Juneau Heat (20 page)

“Where are
we?”

Her answer
came when she spotted Kotori’s grandmother heading their way. So this was where
his people lived when away from Juneau. She could never forget the old woman’s
disapproving face, but this time, she didn’t appear so annoyed when she drew up
to Shiya as she stepped from the vehicle.

“You’ve
decided,” the old woman said.

Shiya
raised her brows. “I’m sorry?”

“Come,” the
woman snapped. “Devil’s club juice will help frostbite.”

Shiya
tossed Birk an amused, if doubtful look. “Seriously?”

He
chuckled.

Kotori, who
seemed calmer now, spoke in the Tlingit language to his grandmother and
repeated it in English for Shiya’s benefit. “She has to take care of some
business, and then she will submit to your treatment.”

His
grandmother appeared to accept his explanation, and Shiya followed Birk and
Kotori to one of the cabins. Once inside, she marveled at the equipment—two
computers with massive monitors, printers, and other peripherals.

“Damn, what
do you have going on out here?” she mused. “And can you even get an Internet
signal?”

“Satellite,”
Birk answered and hooked a thumb in Kotori’s direction. “He may look like a
muscle head, but he manages a lot of his operations from here. He has a manager
for day-to-day tasks and oversees from a distance.”

She
whistled. “Of course, he’s not much of a city man.”

Kotori
snatched her into his arms as if he would punish her for her criticism, but he
tipped her chin up and kissed her roughly. Shiya parted her lips, inviting his
tongue into her mouth, and she moaned, pressing closer to him. Birk came up
behind and spooned her ass. Her pussy clenched in excitement.

Birk
reached around to stroke it, but she covered his hand and broke away from the
two of them.

“I’m not
getting anything done if you two don’t stop.” She dragged a hand over her
mouth, but missed Kotori’s lips. Her gaze met Birk’s when she turned. His
obvious desire heated her skin, and she had to fight not to jump into his arms.
Instead, she sat down at the nearest computer terminal and typed in the log-in
and password Kotori gave her.

Fingers
flying over the keys, she familiarized herself with Kotori’s computer and then
logged on to the Internet. She found the site that would give her remote access
to her family’s database and held her breath. The password was accepted, and
she sighed in relief. Without a single qualm, she coded the system to delete
eighty percent of the data. Afterward, she did a line-by-line search for
anything they had on Alaska shifters and trashed it.

When her
feet began to bother her, she winced and leaned away from the computer. She
didn’t have a chance to complain before Birk had dropped to his knees and begun
removing her boots. Kotori, who had disappeared from the cabin, came in
carrying a basin. The steam rising from it told her the water it held was hot.
Kotori stooped beside Birk and placed the basin on the floor. He spun her chair
so her feet were within his reach, and gently, he began to wash her feet with a
warm, wet cloth.

Shiya
leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. A few moments later, something
nudged her arm, and she looked up to find Birk had brought her cocoa. “I can’t
believe you two. Thank you.”

She took
the mug and sipped the hot liquid. Warmth stole over her body. When Kotori
brought the temperature of her feet to a safe level, he placed them to soak in
the water, and she couldn’t help the moan that escaped her lips.

“If you do
that, baby . . .” Birk began. Kotori only answered her moan with one of his
own.

She grinned
at them. “Just a little more. I have to tie up loose ends and send my family a
message. I know how to cover myself so they can’t trace it, so you don’t have
to worry about that.” Neither man appeared to get what she was talking about,
and didn’t care. She laughed and moved the cordless keyboard to her lap to
finish up her work. She would miss working for them, but she could no longer do
it in good conscience. She had no intention of allowing them to kill shifters,
so she attacked the backup systems, all that she’d set up herself.

With a few
more taps, she sent off the message, including personal correspondence to Shae.

I’m sorry, sis, but this is what I feel I
have to do. I’m not coming back. You were right. I love Birk and Kotori, and as
long as they want me with them, this is where I will be. You know, as a Keith,
I will protect my own. I will stand in the family’s way of ever hurting them.
Convince them, please, Shae. Convince them to pull out of Alaska and to never
return. Know that I love you and Sakura and Dad. I even love that fool Kasen.
This is my life to choose. Good-bye.

She
double-checked her entry points and covered her tracks. Then she logged out of
the system and off of the computer. When she put the keyboard up and turned to
Birk and Kotori, she took them in—their handsome faces, their sexy builds, and
most of all their gentle care of her.

She’d
thought she loved Joe at one point, and when this first began, maybe she still
did, but not now. Not when she felt consumed by the emotions she had for these
two men.

Yeah, they
were men. Real men who loved her and wanted to be with her. She sensed it and
saw it in everything they did. Nothing came before her. Kotori had even called
in his family to help save her. He’d exposed the existence of the other
shifters on her behalf. She would never forget that or walk away knowing what
he gave up for her.

Birk
grabbed the towel that Kotori had brought in slung over his arm, and he used it
to dry her feet before helping her to stand. They faced her, and she entwined
her fingers with theirs, one hand joined with each. They leaned down and
nuzzled her cheeks, their lips soft as they kissed their way to her throat. She
trembled with pleasure, but moved back a little so she could speak. They
watched her, interest in their gazes, paired with hunger. She wouldn’t deny
them for much longer.

“I love you
two so much. I never thought I could feel this way. Definitely not for two men
at the same time, and yet, it feels right.”

Birk
squeezed the hand he still held. “I love you, Shiya. You are my mate, and I was
willing to give you up because I thought it was best for you. When you chose to
stay with us, I couldn’t deny myself again. I admit it. I’m selfish. I want
you. So you better be ready for us.”

“Oh, I’m
ready.” She raised an eyebrow and grinned.

Kotori
grunted. “That’s enough talking. I want you in my bed.”

“Yes, sir!”
The playful salute went wrong when Kotori’s last bit of patience snapped, and
he lifted her and thumped her down on the only bare spot of the desk and tore
her jacket open. She looked down at the zipper bent beyond repair. “Well that’s
ruined.”

Kotori
followed by shoving her blouse and sweater up and ripping her bra to shreds.
Her breasts filled his palms, and he bent his head to lick the pebbled nipples.
Shiya moaned in ecstasy. She tangled her fingers in his hair and brought his
head closer as she arched into his touch. When he reached between them to
unbutton her pants and thrust a hand into the waistband, she didn’t stop him.
White-hot pleasure radiated her entire body when his fingers sank into her wet
pussy. She humped his hand, wanting more. Even while she was exhausted, she
needed to feel him inside of her.

“Kotori,
fuck me now,” she begged.

He sat up
and ripped her pants down her legs and tore her panties to strips of cloth. His
roughness only served to make her hotter, and she raised and spread her legs in
invitation. Kotori stared down at her wetness, his eyes glazed over with lust.
The button on his jeans hit the floor, and he scarcely got his pants and boxers
down over his hips before he thrust into her.

Shiya
screamed his name. He yanked her forward and pounded so deep, a shudder shook
her from head to foot. Kotori drove into her, withdrew his dick, and then
pounded in again. She hung on to his shoulders, head back and eyes closed. He
ravaged her body, his pelvis brushing her sensitive clit until she had to grit
her teeth to take it. An orgasm began to build, and she encouraged it, arching
into her lover. The climax took hold. She found Kotori’s mouth and kissed him.
Their tongues curled together, Shiya moaning and tasting. She caught his bottom
lip between her teeth, and he growled. He wrapped both arms around her and
crushed her to his chest.

One final
thrust, and his hot seed exploded into her channel.

Birk strode
around the desk, and Kotori backed off. She thought her other lover would take
her, but Birk hooked a finger in the air. “Get down.”

She slid
off of the desk and pulled her clothes on. She frowned, wondering what he was
up to. She knew he wanted her—the tent in his pants a good indicator—but Birk
led her from the cabin and along a row of others like it.

They headed
toward the back of the compound, to a cabin set farther away from the others.
All of a sudden, she knew Birk just wanted her somewhere more comfortable for
the three of them.

The cabin
was warm with a fire going in the fireplace. She noted it was smaller than the
one they’d shared alone. A thick carpet covered the floor, and heavy, durable
furniture decorated the place. At least here the curtains at the windows were
nicer, and she guessed with women in the area, they had something to do with
it. One bedroom was set off from the main area.

“Do you
share this cabin?” she asked.

“It’s
mine,” Kotori told her. “Birk lives closer to Juneau.”

“But I’ll
be staying out here with you two, or at our other cabin, until I know the
hunters have left the area.” He strolled over to Shiya and turned her toward
the bedroom. “You will be getting some rest after the long trek over here and
your ordeal before that.”

“But . . .”

“No buts.”
He swatted her ass. Shiya glanced up at him when he pushed her down onto the
bed. Birk still had a hard-on, which she could take care of, but he refused
until she got some sleep. Her heart swelled with love for him. She gave in to
his encouragement to get some rest, and as soon as her head hit the pillow, she
was out.

* * * *

Shiya opened
her eyes to a quiet room. No sounds reached her from the other room. She
checked the clock on the bedside table and found she’d been out several hours.
A long stretch pulled the kinks from her muscles, and she rose to go into the
bathroom. A hot shower restored more of her energy, and she lingered in there,
scrubbing strawberry-scented shower gel over her skin. Since she didn’t imagine
Kotori used the stuff, she figured Birk had borrowed it for her from one of the
women. She silently thanked him and then rinsed off and stepped from the
shower. She wondered where her lovers had gone. She missed them and wanted to
spend every moment in their presence—at least for a while, until they got used
to each other and the sense of being pulled apart passed.

She found
lotion on the sink, the same brand and scent as the gel. Since it didn’t appear
to be a cheap kind, she smoothed some on her legs, over her belly and breasts,
and down her arms. She grinned thinking how much Kotori would want to lick her
when he got a whiff.

Shiya left
the bathroom and froze. “What the hell?” Her eyes widened, and she took in the
sight before her in unbelief. She glanced up toward the ceiling. “When did you
. . . What do you plan to do with . . .”

The ropes
she’d seen in Kotori and Birk’s backpack at the other cabin now hung from the
ceiling, and both her men were dressed in all black as if they waited to take
her hostage in the most sensual of ways. Birk, in black fingerless gloves,
manipulated the rope and offered her a suggestive smile.

“Kotori
already had the hook, something he used for exercise equipment, he tells me. I
suggested it would come in handy for playing with you.”

She
strolled closer to them and licked her lips at the image the two of them
presented. Kotori, with his dark hair and eyes, along with his slightly darker
skin than Birk’s, set off the tight black cargo pants and long-sleeved black
shirt to perfection. He’d even paired the outfit with black combat boots.

Where
Birk’s hands were covered in gloves, Kotori’s big palms were bare.

Birk bent
to reach into his pants pocket at the side of his thigh and pulled a ridged
knife from its sheath. He twisted the rope into several knots and then hacked
off the excess to let it fall to the floor. The sheer essence of danger had her
heart pounding in her chest.

“This is
for your body, honey, not your wrists.” Birk frowned at the bruises still
visible, and Kotori clenched his hands into fists. At the angry growl in his
throat, she dropped her towel to the floor and moved closer to him. She watched
the anger drain away as his desire grew.

“I’m all
yours. Do whatever you want to me.” She dropped her tone to something low and
sultry, and both men looked like they were ready to eat her alive. Birk worked
at a feverish pace to finish tying the rope the way he wanted, and then he
looped it around her waist and across her breasts. The rope binding her breasts
above and beneath seemed to accentuate them, and Kotori ran a thumb over first
one nipple and then the other. She moaned and leaned into him, but Birk tugged
her back.