Curves & Alphas: A Paranormal Box Set: (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (41 page)

Chapter Nine

Since the IRS had informed her of the pending case, she’d only spoken with Kris who’d assured her that it wouldn’t last long. He’d claimed the evidence had been coerced somehow, and would be disproven soon enough. She’d tried to call Alex last night, using the excuse of getting his take on things, but he’d not answered, and that had left her tossing and turning all night in need of him.

She wasn’t all that pleased with this new desperate side of herself. She called the shots, at work, and in her non-existent love life. This needing someone so badly you’d just about do anything, offer anything, left as much to be desired as it intrigued her. She had given into it, well almost whole-heartedly. She was definitely ready to take some risks just to be with him one more time. She’d let him tie her up to anything, do anything to her, just to be touched by the man again.

She even felt a need to know his other side. To know what the man looked like in his lion form, well the thought, what her imagination could come up with, it made her tense, anxious, and needy all at the same time. These were emotions she had worked hard never to have, and yet, now, she sort of liked them, craved them, as much as she did being filled with him again, to have his large cock stretching her.

She slammed her hand down on her desk, startling herself, and finding herself thankful for the distraction other than focusing on this man. Her laptop remained paused on a video of a lion, and she found herself blushing as if someone had caught her. At least the other tabs she had open on the Faust family she could explain away as business rather than a desperate need to learn more about Alex.

When Janet buzzed and announced the CI, Michelle, was here again, she closed the entire internet to eliminate all evidence of her indiscretions. Not that they made her a criminal, yet she had disturbingly found herself reevaluating the term. From all of her research, and the evidence presented to her, it looked like the Faust family had to be guilty; and yet she wondered why they did what they did. She wanted a logical explanation to excuse their behavior away.

If she were being honest with herself, what she wanted was to solve this case with a clear conscience and then make a move to win over Alex to her forever. Like a little girl again, she closed her eyes tight, wishing for some miracle that would make this CI come in with some good news.

Instead, when Janet opened the door, Michelle flew in, beginning right away with, “You need to warn your clients that despite whatever they think they got away with yesterday, we will get them. This is not over.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you are talking about?” Kat responded feeling her eyebrows crinkle in her confusion, though she’d managed to keep her mouth from falling open at the way this woman looked.

Michelle’s hair was a tad windblown, unlike the first time she’d seen her. Not that she had anything but basic and straight hair, but it had at least been combed neatly prior. It sort of added to the wild look this dowdy woman had though given her rather bloodshot and wide open eyes, the tight, flat line of her mouth didn’t help.

“Right, confidentiality lets you act innocent.”

“Look, I’m not acting. They tell me nothing but that they are innocent, figure it out,” she snipped back, suddenly outraged and she wasn’t even sure why, at what injustice exactly. “I had a hard time getting a hold of them yesterday myself. So, while I don’t really appreciate the attitude that you are speaking to me with, you are all I have at the moment to fill me in on what it is you are talking about.”

“What I’m talking about is a key witness going missing, as did every single trace of his testimony from paper trails to digital ones. And, as everyone in the Faust organization has alibies, right down to the damn cleaning lady, I have nothing to prove them guilty of anything other than the obvious scenario that points to them being one hell of a criminal operation. But, this isn’t over. You are going to have your work cut out for you because if it is the last thing I do, I’m taking these shifters, and every pack they work for down.”

“Well, Ms. Drysdale, you sound a bit prejudice there, like you have a hatred against anyone not like you that is fueling your crusade to take my client down. I will be noting that, and watching you. I won’t stand for slander…”

“Save the speech,” the CI interrupted. “I won’t have my words twisted against me. I had hard facts, and I will get them again.”

She turned and stormed out of the office as fast as she’d come in leaving Kat to sit there, a chill snaking down her back, as she wondered just what Alex and his brothers had done. She needed some truth, something she could work with to formulate a position for her clients, and an explanation for her agency.

Her case laid in shambles around her, and yet still, her mind went to all she knew for sure, how much she wanted Alexander Faust. A shifter. A criminal. A lover unlike any she’d ever had in her life that had gotten under her skin so completely that she barely recognized a thought in her head, a reaction of her body, and found that she didn’t care one way or the other.

Chapter Ten

Having gotten a message from an outraged Katrina, he’d agreed to meet her at her place later. This made it hard to concentrate on all the work he had piled up on his desk for the day. He’d already made it known in no uncertain terms to Ben that he wanted to be left alone tonight. They were used to his moods after he’d had to kill, so everyone would give him some time, some space, and he intended to use that to his advantage to see Kat.

While he knew he would have to deal with her wrath about the case, about the secrets him and his brothers were keeping, he still looked forward to seeing her. He felt he deserved the time now, only he still had no solution for them. He knew he couldn’t maintain a secret relationship. His brothers kept close tabs on him. Not because they didn’t trust him, but because of what they did for a living, they each kept close tabs on each other.

Still, he had to find a way. His mind reeled, exploring every possibility, as he rather blindly signed forms, trusting that his secretary, Sandra, would have already gone through them with a fine tooth comb, always double-checking everything he did. She was overqualified to be a secretary by far. But she’d willingly volunteered for the job, knowing that a shifter with her financial education would be a valuable asset to them, disguised as a secretary.

He knew all she wanted in exchange was a guaranteed way out if needed, and possibly his heart if they ended up in some remote area together. He knew she would settle for just a make-shift relationship, if it came to them living off the grid. He hadn’t minded the thought, though she wasn’t his type before. But now, with Katrina, he couldn’t imagine it. What he wanted was to leave today with Katrina, but he owed his brothers more loyalty than that.

Though, of all people, understanding what mating meant, though he hadn’t confessed that to them either, he figured they would be the only ones who may understand if it got to that point. Right now, he didn’t know what point he’d gotten to other than he had one large amount of work between him and leaving to see Kat.

~~~

By the time he stood inside her apartment, looking at her beautiful face scowl at him, he felt close enough to touch paradise no matter how much really stood between them. It wasn’t enough, the space from where she sat, her legs curled under her on the couch to where he sat, his back straight, poised not to attack her from his place on the chair opposite her.

“You need to come clean with me,” she practically hissed at him. “I have a pretty good idea, I mean it wouldn’t take a genius, to figure out what happened yesterday. But, if I’m going to defend criminals, I need to know what is going on. Just please tell me that the poor witness that disappeared is okay. I can’t defend murderers. It probably sounds stupid, as I defend criminals, but moving around some illegal money, ties to drugs, stolen goods, somehow I can handle. I have to draw the line at blood. I have to draw some kind of fucking line!”

His heart plummeted in his chest as his heart stopped beating. There were so many truths he couldn’t tell her, and yet he needed her. Tell her or not tell her, he could lose her. They’d still have mated, so anger, riding that fine line between love and hate, wouldn’t make things any easier, it would only complicate matters, driving them each even more insane with their needs, their desires. 

“All I can honestly tell you is that we are in an impossible situation,” he said, his heart beating hard again at that small revelation of truth between them.

Guilt plagued him, churning in his stomach. He’d mated with her, created that look in her eyes of desire she hated herself for. It wasn’t like she hadn’t already wanted him. He has seen and felt that initial desire, but it had been wrong of him to force a lifelong sentence of insatiable longings on her. He hadn’t done a thing right since she’d walked into his life, and yet at the same time, he’d never felt more fulfilled to see his true mate here with him. Sure, the situation surrounding them couldn’t be messier, but he had her.

He needed to be with her come hell or high water. He knew that now without a doubt, and he wanted to confess to her everything. Then, he wanted to take her in his arms, make love to her, soft, slow, alright sometimes rough, but differently from the night he’d tied her up and claimed her.

“Great. State the obvious. That’s not at all helpful.”

“Fine. You want truth? I want you. And, I know you want me. Deny it all you want if you need to. We can’t be together, and that is driving me out of my mind. I’m trying to find a way around all of this, work, that you work for me… I need to be with you. I have to find a way. And yet, you deserve better. I’ve never thought that before. I’m an arrogant son of a bitch. I shift into a lion. I’m an outsider and a criminal.

Suddenly, around you, all of that matters. My entire world has been shifted, flipped upside down. And, for a man who gets what he wants when he wants it, I’m not sure what to do when another I care about is involved. Yet, no matter any of that, I want you, and I want you now, though I know I should walk away from you. Sorry for the long speech.”

“I want you too. I can’t explain it, but for the first time in my life, a man seems to be occupying all of my thoughts, and I feel reckless despite all I have done to build my career, this life that used to revolve around it.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, meaning it.

“I don’t want this, so why can’t I get that across to every part of my body that just wants to be pressed against yours?” she said, her eyes getting watery, something he could tell both surprised and unnerved her.

He watched as she swiped away in a furious push of her finger across her cheek to clear all evidence of what she must have thought a weakness. He grabbed that hand, feeling the tear, the wetness on the side of her finger. He brought it to his mouth, placed a light kiss there, taking in the salty taste of the wetness now on his lip. It was slight, but it was hers, and the symbolism of him taking in a tear he’d caused wasn’t lost on him. He’d not only do anything for her, but he would give his life for hers.

Like being hit in the head by a two by four, he realized though that there was a limit to that, a limit his heart had placed. He would do anything for her but walk away from her. Reckless and selfish to the end, even in love he was an alpha, and he needed to take her, and take her now. The time for thought had ended. It got them nowhere. He needed to shove his aching cock inside of her once again, and to hold them close as they joined as one.

Still, he didn’t know how to save them. The world that conspired against them still loomed out there, waiting for them to make one wrong step, to show themselves and be destroyed. He was still a criminal doing anything to cover his tracks. And, worst of all, he’d kept his mating secret and to himself one more night just to ensure one more night with her, even if he didn’t quite know yet how he would make that happen.

~~~

Find out what happens next in Curves For Her King part 2! Coming Soon!

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