Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) (6 page)

By the time she had
arrived back at her apartment, she had formed a solid plan.  She was going to
start dating and rub his nose in the fact that she had moved on.  And if she
actually did fall for someone else, all the better.  Not the most mature plan,
but she was not feeling overly mature at the moment, and it was not in her
nature to meekly accept defeat.  Even if she wanted to curl up, all alone, in
her new bed and sleep for a week.

What would she try if she
could not fail?  She sucked the words into her brain and firmed her will. 
Well, she failed.  Now she would attempt something totally different – learning
to want someone who was not Shawn Ryan.

Tomorrow she would
persevere, move on, completely annihilate Shawn with the thoughts of her with
other men.  Tonight?  Tonight she was going to huddle under her covers and
wonder why she was not enough.  And she would mourn the mate who rejected her.

Which meant, she thought
pulling into the underground parking garage where she now lived, more whiskey
sours and a whole shitload of ice cream.

She was exiting her poor
abused Cooper when the attacker came out of the dark at her. It was only then
that she grasped what the tingle was at the base of her scalp.  It should not
be dark, not in the state-of-the-art, fully secured parking facility her father
insisted on.  And there should have been a guard present when she pressed in
her code to open the security gate.  Careless and stupid to overlook it when
she drove in.  She was going to hear about this, loudly.  There would be
roaring involved.
 Sigh
.

She turned to face the
attack head on, a little grateful actually, considering the mood she was in,
for a little action.  Beating someone up would work wonders in helping her get
to sleep without hours of pity party crying. 

A second later, she
realized there was more than one shadow moving across the dark space, and she
could be in serious trouble.

She took out the one in
front of her with a fist to the throat when he came at her.  She was already
turning while he buckled, trying to relearn how to breathe.  Then she heard it.

The angry cry of a raptor
echoed through the enclosed garage, and her lioness roared back even as the
human side cursed and proceeded to take out her frustration on the next
attacker.  In the dark, she saw enough to see they were big, armed, and wearing
suits, of all the ridiculous thug apparel they could have chosen.

It was probably bad
timing all around that the attack happened when she was not at her best
emotionally.  It made her reactions particularly vicious.  So, when she was
grabbed yet again from behind, she head-butted him hard enough to hear the
crunch of his nose through the cursing.  Then she whirled and took him out at
the knees with a well-placed kick.  This time when the bone snapped, he
screamed.  On the way down, he pulled a gun from his holster and shot her with
it.  His eyes full of malice, he was in too much pain to smile at the direct
shot to her chest, but he came close.

Cleo looked down at the
dart sticking out of her chest and grimaced.  Then she fell.

CHAPTER
SIX

Shawn had been unable to
watch Cleo walk away, but when he heard her tires tearing down the road, he was
just as incapable of not seeing her get home safe.  When she pulled over and
parked, watching from a distance he nearly swooped down and grabbed her too
many times to count.  When he heard her yelling and crying, he was just as glad
he had kept back, even as it tore him up inside.  Cleo was a lot of things, but
weak was not one of them.  As angry as she obviously was, she would have done
some considerable damage before she was done, and he would have let her.  When
she finally ended her conversation with herself and got back on the road, he
almost turned back.  But his hawk refused to leave her vulnerable, even if she
was the most capable woman he had ever seen.

When he saw the empty
guard post, he circled around to check it out.  While he was doing that he
heard the battle start. Cursing his decisions, he headed back to the gates and
looked for a way in.  In his hawk form it wasn’t happening.  He was forced to
take the time to shift, punch in the code he had memorized for no reason he was
willing to explain to himself, and shift back in order to make it there
faster.  By the time he was inside, Cleo was already in the thick of it.  She
was dealing with one of the assailants when he saw the next one grab her from
behind.  He saw her head-butt him even as he was moving fluidly through the men
standing between Cleo and himself.  He took out anyone who got in his way
viciously and without wasting time.

He was almost to her when
he saw the man on the ground with the broken kneecap pull a gun and shoot.  Watching
Cleo fall, a second later he was there to catch her before she hit the ground. 
Then all his thoughts were about her.  Lucky for the rest of the attackers they
didn’t stick around.

He could not have said
when the assailants left, dragging their own; all he knew was that Cleo was
down and he was too slow to save her.  The fact that she was hit with a dart
rather than a bullet was just dumb fucking luck.  She could have died in his
arms, right there.  If the others had been using live fire, he would have lost
her.  Easing them both down, he sat on the cold pavement in the dark and held
her sprawled across his lap.  He pulled out the dart and smelled it, flinging
it away when the acrid smell of elephant tranquilizer reached his nose.  Even
with her shifter metabolism that stuff would keep her out awhile.  Whoever had
done this knew he was dealing with a lion-shifter, and had planned to take her
alive.

He laid her more
comfortably across his lap, his hawk senses telling him they were alone.  The
bad guys were peeling out in a rush somewhere from the other end of the parking
lot.  Shawn needed to get a call into Lionsgate, but carrying an unconscious
female out of a parking garage while naked was a good way to get arrested. 
Knowing she would come out of it in a matter of minutes, he got her as
comfortable as possible on the cold cement and his warm lap.  He held her
tighter than necessary but did not question the need.

He brushed her silky hair
back from her face, his eyes taking in all of her as the darkness and silence
stretched around them.  He could hear humming from machines and fiber optics,
and he heard a click of the door at one point, then a curse as a tenant found
the garage pitch black and flipped on the light on his phone.  Even with all
the lights out in the parking garage, the oblivious human did not call
security.
 Ridiculous.
 But the man, a smoker from the smell of him, got
in his car and headed out, probably already writing his email to management.  A
lot of good that would do him if he had walked into the fight.  Can’t e-mail
when you’re dead.

Shawn took it all in
distantly, his hawk eyes glued the majority of the time to the woman in his
arms.  His hand in her hair moved back and forth without his say so, enjoying
the feel of her hair, the side of her cheek, the brush of her lips.  And when
she finally stirred in his arms, he fought with the logic of gently lowering
her to the concrete and stepping far enough into the shadows, so that the
ridiculous fucking boner that never went away when she was around would not be
the first thing she noticed.  But he didn’t step away.  He held her when she
started to waken, mumbling, her forehead furrowed in pain.  At the moment, he
was not sure whether he was capable of being logical.  Best to keep a distance
between them, but right at that moment, he couldn’t let her go.  Not yet.  He
had almost lost her for good today, and the thought was enough to send him wanting
to rampage through the streets for blood.  But that would have to wait for
later.  First he would see Cleo to safety, then he would do what he did best. 
He would hunt.  For now, he waited while she woke up gradually in his arms, and
pretended it was his right to have her there.

***

Cleo woke up slowly, the
warm feel and smell of Shawn Ryan like a dream.  She could feel him all around
her, and there was a soft brush of comfort through her hair and across the skin
of her cheek and forehead.  If not for the headache that was threatening to
explode in her skull, she could stay just like this forever.

“Are they dead?” she
asked, even when she knew he could not have killed them all.  Though if anyone
could, it would be Shawn.  She didn’t open her eyes, merely snuggled closer to
the delicious smell and warmth of her mate.  She didn’t want to break the
moment

“They are,” he said, his
implacable voice belying the soft brush of his touch.  “They just don’t know it
yet.”

That had her opening her
eyes, and the second she did, she could feel him distance himself.  She almost
sighed out loud, but losing his touch so suddenly, again, hurt too much.  In
the dark, she found herself sitting on the cold concrete alone.  “You know,
Shawn, one of these days all your chances will be gone.”

He didn’t answer her pain-filled
words and she didn’t repeat them.  Sitting up fully and looking around, she
went straight to expressionless business.  “Who were they?”

“Full human, but I could
smell lion.”

“Yeah,” she said. This
time she did sigh, and he caught the sound, his eyes sharpening on her in the
dark, the small amount of light reflecting in them, making them glow.

“You expected this?” 
Again she could feel the glacier cold coming off him.  Only this time it had
the bite of steel behind it.

“I . . . expected
something.”  She shrugged his questions off.  As far as she was concerned, he
could stuff his questions. “You should shift and head to Lionsgate.  I’ll call Dad
when I get upstairs and then he can look for the security people and find out
what the hell happened here.”

There was a long moment
of silence while she stood and brushed herself off, but she would be damned if
she broke it when it was no business of his.

Finally he spoke.  “I’ll see
you to your room.”

“Like that?” she asked
baldly, taking in his naked state.  It might still be dark in the garage, but
she was a shifter; she could see enough to have her mouth going dry and her
knees quivering.  No way was she walking
that
into her new apartment. 
Not
going to happen, cowboy.

“I’ll be discreet.”

“You’ll be vapor,” she
gritted.  “Fly off, Tweedy, and find some clothes, and stop pretending you give
a shit.”  Harsh? Maybe, but this had been a bad night and it wasn’t over yet. 
She had no time to spend arguing with Shawn when he wasn’t supposed to care
anyway.

“I’ll see you to your
room.”  His voice dropped even further and she shivered at the resolve coating
it, and the challenge that made her want to bite him.

She knew that she could
argue for hours and he would stand there like a log until she gave in.  “Stay
at least five feet back.  If the neighbors see you, I would rather they not
think I make a habit of walking nude men to my room.” 
Though if it was a
female
, she thought,
they would see nothing but Shawn anyway
.

When they made it without
incident to her apartment, she pressed in the lock-key and had to grit her
teeth when Shawn moved her to the side and walked into her apartment with a
warning look for her to stay put.  She let him have his play, because she
refused to wrestle him out of her home when he was swinging dick.  But as soon
as he returned, she walked past him, gave a serious shove to his hot naked ass
and slammed the door, clicking the locks while she was at it.  Not that she was
ungrateful for his protection . . . Okay, she was
so
ungrateful for his
protection, but in her defense, she would now have the picture of a naked Shawn
in her apartment to singe her eyeballs.  Not to mention she still had the rest
of the night to deal with.  It was the best he was going to get right now; she
had other problems.  Her father was going to be pissed.

***

Cleo was not wrong. 
Lucas started roaring at the phone call, and came still roaring through the
front door.  A solid steel front door they were now going to have to replace,
since it was twisted and presently on the floor.  Luckily, he was followed
closely by his mate, who glared her exasperation as she passed him to give Cleo
a hug.  “Are you alright?”

“Fine,” she mumbled
against the shorter woman’s hair.  “Just dreading what’s coming next.”

“I don’t blame you on
that one,” Miley mumbled.  “Lion drama at its finest.”

She found herself lifted
gently away from Miley and planted on her feet before her father.  He brushed
her hair back gently, studying the slight bruise on her cheek, and then the
rest of her.  He seemed to lose some of his rage when he saw she was relatively
unharmed, but the spark in his eyes, and the slightly sharper angles of his
face still bespoke his anger.  “Are you hurt anywhere I can’t see.”

She shook her head and
finally met her father’s eyes.  His narrowed at the look of hers.  She had
clearly been crying and the sight of it brought instant death to her father’s
face.  He did not have to say what was going through his mind. Instead, he
turned to the finally clothed Shawn who had followed him in and started barking
orders.  She was not about to tell him it was not the attack that had caused
the crying jag, but the pain in the ass he was talking to.  That would be a whole
new drama, and quite frankly, she was not up for it.  How Shawn had explained
his presence here she did not know, nor was she going to ask; it would just
make her mad all over again.

“I want you following
this crew.  I want to know who they are and what they want with Cleo.  We are
not assuming anything,” he grumbled out.  “Logan is already on Gerent, but we
will be kicking that up considerably.  Contact Demon and the others.  They left
the house not too long ago, so you should be able to catch them before they
land and have them haul ass back here.  Everyone’s on this.”  Then his eyes
flashed lion in his hardened face.  “I want this ended.  Now.”

Shawn nodded, did not
once look at Cleo and left. 
Bastard.

Then she had bigger
worries.

“Pack a bag; until this
is settled you are coming back home.”  Her father said it as he was turning to
pull out his phone.

Cleo narrowed her eyes. 
Oh,
hell no.
  “I’m staying here.”

Her father stilled
utterly and then slowly turned back, his face going blank.  “Excuse me?”

“I said,” she gritted,
her chin going up, “I’m staying here.”

“Not going to happen.” 
She watched Miley shake her head at her mate’s words.  Cleo could not take it
quite so well.

“I live here.  I’m not
letting some chicken shit lion who has to buy a mate scare me back to
Lionsgate.”

Her father stood to his
full height, his lion coming close to the surface in his eyes and the planes of
his face.  “You aren’t staying here.”

“Oh, yes.  I am.”

“How about one of the
guys stays in the spare room with her, just to give her the backup she needs,”
Miley suggested out of the blue and into the growing tension.  Since Cleo was a
hair away from throwing down, it was almost like a splash of water to the face.

She looked at the smaller
woman and her surprised look turned to suspicion.  “Who?”

“Why does it matter?  As
long as you stay and your father’s mind is at ease?”  Her voice was the epitome
of reason.  Damn her.  Her only hope was that her father would never go for it.

“Fine,” Cleo said, “that
sounds reasonable enough.”  She turned to look at her father and waited for his
arguments to commence, but he surprised her.

“Fine,” Lucas growled.  “We’ll
stay here until we have backup for you.  But I
will
be getting hourly
reports,” he added grimly, his eyes a challenge for both his mate and daughter.

“Hourly?”  They both
asked in unison.

Lucas ground his teeth.  “Fine. 
Every two hours.”

Knowing it was the best
she was going to get and gambling that Shawn would be out hunting, she acquiesced. 
“Fine.”  But as soon as she said it, she felt sick to her stomach.  If Shawn
finished his hunt earlier than she expected, she could very well end up with
him in her home, overnight, alone.  While that sounded great a few hours ago, now,
after he had more than made his feelings known, it was less a sexy dream, and
more a nightmare.  Pretending she was fine with it was going to be impossible. 
She did not let the doubts show on her face.  Instead, she kept her belligerent
stance, as did her father, obviously even less pleased with the deal than she
was.  However, neither of them were likely to back down.  They were both
decided, and were going to have to deal with what came.  But if it was Shawn who
came, Cleo just might throw up — all over the hawk-shifter and his perfect body
and made for sin voice.