In the Crossfire (Bloodhaven) (24 page)

“What do you mean?” Naley’s brows furrowed. “’Course he’ll stay.”

“If this thing between us ends, then there’s a chance. . . .”

“If he doesn’t stay,” Naley said fiercely, “you’ll
make
him stay.”

Isobel smiled faintly. “You can’t make someone do what he doesn’t want to do, cub.”

“Who says he doesn’t want to?”

Well, there was that.

I’m here for the long haul, Isobel.

She’d taken plenty of chances in the line of duty. Was it too much to take a chance in her personal life as well?

“So you’re not gonna make me leave?” Naley watched her uncertainly, as if afraid her aunt would change her mind.

Isobel smiled. “No. In fact, I spoke to your mom this morning.”

Naley stiffened.

“To ask if she was willing to concede guardianship to me. So that you could stay on a permanent basis.”

Naley’s jaw dropped. “What did she say?” the girl finally managed.

“First tell me what you think.”

Isobel had been half-afraid that she’d been too presumptive, that for all that Naley wanted to stay with her aunt, she’d resent Isobel trying to take over from her mother.

She needn’t have worried. Naley was jumping up and down now, her young face lit up, brilliant enough to rival the sun.

“You mean it?” she demanded, her voice nearly a squeal, eyes wide with apprehensive excitement. “Like, I’ll
always
stay here? This will be my home? With you?”

All of a sudden, Isobel didn’t know why she’d ever feared Naley’s reaction. She nodded, unable to speak.

“What did Mom say?” Naley grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her hard. Isobel laughed. “What did she say?”

“She said as long as you’re willing, and as long as she can see you whenever she’s in town. . . .” Because Kaya did care for her daughter, in her own way, even if there’d been a measure of relief in her tone when Isobel had made her the offer. “Then yes.”

This time Naley allowed herself a full-blown squeal. She threw her arms around Isobel and hugged her tight, the noises she was making almost piercing Isobel’s eardrum.

“I gather you’re willing?” Isobel mused against Naley’s shoulder.

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Naley popped her head back, grinned at her aunt, then hugged her again. “Thank you, Aunt Iz!”

“No need to thank me. You know I love you.” Isobel squeezed her, savoring the joy of the moment. She tried not to think of that ever-present fear, that ever-present memory she’d shared with Liam the previous night. She could still remember the surge of all-encompassing horror she’d felt all those years ago in Kaya’s living room as she’d dropped the blade from her hands, Naley’s distracted babbles coming from the far corner of the room.

She put her mouth to Naley’s ear. “I promise, cub, I won’t ever hurt you.”

She didn’t know if Naley detected the faint wobble in her voice. She didn’t know if Naley even heard her at all. The girl was still yipping in excitement. All too soon Naley broke away and half-jumped, half-danced across the kitchen floor.

“There are ground rules to follow,” Isobel warned. “There’ll be times I tell you to do something and I expect you to do it, no questions asked. There’ll be times I run background checks on your friends. On prospective prom dates.”

“I figured you were doing that already.” Naley beamed and tossed a slice of bread in the air. She didn’t seem to mind when she failed to catch it.

Isobel raised an eyebrow. “Well, I’ll definitely have to start now.”

Naley laughed and began working on breakfast with gusto. Isobel doubted the girl realized how seriously Isobel planned to take her guardianship duties, but there would be time enough to handle the travails of growing up. It was part of the journey, after all.

Part of normal.

Isobel reached out to hug Naley once more.

* * *

It was nearly noon when Isobel made her way to Liam’s cabin. In her hands was a plate of sandwiches Naley had insisted she take with her.

“I know he’s gonna stay,” Naley had reasoned, “but no harm in sweetening the deal anyway, right?”

“You scare me sometimes,” Isobel had mused, but she’d taken the plate with her all the same.

She saw Liam at his workbench, working on the start of something that had beautiful dark curves. She was a little surprised; he’d only just recently made a delivery to Hooper’s, and he usually took a week or two off after completing each project. Most times he used the opportunity to cut down the overgrown brush and see to other upkeep. She now knew that he needed to work at his own pace. He didn’t want to churn out cabinet after cabinet and chair after chair the way his pack had wanted him to, just so they could make a profit.

He did this because he wanted to, and because it calmed him. They had no call to treat him like a damn factory.

Without even a measure of care for his mental well-being,
Isobel thought with a snarl.

She had to force herself to pull back. It wasn’t as if she’d taken action herself in the past year since meeting him. She’d kept her distance, hadn’t pressed him. Hadn’t realized the extent of his post-traumatic stress. She had to own up to that herself.

There was no magic spell to make everything right. There would always be, as she’d told Liam, parts and pieces in disrepair. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t try to make him happy. Even if for just short moments in time, she had to try, and as much as possible.

He’d given her something indefinably, immeasurably deep and wonderful, and she owed it to him to return the favor.

Liam sensed her before she was anywhere near him. His head lifted, his eyes glittering as he took her in from head to toe. He was bare-chested, his skin glistening with a thin sheen of sweat. Isobel noticed him immediately angling his body so that she didn’t get a full view of his back.

Her heart twisted in knots. It was an instinctive move, she knew. Isobel silently vowed to do everything she could until Liam no longer felt self-conscious or ashamed. It would take time, but she would help him wrestle his demons into submission. She refused to let him make this journey alone.

He quickly finished what he was doing and stepped out to fully face her as she neared. She lifted the plate of sandwiches in her hand.

“If Naley has her way, you’ll be the cutest pudgy wolf that ever did live,” she teased.

Liam said nothing. He didn’t look at the plate. He kept his eyes on her, and the heat Isobel found there sent her heart hammering.

She licked her lips. “Liam?”

He took the plate from her, still without breaking their connected gaze. He set it down on the workbench behind him without looking. Then he cupped the back of her head and kissed her.

Sensation exploded within Isobel, a bolt of heat arrowing straight from the point of contact between their lips down to her lower belly. The smell of hot sun and cedar and man surrounded her. His broad chest was warm and deliciously hard under her touch. His tongue teased hers into entering his own mouth, and Isobel felt herself pulse in response.

She’d never felt a hunger this powerful before. The sheer force of it rocked her to the core.

Needing more of the taste of him, she wrapped her arm around his neck and yanked his much taller form down. A muffled laugh escaped him as he quickly regained his balance.

Without releasing her mouth, he lifted her by the waist and turned around. Seating her on the workbench, he settled in for a long, slow burn. His mouth dipped and claimed, sipped and pulled, licked and nibbled. Isobel shivered as she wrapped her legs around his hips, giving in to him completely.

Then he palmed her backside and lifted her off the workbench. Their lips didn’t stop tasting each other as he carried her inside his cabin.

Liam remained silent as he divested Isobel of her clothing. He didn’t speak as he laid her out on his bed, caressing her breasts and licking the tips. He said nothing at all when she splintered apart with his mouth between her legs.

This wolf, she thought between fleeting moments of lucidity, spoke far more with actions than he did with words.

She gasped and pulled at his hair when she began to crest again. “Keep that up and I’ll be too tired to return the favor.”

A smile curved his lips before he took her over that edge.

Isobel was still panting, her vision blurred and her limbs hopelessly languid, when Liam repositioned her on the bed. She lay on her stomach, listening to him strip off his jeans. She felt the dip of the mattress as he knelt between her thighs.

“You’re on your own,” she muttered drowsily. “I’m done. Not getting any help from me.”

A soundless cry escaped her as the blunt head of his cock pushed in.

Liam’s voice was rough, a low brush of air on the back of her neck. “I like you this way. Hot and swollen, too sensitive to take me in.” He bit into the top cusp of her ear before sucking it into his mouth. “But you will, won’t you? You’ll take it all.”

Isobel writhed. His thrusts were slow and measured. Thorough. Her nails dug into the sheets as he slowly forced his way in, her inner muscles clenching desperately around his length.

Liam sawed back and forth, a carnal rhythm that was relentless in its demands. He nipped at her jawline, sucked her bare nape. He bit the flesh over her left shoulder blade, and then mirrored it on her right side.

When he bit into her bicep and then the crook of her neck, Isobel understood. He was marking her all over.

A roll of his hips and she scrabbled on the bed, trying to seek reprieve, however brief. Liam closed his hands over hers and held them down, thrusting into her. Demanding his due.

She thought he might have murmured something, his deep tone an erotic cadence in her ears. Isobel couldn’t tell. She couldn’t hear, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. All she could do was let Liam ride her to completion, his deep thrusts quickening as sparks ignited in her womb, a wave of sensation that consumed her whole.

Isobel’s climax crashed into her like a tidal wave. Her muscles spasmed helplessly as she grappled for control. She struggled wildly, seeking any sort of safehold to bear her through this attack of the senses. Liam’s hot, heavy weight surrounded her as he found his own release, the deep groan in her ear making Isobel quiver.

He held her close, his words a gentle, soothing croon as she drifted down from that peak, catching her as she fell.

* * *

“Next time, we’re doing this on my bed.”

Liam smiled and tucked Isobel’s head under his chin. Her soft, luscious body was curled on top of him, warm and pleasantly drowsy. He kept his arm around her to keep her from straying to the edge of the bed. Also so that she wouldn’t be tempted to run, the way she had their first time. His hand moved back and forth over the curve of her hip.

“My bed’s not that small,” he said mildly.

“Even you can’t say that with a straight face.” She released a contented sigh and snuggled a little closer. Any closer and she’d slip underneath his skin.

No,
Liam thought,
she already has.

Slipped underneath his skin and snaked her way into his heart. He loved this woman. When she smiled at him, his heart twisted with a need to make sure she always had cause to smile. Her trust in him was a gift beyond measure. When she touched him, his scars—external and internal—all of them faded away. There was only her.

Her hair had escaped her braid as a result of their exertions. A wayward strand rested on her lower lip, and Liam smoothed it away with his free hand.

“Going somewhere?” he asked. Isobel typically wore a braid when going to work, and she’d said she was on leave for the next two weeks.

“To see Jamal. The one who. . . .” She hesitated, then lifted her hand. She hadn’t used her colleague’s name around him before, but Liam understood who she meant. “Someone’s looking in on him tomorrow to assess him for prosthetics. Thought I’d give him a head’s up in case he gives in to another bedpan-throwing mood. By the way, your sandwiches are still out there waiting for you.”

“Mm. Too comfortable here.” He dipped his hand briefly to squeeze her ass, then dropped a kiss on her lips.

“Naley’s going to scent the hell out of you on me when I get back to the house. For all her blessings, I should at least pretend some level of decorum.”

“She feeling better today?”

“Yeah. We worked things out.” Isobel paused. “I spoke to my sister about becoming Naley’s legal guardian. There are paperwork and arrangements to take care of, but I’ll make sure everything’s expedited.”

Liam pressed his mouth to her temple. “That’s wonderful.”

“Cub certainly thinks so.”

“And you?”

She nestled her head lower on his chest, directly over his heart. She skimmed a pensive finger across a line of scars, and strangely Liam didn’t feel the need to flinch away and hide. When that finger circled his flat nipple, he felt his desire stirring once more.

“It’s a big responsibility,” she said quietly.