The Mane Event (23 page)

“Dear God,” Missy snapped. “Would someone give that girl water before she breaks a blood vessel?”

Wow. It
was
humanly possible for six women to argue for two hours straight. Dez had no idea. She didn’t argue that long with people. If she got that upset, she usually ended up hitting them or arresting them. But her sisters and Mace’s were still at it. They’d moved on to other topics, but you would have thought they were arguing over things they could actually control.

Smitty and his Pack showed up just in time for pie and more arguing. Apparently invited by her mother. At that point, things got really interesting when Sissy Mae and her girls joined in. Still, not being the focus of attention for her sisters did make that pecan pie go down real easy.

When she thought the night couldn’t get any more interesting, Sal, Jim, and Vinny showed up. She forgot she invited them over days earlier to get their gifts, but they were also smart enough to apologize and look slightly ashamed. Eventually Bukowski, his wife, and their kids showed up. Apparently still feeling pretty guilty about crashing her and Mace’s party the previous day, he had wine for both of them. She was really proud Mace didn’t comment on the vintage. Although she saw his opinion in his gold eyes.

Suddenly Dez’s house had filled up with a bunch of people and Mace. A week ago, Dez had every intention of working all day and making herself a frozen turkey potpie for dinner. She smiled. She’d never admit it out loud, but this was way better.

From the kitchen, she watched the crazy bitches while she and Mace washed the dishes so her mother didn’t have to. As her sisters squared off with Mace’s, who was in the middle of it? Sissy Mae. No wonder Dez liked her. She was a fellow instigator.

“Wow, Missy. Are you going to let her talk to you like that?” Sissy pushed. “I mean unless you’re scared of her or something…”

“I am not scared of anyone!”

Dez wondered how long she should wait before she stepped in when Mace’s hand slid across hers in the water. He kept doing that. Whenever her mother turned her back, Mace found a way to touch her or outright kiss her. Something so cute and innocent about his actions. Especially since just yesterday the man had fucked her senseless on her dining room table.

“All right you two,” her mother cheerily chastised. “Cut that out.”

Mace pulled away from Dez. He was so adorable around her mother. Always treating her with the utmost respect.

“Sorry, Mrs. MacDermot.”

“Silly boy. I don’t mean that. I mean leave those dishes. Those arguing women can finish. You two go outside and get some air.” Dez’s mother winked at her. “It’s getting too hot in here.”

“Mom!”

Mace didn’t wait for another invitation. He dried off their hands and dragged her past their agitated siblings and out of the house onto the porch. He stepped back inside, grabbed her leather jacket and a plastic bag. He helped her put on the jacket, sat in one of the chairs, and pulled Dez onto his lap.

She watched her three friends talking with Smitty in her driveway. She had a feeling they would be joining forces with Mace and Smitty. Not that she minded. She couldn’t think of anyone she trusted more. Especially if they ever needed to protect Mace.

“I got you a Christmas present.”

Dez’s head snapped around. “Mace, you didn’t—”

“Here.” He cut her off and handed her a wrapped package. “I got you one thing, but I gave it to Sissy Mae. I think you’ll like this more.”

“Thank you.” She kissed him and then pulled the wrapping paper off. Her eyes immediately filled with tears. The man actually listened to her. He
heard
her.

“The
Cops 3-Pack
,” she whispered in awe.

“If I had more time I would have checked to see if they had any other DVDs, but these were the three I found. You don’t already have them, do you?”

“No,” she lied. She’d burn her copies tomorrow. These meant much more. “I didn’t get you anything.”

Missy suddenly burst out the front door and was down the steps when the word
chicken
flew at her from inside the house.

Missy spun around and marched back up the stairs. “That’s it, Old Yeller!
This is between you and me now!
”

Smitty ran into the house after her. Vinny, Sal, and Jim following, probably hoping to catch sight of a little girl-on-girl catfight.
Twisted perverts
.

Mace grinned at her. “Merry Christmas to me.”

Dez laughed as Mace took off her old Guess watch. “Here. Wear this every once in a while, too. You know, like, every day. So you’ll think about me when you’re on duty.”

Like she could ever not think about him. She watched as he put a nice stainless steel watch on her wrist. Big and heavy, definitely designed for a man. But she liked big male watches.

When she finally took a good look, she openly gawked at it, then at Mace. “Mace. This is a Breitling.” Stainless steel her ass. More like titanium. She’d seen enough counterfeits to recognize the real thing.

She did keep forgetting the man was rich.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got others.”
Wildly
rich, apparently.

“But why do you want me to wear it?”

“Because I want everyone at your precinct to know you belong to me.”

Dez shook her head. “I’m surprised you don’t want to tattoo ‘Property of Mace Llewellyn’ across my fuckin’ forehead.”

He looked away from her, clearing his throat, and settling her more firmly on his lap. “Uh…why would I want to do that?”

Before she could say anything beyond “thank you” or “you’ve already thought about doing that, haven’t you,” Mace pulled her close into his chest and held on to her. She relaxed against him and allowed herself to just be. Kind of a new feeling for her. She was usually doing something. Kicking somebody’s ass. Taking somebody’s name. But on this chilly Christmas night, she just wanted to sit with her…what? Boyfriend? Lover? House cat? Well, whatever…she just wanted to sit with her Mace and enjoy her life.

“You cold?”

She snuggled up closer to him. “Not at all. You?”

“Not with your hot little body next to me.”

She’d never heard anyone use the words
hot
and
little
when discussing her body. But, hell, she would accept it for what it was. A Christmas miracle!

She heard her front door open and the nails of her dogs scrambling across the wood of her porch. She winced. She really needed to trim their nails. You shouldn’t be able to hear your dogs coming a mile away because of their toenails.

She glanced back and watched as her father leashed them up. “Watcha doin’, Daddy?”

“Taking these beasts for a walk.” Her father liked her dogs, but he’d never really offered to take them for a walk before.

“Is it getting a little too much for you in there?”

He shrugged. “Something like that.” He tied several plastic bags to one of the leashes. “I won’t be long. As soon as your mother is done clearing up, I’ll get them out of here.” He smiled at Dez. Then glared at Mace. “You take care of her, boy. I’d really hate to have to kill you.”

“
Daddy!”

“Understood, sir.”

“Good.”

The old man walked down the stairs of Dez’s porch, her huge dogs calmly walking beside him. Instinctively knowing not to rush the seventy-year-old man.

“I don’t believe you two.”

Mace stretched like the big cat he was, Dez still on his lap. “It’s a male thing. So I don’t want you to worry your pretty little head about it.”

Dez growled. “I’m not going to argue this with you now. But tomorrow, I’m going to kick your ass.”

Mace happily ran his hands over Dez’s body. Even with all the clothes she had on, she still immediately responded to his touch. God, he loved that.

“So, I’m still going to be around tomorrow, huh?”

“I guess. The dogs seem to like you.”

“Yeah. I was starting to notice that.”

“Well, what did you expect when you insist on feeding them under the table?”

Mace ducked his head a bit. “Saw that, did you?”

“It’s the cop thing. I’m paid to detect those sorts of goings-on.”

“So…how long those dogs of yours going to want me around for?”

“I don’t know. Let’s not worry about it. We’ll see how things are in the New Year.”

He could work with that. “Sounds good. New Year it is.”

Dez grabbed one of his hands and rubbed her fingers over it. After several minutes narrowed gray eyes locked onto him.

“Okay. Which New Year are we talking about exactly?”

Mace grinned and shrugged. “Well I didn’t know I had to be specific. But any New Year thirty or forty years from now would be good.”

“Tricky cat.” Dez turned and wrapped her arms around his waist, her face buried in his neck. She became still, her breath against his throat. She was thinking. He could
feel it.

“What’s up, Desiree?”

“Just thinking about what’ll happen when I go back to work.”

“I wondered when you’d start worrying about that.”

“I put in a lot of hours.”

“I know.”

“I’m always on call. I handle most of the big cases.”

“I know.”

She pulled away from him just enough to look at his face. “Okay. So you know. The question is…are you going to be able to deal?”

“Remember what you said to me the first night we were together?”

“‘Prove it’?”

Mace chuckled. “No. When I had you against the door.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “Yeah. I said, ‘If you let me go now, I’m going to blow your brains out’.”

He ran his hand across her thighs, then between them. “Well, it’s the same deal, baby. I have no intention of letting you go.” Her back straightened as he nestled his hand against her crotch. As always, she was hot and wet. Just for him. “So you might as well stop worrying about it. Besides, the shit Smitty and the team will get into, we’ll need a cop on the inside.”

Her eyes closed, she let him rub his fingers against her. “So, you’re just using me…like a whore?”

“Yup. As often as I can.”

“Okay. I was only checking.” He adjusted his fingers and he must have hit a sweet spot because she almost came off his lap. He pulled her tight against him, her head nuzzling his throat, his other hand still playing between her thighs.

What a freakin’ great Christmas.

“God, Mace,” she whispered against his throat. “You better…you better stop.”

“No way. I wanna give you a taste of what’s going to happen to you tonight…all night.”
And for the next forty years.

As her body tightened around his hand, Mace realized their separation for so many years had been necessary. They needed to go off and do their own thing, become the people they now were. They needed it so when they got here, they knew it was where they belonged. Where they would always belong.

Dez gripped him tight, her mouth biting into his neck. “Oh God, Mace,” she whispered hotly against his throat. “God…fuck. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Mace had to bite his tongue to stop laughing. Man, he really loved hearing her come. Even when she whispered it.

Oh yeah. He belonged here. For the rest of his life. It took him a long time to get here. And he had no intention of going anywhere ever again. This woman was his. Forever.

Even if that meant he had to put up with those goddamn dogs.

“M
r. Shaw, you need to get up. Now.” Brendon Shaw, resting on his knees and probably dying, cringed at that voice. Like ten miles of bad road. Still, it gave him something to focus on. Something to keep him from blacking out completely. He couldn’t allow himself to slow this woman down. He knew her…from somewhere. Remembered her scent from somewhere. Even knew that frightening voice.

More important, she was full-human. Even though the bastards who had done this to him were now getting torn apart by a Clan of hyenas, soon those hyenas would be coming back for them. For her. They were not a breed big on loyalty or kindness. They always took the weak ones. She was weak because she was human. He was weak because he was bleeding to death on their tunnel floors. So he had to get her out of here. Now.

Still, he wasn’t a miracle worker. He had at least three broken ribs, a broken collarbone, broken kneecap, and an interesting amount of internal bleeding. If he could get someplace safe to allow his body to heal, he would probably survive. In fact, he’d heal up completely in a few days—if he lived through the night. He didn’t think that would be happening, though. Either he’d bleed to death trying to get out of these tunnels or the hyenas would finish him off. Either way, he wouldn’t allow this woman to go down with him. So this woman—
who the hell
is
she?
—had to go.

Shaw shook his head. “I can’t.”

“I can’t carry you, Mr. Shaw.”

Persistent little thing, wasn’t she?

He tried again. “Forget me. Go.” He could hold off the hyenas for a little bit. Not much fight left in him, but they’d be so busy mauling him and ripping his limbs off, she’d have enough time to get out—if she’d only
leave
.

She gave a soft sigh of annoyance. “I can’t leave you here, Mr. Shaw.”

Ahhh. Now he remembered. The cop. The cop with the great tits and Mace Llewellyn’s scent all over her.

No wonder she wouldn’t leave him. She was doing her civic duty—or whatever. Still, if she didn’t move her pretty ass…

The scent of wolves hit him fast and hard. Great. Now he had to deal with wolves
and
hyenas, after getting the shit kicked out of him by low-class lions. Man, what a suck-ass Christmas Eve.

But the woman seemed to take the sight of a large She-wolf rather well, cocking her pretty head to one side and asking, “Sissy Mae?” The wolf yipped in response. “I’m lost and he’s running out of steam.”

Perhaps the biggest understatement of the night. He’d start coughing up blood any second, which was always such fun.

Screams, roars, and the lovely hyena laughing howl—
like nails on a chalkboard
—reminded him they were quickly running out of time. Mace’s female had played it smart and pointed out to the head of the hyena Clan exactly who had killed her lion lover. That had focused hyena attention on the three bastards who were seconds from shooting him in the back of the head like some goddamn human. He’d find the whole turnabout thing pretty funny if he weren’t dying.

The She-wolf put her head back and howled, calling to her Pack.

Either the dogs appeared quickly or he passed out for a while because suddenly he was standing on his own two feet, using the tunnel wall as leverage, and a good number of canines were standing around him. Two males shifted into human and grabbed hold of his arms. Normally, he’d never allow some canine to touch him, but under the circumstances beggars really couldn’t be choosers.

Besides, he was going downhill fast. Things started going dark as soon as they took him to the stairs. Then he smelled trash, coffee, wet New York streets, and…and something else. Something wonderful and powerful and delicious enough to make his mouth water and his dick get hard. Kind of a miracle with him, ya know, bleeding to death. But, man, talk about giving him a reason to live.

He somehow managed to open his eyes, and that’s when he looked into the prettiest face he’d ever seen. Beautiful hazel eyes more yellow than brown, a pug nose he had the feeling had been broken once or twice. Plus a vicious spattering of freckles across the bridge and a little less on her cheeks. Her lips were full and promised all sorts of wonderful skills, and when she grinned at him he knew he might be falling in love.

Then she said, “Don’t you worry about nothin’, darlin’. We’ll take good care of you.” While the rest of her Pack completely ignored their conversation, her grin turned wicked and so blatantly sexual, he thought he might come right there. Those pretty eyes swept him from head to foot. “I can’t allow this body to go to waste, now can I? It would be unfair to female-kind.” Her hand reached out and swept across his brow. Such gentle, cool fingers. Soft and caressing. Nothing had ever felt so wonderful before. “Close your eyes, darlin’. Sleep. When you wake up, I promise you’ll be safe and breathing.”

Unable to fight it anymore, Brendon Shaw closed his eyes and let wonderful blackness come. He didn’t really know if he’d ever wake up again, like she said. But he did know one thing…he was
definitely
in love.