The Burning Bush (18 page)

The ladder wiggled and creaked as MeShack climbed up some more until he was directly behind me. He swept my dreadlocks over my shoulders, buried his face into my hair, and inhaled. My heart fluttered in my chest, remembering the way he used to play with and smell my hair after we made love. I cleared my throat and leaned my head away.

“Do I need to get a restraining order, King Cheetah?” I gripped the ladder’s edges hard. “What are you doing?”

“Assisting you with the investigation.” He stopped sniffing me and pointed to several color codes near Shelly’s name.

“This orange box with DI means Shelly had daddy issues. The black box says she’ll do any position.” He swept my hair to one side, brushed his lips against my skin, and kissed the mark at the back of my neck. It was where he’d bitten and claimed me when we were kids. A warmth developed deep inside me.

“Will you stop?” I squirmed under him. “What’s this glued patch of fur on this box about?”

“It means she’s down to have sex in beast form. The circle around the fur means it doesn’t matter if she’s in Human form and the other person is shifted into a beast or—”

“Okay. I got it.” I held up my hands to stop his explanation. Some things I just didn’t need or want to know about Shelly. That clearly was one of them. I read some of the comments as MeShack’s hands went to my thighs.

“Shelly likes to role play,” one frat brother had written in the comment section. “It’s always me as her dad walking in on her masturbating.”

“She’ll do it all!” another brother bragged. “Have fun with her!”

“Queen of the one-eyed monster!”

I wrinkled my face in disgust as I continued to scan all their crude comments. “I hate frat guys.”

MeShack slid his hand up my thighs and squeezed my hips. The warmth transformed into an intense heat, enveloping my insides and spreading out across my skin.

“Will I have to burn you?” I tried to control my voice as I shoved his hands away.

“I haven’t been this close to you in weeks.” MeShack nudged my cheeks with his lips and purred. “You may have to set me on fire.”

His chest vibrated against my back, stirring up even more arousal inside me, along with memories of how we used to be. “Will you let me give you a few licks between your thighs? I promise I’ll be good and won’t take it further than that.”

Squeezing my thighs together, I cleared my throat and pushed him back with my elbow. “Did you have sex with Shelly?”

The purring stopped. “You really know how to kill the mood.”

“There was no mood.” I glanced back at the chart. “Did you have sex with her, and can you tell me anything that might be important?”

“We attempted to have sex once,” he snarled. “She did a lot of drugs. It was dull. She just laid there like a corpse, asking me to call her sweetie or honey, I think. I ended up stopping.”

“And?” I raised my eyebrows. That didn’t sound like a MeShack kind of evening.

“That’s it,” he said, but I could hear his teeth grind against each other.

He’s lying.
“You are so full of shit. What else happened?” I asked. He blew out a long breath, filling the air with the scent of those honey lollipops he loved to suck on.

“She started crying and apologizing to me. She told me she would do better,” he mumbled. “It took me an hour to calm her down. By the end of the night, I ended up holding her and singing songs until she fell asleep in my arms.”

I waited to hear his teeth grind, but nothing came.

“Well that’s sweet.” I smiled. “You consoled her when she felt bad. I don’t see that in the comment section on this chart. Do you have a pen so I can write it down for you?”

He squeezed my shoulder. “That’s not funny.”

The ladder creaked as I shook with laughter. I browsed more disgusting comments and made a note to spend the rest of my life keeping Cassie and other impressionable young females away from the Kappa brothers.

“So you never slept with her again?” I asked MeShack.

His fingers crept up to the bottom of my shirt and lifted it up an inch or two. “Nope.”

“Did you see her again?”

“I called the ambulance to get her last spring. She overdosed in the kitchen.”

I twisted to face him, slapping his hands away. “You could’ve said that first.”

He hissed and put his hands back to my waist. “Shelly overdosed a lot. Her whole little catty crew does drugs. I figured you already knew she was a drug addict. Everyone knew that.”

“Well I didn’t, but thanks.” I stared at him for a second longer than I should have. He licked those soft lips. His purr returned, and he looked satisfied with himself, a beast that had cornered his prey.

“Okay. I have enough info on her,” I said over his continuous purring, pretending like I didn’t hear it. “Move. I’m ready to get down.”

“Look at me for a minute, please.”

I twisted a little to face him. He pressed his full lips against mine. Their pillow softness felt so good I had to force myself to send a rush of fire at him. The flames seared his bare chest. He did a back flip off the ladder to escape, snarling. His feet hit the ground. New skin grew over his burnt wounds within seconds.

“What’s your problem, La La? Zulu isn’t even here.” He spat the words out between clenched teeth and fangs.

“I’m not going to fool around with you just because Zulu can’t see it.” I climbed down, avoiding the layers of muscle that wrapped so deliciously around his waist. “Zulu doesn’t deserve to be disrespected or hurt.”

“Like I did to you?”

“I wasn’t saying it that way.” I edged closer to the door, snatching up his jacket and throwing it at him. “And put on your freaking jacket!”

We’d begun dating our junior year of high school, right when MeShack had started his Season. He’d lasted for four years, completely devoted to us. Then his band Mahogany Groove became popular in Shango District. Women would show up at our apartment with nothing but the band’s T-shirt on. Other women shoved me out of the way after his concerts and boldly flirted with him. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he finally cheated on me. I caught him in a nightclub bathroom having sex with two groupies. I’d set them all on fire, and regretted it every single day since.

Shaking that horrific night away from my mind, I rushed through the wine cellar and headed to the main basement, hoping to find Cassie unmolested and sober. MeShack grumbled a few steps behind me, just like Ben did once in a store when I refused to steal a Captain Habitat toy he wanted.

“It was just a kiss,” MeShack whined.

“And what about your whole tongue proposition?” I glanced over my shoulder.

“It would have just been some licking.” He showed me a wicked grin. “Just enough to get my tongue wet with you.”

“You’re disgusting.” My fingers shook a little as I bit my lip. “What happened to I deserve to be loved while you’re in your Season?”

“It means I won’t kill Zulu,” MeShack explained. “But it doesn’t mean I’m going to stay away from you.”

There’s no point talking to him.
Changing the subject, I asked, “Can you tell me anything else about Shelly besides her being a drug addict and having emotional issues?”

I opened the cellar door to the basement. “Her police file says she couldn’t breed, so her family arranged a marriage with a Witch. Do you know anything about that?”

“Just the regular gossip.” He seized the back of my jeans and pulled me back into the cellar as I turned around to face him.

“People said she had no trouble breeding, but her drug problem made her undesirable to prominent Shifters.” MeShack yanked the door shut behind me. “Shelly’s parents just couldn’t find anyone who wanted to mate with her, so they found a wealthy Witch family. It’s all hearsay though.”

“Anything else?”

He moved toward me until there was only an inch of space between us. “I want a kiss.”

“Kiss me, and it’ll be a hot one.”

“I know.” His scrumptious lips curled up at the edges.

My nipples stiffened, hoping to get his attention.
One day, he won’t have this effect on me.

“I’m serious. I’m absolutely in no way going to cheat on Zulu.” I passed his cowboy hat back to him. “So you have fun tonight with lots of lucky ladies and use the spelled condoms I stole for you.”

“Zulu’s on borrowed time, La La,” MeShack said as I quickly opened the door. “You’ll be my mate in two or three years.”

I decided not to reply. MeShack had called me his mate ever since we were nine.

Just a kid, he’d bit me behind my neck while we watched cartoons and marked me like adult Shifters did when making their petitions for matehood. Naturally, I’d thought it was just a fun little game, but as we grew up, he stubbornly continued with the same assertion. The mark was still there. A faint scar, but you could see it. And whenever he touched it, my body instantly burst with desire.

But who’s to say if a nine-year-old’s mate claim even mattered.
When Shifters ended their Seasons, their beasts took years to search for their mates. MeShack could end his Season in a couple of years and have no interest in claiming me. Only his cheetah would really know who his mate was, and it was all up to his beast, not MeShack.

Cassie’s laughter soared as I edged around the corner and increased my pace. She stood in the center of a circle as Scruffs marched around her. Five jade-and-brown cowboy hats were stacked on top of her head. Several hatless fraternity brothers hooted and hollered by the desk, cheering the Scruffs on.
I should have never left her alone.
Heat charged every molecule living within me. I raised my hands ready to deliver a fire storm that would singe every last hair off their scruffy little bodies.

“Wait.” MeShack grabbed both my hands, clamped them together, and laughed. “Don’t call your fire just yet. If they stacked the hats on top of each other, then it’s just for fun.”

“It better be,” I said through clenched teeth. “She’s underage and innocent.”

“She’s cute, but any Shifter can smell that she’s just starting her Season. It’s pretty obvious that she’s young.”

I waved my hands. “I don’t want you smelling her, and she’s not cute. That’s Zulu’s sister.”

“Interesting.” He nodded his head.

I heated my hand and slapped his arm. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What am I, a degenerate?” Wrinkles formed around MeShack’s crescent moon brand.

“Actually, you are.” I stuck my tongue out at him.

He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “The fun’s over Scruffs. Give the hats back to your big brothers. My guests are leaving.”

Some of the frat brothers groaned as the Scruffs conducted their duties and returned the hats in a blur of motion.

“Thank you,” I said in a low voice. “And due to last night’s behavior we will need to do some apartment hunting. We have a week.”

“Blondie is kicking me out, and you’re coming along?”

“Of course, I’m coming.” I raised my eyebrows. “Wait? You don’t want me to come with you?”

The earlier smile dropped from MeShack’s face. A rumble emitted from his chest. The Scruffs halted their activity and froze. A couple of the frat brothers moseyed up the stairs.

“You’re my mate,” MeShack growled. “Of course, you’re coming with me. I just figured I would need to argue that point and drag you along.”

I blew out a long breath of annoyance. “I was thinking more realistically, like the fact that we’re both in charge of Ben and should stay together for him. Give him a normal family household.”

“That too.” His eyes shifted to feline.

“Alrighty, King Cheetah. I have to go.” I stepped around him, darting out of his reach as he tried to grab me. “I’ll see you later.”

“Scruffs!” MeShack yelled. In a flash, they lined up in front of him. Cassie strolled over to me, swaying her hips and snapping her fingers. Her long blond hair swung with the movement.
Zulu is going to kill me for bringing her here.

“I can’t wait to call everybody and tell them everything I did today,” Cassie confessed with a squeal of laughter.

“Well, you can’t say everything. Don’t tell anybody about the case, and do not tell your brother about the frat house visit,” I mumbled. “Let’s go.”

I waved goodbye to MeShack and guided Cassie around the line of Scruffs.

“Show my mate and her friend to the door,” MeShack ordered.

“No.” I waved my hands from side to side as they rushed to me. “I am not his mate! And I do not want to be shown to the door!”

Cassie’s face turned beet red as several Scruffs lifted us both up on their shoulders. Some of the Scruffs barked. One growled. Another yipped.
Does he have to do this in front of Zulu’s sister?

I scowled at MeShack. “Tell them to stop!”

“She is King Cheetah’s mate,” they sang in unison, lifting me up.

“No! No!” I wagged my hands around as two of them carried me upstairs.

“Clear the way for King Cheetah’s property,” they crooned.