Slade (6 page)

“We’ll find it. I know we will.” Kate sent up a silent prayer as she walked beside Slade to the SUV.

He opened the passenger door for her and she tried to enter the vehicle, but he blocked her path, caging her between the open door, the vehicle and his big, hard body. Kate looked up into his eyes, surprised by his sudden move.

“What?” she whispered, unsure of his motives. Could he really be as attracted to her as she was to him?

A rumble of sound, barely perceptible from his throat was her only answer as his head dipped. His lips drew close to hers, passing over once, twice, touching lightly at first, as if testing the texture and shape of her mouth.

She needed more. Oh, so much more.

Kate lifted upward, millimeter by millimeter, closer to his warm body, his surprisingly gentle kiss. Moment by moment, she increased the pressure between their lips. She was surprised he was allowing her to control the kiss. He’d seemed more the type to take what he wanted than to seek permission.

Although… he wasn’t exactly asking permission. It was more like he was seducing her into her own downfall. By making her seek his kiss, he brought her to him, a willing victim, giving up all control to the master.

And there was nothing she wanted more
at this moment than to have him deepen the kiss. She wanted to taste his essence and learn the pleasure she suspected only he could bring her. She thought she might not ever be the same.

Then he
really kissed her. He turned the tables, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. He deepened the connection, running his tongue along her lips until she surrendered and opened to him.

It was divine. Her temperature soared as his body enveloped hers and he took total control of the kiss and her pleasure. He was the master of her fate for those stolen moments that burned hotter than the desert sun.

And it was only a kiss. As devastating as it was, he kept it simple and to his credit, he didn’t try to push her beyond a kiss into something even more dangerous. Not at first, anyway.

She moaned a little as his arms tightened around her.
She felt motion and then the hard panel of the back door of the SUV up against her back. His arms formed a cage around her, keeping her in place, but to be honest, she wouldn’t have moved away from him if given the chance. Wild horses couldn’t drag her away from Slade’s arms. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Her leg rose almost involuntarily, sliding along the outside of his as he stepped closer. He fit perfectly against her, even though he was so much taller than she. Somehow it worked. Masculine hardness to feminine yielding. She slid her hands upward, over his chest, loving the feel of him against her palms.

She wanted more. So much more.

The kiss went on and when he finally dragged his mouth from hers, she was gasping for air. Her body trembled as his lips trailed down her neck, biting gently on the skin just under her ear. It was the most delicious sensation she’d ever felt. She wanted it to go on forever.

And then the phone rang.

Actually, it beeped. Slade’s cell phone beeped incessantly, demanding attention.

He cursed under his breath, his head dipped over hers, bent as he drew in deep breaths. She was mollified to see he’d been as lost in the moment as she.

“I’ve got to take this,” he whispered, reaching for the phone clipped to his belt.

Slade eased away from her, touching the screen of the small phone and answering with a single, impatient word. He walked a few feet away, moving slowly as she just leaned against the SUV and tried to catch her breath.

Damn. The guy was potent. She’d forgotten everything in his embrace. The matriarch. The sorrow of the family. The dire situation. Their mission to find the trail.

Everything had become unimportant when Slade held her in his arms. The only thing that had mattered was the taste and feel of him. The way he touched her and seduced her senses. The way he made her feel.

Thinking had been beyond her for those stolen moments, but she couldn’t let it happen again. At least not until they’d solved the problem facing the cougars. She was sworn to aid the shifter community that had adopted her and she would do all in her power to help find the matriarch’s killers. She couldn’t let Slade—scrumptious as he was—distract her from her task.

After they’d found the killers and the crisis had been dealt with… maybe then there might be time for her desires. If Slade stuck around. For all she knew, he’d do his job and leave, never to be seen again.

That
thought finally made her move. She straightened from her boneless lean against the car and sat down in the front passenger seat. She buckled in as Slade talked in short, brisk sentences to whoever had interrupted their moment alone.

She should be thankful they’d been interrupted. She’d been
that
close to ripping his clothes off and having her way with him right there in the desert. Not normally the kind of behavior she engaged in, but this man was proving special in many different and exciting ways.

She watched him move, her eyes undeniably drawn to his tall, lanky form. He was without doubt one of the most impressive men she’d ever come across—and that included all her recent exposure to the amazingly handsome shifters that worked for Redstone Construction.

If she’d simply wanted a bed partner, she could’ve given the signal to any one of the good looking studs who lived in the housing development, but she hadn’t been interested. Not in any of them. They were fun to look at, of course, but she hadn’t felt a spark from any of the men she’d met in the past few months. Heck, not even in the past few
years
.

Not only did she feel sparks from the mysterious Slade, she’d felt outright lightning bolts of the most delicious kind when he’d taken her in his arms and taken control of that kiss. He knew what he was doing when it came to women, of that she was certain. But was she just a passing flirtation while he was in town? Or had he felt the same instant attraction when they’d first met?

Was she the only one drawn against their better judgment into a situation that she neither had the time, nor the courage for? He was scheduled to leave once he’d finished his work here. His life was elsewhere. He worked for the Lords and probably lived up in Montana, near them.

She just didn’t see how this situation could end well if she took that irrevocable step and gave into the attraction any more than she already had. She’d wind up with a broken heart. And would the mysterious cat shifter even think of her after he was gone? Sadly, she thought not.

Better to focus on the task at hand. That phone call couldn’t have happened at a more opportune moment. She needed to get her mind off of his handsome, hard body and back on the mission. She’d promised to help find the murderers and she had already been able to help. She felt pride in the fact that her magic had enabled Slade to track them this far.

Together, perhaps they could pick up the trail again and find those responsible for sending the entire shifter community in the Southwest into an uproar. The Redstone matriarch had been well loved.

Kate had been impressed by the older woman. Grif’s mother had been the first one to extend the invitation to Kate to join the community. She’d taken Kate under her wing and helped her figure out her place in the group. Or at least, she’d begun to do that. And then she’d been brutally murdered.

Kate had lost a champion
among the
were
with whom she’d chosen to live. But much more importantly, she’d lost a friend. A tear came to her eye when she allowed herself to think of the kind woman who’d taken her in and made her feel welcome. So few times in her life had she felt that way, and Kate knew she was going to miss the matriarch of the Redstone Clan as much those who had known that brave lady much longer. She’d been that kind of woman. She’d made an indelible impression on the lives of everyone she knew.

Slade
ended the call, putting the phone away, and strode around to the driver’s side of the vehicle, a determined expression on his face. Would he now tell her their brief moment of passion had been a mistake? She didn’t want to hear it, even if she was beginning to believe that herself.

“Matt picked up the scent,” he said instead, surprising her and deferring the dreaded post-kiss conversation to sometime in the future. Thank goodness.

Slade slipped behind the wheel and closed the door, starting the SUV almost all in one motion. He moved fast. Shifters had incredible speed, agility and strength, she was coming to learn. Slade, perhaps, was even a bit sharper than the others she’d come to know.

“Are you up for the hunt?” The look in his eyes dared her to join him.

She felt her resolve firm as she thought again of the matriarch.

“I’m up for it,” she replied in kind, already looking forward to helping Slade find out all he could from the trail.
Whatever—or whoever—it led to.

Chapter Four

“What did Matt say on the phone?” Kate asked as they got back on the road.

Slade had to get his head back in the game. For a moment there, all he’d wanted to do was ignore the phone—ignore his duty—and sink into Kate’s luscious body. She was dangerous to his peace of mind, never mind his work.

“Actually, i
t was Valerie. She’s coordinating the messages. Matt called her first, but I don’t trust him not to call Grif next. Unless we get there fast, we’re going to have a family of irate cougars raining hell down on whoever owns that vehicle, whether or not they’re the ones we’re looking for.”

This was a tricky part of their mission. Slade had been sent
to defuse the Redstones. To run interference so they didn’t do something in their rage and grief to expose the entire shifter community to the human world. The secret must be kept. And Slade had to be the one to make certain of it. The Redstones weren’t clear headed enough at the moment to think before they acted.

“I’m surprised Matt even bothered to call at all before rushing in where angels fear to tread,” Kate offered.

“He’s pegged as the maverick of the family, from all accounts,” Slade agreed. “But he also seems more level headed than his years would indicate. Maybe he’s just used to following orders from having so many older, Alpha siblings.”

“I thought only Grif was the Alpha. How can there be more than one?”

The question, so innocent yet so blind, made Slade realize just how clueless Kate still was about his world, priestess or not. She may know about magic and the human world, but she didn’t seem to know the first thing about shifters.

“Every male in that family has Alpha tendencies. Any one of them could make a bid to rule over their Clan and the extended, mixed group of shifters that work for Redstone Construction. But Griffon is the eldest. He was the one who built the business and attracted so many other shifters to work for him and follow his lead. He’s the
clear leader of that family. The other brothers seem to accept that and curb their own Alpha tendencies somewhat, out of love and deference to their brother.” Slade turned the SUV onto the highway and sped up, hoping to get to Matt before the brothers gathered. “I’ve seen it go the other way too. Less kind Alphas with Alpha siblings have been torn apart by their younger family members in the worst cases. In other situations, the younger brothers are a thorn in the sides of their elders. A lot of times, the younger brothers go off and form their own small Packs or Clans.”

“They can just do that? Move away and start over?”

“Yeah. Sometimes it’s the only choice. Starting a Clan from scratch isn’t easy, but there are always loners out there, looking for a home or a leader—or both. It’s a bit easier for cats than wolves. Wolves need tighter community bonds, in general. Cats often go their own way and tend to need their space and time alone every once in a while. We need to prowl.”

“I get that. Humans do too, sometimes,” she said softly, almost contemplatively. Slade spared her a glance and she was looking out the window with such a forlorn expression that he wanted to reach out and touch her,
to bring her focus back to him and away from whatever brought such sorrow to her beautiful face.

“Is that why you’re out here, roughing it among shifters?” He asked his question in a low, gentle, coaxing voice. If she wanted to talk, he wanted her to know he was more than willing to listen.

Her gaze met his as her head turned. She gave him a puzzled smile that was faint, but much better than the melancholy she’d been displaying.

“I’d hardly call that luxurious house they gave me
roughing it
.” She chuckled softly. “But yeah, in a way, I guess you could say I’ve always been a loner, as you put it. The odd man out, so to speak. You see, my parents died when I was very little. I was raised in foster care for the most part.” The admission seemed a big one for her, so he didn’t reply, just let her say what she wanted to say. He wouldn’t push her. He wanted her to open up on her own—or not. The choice had to be hers. “My foster parents didn’t really understand me. I always saw the world a little differently than everyone else, and when the magic began to emerge…” she trailed off, her gaze dropping to her lap, drawing inward.

“
They didn’t know a damn thing about magic, did they? Probably didn’t believe in it and couldn’t sense the energy patterns in the world around them. Am I right?”