Fate Mountain Lodge had a five-star restaurant run by the famous Wild Bear chef Shane Keenan. Shane once had a famous cooking show, back before the war. He’d been notoriously bad tempered, and the audience had eaten it up. That was until he’d been outed as a bear and drafted into the military. But now Shane Keenan lived on Fate Mountain and was a member of the Rescue Bears.
The hostess led them to their private table that looked out onto the lake as the summer sun was slipping toward the horizon. The golden glow radiated over the crystal water that stretched out below the lodge. It was a perfect romantic spot for their first date, and Rollo congratulated himself for his excellent planning.
Zoe looked down at her menu as if deep in thought over appetizers. She’d painted her nails the same color as her lips and the sight of her put together like this was a stark contrast from the way she had dressed the day before. But Zoe in coveralls was no less sexy than Zoe in a skintight jaguar print dress, black heels, and red nail polish. He appreciated the contrast because it made him feel like he understood her that much more.
“You said something about rock lobster,” Zoe said, still looking at her menu.
“It’s a Shane Keenan specialty,” Rollo said.
“Who is Shane Keenan?”
“That’s right, you’ve been out of the country a long time. But his show was still on TV when you were in high school.”
“I didn’t watch TV when I was in high school,” Zoe said, finally looking up at him.
“What did you do in high school?” he asked in a low, gravelly voice.
“Get into trouble mostly. Cut class. Spin doughnuts in the parking lot. Make fun of cheerleaders. That kind of thing,” she said, throwing her black hair over her shoulder.
“Sounds like you were quite the hellraiser,” he said, looking her intently in the eye to avoid staring at her magnificent cleavage.
“I still am, officer,” she said.
Rollo knew she was teasing him. She had to know he was onto her. There was just too much evidence to ignore. The faint scent of his mate at the scene. A large cat paw print. And then to top it off, her obvious obsession with Louis the Fifteenth secret compartment chests. It was all adding up and not looking very good for his little kitty. But what was he going to do about it?
Zoe was his mate and therefore he knew she had to be a good person. He could feel the real warmth of her heart deep below all of her sexy bravado. There had to be a reason she had done it. If she just wanted the money, why come to Fate Mountain? Why take an internship with Angus? Why make herself known at all?
“I’m sure we can do something to make sure you behave,” he growled.
“And what makes you think you can do that?” she asked, her green eyes sparking in the golden light of sunset.
“Have you two decided?” the waitress asked walking up to the table. “Or do you need another minute?”
“I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay and the rock lobster,” Zoe said, handing her menu to the waitress.
“I’ll have the same,” Rollo said.
The waitress walked away, and they both watched her until their eyes snapped back and locked on each other again.
“I’m an officer of the law, Ms. Bright,” he said.
“Have I done something wrong?” she taunted.
Her teasing was getting under his skin, and his face would have been flaming red with embarrassment if there weren’t a tablecloth hiding the massive erection he was packing between his legs.
He gulped, considering what to say next. This game of cat and mouse was more intoxicating than he had anticipated. He wanted to take the handcuffs from his SUV and tie her up somewhere until she told him the truth. Or until she screamed his name with mind blowing pleasure. Whichever came first. He wasn’t sure which one he wanted more.
The waitress walked up to the table and set two glasses of Chardonnay in front of the couple and walked away.
“We’ll soon find out,” Rollo said, taking a sip of his wine.
She smiled, lifting the wineglass to her lips and taking a sip. She was a clever little kitty, and he knew that she would slip from his grasp at the soonest possibility. He had to pin her down and find out what she knew. It was the only way he could protect her. There had to be something else going on besides greed and lust for money. He was going to get to the bottom of it.
“How long have you been in law enforcement?” Zoe asked, changing the subject as she gazed out the window at the setting sun.
“I was a detective before the war. I served as an officer in the special forces. Within two months of joining the Fate Mountain Police Department after the war, the old chief retired and the mayor made me commander. I’m more suited to investigation than administration. But I do my job.”
“What kind of detective where you before the war?”
“Homicide, San Francisco PD. It’s a different world than Fate Mountain Village, Oregon. But after what I saw in the war, I was ready for a slower pace of life. I wanted to settle down like most of the other shifter veterans out there. We want to find our mates, buy homes, start families. What else could you possibly want out of life?”
“Fun? Excitement?”
“How much fun and excitement can one body really stand?” Rollo asked her.
“How much can you stand, Rollo?” she said seductively.
The waitress carried a tray to their table and set their plates of rock lobster in front of them. She asked if they needed anything else, replaced their basket of bread, and walked away.
“I’m sure I could stand a lot of excitement, especially with you, Zoe Bright,” he said as he cracked a lobster claw in his bare hands.
She smirked at him and then popped a piece of lobster in her mouth. She groaned and licked her lips. “This is delicious. You were right.”
“I’m right about a lot of things,” he said.
“Such as?” she said, taking another sip of wine.
“Stick around, and you’ll find out.”
They continued eating their lobster, with their taunting flirtation heavy between them. Rollo learned a bit more about Zoe’s childhood and that she had been poor growing up. Corey had been sending her money ever since he’d sold his first app, his first year of college. After she graduated high school, she’d had a living income from the money Corey sent her. After spending the majority of childhood in poverty in a small Midwestern town, all Zoe Bright wanted was to get out of there and see the world.
Rollo could tell that she felt inferior to her brother because of his genius and the fact that he was the kind of person that everyone revered. She on the other hand, had never been academic or particularly ‘talented’ at anything. That’s the way she described herself anyway.
Rollo could tell there was a glowing fire deep inside Zoe that burned like an inferno and filled her with internal strength beyond anything he’d ever seen before. He wanted to warm himself in the glow of her burning soul. If he could just get close enough. If she would just let him in.
But Rollo knew that Zoe was a criminal. The evidence was still circumstantial, but it all added up. If he had even one piece of physical evidence, he would arrest her right here and now. He would have no choice. But until he found the evidence, he would have to continue playing this alluringly sexy game with her.
When they finished their meal, Rollo paid and left a large tip before he and Zoe got up from the table. He led her out onto the big patio that looked out over the lake, and they stood against the railing, watching the last rays of the sun disappear behind the mountains.
“I’ve never seen a place as beautiful as Fate Mountain,” Rollo mused.
“I’ve been all over the world, but I know exactly what you mean. I wish I could stay here.”
“Why can’t you stay here?” he asked.
Zoe looked up at him anxiously and grabbed his arm, yanking him down the patio and away from the dining room entrance.
Chapter 7
Dima was here!
Zoe ya
nked Rollo away from the window the moment she saw Dima and his henchmen walk through the open doors into the dining room. Dima wasn’t supposed to be here yet. She had three more days until their delivery drop. What the hell was he doing in the lodge?
Was he following her? Was he angry?
People tended to get shot in the head when Dima was angry. Zoe’s heart beat a mile a minute as she dragged Rollo away from the dining room windows. She couldn’t let Dima see her. She couldn’t let Rollo see Dima. She couldn’t let anybody see anybody.
Thinking fast, she tried to come up with an excuse for why she dragged him all the way around the back side of the lodge and down the stairs toward the lake. It was dusk now and the porch and path lights around the lodge had already flickered to life.
“Where are you taking me?” he asked in a husky voice.
She had ahold of his forearm, but he grabbed her hand and forced her to hold it. She continued to lead him by the hand down the path towards the forest.
She had been to the lodge several times and knew the grounds fairly well. As a shifter, she had a kind of sixth sense for directions and remembered exactly which way to go. After a few minutes they were standing under the cover of ponderosa pine mixed with Douglas fir along a secluded path. The cool air from the lake swept down the path and goosebumps rose along her exposed arms.
Rollo held onto her hand and moved closer, sniffing the air.
“Zoe,” he whispered in her ear, his body growing closer by the second.
His hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her soft curves against his muscled flesh. She gasped, looking up at him as the moon rose overhead.
“Rollo,” she said, pushing against his chest.
“We’re both shifters, Zoe. There’s no reason to beat around the bush,” he said, pushing his erection against her throbbing sex. She groaned, wanting him so much deeper.
“I’m not ready for this,” she breathed.
“Why did you bring me out here?”
“I needed some air.”
“I don’t believe you,” he growled.
She didn’t think before she pressed her lips against his. A jolt of electric pleasure shot through her core and exploded in her brain, tightening her nipples into hard little buds. She groaned, tasting his tongue as it flicked between her lips. The liquid heat of their kiss washed over her skin, and she was enraptured by his touch. His hands roved her body, cupping her ass and pulling her against his stiff erection. She felt herself gush with need as their kiss deepened.
Rollo slid his hand along her thigh and under the hem of her dress, pushing upward until his fingers slid across the damp cloth between her legs. She shuddered, his fingers igniting the deep need, buried inside her. His fingers slipped under her panties, pushing through her wet folds until he pressed against her swollen clit. Zoe gripped the lapels of Rollo’s suit jacket, wanting him so much closer. His deft fingers worked her body, showing her exactly what he wanted.
Her pleasure built as Rollo kissed her harder. His fingers slid inside her, caressing her g-spot as his thumb focused on her tight bud. Zoe leaned her head back as she felt the flood of release rising over her. She moaned in the moonlight soaked forest and an owl hooted in reply. As she came, she felt her connection to Rollo solidifying. The invisible cords that bound them, strengthened with each throbbing contraction of her sex.
Rollo kissed her neck, moving his hands over her ass once more as he pressed his erection against her stomach. She knew he wanted her. She knew he wanted to claim her.
Zoe couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than the exact same thing. Pulling away from him was like ripping off her own limb. But she had to do it. Getting involved with Rollo now, with Dima already here in Fate Mountain would be an inexcusable mistake.
She’d only brought him out here to get away. Rollo couldn’t know she was connected to Dimitri Ivanov. She had to keep her involvement a secret from him just like the theft of the jewels and all of the other mistakes she’d made over the last three years. She stepped back from Rollo, her head in a daze and her body alive and calling out for more.
“Where are you going, little kitty?” he asked in a low, husky voice.
“I told you, Rollo, I’m not ready for this,” she said.
“You kissed me. I’m beginning to think you’re just a selfish lover,” he teased.
She leaned back into him, his scent filling her senses. She could not get enough of him. If he were to pick her up and take her now, she could not resist him. Part of her wished he would do it.
“I’m anything but a selfish lover,” she purred. “But you are going to have to be patient if you want to find out just how giving I really am.”
“When you put it that way, I guess I can let you go. For now,” he growled in her ear.
She stepped away, giggling nervously. She didn’t want him to let her go now or ever. But she knew that’s what had to happen for everyone’s safety. If Zoe ever wanted to be free of Dima, and the repercussions of what she had done, she had to keep her involvement with the Russian mafia a secret from Rollo.
He was the police commander. If he knew anything about what she had done, he’d throw her in jail and throw away the key.
Wouldn’t he?
Of course he would. He was a law enforcement officer, and he had the responsibility to uphold the law. And technically, Zoe was a criminal. There was no getting away from that fact. She had broken the law numerous times, and she would do it again if she had to, in order to buy her freedom from Dima once and for all.
Maybe, just maybe, if she could ever pay off her debt to Dimitri Ivanov, she could start her life over again with Rollo. She would have to keep her past a secret from him for the rest of their lives, but that was a price she was willing to pay for true love.
The spark between them was new, but Zoe could tell that in time it would grow into a raging inferno. Rollo was everything she had ever wanted. If only she could have him.
“Will you drive me home?” she asked.
“I will,” he said with obvious reluctance.
He took her hand gently in his, covering her with his warmth. They walked quietly through the moonlit forest until they came back to the parking lot where his SUV was parked. He opened the door and helped her inside. She’d just taken a half mile hike in a pair of Louboutin pumps, and her calves were killing her. Zoe might be a shifter, but that didn’t make hiking in heels any easier. Next time she ran off into the forest with Rollo, she hoped they would both be naked.
She couldn’t get the image of her and Rollo running naked through the forest, out of her head the entire trip back to the Bright Institute for Shifters. When Rollo parked in front of the dormitory and opened the door to help her out of the car, they stood in the orange glow of the halogen street lamps above the parking lot.
In the silence of the night, they looked into each other’s eyes. She had not expected this evening to go this way. No, that was a lie. Zoe was a shifter, and she knew exactly what Rollo meant to her. She would be lying to herself if she couldn’t admit that she knew exactly where the night would go.
And now she was trapped. She hadn’t wanted to meet him for this very reason. She was physically and emotionally bonded to him already. She wanted him with every muscle, every nerve, every layer of her soul. He excited something inside her that she couldn’t express in human words. Her jaguar would not quit moaning and groaning, and constantly showed her images of Rollo sinking himself deep inside her softness.
He leaned into her and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips before he drew way.
“This was the best date I’ve ever had,” Rollo said.
“You have very low standards,” Zoe teased.
“On the contrary, I have extremely high standards. The only one I want is my fated mate. And that is you. Any date with you is the best date. The next one will be better than the last. I guarantee it,” he said in a seductive voice.
Zoe knew exactly what he was talking about. They bo
th knew it, and they both wanted it. She knew that his grizzly was driving him mad, insisting that he sink his teeth deep inside her neck and claim her as his own.
Her jaguar wanted exactly the same thing. The animal drive inside a female shifter was exactly the same as that inside a male shifter. She wanted to claim him too. She wanted to ride his cock and slash his chest with her claws as he thrust himself inside her. She wanted to feel their mutual release as they tasted each other’s blood.
“Oh God,” Zoe muttered, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss Rollo one more time before she pulled away and started toward the stairs.
“Good night,” he said behind her. “Until next time.”
She turned back to him, his body silhouetted by the lamplight behind him. “Until next time,” she breathed.
Zoe trotted up the steps to the dormitory of the Bright Institute for Shifters and slipped inside, her heart pounding like a maniac beating a drum. Confusion thrashed and her mind felt fragmented between her need for Rollo and her need to stay away from him.
Zoe had always been an independent, confident woman. And she didn’t intend to let that change one little bit. But Rollo did something to her that made her want to allow him to protect her. It made her want to tell him all her secrets.
But if she did, she could compromise it all. After their first kiss she knew now that, more than anything, she wanted to be with him forever. But she couldn’t allow herself to have it yet. Not with the threat of Dimitri Ivanov hanging over her head. She had to deal with him once and for all and finally be free before she could have Rollo and claim him as her own.
Chapter 8
Rollo let Zoe go for one reason only. He needed to see what she would do next. Rollo was the chief of police and had almost fifteen years of law enforcement and investigation experience. He was no fool. He had seen Dimitri Ivanov walk into the lodge. He’d smelled Zoe’s fear at the sight of him. Rollo had let her pull him away from the dining room window as soon as he realized that Ivanov was the central problem.