A Very Jaguar Christmas (18 page)

Demetria heard Everett's cell phone's familiar jingle as she was dozing on the couch with him. To his credit, Everett was trying to answer it without disturbing her. She was so tired that she felt like she had a hangover. When she pulled away from him, he realized she was awake and put the call on speakerphone. Then he pulled her back into his arms. She'd never imagined that working a case with a teammate would be quite like this. She snuggled against his hot, hard body and listened to what Howard had found.

“We checked out O'Flaherty's Pub. Paddy wasn't there, and no one knows where he went. One of his fellow poker players is Lucian Covington. He wasn't in the least bit cooperative, but no news there. We have Paddy's place under surveillance. Millicent O'Brian isn't home either. She's a retired clerk from the city water department, so no one's missed her at a job. Her car is gone. We've checked with her grown son and daughter. They knew about her affair with Paddy, but they haven't heard from either of them. They figured Paddy and their mother went off somewhere together, but they have no idea where. In the meantime, we have her place under surveillance too.”

“Okay, good. If anyone finds him, no matter the hour, we want to question him right away.”

“Gotcha.”

After they ended the call, Everett asked Demetria, “What do you want to do about tonight?”

She looked at the clock. “Midnight.” She snagged his hand and got up from the couch. “I think we're beyond first dates.” She smiled up at him. “Don't you?”

“Hell, yeah.” When they entered his bedroom, he turned the light on, and she looked at the room for a moment. It was masculine—black and white with touches of red—with a large, fake zebra rug at the foot of the bed, zebra throw pillows, and a matching zebra-striped chair.

“Nice. Love the zebra touches. And I'm glad you don't have a caiman skin framed on the wall.”

“Rite of passage. Matt was proud of taking down his first caiman as a jaguar. I got rid of mine a few years ago.”

She smiled up at Everett, and he wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned down to kiss her, his arms sliding around her back to pull her close. Even snuggling with her on the couch had aroused him. Touching her, breathing in her scent, seeing her cast him an interested glance his way—they all turned him on.

He devoured her mouth, her jaw, her neck. Groaning with need, he tackled her clothes and then his own, tossing them aside. Then he jerked the covers to the side and they fell onto the mattress. Kissing her full lips, he pressed her body into the soft mattress with his, claiming her, possessing, pinning her in a way that said
mine
.

Their hearts were pounding, their breathing labored, as he held her arms to each side and began to kiss her throat and breasts with a fever, dragging in the scent of her soft skin, hot and she-cat sweet.

He nuzzled her breasts with his whiskery cheek and she moaned, wrapping her legs around his before he began to rub his stiff cock against her mound. He swore he had been doomed to love her from the first moment he saw her.

He moved over, releasing her arms so he could stroke her into oblivion, rubbing her harder and smelling her pheromones wild with excitement. Her arousal called to him, and his responded with the same jaguar jungle craving.

She clawed at his back like a jaguar in love. Her breath hitched, and she gripped him tighter before she called out in bliss. He quickly covered her mouth with a searing kiss, but too late to muffle her cry of rapture. He paused for a moment, waiting, making sure that Corey didn't come in to check on them.

When Corey didn't, Everett nudged Demetria's legs wider, pushed into her tight sheath, and felt the ripples of climax tightening around his cock. He captured her mouth with his again, tonguing her, and sliding in and out. He pushed his cock deeper, rocking her against the soft mattress. Her hands caressed his back, her foot sliding up the back of his leg, her body moving with his. He pumped harder, pushed in and pulled out, and thrust again. He felt the end coming, uttered a deep growl before he released, and growled again with hot satisfaction at the last.

Moving off her, he pulled her tightly against his body, enjoying the feeling of her softness planted against him, the silkiness of her skin, her heat, her heart beating steadily, and then he yanked the covers over them.

“I will never be the same,” she said, cuddling against him.

“Is that good or bad?” he asked, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back gently.

She kissed his chest, her warm lips stirring him up all over again. “I'll let you know in a little while when I wake you up again.”

He chuckled. “I'll never be the same again either.”

* * *

Demetria felt eyes on her when she finally woke that morning after making love again to Everett in the middle of the night. They were two tired old cats after that and had slept just a little late. But her jaguar senses told her they were not alone.

She opened her eyes to see Corey in his pajamas, watching her.

She smiled. “Need some breakfast, honey?”

“Yeah,” Everett said and tried to pull her back into his arms.

“We have a little boy to feed,” she warned Everett, chuckling.

He peered over her and smiled at Corey. “Good morning, bud. Why don't you go in the living room, and I'll be right there to fix you breakfast.”

“Okay.” Corey padded out of the bedroom and headed down the hall.

Everett hugged and kissed Demetria. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?” He pulled away and hurried to get dressed.

She folded her arms behind her head and watched the sexy jaguar as he pulled his boxer briefs on. “Depends on what you're thinking.” She smiled a little and raised her brows in question.

Everett was buttoning his shirt as he leaned over to kiss her. “The future. Our future.”

“A wolf puppy in our future?”

Everett laughed. “I'm thinking more of a jaguar cub.”

She groaned. “You haven't even met my mother yet or taken care of my dad.”

“You haven't told me what's going on with your dad. And your mom? I'll do everything in my power to make her love me.” Everett finished buttoning his shirt and tucked it in.

She smiled at him, then sighed. “My dad left us, but every once in a while, he shows up out of the blue. My mom starts thinking he's here to stay, but then he's gone again. It's a real roller coaster, and I don't want him upsetting her.”

“How does your mom feel about it?”

“She just tells me she's a grown woman and can deal with it, but she gets so upset.”

“Has he visited you?”

“A couple of times. I told him off.”

Everett smiled at her.

“Well, he deserves it!”

“Okay, I'll talk to your dad and see what his problem is. And then we can see your mom at some point. But first, I need to feed a hungry wolf pup.”

“What did I tell you about trying to save the whole world at once?”

Everett smiled at her. “For you, I can handle it.” Then he headed down the hallway. Demetria sighed, climbed out of bed, and walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

If she could have a mate like Everett who would take care of the little ones while she had a leisurely shower before work, and he dropped them off at his mother's day care, well, that could work, couldn't it? She smiled and poured shampoo onto her hair, wondering if this was still a pipe dream and she'd wake up and it would all be over. But if Everett could reason with her dad and make him stop coming around and upsetting her mom, she was keeping him.

* * *

Everett fixed “the family” breakfast—eggs, sausages, toast, and hash browns, thinking how he could handle being a papa jaguar. How he could make love to his sleepy wife, take a quick shower, make breakfast, and rouse the kids. Then he'd drop off the kids at his mom's day care and still make it to work on time with his lovely teammate. And they had plenty of family around to take care of the kids when they were on missions out of town. In any event, all of this could work out.

After fixing breakfast, he was still smiling about it and talking away with Corey, who was busy coloring in one of the coloring books that Demetria had picked up for him.

“So what does your mom fix you for breakfast?” Everett asked. They talked about favorite foods and swimming and Corey playing with his brother and sister, and Everett shared what it was like playing with his too. Even though Corey was a wolf and he was a jaguar, they shared a lot of common likes and dislikes, played the same kind of games, and loved to fish and swim.

“I caught a fish once but it got away,” Corey said.

“Sounds like me and a caiman I caught when I was little.” Everett showed him the picture on his cell phone of what a caiman looked like. “I grabbed for him but didn't quite succeed in gripping him in the right place with my teeth, and he got away. Next time, the caiman I went after wasn't so lucky.”

Corey looked at the caiman, wide-eyed.

“Jaguars' teeth can kill a caiman. But I wouldn't recommend going after one as a wolf.”

“Never seen one before,” Corey said.

That gave Everett an idea. “Have you been to a zoo?”

Corey shook his head.

“Maybe we can take you to the one here. They have lots of animals and probably even a caiman.”

“Now what are we planning?” Demetria asked, smiling as she joined them. “Oh, wow, this looks good.” She sat down to eat with them. “A trip to the zoo?”

“Yeah,” Corey said. “To see the animals.”

She smiled up at Everett as he served the rest of the food. “I'm game.” Demetria took a deep breath and then turned her attention to Corey, who was busy eating his sausage. “Do you have any idea what Belinda and Paddy were fishing for?” She finished her eggs and set her fork on the plate.

“I smelled walleye in the truck. I saw mooses out the window of the camper. I wanted to stop and get out and see them.”

“Moose?” Everett asked.

“Yeah. Three of them.” Corey held up three fingers.

“Okay, so your parents live in the wilderness where they have lots of forests? Not too many people? So they can run as wolves? Arctic wolves? White wolves?” Demetria asked.

“Yeah. So we don't get shot.”

“You live near a river,” Demetria said. “Do you know the name?”

He shook his head.

“What about lakes?” Everett asked.

He nodded.

“There are ten thousand of them,” she reminded Everett. “Are there other wolf packs there?”

“Yeah.”

Demetria frowned. “Like yours?”

“Nah. They're real wolves. We got to be careful of them, Daddy said.”

“Okay, so his parents settled in Minnesota because there are no other wolf-shifter packs there. Not near a town—” Everett said.

“An old town.”

“An…old town?” Demetria asked. “Small though? Not many people live there?”

“Just ghosts. Only got one house left.” Corey raised one finger.

“A…ghost town?” Demetria asked, her jaw hanging.

“Yeah, but I didn't see no ghosts.”

“But it's called a ghost town?” Everett asked.

“All the people left, and the town just blew away. That's what Mommy and Daddy said. 'Cuz Angie got scared we'd see ghosts. But there aren't any. Nick said he saw one, but Mommy said he was fibbing 'cuz there aren't any ghosts.”

“Do you live where the ghost town used to be?” Demetria asked.

“Nah. Daddy and my uncles builded cabins. We live in them.”

“Do you know the name of the ghost town?” Everett asked.

Corey shook his head.

Demetria did a Google search. “Okay, an incomplete listing of ghost towns in Minnesota gives us fifty-one.”

“The list is
incomplete
,” Everett said.

“Right.” Demetria started listing them to see if Corey recognized any of them.

Corey just shook his head at the names each time.

“That's a lot of ghost towns, and it's not even all of them,” Everett said.

“Let's go over the maps of Minnesota and see if we can locate ghost towns near lakes and rivers.” Everett cleared the table of dishes and looked up a map of Minnesota.

“And since towns need water to survive,” Demetria said, raising her brows at Everett, “and because the state has ten thousand lakes…”

“They probably all are by some source of water.”

“We need more to go on,” Demetria said, sounding exasperated.

After breakfast, Everett and Demetria took Corey to his birthday party at the day-care center. Mary had decorated everything with a dinosaur theme, since Corey had been having so much fun putting the dinosaur puzzle together.

But the best part? Demetria noticed that three new figures had been painted on the jungle mural. One was a little white wolf pup poking his nose at a leaf covered in raindrops, while below that, a jaguar cub was catching the falling drops on his tongue. And peeking out from behind a tree was a jaguar wearing angel wings.

“Look, Corey, that's you,” Everett said, taking the boy by the hand and showing him the picture.

Corey pointed to the jaguar cub. “That's Lacy 'cuz she always wears wings.”

Demetria and Everett smiled at the painting. She loved seeing the new additions. It was like a new beginning between the wolf and jaguar shifters.

“Okay, Corey, we're going to look for your parents some more. Are you going to be all right playing with the other kids and with my mom?” Everett asked.

Five other moms were there to help out, all smiling at Corey.

“You're not going to stay?” Corey asked.

“We'll come back and get a piece of cake and a scoop of ice cream in a little while and see all the cool presents you got,” Demetria said.

“Okay.” Corey gave them a thumbs-up.