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  “Savino? What do you know? I do remember.”

  He turned to look at Sakura. “You’ve met him?”

  She nodded. “He brought me back to the hotel after they let me go. I don’t know what he is, but he’s not a fox.”

  “Neither is he a bear.” He turned back toward the bed and shut his eyes again. “I smell one, maybe two, of Deveron’s men, plus the leader himself and Savino. They’ve all been here. What I don’t smell is a bear, but I’m not entirely sure I’d recognize all species of bear. Laila told me there’s a similarity in all same species, such as any type of bear, and I have no reason to doubt her.”

  “Of course not.”

  Adam pressed his lips together, amused. His sweetheart was jealous. She had no reason to be. “So it looks like Deveron’s people wanted to give the impression your mom was killed by a bear. They knew the Keiths would never be fooled this wasn’t a shifter attack. Now all we have to do is crack a few heads to find out which one of them did it.”

  He stood and faced Sakura. She’d removed the knife she carried in a holster on her thigh. “Crack heads? Please, I’m going to gut a fucker and ask questions afterward.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Sakura had lectured herself the whole time they sat with the medical examiner. She teased Adam while they were at the motel, taunting him, knowing it would drive him nuts and make him want to go back to her hotel room and get a little afternoon fun in. None of it made any difference to her state of mind—worse, the emotion caused a lump, which felt like the size of a baseball in her throat. From the moment she saw the pictures, all the memories and the hurt, the confusion, and anger came flooding back. Sure, she let the anger drive her to do her job, but getting lost in the maelstrom that they were could drain a person faster than anything. Exercise, medication, and just self-talk helped her through it all five years ago, and now here she was, about to meet with the man who might have been the cause of her mother’s death.

  Her stomach stirred, and when Adam suggested they stop for lunch, she had turned him down. She’d seen the way he looked at her, suspicion in his eyes, but she had forced a smile and said something joking. He had offered a courteous chuckle, but she knew she wasn’t fooling anybody. In the way her lover held the steering wheel and the tension around his sexy mouth, she figured he understood how close she was to falling apart.

  “Think he’ll see us?” she asked, as a way to distract herself from her thoughts.

  “He’ll see us.”

  She touched Adam’s arm and sensed everything he felt. Not that she could smell it or read his mind. She just knew. The two of them felt connected on a level she never even heard of, let alone experienced, and something told her Adam knew everything she felt, too. She drew her hand away as if he’d burned her and turned her head to look out the window. Familiar street signs met her gaze along with landmarks that said they neared the building Deveron brought her to that first morning after she woke as a shifter. Savino had knocked on her door, and when she answered, he explained his mission. Sakura had known this giant of a man was not human, and while she guessed he could crack a man’s jaw with one hand, she somehow sensed he wasn’t there to hurt her. Wanting to get answers and find out the name of the bastard that turned her, she’d gone with him. Who knew the change would almost break her mind and exhaust her body before she gained a semblance of control. In the end, Deveron had told her he’d sent the man who attacked her away, probably to keep her from killing him. With that experience, she wondered if he would cooperate now. Why would he?

  “Adam, pull over!” She slapped a hand over her mouth and shut her eyes. Her head spun, and she swallowed convulsively. Adam slowed, and she shouted, “Pull the hell over, please!”

  He almost climbed the curb, but Sakura didn’t care. She had the door flung open in a heartbeat, and her feet pounded on the asphalt.

  “Sakura, stop,” Adam called, but she kept running.

  She knew she looked a sight, hair flying all over her head, face tight with emotions threatening to erupt at any moment, huffing it like a serial killer were on her tail. Blood pumped in her ears, so she couldn’t hear if Adam gained on her until he shouted something in Spanish. The next instant he grabbed her arm and slung her around to face him. She didn’t think the man knew his own strength so when she yelped, he eased his hold. Sakura fought him, trying to push him away.

  “I can’t. I just can’t do this again, Adam. I can’t!” Her voice rose, and she felt tears but refused to let them fall. Her chest heaved, throat burned. “You don’t understand. I’ve lost them all. Every last one of my family. They’re gone, and I can’t get them back!”

  “Sakura, look at me.” He cupped her face between two large hands and forced her to meet his gaze. “I’m going to take care of it. You hear me? I’m going to take care of it.”

  She tried pulling out of his hold but failed. “I don’t need you to fix it for me, Adam. I keep telling you that.”

  He sighed, and she saw frustration in the set to his mouth. “Then we will both do it. You’re going to get your family back.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “You will.”

  She said nothing.

  “Now, we’re going to go back to the hotel for a few hours.”

  “What?” She wrenched away and glared at him. “I’m fine. We can go see Deveron.”

  “We’re going to the hotel.”

  “I said—”

  “Sakura! You’re too upset. You were taught just like I was about going into a job cool-headed so you don’t make stupid mistakes. Tell me I’m wrong.” When she didn’t answer, he turned her back toward the car, and Sakura walked woodenly at his side, staring straight ahead, feeling lost and confused. Adam tucked her into the passenger side of the car and shut the door, then sprinted around to his side. When they arrived at the hotel, she made no move to get out but waited for him. He tossed the keys to a valet and curled her into his side as he guided her up to her room.

  Sakura stood in continued silence while Adam stripped her down to panties and bra and tucked her into the bed. She followed his movements with her eyes as he shed his clothing and slid in the opposite side of the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight, causing Sakura to roll toward him. He opened his arms, and she landed against his chest. Burying her face at the base of his neck, she pulled in several deep breaths. A tremor rocked her body, and she balled her fingers into fists, fighting it, hating weakness, but feeling like at that moment her emotions buffeted her about with no regard to her mental stability. The pathetic truth was she’d kept her family at a distance. So how could it devastate her now? Why break down at this point after she had a couple days to realize the full impact of her changed life?

  The pictures. She had seen the picture Kasen, her older brother, carried with him everywhere he went as a reminder of the violence of shifters, but seeing the others at the medical examiner’s office, the various angles, close-ups, and then having to pretend it didn’t matter. That got to her, and she had done what she had kind of been doing for the last five years—run.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled into Adam’s warm skin. She thought his body temperature might be hotter than before his transformation. “I didn’t mean to lose it back there.”

  Adam stroked her hair. “You’re human. It happens.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  She rolled over, and he drew her against him, circling an arm about her middle. She covered his hand on her belly, and felt almost as if he fed her with his energy and strength. “Adam, this scares me. I think about knowing the whole truth, and then I think about not knowing. A part of me wants to go find a country far from the United States and stay there.”

  “Then I’m torn between following you and making you stay to face this.”

  “I’ve been selfish.”

  He touched her chin, and she twisted around a little to look into his curious gaze.

  “Since you got
here, it’s been all about me. Do you want me to go with you to visit your aunt?”

  He frowned. “No.”

  “Adam, she’s family.”

  “You’re my family, and when this lío is over—this mess—we’ll have more family again. I have no doubts about that.”

  She studied his face, wondering if he meant kids because she intended to let him know they weren’t having any. No way. She used protection, and it was her choice whether she came off it.

  Adam appeared amused.

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Nada. I can just see inside your head.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Feeling calmer?”

  She gave herself a mental check and nodded. He took her hand and tucked it beneath the sheets, laying it on the front of his boxers. Sakura wasn’t surprised to find him hard as a rock. She’d seen the glances cut to her breasts. They swelled above her bra because of lying down, and it turned him on.

  “A quickie?” he suggested.

  She gave him a squeeze and then rubbed his cock’s length through the thin material. Adam moaned, and his eyes closed. Thick, dark lashes rested on his cheeks, and she lamented seeing them on a sweet baby that looked just like him.

  Get that thought out of your head, Sakura. Ain’t happening.

  Adam took her touch as encouragement, and she moaned when he stuck two fingers into the crotch of her panties and ran them along her slit. He breathed deep. “Smell that?”

  She did, her own musk, moisture gathering in anticipation of his entry. Adam pushed the sheets back and leaned up on an elbow. He liked to look at her naked and had insisted on leaving the lights on from day one. She had never minded because she worked hard to keep her figure. Sakura spread her legs for him, and he explored farther inside her panties, the curve of his hand rising and lowering along her snatch.

  “Mm, you smell good enough to eat.” He dipped a finger between her folds, and it sank into her heat. She moaned, lifting her hips off the bed. “Like that?” he teased.

  “Yes, your knuckles…”

  “Are they hurting you?”

  “No.” Her voice came out breathy. Adam’s knuckles bumped her clit, and it felt like her undoing. She couldn’t claim his sex drive was too high. She wanted this as badly as he did. Her pussy throbbed for him to mount her, fill her, and pound out orgasms until she couldn’t take it anymore.

  Adam pushed his fingers deep, withdrew, and then glided in again. He wiggled the digits around, and then took the experience up a notch when he used his other hand to tug back her bra and capture her nipple between his lips. Sakura trembled, moaning and pleading for more.

  He looked up at her while tantalizing the stiff peak and pleasuring her pussy with his hand. Sakura bit down on her jaw, and a tightening began in the center of her belly. More come slicked along his fingers, and Adam looked, an eyebrow raised, and clicked his tongue.

  “So wet for me, mami. Do you want me to make you come like this, or do you want my cock inside you?” He didn’t give her the chance to answer but sped up the assault on her throbbing kitty. She squirmed and moaned, one minute grabbing her knees to open up to him more, the next squeezing his hand between her thighs. She humped his digits and held his wrist. The pleasure skyrocketed, and every time he sank into her moist depths, she thought she would lose it. Her core muscles contracted, released, and then coiled again. She arched and grabbed her panty line to be sure it didn’t get in the way of her pleasure.

  “I can’t take it,” she shouted. “I’ve got to come.”

  “Do it, baby,” he murmured. He closed his lips around her nipple and sucked hard. Her world flew apart, and she screamed loud and long. Adam made a sound, and the next thing she knew he stood in the corner far away from her, half turned, his eyes wide. He ran hands through his hair, and when he brought them down, Sakura gaped. She licked her lips.

  Adam’s skin rippled, and she thought the color fluctuated. Clawed fingers rested on the wall, and she heard the paper covering tear as he tried to close his hand. His mouth open, he shut his eyes and dipped his head.

  “Adam?”

  He pointed at her but didn’t look her way. When he spoke, the gruff quality to his voice surprised her, even as she expected it. “Stay there.”

  She moved to her knees and climbed off the bed. “Adam, calm down. You can’t change in here.”

  “Don’t, Sakura. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Do you feel like you will?”

  He didn’t answer, but she wasn’t letting him torture himself. She took a tentative step toward him, and a growl erupted in his throat. She paused, waiting, and then moved again. Adam’s gaze swept her from head to toe. The obvious need radiated off of him. Somehow this time around he had gotten too excited watching her rather than satisfying his own lust. They were both so new at this with no direction from anyone else. Mistakes were bound to happen, but if she knew anything she knew Adam loved her, and he would never hurt her, even in his bear form.

  Still moving with caution, she crossed the room to stand in front of him, her arms at her sides so as not to startle him. His breath came in heavy pants, and now that she stood closer, she made out the beginning changes. The bear looked out from dark brown eyes, and she could have sworn they were just a little closer together than usual. Fine, almost black hair smattered across his chest, which hadn’t been there before.

  Adam opened his mouth to tell her to move back, and she spotted the overlong, sharp canines. Fascination made her reach up to touch, and Adam stopped her, the long claws circling her wrist.

  “Sakura.” Her name on his tongue held a tormented quality, and she leaned into him, resting a hand on his chest. He groaned, and his cock twitched between them. She pressed closer, and he released her wrist to grasp her at the hips. Slowly, the signs of the change receded, but when he still would have pushed her back, Sakura dragged his boxers lower to free his erection. Before he could stop her, she dropped to her knees and took his length in her mouth. Salty precome coated her tongue, and she sucked him deep and then let his cock slide out. She licked the underside and circled the head with the tip of her tongue. A shudder passed over Adam. He laid a hand on her shoulder, but she refused to be put off. She held his cock at the base and looked up at him.

  “You’re my mate, aren’t you?”

  He swore.

  “I’m going to make you come, Adam. It’s what you need, and no other woman can satisfy you like I can.” She grinned at him. “Remember that.”

  “I can’t control…” He bit off his words when she put him into her mouth again. She took him deep, feeling the head touch the back of her throat. Pressing down with the roof of her mouth, she sucked hard. Adam chanted, “Fuck, fuck, fuck! Yes, Sakura!”

  She palmed his ball sac and massaged them, careful to be gentle. Knowing he liked it, she let the juicy sounds of her devouring him mix with hungry moans. Adam sagged against the wall, and she followed, not letting him go. For long moments, she worked his pole, loving him, pleasuring him, and when he stiffened, and the breath hissed between his clenched teeth, she knew he was ready to blow. Seconds later, hot come filled her mouth, and she met his feverish gaze as she drank it down.

  Sakura leaned away and swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. She stood. “There. Better?”

  She turned away, but Adam’s arm snaked out, and he hauled her backward to his chest. He bent his knees, lining hard thighs with the backs of hers. A hip pivot brought his shaft up between her legs and into her pussy. He gave a mighty thrust, and her nether lips stretched around his thick girth. She’d just gotten him off, but he was still this hard?

  Her head fell back onto his shoulder, and her eyelids fluttered closed without conscious thought. “Adam, mm.”

  He thrust hard and fast, controlled as he trapped her in a steel embrace. Her feet left the floor, and she marveled at his strength, holding her while he pounded his cock home. Another orgasm began to build, and she dug her nails i
nto his arms, gasping at the powerful sensations. She climaxed, shaking, whimpering, and satisfied.

  Adam walked, still holding her, no longer worried, and laid her on the bed. She was about to climb up higher, but he kept her on the edge of the bed, one knee raised and one foot on the floor. His fingers found her drenched opening, and he coated his fingers in their joint juices. He used them to push into her rear entrance, and she fell forward, all the strength having left her arms. Her mate yanked her back, rough but not painful. His cock head replaced his digits and eased into her ass. His name trembled on her lips, but she couldn’t even speak the word, the pleasure was so good. He took her over and over, a strong arm holding her up at the same time he drew her onto his shaft.

  Time passed, and the sun dipped below the horizon. Adam’s desire seemed not to lessen, but then neither did hers. They stood in the shower and washed each other, made love there, and then ended up back in the bed. Around seven in the evening, Sakura escaped the headiness that was her man and sagged into a chair, naked.

  “If we don’t stop, we’re going to go all night.” She looked over at him stretched out on the bed, but averted her gaze from his cock. Her mouth watered every time she saw it, and his reaction to that desire was much worse.

  Adam sat up and shook his head, leaning over the side of the bed, as if he could shake off the dregs of lust. “”You’re right. Go shower. This time I’m not going with you. I can’t help myself. Whenever you get excited, I smell it, and it drives me insane. I don’t know how we’re going to stay out of bed with this kind of reaction. Not to mention you heal fast, so I can’t use the excuse that you’re too sore to make my blood cool.”

  “Yeah, that is weird,” she admitted. “But good.” She walked over to the bathroom door and stopped. “Adam, thanks.”

  “For?”

  “For never giving up on me.”

  She shut the bathroom door before he could respond and turned on the shower. A short while later, she was dressed, having cut off his temptation. Well, to a certain degree. He still gave her an appreciative once over because of the formfitting capris and low cut top. They left the hotel to head over to Deveron’s company to demand the answers Sakura sought.