Jace (River Pack Wolves 2) (Paranormal Romance) (15 page)

She nibbled up his neck to his ear and whispered, “I told you so.”

He huffed a small laugh. She was right—he’d kept his wolf contained—but he had no idea if it would happen the next time. Or the next. He couldn’t be sure of any of it. But at the moment, all he cared about was the soft whisper of her skin against his.

He held tight onto the warmth of her against him, and before he knew it, he was swiftly tumbling into sleep.

Piper’s eyes were still closed when the sun moved onto her face. She squinted her eyes open and peered at the window—the sun’s early morning glory was blazing through. Jace’s arms were wrapped around her, still spooning her from behind and draping his arm and leg across her body in the most delicious blanket she would ever have.

She was
so
in love with this man. Last night had been amazing—hot sex, revealed secrets, and the thrill of making him come without unleashing that wildness he didn’t think he could control.

He was so wrong about there being an evil part of him, something that killed people. She knew with absolute certainty, deep in her being, that Jace River was nothing but good, through and through. There is no way his beast had done anything like what he believed. She had no idea what the real story was behind his time in Afghanistan, but she knew the fog of war clouded the sharpest minds.
Something
had happened to him over there, and once she found Noah and the other shifters, she would get to the bottom of it.

She had never wanted a mate—the very idea still curled knots of tension inside her stomach—but when she looked at this beautiful man lying next to her, sleeping soundly on his bed, she saw possibilities that had never been open to her before. She’d never wanted anyone the way she wanted him. The idea of submitting still ran shudders through her mind and her body—it was a complete domination, as far she could tell. Her father, the Colonel, certainly had used every ounce of magic to dominate her mother and turn her into an empty shell of a woman. But Piper couldn’t imagine Jace ever doing anything like that, especially to a woman he cared for and loved.

He said he wanted to love her.
She could tell by the look in his eyes when he said it that he didn’t mean the hot sex, the driving of his cock into her body which he held out as a reward for her staying in his arms. He meant he wanted to give her his
heart—s
omething she still could hardly believe. It was like a fantasy come to life.

Jace made a soft breathy sound, like he was rising up from the depths of his sleep. It killed her that he refused to take a mate. Not that it should be
her
—the idea still ran shivers through her—but he deserved everything that was good in this world, and for Jace River, having a mate was one of those things. In the end, if she could cure him of this belief that his wolf was dangerously wild, and she was still too afraid to submit to him herself, then she would have to let him go. Make sure he was free to claim a mate who deserved everything that he was.

Jace stirred, his hands sweeping across her body and sending an echo of the delicious pleasure he’d given her multiple times. He yawned and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked at her, then suddenly jerked out of bed, scrambling away from her. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and he stared at her with wild eyes.

“We fell asleep!” he panted.

“Well, you did wear me out, soldier.” She gave him a sexy grin that she hoped would be an invitation for him to come back to bed and give her more reasons to be tired.

But he just shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. “I told you… I have nightmares.” His hand stilled, his face paled. He scanned her naked body with a critical, unpassionate eye, as if looking for injuries. “My wolf comes out at night.”

“I told you
—
you would never hurt me.”

He rubbed both of his hands over his face and took a deep breath. Then he shook his head and slowly climbed back into bed with her. “We have to be more careful than that. I
really
can’t control it at all when I’m sleeping.” He gestured to the door. “I don’t have a lock on there for nothing.”

She touched her fingertips to his face and gazed into his eyes. Her touch seemed to calm him. Her wolf was practically purring inside her with just that small connection.

“I know you don’t believe it,” she said. “But I know your wolf would never hurt me. Someday, I’m going to prove it to you.”

He leaned in to kiss her, softly and gently, then pulled back. “I’m broken, Piper. If you’ll have me, at least for now, I’ll take whatever you’ll give.” He kissed her again, snuggling in closer, pressing their naked bodies to one another. His morning erection was calling to her hand, so she reached down to stroke it. He pulled her hand away.

“Maybe later,” he said. “We have to get up sometime.”

She pouted, and it wasn’t much of an exaggeration. Her body couldn’t get enough of his.

He gave her a bashful look, dipping his chin and looking up at her through his lashes. “I meant everything I said last night… but I didn’t know you didn’t want a mate. Or maybe that you think you shouldn’t because of what happened to your mother. But I want you to know that you
should,
someday. If you find someone you want. You shouldn’t deny yourself that. I’ll always protect you, no matter what. Everyone should have someone in their corner, and I’m that for you. Forever. Whether I can have you in my bed, or not, is just an extremely awesome potential bonus.” He gave her a small smile. “But I will admit that the idea of another man’s hands on you at the moment could actually turn me into a homicidal maniac. In human form.”

She grinned. Jace had already ruined her for all other men, and he didn’t even know it. She looped her leg over his hip, bringing her still-damp core closer to his still-hard erection. “There is only one man’s hands I want on me right now, only I can’t seem to get him to put them in the proper place.” All this talk of mates they couldn’t have just made her more determined to prove to him that his wolf was good.

He groaned, a sexy frustrated sound, and slid his hand between her legs, making her gasp.

“I’d like nothing more than to play with your body all day,” he whispered against her skin between rapidly speeding up breaths. “But we really do need to get downstairs and be ready to move, in case the coven comes through for us.”

Piper pulled in a deep breath, kissed him hard, and then wrenched her body away from his. Her wolf growled her disapproval. “You really are no fun at all, Jace River.” But she was joking, because he was absolutely right—finding Noah took precedence over everything else. And she loved that he was staying on target with that.

They quickly dressed, but she had to fight a massive surge of lust again when Jace insisted that they shower together for “maximum efficiency.” It
did
get them downstairs sooner, if a lot less satisfied.

Jared was already in the kitchen, scarfing down eggs and bacon and toast. He looked utterly unsurprised to see them stumbling in together, hand-in-hand, hair still wet from the shower. He grunted a kind of “good morning” acknowledgment and finished off his plate. While he rose up to clean his plate, Jace dug out some eggs and cheese from the refrigerator and proceeded to cook in front of her eyes.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked, eyes wide. “You’re saying that you cook
as well?”
She meant
in addition to
being extremely hot in bed—and every other fine feature the man had—but she wasn’t going to say all that in front of Jared.

Jace just grinned, not breaking stride as he cracked the eggs and sent sizzling sounds and smells of deliciousness throughout the kitchen.

Piper tap Jared on the elbow, catching him before he left the kitchen—he jerked back in surprise at the touch. She frowned and wondered if Jace was the only River brother with some kind of dark secret. Jared had the look of a haunted man, and it didn’t seem to be just his personality, like some people were. Piper had learned to judge people quickly in the field, sizing them up by their facial tics and their verbal and nonverbal responses, even in the most innocuous of situations. Jared was a man who was carrying something deep inside him, a burden he didn’t think he could ever put down, so he took it with him everywhere.

“I was just wondering,” she said, with a forced lightness, “if you’d had any more luck in finding Agent Smith?”

He shook his head, frowning. “No, but I’ve been thinking about what you said last night, about the Senator and his plans to register shifters. That’s something that can’t happen.”

“It absolutely can happen,” Jace said from the stovetop, where he was almost finished with the eggs. “Politicians are sick bunch—they will happily put people at risk, destroy lives, and ruin businesses, all for a few more votes. And to hold onto their power.”

Piper just stared at Jared because even though Jace misunderstood, she knew exactly what Jared was saying. That it
couldn’t happen
—meaning that Jared wouldn’t let it happen. She didn’t know what that meant to him, but she could see the cold determination in his eyes.

“Maybe,” she said, carefully, “if we can find the missing shifters, and my brother, Noah, we’ll find something on the Senator as well. Something that will shut him down.”

Jared nodded, still holding her in an intense gaze. “That’s our top priority. Rescuing your brother and the others. We’ll do that first.” Then he turned and strode from the room.

Piper shivered a little in the cold wake he left behind.

Jace didn’t seem to notice, just plated up their eggs and grabbed some juice from the refrigerator. They sat down to eat, and silence fell over them as they scarfed down the food. She was
ravenous
—strong night of sex tend to do that to her, and doubly so with the emotional tornado she had spun through.

Just as they were finishing up, Jaxson and Olivia flew through the front door, their shoes pounding on the polished wooden floor on their way to the kitchen.

“Oh good, you’re up!” Jaxson gushed. “We’ve got a line on your brother, Piper.”

She jerked up from the table. “You do?”

“My aunt Gwen is
so
much a better witch than I am,” Olivia said with a grimace. “It’s kind of ridiculous that I even
think
I can do magic compared to what she does.”

Piper didn’t care about any of that. “Where is he?”

“There’s an abandoned airfield on the outskirts of Seattle.” Jaxson turned to Jace. “Lots of empty hangars. Sound familiar?”

Jace nodded. “Easy access, in and out. No reason for anyone to stop by. Perfect for conducting experiments that no one will ever see. Sounds like the kind of place Agent Smith would hang out.”

“The only problem is the place is
huge.”
Jaxson shook his head. “We know exactly which hangar they’re in, assuming the coven’s magic is good and has pinpointed the right coordinates, but it’s wide open.”

Jace grimaced. “If I were Agent Smith, I’d have security all around the perimeter. Lots of warning, so no one can get close. Especially since we’ve already crashed his party once.”

“Exactly.” Jaxson hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll go round up some of the pack and get ready to roll. We need to move fast.”

Piper agreed emphatically, she didn’t understand the source of their urgency. “Why?”

Jaxson frowned. “It already took us an hour to get here from downtown. It’ll take at least another hour to reach the airfield. I don’t want them slipping away again.”

Piper nodded quickly, and Jaxson and Olivia hurried out of the room.

Jace turned to her. “You want to go, don’t you?”

Pepper snorted. “Besides the fact that you guys could use my tactical knowledge, I’d
 like to see you try to stop me.”

Jace grinned and slid his hands up along her shoulders, to her neck, and all the way up to hold her cheeks with just his fingertips. He kissed her lightly. “You know, you turn me on when you talk like that.”

She smirked. “And I wasn’t even trying.”

He kissed her softly again. “I know. That’s the best part.” He pulled back, and a frown settled on his face. “But I actually don’t like the idea of you coming along. I don’t want to see you in any kind of danger. Ever.”

“You’re not going all
overprotective alpha
on me, are you?” She looked up into his eyes with a saucy stare that dared him to even think about trying to use an alpha command on her.

“Yeah,” he said, softly. “I think maybe I am.”

The look he was giving her was the kind that reached inside her—past all the walls she had carefully built over her entire life to keep everyone out—and stirred the deepest parts of her. She dropped her voice, and said softly in return, “I’ll be careful. I always am.”

He kissed her gently on the forehead, and it almost brought tears to her eyes. “Make sure that you do.”

And without him saying it in so many words, she got the message loud and clear—if something happened to her, Jace would feel responsible, just like he felt responsible for those people in the village, whether that was really his fault or not. It made her even more determined to uncover the truth about that, but she also realized that she held another sacred duty in her hands—she needed to not only find her brother, she needed to survive as well.