“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.

SHAW’S TAIL

Prologue

“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.