For Your Paws Only (Supernatural Enforcers Agency #2) (21 page)

Chapter TwentyOne

After safely ensconcing Lucie at a hotel – a good hotel that the SEA was paying for – with a SEA agent guarding her door – who was on pain of death if he dared leave his post – Cutter helped wrap up the case.

He wasn’t allowed to question either Harvey or Bruce. Apparently they feared he wouldn’t be subtle and might rip their heads off or something. Well, they weren’t wrong, but he was pretty sure he could find a subtle way of doing it.

Apparently, as soon as he awoke, Bruce started telling them everything. He was probably too afraid to go another round with Cutter.

Avery and Isis informed him that Lucie was worried about him and called Avery after he left to find Primrose. Avery was at the bar with Wayne and Isis, so she sent Wayne to look for Cutter while they went to talk to Lucie.

As they arrived, they saw Harvey’s car parked down the street and approached with caution, at the time fearing that he had just come looking for Cutter. But when they heard him roaring, they shifted and crashed through the window.

Cutter was relieved Lucie was okay, although he was a little miffed that he didn’t get to be her knight in shining armor. But, he figured he had years ahead of him to save her, over and over. In pretend, naturally, because she wasn’t allowed to be in a dangerous situation again – ever. In fact, he didn’t want her crossing streets without him, and if she thought she was allowed to leave the house without him escorting her, she had another thing coming.
What, too much?
He didn’t care.

Primrose was going to be okay; she was already starting to heal. Sadie refused to leave her side. Everyone was just shocked to witness Primrose displaying tender emotions. It was just so…
strange
. Like watching Darth Vader stop to pet a puppy or something.

Harvey wasn’t talking, but they had enough evidence to arrest him anyway with the testimony they had from Bruce and for attacking Lucie. Plus, when they really dug, they were confident they could link him to the murders in Ursa.

The Director was immediately taken off his enforced vacation. He didn’t rub it in his boss’ nose for listening to Harvey… well, not much anyway. The Director did, unsurprisingly, berate Cutter for not giving himself in, but given that the guy framing him was the SEA agent trying to catch him… the Director wouldn’t punish him. But he insisted that Cutter take a week vacation to recuperate.
For all their sakes.

That was fine with him. The old Cutter,
BL Cutter
, might have argued and insisted he needed to stay, but he had something better to do. He had a hedgehog to woo.

He even finagled a week’s paid vacation for Lucie. About a week in bed together would be about right for the two of them. They needed to make up for lost time.

He’d been so scared of hurting her that he’d run from her like a coward. All it took was getting shot by his colleague, framed for murder and nearly losing her to a crazy wolf for him to realize that he needed her. Shame all that hadn’t happened a year ago really.

He now knew that he did actually deserve her. Well, maybe he wouldn’t go that far, but he was selfish enough that he was going to keep her, and that was that.

*

Lucie was kind of sorry she missed seeing Isis and Avery tearing into Harvey. She was sure the look on his face would have been priceless as the tigress and lioness tore him a new one. But she was just pleased that it was over.

So why did she feel sad?

Because it meant she no longer had an excuse to keep Cutter in her bed. He was now free to go and do whatever he liked.
Bummer
.

Her hedgehog perked up as she heard arguing outside.

“What the fuck? Were you sleeping?” roared an irate but very welcome voice. Her hedgehog mewled in happiness.

“I was just resting my eyes…” came the muffled reply.

“What the fuck are they teaching you at the academy? Forget it, fuck off, I’m here now.”

Her handsome wolf stomped through the door, looking every but a wild romantic hero, and the first thing he said, “Why the fuck was this door unlocked? Anyone could have walked in here!”

“Not with the guard outside,” she reasoned, patiently, as she ran into his arms.

“The fucker was sleeping!”

She snuggled against his chest and felt gratified when he slipped his arms around her and held her tightly. She was wearing a SEA t-shirt that one of the agents had given her. Her own clothes had been destroyed by Harvey when he threw his temper tantrum, and Cutter hustled her out of her house so quickly she didn’t have time to grab something. The thin material was inadequate to hide the puckered points of her nipples, hardened by her arousal at the arrival of Cutter. She tried to pull away in embarrassment, but he wouldn’t let go.

Cutter clung to her, and she couldn’t deny that there wasn’t anywhere she would rather be at that moment. Of course, his own arousal was almost digging into her stomach at the moment. It was a warm and naughty pressure that made her thighs clench instinctively.

With a sigh and a disappointed whimper from Lucie, he let go of her and led her over to the bed, so they were sitting, side by side.

He gave her a searching look, and she felt an urge to fill the silence but she stopped herself.

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” he said, softly.

“You don’t have to thank me; I’m your friend.”

He scowled at the word
friend
. Did he not even want to be friends with her?! Did her disappointment know no end?

Lucie looked away from him, afraid she might do something girly like break out into tears. “You don’t have to stay here though; you could actually go back to your apartment.”

“I don’t want you to be alone,” he replied gruffly.

“Seriously, it’s fine.”

“You haven’t got another man coming round have you?” he accused in a harsh tone.

She didn’t even bother to answer; she just rolled her eyes and pouted.

He hooked a finger under her chin, forcing her to look up at him and into his amber laced eyes. “Listen to me.” The steely dominance in his voice was startling, and sent her nether regions almost into convulsions. “I want to be here.” He took a deep, steadying breath. “I love you, Lucie, and I have since the moment I met you.”

She sucked in a breath at his unexpected admission. She had hoped that, at least, she might get a ‘let’s be friends who sleep together’ speech. She just assumed that down the line, after doing
that
for about five years, she would blackmail him – or perhaps tie him down and sexually torture him - before she finally got the L-word.

“I love you, too,” she gushed.

He leaned in for a kiss but jerked away when she slapped his arm. “What the fuck?”

“If you love me, then why in hell’s mini golf course have you been running from me?” Her hedgehog was all for swooning directly into his big, strong arms, but Lucie had a little more reserve – just a little, though.
Not too much
.

He smirked at her choice of words before sobering.

“Sweetheart, I’m an asshole.”

“Okkaaaayyyyyyy.” Not the reaction she was expecting; she assumed he was going somewhere with this.

“Even before the whole Maroni blowout, I was an asshole. I’m moody and angry all the time; I turn into a dick at the drop of a dime, and I have trouble controlling my rage. I’ve taken anger management classes so often I know them better than the teacher does. Added to all that I have fucking night terrors where I wake up trying to strangle people or trying to shoot the wall. Would you inflict me on a person you love? I just thought I would make you miserable.”

Ugh, he was insufferable!
“Do you really think I haven’t been miserable this past year?”

“I kept thinking that you’d find someone better than me, and they’d make you happy,” he said distastefully, as if the idea of that ever happening was akin to eating a burger made out of worms.

“Well, I haven’t found anyone else and I never well. I’m miserable without you, so I might as well be miserable with you – not that I think I will be.”

He looked at her ruefully. “No, I don’t think you will be either.”

Wow, he was full of surprises. First of all he threw her the L-word without any prompting, and now he was admitting that being together wouldn’t be on par with the Titanic sinking. “What made you change your mind?”

Cutter began stroking her hair. “The other day, when you woke me from my dream, all the pain, and anger, I just let it go as soon as I saw you. And when you sleep beside me, I don’t dream. These past couple of days, in spite of everything, I actually woke up feeling happy. I want you to be my mate, and I want you to know I’m not lying when I say that I fell in love with you when I met you. I haven’t even looked at another woman this past year.”

Lucie frowned. “But, aren’t you forgetting someone?”

Cutter raised his eyebrows.

“The peacock shifter,” she said, hoping to keep all emotion out of her voice. Which was no easy feat when her mind and hedgehog automatically reached for the word hussy instead of peacock.

His face darkened, and she immediately felt chagrin at bringing it up and ruining the moment. She started to climb off the bed, and his arms wrapped around her, pulling her onto his lap. He clutched her tightly and possessively.

“Uh-uh, sweetheart; I’ve been trying to explain about that ever since it happened. Now, you are finally going to sit still and listen.” He rubbed his thumbs in circles over her ass trying not to snicker at her pout. “Nothing happened with that girl.”

She stared at him for a few beats. “Aaaaannnnddd?”

“And?” He looked at her genuinely perplexed.

Lucie’s eyes flashed black to her little beast. “Really? After putting me through the ringer about Rick and Xander, that’s all I get?”

“Fine,” he growled. “I got really drunk and she made sure I got home. I don’t remember the night, but I know I didn’t have sex with her. I haven’t been with anyone else since I met you. You are the best sex of my life, and I love you. Happy now?!”

“Yes,” she answered, mollified, completely unmoved by his surly tone. “I haven’t been with anyone either since I met you.”

“Thank fuck for that,” he exclaimed, letting his head drop onto her shoulder. “I want to spend at least the next two days with you naked, and I just don’t have time on my schedule to hunt down and kill any asshole who dared touch you. Not that I wouldn’t have. Besides I did a pretty good job of scaring them away from you.”

“Scaring who away?”

“The assholes that dared to covet what is mine,” he told her proudly.

Lucie didn’t know whether to hug him or slap him. No wonder the guys who had tried to get close to her over the past year now actively ran when they saw her. They must have been terrified that Cutter was planning to come after then. Of all the… Oh, what was the point in arguing? His possessiveness was actually a turn-on. She nuzzled his neck. “Mmmm, you’re my big, bad wolf.”

“I can’t promise things will be easy with me. I can’t promise I won’t hurt you. I can’t promise…”

She raised her fingers to his lips. “I’ll settle for a promise to love me and to always put the toilet seat down. As for the rest, we’ll fudge it as we go along.”

“Fudge,” he muttered. “You’re just trying to turn me on.”

“I don’t have to try,” she cooed.

“No, you don’t.”

With a roar, he flipped her onto her back. He stood at the edge of the bed as she wriggled about. She settled down and leaned up on her elbows. He looked pensive and uncertain, almost like he didn’t know what to say. Luckily, he had a mate who was rarely lost for words.

“Are you going to stand there all day enjoying the view? Or are you going to get over here and bond with me? Of course, if you don’t think you’re up to it because of your wounds…”

“Well, that sounds like a challenge.” Cutter gave her a wide, toothy grin. His face was etched with hungry desire. Her hedgehog trembled in delight.

Within seconds he was out of his clothes and crawling up the bed; her t-shirt was but ribbons as he sliced it away from her body. She panted and gasped as he sensually attacked her; his hands and mouth were everywhere, licking, sucking, massaging – barely an inch of her escaped his onslaught. She writhed and clutched at the bedcovers as her pleasure curled tighter and tighter, desperately seeking release. And just when it was in reach…

He stopped.
Holy cow – he was such a son of a mother frogging tease!
Disappointed, she started unraveling.

“Don’t stop,” she begged, breathlessly.

He chuckled and nipped her thigh with his sharpened teeth. “Sweetheart, we have all night. No need to rush. I want this to be special.”

“There’s every need to rush,” she grumbled. Her climax tucked her tail between her legs and started skulking away.

He spent a few minutes massaging her legs, running his fingers over her skin. It was a peaceful kind of pleasure, as opposed to the earth-moving kind she experienced from an orgasm. It was actually kind of nice. She relaxed and watched him, enjoying seeing his large, dark hands, manipulating her creamy skin. His hands worked their way up to her breasts, kneading them lightly, not enough to make her come, but enough to give her satisfaction.