Like she could ever not think about him. She watched as he put a nice stainless steel watch on her wrist. Big and heavy, definitely designed for a man. But she liked big male watches.
When she finally took a good look, she openly gawked at it, then at Mace. “Mace. This is a Breitling.” Stainless steel her ass. More like titanium. She’d seen enough counterfeits to recognize the real thing.
She did keep forgetting the man was rich.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got others.” Wildly rich, apparently.
“But why do you want me to wear it?”
“Because I want everyone at your precinct to know you belong to me.”
Dez shook her head. “I’m surprised you don’t want to tattoo ‘Property of Mace Llewellyn’ across my fuckin’ forehead.”
He looked away from her, clearing his throat, and settling her more firmly on his lap. “Uh…why would I want to do that?”
Before she could say anything beyond “thank you” or “you’ve already thought about doing that, haven’t you,” Mace pulled her close into his chest and held on to her. She relaxed against him and allowed herself to just be. Kind of a new feeling for her. She was usually doing something. Kicking somebody’s ass. Taking somebody’s name. But on this chilly Christmas night, she just wanted to sit with her…what? Boyfriend? Lover? House cat? Well, whatever…she just wanted to sit with her Mace and enjoy her life.
“You cold?”
She snuggled up closer to him. “Not at all. You?”
“Not with your hot little body next to me.”
She’d never heard anyone use the words hot and little when discussing her body. But, hell, she would accept it for what it was. A Christmas miracle!
She heard her front door open and the nails of her dogs scrambling across the wood of her porch. She winced. She really needed to trim their nails. You shouldn’t be able to hear your dogs coming a mile away because of their toenails.
She glanced back and watched as her father leashed them up. “Watcha doin’, Daddy?”
“Taking these beasts for a walk.” Her father liked her dogs, but he’d never really offered to take them for a walk before.
“Is it getting a little too much for you in there?”
He shrugged. “Something like that.” He tied several plastic bags to one of the leashes. “I won’t be long. As soon as your mother is done clearing up, I’ll get them out of here.” He smiled at Dez. Then glared at Mace. “You take care of her, boy. I’d really hate to have to kill you.”
“Daddy!”
“Understood, sir.”
“Good.”
The old man walked down the stairs of Dez’s porch, her huge dogs calmly walking beside him. Instinctively knowing not to rush the seventy-year-old man.
“I don’t believe you two.”
Mace stretched like the big cat he was, Dez still on his lap. “It’s a male thing. So I don’t want you to worry your pretty little head about it.”
Dez growled. “I’m not going to argue this with you now. But tomorrow, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Mace happily ran his hands over Dez’s body. Even with all the clothes she had on, she still immediately responded to his touch. God, he loved that.
“So, I’m still going to be around tomorrow, huh?”
“I guess. The dogs seem to like you.”
“Yeah. I was starting to notice that.”
“Well, what did you expect when you insist on feeding them under the table?”
Mace ducked his head a bit. “Saw that, did you?”
“It’s the cop thing. I’m paid to detect those sorts of goings-on.”
“So…how long those dogs of yours going to want me around for?”
“I don’t know. Let’s not worry about it. We’ll see how things are in the New Year.”
He could work with that. “Sounds good. New Year it is.”
Dez grabbed one of his hands and rubbed her fingers over it. After several minutes narrowed gray eyes locked onto him.
“Okay. Which New Year are we talking about exactly?”
Mace grinned and shrugged. “Well I didn’t know I had to be specific. But any New Year thirty or forty years from now would be good.”
“Tricky cat.” Dez turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, her face buried in his neck. She became still, her breath against his throat. She was thinking. He could feel it.
“What’s up, Desiree?”
“Just thinking about what’ll happen when I go back to work.”
“I wondered when you’d start worrying about that.”
“I put in a lot of hours.”
“I know.”
“I’m always on call. I handle most of the big cases.”
“I know.”
She pulled away from him just enough to look at his face. “Okay. So you know. The question is…are you going to be able to deal?”
“Remember what you said to me the first night we were together?”
“‘Prove it’?”
Mace chuckled. “No. When I had you against the door.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “Yeah. I said, ‘If you let me go now, I’m going to blow your brains out’.”
He ran his hand across her thighs, then between them. “Well, it’s the same deal, baby. I have no intention of letting you go.” Her back straightened as he nestled his hand against her crotch. As always, she was hot and wet. Just for him. “So you might as well stop worrying about it. Besides, the shit Smitty and the team will get into, we’ll need a cop on the inside.”
Her eyes closed, she let him rub his fingers against her. “So, you’re just using me…like a whore?”
“Yup. As often as I can.”
“Okay. I was only checking.” He adjusted his fingers and he must have hit a sweet spot because she almost came off his lap. He pulled her tight against him, her head nuzzling his throat, his other hand still playing between her thighs.
What a freakin’ great Christmas.
“God, Mace,” she whispered against his throat. “You better…you better stop.”
“No way. I wanna give you a taste of what’s going to happen to you tonight…all night.” And for the next forty years.
As her body tightened around his hand, Mace realized their separation for so many years had been necessary. They needed to go off and do their own thing, become the people they now were. They needed it so when they got here, they knew it was where they belonged. Where they would always belong.
Dez gripped him tight, her mouth biting into his neck. “Oh God, Mace,” she whispered hotly against his throat. “God…fuck. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Mace had to bite his tongue to stop laughing. Man, he really loved hearing her come. Even when she whispered it.
Oh yeah. He belonged here. For the rest of his life. It took him a long time to get here. And he had no intention of going anywhere ever again. This woman was his. Forever.
Even if that meant he had to put up with those goddamn dogs.
SHAW’S TAIL
Prologue
“Mr. Shaw, you need to get up. Now.”
Brendon Shaw, resting on his knees and probably dying, cringed at that voice. Like ten miles of bad road. Still, it gave him something to focus on. Something to keep him from blacking out completely. He couldn’t allow himself to slow this woman down. He knew her…from somewhere. Remembered her scent from somewhere. Even knew that frightening voice.
More important, she was full-human. Even though the bastards who had done this to him were now getting torn apart by a Clan of hyenas, soon those hyenas would be coming back for them. For her. They were not a breed big on loyalty or kindness. They always took the weak ones. She was weak because she was human. He was weak because he was bleeding to death on their tunnel floors. So he had to get her out of here. Now.