A Minor Shift

 

Bowie Garrison couldn’t get Eva out of his mind. He’d tried, over and over, but ever since they met in Afghanistan she’d driven all thoughts of any other woman out of his mind. And when she’d left to return to the States, he’d felt the loss far more than he should.

For that reason alone, the last thing he should do is contact her.

Her face had haunted his dreams for months, her face and her lusciously curvy body and her sleek, long black hair. Her dark eyes had taunted him.

He sat on the couch and gazed at his phone, her number already keyed in, just waiting for him to push the button. He wanted to see her again. Was that really so bad?

His buddy Kane jostled his arm. They sat side by side in the common room of their temporary lodgings while Kane played a video game on the TV directly opposite them. Kane looked squared away, as usual. He might be hanging out with nowhere to go but he still wore an ironed T-shirt and jeans, his short dark hair neatly trimmed. “Aren’t you playing?”

“Not now.” Bowie had a decision to make, and obliterating aliens wouldn’t help. Should he call her? Would it drive him stark, raving mad if he didn’t?

“You waiting for a call?” As Kane manipulated the game controls, explosions reverberated around the room from the surround sound. It reminded Bowie of Afghanistan, and not in a good way, but he didn’t say anything. What kind of wuss would admit he wanted to duck each time he heard gunfire in a stupid game?

Eva would understand. She had talked about that very thing the last time they’d been together—how she’d been so happy to be going someplace where she didn’t have to be afraid of getting hit by a stray bullet all the time. She got him. She got him so totally.

He had to call her. That was all there was to it.

Bowie stood up and walked to the other end of the attached dining room, his boots squishing on the wall-to-wall carpeting. When he got far enough away that Kane wouldn’t be able to hear him over the fake explosions—even with his shifter-enhanced hearing—Bowie pressed the button and listened to the phone ringing, waiting for Eva to pick up.

When he heard her say “hello,” his tongue got stuck in his mouth. Fuck. He should have rehearsed this or at least figured out what he was going to say.

A second later, she said, “Hello?” again, the timbre of her voice dropping.

“Eva?” Bowie said, even though he knew damn well it was her. Even if he hadn’t recognized her first hello, he knew that low growl of impatience all too well.

“Yes?” she said.

He might recognize her voice, but it seemed she didn’t recognize his. “It’s Bowie. Bowie Garrison. I’m back in the States.”

A second passed in silence, and then another.

He rushed in to fill it. “We should get together.” He bit his tongue before saying he missed her.

“You’re in the States?” she said. “Where?”

He couldn’t read the tone of her voice but it wasn’t the laughing, teasing, smiling tone he remembered. She sounded…tense? “Alexandria. The four of us are on terminal leave. Let’s get together tonight. You free?” He didn’t bother explaining who ‘the four of them’ were—she knew the four Army Rangers, Bowie, Kane, Stryker and Ranger, enough to know exactly who he meant.

After another short pause, she said, “I can’t, sorry.” Her voice sounded even tighter than before. “I have a date.” The last sentence sounded rushed, her voice a little high.

He gripped his phone hard, a flash of heat zipping through him as the room’s colors wavered. His lion roared from inside and only his locked jaw kept the cry from reverberating through the room.

The sounds of bullets and explosions cut off just as Kane looked in his direction. “Bowie?”

Maybe the roar hadn’t been as quiet as he’d thought. “A date?” he ground out, ignoring Kane. “With who?”

“That’s none of your business—”

“Eva.” He felt claws springing from his fingertips. “Who?”

“I’m hanging up, Bowie. Goodbye.”

Before he could roar in frustration, he heard the dead air that told him Eva was gone. Bowie threw the phone across the room.

Kane leaned over and caught it before it hit the floor, gave it a once-over then placed it on the coffee table. Then he slowly approached Bowie, his hands up. “What’s going on, buddy?”

“She has a date.” Bowie’s voice sounded like chewed-up gravel under spinning tires.

“I got that. Eva? From Afghanistan?”

Bowie didn’t even respond; he just growled. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized he was being completely irrational, but that little voice was so small he could barely hear it. She had a date. He’d tear her date’s fucking limbs off one by one.

“Bowie?” Kane stood in front of him, just out of range, and tried to get his attention. “What’s got you all riled up, cat?”

“She has a fucking date,” Bowie said, his lion coming stronger to the fore with each word. “And it’s not with me.”

***

Kane had never seen Bowie like this. Bowie was known for being cool-headed, even in a crisis. And he never got upset about women—hell, on more than one occasion, he’d okayed one of his friends to date an ex of his.

He knew Bowie and Eva had been close but Eva had always held off, said they couldn’t have a relationship. Kane had never been able to figure out why, because she seemed as into Bowie as he was into her.

This rage, though. There was only one explanation Kane could come up with.

Eva must be Bowie’s mate.

It was the only way to explain it. She was his mate, and she’d been foolish enough to tell him she was going out with some other guy.

“Take a deep breath,” Kane said.

“Take a breath?” Bowie took two steps toward Kane and for once, Kane moved back rather than asserting his dominance.

“Take a breath,” Kane said again, lowering his voice and doing his best to sound calm and comforting. Calm and comforting really wasn’t his thing—their friend Stryker did it much better—but he had to try. “Think. Getting angry isn’t going to change anything.”

“You’re right.” Bowie clenched his jaw, staring off to the side. “Sticking around here feeling angry won’t change a thing. I need to go see her.” He stalked toward the door.

“Not what I said, buddy.” Kane hurried after Bowie. Letting Bowie track down Eva by himself was a sure recipe for Murder One. Someone would end up dead—and it sure as hell wouldn’t be Bowie.

Bowie hit the outside door before Kane could get there, so Kane put on a burst of speed and beat Bowie to the SUV the four of them had rented for their sixty days of terminal leave.

“I’m driving.” Kane made it to the driver side door before Bowie could get there.

“I can drive. I’m not so far gone—”

“I’m driving.” Kane opened the door and got inside. He didn’t have a key but it didn’t matter. His ass in the seat established ownership.

Bowie smacked the hood of the car as he passed it then he slid into the passenger seat without another word.

“Keys?” Kane said.

Bowie laughed. “You’re kidding me. You don’t have the keys? Move. I’m driving.”

“Make me.” They locked eyes, but it didn’t matter. The lion and the bear had tussled many times and Kane’s bear consistently came out on top—and Bowie knew it.

After swearing up a storm, Bowie handed over the keys.

Kane started up the car and pulled out of the parking spot. “Can you tell me where we’re going?”

“Her apartment.”

Like Kane knew where Eva lived. Kane let the car idle while he sat there waiting for Bowie to elaborate.

“Georgetown.” The word sounded more like a growl.

It was a start. Kane navigated the car out of the parking lot. Maybe he could distract Bowie. “You have plans for the next two months?”

During their sixty days of terminal leave, they should really be hitting the streets looking for work before their paychecks stopped, but after just arriving Stateside, none of them could bring themselves to do it. They needed a little R&R first—Rest and Relaxation.

Kane didn’t think tracking down Bowie’s mate qualified as R&R. Then again, what Kane was thinking about doing wouldn’t be relaxing, either.

Bowie grunted.

“Is that a yes or a no?” Kane said. Why did he even try? Bowie seemed subdued at the moment. Maybe he didn’t really need distracting.

Kane did, though. Playing the video game had helped but driving through light traffic wasn’t doing the trick.

Kane grew up in a commune. Commune, cult, whatever you wanted to call it; an all-shifter town led by a whack-job named Gerald Calvin who had some totally messed up rules. Kane had never been able to follow those rules, so from a young age he’d been labeled the town troublemaker-slash-bad boy-slash-reprobate.

And he might still be there in White Fir Bend raising hell if the town leaders hadn’t grabbed him from his home when he was fifteen, driven him a few hundred miles to Chicago, and dumped him on a street corner with not even a dollar to his name.

Things had been tough for a while, but he’d made it. That’s what mattered. But what also mattered was that his mother was still in White Fir Bend. He couldn’t do anything to help her that night when they kicked him out but he could now.

He had to get his mother away from there.

“What could she see in him?” Bowie said.

For a second, Kane thought he meant his mother, but then he got back with the program. Eva. And Kane knew what Bowie was really saying—what’s her date got that I don’t? “Maybe she’s scared. What she feels for you is so strong she had to go out with someone she didn’t feel so strongly about.”

Bowie made a noise in his throat and threw Kane a sidelong glance.

Fine. Kane thought it was bullshit too. But how the hell would he know why Eva was going out with some other guy? If they were really mates, she shouldn’t be interested in anyone else. So—what the hell? “She’s an idiot, Bowie. That what you want me to say?”

Bowie growled.

“Fine, then don’t ask a stupid-ass question like that.” After a moment of silence, Kane said, “What’s your plan?”

“Find Eva. Beat her date senseless.”

“And then what? Throw her over your shoulder and haul her back to your cave?” If Kane needed any more evidence that his friend wasn’t thinking right, he had it. That was the worst plan he’d ever heard Bowie come up with, and this was the guy who’d thought getting shit-faced in a bar in Kabul was ‘no problem.’

“Lions don’t have caves, dumbass. That’s a bear thing.”

“Yeah. Like that’s the most important part of what I just said.”

“Point of clarification.”

“Distraction.”

“Asshole.”

This was going nowhere. Meanwhile, they were approaching Georgetown. “Where to now?”

***

Eva maneuvered her car into a spot just a little too tight for it and threw the brake. She’d already have to walk a good two blocks to her condo. If she had held out for a bigger spot she could easily have had a four block walk ahead of her.

She pulled her purse and briefcase out of the car and set off for her building. It had been a long week. She couldn’t wait to curl up on her couch and eat dinner while watching an episode of Grimm.

Bowie loved Grimm. It was one of the many things they had in common.

She still couldn’t believe he’d called her. More than that, she couldn’t believe she’d lied to him. She’d just gotten flustered. The thing with Bowie was that it would be a thing. It wouldn’t be a quick fling; it would be a whole relationship. And at this point in her career, she didn’t have the time.

That sounded cold, and she knew it. But how was she supposed to get ahead in the FBI if she was thinking about what she’d cook for dinner for her sweetie and worrying about whether he’d like her new undies? Eva had never been the feminine type and she was okay with that. She’d thought Bowie had understood that too.

That’s why nothing had ever happened between them in Afghanistan…because it couldn’t. Not there, not here. Not now.

She crossed a street and strode down the final block of her walk. Her building sat at the end, three stories of red brick. As she neared it, she saw two men standing at the foot of the steps. Two big, well-muscled, lethal-looking men.

Bowie and Kane.

Shit. What part of ‘she had a date’ did he not get? He couldn’t possibly know she’d lied about it.

Eva slowed, wondering if she should turn around. She could go around the block and use the building’s back door instead.

Before she’d made up her mind, Bowie spotted her. He stalked toward her and she couldn’t stop the thrill that raced through her body at the sight. He looked like a predator going after his prey. And damn him, but he looked even better than she remembered, his strawberry blond crew cut just long enough so that his hair had started to curl, his skin tan, his body hard.

“Eva.”

And there was that voice, that warm, rumbly voice that touched her in ways it really shouldn’t. She’d forgotten how easily he could warm her up inside with just a word.

“Where’s your date?” His gaze intense, his words had slipped from rumbly to gravel. His lion was perilously close to the surface.

She didn’t want to lie to him again. “What are you doing here?”

He gripped her upper arm. Not too tight, just firmly enough that she’d have to struggle to get away. “Where is he?” His eyes turned from blue to a burnished gold.

This wasn’t like him. He was always so laid back. “Bowie? What’s wrong?”

He leaned his face closer to hers. From anyone else, it would have been an intimidating move but with him, it was intimate. “It makes me crazy to think about you with someone else.”

‘Crazy’ was the right word for it. She’d never seen that look in his eyes before. Should she tell him the truth?

“Where is he?” His hand tightened on her upper arm. “I’m going to fight him, show you that I’m the one you should be with.”

The air stuck in her chest until she coughed. She had to tell him. “There’s no date.”

“Don’t tell me that. Where is he?”

Her breathing sped up. “I lied, okay? There’s no date.”

His mouth opened but nothing came out. His hand relaxed around her arm but he didn’t let go.

Little ants crawled around in her stomach. “Bowie?”

“Why?” The whisper was barely a puff of air, but she heard him.

“I can’t date right now. I’m just getting started at the FBI and I have to focus on that. It’s everything to me. And you—you wouldn’t just be a one night stand or a friend with benefits. I know that. So I can’t. I can’t do this.” She took a step backward. She’d said far more than she’d meant to.

He shadowed her, his hand still holding her arm. “You feel this too.”

Eva backed up another step. “Bowie, stop.”

When he stepped into her, she felt the fence at her back. “Don’t fight it, sweetie,” he said. “You’ve got it all wrong. I won’t get in the way of your career. I’ll do everything I can to support you.”

Before she could argue with him further, he leaned down and pressed his mouth against hers.

They’d never kissed before, not in all the long nights in Afghanistan, not even when Bowie would gaze at her lips longingly while she yearned to get closer to him.

The kiss was better than anything she’d imagined on any of those fevered nights. Bowie let go of her arm and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her head in place while he plundered her mouth.

Eva wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, sure that if she didn’t, she’d fall over. Bowie moaned, the sound a half-growl that she felt against her tongue.

When he slid his arms down her back and cupped her butt, pulling her hard against him, she came to her senses. They were on a public street during rush hour. Everyone could see them, including Kane.

Worse, she hadn’t meant to do this in the first place.

Eva pressed her hands against Bowie’s chest and pushed him away, managing to put an entire foot between them. “We’re in public,” she said.

Bowie grinned. “You’re right. Let’s go inside.”

“No. I told you—”

“You can’t seriously mean—”

“Stop.” Her shout cut through his words and they both fell silent for a moment. “I can’t do this. You need to leave.”

He leaned toward her though he didn’t get far with her hands still braced against him. “You liked it too. Don’t even try to tell me you didn’t.”

She did. She liked it far too much and now more than ever she knew what a huge threat he was to her job as well as her peace of mind. “Whether I liked it or not is immaterial. I’m not getting involved with you. Not going to happen. Not no how.” As the words tumbled out of her mouth, she was reminded of that saying about ‘protesting too much.’

“Eva.” He reached for her.

“No.” She managed to get around him, ducking under his arm and then jogging toward the door of her building, her wide heels clacking against the sidewalk. She avoided Kane’s eyes as she passed him at the foot of the steps.

“Eva.” Bowie didn’t speak loudly, but with her feline hearing she could hear him even from where she’d left him by the fence. His voice sounded anguished and it pinched something inside of her. She hated to hear him like that.

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t date him, and that was all there was to it. She stepped inside and carefully shut the door.

***

Bowie watched Eva disappear into her building, her long black hair swishing against her back. His lion had calmed down considerably once he knew Eva didn’t have another man sniffing around her. And it wasn’t just that she’d said so, but that he hadn’t smelled a single male on her and then he’d had the chance to rub his own scent all over her.

Plus, she’d acknowledged that what they had between them was significant. That was a start.

His lion might be calmer, but Bowie couldn’t wipe away the vision of Eva walking away from him. Something twisted in his gut and he thought he might be sick. How could she know that there could be something good between them and still choose to leave?

Kane ambled over and slapped his hand on Bowie’s back. “Let’s go get a drink, buddy.”

“I should go in there and convince her.”

“No.” Kane drew the word out. “Give her time to think about all of this. Time to miss you. She’ll come around.”

“You think so?”

Kane’s gaze fell on Eva’s door. “Yeah, I’m sure of it. What do you say—Pop’s?”

All the enlisted guys loved the quirky bar Pop Goes the Weasel that sat just outside the gates of Fort Belvoir. And all the women who were looking to hook up knew that. Maybe he didn’t need a drink. Maybe he needed someone to take his mind off Eva. If she could do it, so could he.

Even as he thought that, his lion grew agitated. The old boy didn’t want some other woman. Only her.

Bowie allowed Kane to direct him toward the SUV. As he folded his long body into the passenger seat he felt like smashing something. What was it about Eva that got him so riled up? And why the hell wouldn’t she give in to what she was feeling? No way could he have been the only one who’d felt the whole city street rock when he kissed her.

Half an hour later, Bowie and Kane walked into Pop’s. Some of their friends had a big table and were slamming back the beers. They squeezed together in the booths to make room for Bowie and Kane.

While they waited for their beers, Kane talked up a couple of cute young women who’d already been sitting with their friends. Bowie tried to muster up the desire to join in, but he just couldn’t.

Eva had ruined him.

***

Eva couldn’t settle down. Her plans to curl up on the couch and watch TV while eating dinner were all shot to hell. She couldn’t stop the memory of that kiss from running through her head and it had her restless.

After an hour, she gave up and called her friend Amy. Amy could always be counted on to provide a distraction, although her constant efforts at matchmaking left something to be desired, especially since she was human and Eva couldn’t explain to her that she could never marry any of the humans Amy tried to set her up with.

When Amy picked up, Eva could hear sounds of lots of people talking and loud music in the background. “Eva!”

“Hey, Amy. I was going to ask if you wanted to do something tonight but it sounds like you’re already out.”

“I’m just at the bar. You should come join me. There are some totally hot guys here tonight.” The background music shifted, the pounding base from the new song pulsing through the phone.

‘Totally hot guys’ didn’t sound all that interesting, but then she’d asked for this. She wanted a distraction and that’s exactly what this would be. “Where are you?”

“I’m at Pop’s. How soon can you get here?”

Eva told her and they finished up their call. After fixing herself up, she got on the road, arriving at Pop’s forty-five minutes later—exactly what she’d told Amy.

When she stepped into the bar, the music was so loud she almost turned around and left. Some felines could handle noise but it had always bothered her. But she saw Amy waving at her from a big round table full of people. She steeled herself and headed toward her friend.

The circular table had a high booth that went nearly halfway around it and chairs on the side that jutted out. She couldn’t see all of the people in the booth until she was standing right next to the table, Amy pulling her onto the end of the booth next to her.

As though Eva would fit. Amy was built like a rail but Eva wasn’t. She’d never cared that she was a few sizes bigger than the human women around her because she knew shifter males liked curves. But that didn’t mean she could fit onto the four inches of available seat that Amy apparently thought she could sit on.

Eva did her best to perch on the edge, bracing her feet against the floor to keep from falling. When she raised her head, she looked directly across the table to see the last man on earth she wanted to see tonight—Bowie.

And he had some blonde bimbo hanging all over him.

Eva growled before she had time to think about it. Luckily, all the racket around them covered up the noise. Humans didn’t know about shifters, so growling in public was a big no-no. Not that Eva cared at the moment.

She jumped to her feet, her hands tightening into fists, and looked for the fastest way to get across the wide table to pummel her cheating—what? He wasn’t her boyfriend. He wasn’t anything. And that had been her choice.

But it didn’t matter. She couldn’t stand the thought of some other woman touching him. “Bowie!”

He raised his head, his eyes widening when he saw her. The jerk actually smiled at her, as though he’d done nothing wrong. “Eva.” The noise might be nearly deafening, but her ears picked out his voice as though attuned to it.

“What the hell are you doing?” Her eyes flicked to the blonde.

Bowie yanked his arm from around the other woman, who let out a little yell as she tipped to the side. “It’s nothing. Wait—you’re angry. Are you jealous?” His smile grew.

Eva fought back the growl that wanted to erupt from her throat. Then the blonde threw her arms around Bowie and kissed his cheek. Eva felt her jaguar pushing from underneath her skin, trying to get out.

Bowie took one look at Eva and jumped up, pushing Kane out of the booth in order to get away from the blonde. Bowie rounded the table and Eva paced him, meeting him in the middle.

“I can smell her all over you,” Eva snarled.

“You’re the one who didn’t want me. I wouldn’t be here if you’d agreed to go out with me.” He kept his voice low enough that the humans around them couldn’t hear.

Eva almost couldn’t hear him either. “So this is my fault.”

He leaned closer. “Your teeth are showing.”

When her hands curled into fists, her claws dug into her palms. He was right; her cat was coming out every which way, and if she didn’t get control of herself they’d have an incident on their hands.

She was having trouble caring. She thrust her face upward, nearly nose to nose with him. “If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have gone straight out and pawed some other woman.”

A hand clapped onto her shoulder and pried her away. Kane. He had a hand on Bowie’s shoulder, too. “Outside. Now.”

She wanted to argue, but before she could get a word out, he was pushing them toward the door.

The oppressive noise cut off as the door shut behind them. Kane pushed them a few seconds more until they were comfortably away from the door and the handful of smokers hanging out nearby. They stood in the middle of the dark parking lot made lighter by their feline eyesight, surrounded by cars and SUVs with not a single person in sight.

Kane dropped his hands from their shoulders. “Now talk. Neither one of you is leaving here until you figure this out.”

Eva almost went for Kane but a breeze wafted by, carrying the scent of Bowie’s blonde bimbo, and Eva remembered who she really wanted to tear apart. This time she didn’t hold back when her jaguar growled, the sound reverberating off the cars around them.

***

Kane gazed at his two friends, his arms over his chest. What a couple of idiots. Did they really not see what was happening? It wasn’t unusual for mates to not recognize each other right away; hell, that’s how it usually worked. But this sort of intense jealousy was a sure-fire sign that something supernatural was going on.

When Eva growled, the hairs along the back of Kane’s neck stood on end. His bear didn’t like this at all.

“Eva!” Kane had to make them see reason.

After one long, tense moment, Eva eased back a little, turning her bright yellow eyes on Kane.

“Don’t you realize what’s going on here?” Kane looked from one to the other but saw nothing but anger and stubbornness. “You’re mates, you idiots. That’s why you’re both so fucking jealous right now.” When he still didn’t get a response from either one of them, he said, “Work it out.”

He backed off a step or two, figuring he’d better stay until he was sure they wouldn’t rip each other’s throats out.

What a cluster.

***

Eva’s hands began to shake. “We can’t be mates.” It wasn’t possible. The fates wouldn’t do that to her.

“Why not?” Bowie’s voice sounded like a low rumble. “I’m not good enough for you?”

What the hell was he talking about? “Of course you’re good enough for me. You’re damned near perfect. It’s not that. I’m not ready to find my mate. I have too much to do.” She flexed her hands, then ran them through her long, straight hair.

Bowie stepped closer to her. She felt the heat of him even though he stood almost a foot away. Her skin prickled. “We don’t get a choice, Eva, you know that. If Kane’s right, then we’ve gotta go with this.” He cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb against her skin.

She wanted to move away, but couldn’t bring herself to dislodge his hand. It felt too good. “We could wait. We could stay away from each other for a while.”

He inched closer. “Why? Why would you do that to us? I’ve wanted you since the first second I laid eyes on you, but I waited. You didn’t want to get involved when we were in the same chain of command and I respected that. But now there’s no reason we can’t—”

“There is a reason. My career—”

“You said that before, but honey, that’s not a reason to not get together. It’s just something we need to work out. You need time to climb the ranks? I get that. You need to be available to drop everything and go work or to work late hours for days on end? I won’t be happy but we’ll work it out.” He moved even closer, his breath brushing against her lips. “We can work everything out. There’s nothing we can’t do.” He kissed her, softly at first, coaxing her to bend for him, to give in.

She kissed him back, her mind reeling. Could they really make it work? It seemed like some sort of fantasy, that she could have both the job she’d wanted for so long and the man she couldn’t get out of her mind.

Yet she’d seen her mother try to work a career and raise a family at the same time. It hadn’t worked. She hadn’t been home enough and yet the time she had spent at home had hurt her. Eva still remembered finding her mother crying over not getting a promotion she desperately wanted.

Eva had learned the lesson well—you couldn’t have everything. You couldn’t be a wife and mother and also have a successful career.

And yet she wanted to. As Bowie twined his arms around her, she knew just how badly she wanted to say the hell with it—she’d give life with him a try and hope she could manage her career at the same time.

She felt something solid at her back and realized Bowie had backed her into a car. Then he grabbed her around the waist and lifted her, pressing her between him and the car at just the right spot so his hard length pressed between her legs.

“Say you’re mine,” Bowie murmured against her lips. “I love you, Eva. I’ve always loved you. Just say you’re mine.”

“Bowie.” She moaned. She’d always known it would feel amazing when he touched her, and it was. Right at that moment she wanted only to get closer to him, as close as she could get.

He kissed down her throat. “Let’s go to your place. I want to mark you.”

That woke her up enough to push him away from her neck. “We need to talk about this first.”

“No more talking.” He captured her lips in a kiss that she felt all the way to her toes.

As his hands slid up the sides of her body, awakening nerve endings all along the way, she forgot why she was fighting. Could there really be anything wrong with something that felt so right?

“Where’s your car?” he growled, not even lifting his lips from hers.

She dragged herself away, holding him around the shoulders. “There.” She pointed to her car, parked across the aisle and three down.

Bowie lifted her, hoisted her into a good position and carried her toward her car. Eva held on tight. She could have protested, but truth was, she liked it. She liked him holding her, liked him carrying her, and sure as hell didn’t want him to let go.

She knew she was heavy, with her extra curves. If Bowie were human, she might worry about that but he wasn’t. He wasn’t just a shifter; he was a kick-ass lion, and if he couldn’t carry her with ease, no one could.

When they got to her car, he let her slide down his front so she felt every hard bit of him. Then he held her there, a hand on her back pressing her belly against his cock. If he was anywhere near as aroused as she was, he must be aching something fierce.

“Keys,” he said, his lion leaking out in his voice.

“I’m driving.”

He growled, low.

“My car. I’m driving.” So she was anal about her car. So what? A woman had to have boundaries.

He shook his head as he rounded the car and squeezed himself into the passenger seat. He pushed it as far back as it would go, but his knees still pressed against the dash.

“I can see I need a new car,” Eva said.

“Good idea. We can get something big, like an SUV.”

“We?” Now she was just needling him. Everyone knew mates were for life. It wasn’t strange for him to be talking like they’d soon be merging their lives together. Still, it felt good to get in a few little jabs. It wasn’t like he was turning her life upside down or anything. No.

He grabbed her hand and held it. “We.”

Leave it to Bowie to turn the tables on her. Worse, she was starting to think he was mushier than she was. “Are you sentimental, cat?”

“I am, cat.” He squeezed her hand. “You know I’ve never seen your animal? How did that happen?”

“I wasn’t willing to get naked in a country where they’d execute me for it.”

“You mean you didn’t shift the entire time you were over there?”

“That’s right.” And it had been the hardest ten months of her life.

“You know we never would have let anything happen to you.”

“Yeah, but you never know what might have happened.” To shift, you had to leave camp and go out in the wilderness where hopefully no one would see you. Even the men shifted rarely and only in packs, because of the risk of running into unfriendlies. But she had been the only female shifter over there. And as much as she trusted the male shifters, she still didn’t want to take her clothes off in a country where showing her ankles could get her stoned.

“You’ve seen mine,” he said.

For a second, she thought he was talking about his cock, then realized he meant his cat. “Just that once, and you were pretty far off.” The fool had told her to watch from this one hill with her binoculars, then after he’d shifted with the other men, he’d come close enough to camp that she could see him. She realized now he’d been preening, showing off for his mate even if he hadn’t realized it.

“I want to see yours.”

She gave him a sideways glance. “You want that more than sex?”

“Hell no. Maybe in between sessions.” He lifted her hand and laid a kiss on the back of it. “I’ve waited too long to be with you. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

“I don’t either.” She’d fought it tooth and nail but that didn’t mean she hadn’t wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. She just hadn’t been able to admit it or she’d have given him an advantage.

“It’s good to hear you finally say that.”

Eva squeezed his hand. “I never didn’t want you. I just—I’m still scared this won’t work out.”

“We’ll make it work.”

“My mother couldn’t make it work.”

“And your father?”

“He was a typical dad.”

“So he didn’t go out of his way to help your mom. Didn’t do half the cleaning, half the child care, half of everything.”

Eva felt a knot in her stomach. She loved her dad. She didn’t want to criticize him. At the same time, Bowie was right. “No, he didn’t do any of that. It was Mom’s job.”

“I will, though. I’ll do half. And we’ll make sure it’s half. And if you need me to do all of it sometimes, I’ll do that. I mean it, Eva. We’ll make this work.”

She felt her eyes getting moist. Damn it, she never cried. What the hell was this? “That would be nice.”

He kissed the back of her hand. “I know what you need most is to see me in action, see that I’ll really do what I’m saying I’ll do. All I ask is that you give me a chance to prove to you that I really mean it.”

A warmth grew inside her. “And if you don’t do what you’re saying you’ll do?”

“You can get your brothers to beat me up.”

She laughed. “I wouldn’t do that. If you need beating up, I’ll do it myself.”

His eyebrows rose. “You think you can beat me up?”

“I think I can make you sorry for your transgressions.”

His laughter was a booming sound that filled the car. “You probably could, especially since I’d never dream of hitting a woman.”

“Even a woman who was hitting you?”

“Even then. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to subdue you. You know…wrap my body around yours and wrestle you to the floor, pinning you beneath my superior weight.”

“Why do I think we’re not talking about beatings anymore?”

“Because you can read my mind?”

She laughed. “Or because I’m thinking the same thing you are.”

He growled.

“Down, cat. We’re almost there.” She just needed to find a parking spot and then they could head to her condo.

She found a tiny spot that she thought she could squeeze her car into. She let go of Bowie’s hand so she could park and he placed it on the back of her neck instead.

“Not long now,” he said, his voice low and sultry.

She had to stop and take a breath before continuing to parallel park, worried she might hit one of the other cars because her nerves were jangling.

A few minutes later they were walking down the street toward her building. Bowie had his hand on the small of her back and was hurrying her along.

“You know, it helps if I’m not already winded before we get to the bedroom,” she said.

“You’re walking too slow. Walk any slower and I’ll pick you up and carry you.”

“You wouldn’t—” she said, then remembered that he’d done just that in the parking lot not too long ago.

“I’d not only do it, I’d enjoy it.” He lunged toward her.

She squealed and danced away from him. They both laughed. She stopped and rested her hands on her knees and the instant she took her eyes off him, he picked her up.

“Put me down! Put me down right now!”

“Not a chance.” Bowie jogged toward her building.

Eva braced her forearms on the small of his back to keep from bouncing against him with every step. “I can walk!”

He took the steps two at a time then stopped abruptly. “The door’s locked.”

“You’ll have to put me down.”

Bowie slowly pulled her toward his front, first with his hands on her thighs, then her butt, sliding her slowly down his body until her feet touched the pavement. He held her there, his breath brushing her cheek. “Eva.”

His body felt tight, like he was about to explode, and she didn’t want that explosion to happen on her front step. “Door,” she whispered. She kept her eyes on his as she slipped her hand down to her purse, unzipped it and pulled out her keyring. She finally broke eye contact.

Bowie crowded in behind her, his arm slipping around her waist as she fumbled to get the key into the lock. She finally got the door open and they tumbled inside. Bowie kicked the door shut behind them and grabbed for her, but she slipped away, racing up the stairs and managing to get her condo door unlocked before he caught up to her.

“We’re doing this in a bed,” she said.

He advanced on her, the door swinging shut behind him. “Only if you get there before I get to you.”

Eva ran.

He almost caught her in the bedroom doorway, but she peeled off her top and left him holding it as she vaulted toward the bed.

“You really wanted to be in the bedroom,” he said with a low growl.

She turned to face him, very aware that she now had only her bra on. “Our first time should be special.”

He dropped her shirt on the floor and yanked his own over his head as he stalked toward her. “You take care of the special part. I’ll take care of the explosive part.”

When the backs of her legs hit the bed, Eva crawled backward onto it, barely reaching the middle before Bowie launched himself on top of her. He caught himself with his arms, muscles bulging, so that instead of slamming into her, he pressed her into the mattress. His hard cock nestled between her legs, sending a warm wash of desire through her body.

Bowie captured her mouth with his and Eva twined her arms and legs around him as their tongues tangled. Her whole world became him—his hard body, his masculine scent, the roughness of his fingertips as they ghosted over her skin.

Moaning, Bowie pulled his mouth from hers and kissed down the side of her neck. “Eva, damn. I love you so much.”

He’d said that before but with everything that was going on, it hadn’t sunk in. Now it did.

Love.

Was that what she’d been running from? When she acknowledged that dating Bowie wouldn’t just be a fling, had she known deep inside that they’d fall in love? Or maybe that she was already in love with him, even if she couldn’t admit it?

The thought scared her a little. Love was so big, so final. Love was the sort of thing you sacrificed your other goals and dreams for. If she loved Bowie, she might never achieve anything else again.

At the same time, she knew it wasn’t true that love would stop her from doing anything else. Fear could stop her but she knew love could support her. She had to trust that Bowie would do what he said. And if she couldn’t trust Bowie, who could she trust? Because whatever else she might be feeling, she couldn’t deny it any longer.

She loved him.

While she’d been thinking, he’d been kissing…and touching and holding and moving down her body to settle between her thighs. She pushed up on her elbows and locked eyes with him. Just as she opened her mouth to tell him what she’d realized, he licked her and sucked her clit between his lips.

Her head fell back. There would be time for words later. Now, she couldn’t do anything but feel.

Bowie pushed her thighs wide and closed his mouth more firmly over her pussy, covering every bit of her with the wet firmness of his tongue.

As her breaths grew ragged, Eva reached down to brush her fingers over his nicely muscled shoulder. “Bowie.”

He sucked harder, the sensation simultaneously making her melt and tightening every muscle in her body. Digging her fingers into his shoulder, she tried to remember to breathe.

With one of his hands, he began to play with her, stroking her inner thighs and the skin next to where his mouth suckled. By itself, it might not have been so arousing but combined with all of the other sensations, she felt overwhelmed and could barely hang on.

His other hand snaked up her side to rub her breast. When he pinched her nipple, it was all she needed. As her body tightened then catapulted into a multitude of bone-melting shudders, her mind went blank, captured by the pleasure.

A moment later, she settled back to earth. Bowie continued to lap at her clit and the sensation started to feel less than good. She tugged on his shoulder. “Come up here.” Her voice sounded surprisingly husky.

Bowie pressed a kiss against her and then obeyed, sliding up her body and reawakening nerve endings all along the way.

“Now you.” She tried to roll them both over, but his weight and strength were too much. Eva had only slept with humans before. She felt a thrill at realizing she was finally in bed with a man she couldn’t easily overpower.

He didn’t budge. “There isn’t time for me.”

“We have all the time in the world.”

Bowie’s jaw clenched. He leaned precariously over the edge of the bed and yanked a condom out of his pants pocket. “Time’s the wrong word. Let’s just say I want to come inside you. And not prematurely.”

She fought not to laugh but didn’t quite succeed. Still, she hadn’t missed that he’d pulled out a condom and she hadn’t even had to ask. He’d known that with her career goals she’d want to wait to have children. That meant a lot.

Pressing his forehead against hers, he said, “Go ahead, laugh. Just because women have different plumbing...”

She kissed him lightly. “Sorry, sweetie.”

“Sure you are. I’ll remember this.” He ripped the package open and slid the condom onto himself then settled back on top of her.

Her grin became a sigh as he rubbed his cock against her clit.

“Ready?” he said.

“Ready.”

“No backsies.”

“Backsies?” She was still laughing when he eased inside her, one inch at a time. It felt so good; she felt so full. “Is the reason you didn’t want me to go down on you because you didn’t want me to see how huge you are?”

“Aw, shucks, honey. Now you’re just trying to make me feel good.”

“Is it working?”

He kissed her neck just as his pelvis bumped against hers. “It’s working. All systems ‘Go.’”

She might have laughed again, except that he started moving. The delicious friction he created had her tightening against him, holding him close and laying open-mouthed kisses over his shoulders and chest.

Then she remembered.

“There’s something I need to tell you before we mark each other.”

The look in his eyes instantly seemed wary, and she hated that she’d put it there.

“I love you,” she said.

His face brightened, his breath coming out in a puff. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He kissed her, softly at first, and then more passionately, and she swore she could feel the strength of his emotions in every move. His hips continued to slide his cock into her, a steady rhythmic dance that felt good and then better and then even better than that.

When Bowie came up for air, he lifted his head only far enough to look into her eyes. “I love you, too. I might’ve said that before.”

She wrapped her legs around his waist. “You might’ve.”

“We’re going to be good together. I know it.” His breathing had started to fracture, his words punctuated by little catches and gasps.

Squeezing him tighter, she managed to say, “I know it too.”

Then there were no more words, as he moved faster and faster inside her. He rested his forehead against hers and they gazed into each other’s eyes as the world receded and the pleasure and intimacy between them became everything.

“Ready?” His voice sounded rough and bumpy.

“Yes.” She had to keep from keening. One more minute, one more second, and she would slide over the edge into the abyss.

Bowie buried his face in her neck and brushed his sharpened teeth over her skin. Eva’s teeth elongated and she felt her jaguar come to the fore as they prepared to make Bowie theirs.

Her body quickened, tightened, and just at the moment where she felt suspended on the edge of pleasure and ecstasy, she sunk her teeth into his shoulder. A split second later, she felt the sting as Bowie did the same, followed quickly by the crash of her orgasm as it swept over her like a tsunami.

Eva held onto Bowie as tight as she could, aware of little other than the strength in him and knowing he would keep her safe as her world went dark and little lights flashed on the insides of her eyelids.

As the shudders racking her body slowed and faded, she withdrew her teeth and snuggled closer to him, not opening her eyes until she felt the rasp of his five o’clock shadow against her cheek and then his lips against hers, soft as a butterfly’s wings.

He gazed at her, his expression one she’d seen many times. Now she realized it was love. All those months in Afghanistan, it had always been love.

“Ready to shift?” His voice sounded like he’d been screaming at a music concert.

“Okay.” Her voice sounded equally abused. Had they made that much noise? She didn’t remember screaming but the whole experience was a little hazy.

Bowie pushed off of her and stood, holding his hand out to her. She let him help her to her feet.

“There’s more space in the living room,” she said. Not that her bedroom was cramped, but the bed took up a lot of floorspace.

He reached the door in two steps and held it open for her. As she walked through, she realized she could get used to this. She didn’t remember the last time a boyfriend was so considerate.

Since they were already naked, they didn’t need to disrobe before changing. Without a word, they stood across from each other and started. Eva wasn’t sure she’d be able to change when she felt so fatigued—no, bone-deep relaxed—from the most amazing orgasm she’d ever experienced. But she was wrong. It took a little extra push to get it started but then her change eased over her body as usual, the bone-cracking and muscle-contorting painful but quickly forgotten.

Then she stood before her mate as her animal, a sleek black jaguar. A split second later, Bowie’s change finished and she saw his lion up close for the first time.

He towered over her, but that was to be expected. Lions were bigger than jaguars in the wild, too, and males larger than females.

You’re even more beautiful than I’d imagined.

Eva jerked. Somehow in all the excitement, she’d forgotten the side-effects that came with mating, the biggest one being that now she and Bowie would be able to communicate telepathically.

She tentatively sent out a thought to him, unsure if she was doing it right. You’re even more fearsome up close.

Her lion chuffed. He took one step forward and rubbed his face against hers. You know exactly what to say.

Yes! Her thought had reached him. It would still take some work to get used to being able to talk without words but if it was this easy she was sure she could do it.

In the meantime, she rubbed her cheeks against his. With their mating bites, their scents were already mingled but her cat still wanted to make sure he smelled completely like her. If she ever saw him with a woman hanging all over him again, she’d kill them both.

He chuffed again. You don’t have to worry.

Whoops. Guess that thought got to him too. She’d have to figure out how to keep some of her thoughts to herself.

Bowie lay down, pushing her coffee table away with his back in order to make room. She lay down next to him, resting her paw possessively over his chest.

Just a little nap, he thought.

Don’t worry. We’ll wake up before long. She could get used to this. She’d never felt more content and happy in her life, and she knew there was more to come with the man she loved.

***

The next day, Bowie and Eva came up for air long enough to drive over to the place Bowie was renting with the guys and get some of his stuff. They hadn’t even had to talk about it; they both knew Bowie’d be spending most of his time at Eva’s from now on.

Bowie hadn’t forgotten his buddies, who were no doubt waiting to hear the deets, knowing only what Kane had seen the night before. As they approached the front door of the house, Bowie kept his arm around Eva. He loved his buddies but they’d better understand she was his.

The door opened into a foyer. They hadn’t taken two steps inside when Kane, Stryker and Ranger spilled through the opposite door.

Kane grinned. “You’re mated. Congratulations!” He stepped forward, hand out.

Bowie gripped his hand for a manly shake-and-hug. “We’ve still got the ceremony to get through, but yeah. We’re mated.”

Hugs followed all around, Bowie giving Stryker a shove when he held onto Eva a little too long. By the look in Stryker’s eye, he’d done it on purpose.

“We just stopped by to get some of my things,” Bowie said.

Kane rubbed his hand over his crew cut. “Yeah, well, while you’re here, there’s something I’d like to talk to all of you about. You too, Eva.”

What the hell could that be about? “Sure. Let’s just go in the family room.”

The five of them filed into the room and settled onto the two couches. The room was the same one where Bowie had called Eva the day before. It seemed like ages ago.

Kane sat in the middle and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I haven’t told you much about my childhood, but it’s time you knew.”

That was an understatement. A good way to describe Kane’s protectiveness of his past was “pathologically secretive.”

“I grew up in a cult. Bad shit—grown men marrying little girls, husbands beating wives, women totally under the thumb of the men. Even as a kid, I didn’t like what was going down.”

The only sounds in the room were mechanical, the ticking of the clock, the whoosh of the a/c. Bowie could even hear his own heart beating.

A cult? That’s what Kane had been hiding all these years?

“I fought back. Granted, I did it in a stupid kid kind of way, but I meant well. So they kicked me out.” Kane nodded toward Ranger. “Ranger knows some of it. He found me on the streets not long after they drove me to Chicago and pushed me out of the car.” His voice twisted on that last sentence.

Ranger and Kane had known each other first; Stryker and Bowie hadn’t met them until Basic Training. Bowie had never heard the full story of how they’d met, though.

Kane pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Thing is, my mom’s still there. My dad’s long dead but she’s still there and I want to get her out. But I can’t do it alone.”

They weren’t getting the whole story. Bowie didn’t know if they’d ever get the whole story—or even if he wanted it. He had a feeling the details were even darker than Kane had suggested. But he understood a guy wanting to protect his mother. Bowie would do the same. “We’ll help you.”

Stryker and Ranger nodded and grunted in the affirmative.

Kane took a breath. “Thanks.” After another pause, he said, “It might just be a road trip. Get in there, pack her up and leave. But I appreciate the backup.”

Hopefully Kane was right and it went down that easy, but Bowie wasn’t so sure. If it was that easy to leave a cult, all those women Kane had mentioned would have left long ago.

Bowie clapped his hand on Kane’s back. “We’ll do whatever you need us to.” That’s what friends were for.

Shortly after that, Bowie and Eva went to his room and packed up his things.

“That’s terrible how Kane had to grow up.” Eva hugged Bowie. “I’ll miss you, but this is good. You should help your friend.”

He kissed her forehead. “We won’t be gone long. I’ll miss you, too.”

As they kissed, Bowie kicked the door shut. No reason they couldn’t break in the room before they moved him out. When Bowie lifted Eva and dropped her onto the bed, she erupted into laughter.

Man, how he loved her. He’d love her forever.