Juneau Heat (2 page)

“You came
for a mini vacation and to take pictures for your magazine,” Birk recalled.
“Where is your camera?”

Oh crap,
she’d forgotten it in her room at the hotel. So much for the photographer
cover, the excuse she’d used in the first place when she approached him on a
forum for people interested in Alaska’s natural beauty. Back in her room, she’d
spent several minutes looking for her camera, making herself late for meeting
with Birk, only to find out she’d kicked the thing under the bed. She should
have stayed behind the computer, where real life did not interfere.

“I planned
to come by and meet you first. Then shoot some pictures tomorrow,” she lied.
“The two of you will show me around, won’t you?”

“It would
be our pleasure,” Birk quipped, and Kotori agreed.

When her
cell phone buzzed, she checked the display and frowned. “Excuse me, gentlemen.
I need to use the little girls’ room.”

They both
stood, and she had to squeeze by Kotori to get out of the small area next to
their table. Her ass brushed his thigh, and bolts of need shot through her core
at how hard his leg was. Too bad he stretched high above her, because one could
only imagine how big the goods hiding inside his pants were.

After
darting into the bathroom, she waved a hand at her face, trying to cool down.
When that didn’t do it, she grabbed a paper towel, wet it, and patted her
forehead and neck.

“Cold as
heck outside, but hot as hell in here with them,” she muttered to herself.

The cell
phone buzzed again, and then it rang. She frowned seeing Joe’s name on the
display. She stabbed the connect button. “Why are you calling me, Joe?”

“I needed
to know you were okay.”

“No, you
didn’t, and you know not to call too.”

He grunted.
“Then answer my text.”

She hung up
on him.

The thing
about shifters she’d learned in the basic training all of them received was
that they had advanced hearing. For Joe to call, he risked the operation
because Birk or Kotori might overhear their conversation and know her real
reason for coming to Juneau—or rather the official one. She still maintained
wanting to meet Birk in person. Up until now, she had never met a shifter. She
had talked to them on the Internet and on the phone in her information
gathering, but it was her dad, her brother, her two sisters, and the men who
worked for her dad who hunted the beasts and killed them.

“Will she
agree?” Kotori asked Birk.

Birk
grinned. He reared back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. A
bit of adjustment in his pants had been necessary when he watched the beautiful
Shiya rub her ass on his friend’s leg. Of course, he wished it were him. He
would have managed to bend his knees to spoon that sexy roundness for all its
worth. Kotori didn’t display his emotions, but he read the man with the ease of
a twenty-odd-year friendship. Shiya turned Kotori on as much as she did Birk.
If he knew women—and he did—she would give in.

“Yes, she
will.” He raised his beer to his mouth and downed half the contents in a few
swigs. When he set it down, he wiped his lips with his thumb and forefinger.
“What she doesn’t know is that we’re onto her. We know she’s the daughter of
that hunter that’s been killing our kind for years.”

“Why the
ruse?”

Birk
switched his gaze from his beer to Kotori, knowing what his friend meant.
“She’s playing her game because they want to be sure. Can’t risk thinking of
themselves as murderers if they kill humans by mistake. We are going along with
it because I want to draw the others in closer, especially her father.” Birk
closed his hand into a fist, feeling the claws of the bear cut his palm. He
blew a sharp breath through his nostrils and calmed himself. The nails went
back to normal, and he watched as the skin knitted together.

“To suggest
we have sex with her . . .”

Birk raised
his brows. “You don’t want to?”

Kotori said
nothing. Birk already knew the answer to that question. His friend had a
hard-on for the woman as much as he did. Birk had shared with his friend about
spending hours talking to Shiya. He knew he should reel her in and back off,
but there had been something about her from the start.

“She’s
special,” he said and shut his eyes, bringing her curvy figure and sweet face
to mind. The shoulder-length black hair she kept parted down the middle and
bumped at the ends, the big brown eyes, and those glasses accentuated the
bookworm he knew her to be, but even while he’d seen her body on the video
camera, he had not grasped the scope of her luscious breasts, how small her
waist was, packaged with a nice round ass he could ride, and long, sexy legs to
wrap around him.

Online he
had been somewhat safe. He couldn’t smell the shampoo she used or the natural
sweet scent of her skin compared with it. Worse, he couldn’t smell her want for
two months. Each night when they signed off, he’d had to beat his cock until he
came, but he remained unsatisfied. When she sat across from him, all plans, all
thought, left. All he could think about was how fast he could get her into bed.

Oh, she
would say yes, because he would make sure of it.

When Shiya
returned, Birk stood up. He made no attempt to hide his reaction to her, and
her gaze shot to his crotch. Her eyebrows rose, and he saw alarm in the
chocolate depths of her eyes. He breathed in her desire at the sight of his
tented pants. Seeing her shift her gaze away from him and over to Kotori’s
pants front gave him great satisfaction as well. So, she was also open to a
ménage. Good to know.

“Let me
help you,” he said and took her arm. He didn’t even try to step back as she
passed by, but he managed to resist bending his knees. That would be too
obvious with so many to witness. Still, she squeezed by him, and he let his
hand slide lower, from her back to her ass, and he lingered there until she
dropped into her seat.

“You know
you wrong, right?” She smirked at him.

“I’m not
sure what you mean.”

“You’re not
going to give me a chance to get to know you. You’re going to try to seduce me
right away.”

He captured
her hand, flipped it over, and nipped the inside of her wrist. The sharp intake
of breath made him stick his tongue out to lave the soft skin. He raised his
head just a little. “I would never make you do anything you don’t want to do,
Shiya.”

Kotori
stood, and Birk acknowledged his friend had come to the end of his tolerance of
being inside. Kotori loved being out in the elements. His polar bear wanted
free rein, and Kotori gave it to him more often than not.

“Let’s take
a walk,” Birk offered and held out his hand to Shiya. She took it and stood.
Birk helped her into her jacket and pulled her close to button it. He sensed
more than felt her trembling at his nearness.

Once they
were out on the street, Shiya fell into step between Birk and Kotori. He pushed
his hands into his pockets and adjusted his long strides to match her shorter
ones. Kotori kept pulling out ahead and having to fall back.

Birk
chuckled. “When you go up to our cabin, you should wear mukluk boots.”

She peered
up at him, her lips pursed, and he resisted kissing them. “When?”

“Yes.”

“What are
mukluk boots?”

He pointed
them out on a native Alaskan. The weather wasn’t cold enough yet. Most still
wore Sitka slippers, a rubber knee-high boot that would keep the feet dry
during the wet weather. Birk explained all of this to Shiya.

“When we go
to the cabin, you’ll be more comfortable in the mukluk fur boots.”

“The red
fox ones,” Kotori added. He stopped ahead of them and turned to examine Shiya’s
feet. “Those are not good.”

Shiya
stopped walking and tapped one booted foot with her hands on her hips. Birk
knew by the pinched lips she wasn’t pleased. “Anything else about me you don’t
like? Birk? Kotori?”

“I
apologize. We didn’t mean to offend you.” Birk drew her into his arms and ran a
hand over her back, but halted short of her rear. “There’s nothing about you I
don’t like.”

She
blushed, and marched ahead of the two of them. Birk watched her ass in the
short jacket, Kotori at his side. When Shiya whirled around, the excitement
lighting her face swept him away.

“This city
is so beautiful,” she chirped. “I can’t believe how close the mountain is,
right at the end of the road. I feel like I can reach out and touch it.”

“You can
touch it,” Kotori told her.

To Birk’s
surprise, his friend crossed to Shiya and took her hand. Birk dropped back a
step to follow them. He thought Kotori would take her toward the mountain, but
instead, they followed several streets with shops lining the walks. At a corner,
they darted across to the opposite side, Shiya running along with her hair
blowing across her face. On the sidewalk, Kotori waited for him, and Birk
strode to her to pull the strands of hair from her face. Her eyes widened, and
those plump lips parted as if in invitation. He accepted in silence, but he
would collect later.

When Kotori
stopped at a shop for ladies’ boots, Birk shook his head. Leave it to Kotori to
insist, even risking Shiya’s anger, to help her see what they meant. She needed
to understand the climate where she visited or suffer while she was there.
Otherwise, none of them would enjoy themselves.

Shiya
pretended to resign herself to shopping, although he caught the gleam in her
eyes. Like many women, she enjoyed it, and Birk didn’t mind indulging her.
Soon, with more comfortable shoewear, she dragged them from store to store,
loading Birk’s and Kotori’s arms with many bags.

“I don’t
remember agreeing to this,” Birk complained.

Shiya piled
on another bag. Kotori cast him a questioning glance when she turned her back,
and Birk shrugged. “We should be used to this by now. We’re not new to dating
women. I’m sure you enjoyed buying her the boots.”

Kotori
huffed, “She wouldn’t let me pay.”

Birk
laughed. “Stubborn little thing.”

Both of
them turned to watch her exclaim over souvenirs of places she hadn’t yet let
them take her to. When even Birk’s feet cried out for mercy, he snagged Shiya
as she passed him and jerked her to him. His cock twitched having her in his
arms, and he spoke against the top of her head. “Enough shopping for today.
We’re going to take you to change, and then we go to dinner.”

She wiggled
in his hold, and Birk shut his eyes. “Just one more and then—”

“No.”
Kotori spoke the word with finality, and Birk looked up to find Shiya observing
him as if she questioned whether she wanted to challenge his command. After a
while, her shoulders lowered, and she smiled. Birk had never seen a more false
grin, and it amused him. The little vixen intended to draw them in pretending
to be obedient. She had no idea who she toyed with.

* * * *

Birk stood
in the living room of Shiya’s suite, while Kotori waited on the street. The
luxury beachside inn didn’t surprise him as her choice—or her family’s. The
room included a private entrance and private balcony. She’d gushed over the
view when he arrived, telling him how she enjoyed the water, the mountains, the
birds, and the whales that sometimes showed themselves. He’d seen this all his
life and loved it, but what interested him tonight was the fireplace and, of
course, the Jacuzzi tub. They could spend hours before one, and in the latter,
pleasuring each other.

At last,
she appeared in her bedroom doorway, dressed in jeans so tight she appeared to
have been poured into them, and a lilac blouse that accentuated his favorite of
her assets. On her feet, she wore boots she’d purchased earlier that day, but
not the mukluks. The weather hadn’t turned cold enough for those, but the ones
she had on complemented her. They were flat, warm, and appeared waterproof.

“Beautiful
as usual,” he told her. “Come on. We shouldn’t keep Kotori waiting. He gets
grumpy when he’s hungry.”

“Okay,
can’t starve the bear.”

He started
at her choice of words, but she continued past him while pulling on her coat.
At the door, she tried opening it, but he shoved it closed, standing behind
her. She tipped her head up to look at him, and he focused on her lips. Tonight
she’d added a gloss to them, and whatever shower gel or perfume she’d used
tickled his nose. She smelled good enough to eat.

“Let me get
that,” he said and reached around to button her coat. With deliberate
movements, he allowed his cock to touch her back, and he felt the tremor when
it passed through her. “That’s better. You’re not used to the weather here.”

“Th-Thanks.”

He opened
the door, and they started down the short flight of stairs to the street where
his SUV waited. Kotori leaned against the side of the vehicle, and when he
spotted Shiya, he examined her from head to foot and nodded.