Walker she’d first met. She had liked that part of him, and if they were going to get past all this, Kieran couldn’t let his emotions cloud his mind. He was too deep into what was happening and she didn’t want to find him in the middle of a nightmare again.
She stepped past Kieran when they reached the bathroom and slapped his ass. “I’ll turn on the water.”
* * * *
The second pot of coffee had been delivered, and Kieran had laid out his plan for Dakota. She seemed skeptical but at least she agreed that getting everyone together would either get the confessions he wanted or it would be complete chaos. A knock at the door pulled his attention from his laptop. Dakota glanced up from beside him on the couch.
“That should be Remy,” Kieran told her. “I wanted to talk to him first.”
She nodded before she went back to digging into Caspar’s last few missions he’d gone on before he’d been promoted out of the field. With her resources at the local division of the Organization, she was already making more headway than he’d have been able to do. Dakota had been right, she was already helping him.
It was a different experience from when he worked with Remy and Angel. Usually Kieran wasn’t involved in the gathering of intel but he was enjoying it. Kieran strolled to the suite door. Before he even reached it, he could smell his partner’s scent. Fresh grass and woodland were the aromas he was used to from Remy.
Kieran pulled the door open and smiled at his partner. “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course,” Remy said as he walked inside. “It looks like you got some sleep.”
He nodded. “Come on in and have a seat.”
Remy was staring at him. “Before you say anything, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Which was why Kieran had asked his partner to come by now. Remy was hiding something that Sparro had almost spilled in his office and Kieran wanted to clear the air between them before everyone else arrived. “About what Sparro alluded to earlier?”
“Yeah.” Remy turned to go further into the suite then stopped. “Oh,” he said, clearly surprised when he spotted Dakota on the couch.
“Hey.” Dakota waved at him.
“Hi,” Remy replied before he glanced at Kieran. The look of confusion would have been funny any other time but Kieran wasn’t really in a joking mood.
“This is Dakota,” Kieran introduced. “She works for the local office here in Vegas.”
“I…I’ve…” Remy rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve heard about you.”
Dakota stood as she raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“I just came from your office and speaking to your partner,” Remy told her.
“Ah.” She nodded.
“He didn’t say that you’d be here too,” Remy said but he was looking at Kieran again.
“Dakota’s helping me with a few things,” Kieran said.
Remy sniffed. Kieran had no doubt that his partner could pick up the traces of his and Dakota’s coupling. Kieran narrowed his eyes, warning Remy not to mention it. Remy shrugged his shoulder before he walked over to chair across from the couch. Kieran knew that while Remy wouldn’t embarrass him in front of Dakota, his partner would still have a lot to say once they were alone.
Kieran had never been with a shifter before. Hadn’t even thought it was possible for him because of his trust issues with shifters. But Dakota had changed everything he’d once believed. Even when he tried to forget what she was, Kieran couldn’t. Her scent was a constant reminder, along with little mannerisms that he’d noticed. Dakota was a shifter and Kieran might be falling in love with her.
“So tell me what you’ve been hiding,” Kieran said as he sat back down next to Dakota.
“Well, there was more to our vacation time than what we believed,” Remy said.
“That much is obvious,” Kieran said with a snort.
“No.” Remy shook his head. “I don’t mean Caspar. I didn’t know about that.”
&nb
sp; “But you know something,” Kieran accused.
Remy looked right into his gaze. “Before Angel left for her honeymoon, she put in a transfer to be closer to her mate’s pack.”
Kieran jerked back. He couldn’t hold in his reaction. He felt like he’d been slapped. “She what?”
“She wants to stay in Texas with her mate, and since we travel so much, she asked to be on another team,” Remy told him.
The betrayal that he felt was so strong that Kieran’s heart actually ached. How had he missed all the signs that the people he’d surrounded himself with, the few he actually trusted, were ready to leave him? It hurt.
He wouldn’t let anyone see how much this affected him. But this was just one more reason he might make the change and take Jackson up on his offer.
“I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. I’m not even supposed to be telling you. Angel wants to do that herself,” Remy said.
Kieran snorted. Like Angel telling him in person would make a difference to the fact that she didn’t want him any longer.
“She loves her mate,” Remy said. “But she also loves you.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “I can tell.”
“She does,” Remy snapped. “And you know it. If she’d told you then, you’d have insisted we all stay together. You’d be stuck working in one place all the time and with only wolf shifters. You’d do it for her but after only a couple of weeks, you’d be miserable.”
“I…” Kieran didn’t know how to reply to that comment since that was exactly what he would have done. “That’s what friends do.”
“It is,” Remy agreed. “So is what Angel is trying to do. She doesn’t want to lose either of us but she has to put her mate first.”
Kieran felt Dakota slip her hand into his and squeeze. He glanced over at her. She smiled and nodded. Kieran blew out a long breath. “We could have worked something out.” And they would have. Between himself, Remy and Angel, they would have come up with the best plan.
“Angel wants you to find your place in the world and she doesn’t think you have yet,” Remy said. He tilted his head toward Dakota and grinned at him. “Seeing you here, happy, I have to admit Angel’s probably right.”
Kieran pressed his lips into a tight line and didn’t respond. Things might be changing for him but that didn’t mean he’d ‘found his place’. His feelings for Dakota were too new and he wasn’t even certain where he’d be working in a week. Still, as he peered around his suite, he could admit that he was more comfortable here and with these two people than he’d ever been before in his life. Without the drama of the last few days, Kieran would have been bored out of his mind. But really, a little bit of drama at a time would have been better. Still, Remy might have a point, and Angel hadn’t set out to hurt him.
“So why are you telling me now if Angel wanted to do it?” Kieran asked.
“I thought about it the entire way here. I knew you were going through something when you called. You never ask for help.” Remy glanced to Dakota then back at him. “I’d pretty much already decided before I got to town but after I got the call that you broke into the office here, I knew I needed to. Now with this transfer in front of us you need all the information I know.”
Kieran nodded. “I’m glad you told me.”
Remy laughed. “I don’t think Angel will feel the same. I spoke to her earlier and she’s supposed to drive out here before she heads back to her husband’s ranch.”
Great. Kieran shrugged. He didn’t need anything else added to his plate but it would be good to see Angel. Even if she did bring the flea bag she’d married. Fuck, he really needed to work on his shifter insults now that he was with Dakota. “We’ll deal with that when we have to.”
“Okay,” Remy agreed easily. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re up to?”
Chapter Nine
Kieran paced the living room of the suite as the time inched closer to his plan being fully in place. He’d spoken to all the players and now he just had to wait.
Dakota walked back into the room from putting everything they’d been working on into the bedroom so it would be away from prying eyes. He didn’t want to tip his hand before he could get started.
“You okay?” she asked quietly as she stepped up to him.
Kieran wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close before he glanced out at Remy, who stood on the other side of the room talking on his cell phone. Of course Kieran could hear what his partner was saying. Remy was trying to put off Angel’s visit.
She was still technically on her honeymoon, and both Kieran and Remy had agreed that she didn’t need to be involved in this mess. So Remy was trying to convince her that Kieran was fine and actually enjoying his own vacation. At least to hold her off for a few days until the dust had cleared and Kieran knew what he was going to do.
“I’m okay,” he told Dakota, realizing that she was staring up at him when he’d failed to answer her question.
“The call to Caspar seemed to go pretty well,” she said.
Kieran had given in and called his boss. He hadn’t been surprised when Caspar had told him that he’d just gotten to town. Kieran had suspected that Caspar would be at his room at any time. Actually he counted on it since Caspar had a part in his plot.
Caspar had agreed to come to his suite and bring Dean with him. After he’d hung up with his boss, Kieran had phoned Jackson, asking to speak to him and Alex.
He suspected adding the Walkers to the discussion was going to complicate things but this way no one could get out of telling him what he needed to know.
“K?” Dakota cupped his face, drawing his attention back to her.
“Sorry,” he said then bent and kissed her gently. “I guess my mind is wandering.”
“I understand,” she assured him. It felt good to know that she had his back. “But if you’re not ready, we don’t have to do this now.”
“I do,” he answered quickly. He was tired, exhausted actually, and he wanted to get back to having some fun. Screwing with the bad guys and keeping his friends on their toes. He didn’t want to be on vacation any longer. It was time to get back to work. Either with the Organization or with Jackson.
“Someone’s coming,” Remy called out.
Kieran released Dakota’s waist but gripped her shoulders. “Thank you for your help. I couldn’t have gotten the information about Caspar so fast without you.”
“Anytime,” she replied. “And I mean that.”
A knock echoed around the quiet room. The lack of scent told Kieran that it was Alex and Jackson at the door instead of his boss. He was never able to describe to a human how the lack of any scent made the Walkers stand out.
Everyone picked up traces of their environment. Something they’d held, walked past or other people that they’d encountered. That was normal. But humans and shifters also had a distinct odor added to that.
Humans didn’t smell as fresh as the shifters. They actually smelled more like the type of food they’d eaten more than anything else. If they drank a lot, ate tons of red meat or were vegans, Kieran could tell. Shifters were completely different. Depending on the species that they could change into, Kieran could place most shifter species. The felines were the hardest to separate. The lions and tigers smelled different from one another, but cougars, cheetahs and jaguars confused him.
Kieran had been around wolf shifters so much that he could easily pick them out of any size crowd. Bear shifters were also easy for him to determine although some of the smaller species he didn’t know at all. Most species shared a similar scent that underlined their environment. Kieran couldn’t place a species he’d never scented before because he had nothing to compare it to.
“Do you want me to get the door?” Remy asked as he strolled closer.
“I’ll do it,” Kieran responded. He yanked Dakota forward and kissed her deeply before he straightened. She was a little breathless and that made him smile.
Another knock came, so
as calmly as possible he walked to the door. Everyone who was coming would be able to pick up if he was nervous. Even though Caspar and Dean were humans, they were still highly trained agents.
Kieran pulled the door open and even though he was expecting to see Jackson, his breath still caught in his chest as he caught sight of his old friend. At first he’d told Caspar about his buddy who’d been held with him and it had made him feel better that someone else knew his buddy Jack. But as he’d started to heal, Kieran had buried his memories of Jack deep down. It hurt less that way.
“Hey, Kieran,” Jackson said with a smile.
It was obvious that both Dakota and Remy were suspicious of Jackson, but looking at his old friend, Kieran had no doubt that Jackson only had good intentions.
“Hey, guys.” Kieran pushed away his feelings as he greeted the two Walkers. “Come in, please.”
Kieran stepped back to allow the two Walkers to step past him. If they were surprised to see two shifters already there, they didn’t show it. Jackson strolled forward straight to Dakota.
“Jackson Wickham,” he said as he held out his hand.
“Dakota Reese.” She placed her hand on his and the smile stayed on her face, but it was obvious to Kieran that the two of them were sizing each other up.
Alex had reached Remy and a similar scene was taking place. Kieran shook his head as he closed the door. Caspar and Dean hadn’t even shown up yet. He needed to get the four of his guests to act like adults. Fuck, he almost groaned out loud. When had he become the voice of reason? Damn it, he wanted to go back to being the unpredictable one.
He stalked across the room to stand behind Dakota and placed his hand on her lower back, staking his claim.
Jackson nodded and stepped back.
“Let’s get the introductions out of the way. And everyone put their Alpha intimidation attitudes aside,” Kieran said.
“Sorry,” Dakota responded.
Kieran just shook his head. She didn’t need to apologize for anything.
“Dakota is special to me,” Kieran said. “She knows everything.”
