Firestarter (14 page)

“You mated or married her, even though she was pregnant with another man’s babies?”

Rasmund nodded. “I did my duty, but my heart has always belonged to you.”

Did he think she’d be grateful? That the fact he...she couldn’t even continue the train of thought. He had a wife, or mate, or bitch back home. Anger clouded her vision. “Thank you for explaining all this to me.” She tried to push his hands from her face.

She was barely holding her tears inside. If she had to hear anything else, she would

completely break down in front of him.

“Baby, please forgive me. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” He kissed her forehead.

“When Sage died, I had hoped to come back and claim you and our daughter, but then war over territories broke out.” He tilted her face up. “Dyani, open your eyes.” Anguish laced his words.

His mate was dead. She felt a small flash of sorrow for the faceless woman named Sage.

“Well, I’m still not a shifter, and I’m obviously too old to give you a shifter child. So what do you want from me? Do you want to have a quick fuck or something before you go? Is that it?”

She finally opened her eyes. The pain she heard in his voice, matched what she saw in his face.

Rasmund growled. “You were never a fuck for me. I’ve never felt anything for anyone the way I feel for you. I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t had sex with other women, but they didn’t mean anything. It was just a mutual slaking of lust. But I never slept with Sage.” His hands left her cheeks, only to grasp her arms and give her a fierce shake with each word.

In the light of his obvious anger, her own blazed even brighter. “Well, bully for you. You’ll have no problem finding someone else to fill in the gaps.” She tried to twist her arms out of his grasp, wedging her fists on his thick chest. The man was too strong, which only served to piss her off more.

He held on tight and as his face descended, she clamped her lips and eyes shut. She wasn’t going to kiss him back. She wasn’t going to allow him to manipulate her with his mind-blowing kisses. Her resolve lasted about as long as it took him to trace her closed mouth with his tongue.

She should’ve felt shame, but lust, and longing for all she’d lost, overruled her common sense.

Then she kissed him back with all the yearning, and feelings that she’d had bottled up inside since he left.

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“Dyani, I swear if you give me a chance I’ll show you how much you mean to me. I will do anything to prove how much I love you. Not a day or night has gone by that I have not thought of you, dreamed of you.”

She looked into his eyes, seeing the sincerity. For years, too many to count, she’d held out hope he’d come back, and then she’d tried to move on, only to be disappointed. Could she deny what her heart and body wanted just because he’d hurt her? Could she trust he wouldn’t do it again? Dyani understood on one level he did what he felt was best for her and their unborn child, but the hurt and pain wouldn’t be erased so easily. However, she pictured the next twenty years without him, and realized she’d rather try to forgive him, than live without him.

“I love you, but if you hurt me again—“Rasmund cut off her words with his lips in a kiss filled with such longing and love, she knew she made the right decision. For better or worse, Dyani couldn’t wait to feel his skin next to hers.

“How are you going to explain all this to Cammie?” Rasmund’s question roused Dyani.

The picture of her daughter’s face once they told her their story sent butterflies dancing in her stomach. When she hadn’t answered right away, Rasmund shifted on the bed. The air on their tangled bodies was cool after their passion had been spent, making her shiver. He surprised her again by not jumping up to get dressed, but by reaching down to pull up the blanket that had been knocked off in their haste. Dyani wanted to snuggle down, go to sleep with Rasmund, and wake up with him. But first they had to deal with Cammie.

Dyani turned to face Rasmund, who pulled her close to his body. “We tell her the truth.”

He grunted. “You think it’s going to be that easy?”

She couldn’t control her laugh at his puzzlement. His questing fingers traced down her rib, lingered over her ass, before he gripped her thigh, bringing it over his leg. He shifted and she couldn’t help but feel his erection brushing between their bodies. “Nothing worth having is easy, but I think you’ll realize our daughter is a very forgiving woman.”

“So you’re saying I have a lot of explaining and groveling to do?” He paused and then

continued with a gleam in his eye. “I think I can handle that. But maybe I should start with you first.”

His way of groveling was a shift of his hips, and a tug on her body, bringing them together, connected in the most basic way.

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They finally called Cammie a couple of hours later, and just as Dyani had anticipated, their daughter was very understanding.

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Chapter Eight

Keanu had so many questions. The main one was how all the new revelations were going to affect him and Cammie, and their budding relationship? He wanted to be with her forever. Like getting down on one knee, and asking her to be his wife, forever. But if she was a shifter like her father, why hadn’t she told him? Stupid question. It wasn’t like he’d told her about his abilities at first. His gut twisted, needing answers, but worried about what their future held.

When Dyani finally called, he wondered at the relieved expression that crossed Cammie’s face, until she hung up and told them her mother was happy. Obviously, that was enough for the woman he loved, but he knew there was more to come. He listened as she explained what her father had said that led him to abandon her and her mother. The sight of joyful tears that filled her beautiful eyes nearly had him going down on one knee and making a fool of himself. He wanted her to never cry any other kind of tears ever again.

After Keanu had called the fire chief, they’d trudged back up the hill. He’d been saddened to see Ted’s body, knowing he was the cause. The other man had come prepared with several fire accelerants, which helped explain away the cause of his death. Clearly Ted had been somewhat lucid when he’d followed them, and had no plans of all three of them walking away. When the police had done a thorough search of Ted’s body, they’d also found he had a couple bottles of pills. From their conversations, Keanu assumed the man was a drug user, but that would all come out in the autopsy.

When they’d asked, he’d told them Ted was obsessed with Cammie, and had attacked them

while they were on their hike. Keanu described the fire at Cammie’s home, and Ted’s admission of starting it, to the detectives.

“He screamed that she was his, and that he didn’t want to live if she wasn’t with him. I thought he was just bluffing.” Keanu shrugged. “We left him standing by that rock yelling profanities. It wasn’t until I saw a blaze that I ran back up. By then it was too late.” He hated to make up the lie, but if he didn’t there’d be a whole host of questions to answer, many of which he couldn’t without calling in some favors. His old boss would handle the problem without blinking an eye, but Keanu wanted to avoid calling in Brax.

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They’d retired to the comfy lounge furniture on the patio, where he’d told their families the truth about Ted. He wanted to get out of his grandfather’s place and take her somewhere they could be alone and talk, amongst other things. With that thought in mind, he rose from his seat, held his hand out to Cammie and pulled her up.

“Cammie and I have a couple days off from the station. I’m taking her to my place. It’s only a little over an hour away. We’ll be back in a day or so, but if you need us, Grandfather knows how to get hold of me.”

He spoke as he tugged her behind him to her big vehicle parked outside. His first real smile split his face and he raised his eyebrows at Cammie, giving her his best little boy pout, complete with his lower lip poking out.

She dug her heels into the gravel while shaking her head. “You are not driving my baby.”

“Ah, please. I promise to treat her like a lady, and you said I could.” Keanu pressed his hands together as if in prayer.

“No.” She folded her arms under her breasts.

He licked his lips, wondering if she was aware her low-cut top was about to have a wardrobe malfunction.

She looked down and back at him with a glare.

Keanu waggled his eyebrows. “I’ll let you drive mine, if you let me drive yours.”

“That’s not an even trade. Mine is bigger and better and has all kinds of bells and whistles.

What does yours do?”

“Well I have all kinds of oof...” He grabbed his stomach in mock pain. “Now you’ve hurt me, so I should get to drive. Besides, you don’t know where we’re going.”

“You’re such a baby.” She tipped her head back and looked at the sky. “Okay, you can

drive, but, and I mean this, do not talk badly of her, and don’t compare my baby to some stupid guy shit.” Each word was accompanied by a wag of her finger.

He raised a hand to give her a Boy Scout salute. Not that he’d been a Boy Scout, but she didn’t need to know that. “I swear.”

“You are so full of shit, you know that?” She tossed him the keys with a sexy quirk of her lips.

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Smart man that he was, he didn’t reply, just deftly caught the keys. Remembering his

manners, he opened the passenger door, placed his hands on her very nice ass, and gave her a gentle push up.

The look she shot over her shoulder said she knew it wasn’t an accident where his hands landed.

Pasting on his most charming grin, he rounded the front, and ran his hand across the fender.

Keanu climbed into the rig, revved the engine just a fraction, and looked over at his woman easing the vehicle onto the road like a grandmother of ninety would do.

She punched his shoulder and relaxed into her seat. That was the sign he had been waiting for. Never taking his eyes from the road, he pressed his foot down on the accelerator once they’d left the city limits. His back hit the seat with a thud, and he looked over to see a beautiful smile cross Cammie’s face. Knowing she enjoyed a good thrill, he drove like a bat out of hell.

After the city lights were no longer visible behind them, Keanu felt her hand trail up his leg.

Her touch seemed innocent enough at first, until she passed his knee and rubbed up the inside of his thigh. When she stopped short of his package, he let out a puff of air and ground his teeth, not knowing whether to curse or thank the Lord. He left off the pressure on the gas pedal, slowing to the posted speed limit.

Just as he relaxed into the seat, her nimble fingers seemed to have a mind of their own. They walked up the fly of his jeans. With her eyes kept firmly on the road, she amazed him with her dexterity. She had the button open and the zip down before he could decide if he wanted to beg her to stop, or lift his ass off the seat to give her better access.

Lifting his ass won out, earning him a husky chuckle from the woman beside him.

“What are you doing, Cammie?”

“This.” She leaned forward and licked the tip of his dick.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” The curses flew from his mouth. All the blood left his head, flooding his aching cock.

She hummed around the head, followed by a lick from balls to tip and back down again.

His eyes rolled back in his head, and he heard the familiar sound of the tires hitting the side of the road. The vibration of the vehicle, mixed with the movement of Cammie’s lips, had him ready to explode into her hot little mouth in seconds.

“Cammie, I can’t take it.” He panted.

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Her answer was another giggle, and then her palm gripped the root of his cock. She started pumping and sucking in earnest. He ran his hand through her hair, wrapped the strands around his fist and held on for dear life.

“I’m going to come, baby. If you don’t want to swallow, you need to back off.”

It was the only warning he was going to give her. He wanted to come down her throat more than he wanted to take his next breath.

Her mouth opened on the head, and he nearly deflated until her pink little tongue licked his slit. She pulled back, running her tongue around her lips with a sultry look beneath her lashes. He saw a wicked glint in the depths of her eyes and groaned when she bent over him again. She took as much of him into her hot little mouth as she could handle, and swallowed around the head.

He held the back of her head in a gentle grip, pumped his hips, and let the hot jets of his come flood her. The constriction of her throat was almost as tight as her pussy. It took everything he had to keep his eyes on the road, as the woman he loved made a sound of pleasure. He twisted the wheel to the right, and brought the vehicle to a jarring halt at the side of the highway.

Keanu undid his seatbelt, reached across and did the same to Cammie’s, then jerked her into his arms and devoured her mouth. She tasted like mint and him, and he felt his dick twitch under her rear end.

“Damn, boy, don’t you ever have control of that guy?”

“Obviously not with you around, but you’re right, this is not the place.” He breathed in her scent. “My home’s not far. Do you think you can keep your hands to yourself, or do I need to tie you up?”

“Oh, that sounds like fun.” Her eyes twinkled in the light from the dashboard.

He growled and placed her back in her own seat, but not before he palmed her pussy through her shorts.

“Payback, baby.” He rubbed her mound, smiling when her eyes glazed over.

* * * *

She couldn’t wait for his form of payback. The things that man could do with his tongue had her squirming in her seat.

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Tasting the fiery jets of his come was close to orgasmic. As the heat of it slid down her throat, her clit throbbed to the beat of the same tune his big cock pulsed to. She still tasted him, like a brand on her tongue and mouth, and Cammie couldn’t wait to do it again.

Keanu brought the Jeep to a stop at what she could only describe as her dream home. The large log home, with its overabundance of smoked glass, had her salivating and impatiently waiting for him to open the garage door. Her big Jeep rumbled in, and she got her first view of his other vehicles.