Eric's Edge (13 page)

“Why isn’t there a Mrs. Falk?” Jim asked. “Just curious. From what I know about Bears, they tend to have a more aggressive drive to pair off than the rest of us critters.”

Especially this time of year.
Eric thought it but sure as shit wasn’t going to say it. He didn’t want to hear the commentary Maria would probably provide.

The only reason Eric’s cock wasn’t in a constant state of high alert was because of the composition of their travel party. If he’d been traveling with only adults, there would have been nothing stopping him from touching Maria at every turn.

“There is no Mrs. Falk,” Eric said, “because the lady I want to marry has this misguided notion that she’s a free agent.”

All three Coyotes turned to look at Maria at once.

She stirred her coffee, expression serene.

Eric gritted his teeth.
I’ll deal with you later, Shrew.

“Huh,” Jim said. “Well, good luck with that. Now, back to you, Mr. Weird Accent.”

Marty shrank a bit in his seat.

“Oh, come on. I’m not gonna mess with ya…unless you’re gonna mess with
me
. You’re not gonna mess with me, are ya?”

Marty gave his head a hard shake. “Look, I just want to collect my wife and take the kids away. I’m tired of this. I’m just…I’m
tired
. I don’t want to do this anymore. I didn’t want to be a Bear.”

Eric bobbed his eyebrows. “Neither did I.”

“You got turned against your will?” Jim asked Marty.

Marty nodded. “I had the misfortune of having a fender-bender with Gene many years ago as I was backing out of a parking space. He didn’t want to call the insurance companies, and insisted I owed him.”

“He
turned
you over a dent to his bumper?” Maria asked, dark eyes flashing with anger.

Marty winced and rotated his wedding band around his finger. “He
had
me turned. Couldn’t be bothered to do it himself. He’s had people turned for far less grievous offenses. I had planned on finishing seminary and going back to Europe, but that was out of the question. The only good that came out of the ordeal was that I met my wife. She was the one who was forced to take care of me during my first moon shift.” Wringing his hands, he looked to Eric. “When will I get to see her? I miss my Keely.”

Eric had a pretty good idea of how he felt, and the object of Eric’s interest sat just two chairs away. “I don’t know when we’re going to meet. I think we’ll know soon.”

Jim chuckled. “That’s actually up to me. We’re just waiting for our security guy to clear your backgrounds, and if everyone checks out, we’ll escort her into town and get you together. We should know by morning what’s up.”

Progress
.

The sooner Marty, Keely, and the kids were squared away, the sooner Eric could be alone with Maria. He
needed
some alone time with her so he could call her out about that “free agent” comment.

“We can put you up for the night at my mother’s house,” Jim said. “She’s got a farm on the outskirts of town and spare rooms. Either that, or you could sleep in the RV. Up to you.”

“We wouldn’t want to inconvenience your mother,” Maria said.

“No inconvenience. She thrives on human—or almost-human, anyway—contact. I guess we Coyotes aren’t good enough company for her, and she wants to try Bears on for size.” Jim sniffed indignantly.

Apparently, even Coyote alphas had mommy issues.

Although Eric seemed more than a little agitated about the wait-and-see plan they were subscribing to at the moment, Maria appreciated having a chance to sleep in a real,
clean
bed for a few hours before moving on to the next place. Even if it meant sleeping with Nina’s limbs flung over her body and waking frequently due to the child’s chattering in her sleep.

When Maria’s phone buzzed under body, she rolled her eyes against the pillow and considered ignoring it.

Don’t. Wanna. Move.

She was exhausted and wanted more than anything to have a regulated schedule in which sleep came at the same time every day and she’d have more than one day off in a row. Apparently, she’d blinked and missed landing firmly into the throes of adulthood if the idea of regimented sleep now made her giddy.

Things’ll be better after the girls are back from maternity leave.

She blew a raspberry against the pillow, and the phone buzzed once more.

“I’m not here,” she whispered to the phone.

When Sarah was back on full duty and Astrid on the way back in, Tamara would probably be on the way out. She and Bryan hadn’t mentioned kids of their own to the group, but Maria didn’t see how they could hold off indefinitely. Bryan was a lusty Bear and family was one of the most important things in his life.

Dana would figure something out. She always did. Even if they had to refuse some cases for a while until they shored the agency’s staff up a bit. The money was good, but at what cost?

The next time the phone buzzed, Maria groaned and wedged her hand beneath her belly and the mattress to pull it out. She held the phone at arm’s length, eyes blurry, and squinted at the message on the screen.

Come to the laundry room.

It was from Eric.

Groaning, she tapped out,
Why?
with her thumb.

So we can talk. Everyone’s asleep except Mrs. West. She’s doing farm chores before breakfast. Come here.

Maria scoffed.
Asleep for good reason. It’s only eight.

I’ll make it up to you.

How?

Come. Here.

“Damn it.” She pushed back the covers. Somehow, she managed to gently extricate herself from Nina’s tangle of limbs without waking the child and, rubbing her eyes, Maria padded down the dim hallway.

They’d gotten in at around four. Mrs. West hadn’t given them much of a tour, but given the hour, Maria hadn’t expected one. Still, Maria seemed to recall that they’d passed the small laundry room after entering the farmhouse’s back door.

She made her way through the kitchen, lingered long enough to lift the towel over something on the counter to find rolls rising, and walked to the adjoining laundry and utility room.

Eric leaned against the wall that had the small window, looking menacing in the near darkness, and like walking sin in nothing but a pair of low-slung sweatpants.

She swallowed hard and pulled her gaze up from the teasing cut of his abs that seemed to point down to the noticeable bulge between his legs.

“Close the door,” he said over the whir of the washing machine. “Lock it.”

“What do you want?”

“Bear wants to touch what’s his.”

“Bear needs to go look for it, then.”

“No need to look. You’re right there.”

“Eric—”

“Close the door, Maria, and lock it.” His voice may have been level and calm, but she could sense that he wasn’t in the mood to negotiate. He wasn’t going to be brokering any allowances for her. He wanted to close her into that tiny room to fulfill some craving of his, and she wasn’t sure she wanted it.

He notched his thumb into the waistband of his pants and brought down the front. His cock slapped against his belly, and his hand went to the base, squeezing, brazenly tugging.

She closed the door and locked it.

Turning to him, she found him in her space, and his lips came down over hers.

Automatically, they parted for him, and she encouraged his probing tongue’s exploration of her mouth and his hand’s press against her breast.

No long, sensual lead-up. He wanted what he wanted. She didn’t know how
much
he wanted—she wasn’t the kind of psychic who’d be able to discern that—only that he needed to touch.

And for once, she wanted to be touched.

She slipped her hands down the back of his pants and grabbed his muscled ass, squeezing and kneading as his hot mouth tracked down to her sensitive neck.

He kissed and licked, tugged her neckband aside and bit without breaking the aroused flesh.

She raised her shirt up by the hem for him and thrust her breast against his lips. “Suck it,” she whispered, and he didn’t pause to consider it.

He drew her nipple into his mouth and more, flicking his tongue against the sensitive end as his teeth abraded the skin of her heavy-feeling breast.

His arms encircled her ass, and suddenly she was up, sitting on the edge of the folding table. “Wanna fuck you so bad, you have no idea,” he growled against her ear. “Wanna bend you over right here and shove my cock into you. I bet you’re wet. I already know I wouldn’t last long inside you, but I’d wrap my fist around your hair and keep fucking you until my dick went soft. That’s what the bear wants. He wants your ass in the air and no resistance from you. He likes it when you don’t move so he can have his way.”

“Do it.”

“
No
.” He brought his lips to hers once more and pushed his hand into her shorts and then into her panties. No teasing, no whisper-light strokes building up to the breach. He shoved two fingers into her sheath and pressed his thumb to her clit.

The surprise orgasm stole her air—not that she’d had much to spare in the first place with Eric kissing her so urgently.

But he didn’t let up then. Growling, he shoved another finger into her and moved his lips to her ear. “I always know what you need. Why don’t you just let me give you what you need?”

Even if she’d had a response for that, she couldn’t draw the air to say it. His fingers inside her were moving too furiously and her body shook in an unending shudder.

“I know who you are,” he said. “I know what you’re like, and I love you anyway. Just let me
have
you.”

“I can’t,” she said as yet another orgasm made her throw her head back. “Fuck. Fuck.”

“Why not?” he snarled. He pulled his fingers free of her, but kept his thumb pressed to her swollen clit. “Why can’t you?”

“I just can’t.”

“Give me a better answer, Maria. I
deserve
a better answer than that. You don’t want me? Is that what it is? After all these years of us fucking, you just don’t want me for more than that?”

She grabbed his wrist, and whimpering, moved his hand away from her tender sex. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?” He leaned his ass against the utility sink and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t hesitate. Spit it out before you have a chance to sanitize the words. Give me the truth so I know what to do with this flame I’m carrying for you. If it needs to be doused, fucking tell me now before this hormonal mess gets worse, and I end up getting even more attached to you. Because once this bear sticks to you, he’s not going to want anyone else.”

Jaw frozen from shock, she couldn’t do what he said and spit out the words. It wasn’t because she was trying so hard to sanitize them, but because she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t mind so much the idea of his inner bear attaching itself to her. She could admit that her ego was healthy enough that the idea of locking down the gorgeous Eric Falk gave her pleasure.

She just didn’t know how to do what he wanted—or
be
what he wanted.

“Tell me why you can’t be mine, Maria. Give me a good reason, and I’ll leave you the fuck alone.”

“I don’t have one.”

It took a moment for the words to register as having come out of her mouth, but there they were. She’d confessed it. The truth she’d been swallowing for two years and that was sickening her from the inside out. Mom-mom Falk had been right—unspoken thoughts became too heavy after a while. Too
toxic
.

He pursed his lips as if he couldn’t make sense of the taste of them, and she quickly added, “I don’t know how to do this. You want me to give myself to you? Well, I don’t know how to do that.”

She’d had lovers before Eric, sure, and even a few men she’d called boyfriends, but none of those encounters had held the same degree of emotional intensity of simply being in the same room with Eric. She was afraid of him and didn’t know what to do with him. The “no strings attached” rule wasn’t going to work anymore. He’d already crossed the line and dropped that L-word, and she couldn’t just pretend she hadn’t heard him.

He loved her. He
wanted
her weird ass, and, damn, she wanted to be wanted, but she didn’t see how it could work. He’d get tired of her when his bear soothed at the end of the season. She was sure of it. He’d feel attached to her, sure, but he wouldn’t want to be around her all the time. Surprisingly, that was what she craved. Having him around made her less angry and less reckless.

She felt safe, wanted,
loved
.

Her life had been nomadic and unstable for so long, that she didn’t know what it felt like to have things last.

Some empath I am.

He let out a long, frustrated-sounding exhalation and straightened up. “You don’t need to know how to want someone back. You just
do
it.”

“I do want you. I just…”
Don’t know how to keep you.
Shaking her head, she slipped down from the table and went to the door.

He didn’t try to grab her as she unlocked it, and didn’t follow her as she walked through it.

She hurried to the bathroom and locked herself in, turning on the shower so no one could hear her sob.

She didn’t even know what she was crying for, only that she had to let the tears out just like she had with those words.

Maybe once I do, I’ll come up with a good lie for him.

Something that’d keep him from pursuing her once and for all.

Maria was giving Eric a wide berth, and that suited him just fine for the time being.

He didn’t know what else to say to her. He’d put on his cards on the table and shown her every one of them. He’d left nothing to doubt on his end, and yet she was still so resistant. He didn’t know if the other Shrews were so troublesome or if he was the lucky recipient of an extra-special blend of stubbornness. He did know, though, that he needed to put a little space between him and her so he could keep things in perspective. He loved her—that wasn’t going to change— but maybe she needed to be handled in a way he hadn’t conceived of yet.

Jim, arriving with his Coyote lieutenants, parked his motorcycle near the farmhouse porch and gave Eric a wave of hail.

Eric waved back, and leaned against the porch railing.

“Sleep well?” Jim shouted as he tucked away his helmet.

“For a few hours, yeah.”

“You can sleep when you’re dead.” Jim thundered up the steps in heavy boots and all that leather and joined Eric at the railing. “Where’s the party? It’s quiet here.”

“Your mother put Marty and the kids to work. They’re helping her clean out the barn, I think.”

“Sorry about that. Mom probably thought she needed to get them out of your hair for a while so you could do business. She is an opportunist, though. I can’t come over here without her trying to spring some three-hour chore on me.” He rocked back on his heels and wriggled his eyebrows as his friends—Hardy and Nate—climbed the steps. “So. Where’s your pardna?”

“If you’re referring to Maria, she’s in the RV making phone calls, I believe.”

“Ah. I looked into her company while I was sprawled on my back last night digesting all that bacon and that pound of fake eggs. Counting sheep didn’t work, so I surfed the Internet.”

“Oh, yeah? Did you like what you saw?”

“Well, the info was vague, but I guess that would be the case for any private investigation agency. I get the feeling they’re not quite normal if they’re tangled up in Bear business.”

Eric snorted. “
‘Not-quite-normal’
could possibly be the understatement of the century.”

“They hiring?”

Eric raised an eyebrow. “You looking?”

Jim shook his head and crooked a thumb toward Hardy and Nate. “Not me.”

“Are you so quick to get rid of lieutenants?”

“Hell no, man. I want to keep them, but I know they’re bored here. I’m hoping if they go for a couple of years, they’ll come back refreshed and will stop nagging me.”

“Come on, Jim,” Nate said. “It’d be different if there were chicks around here any of us would actually touch. If some of us don’t leave, we’re going to slaughter each other.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Eric said.

Jim made a waffling gesture. “Only a little. I don’t know about Bears, but Coyotes tend to get a little reckless when our population isn’t balanced.”

“But there are no Coyotes in the Shrews or even any associated with them.”

“Doesn’t matter. As long as there aren’t a bunch of male Coyotes around them, they’ll be a lot better off there than here. I mean, it’d be short-term—just until we can slake some of the tension here.”

“Why those two and not some guys you could actually spare?”

Jim leaned his forearms onto the porch railing and looked out at the west field where the RV was parked.

Maria was picking her way through the high grass toward them, and Eric hoped that whatever Jim had to say wouldn’t be scandalous enough to earn either of them a ball-withering Shrew glare. His ego had already taken enough blows during the short trip.

“I have other lieutenants. Not as close as these two, but…you know.”

“Favoritism has its perks?”

“Nah. You gotta do right by the folks who’ve stood by you the longest. I can train those other guys up, but I’ve gotta give the most loyal their due.”

“Good man. I’ll run it past Dana and see what she has to say.”

“Say about what?” Maria asked.

Eric canted his head toward the alpha. “Jim wants to see if Dana can absorb a couple of Coyotes in her associate list for a while.”

“To babysit or to employ?”

Jim chuckled low. “I like her.”

Yeah, me, too.
Fat lot of good that had always done Eric, though.

“To employ,” Jim said. “They’re big boys. They can take care of themselves. I just want to make sure if I’m gonna let them go, they’re not gonna be sitting around down there twiddling their thumbs when they could be gainfully employed.”

“I’m sure she’d be interested in having a conversation about it, at the very least, especially if we’re talking about a couple of self-starters.”

“We don’t need babysitting,” Nate said. “Give us something to do, and we’ll get it done without a whole lot of hand-wringing and micromanaging. We’re pretty creative when we need to be.”

“But do you try to stay on the right side of the law while you’re expressing that creativity?”

Hardy pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. “Hmm.”

Jim kicked the side of his boot. “Don’t embarrass me, asshole.”

“Hey! I’ve always had trouble thinking in shades of gray. Things are black-and-white for me, and…
okay
. Sometimes we bend the rules to accomplish something necessary for the greater good.”

Maria put her hands on her hips. “And by greater good, you mean…”

“I mean that we try to make sure that if we’re going to do illegal shit, we do it in self-defense capacities only. Still, a law’s a law.”

“That sounds like something Astrid would say,” Eric muttered.

Maria looked pointedly at Jim. “So, are you going to let our Bears into your territory?”

“Well, damn, you cut right to the point, don’t you? You don’t want to hang out for a little while and chat? Get to know your new friends a little? It’s a beautiful day. The birds are singing and gas prices are down. Take a load off.”

Maria shifted her weight and looked from Jim, to Eric, back to Jim again wearing that neutral expression Eric knew disguised darker emotions.

What’s wrong now?

Had he agitated her? If that were the case, he wasn’t so sure he was going to be so broken up about it. He’d said what he needed to say and she’d heard him. If those words wounded her somehow, he wasn’t going to apologize. She needed to work it out—to
digest
it—and get the fuck over it.

“So, yes or no, Mr. West? Bryan’s waiting on word.”

Jim gave a dismissive flick of his hand. “Yeah, Keely and her guard are clear. Tell her to come get her babies and that pathetic mate of hers, too.”

“Thank you. I’ll go make the call.”

Maria started toward the RV again.

Eric watched her walk away, her skirt catching against the grass as she moved, and then straightened up.
What the fuck am I just standing here for?

“I need to confer with my alpha about what we’re supposed to do next.” Eric bounded down the stairs and turned to walk backwards.

Jim gave him a salute. “Can’t promise there’ll be any breakfast left if you take too long. We’ll try to be gentlemen, but if you leave dogs unattended for too long, they get into the food.”

Coyotes sounded a lot like Bears to Eric. In the presence of the Ridge crew, he’d learned quickly not to leave food sitting out at the lodge.

“I’ll take that risk.”

Eric arrived at the RV’s passenger door right as Maria tried to slam it.

He pulled it open, nearly sending her toppling down the steps.

“Ugh!”

“Can the attitude, Shrew.” He got her inside and locked the door behind him.

She stomped toward the kitchenette table, muttering under her breath, and he didn’t bother trying to make sense of it. He got the gist, though—she wanted some space. He’d give her some, but not yet. He still had a thing or two to prove.

“Make your call, Maria.”

“You know, I don’t need your permission.” She snatched the phone off the charger and angrily pushed her hair behind her ears.

Silently, he sank onto the sofa, leaned back, and entwined his fingers over his belly as she dialed.

She paced in front of the sink, avoiding his gaze—agitating his inner bear. The bear didn’t like being ignored. The bear thought Eric was making the wrong choice by being so gentle with her when she wanted it so rough. The part of him that was just man took a more measured stance. He wasn’t going to wait forever for her—no way was his bear going to let him do that—but he never wanted anyone to say he hadn’t tried to do all he could for her.

“Dana. Hey! Do you have Bryan available?” Maria paced a little more. “Okay.” She glanced Eric’s way and said, “She’s going to patch him in.”

“Feel free to put it on speaker.”

Maria stared at him for a few seconds as if the suggestion was either obscene or completely novel to her.

He wondered if she’d had something to say to Dana that she didn’t want Eric to overhear.

Tough. Call her back later.

With one more glower at him, she put the phone on speaker and set it on the corner of the table.

“All right,” came Bryan’s deep voice. “Who’s in conference here? I’ve got Tamara on my lap and Soren Ursu at my back.”

“Just me here,” Dana said. “That dirty cat of mine went back to Durham to take care of some pub business. I’m babysitting a few of his young Catamounts.”

“And I’m here,” Maria said, then added flatly, “and Eric.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Well, let’s get right to it, then. Jim says we can bring Keely through to rendezvous with the kids and Marty.”

“Awesome. I’ll get in touch with the cousin who’s guarding her,” Bryan said. “Shoot the address to me in a text.”

Eric rooted his phone out of his pocket. “Doing it now. There’s another matter I’d like to bring to your attention since you’re both on the line.”

“What’s up?” Dana asked.

“Jim wants to talk to you about sending down a couple of his Coyotes. Apparently, the Coyote population is unbalanced, and he wanted to give a couple of his trusted lieutenants the opportunity to go elsewhere for a while if it’d help stabilize things a bit.”

“Well, he doesn’t need my approval for that. We don’t have a Coyote group anywhere near here, so they wouldn’t be offending anyone if they entered the territory, except for perhaps the Wolves, but two Coyotes is hardly a threat.”

“No, what I mean is, they want to
work
for you. I don’t think Jim would send them down unless they belonged to a group of some sort while they’re there.”

“Ahhh, gotcha. I’ll certainly entertain the idea, assuming they have some skills I could use.”

“Tell me they’re not scrawny,” Tamara said.

Eric would have recognized the ensuing sigh as Bryan’s even with one ear plugged.

“They’re pretty big for what I’d imagine a Coyote to be built like,” Maria said.

“They tend to be pretty lean, if we’re talking about born-Coyotes,” Soren said.

“Most of the Coyotes here are born,” Eric said. “Jim told us last night that the demographics are what make them such a stable group, even if they do have a bit of a male problem.”

“What do you think, Soren?” Dana asked. “You’ve worked with Coyotes before. Are they generally trustworthy?”

“Some are, some aren’t. Depends on the culture of the group and how good the alpha is. I’ve never heard anyone say anything negative about Jim West aside from his frustratingly adamant refusal to give people free passage through his territory.”

“So, I should entertain the offer?”

“I think you should meet with them and put them through their paces, at the very least. My brother and I would be happy to assist you. Assuming he’s out of his mate fever by then.”

“Peter?” Maria asked, sounding understandably worried.
Intense
was an understatement when it came to describing the man. “You mean, with Drea?”

“Don’t worry,” Soren said soothingly. “We’ve got him contained for the time being. Fortunately, the two of us almost never have overlapping fever periods. His always seems to start a couple of weeks before mine, so chances are good we’ll be swapping places in about ten days. I’ll be the one locked up in the bunker, and he’ll be the one staring through the window and laughing at me.”

“Drea’s
fine
,” Bryan said soothingly. “She has no idea what’s going on. She’s so fucking naive that she’s almost a stereotype. She has no idea why Peter’s been sniffing around her so much.” He added in a mumble, “And why she’s practically throwing herself at him.”

“Marty’s been pretty pathetic pining after your cousin, so it’s definitely in the air,” Maria said.

“How are
you
doing, Eric?”

Eric twiddled his thumbs and ground his jaw as Maria narrowed her eyes at him. “Everything’s just fine. What do you want us to do after we’ve reunited the happy family?”

Bryan scoffed. “Don’t assume it’s gonna be happy. Keely is probably going to try to kick Marty’s nuts into next week for taking her kids. There’s gonna be fur flying all over the place. Mark my words, it’ll be a while before either of those two are fit to travel, assuming she lets him go with her. She can hold a grudge like nobody’s business.”

“Fuck, I hadn’t thought about that. You know, Marty really is pathetically endearing after a while. Maybe she’ll come around once he explains everything.”

“We can only hope. I’d always thought the two were good for each other. I was probably more surprised than anyone when Marty took off the way he did. Anyway, once she’s ready to go, haul ass and get them to Buffalo. I’ve got someone on the other side of the border to get them up to the airport in Toronto. Cut it as close as you can so there’s no chance of them being spotted and followed. We’re going to have them fly in a very indirect route to Alaska using a few different airlines, so they won’t be the easiest to track, but I’d like to add in mystery wherever I can.”

“Got it. And when we’re done there, do you want us to keep tracking Gene?”

“Negative on that. Not necessary.”

“Why not?”

Soren chuckled. “Those coordinates from Marty came in very handy. We don’t need to watch the little bastard so closely.”

“What’d you do?”

“Me personally? Nothing.”

“Oh,
hell
,” Dana muttered. “Do I want to hear this, Bryan?”