Holiday Mates: Supernatural Enforcers Agency Short Stories (23 page)

“I think they’re very artistic.  You like art, Mother.”

“Don’t be flippant.  How old is he?”

Cecile felt her cheeks heat.  “What does that matter?”

Marianne smiled gently.  “So he is younger than you.”

“Only by five years, it’s nothing.”

“And I understand he has no family or money.”

Cecile clenched her fists together.  “He doesn’t care about money.  He cares about me.  I love him and we’re having a baby!”

Marianne blinked at her.  “Darling?”

“I’m sorry, I was waiting for the right time to tell you,” she stammered.

Her mother softened and hugged her.  “Oh darling, I am pleased.”

“It’s still early days but we’re excited.”

“Is that why you chose him?  His virility?”

“Mother!  He’s so much more than…”

“I was joking, darling.  I am sure we will become friends.  At the very least for our little cygnet’s sake.”

Cecile coughed.  “Or cub.”

“Why, yes, of course.  Now let’s get back to the party.  I wouldn’t want the father of my grandchild to be scared away by too many barbed put downs.”

The inner swan balked at the thought.  “Oh, I don’t think he’d run away.  I think his reaction would be a little more… pointed.” 
Like with pointy claws.

*

The bear curled his lip at the paltry offerings. 
Cucumber sandwiches?
  Who the fuck ate cucumber sandwiches?  Cucumber was a garnish you put on the meat, but only in such a small amount that it didn’t detract from the taste of the meat and because your mate insisted you eat some vegetables.  And they cut off the freaking crusts –
they were the best damn bit!

He gave the skittish looking maid a doubtful look and she tried to smile reassuringly.  “I could ask cook to make something else,” she whispered.

Yes – a roast beef sub the size of his arm would be welcome.  His bear licked his lips at the thought.  But no, it wasn’t a hotel.  He wasn’t about to demand they wait on him.

“Nah, don’t worry about it.”

He scooped twelve sandwiches onto his plate.  The maid did a kind of curtsy and moved on.  He ignored the wide-eyed looks from Cecile’s cousin or something –
he’d forgotten most of them already
.  In their pastel linen suits and dresses, they tended to blend into one drab forgettable bunch.  The only one who stuck out was Edmund.  Cecile had been infinitely unhappy when she saw him, and he wasn’t sure why.  Ex maybe?  Either way his bear was pissed and waiting impatiently for Cecile to return so he could grill her.

He smashed four sandwiches into his mouth and looked around the room.  There were about twelve other people there for the party.  Although this was unlike any party he’d ever known.  There was a lot more bland food and a lot less booze.

Apart from a red panda shifter, the other guests were all swans.  She was small and petite, but everyone else tended to be slim and fairly tall.  They were mostly relatives but a few weren’t, like Edmund who was currently staring at him.  The others flicked nervous glances at him –
perhaps fearing he was there to rob them
– but they didn’t let their gaze linger.  Edmund was something else.  Boris didn’t react to the stare, but he couldn’t help it as his eyes turned to black and his bear cracked his jaws.

“So, Boris, what do you do?” asked a silver haired man with a pleasant, open face.

“Security guard,” he rumbled.

The man smiled politely and Boris was reminded of Cecile.  No matter what, she was always kind and feigned interest no matter how tedious the subject.  They had gone to a retirement party for one of the other security guards last week – much more
his
kind of party.  Old Wally had lectured Cecile five ways from sundown about keeping pigs and not once had her attention wavered or did she look bored.

“Oh, where do you work?”

“SEA.”

“Ah, so you met my niece at work?”

Boris grunted.  Right, he was Uncle Roderick or something.  His bear bristled as Edmund got up and sauntered in their direction.  Boris supposed he might be considered attractive in a pretty boy kind of way.  He was dressed in a cream suit with a – fuck – paisley pocket square and matching tie.  God, even Director Sanders – who in Boris’ opinion dressed like a pansy – drew the line at paisley.  Boris’ eyes tracked him and he was pleased that the pristine swan flustered a little under the scrutiny.

Edmund slapped Roderick on the back.  “Roddy, how’s the horse business?”

“Ed,” said Roderick, tightly, “very good.  I train racehorses,” he explained to Boris.  “Are you interested in horses?”

“Placed a few bets.  Think I might have eaten one at a fancy French restaurant.”

Roderick guffawed as Edmund looked away in distaste.

“Boris, if you are interested, I’d be glad to show around my stables,” said Roderick.  “Ed, I’m surprised to see you here.  I understood it was a family party.”

“Technically I am family.”  Boris didn’t fail to detect the look of annoyance that flashed over Roderick’s face but Edmund didn’t seem to notice.

“So, Boris,” started Edmund, “how long have you and Cissy been together?”

His jaw ticked at the nickname.  His bear snorted.  Cissy?  Did she really like that?

“A while.”

Edmund waited for more, but Boris just glared at him - he sure as heck wasn’t going to get more.

The red panda shifter – Mindy, maybe – wandered over.  “Hello Ed, I was sorry to hear about the divorce.”  She smiled sweetly but there was a hint of malice behind it.

The male chuckled in return.  “Yes but, divorces aren’t always bad things.  Sometimes they just point you in the right direction, and they don’t always last forever.”  He looked directly at Boris.

“Spoken like someone who’s had lots of practice,” murmured Mindy.

Boris sensed his mate before he saw her.  The bear growled happily as she came into view, rushing to him, her cheeks slightly pink.  He stood up and held out his hands to her, and she handed him an enormous meat-filled sandwich.

“I’m sorry I left, my love,” she whispered as they settled back on the couch, “but I needed to speak to mother and I thought you might be hungry.”

He pulled her against him and kissed her forehead under the interested gazes of Roderick and Mindy, and the stony glare of Edmund.  His bear snarled in some kind of triumph.  He didn’t know exactly who Edmund was, but he knew he was trouble.

Cecile pressed herself as close to him as possible as she chatted with Roderick and Mindy.

*

“What exactly happens at these kinds of parties?” Boris asked when they were finally alone.

There was the cucumber sandwiches, endless cups of tea, tiny cakes that he could barely even see in his huge hands and mindless small talk with a bunch of prim swan shifters who made jibes at one another rather than saying what they’re thinking.  So far, he wasn’t impressed with
this
kind of party.

After a couple of hours of that, Cecile excused them with the reason that they needed to unpack and she wanted to have a nap.

Cecile emerged from the bathroom.  His bear roared at the unhappy look on her face.

“Is that really what you want to ask me?”

“Who the fuck is Edmund?” he snapped a little more forcefully than he intended.

Cecile flinched at his harsh tone and he was across the room and kissing her before she could react.  “I’m sorry,” he muttered into her hair, as his bear whimpered for his mate.  There was a time when he had beaten men up for looking at him funny.  But he wasn’t that kind of bear anymore.  He didn’t snap and lose his temper over nothing. 
Certainly not with his mate.

“No, I’m sorry,” she murmured.  “Edmund’s my ex-husband… my second ex-husband.  I didn’t know he’d be here.  My mother didn’t know until my cousin turned up with him in tow.  She’s much too good of a host to tell him to… ah…”

“Fuck off?”

“Quite.”

“If she wants, I’ll tell him.”

Cecile giggled and melted against him.  He scooped her into his arms and he carried her to the bed, placing her in the center and stretching out next to her.  His hand burrowed under her shirt and grasped a breast.  She moaned as he pinched her nipple.

“This guy doesn’t want you back, does he?” he asked suspiciously.

“I don’t see why he would.  When we couldn’t conceive, he had an affair, and then divorced me so he could remarry a younger, fertile swan.  He wanted children and I couldn’t provide them, at least I couldn’t provide him with children.  The only thing that has changed since then is that I’m no longer available.”

“Fucker.”  His bear would happily rip the swan apart, feather by feather.

She ran her fingers over his stubbly jaw, tracing her thumb over his lips.  “I made a mistake when I married him.  I mistook flattery for love.  Not a mistake I have to worry about now.”

The bear harrumphed.  “I tell you you’re perfect all the time.”

Cecile beamed.  “That’s not what I meant.  A lack of flattery doesn’t bother me in the least.  Not when I have the love of the sexiest man on the planet.”

He grunted in agreement, trying not to look too smug.  “You told your mother about the baby?”

“Yes, she was very pleased.  Be warned, she was already talking about turning one of her bedrooms into a nursery – she’s going to expect a lot more visits.”

“Jeez, not sure how much more cucumber I can take.”

She giggled.  “Thank you for coming.  I wouldn’t have minded if you wanted to stay home.”

“I’d follow you anywhere.”  Plus with Edmund’s presence, he really was glad he was there.

Boris’ hand stroked down her torso and landed on her still-flat stomach, his thumb circled her bellybutton.  His bear rumbled in happiness at the thought of their cub – or cygnet, whichever - growing inside her.  It wouldn’t be long until she started to show.  He looked forward to seeing her rounded with his young.  But…

“You know whatever happens…”  He struggled to find the words to say it without offending her.  Usually he could say anything with just a grunt, but this required more delicacy.  “There are other options.”

“I know,” she whispered.  “Until I met you I was certain I would be single for the rest of my life, and I didn’t want to raise a child alone.  But, now that I have you, I do want children, and if we can’t have our own, I’ll be okay with that.”

Boris grunted, and that time, it said enough.

*

“Wow.”  Boris growled in approval as Cecile emerged in a lilac dress.

“Wow yourself.”  He was dressed in his usual uniform of jeans and boots, but he had donned one of the polo necks she had bought for him.  Her swan fluttered in approval.  The pale blue material stretched across the acreage of chest and she couldn’t help but run her hands over him.

He shrugged a little self-consciously.  “Just a new shirt.  You have good taste.”

“Well it’s getting better.  Just look at how much my taste in men has improved.”

She stretched and brushed her lips over his.  He growled and licked his lips.  He placed his big hands on her shoulders and toyed with the straps of her dress, his thumb burrowing under the material to find her bra strap.

“You went with the lacy white set.”

She always thought it was one of her more annoying anal compulsions that she always had to wear matching underwear – she seriously could not leave the house unless both her bra and panties matched.  But Boris said he loved it.  He found it sexy.  But then he found it sexy when she ate spaghetti and the sauce dribbled onto her chin.

“Mmm hmmm, the one with the small purple flowers.”

Boris leaned down, his lips tickling her ear.  “That’s one of my favorites.”

“They’re all your favorites.”

He groaned and his hands tightened.  “Let’s skip dinner.”

The old Cecile would have balked at the thought.  There were guests downstairs.  Her
mother
was downstairs.  If they hid in her room they were sure to know what they were doing.  But this was the new Cecile.  The one who made out with her mate at work when he was on his break.  The one who had sex on top of cars.  The one who couldn’t go two seconds in the presence of her gorgeous mate without her arousal threatening to turn her body into an inferno.  She and her swan
loved
the new Cecile.

“I could say I have a headache and that you have to tend to me.”

“Yeah, I will tend to you all night long if I have to.”

Before she could tell him how much she liked the sound of that, the door flew open.  Boris snarled at Dawson, who looked completely unimpressed and tried to look past him to Cecile.

“Your mother says that the rest of the guests are waiting for you.”

“Thank you,” she said wearily.

Dawson curled his lip at Boris and left.  The bear trembled in furious annoyance.

Cecile pressed herself against Boris’ back.  “We’re only here for a couple of days.”