That got Shi’s attention considering he’d spent most of the past year seeking out the very traitors they were now talking about. That absence of warm and fuzzy had gotten way worse since being separated from Carmen but it had come in handy when dealing out swift justice.
The waitress set the bottle on the table and filled Shi’s shot glass and he waited until she was gone to cast Nico a scrutinizing stare. “Surely you could have passed on the information to me and kept me the hell out of here for another month.”
Kole downed a shot. “That’s where it gets interesting.” He motioned to Shi’s glass. “I’d suggest you drink that before we tell you how interesting.”
A trickle of unease slide down his spine, and Shi kept his eyes locked on Nico. “What’s he talking about?”
“Since you’ve had such success dealing with this issue, Alexander told the council he thought your presence would be helpful.”
Shi’s blood ran cold and suddenly tequila sounded like a very bad idea. He needed to be fully cognizant and ready for battle. And this was headed for a battle, he had no doubt. “And he still seemingly has no memory of the night he attacked me?”
Nico’s lips thinned. “So it seems.”
Shi laughed without humor. “I’m not buying it. He wanted me back here before Carmen’s birthday.”
“If you’re right,” Nico said, “and I believe you are, he has plans for you.
Kole snorted. “And they don’t involve Sunday football and dinner with the would-be mate.”
“Not unless I’m the dinner,” Shi agreed, glancing between Nico and Kole. “Any idea what he’s planning?”
“Aside from my assumption he wants you dead before you can mate with Carmen,” Nico drawled, “not even a scent, and believe me we’ve been trying.”
“And you can bet he knows we’re trying,” Kole pointed out. “He knows how good and how connected we are, and yet, he’s fearless.”
“How sane is he now?” Shi asked, hoping his craziness explained his confidence, not about to make the mistake of believing Alexander really didn’t remember the past.
“He’s convinced everyone he’s back to normal,” Nico said. “Even Carmen.”
Shi had worked with Nico for thirty of his hundred and ten years alive. He knew how to read between the lines. “But he’s not.”
“The differences are subtle but they exist,” Nico confirmed. “So here’s the plan. We need to get you to the testimony at two o’clock tomorrow and then get you out of here again without event.” Nico plopped a set of keys on the table. “I have a place I keep as a safe house. It’s off the grid, wired, and secure. No one can get to you there and the added bonus is you can’t get to Carmen. Everything wolf inside me screams Alexander is looking for a setup. You don’t need to fuck up and get caught with her now and I don’t trust your hormones anywhere near her. You’re too close to freedom to be with her. We’ll come to you tomorrow and head to the hearing together and walk out with you.”
Shi grabbed the keys. Nico was right. He had to get out of here and he had to stay away from Carmen. It was going to be absolute torture but he had to do it. “Can you-”
“I’ll talk to her,” Nico said. “You just make sure you don’t. Mating heat is nothing to under estimate, Shi. You of all people know that.”
The memory of being deep inside ‘the haze’, the lethal result of a male wolf who needed to mate being thrown into hormone overload, ground through him, and that had been with a wolf he despised. “She’s not of age yet.”
“Yeah well, maybe not,” Nico said, “but clearly you recognize Carmen for what she is already. In anything else I’d bet my life on your control. In this – I’d bet on you not having it.”
Shi wanted to argue but he couldn’t when just hearing Carmen’s name heated his blood. “That makes two of us.” Control was not his friend right now and neither was Alexander.
***
Fifteen minutes later, Shi had gotten directions to the safe house and he headed out of the hotel on his Harley, plenty skilled enough to dodge anyone who followed him. And sure enough, he hadn’t made it a block and there was another bike a few cars back, doing a piss pour job of following him. Shi’s lips quirked. Whoever this was, they really didn’t know just how bad a fucking mood he was in, or how much he’d enjoy wiping the pavement with them tonight.
Shi cut off the highway to a side street and then down a dark ally. He skidded to a halt behind a dumpster, got off the bike, ditched his helmet, and was flat against the wall, weapon in hand in a flash in all of a few seconds. The other bike rounded the corner and came to a complete stop and Shi brought the slight form of a rider in a helmet into view. The wind lifted and his nostrils flared with instant awareness. Carmen. Fuck! She could have been followed. She flipped up her mask a second before he was by her side, snatching her off of her bike.
“Are you crazy?” he demanded. “You could have been followed.”
“So far we’re alone,” she breathed, and damn it, the leather pants she wore hugged her body like second skin – the way he wanted to. “I had to see you.”
And any second someone could round that corner. Shi lifted her off the bike, holding her close when he should have slid her immediately away from him. “You’re on dangerous territory.”
“As long as I’m there with you,” she declared sounding as breathless and desperate. For him. That realization burned through him and called to both man and wolf in a way nothing had in his entire life. No. She called to him as no one ever had. He told himself to send her on her way. He told himself all the reasons he needed to stay away from her, at least for now. But another part of him said nothing was ever for certain. They didn’t know they were mates. They didn’t know there would be a tomorrow. Hell, they both knew more than most that tomorrow was never certain. Shi wasn’t going to the safe house without her.
Chapter Two
Nico’s idea of a safe house, Shi quickly discovered, was a ritzy guarded stucco place in the high-end Summerlin area north of the strip. With Carmen wrapped tightly around him from behind, and every nerve he owned aware of her pressed close, Shi used the remote control Nico had given him to open the gate and then seal it shut after they passed.
Once on the property, high concrete walls ensured they weren’t seen from outside. Another punch of a button and the state-of-the-art security system secured them for the night. A paved drive took them directly to the garage and yet another punch of a button let them inside, dim lights flickering to life as they entered.
Even before Shi killed the engine on his bike, the special electronic door had slid down and sealed them inside safely. Carmen climbed off the seat, yanking away her helmet. Shi was seconds behind her, ditching his own helmet, and watching her gloriously red hair tumble around her shoulders, his gut tightening at the way the leather she wore clung to the body he’d long resisted touching.
“Shi I-”
She never finished the sentence. He was too hungry for her, too ravenous with need. One kiss, one taste, was all he’d had of her, and it had been all he’d had to hold him over for nearly a year. Shi pulled her into his arms, slanting his mouth over hers and stroking his tongue into the hot, wet recesses of sweet bliss. Drinking her in. He molded her close, feeling the soft curves of her body against his.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his mouth between kisses, her fingers curled on his jaw. “I‘m sorry, Shi.”
“I’m not,” he murmured, but it came out more a hungry growl. “I’m glad you’re here.” White hot fire licked at his limbs, and Shi knew he had to act. He laced his fingers inside hers and started towards the door, knowing if he didn’t get her inside he’d forget how much he wanted to slowly make love to her, and fuck her right here in the garage. Which would be bad and wrong. He was driven by so damn much lust and need, he felt like he was about to combust.
Carmen tugged against him, digging in her heels. “No. Wait. Please. You don’t understand.”
He turn
ed to her, ready to throw her over his shoulder, but her earnest expression stilled him.
“I’m not sorry for following you,” she declared. “I had to see you. I need to talk to you.”
“And I want to talk, baby, I do, but right now you should know that I’m fighting the urge to strip you naked and have my wicked way with you right here in the garage.”
Her eyes went wide and a slow smile slid onto her lips. “Before I had to practically beg you to kiss me and now you want to strip me naked in the garage?”
“Now I’m not on duty and if you keep looking that pleased with the idea, we really aren’t going to make it inside.”
She wet her lips and his cock jerked against his zipper. “We should talk before we...we should talk. About what happens in a month, on my birthday. What if we aren’t-”
“Talking is overrated.” Shi scooped her up into his arms, keeping her from asking questions neither of them really wanted to answer right now.
She yelped. “What are you doing?”
“What I’ve wanted to do for a long time, baby. I’m taking you to a bed, even if it’s not mine, where you really belong.”
“You Tarzan and me Jane?” she joked, her mood instantly lifting, just as he’d hoped. She’d had enough to worry over this past year and a half. Tonight, he wanted her happy.
“I’ll gladly play Tarzan and Jane with you, baby,” he promised her.
She laughed as he shoved open the door, a soft sexy sound that radiated along every nerve ending he had. “Unlike the past where you played bodyguard and ‘Saint Shi’?”
“Exactly.”
“I can’t wait.” she teased.
A smile played on Shi’s lips at her reply, and he eagerly stepped inside the hallway, where they were greeted by an automatic light. How easily this woman lightened his dark mood. Shi couldn’t get them up the dozen steps fast enough. He stopped at the top and took in the large living area, counting windows, and noting the kitchen to the left.
“What is this place?” Carmen asked, about the time Shi spotted a bedroom to his right and headed that direction. He could smell her, taste her on his lips, feel her close to him, and it was driving him crazy.
“Safe house,” he said, stepping over the threshold to the oversized bedroom suite, automatic lights spilling a warm amber glow over the room. Shi quickly noted the absence of windows or doors that had to be custom designed, vaguely taking in expensive furnishing and several leather chairs in a corner.
“Safe house?” she asked alarmed. “Why do you need a safe house?”
She really had no idea how dangerous her father was and he hoped she wasn’t in for a rude awakening. No. He hoped he was wrong about Alexander but he knew he wasn’t. Shi took her down on top of a king sized mattress framed with massive Mahogany posts. “Nico thought me being here would keep us apart,” Shi explained, settling on top of her, the softness of her beneath him a little piece of heaven on earth.
“Nico was wrong,” she laughed, a soft delicate sound that pleased him.
He brushed hair from her eyes. “Nico isn’t often wrong. I suspect he knew you followed me and made sure no one else did. He knew we needed tonight.”
Her smile slid away, her lashes lowering and lifting. “Don’t say that like there isn’t anything but tonight.”
Shi brushed his lips over hers. “Why don’t I just stop talking all together? I can think of all kinds of things to do with my mouth that you’ll enjoy more.”
Her fingers curled on his cheek. “But we need-”
He slid his tongue past her lips, stroked away her objection. “No buts.”
“Yes but,” she insisted, but she sounded less convincing.
“You talk,” he suggested, smiling against her lips. “My mouth is going to be busy.” His hands slid down her arms, his lips down her cheek, her neck. He nuzzled her ear. “You smell good.” Her scent had always driven him crazy, testing his willpower.
“Shi damn it, stop trying to distract me. There are things that I want to say to you and...” She moaned as he caressed her breast, scraping his teeth over her nipple through the thin silk of her blouse and then panting, “I can’t say them when...you’re doing that. Behave for just a minute.”
He’d been behaving for over a year. He wasn’t doing it tonight, but he didn’t say that. Actions spoke louder than words, but he’d let her get a few more in before he made sure she was otherwise occupied. Shi slid down her body, lingering at her stomach and kissing the velvety soft skin there, before caressing a path down her hips to stand up. “What did you want to say?” He tossed one of her boots and then the other, and went to work on his own.
She lifted up onto her elbows. “I wanted to talk about my father.”
“What about him?” he asked, tugging his shirt over his head and flinging it away.
Her eyes raked over his naked torso. “I…about...I forgot.”
“I don’t remember you being forgetful.”
“That’s because you always kept your clothes on even when I didn’t want you to.”
He wanted her like he had never wanted anything in his life, not even when he was paired with a mate who was already of age. “Let’s start with yours.”
She sat up. “Wait!” Her hands went to his.
He froze and glanced up at her, arching an eyebrow in silent question.
“I’m suddenly nervous. Really nervous.”
He slid a hand to her cheek. “You have no reason to be nervous.” He leaned in and nibbled her ear. “Not with me. Not ever.” He inched her blouse upward and pulled it over her head, and she let him toss it aside. His gaze dropped to her breast, high and full, the lace of her black bra framing them perfectly, and he had to inhale to control himself. He would not rush this. She was nervous. Hell, part of him was nervous, and he didn’t get nervous. She mattered though. Carmen mattered like no one and nothing had in a very long time.
His gaze lifted to hers, their eyes colliding, electricity charging the air and his hand slid back to her cheek. “Don’t be nervous.”
She covered his hand with hers. “You have like a hundred years of experience on me.” Her voice was soft, breathless.
His blood ran icy at the idea of another wolf touching her.
Her nostrils flared, her eyes going wide. “Don’t make assumptions. I can smell them all over you. I’ve not been with anyone, Shi. How could I when I wanted you?”
Relief washed over him and he watched her relax with him, her shoulders easing just a bit. “Good,” he said, running his thumb over her full bottom lip the way he’d wanted to almost hourly for all those months as her bodyguard. “I’d have killed any wolf who touched you.” There was no apology in his tone, no remorse. He was a wolf. No one touched his woman but him.
She laughed without humor. “I’m going to justify how much I like how possessively you just said that by reminding myself there’s no wolf to kill.”
He eased her back onto the mattress, framing her body with his. There was so much he wanted to say to her. Like this is how it is between mates. Like she belonged to him and him to her. That even if biology said differently, she was the woman he loved. But he didn’t. He couldn’t, because Shi knew that if they weren’t mates, he couldn’t fairly ask her to turn her back on her father, or even a true mate, who could give her children.
“I’m going to make love to you now, Carmen,” he murmured against her lips and when she didn’t object, he tasted her, slowly kissing her, amazed at the willpower her nerves gave him, the tenderness that filled him. The way his need to please her, held his absolute need to claim her, in check. And she wasn’t human, and there would be no pain with her first time, but he wanted this to be memorable.
Shi began to kiss his way down her neck, and she slid a hand to his face. “Shi.”
He leaned back to look at her. “What baby?”
“I hate I’m the reason you had to leave.”
“You’re also the reason I’m back.” The only reason he’d h
ad to live beyond dedication to protecting his race in longer than he could remember. He slanted his mouth over hers, and this time the kiss consumed them, the passion blossoming into something raw and real, like nothing he’d ever felt.
He traced the lace of her bra with his finger then his tongue, unhooking the front snap and freeing her breast. She gasped as he filled his palms, lapping at one of her rosy nipples. She was delicate and sweet, still untouched by the hell of wars their race battled despite the loss of her family, and he wanted to protect her, to please her.
Her fingers slid to his hair and he inched lower, kissing his way down her stomach to the top of her leather pants. She lifted to her elbows immediately, panic in her eyes. “Easy,” he murmured, his hand flattening on her stomach, silently urging her to lay down. “Relax.”
“I’m trying. I am. I’m just-”
He pressed his mouth to the V of her body and she moaned and fell back onto the mattress. Shi let the heat of his mouth caress her, unzipping her pants as he did and then not giving her time for more objections. He reached for her leather pants and skimmed them down over her hips, tugging them from her legs. She tried to sit up, but he quickly pulled her legs to his hips and slid his fingers into the slick, wet heat of her body, his gaze raking over her pebbled nipples. She was hot for him, ripe and ready, and he intended to take everything she’d give him.
“Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to taste you?” he asked, holding her stare. “How many times I’ve thought about how sweet you’ll be?”
“Shi,” she whispered and she didn’t have to say more. He could smell her nerves, her arousal, her need.
He leaned in and licked her, and she quivered beneath his tongue. Shi’s cock thickened at her response, the promise of finally being inside her so close, his body ached with the promise. But not yet. Not quite yet. Now he wanted her pleasure, her orgasm, her walls to come down, and for her to give him her satisfaction, her release.