Page 119 of Fire Dancer
I flashed a toothy wolf grin.You can show him when he visits tomorrow,I reminded her.
She pranced happily.I’ll show him how fast I can run and how far I can jump. Oh! And my favorite part — digging!She leaned down, sending dirt flying between her back legs.
You can show himalmosteverything,I joked, thinking of home and the big, sturdy bed.
Pippa flashed me a naughty grin.Race you to the bottom, hotshot.
She leaped into a sprint. With a yip, I took off after her.
Watch me win again,she taunted, flicking her tail.
As it turned out, we were both the winners. Pippa got home first, but when we shifted into human form and fell into bed, I claimed the top, and we both enjoyed two sizzling rounds of sex before fading off to sleep.
We picked up where we’d left off the next morning, then grudgingly showered, ate, and headed to work. I snuck over to the glass shop during Pippa’s lunch break and helped her find a whole new use for the workbench in the storage room. That round of sex had been on the slow, careful side, what with all the glass around us. But satisfying, nevertheless, despite thewolf in a china shopjokes Pippa cracked.
“Will I ever stop lusting after you?” She sighed when we finally dragged ourselves back to work.
I waggled my eyebrows. “I hope not.”
We were just doing what any freshly mated shifters would do — though, I swear, we were setting new records when it came to heat levels. As high as the blazing bonfire Pippa’s father treated us to that evening.
Everyone gathered around, as before — Erin and Nash, Abby and Claire, Pippa and me, and Greg and Mike.
“You two really are like a couple,” Erin quipped to her father, referencing the story Mike had told at our last bonfire.
“I do love him.” Mike smacked his lips in the air. “Just not that way.”
Greg pretended to look hurt. “And here I was, thinking we had the makings of something beautiful.”
Mike laughed. “Sorry, bud. My Harley and I already have something beautiful.”
Pippa stood to clear the plates from our barbecue. “Marshmallows, anyone?”
I smiled at the echoes of our previous bonfire, and so many before it back in Colorado. Having said that, the bonfires here on Painted Rock Ranch were developing their own traditions and inside jokes, a lot like a family Thanksgiving celebration.
And a celebration it was. A terrible threat had been eliminated, Pippa and I had finally surmounted our differences, and the ranch was at peace again. I hadn’t suffered any consequences as a result of my involvement in the Jananovich case. On the contrary, I’d been commended for finding a promising new recruit for the agency. Delaney had aced the grueling basic training that weeded out all but the best candidates and had started training for undercover missions. Apparently, she’d even started dating a nice bear shifter in the agency.
I just hoped he would help her find a little work-life balance.
Jananovich’s escorts had all been questioned and released on probation. One had made the Phoenix Suns Dance squad, while another was forging a new career as a social media influencer specializing in hydration and nutrition. Two others had started dating each other, and yet another had started a vampire-themed podcast that the ADMSA was keeping an eye — er, ear — on. Hopefully, that would be the closest any of them ventured to vampires again.
Meanwhile, I’d also rooted out the double agent who’d acted as Jananovich’s inside man at the agency — or rather, inside woman. It had been Angelina Saint James, as I’d suspected — the very vampire who’d caused Nash so many problems.
Fucking Angelina,he’d growled when we’d worked it out together.
She hadn’t just been working with Harlon Greene, but with Jananovich and a number of other supernaturals. The agency had already created a task force to identify which other cases she’d tampered with.
However, I was off duty now, and I’d learned to draw a firm line between working hard and enjoying private time.
Like right now, at the bonfire.
I took in the happy faces, from Claire snuggled in Mike’s lap to Erin and Nash nestled together. Pippa blew me a kiss before stepping away to find the marshmallows. Even Abby gazed up at the stars with a dreamy expression.
“For you, Grandpa.” Claire held her stick toward Greg a short time later.
He plucked the marshmallow off the end and made a show of relishing it. “Yum! Perfectly toasted on the outside yet gooey on the inside. A born pyromancer!”
“God, I hope not,” Abby muttered, half joking, half serious.