Rio's Fire (11 page)

“Or the remains of whoever he killed could be in here.” Fire raised the case and shook it. Rio quickly grabbed Fire’s arm, yanking it down.

“Are you trying to show everybody what we stole?” Rio pulled Fire away from Mr. Fishman’s car. They headed toward Rio’s vehicle. He opened the driver’s door and then took the case from Fire, tucking it under the driver’s seat. “We’ll see what’s in it after work.

Right now we need to get to our classes before anyone notices that we’re not there.”

For a fierce predator, Rio was a nervous wreck about breaking into somebody’s car. His sheltered mate was probably shitting baby
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panthers in his pants right now. The guy needed to get out more often.

He was wound up so tight that Fire was waiting for the man to crack.

They entered the school and hurried to their classes. Fire might have been inwardly joking about Rio, but hell if he wasn’t sweating bullets. When all his students were in their seats, Fire closed the door.

This was a different class this morning. Fire had six in all.

“Okay, kiddies. Today we’re going to work on beadwork.” Fire pointed to a little girl with light-brown pigtails. “Suzy, can you please bring me the tray of beads and the string.” Fire hadn’t been lying to Rio when he said the kids were growing on him. He was learning art right along with them, and strangely enough, it was fun—although he could do without the kids that liked to shove things into different orifices. Today he had Lisa in his class. She was famous for shoving things in her nose.

How anyone could think it fascinating to shove something up their nose was beyond Fire. He was going to have to watch her. Once he got the beads separated into the little plastic cups, Fire began cutting the string for all his students. “All right, everyone can get a cup.” Fire dropped a piece of string inside every cup. “And if everyone can learn to make a necklace without shoving one of these babies up their noses”—Fire held up a cup and jiggled it, the noise drawing everyone’s attention—“then I was thinking about working with clay tomorrow.”

The kids erupted in excited chatter as they took their seats and began to make necklaces. Lo and behold, Lisa was trying to work a red bead up her nose. Fire rolled his eyes. “Take it out, Lisa.”

She quickly removed it and started to make her necklace. Fire was going to have to remember not to touch
that
one
.

His ass clenched when he saw Mr. Fishman peering into the glass like a villain waiting to strike. Fire pretended that he didn’t see the principal as he continued to help the kids with their project. The portly man made Fire nervous now that he knew the guy could
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possibly be the highly sought demon. He thought about the black briefcase and was dying to run out there and crack it open.

Principal Fishman opened the door and cleared his throat. “Don’t forget our meeting, Mr. Veneto.”

How could he forget? It was all that was on his mind. Fire did not want to be trapped in the man’s office after school, but knew he had no choice. “I’ll be there with bells on,” he said in a singsong voice.

Mr. Fishman didn’t look amused but a few of Fire’s students snickered. Fire turned and winked at Suzy who seemed to have the giggles. Her tiny face beamed as Fire walked back to his desk. “Is there something else you wanted, Mr. Fishman?” Fire wanted the man out of his class.

He didn’t like the guy around his students. If he was the demon, Fire was going to protect the kids with his life.

“No, nothing.” The principal exited the room.

“I don’t like him,” Suzy whispered in a conspiratorial voice.

“That’s because he is secretly a troll,” Fire whispered back. “He hides his big club in his office.”

Suzy’s bottom lip began to tremble.
Oh crap.
Fire hadn’t meant to scare her. Now he was the one that felt like a monster. “But you don’t have to be afraid of him,” Fire quickly added. “He’s only mean to magical people.”

“Like the princesses in the books my mommy reads to me?”

Fire was afraid to answer her. If he said yes, would the little girl be afraid of bedtime stories now? God, Fire had no idea that teaching a class entailed more than just grabbing some glue and glitter. This crap was tough. He wasn’t about to tell the little girl that her princess got beat up by a troll. “No, he’s just mean to—” Fire scratched his head. “Just make a necklace.”

He was starting to confuse himself.

After rescuing a bead from Lisa two more times, Fire was thankful as hell when the bell rang for lunch. He took the kids to the
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cafeteria, grateful he wasn’t going to see Suzy again until Wednesday morning. His next class of the day would be in after lunch.

Fire headed back toward his classroom, purposely avoiding the office and Mr. Fishman. He didn’t want the man to corner him and have their after-school meeting during lunch. That time was reserved for Rio.

As soon as he walked through the door, Rio snagged him. His mate turned so they couldn’t be seen, and planted a hot and passionate kiss on Fire’s lips. He was melting in the man’s arms. Fire ran his hands up the back of Rio’s head, gripping the man’s hair as he pulled his mate closer.

He wanted to get fucked all over again. Rio was stoking the fire inside of him, making Fire burn. “I missed you,” Rio said as he pushed Fire’s back into the wall, his hands going around Fire’s wrists, locking them at Fire’s side.

“But we’ve only been away from each other for a few hours.” Fire tilted his head as his mate’s lips worked their way up his neck.

“Feels like forever.” Rio bit Fire’s shoulder where the man had claimed him just a few nights ago. It wasn’t hard enough to break skin, but enough to drive Fire close to the edge.

Fire moved his head until he had his lips pressed by Rio’s ear. “I want to suck your cock.” Oh yeah, he was playing dirty and he knew it. If Rio was going to get him wound up and leave him wanting, Fire was definitely going to return the favor.

Rio made a rough noise in the back of his throat as his hands tightened on Fire’s wrists. “Keep talking like that and we’re going to the janitor’s closet.”

“They still have those?”

Rio chuckled as he took a step back, releasing Fire and running a hand through his hair. Fire could tell the man was trying to compose himself. “Yeah, they do.”

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No sooner had Rio moved away from Fire than Mr. Fishman showed up in his classroom. “Is there a reason you two are huddled so close together?”

Fire’s insides froze. Rio had told Fire about his suspicions that the principal was a homophobic. Maverick had shoved this job on him, but Rio had chosen this as a career. There was no way he could let the man get fired. But before he could say a word, Rio was answering.

“We were discussing taking a field trip to the art museum.”

They were?

“I thought the children should be exposed to such great artists as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Giotto di Bondone, and Alessandro Botticelli, just to name a few. It’s good to expose their minds at such a young age.”

Fire was lost. He didn’t have an inkling of who any of those people were. But he did plaster a smile on his face and nod his head enthusiastically. “Yeah,” Fire agreed. “Need to crack those heads open to expose their brains.”

Rio glanced at him with a
be quiet
look in his eyes. Fire curled his lips in, shoving his hands into his back pockets.

Mr. Fishman was staring at Fire strangely. “That sounds like a wonderful field trip,” he said slowly and then turned to Rio. “Have the secretary draft up the permission slips. Just make sure you give her a two-week advanced notice.”

Fire pulled his hand from his pants and gave the man a thumbs-up.

“Not a problem. If I borrow a truck, Mr. LeBlanc and I can fit the kids in the back with no problem.”

Rio clears throat. “Great sense of humor, Mr. Veneto.” His mate narrowed his eyes at Fire.

Now what did he say wrong?

Mr. Fishman left the classroom.

Rio turned and stared at Fire incredulously. “You want to transport students in the back of two pickup trucks?”

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“How else are we going to get them there?” Fire asked emphatically. “On our backs?”

“Just where did you go to school?”

“I was homeschooled, duh,” Fire replied as he pointed to his ears that he kept covered with his long hair. “Fey don’t send their offspring to human school until they are old enough to attend college.

They think it’s too dangerous before our children are adults.”

Rio snagged the back of Fire’s neck and pulled him close, giving him a quick peck on the lips. “We have school buses, darlin’. One will take the kids to the museum for us.”

Fire could feel his face heating up at something that should’ve been so obvious but wasn’t. “If you stopped kissing me like you were fucking my mouth then I wouldn’t lose my mind. We wouldn’t have gotten caught either. Now we’re stuck going on a field trip.”

“It’s not that bad. I’ve got a feeling you’ll enjoy it.”

Fire highly doubted it, but if it meant spending a day with Rio, he was all for going to a boring museum. He had thought Rio an uptight stick in the mud when he first met him. The kids weren’t the only ones growing on Fire. As he stared into Rio’s eyes, Fire knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was falling in love.

He wanted to make Rio proud of him by righting the wrong he had done. Somehow he was going to fix the mess he had created. Fire had taken everyone else’s opinion with a grain of salt. But he cared about Rio’s opinion of him. He didn’t want his mate looking at him like he was a fuckup. He wanted to see pride in Rio’s eyes when he gazed at Fire.

Rio mattered to him.

“I guess we have a field trip to plan for,” Fire said as he started to squirm under Rio’s intense eyes.

“Come on, darlin’. I brought both of us lunch. Let’s go sit down and eat together.”

Fire followed behind Rio like a lost puppy, his eyes glued to the man’s nice, tight ass. His teeth began to ache for just one small bite.

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Fire also wanted to smack Rio for getting him all hot and bothered when the man knew full well that they couldn’t do anything to slake their need.

“What did you bring us?” Fire asked as he entered Rio’s classroom. Now that the man had mentioned lunch, Fire found his stomach grumbling. He was famished.

“Just something I put together last night.”

“After we ate dinner at the diner? Do you always eat that much?”

Rio winked at Fire. “No, but I thought it would be nice to have lunch together. So after I dropped you off, I went home and made something nice for lunch.”

A warm flutter began in Fire’s stomach. His mate had been very thoughtful. He knew he didn’t deserve a man like Rio. It only solidified Fire’s resolve to be a better mate to his panther. Rio deserved nothing less.

Fire began to laugh when he popped the lid on the Tupperware bowl Rio had handed him. The man had made ham sandwiches and had tossed some chips in on the side. “I really hope this didn’t take you all night to prepare,” Fire teased as he popped a chip into his mouth. He was so damn hungry that the chip tasted like steak.

“I’m not giving away any of my secrets,” Rio replied. “You’ll just have to spend the night and find out.”

Fire nearly choked on the chip. He had been waiting for his mate to invite him over, and started to fear that wasn’t going to happen because of everything that was going on, including his debt to the wolves. Deep down inside, Fire had been scared that Rio was going to keep him at arm’s length.

They got along fabulously at work, and erotically in the bedroom.

Fire thought it wouldn’t go beyond that. But it seemed Rio was full of surprises. “If you’re serious, I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“Darlin’, when it comes to you I’m always serious. We could stop at your house and pick up some fresh clothes for tomorrow.” Rio bit into his sandwich, but Fire just sat there amazed.

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His mate had accepted Fire, faults and all. Fire opened his mouth to say something when he spotted the bookie peeking into the classroom window.

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Fire closed his classroom door, dreading his meeting with Mr.

Fishman. Rio had gone after the bookie after Fire had told him about the man peeking into the window. Of course, Rio had to wait until after school, but he had assured Fire that he could pick up the scent.

The office door loomed up ahead, making Fire think of the door to hell rather than an elementary school office. It felt foreboding, creepy, and all Fire wanted to do was run from the school and find Rio.

He didn’t want to be trapped in an office with a possible demon.

“Mr. Veneto!”

Fire turned to see the elderly science teacher waving manically at him, her arms flapping high in the air.

“Yes?”

“Oh, thank god I found somebody! I need your help.”

Fire’s eyes slid to the office door behind Mrs. Crumble. He smiled widely. “Okay.”

“Follow me.” She hurried down the hallway toward the library, Fire following close behind. He came to a skidding halt when he saw a student’s head stuck between two balusters.
What the devil?
“You see my dilemma?”

Fire saw it all right. He just didn’t understand how the kid’s head had gotten in there. He was starting to see that these little hellions needed twenty-four-hour supervision. Who knew a two-foot human could be so much trouble?

“Do you think you can get him out?” Mrs. Crumble asked as she wrung her hands together until her fingers were nothing more than white knuckles. Fire scratched the side of his neck as he wondered
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how to go about freeing the kid. If he could shimmer, all Fire would have to do was touch the kid and shimmer out and he would be okay.

But even he knew that was a big no-no.

So he was going to have to do this the human way.