Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1) (11 page)

“And how will I manage to do that?” Devon stroked her hair back from her face, and then balanced himself on his arms, looking down at her. Love for her branded his soul. So did lust, though how he could still even be capable of fucking was beyond him.

Kate’s eyes twinkled. “Now you’ve shifted a few times, you know the feel of your human shape. Keeping your eyes open helps, too.”

“That part won’t be hard. You’re gorgeous.”

She crinkled her nose. “Bet you say that to all the girls.” Her muscles tightened around him. So did her legs. She rocked her pelvis.

Devon drew back and slowly sank inside her again. “You feel so good,” he murmured. He wanted to go slow, really slow, so she’d come over and over again. After about twenty long, slow strokes, her face contorted in ecstasy, her nipples peaked, and color suffused her face. Her hands gripped his hips and pulled hard. She ground herself against the base of his cock; her pussy clenched again and again.

He couldn’t tear his gaze away. She was the most perfect, the most amazing creature he’d ever seen. Now he knew what to look for, the feline cast to her eyes and cheekbones stood out clearly. It lent her an exotic look. He inhaled the musk of her arousal. Suddenly he didn’t want to wait. His penis jerked deep inside her, taut with need. It wouldn’t take very much to bring him to another climax.

Kate gazed up at him and licked her lips suggestively. She jackknifed out from under him, rolled him onto his back, and knelt above him. Her mouth closed over his cock. One hand cradled his balls, the other pumped his shaft. He buried his hands in her magnificent hair and showed her what he needed. The orgasm spooled deep in his belly. His balls tightened and then he was coming and coming and coming, spasming hard into Kate’s magical mouth. His cock was sensitive almost to the point of pain. It intensified his pleasure beyond anything he’d ever experienced before. Breath caught in his throat. His heart thudded against his ribs.

She moved up his body till she lay next to him and kissed him deeply. He tasted himself on her tongue. It got him going all over again. She reached for his still-hard cock, but he pushed her hand away. “You’re going to be the death of me.” He hugged her. “Besides, I have to go to work. It must be at least seven. Light’s filtering in through the drapes.”

She kissed him tenderly, then extricated herself and sat cross-legged on the bed looking at him. “Remember what I said about dancing on both sides of the street?”

He nodded somberly. “Yeah.” His brows drew together. “Your people had something to do with last night’s robbery, didn’t they? You must have told them about the effect the drug had on me.”

Kate dropped her gaze. He took one of her hands and stroked it. “I’m in love with you, Kate. Maybe it’s the
mated one
thing, but I’ve never felt this strongly before about anyone or anything. You have nothing to fear from me. I’d die before I’d hurt you. Or before I’d let anyone else harm you.”

She shook her head, not looking at him. “You’re still a cop. You’ve been one long enough that’s where your first allegiance is.”

He started to say
no
, then realized it would take time for him to walk away from a fifteen year career. “I really do plan to quit the force.” He laughed bitterly. “Not that I have much choice, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. Came close after Mom died. Probably would have, but I didn’t know what else to do. Still don’t.” He gazed at her intently. “Would you really want me if I’m destitute and have no visible means of support?”

“Yes. Except you won’t be. You can work for our side. Bet you have a great transferrable skill set.”

He chuckled. “That was the right answer. Will you still feel that way after we’ve made love a thousand times and you’re tired of me?”

“I’ll never get tired of you.” She smiled and winked. “Was that a promise? About a thousand times?”

Devon laughed, wrapped a hand around his cock, and waggled it at her. “If you don’t wear him out before then.” He let go of himself and slapped his thigh with a hand. “I just had an idea. You obviously have some sort of shifter connections. Tell them one of the other officers on the Tracker task force approached me after the riot. He asked if I’d experienced anything unusual since the infusions.”

Kate furled her brows. “Interesting. What did you tell him?”

“Nothing. But it’s obvious he’s either shifted, or is moving in that direction. There are fifty of us. All the names and birthdates are in a database at the station. If I hack into it and get the list, do you suppose you could find out how many of us had shifter blood to start with?”

She nodded. “Sure. I can do that. Probably within a few hours.”

Devon whistled. “You guys are pretty organized.”

She snorted. “Only reason we’re still alive. Where’d you learn to be a hacker?”

He grinned wryly. “Police academy. They taught me so I could trip up the bad guys. Once I’m in the personnel system, I’ll bring the list up on my wrist computer. You can print it. Best not run it through your computer unless you have a secured network.”

“I have a secure feed.”

“Why am I not surprised? Even better.”

“You’ve got some sort of plan.” She bit her lower lip; worry hooded her eyes. “What is it?”

His jaw tightened. “I can do more damage with sabotage from the inside than a direct attack to the outer ranks would accomplish. All successful insurrections have inside people gumming up the works.”

He got up and grabbed his wrist computer. His fingers flew over the display. “I can’t believe how easy that was.” He grinned at her. “The cop shop should have put me in the IT department. There. Just sent the list to your printer. I assume it’s the one labeled Kate’s Wireless.”

She nodded. Her eyes narrowed. “This whole undercover thing sounds dangerous. You’d be safer joining us directly—”

“Not yet. Let me take advantage of what I have. Right now I’m still a trusted member of the force. I’ll pay Tanaka a visit before the day’s out.”

“Who?”

“The officer who approached me. If I can organize a few of us, we could probably take the whole force down—at least for long enough so your people can spring whoever’s left in prison. When would be a good time to see you tonight? I can get those names from you then. I’m anticipating there’re at least ten of us with new, um, abilities. Maybe more.”

“I think you should talk with Max.”

“Who’s that?”

“The head of the shifter underground in California.”

Devon considered it. Coordinated approaches were usually best. “Let me see how many men I can interest in what I have in mind.”

“Are you going to tell me what that is?”

He shook his head. “Safer for you if you don’t know any details. It’s kind of like all those questions rattling around in my head about your organization. Probably safer for both of us if I don’t know too much about it yet. What time tonight?”

“How about eight or nine?”

He thought about what Kate had online for the day. Jealousy shot a dart into his tired brain. “Do you have clients?”

She bent to kiss him. “Not sure. If I do, I’ll be cancelling them. I’m in love with you, too. My head’s spinning with it. It’s like a part of my soul that was always empty is full and it feels so damned good I want to screech it to the skies.”

“You said that way better than I could have.” He bent his head and brushed his lips against hers. “I felt drawn to you from the moment I saw you. I didn’t understand why, but you were all I could think about.” He cocked his head to one side. “All I wanted to think about.”

Kate nodded knowingly. “The mate bond is why it happened so quickly. And why the feelings are so strong. The cat part of me is head over heels. Usually, she’s the wise one. My human side overthinks things. There’s a lot you don’t know about being a shifter. One of them is once we find our mated one, it’s forever and we don’t share.”

He grinned at her. “Does that mean you’ll trust me with where your house is? Not that I don’t like it here,” he waved an arm expansively, “but I’m hoping for dinner and some cuddling.”

She took a breath and blew it out. It was apparent trust didn’t come easy, even after what had passed between them. Her forehead creased into worried lines. “Make certain you’re not followed—”

“I’ll use the bus system since they can track where my cruiser is. And I’ll leave all the electronics at my house except the wrist computer we’ve been texting on, which isn’t traceable.” Emotion swelled within him, thickening his throat. “Kate, I would lay down my life before I let anything happen to you.”

Her eyes welled. She came into his arms and clung to him. “Okay. I’m in the hills. Take the last left after…”

Chapter 9

Kate closed the back door behind Devon and activated the lock once she heard the lower door shut. Worry made her nearly ill. She felt warm and vaguely nauseous. She’d had to bite her tongue to keep from begging him not to report for duty. It just seemed too risky. She walked into the bedroom and culled through her bag for her wrist computer. A few taps brought up her calendar. Only one client today. She hadn’t been certain when Devon asked.

Is it too early to call him?
She hustled to the computer in her front office and brought up the client’s personal data. Great; he preferred to be texted. That made it easy. Her fingers hesitated over the keys. If she made a blanket announcement she was closing her practice, it would be sure to arouse suspicion. Nope, probably better to say she’d caught some sort of bug and would call when she felt better.

Once she’d cleared the rest of her week of clients via a combination of texting and voice mails, Kate printed Devon’s list and tapped into the scrambled frequency for the underground. Max shimmered into life on her screen. “Up early, aren’t you, Miss Roman?”

“Not really. But I am at my office early. Mostly because I spent the night here. There are some things you need to know. And something I need, too…” She launched into an abbreviated account of Devon’s plans—what little she knew of them—and asked if she could scan and upload the list of names.

Max tugged at an earlobe. His face scrunched into a frown. “Do you know how to get hold of Devon?”

Kate’s face heated. She wished the vid feed weren’t in color.

“Oh ho, so it’s like that, is it? What, he got pretty hot after he shifted?”

She shook her head. “I know better. He’s my mated one. I tried to ignore it, but all the signs fit. For him, too. It’s why I’m so worried. I’ve been alone forever. Now I’ve found him, I don’t want to lose him.”

Max’s joking demeanor fell away. “Did you tell him he should join us?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“He’s got some harebrained scheme to gather all the Tracker task force who’ve morphed into shifters and have them sabotage the police department.”

Max steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them. “That could work—but only on a large scale. It would need to be done here and all across the nation at precisely the same time for maximum effect. I shouldn’t tell you this, Roman, but we’ve had a few hours to analyze the serum. Didn’t take our crew long. They’re all competent PhDs.

“You told me Devon had gotten half a dozen infusions.” He glanced at her for corroboration. When she nodded, he went on. “Turns out one would have done it. Like everything the government gets their paws into, they fucked this one up, too.”

Kate drew back. Her heartbeat sounded loud in her ears. “What does that mean? Will it kill him?”

“No. But it will amp his ability to use our magic to the nth degree. His buddies, too. Turns out even ten percent shifter blood will respond to the drug. We staged raids on every lab in the state once we were sure. We’ve begun gathering those with mixed blood and giving them the serum. By this time next week, our ranks will have swelled by several hundred percent.”

Excitement thrummed through her. “What then?”

“The same thing is happening across the country. Once we have a critical mass, we’ll take on the bastards.” Max’s normally laconic expression turned wolfish as he let his animal side show through. “Your Tracker task force angle is one I hadn’t thought of. I’ll alert my contacts throughout the country. Those elite task force guys are trained death machines. We’ll need to give them a crash course in how to focus their magic.”

Kate fell back against her chair, stunned. “How much of this can I tell Devon?”

“If he’s your mated one, he can read your mind.”

She shook her head. “He doesn’t know how to manipulate his magic yet—”

Max tossed back his head and hooted with laughter. “Well, Miss Roman, maybe you should stay out of bed long enough to teach him.” After a few more wolfish snorts, he added, “On a more serious note, once we find out which of his Tracker group has shifter blood, we’ll gather them to entrain their magic. Caution him not to do anything ahead of time that might give our plans away. No Rambo stunts.”

She thought about Devon’s initial reaction to shifting. “Er, what if some of the Tracker task force don’t want to be shifters?”

Another snort of mirth. “None of them will
want
to be shifters, but they’re grown men. They’ll understand they’re stuck between a rock and a dagger. Besides,” he grinned, showing long incisors, “once they get to know us, they’ll like us. We do tend to grow on people. Nothing quite like tapping into the inner beast, eh? Near immortality has quite the appeal, too. Got to run, Roman. You just gave me more to do. Upload that list. I’ll shoot it back to you once I have answers. Oh, yes. Stop by one of our clinics. We’re giving small amounts of the serum to everyone.”

Kate scanned the list and sent it on its way. She tried to wrap her mind around the implications of what Max had told her. A nationwide uprising; if they were successful, it would be like turning back the clock. Shifters could walk in the daylight again without hiding what they were.

Her stomach rumbled. She hadn’t had much to eat the previous day. Kate looked down at herself and grinned. Still naked. She sniffed. Devon’s scent—spicy and exotic—made her nostrils quiver. She ran a hand down her body, wishing it were his, and then forced herself to get moving.