Shifting Positions (14 page)

With practiced ease, Sean slid golden brown pancakes onto one plate, waffles onto another and yet French toast onto a third. “Tourists. Never figure out that protein is what will get them through a day of skiing.”

Tess grinned to herself. Over the years she’d traveled far and wide for work and pleasure, and in each place the natives always had something to say about tourists. They drove on the wrong side of the road, wore the wrong clothing or couldn’t speak the language. Even in the small town of Woodcliff there were complaints. It was oddly comforting.

Dolen sidled up, leaning into her personal space. Habitually, she stiffened against the intrusion and then just as quickly relaxed. “What’s wrong with your shoes?” Confused, she straightened and peered down her long skirt to her low-heeled boots.

“Oops. Rubber soles only in the kitchen.” At Dolen’s grunt she flashed him a sweet smile. “I’m sorry, Dolen. I wanted to look nice when I picked Mom up and didn’t want to go home and change.” She blinked at him, hazel eyes wide and pleading.

“That look won’t work on me little girl.” He thrust a finger into his office. “Your mom brought a pair of your sneakers in on Monday as she thought you might ‘forget’. Change.” She managed not to roll her eyes. “Fine.”

“By the way, don’t suppose you could confirm any of the rumors about Dave’s death?

You know, because of Caleb.”

Easing her face into her normal cool mask of indifference felt wrong all of a sudden, so she settled on mild interest. “I cannot confirm or deny anything.” Dolen lifted the corner of his mouth in a resigned grimace. “I was afraid of that, but of course I had to ask. Now…” he pointed to the office and headed over to the second range as Penny called out for another order.

Tess washed her hands and then went into the small room to change her shoes. She found her yellow sneakers easily enough as they rested before one of the two ladder-back chairs Dolen used for guests. As she donned the proper foot attire, she thought about Gina, Dave and Matt.

What a strange triangle. Did Dave know about Matt and Gina? Was Dave trying to get Gina back? Could he have had a confrontation with Matt? But Matt wasn’t a shifter. He didn’t even like shifters if the things he used to say about them in high school were to be believed. Did he still feel the same? Did Gina?

Setting her Jimmy Choos carefully on the chair - no dirty floor for them - she had a sudden urge to talk to Caleb. Not only to hash out her questions but to simply hear his voice.

With her gut twisting in strange and uncomfortable ways she stopped in the doorway, much as Dolen had done earlier. The radio blared out hard rock as usual, making her wonder why the odd silence upon her arrival. In deference to Penny?

Her curiosity about the town and its inhabitants grew as she looked around the kitchen, from Sean breaking eggs into a pan to Dolen exiting the huge walk-in cooler to her worktop. Just yesterday she’d not only lost her composure in this place, she’d taunted a shifter and showed her strength, providing enough fodder for gossip to last several days. Contrary to what she’d expected, no one yet mentioned the incident. Perhaps due to more important matters or maybe, just maybe, she truly was accepted as herself, no matter what that self was. She pressed a hand to her chest, and at a loud commotion, glanced at the rear door as Marla, the second morning-shift waitress, scampered in.

“Sorry I’m late, Dolen,” she said in her Minnie Mouse voice.

“As if that’s different than normal,” Dolen grumbled.

Marla practically bounced in the bright red sneakers that matched the color of her lips.

Her tightly curled black hair shook with nervous energy. “You all hear what happened last night?

Lordy be. A killer shifter is on the loose and tomorrow’s the full moon. We all better be extra careful and just stay indoors ‘till Sunday morning.” With that the young mother of two exuberant toddlers scampered off to the dining room.

At Dolen’s glare Tess raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “I know nothing.” He harrumphed, Sean laughed and Tess headed to her abandoned broccoli. A feeling of camaraderie washed over her, warming her heart and putting a smile on her face.

What a mess.

Sitting in his truck at the entrance of the access road to Henry Harkins’ place, the engine idling, Caleb tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and contemplated all the information he’d gleaned about Dave Collins. Other than a few traffic tickets, the kid was clean. No personal problems or grudges. His financials, on the other hand, were another matter, and not because of anything illegal or due to excessive spending. About two months back, three five-man crews had been temporarily laid off from the lumber yard and Dave worked on one of those crews. Unsure of how long the hiatus might actually last, he’d interviewed at Stellinghouse, another lumber company owned and operated by humans about two hours north of Woodcliff, with favorable results according to Dave’s parents.

Which made the young man’s presence on Kolter Lumber property yesterday all the more suspicious.

With the decrease in demand for wood, mills were laying employees off left and right, or sadly, shutting their doors all together. Though Kolter Lumber still prospered, in part due to their stellar product and partly because of Frank Kolter’s exceptional business sense, the company did downsize. Had Dave Collins resented being let go? Though in tough times it’s necessary to do so for the greater good, could the kid have been angry enough to consider sabotage? What was going through his mind as he stood in the forest yesterday? According to the evidence, other than old Henry who’d found the body, only Dave and his murderer had been in the area.

Then again, he thought with a frown, there was that partial print of a flat soled shoe. Had the killer approached in human form only to shift and then attack? Or did he attack first and shift to human after? Did someone hold a grudge against Dave or was the attack based on a business deal gone wrong? Was it just coincidence the kid had been on his former employer’s property?

With all the possibilities tangling in his brain, Caleb leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The second he did, an image of Tess, her bare silky skin all warm and stretched out under his hard body, popped up. Memories of last night washed over him in vivid detail. Every kiss, every sensual touch, every wet stroke of his cock into sweet flesh replayed in his mind until he was as aroused now as he’d been last night.

He jerked upright with a curse. Every damn time he closed his eyes, he saw her. Every second of every day since that first time he laid eyes on her, he wanted her. And every time he took her, he had to fight back the instinctual need to mark her as his mate, which made making love with her a tormented pleasure. Honestly, he didn’t know how much longer he could hold off. The first time, against the door, taking her from behind, the only reason he’d been able to resist was because of her high-necked sweater. Otherwise he would have sunk fangs into the enticing flesh of her shoulder while he drove his aching cock into her welcoming pussy, making her his with both his body and beast.

He rubbed unsteady hands over his face. The need for her was like nothing he’d ever felt before. He felt empty without her, as if part of his body was missing. Then he had to deal with the persistent arousal that caused him to fly at half mast at all times. Except now, he growled down at his lap. “Now I have a fucking hard-on to end all hard-ons.” A glint in the far distance caught his eye and he shifted his focus to the left to watch an approaching vehicle. Traffic was light this time of day, as most of the tourists were either at the ski lodge or shopping in the city and with his current physical state he couldn’t handle a traffic stop. He also hoped the driver was someone he did not know so they would simply pass by.

In less than a minute recognition hit and his body responded like Pavlov’s dog. Lust he just got under control ignited, causing his chest to tighten and blood to rush to his groin. Hell, he was half-afraid he’d begin to pant like an overheated dog. With a glance at the clock, he realized Tess was on her way to Togan to pick her mom up from the hospital.

His fingers flexed with the need to touch her creamy flesh. Sweat beaded along his hairline.

He shouldn’t.

He couldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

But as she got closer his dick got harder and his wolf snarled in agitation.

Oh hell. He was.

When she raced by, he floored the gas, his tires spitting up snow as they fought for traction. Within seconds he came up behind her Pathfinder and flashed his front lights for her to pull over. He just needed to see her. That’s all. To see and touch and maybe steal a quick kiss or two.

Nothing more
he ordered both man and beast. If he could control his wolf during a full moon, then he could damn well suppress this irrational craving.

Then Tess exited her truck and he gave voice to his hunger, letting out a harsh groan that epitomized a need so raw he ached in every pore.

She was wearing a skirt. Fuck. Game over.

Peripherally he noticed the long brown skirt was paired with low-heeled brown boots and a pretty pink and brown sweater, but all his brain could appreciate was how easily he could hike that skirt up and bury his throbbing member in her wet warmth.

His hands shook. He might feel guilty later, but with his cock egging him on, he radioed Karen at the station and told her he was taking an hour personal time. Hour hell. He only needed three minutes. Tossing the phone on the passenger seat, he opened his door to face his own personal heaven, or hell depending on how she reacted to his appearance.

Though he might have had her twelve hours ago, he was currently so damned hard he thought he might burst. He thought the craving would ease once he’d taken her. Wrong. The want only grew, clawing at his gut, twisting his analytical brain into mush. As he stalked up to her he saw the smoldering heat in her eyes and a rare smile, at least where he was concerned, tilting her lips in curiosity. He couldn’t even come up with a civilized greeting.

More like three seconds
, he thought hungrily as his vision blurred with lust.

“Lock your truck,” was what he said, his tone nearly unintelligible. Tess blinked in surprise, her smile faltering. Something in his tight expression caused her to drop her gaze and, like radar, she locked onto his erection. Her eyes flew back up to his, her face flushing a delicate rosy hue. He could hear her heart pick up as she lifted the key fob over her shoulder and hit a switch, causing the Pathfinder to beep once in response. Without another word he snatched her hand, tugged her to his side and led her at a swift pace into the woods that bordered either side of the highway.

“Caleb, whatever is the matter?” Her tone held mocking laughter, her grip playfully resistant. “Do you need me or something?”

Delighted by her teasing, he grinned back at her as he threaded through the trees. She might not be ready for the claiming, but she was more than willing to take and be taken. With every step her arousal grew, the sweet scent of her juices filling his lungs and pushing his excitement to a fever pitch.

Once he determined they were far enough from the road to escape detection, he not so gently pressed Tess back against a tree and then cut off her soft squeak with his mouth. He licked at the seam of her lips, marveling at how cool they felt against his searing flesh, how incredibly soft. When she opened to his seeking tongue, her taste exploded in his mouth. He held her head steady as he delved deep, pumping his tongue past her lips to drown in her addictive flavor. She met his passion with equal ardor, mating her tongue with his, dueling and licking every crevice of his mouth. He felt as if he were tumbling through a wild and fiery storm, dazed, his senses literally sizzled by the uninhibited exploration.

Pulling a hair’s width back from the intense kiss, he stared down at her, seeing the heat that burned in her eyes. With a heart-felt groan, he ducked his head to the side to nuzzle her temple while his hands slipped under her sweater to cradle her breasts. He caressed the hard peaks through the thin material of her bra with his thumbs and she exhaled, a long sighing sound that had his cock twitching in response.

He licked a wet trail down her throat, stroking his tongue over the rapidly beating pulse that called to him. Then further down to the sensitive hollow where her shoulder joined her neck.

His fangs burned in his gums and he squeezed his eyes shut, fighting against the instinct to make his claim irrefutable, make her his in the way his wolf demanded.

Clenching his teeth against the temptation, he dropped down to the forest floor, the mix of dead leaves and snow crunching loudly under his knees. With such little finesse that he might come to feel embarrassment for later, he shoved her skirt up to her waist, and nearly swallowed his tongue. A pretty cream-colored lacy thong, made damp and transparent with her desire, did little to cover her sweet pussy. He couldn’t stop the bone-deep shudder of need.

Outlining the delicate edge with his fingertips, he murmured in a raspy voice, “Not that I’m complaining, but what is it with the thongs?”

Tess opened eyes glazed with passion. “No panty lines.”

His lips curled in a wicked smile just before he leaned close and covered her sex through the thin material with his mouth. Her gasp was part protest, part sudden pleasure, the sound loud enough to startle the birds in the trees and causing them to take flight.

He pressed her legs further apart, hooked a finger into her panties and pulled. The fabric shredded under his impatience hands. “Sorry,” he hissed out past a throat dry with thirst. “I’ll buy you more.” With both thumbs, he separated her juicy folds, breathed deep, and dove in. Just one taste of her feminine heat and he was drowning. He licked her, drawing her very essence inside him. His whole body shook with the need to take her, with his mouth and with his cock.

On a low growl he flattened his tongue, licking in long, hungry strokes. He dipped his tongue into her entrance, flicking and thrusting against the inner muscles. “You’re so damn sweet, Tess.