Promising Peter (Bad Boy Alphas) (Shrew & Company Book 6) (17 page)

“You’re inviting an alpha Bear into your den and letting him take it over.”

“And me. If you want me.”

“If?” He scoffed. “
If
has never entered the equation.”

Drea didn’t know what other words she could give Peter—how to explicitly say, “Yes, I want this. I want
you
,” because she’d already done that. Several times. She couldn’t be clearer.

He seemed to be waiting for her to confess her fear of him and to shout and scream—to send him away. She’d never been afraid of him, so she couldn’t act the way he was expecting.

She set the television remote and her phone on the nightstand and slipped off the side of the bed.

Settling onto her knees, she pulled her gaze up to meet his curious one. His expression was full of “What are you doing?” and she was going to make that clear in the only way she could think of.

She lifted the hems of his jeans and tugged free the knots in his bootlaces. She loosened the ties, pulled the tongues, and pressed her hands to the toes. She looked up at him, hoping he could read the silent request.

Step out
.

For a while—maybe a minute—he just stared at her, grinding his teeth and clenching his fists at his sides.

But then he moved. First one foot to heel off the opposite boot, and then the other.

She pushed the boots beneath the window and rolled down his socks next. He picked up each foot and let her remove the garments.

She remained on her knees, watching him watch her.

Tell me what to do, Peter.

“Come here.” He pulled her to standing, only to pick her up and set her on the edge of the bed. “If we do this,” he said, pale eyes narrowed. “You won’t be able to get rid of me. You understand that?”

“Why do you think I want to?”

“I’m not a good man.”

“That’s your opinion. And you may think you’re not, but obviously at least two entities in this universe think you’re the
right
man for me.”

“I know of one. Who’s the other?”

“Me. Is that not enough?”

“It should be.” He let out a breath and dragged his lips down her neck. She laid her head to the side to increase his access—to show her consent.

“Are you holding out for someone else? Do you think the goddess makes mistakes when she puts Bears together?”

“No.” He nudged her collar aside and kissed the skin he exposed.

“Then what?”

“I’m afraid, Andrea. I’m afraid that in the end, I won’t get to have you. That everyone will realize that us being together is wrong and do everything they can to undo us.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because this makes
sense
to me. Logic says that I would be yours to keep if you wanted me.”

“Explain your reasoning to me again so I understand, then. Guns and knives are my forte, not logic. Remember what my mother said about common sense?”

“Stop.” Drea pressed her hands tentatively to his chest and when he didn’t flinch or otherwise move, she slipped them upward to his shoulders. She squeezed them, pulled him close enough to her that she could feel his quick breaths tickling her forehead and cheeks. “I think you understand perfectly well. You’re afraid that because I got so used to being terrorized by men who were supposed to take care of the clan that I would want to avoid every dominant male around me. That’s not the case. I know how to compartmentalize—how to sort what’s good from what’s bad and put everything in the correct box. You’ve never tried to hurt me. Why would I push you away?”

“I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“And I know you won’t. Your inner bear wants to mate, and you know down to your cells that I won’t let you if you treat me badly.”

“But that’s not the only concern, Andrea. We could mate and not be together. We could be bound in that way and not in others.”

“And is that what you want? What…you’ve been holding back? That you only want me for that?”

“No!” Growling, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head hard. “I just told you that I don’t want to
go
. I want something permanent, and I don’t want some teasing, temporary thing. Me putting my cock into you wouldn’t just be about satiation and my inner beast’s need to claim his mate and ward all others off. If I mark you as mine, you’re mine forever.”

“You won’t change your mind. That’s what you’re saying.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. The Bears where I’m from—we don’t change our minds. You’re going to be stuck with me. A man who has killed for profit, and once or twice, just for fun.”

“You killed people who deserved it.”

He scoffed. “I like to think that’s the case, but not second-guessing myself after the fact is impossible.”

“You killed people who hurt people.”

“People who
enjoyed
hurting people.”

“People like Gene.”

He nodded slowly. “And I wanted to kill him. When I hit him with that tranq, I wished I’d used a real bullet instead. That’s the kind of man I am.”

She nodded, too. She understood him—truly did—but still wasn’t so certain she should be appalled by him. Maybe one day he’d think that her enabling made her just as deviant as him.

“I couldn’t even open my mouth to call him out on all the crap he put me through,” she said. “I was standing right in front of him, and he couldn’t hurt me from behind those bars except with words, and I couldn’t say anything. All those years of hurt and pain—of me wishing he was dead or that
I
was dead so the terror would stop. I wished I could tell him that I wanted to do to him the things he did to me just to see how he’d handle the words. So I could call him terrible names when he flinched and cowered.” A choked laugh fell from her mouth. There was nothing funny about the situation, but her body didn’t know how else to process the feeling of overwhelm.

“But I walked away,” she said. “I walked away wishing I could kill him and knowing that no matter what he did to me, I probably never would because I don’t have the right drive. So, what does that say about me? Do you still want me, knowing what a liability I am?”

“Yes.”

No hesitation. Just
yes
.

If he’s sure, how come I’m not allowed to be?

“Why?” she whispered.

“Because I’ll take care of you.”

She nodded. “You’re certain of that, right? You don’t second-guess what you want.”

“Not at all. Being with you makes sense to me, and I’m not going to turn my back on something I know is right.”

“So trust that I feel the same way. You can trust me with that, can’t you?”

“I want to.”

“Just try. Start with trying.” She took his hands and gently set them against her upper chest, looking up at him beseechingly, hoping he understood. “Let’s do this. No more waiting.”

He slid his hands down to the bottom of her shirt and slowly peeled it over her head as if giving her one more chance to back out.

She had no intention of changing her mind.

“Okay,” he said. “We’ll try.”

She lay back and let him undress her, tilting her hips upward when his fingers hooked into her waistband. He removed her pants and panties in one tug, and stood at the bedside, grinding his teeth, his breath heavy and ragged.

He lifted his own shirt hem, and yanked the garment off in one quick pull, exposing the tempting trail of hair between his navel and waistband. The hard-earned muscles. The trim waist.

She was desperate to touch him, but more than that, she wanted to
be
touched, so she waited.

She watched him undo his belt and unfasten his jeans. Watched him step out of his pants and stalk toward her, nude and tempting. Watched him climb onto the bed and part her legs.

“Yes?” he whispered.

“
Please
.”

He skimmed light, calloused, fingertips down her cleft and fixed his intense green gaze on her. She didn’t dare look away. After all the time she’d spent waiting, she wouldn’t dare look away.

He made light circles around her clit—not really touching as much as teasing the aroused flesh, making her back arch and sex clench wantonly.

When he slid a finger into her, she drew in a ragged breath. Her eyes rolled back into her head.

Finally some relief
.

But she needed more.

Fingers still probing, thumb pressing against her tight bud, he leaned in and passed his lips over her closed ones. “Open up for me. Here…” He dragged his tongue across the seam. “And here.” He slipped another finger inside her, and her mouth did open with a gasp.

His tongue and fingers worked in synchronicity, claiming and withdrawing, tantalizing, and frustrating. Making her consider begging, and she’d always been the sort of women who’d wait patiently and receive her due.

He’d take care of her if she waited. She had to make herself believe that.

One more finger, and she stopped breathing, although his tongue didn’t stop its quest of her mouth and his fingers never stilled.

With his free hand he lifted one of her legs around his waist, and then the other, and he pulled back from the kiss, his hands on her upper thighs, his seeking gaze locked on hers.

“Okay?”

She nodded.
Please
.

For once, he didn’t hesitate. He pressed his thick cock against her entrance and then into her. Mouth open and body frozen with what seemed to be some combination of pleasure and inundation, he paused there, half in and half out of her. “Gods, Andrea. You feel perfect.”

“I hope so.”
Because you’re stuck with me.

He rocked into her, pushing himself in as far as he could go, his eyes shuttered and breathing halted.

“Trying to make this good for you.” He worked his hips sideways, stretching her a bit, making more room for himself.

“It’s already good.”

“Not going to last. Not possible. Been waiting for you too long.” He withdrew almost all the way and pushed himself back in.

The going was easier, and sensations more intense. Her breasts felt full and heavy as his big body pressed onto hers, her nipples tingling targets that sent delicious electric jolts down to her sex with every hint of friction.

He didn’t wait for her to catch up. He pistoned his hips and pushed his thick length deep into her again and again, filling her up and making her entire body thrum with need.

She closed her eyes and diverted all of her thoughts and energies to his pleasure, his comfort. She clenched around him tightly and kneaded the strong muscles of his back, squeezed his waist between her thighs and urged him on home.

The tight coil in her core unfurled, opening another doorway to pleasure that provided little quakes of ecstasy with each bump past her innermost erogenous zone. The pressure—the tightness—built so quickly, muddling her brain, and she didn’t know what to do except to take it. Take
him
—every thrust, every nip of her swollen lips, every gouging of his fingertips into her backside as he pulled her against him.

“Fuck, Andrea. Fuck. So good. I need you. I—”

His body went tight as a stretched rubbed band and so still. “
Fuck
.”

His cock pulsed inside her, thrumming against her sensitive G-spot, and out of nowhere her orgasm came. It wasn’t bombastic or urgent. The release was gentle—a whispered suggestion for her body to bloom that radiated up from her sex up to her heart and cheeks. Her lungs and throat tightened, and her vision went spotty. Her orgasm made a low moan sing in her chest. It made her arms and legs limp and lips curl upward.

And he was so warm inside her, and she was so slick.

His seed
.

He laced his fingers through the back of her short hair and raised her head, bringing her face to his, her
lips
to his.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against them.

“For what?”

“You deserve better.
More
. Next time I’ll do better. I can’t even think straight right now. So…
needy
.”

He kissed her again, and she tightened her arms around his torso.

“I didn’t complain.”

“That’s not saying much. You never complain about anything.”

She opened her mouth to rebut, but he’d told the truth. During Gene’s tenure, she’d gotten so used to having her complaints go ignored that she’d stopped making them. But Gene was in a cage where he belonged, and Drea spent her days in the company of people who actually gave a damn how she felt and about what she wanted.

“I’ll get better at complaining,” she whispered.

“Do you promise? I can’t take care of you if you don’t tell me how to.” He slipped out of her carefully and rolled onto his back, taking her along with him.

“I think you know what to do. You don’t need me to tell you.”

“Promise me anyway.”

“Why is a promise so important?”

“It just is. I need to hear you tell me, because I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be with a woman like you, and I’m going to fuck up. You need to promise me that you’ll give me a chance.”

“I’ve been trying to give you exactly that since you snatched me. I haven’t changed my mind.”

“Say it.
Please
.”

“Okay.” She passed the pads of her thumbs across his eyebrows and laid gentle kisses on his temples. “I promise. I’ll help you, and you’ll help me.”

“Good.” He nestled her face against the side of his neck and pulled the covers up over them. “You’ll never get me out of this bed. Not even for pizza.”

“Maybe I’m biased, but that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.”

The following Monday, Doc shut off the penlight she’d been shining into Drea’s eyes and then put the device into her medical bag.

“All done?” Drea blinked several times, trying to get her pupils to readjust to the office’s light.

“For now. I do need to get blood from you sooner than later. I can draw some now if you’re willing. I’d like to test to see if your hormone levels have changed since the last time I drew.”

“And if they’ll change again now that the bear is gone.”

“Exactly.”

“How much blood?”

“Oh, a single vial, I think.”

Drea checked the veins on the backs of her hands. “I may be hydrated enough for that.”

Doc pushed up an eyebrow, and turned to root through her bag. “Got drunk last night? I didn’t think you were much of a drinker.”

“Aside from the occasional finger of Southern Comfort, no, I’m not much of a drinker.”

“Then what were you up to over the weekend?”

Drea held out her hand and let Doc swipe an alcohol pad over the back. “Um. Just…you know. I got busy.”

So
busy.

She’d hardly left the bed. Neither had Peter. They’d stayed there for two days with limbs entwined and with nowhere in particular they needed to be.

Bliss
.

She
did
have to go to make a trip to the grocery store after work a priority, though. The takeout thing was getting old, and since Peter had left the apartment, anyway, she didn’t need to rush back. He’d needed to go check on Soren, he’d said. He didn’t like when his brother was too quiet. Apparently, that meant Soren was up to something. Drea suspected it was a “mate” kind of something, in which case there was nothing Peter could do for him. The Bear was going to get what he wanted, even if the
what
was a
who
, and the
who
was playing hard-to-get.

“Well, be sure you make up for the loss of fluid today,” Doc said neutrally. Doc wasn’t one to cast judgments, though Drea imagined the lady had very strong opinions about some of the things the Shrews did to themselves.

Doc peeled back the paper from the collection needle and had Drea put her hand flat on the desk. “Am I going to need to take another one of these in two weeks, or should I just have you pee in a cup?” Doc asked.

Drea needed a moment for the implication to settle into her brain, and when it did, her entire body heated. She swallowed hard. “What makes you think that’ll be an issue?”

“I’d be surprised if it isn’t. You’re the only woman in this menagerie who doesn’t have unusual fertility considerations. Being a Bear in season, you should be
more
fertile than the typical Jane Doe on the street.”

“Oh.”

“Would you be bothered if you were? Pregnant, I mean.”

“No. Not at all. It’s just…I put in a call to get off the waiting list for the two-bedroom apartment across the hall. I didn’t think about…you know.”
The results of that much unprotected sex.
Granted, she hadn’t been thinking about much
besides
sex, and she didn’t think anyone could blame her. Her man was addictive—every delicious part of him.

Doc winked. “Maybe you should tell your apartment complex’s office manager you changed your mind.”

“I’ll do that. I guess Peter needs somewhere to put all his guns, anyway. The place is going to get crowded fast.”

“If push comes to shove, you could find a unit elsewhere in the development.”

“But then I’d have to get a truck to move things, and I’d have to carry my sofa and bed and dresser down two flights of stairs, and…
ugh.
” Drea put her head on her desk. “Moving across the breezeway would be so much easier.”

“Have you forgotten already that your mate is a Bear with super-strength?” Maria called from her office. “Between him, Soren, and Bryan, you could probably get all your stuff moved anywhere in a couple of hours.”

“I’d forgotten about that.” Drea picked up her head. “I guess just that quickly, I’d let myself believe I was just a normal girl.”

“You
are
a normal girl.” Maria sat on the front edge of Drea’s desk and watched Doc pack her bag. “As normal as any of us are ever going to be, and I envy you for it.”

“You do?”

Maria nodded and grabbed a Hershey’s Kiss out of the candy dish beside Drea’s computer monitor. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love my job, and I love being a Shrew, but I still have some down days when I wish that everything were straightforward and easy. I have a lot fewer down days now than I used to, but…” She shrugged. “The old frustrations linger.”

“You’re still adapting,” Doc said. “You and the other girls went through some major trauma. Don’t discount that. Don’t feel like you need to be any particular way right now. Years from now, you’ll look back and marvel at just how well you coped in spite of everything.”

“That’s what Eric says.”

Doc’s smile was soft. “I suspect your innkeeper is right more often than you’d care to admit.”

“To him, anyway.”

Doc slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder and glanced down at her delicate gold watch.

“In a hurry?” Drea asked. “You could have lunch with us for a change. Maria and I are the only ones here all day. Most everyone else is in the mountains doing cleanup right now.”

A red flush crept up Doc’s cheeks. She shifted her weight on her sensible pumps and tucked her glossy red hair behind her ears. “I…uh…might have a schedule conflict.”

Maria snorted. “Don’t try to obfuscate in front of an empath. Someone’s got you hot and bothered, and we all know the cause is no one in this room. Would your appointment happen to have the last name ‘Castillo’?”

Doc cleared her throat and straightened the tie at the neck of her blouse. “My relationship with Felipe is strictly professional. Medical curiosity, just like with the rest of you.”

“Uh-huh.” Maria’s nod was slow and obviously sardonic. “Medical curiosity. You know, being attracted to the guy is
okay
. He’s single. You’re single. He’s not hiding the fact he’s interested, so just
go
for it.”

Doc cleared her throat and fiddled with the strap of her bag. “You don’t think us seeing each other would be…
unethical
?”

“Why would it be?” Drea asked. “He’s not formally your patient, is he? And you’re not trying to publish a research paper about him or anything.”

“What would people think?”

Maria grunted. “Probably that it’s nice that you both have someone.”

“Because I’m getting so long in the tooth, right?”

Doc was somewhere on the other side of forty and had never been married and, as far as Drea had been able to discern, she hadn’t wanted to be. She was a busy woman. The Shrews had actually started a betting pool over the winter guessing when she would succumb to the senior Felipe Castillo. Being married to his sons, Sarah and Astrid had the inside edge as they had better knowledge of his plans, but Maria was always the best and judging moods and intentions. She’d probably win. She always won.

Maria shook her head. “There’s more to life than working, Doc. All you do is work. When you’re not poking and prodding one of us Shrews, you’re up to your eyebrows with medical issues in the shifter groups. No one would judge you for having a life outside of science.”

Doc narrowed her eyes slightly and made a “
hmm
” sound.

“Would it help to have a chaperone for your little appointment?”

“Perhaps,” Doc demurred.

Maria looked at Drea. “You can grab lunch at the same time. I’ll stay and cover the phones. I’m waiting on a call from Eric, anyway. He was supposed to be heading east, and told me to stay put.”

Drea grabbed her purse and pushed back from the desk. “Well, let’s go. What are we in the mood for?” She followed Doc through the office door and waited for the lock to snick.

“Spanish cuisine, actually,” Doc said. “Felipe picked the place. He claims the cook’s pretty good, and I imagine he’d know what’s authentic better than most folks.”

“I didn’t know we had a Spanish place in Durham.”

“The restaurant is six weeks old. Tiny place. You’d miss it if you happen to blink when passing by. I’ll drive.”

“Thanks. My car is in a municipal lot. Pain in the rear to get out this time of day. The attendant always goes on break at about this time.”

They stepped to the curb, with Drea looking down to admire the gray-blue leather of Doc’s high heels, only to whip her head back up when tires squealed and a big black SUV slammed on brakes in front of them.

The right passenger door swung open, and from somewhere inside, came a man’s voice. “Just take them both.”

Drea’s fight-or-flight instinct had always been slow for a Bear, but for once, she had the wherewithal to
run
.

At the appearance of a stocky bruiser in the doorway, Drea grabbed Doc’s arm to flee, but before she could move them, she was grabbed by the back of her shirt and then pushed toward the open door.

“Get in,” the unfamiliar male snapped behind her.

She hesitated, still holding onto Doc’s arm, thinking,
if we scream, Maria might come.

The bruiser pointed a gun right at Doc. “If I shoot, she ain’t gonna bounce back so easy, so get in the fucking truck
now
.”

“What is this about?” Doc asked, putting up her hands.

“When you need to know, someone’ll tell ya, I’m sure.”

The guy behind Drea gave her another push.

She wrenched away from his grip, keeping her gaze locked on the barrel of the gun. “I’m moving. You don’t need to be rough. We’re not going to fight back, and I think you know that.”

Drea couldn’t fight her way out of a paper bag, and Doc might have had some martial arts training, they were still probably extremely outnumbered.

As Drea climbed into the SUV, she counted bodies to confirm.

One bruiser behind the wheel, a guy in a well-fitted suit riding shotgun, and another burly menace squeezed into a third-row seat.

She slid in close to the far door with Doc following right after and clutched her purse tightly against her chest.

My purse
…

She’d been kidnapped enough times in her life that she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold onto her bag for very long. Someone would take her purse, go through it, and confiscate her phones.

But they probably wouldn’t take her watch—not if they didn’t know what it was.

She turned the face to the underside of her wrist and looked up.

The guy in the suit was pointing a gun back at them, too. “This certainly complicates things,” he muttered.

“What do you want?” Doc shifted her medical bag atop her lap.

One of the bruisers in the third row reached over and grabbed the bag and Drea’s purse, too.

Knew it
.

Drea stuffed her hands wrist-deep into the pockets of her cardigan and forced down a swallow.

The driver got the SUV moving.

The guy in the suit pointed the gun from Doc to Drea and then back to Doc. “Been following you for three days, lady. Tried to get you on your own, but you always seem to have an entourage.”

Doc ground her teeth, saying nothing.

“You do what we say, and nobody gets hurt. That’s how this is going to go, okay?”

“I repeat, what do you want?”

“Your research. We know you have some. You’ve been cavorting with Dana Slade and her peers since the research study was dismantled. You know them better than anyone, and you’re going to hand over that data you’ve compiled on them.”

“The
SHREW
study?” Doc scoffed. “The hell I am. And the woman you’re referencing goes by Slade-O’Dwyer now.”

“Oh, but you are. I’ve got too damn much invested in this scheme for all my effort to go swirling down the drain now. That formula was ten years in the making, and with a few tweaks, I could take it to market.”

“You mean the same formula that you tested on dozens of women without their consent? The same formula that killed something like ninety percent of your participants?”

“So we’re on the same page,” the guy said.

The drug company. Shit.
Drea suppressed a groan.

She bet that if she were to look at the back bumper of the SUV, she’d find a decal matching the picture Dustin had drawn for her. The timing was too damned unfortunate.

We finally caught Gene, and now this? Can’t catch a freakin’ break.

“What is your goal here?” Doc asked.

The guy in the suit shrugged. “Simple. Everything always comes down to money, right? My company has been trying to formulate a drug to create genetically enhanced superhumans for twenty years. We’ve been studying shifters.” He pushed up an eyebrow, as if daring her to gasp or express shock in some other way.

Doc remained stone-faced.

If that guy thought he was going to get any information out of her, he was sorely mistaken. Like Drea, Doc may not have been much of an aggressor in a fight, but she was pretty good at putting two and two together. And she certainly wasn’t going to play her hand and throw Drea under the bus. The guy didn’t seem to know who Drea was, and Drea wanted to keep him ignorant for as long as possible. The fact that people underestimated her might work in her advantage for once.

“But trying to manufacture shifters using our formula didn’t work out the way we’d hoped,” he said, in spite of the fact Doc hadn’t responded.

“Oh, is
that
what you were trying to do with those women?” Doc asked flatly. “Create shifters? Obviously, you don’t understand shifters very well.”

“We understand them just fine. We’ve had our operatives infiltrating groups long enough to know everything that matters.”

Because of her inquiries, Drea had known that, but hearing him confess so cavalierly made the morning’s coffee threaten to come back up her throat.

“We know how shifters are made, and that they
can
be made. But for whatever reason, teeth and fangs are still the only ways to transfer the affliction.”

“And you were trying to find a way to create shifters by injecting test subjects with some drug or giving them pills to swallow?”

“Imagine how much the government would pay for science like that.” The guy wore one of those oily, criminally insane grins Drea had never seen in real life, but had seen on pages and screens numerous times. He was a living, breathing comic book villain.