He just knew she was the one for him. She made him think of possibilities he’d never considered before. Of being mated, enjoying each other after work was done and every time in between when they could spend the time together, being wolves together—and that was something he really missed.

  He looked into her eyes and saw the desire for him, as much as he craved being with her. She kissed his lips as if she wanted to eat him all up, and he was willing for her to do so.

  Then she was in his arms again. He was kissing her, pressing his aroused cock against her, letting her know just how much she’d already turned him on. She rubbed against him, telling him she was eager for this too. He pushed her back against the mattress, and then he was kissing her again, rubbing his cock against her mound, nibbling her lips and caressing her cheek and feeling the raw passion filling his blood. Their pheromones were all over this—howling that they were meant to be together.

  She ran her hands over his ass and practically purred when he kissed her neck, then throat and jawline, then moved to her mouth again. He groaned as she continued to caress his backside, her touch making his cock stand at attention. Then he slipped off her bra and cupped her breasts. “Beautiful.” Her nipples were a dusty rose, her breasts ivory, the rest of her skin lightly tanned, showing the outline of her bikini. He unfastened her jeans and pulled them off to find she was wearing matching pink lace panties. He smiled.

  He kissed each of her breasts, loving the warm, velvety feel of her skin. His tongue lathed one sensitive nipple and then the other one, both peaking to his touch. She moaned with enjoyment, pleasing him that he was pleasing her.

  He swept his hand down her abdomen until he found her mons and began to work his magic on her. Groaning, she moved against his questing fingers. He began stroking her faster and she arched her back, her legs parting further, her hands clinging to the bed.

  He thought she was about to come, and he moved to cover her mouth with his, kissing her deeply so she wouldn’t cry out, and she groaned. They just kissed, but then she sighed and reached down to stroke his raging hard-on. Her warm hand on his erection, she moved up and down with the right pressure and speed, and he rolled over on his back. She climbed onto his legs and sat there, stroking him, smiling, her face still flushed from her own orgasm. She looked perfectly pleased, a woman after his own heart. This was the stuff of fantasy and yet the real deal, and he couldn’t have been more ecstatic to have met up with the she-wolf he’d chased in the woods, to learn she was the kind of woman for him.

  Every stroke brought him closer to heaven on earth. The strain of needing to release and wanting to hold off was killing him. He ran his hands over her thighs, thinking how much he’d love to center his cock between her legs and thrust. Just the visual of him penetrating her brought him to climax.

  She smiled. “Penny for your thoughts.”

  “You beneath me, around me, enjoying this.” Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. “We need to sleep, but afterward?”

  “Hmm, just my thought too.” Then she snuggled with him, and he hoped in the morning she wouldn’t regret having gone even this far with him and that she’d see this as only the beginning for them.

  Chapter 8

  Everyone slept in late the next day since they didn’t have a flight until that evening, and when Kim came out of her room, she saw that Andrew was coming out of Stacey’s. She gave them both a big smile.

  He hoped she hadn’t heard them making love a couple of times during the night.

  They met with Garcia in the café at the pool to have brunch. Andrew was still dying to learn more about Stacey’s near-death experience because of the one he’d had when men had wrecked his vehicle and his perps were killed. But he was afraid she wouldn’t like him bringing it up during the meal if Kim didn’t know about it and she didn’t want anyone else to hear of it.

  “After the meal, did you want to…” Andrew hesitated to finish his question. He wanted to run with her in the woods as wolves, but he didn’t want Kim and Garcia to come along or that would be the end of that plan.

  “Go to the state park?” Stacey asked. “Yes, I’d love to.”

  “Not me,” Kim said. “I’m just feeling well enough to eat light foods, but hiking for even a short distance in the snowy outdoors doesn’t appeal. I’m going back to my room to watch something on TV and get some more rest. Hopefully, by the time we get to Grand Cayman Island, I’ll be feeling one hundred percent, and if we catch the bastard, we can spend some time snorkeling.”

  “What about you?” Andrew asked Garcia.

  He gave Andrew a small smile. “I’m going to the lobby and watch the game on the big screen.”

  Pleased that this was working out so well for him and Stacey, Andrew was ready to enjoy the time with her.

  They each paid for their own meal and then everyone split up. Garcia went to the lobby, Kim to her room, and Andrew and Stacey had to retrieve their coats and gloves and hiking boots for the first part of their trek from her room.

  “I know it’s light out, but with as much wilderness as there is, I thought we’d run as wolves,” he said.

  “I was thinking the same thing. But remember, you hide better in the snow with your beautiful white fur. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the park yesterday, so sure, running as wolves will be great.”

  They walked out to his vehicle, and Andrew told her about the nightmare he still had over his last case. “Was the story you were telling Nettleton about dying true?”

  “Yeah. It was. I had hoped it would change his mind about killing himself.”

  “I had a near-death experience too, but I never thought about mentioning it in that context. Though I might have scared him instead, and it might have had the opposite effect on him.”

  “Oh?”

  “My last case turned out bad. I was transporting two men who had murdered a drug lord, and on the return trip to Anchorage to turn them in, I saw a truck following us and realized they were hit men.”

  “Oh, that’s why you were anxious about the pickup truck following us on the return to the hotel. I don’t blame you, and your instincts saved us. If that had happened to me, I would have believed the same thing. And you were right. So what happened?”

  “They totaled my vehicle and managed to kill the men I had in custody. I was dead when the paramedics arrived, but they revived me. I died again on the way to the hospital. But I wasn’t in a coma like you. I didn’t remember what had happened to me or the others for a while, having suffered short-term memory loss. Once I remembered what had occurred, I learned the hit men had vanished. They might have just planned to stop me, kill me, and free the arrested men.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I’ve gone over that scenario so many times in my mind, and I’m still not sure what to think. The one guy fired shots at me. I swerved my vehicle to avoid being hit. Their truck hit my car so hard, it flipped several times. The car stopped rolling, and we were turned upside down when I heard the truck’s brakes squeal to a stop. I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t hear my charges’ heartbeats, so I was afraid they had died.

  “Then I heard the men running down into the ditch. I couldn’t get my gun out. I remember desperately wanting to pull it from my holster, but I couldn’t get it out before the men reached me and killed me. That’s the last I recall. I think I’d died by then, and I think that’s why they didn’t shoot me full of holes, so I considered myself extremely lucky.”

  “Did you have trouble with being in the hospital and healing so fast?”

  “Yeah. I had a girlfriend at the time, and she tried to get me released from the hospital as quickly as she could. She was afraid I wouldn’t have control over my shifting while I was so out of it. I was healing so fast, they let her take me out of the hospital and she dumped me off at Garcia’s house.”

  “Why? If she was your girlfriend, she should have watched over you. I would have.”

  He smiled. “Thanks. She was so angry I was nearly killed that she decided she didn’t want to be mated to an FBI man. Garcia had to put up with me while I healed up.”

  “So you and your girlfriend had been living together.”

  “No, but I needed someone to look after me until I healed. Garcia’s wife watched over me while I colored pictures with their three-year-old son.”

  She smiled. “I can see you doing that.”

  “His pictures looked better than mine, I have to admit.”

  She laughed.

  Andrew parked at the state park, but neither of them made a move to open the vehicle’s doors.

  “But your girlfriend really dropped you for good? You died and came back to life twice, and she left you?”

  “Yeah. I was full of self-recrimination at the time, knowing I should have done anything I could have to keep those men alive for the trial.”

  “You couldn’t help it.”

  “You’re right, but I still felt it was my fault, irrational as it was. I should have had backup, but we were shorthanded, and I had to apprehend them. Garcia had taken his wife and child to the hospital when the little boy had a high fever.”

  “So it wasn’t your fault. Let’s go running. And when we return, I’ll tell you my story.”

  * * *

  Andrew loved that they were running through the park together this time and that he was not chasing a mystery wolf but someone he could relate to and who had made a great partner during a dangerous mission that helped to keep them alive and take down the bad guys. He couldn’t have asked for more.

  He hadn’t expected her to start snuggling up next to him, which was a wolf’s way of saying she was damned interested in him. Wolf bonds definitely rivaled human marital bonds, and the wolves showed affection throughout the courtship and through their mated years, which for wolves were forever. For them, this was just like humans holding hands or arms wrapped around waists or shoulders as they walked together, their bodies snug. After his former girlfriend had dumped his butt, Andrew hadn’t been close to another she-wolf like this, not before or since. Not like this.

  Then again, after last night, this was like an extension of the human aspect of courtship, and he was thrilled to enjoy the walk with her. This time, it was just the two of them, no other wolves, no one to keep under surveillance, but they were wary of running into humans, in case anyone was out in the snow hiking off-trail.

  She licked his cheek and he licked hers back. He didn’t know where they were going with this. As much as he wanted to see more of her, they worked for different agencies and lived in different parts of the country. Yet when a wolf found a potential mate, he or she would do whatever it took to be with the other. The innate draw was so strong between them, their pheromones firing up as they continued to make wolfish contact, that it wasn’t conceivable that they would just go their separate ways and forget about each other.

  She bit at his cheek in fun and he nibbled on her ear. Then she ran off toward the river and he took up the chase. They ran for about an hour and then chased each other back and forth, finally heading to the parking lot to return to the hotel where he wanted to swim with Stacey in the pool again.

  They finally reached their clothes, quickly shifted, dressed, and followed the hiking trail back to the parking lot.

  “Do you want to go swimming when we get back?” he asked her as they got into his vehicle.

  “I’d love it.”

  “So tell me your story about defying death,” he said.

  “I was seven and roller-skating on the sidewalk in front of my house. We lived at the end of the road that branched out like a T. You either had to turn left or right when you reached the end of the street. The pickup didn’t stop but barreled through me, then the shrubs. He was going so fast, he drove straight through our big living-room window and ran over our sofa into the wall several feet behind it. My dad was working on power lines for the electric company, and my mother ran out of the house, calling 911. My mom and dad really thought they’d lost me for good.”

  “You are an only child?” Andrew asked.

  “Yeah. It’s unusual for us not to have at least a twin, but that’s the way it is.”

  “It’s the same with me.”

  “Really. My parents were like your ex-girlfriend and wanting to get me out of the hospital as soon as they could after I came out of the coma, for the same reason your girlfriend—”

  “Ex.”

  “Uh, yes, ex, got you out of the hospital. I didn’t remember what had happened. My parents had to show me pictures of the truck sitting in their living room. The drunken driver went to jail for ten years.”

  “You’re a royal but you’re young, relative to how long we live,” he said. She had to be if her mother was calling on a phone when they were outside the house.

  She asked, “Are you an old wolf or young?”

  “Young.”

  She smiled. “Good. Me too. It’s hard mating, um, seeing a wolf who is a lot older than you yet can look the same age. He’ll have experienced so much more than a young wolf.”

  “I agree. You said your folks wouldn’t let you out of the house after you were injured.”

  “They took me to a skating rink and finally ended up putting a sidewalk all over our three acres in the backyard so they wouldn’t have to constantly take me to the skating rink. They built a short wall in front of the house to try to prevent anyone from running into their house again. They even put in a large tree, though it would still take years to grow before it could really protect the house. They wanted to build a taller wall, but building restrictions permitted only a three-foot wall out front.”

  “Did they have any more trouble?”

  “No. Between the wall and the city putting up warning markers that glowed at night when headlights reflected off them, they never had any more problems.”

  “Did you see a light when you died? Or ghosts or anything?”

  “I saw a light, but when I finally came to, I thought it was from some of the lights in the ER operating room.”

  “Same with me. I didn’t feel as though I had an out-of-body experience. Then again, maybe it was like a dream that slips away from your memories upon waking.”

  “Huh, now that’s an interesting notion. Maybe.”

  That afternoon, they swam in the pool, but Kim joined them after a while.

  “Would you ladies like something to drink?” Andrew asked, getting out of the pool.

  “A Coke,” Kim said. “Bad habit, I know. I should be more like Stacey and drink tons more water.”

  “Stacey?”

  She smiled at Kim. “Water, thanks, Andrew.”

  “Thanks, Andrew,” Kim said.

  “You’re both welcome.” He winked at them, then pulled his towel around himself, slipped his sandals on, then headed for the drink bar, wanting to give the ladies some time to visit after all that had happened.

  * * *

  “Ohmigod, I can’t believe you slept with him last night,” Kim said to Stacey.

  Stacey knew as soon as Kim thought Andrew was out of earshot, she’d bring that up. She also knew Andrew could still hear them with his enhanced wolf hearing until he’d put more distance between them. “It was the least I could do after I scared him to pieces, trying to stop the bad guys from taking us down.”

  “What did you do? Oh, no, not your John Wayne cowboy impersonation as you’re riding the horse and shooting back at the bad guys.”

  “John Wayne?”

  “Or Rambo. I don’t know. Or another one of those cool guys who don’t take any guff off the bad guys. Don’t tell me you were hanging out the window, shooting at the perps.”

  “Someone had to do it. Andrew was too busy keeping the car steady so I wouldn’t fall out the window on my head.”

  Kim shook her head and smiled as she saw Andrew coming with a tray of drinks. “Now I can understand why you would have given him a near heart attack. Just like you did with me last year. This isn’t just a fling, is it?”

  “No. I told you when I met the right guy, I’d know it.”

  “I just didn’t believe you really meant it. I guess I’ve lost my job at trying to get you set up with my brother.”

  “How many times do I have to remind you he has a steady girlfriend?”

  “Yeah, but he’s going to dump her any day now.”

  “You’ve been saying that for three years.”

  “I like you way better than I like her. You like me better than she likes me too.”

  “He’s much more into a preschool teacher than a woman who hangs out a window and shoots at bad guys, believe me.”

  “Who?” Andrew asked, setting the tray on a table.

  The ladies got out of the pool and wrapped towels around themselves.

  “Kim’s brother,” Stacey said, taking a drink from the bottle of water.

  Kim opened her bottle of Coke. “Thanks! Well, he’s a doctor, and if you needed bandaging, he could do it.”

  “You’re saying I have some competition?” Andrew said.

  “No,” Stacey said, taking a seat on one of the chairs at the patio table.

  “Yes,” Kim said, taking another of the seats. “You know, Stacey, it’s always better to let on the guy’s got to work for it.”

  “He’s not interested in me,” Stacey said for the hundredth-and-first time.

  “That’s because she’s always with him!”

  Stacey chuckled, lifting her water bottle in salute. “I rest my case.”

  Kim turned to Andrew, who was sitting next to Stacey, drinking a beer. “So she told me she nearly scared the tar out of you with her wild window shooting.”

  “Yeah. But she made up for it last night.”

  Stacey gave him a cross look, and she could have socked him. Not that Kim didn’t already know what was going on, but she hadn’t expected him to mention it in front of her.