Promises Unbroken: A Hot Paranormal Shifter Romance (Hidden Hills Shifter Book 5) (5 page)

He stepped closer and her body went crazy again.
Stop reacting!
He then did that sexy thing again of dragging his knuckle down her cheek. “Perhaps I should ask you to be in charge next time.”

Once was enough to make her realize how incredibly dangerous this man could be to her mental health. If she hadn’t cared about hurting his feelings, she would have told him never to try anything like that again.

“T-shirts are safer.”

Amusement lit his face. “Sure they are.”

He led her back to the living room where they dressed in silence. He scooped up his shirt buttons and jammed them in his jacket pocket.

Guilt claimed her. If she had any sewing supplies, she would have offered to do it for him. “Do you know how to sew them back on?” she asked.

“Got it covered.” He cupped her shoulders, leaned over, and kissed her lightly. “See you at work tomorrow.”

“Thank you for delivering my purse.”

“Sure thing.” And then he was gone—without any argument or pleading with her to let him into her life.

Selena expected relief to rush through her, but only emptiness resided. Damn. Nothing about this mating stuff was what she’d anticipated. Adrenaline and hormones were still swirling inside her, meaning that rational thought was close to impossible. Right now, it would be best to take a shower and hit the hay, but given her state of arousal, she doubted she’d sleep, and dwelling on what just happened would only lead to trouble.

*     *     *

No surprise, Selena
only managed about three hours of shuteye. As a result, she was tired and testy the next day, which wasn’t a good combination. While her shift didn’t begin until three, she headed into work early in order to arrive before Jackson. Delving into the case without him being near would hopefully keep her mind off what happened last night.

She’d gone over the events a hundred times and didn’t like how she’d totally caved the moment he stepped into her house. Selena didn’t want to feel anything for the man, yet she did—or at least the animal part of her did. Having a man in her life would complicate things. Experience had taught her that much.

Stop obsessing and work!
The man wasn’t even there and had managed to mess with her head.

Selena inhaled. Being lead on this case meant she needed to decide the direction of the search. While she wasn’t one to typecast, in the past, the cheetah clan had spawned many of the town’s juvenile delinquents. A few she recalled drove scooters. When Jackson clocked in, she’d take him to speak with the potential candidates. While the young men would deny all knowledge of the crime, it was good to put the fear of arrest into their hearts. Besides, the threat of juvenile detention or prison might loosen a few lips.

If something didn’t pan out, a few of the good kids she’d connected with might be willing to tell her what she needed to know.

“Selena?”

Hearing her name jarred her out of her reverie. She looked up and forced a smile, not in the mood to chitchat. “Hey, Danielle.”

Danielle was the office dispatcher who worked the night shift, too. She was a wolf shifter who’d met her mate more than ten years ago, had instantly fallen in love, and now had three beautiful children.

Her coworker pulled up a chair and faced her. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

She couldn’t possibly know. They might be friends, but Selena hadn’t told anyone about Jackson and her being mates. She painted on a confused look. “Why would you think anything’s wrong?”

The dispatcher smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. You look like you haven’t slept much in days, you’ve been irritable ever since Jackson Kenner came to work here, and now you two are partners.” She leaned closer. “Heard from a little birdie that you were with him last night. What gives?”

Selena was about to say they went to the Cove Bar to blow off steam, but she needed some advice. “Okay. I’ll tell you, but you can’t say anything to anyone about this.”

If their boss found out, her chances for advancement would slip to zero.

“My lips are sealed.”

Selena told her almost everything, leaving out most of the details about the sex. “As soon as he came into my house, I was totally powerless to stop him—or myself—from making love.”

Danielle held out her palms. “That’s because you’re mates.”

She was afraid she’d say that. “So what am I supposed to do? I can’t live like this.” The purpose of agreeing to sex had been to purge him from her erotic memory, and that turned out to be a major fail.

Selena glanced over to Jackson’s desk to make certain he hadn’t arrived, though if he had, her body would already be reacting.

A twinkle came to Danielle’s eye. “Let me ask you this. Did you complete the mating process?”

“No! And I have no intention of biting him or being bitten.” Her fate would have been sealed if she’d done that.

“He did try to bite you, though, right?” Worry laced her friend’s face.

“No. Why?”

She looked off to the side. “Seems to me if he wanted you as much as you claimed, he would have tried to make it official, so to speak.”

Selena leaned back in her chair. “Perhaps I was wrong. Maybe he was just horny.”

As soon as the words left her lips, she recognized that wasn’t true. A blast of erotic lust suddenly crashed down on her, forcing her to look up. There he was. She wanted to focus on anything but Jackson, but the draw was too strong.
Gaa
. She hated this feeling of helplessness.

Wait a minute. Jackson didn’t even glance her way. What was up with that? If they were mates, he’d have to sense her presence.

Danielle must have caught her staring and pushed back her chair. She grinned. “Gotta get back to work. Keep me posted and good luck.”

Selena needed more than luck. She needed an antidote to
matedom
, not that there was such a thing. Flutters beat inside her stomach and her palms dampened. Shit. Being near Jackson for any length of time would shred all of her resolve, but she couldn’t ask for a new partner without raising suspicion.

What would help right now would be some sort of order, and that meant doing her job. Creating a list of possible suspects seemed to be a good place to start.

For the next thirty minutes, she worked at ignoring
him
and doing her work. Once she finished compiling the names, she studied them. Not all were cheetah teens, but many were. Poverty, coupled with too much drinking, often led to lawlessness in her Clan. Thankfully, once Storm took over at Alpha, he and her dad had worked together to bring in some reform.

“What do you need me to do?” Jackson asked suddenly materializing in front of her, shocking her heart.

Damn man seemed to possess the talent of instantly transporting from one place to another. She should have sensed he was near. Clearly, her equilibrium was off.

What she wanted to tell him was that he should let her deal with this crime on her own, but that wasn’t a viable option. “I’ve made a list of possible suspects, and a second one of a few kids who might be willing to tell us what they know.”

“Nice. Have you spoken with Storm?”

“Not yet. He hasn’t been the cheetah’s Alpha for very long and probably doesn’t know everyone. I plan to contact the Alphas of the other two clans, though, and ask for their help.”

Jackson looked off to the side, his demeanor serious. In the past, when he stopped by to talk, he would make some suggestive remark, but this time, he seemed intent on finding the thieves, and that worked for her.

“Wasn’t Cheyenne’s dad the previous Alpha?”

She liked the way his mind worked. “Yes. In fact, he was my next call. If he’s willing to meet with us, it might be worth our while to hear his theory. Are you free to come along?” Her stupid pulse jacked up at the thought of being in the cruiser with him. Logic told her this reaction was ridiculous and uncalled for, but there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.

“If you want.”

Why wasn’t he crawling all over this? All of a sudden Jackson was a bit distant. Oh, shit. Maybe
he
was having second thoughts. She’d heard stories about how one mate would turn down the chance to be with the other if they didn’t want a future with him or her. Just because the inner beasts yearned to be together didn’t mean the human parts did. Selena couldn’t imagine the horror of spending her life with this intense sexual need and not even liking the person.

She shouldn’t worry about it because she had no desire to be with any male—regardless of how much her cheetah wanted him.

Selena picked up the phone. “I’ll call Leonard and see what he says.”

“Leonard?”

“Sorry. That’s Cheyenne’s dad.”

Jackson rapped his knuckles on her desk. “Keep me in the loop.”

As if she wouldn’t? He turned and strode toward his desk. Confused, Selena made sure he was seated before dialing Leonard’s number. As she waited for him to pick up, she glanced over at her mate who seemed completely focused on something else—and for the first time ever, that something wasn’t her.

When Leo answered, Selena explained about the theft. “You have any ideas who might be responsible?”

“You thinking it’s one of ours?” He didn’t sound defensive, which made her job easier.

“Just covering all my bases.”

“How about I ask around and see what I can learn. I’ll call you back.”

“Thanks, Leonard.”

She disconnected, and her stomach tumbled. As much as she didn’t want Jackson’s attention, his lack of interest was causing her as much concern. Before she could dwell on her new dilemma, Dram, a fellow officer, strode over and dropped a flash drive on her desk. It appeared to be the one from the robbery.

“Chris came looking for you, but I guess your shift hadn’t started. He asked me to give this to you when you came in. He’s keyed it up to the actual time of the robbery. Since you know so many people, you might recognize one of the voices.”

She looked up and smiled. “I’ll give it a try.”

When Dram left, she plugged the drive into her computer. Last year, after she’d identified a robber’s voice, Dram had caught the man. While cheetahs had acute hearing like the rest of the shifter world, it was their audio discriminatory abilities that were better than most. She hoped she’d be as lucky this time. Once the tape started, Selena closed her eyes to block out all distractions, and instantly, the image of Jackson licking her nipples shot to the forefront of her mind. She snapped her eyes open and glanced his way, almost feeling his gaze on her. Wrong. His head was down and he was typing away. Even when he wasn’t trying to distract her, he was.

Once more, she focused on the voices. While the two young men sounded like they were talking underwater, one of the men suddenly stuttered. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to give her a clue who it might be—Greg Hepner and his cousin, David. One was a junior in high school and the other a senior. Christ. They’d been trouble from the day they were born. Their biggest problem was that they never wanted to be in their human form, preferring to romp and hunt as cheetahs. Working hard wasn’t their forte. Damn.

While she wanted to question them, no telling where they’d be on a Saturday night—up to no good, most likely. To save time, she called Leo back.

“I’m not that fast,” he said without even a hello.

She chuckled. “Just need some info. Do the Hepner cousins drive scooters?”

“They do.”

“Do you have any idea where they might be now?”

He hesitated for a bit. “You could try the bowling alley.”

Yuk. That was where she’d conducted the sting operation a few months back. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

“They’re minors, you know.”

That was a problem. If she arrested them and they stood trial, they’d go to juvie, a place that was already overcrowded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Once she disconnected, she looked up at Jackson.
You can do this
.

Chapter Five

J
ackson was about
to burst. For the last hour and a half, he’d seen Selena glance up at him from her desk time and time again, and as much as he wanted to blurt out that being mates was inevitable, he wanted to give her space. Last night when he’d walked away from her, he’d had to use all of his resolve not to make love with her again.