her. “Say yes, Shannon. Please?”
“Oh Lord, that feels good. You’re cheating.”
Laughing, Bay slipped free of Shannon’s body and rolled to one side. He groaned. “Okay, no more undue influence.” Bay swatted her on the butt, then crawled off the bed and headed for the bathroom.
Shannon sighed and tightened her vaginal muscles around Jake’s cock. He’d softened a bit as well but still managed to fill her with sensation. “How will I carry enough clothes? We’re supposed to have a bachelorette party for Tia, and I’ll need something for the wedding and…”
“The bike’s got big panniers, but we’re going to San Francisco. They have stores. You can buy all new clothes when we get there and mail them home when it’s time to leave. In fact, you can even fly home if you like and Bay and I will ride back on our own. Please, sweetie? It’ll be such a cool adventure.”
Laughing, Shannon lowered her head to Jake’s chest. “You’re willing to bribe me with a shopping trip in San Francisco? Your credit card?” He nodded. “That’s cheating. I may be a wolf at heart, but it doesn’t affect my shopping gene.” She rubbed her nose against his chest, licked the nipple over his heart, then grumbled, “As if I have any say in the matter? Yes, we’ll take the bikes to San Francisco. But I’ll be damned if I sleep in a tent. Nice motels all the way, good restaurants, and stops whenever my butt gets tired or I have to pee. And backrubs. I insist on backrubs.”
“Damn, woman. You drive a hard bargain.” Jake lifted her chin with his hands and kissed her soundly. Shannon kissed him back and wondered what kind of fool she was.
Jake ended the kiss with a shout. “Hey! Baylor…we won! She said yes!”
Over three thousand miles on a motorcycle? Shannon dropped her forehead against Jake’s chest. She must be nuts.
Anton Cheval checked the calendar one more time, then gazed steadily at his very pregnant mate. She stood in the doorway to his office with all the grace of an African queen: elegant, self-confident, and sexy as hell, despite the fact she was into her eighth month of pregnancy. “We’re pushing it, love, flying to San Francisco for your cousin’s wedding. What if you deliver early?”
Keisha laughed and Anton knew he was going to cave. So many were in awe of him, but never this lovely woman. No respect from her at all. He had to bite back a smile.
“Then you, my love, will deliver our daughter.” She stepped into the room, covered his hand with hers, and placed her other palm over his heart.
He felt the damned thing skip a beat. She had no idea how much power she held over him, how much he needed her. Anton covered her hand and pressed it against his chest. “It’s not something to joke about. I’m terrified of anything happening to…”
“Nothing will happen. Besides, we’ll have Stefan and Xandi along, and Oliver, too. I imagine he knows how to deliver babies, right?”
“Oliver is good at many things, but I’m not sure the practice of obstetrics is in his repertoire. We have two weeks. If you’re still feeling this good, then we can…”
Keisha shook her head. “No, we don’t have two weeks. We need to be there in less than a week. I am not going to miss Tia’s bachelorette party, even if I can’t drink those fuzzy little concoctions she loves.”
Stefan and Xandi wandered into the room. Anton looked up and shrugged his shoulders. Stefan was the brother he’d never had, the son he loved, and the lover who kept him sane at times like these. “How do you feel about this trip, Stefan? I’m concerned about the girls traveling so far this late in their pregnancies. I could fly down on my own, perform the ceremony as I promised Tia and…”
“Not in this life you won’t!” Keisha stood and glared at Anton. She reached for Xandi and the two women clasped hands.
He knew then the battle was a foregone conclusion. Stefan caught his eye, shrugged his shoulders once again, and then burst into laughter. “It is a matriarchal society, you know.” He leaned over and kissed his mate. “When you mate with a Chanku bitch, she gets the balls.”
Anton raised his eyes to the heavens…actually, to the large chandelier over the dining room table. “There are days, Stefan, when I wish I’d never divulged that bit of information.”
Keisha stood up. Her body was heavy with her pregnancy, but he’d never seen her more beautiful. Nor, Anton thought, had she ever been more powerful, more sure of herself. “Your divulging information makes no difference. We are what we are. We need to leave by Thursday. Can you make arrangements so the plane is ready to go by then?”
Anton nodded, but the sense of misgiving wouldn’t leave him. Xandi’s pregnancy wasn’t quite as far along as Keisha’s, but both women were well beyond the time when doctors would normally allow them to travel. However, their doctor, one of the few familiar with the Chanku species, had found no reason to inhibit travel, at least for another few weeks.
Damned charlatan. Unfortunately, the man was brilliant and someone Anton had learned to respect.
“The plane will be ready. As will I. We leave on Thursday.” He glanced over Keisha’s head and caught Stefan’s eyes. The bastard had a grin on his face a mile wide, but then he loved it when Anton lost a battle. Damn, if he didn’t love the man, he’d kill him where he stood.
Tala held the tiny baby in her arms for one last look. The infant stared up at her, fearless, filled with trust. Her innocence made Tala think of how much she’d had to learn to trust over the past few months. How much farther she still had to go. Blinking back tears, she handed the child over to the paramedic and signaled to the two large wolves sitting patiently beside her. It was time to go home.
The Alabama police chief who’d called in the team from Pack Dynamics caught Tala before she could gather her crew and leave. “We found the kidnapper back in the swamp. Was it necessary to rip out his throat?” He glanced nervously at the wolves sitting calmly beside Tala. “I had no idea they were killers.”
“So was the man who died.” Tala nodded toward the helicopter lifting off with the child safely inside. Dust and leaves swirled in the golden rays of the late afternoon sun as the chopper whirled away toward Mobile. The baby would be returned to her mother: safe, unharmed, and hopefully young enough that this terrible incident would be forgotten. “The kidnapper didn’t hesitate to kill the nanny. The child would have died the moment the ransom was paid. You knew it. We knew it. The bastard’s killed before. This time he made a mistake when he went after my wolves with a gun. They had no choice.”
The police chief shook his head. “Amazing animals. They look so calm sitting there, so intelligent. You’d never guess they killed a man not an hour ago. As tiny as you are, don’t you ever worry about them? I was surprised to see they hadn’t been castrated, that you worked with intact males. They can be so aggressive.”
Tala immediately threw up her mental blocks. No way could she carry on an intelligent conversation with the reaction she was certain the guys had to the chief’s innocent comment. Biting back laughter, she shook her head. If only the man knew…“No. We don’t believe in neutering. We need their aggressive tendencies. They’re very well trained.” She patted both animals on their heads. The larger one growled. The police chief took a step back.
“I sure hope so.” He held out his hand. Tala took his in a firm grasp, and they shook hands. Another crisis averted.
