He rested his hands on her shoulders again and kissed her, hard and long, possessively and passionately. Why couldn’t she have had someone like this in her life without all the horrible complications she was facing now?
“Don’t be long.” Then Rafe kissed her on the cheek and left her to do the laundry.
Unsettled about the whole business with her brother, she started the wash, then texted him, praying that he hadn’t guessed what was really going on.
As soon as she texted Kenneth, he texted right back: What the hell is going on?
Chapter 10
Rafe hoped Kenneth Ashton didn’t cause Jade any more grief, but he suspected her brother would. He hoped she’d share what her brother said to her verbatim so Rafe knew just how to deal with the bastard.
He and Aidan were seated poolside while Edward was standing at the railing with Sebastian, both looking at the beach, but Rafe knew they weren’t just doing it for fun. They were looking for anyone from Jade’s pack who might be spying on them.
“I was surprised you arrived earlier than planned,” Rafe told his brother.
“When I learned you were getting yourself in deep with some femme fatale she-wolf, I knew my place was here.”
Rafe realized his brother must have really been worried about him this time, because Aidan’s experiments always took priority. “She’s not like that.”
“She lured you right in, played on your sympathies, and despite that she was here on dishonest business, you completely trust her?”
“Yeah. You said yourself she had a son who was clinging to her when you took her blood to test it. I don’t believe she’d be here enjoying the beach without her son if she wasn’t being forced to do it. She had hundreds of photos of him on her phone. She loves him, and I believe her son’s life is hanging in the balance.”
“What happened to her mate?”
“He was human, and her brother killed him.”
Aidan’s eyes widened. “She had a son by a human?”
“Yeah. I know, it rarely happens.”
“Does the boy shift? The only other cases I’ve heard of, the offspring can’t shift.”
“Same here.”
“What are you going to do after you rescue him?” Now his brother looked sympathetic. For Jade or for him?
Hell, Rafe didn’t know what he was going to do about this. “Keep them here for now. For their protection.”
Aidan smiled a little.
“What?”
“You don’t know the first thing about raising a kid.”
“I’m not raising him. She is.”
“Right.”
* * *
As soon as Jade told Kenneth she’d moved in with Rafe and that she had moved into the guest room and was unpacking her bags, he called her on the phone and started threatening her. “If you’ve told the Denalis what this is all about…”
“Rafe has taken a real interest in me. Wasn’t that your plan? The good news is that his brother arrived before we returned. I’m taking a minute to get settled while the brothers are visiting on the patio so I could tell you what is going on.”
The room was decorated as if fit for nobility—a high-rise bed, a royal-blue satin comforter, and curtains around the bed, along with a private deck with a view of the beach. The room was beautiful. It even had a private bath, which she really appreciated because she didn’t want to be running into anyone at night when she needed to use the bathroom.
“Who are the other men?” Kenneth asked.
So he was having someone watch Rafe and the others on the patio. “His personal assistant and a bodyguard for his protection.” She wasn’t going to pretend Edward was a friend. Her brother had to know that Rafe, and probably his brother, would have a couple guards. “He treats them like they’re family, from what I’ve seen.” She only mentioned it because the two men were having drinks on the patio, and her brother might not believe Rafe would share drinks with his hired help.
“Where is he from?”
“Aidan?”
“Who else?”
“I hope to learn that before the ball, now that he’s here. I’ll let you know as soon as I do. But Rafe said Aidan wasn’t even close to any kind of a breakthrough.”
“You asked him?” Kenneth sounded suspicious.
“No. Rafe asked about taking blood samples from our pack. What could I say? Pretend he hadn’t? And then if Aidan recognized me? Then what?”
“I want something soon, Jade. Now that Aidan’s actually there, I want results.”
“I’m trying, but unless you want me to just come straight out and ask—and tell him why I need to know this…”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
“If you want me to be careful, I’ve got to do this right.”
“Don’t fail me. Or you’ll fail your son.”
Before she could tell her brother to let her speak with Toby, Kenneth hung up on her. She prayed Rafe’s men would find her son and end her brother’s tyrannical quest soon.
She left the guest room and saw Edward on his phone near the living room. He glanced over at her, and she hoped he had some good news about her son.
“All right.” Edward pocketed his phone and said to Jade, “No luck yet. Does your brother suspect anything?”
“I’m sure he does. Even if he thinks I might be telling the truth, he’s wary.”
“That’s because he’s a liar and a thief. One of the men discovered a number of stolen vehicles in his body shop. No one’s there right now. We suspect he’s hiding out with your son in the place he hopes to take Aidan.”
She was furious with her brother because of his additional involvement in illegal activities. “What are you going to do about it?” She knew that no lupus garou involved in criminal activities could be incarcerated—too risky.
“We’ll be taking everyone in who’s involved in the operation. You can help identify anyone who had no knowledge, or who didn’t help with the theft, money laundering, and selling of the stolen goods. You never worked there?”
“Ha! No. I never speed, never run a red light or stop sign, never do anything above the law. I imagine my brother knew I’d never have gone along with what he was doing. None of the women were involved, and only five men, my brother included, worked in the shop.”
“We’ll pick up who we can if we can locate any of them. Do you have any idea where your brother and his girlfriend might have gone?”
“No. I’m sure they wouldn’t go to any place I might think of, in case you figured out what I was really doing here and made me tell you.”
“All right. We’ll find them and your son.”
Hoping he was right, Jade rejoined the men out by the pool, but she couldn’t concentrate on the conversations. She vaguely heard Rafe talking to Aidan about the charity function and heightened security. The other men were quiet, watchful as they surveyed the surroundings.
Jade heard the wash finish and excused herself to put the wet clothes in the dryer. As soon as she pulled them out, she saw white spots all over their blue jeans. She stared at them in disbelief, then looked at the bottle of detergent she had used. Crap! She had used one with bleach in it!
Tears filled her eyes. Not just because of the ruined jeans, but because of Toby. Even if they got him back safely, Kenneth would continue to be a threat.
She heard someone coming and turned to see Rafe stalking into the room.
“When I didn’t hear the dryer running, I was afraid you had another text from your brother… Jade? What’s wrong, honey?” he asked, pulling her into his arms.
She still had the wet jeans in her hands, but she wrapped her arms around Rafe and sobbed.
* * *
Rafe didn’t know what to do about Jade, except the only thing he could do: hold her tight, give her solace, and show her he cared. He realized then how much she must have been holding back, trying to hide how she felt about her son from him and from herself, afraid to let go, afraid to reveal the truth of Toby’s existence wh
ile playing this role her brother had forced on her.
Telling her they’d get Toby back safe and sound didn’t mean they really would, and she knew that. Rafe wished he could do more, and though he wanted to say the spotted jeans didn’t matter, he knew that wasn’t what had upset her. Her son was at more risk with them searching for him, and the jeans were the last thread holding her emotions together.
“Sorry,” she said, sniffling, still holding on to him like she needed this, needed him, someone to comfort her when she was all alone in the world. Until now, she’d had no one she could tell without fear of her brother taking it out on her son. Rafe couldn’t imagine how difficult it had been to be all alone with no one to confide in, worrying about her son, and then about him and his brother.
“No problem,” he said, kissing the top of her head, holding her close again, letting her lean on him for moral support. He wanted to say more, to reassure her more, but he knew she didn’t need that. She just needed this.
When she seemed to gain control of her emotions, she let out her breath. “I’m sorry about our jeans.”
He smiled down at her. “We can be a matched pair. Why don’t we throw them in the dryer and—”
“Thanks, Rafe. For…everything.” Then she moved away from him, tossed the jeans in the dryer, and started it. “I’m tired.”
“Why don’t you go to bed then. I’ll finish this and see you in the morning.”
“Thanks.” She kissed him on the cheek before she left him in the laundry room.
He would kill Kenneth for putting Jade through this nightmare.
Rafe headed for the patio as she slipped down the hallway to her bedroom.
“Everything all right?” Aidan asked immediately.
Rafe had thought his brother would be sitting still, but he’d been pacing across the patio until he saw Rafe, his look worried. The other men were doing their duty, watching the beach, but both turned to see what had happened.
“Yeah. She’s just exhausted over everything and concerned about her son. She’s been through a hell of an ordeal, and hiding the strain is draining.” Rafe sat down as his brother also took a seat.
“Did she go to bed?” Aidan asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hell, we’ve got to find the bastard,” Aidan said.
“I agree.”
“And the boy.” Aidan looked back at the doors to the house. “So what are you going to do when we rescue Toby?”
That was the question of the century. All Rafe could think about was how smiley the kid was. Cute. But since when did he begin to think a kid, any kid, was cute? When he wore Jade’s smile.
* * *
The next morning, Rafe took Jade out on the yacht. She appreciated his concern for her, and he hoped to get her mind off the search for Toby. They’d had six leads, but every one of them fell through. Kenneth Ashton hadn’t been taking chances and had left a trail of red herrings, then nothing again.
Sebastian had contacted Rafe’s part-time crew to man the yacht so they could go out for the morning. Edward was captaining the yacht for the time being.
“Jack-of-all-trades,” Jade said, as she leaned against the railing, watching Edward take them out.
“Yeah, though I have a captain for the job, Edward loves to take her out when he can. When we have the time, we go diving, and he’ll give the controls up to my captain.”
Jade smiled and looked back out to the ocean, the wind whipping her hair around as she felt the sun and the salt spray on her skin. The yacht was big, but the ocean was so much bigger as the boat rose on the swells and crashed into the troughs. She couldn’t imagine being out here during a bad storm.
What would it be like to sail a ship across the vast blue-green oceans in search of a new continent? The pale-blue horizon stretched forever, and the ocean looked like it dropped off the end of the world. She decided that though she loved being out here with Rafe, she wouldn’t want to be out on the ocean for months on end, even if she knew land would be in sight at some point.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Rafe said as one of his staff brought them fresh orange juice.
“Thanks.” Jade took a sip and looked back out at the wind-swept ocean. “I was thinking what it must have been like to sail far away from home in search of a new world to find riches and treasures there.”
“Aidan, Derek, Edward, and I took off for a month once and were caught in a couple of storms we thought we might not make it through. Derek broke his leg during the second one, and we had to put in to port. It was an adventure we never regretted, but storms can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. Still, we cherished the time we spent at sea.”
“Incredible. I can’t imagine being out to sea for that long. What about running as wolves?”
“We hit a couple of deserted islands along the way. Some boats occasionally anchor there, but when we were there, the islands were deserted and we ran around to our heart’s content. Come on. Let me show you the rest of the craft and the cabins, in case you need to use one of the bathrooms.”
They walked to the bow of the main deck so he could show her the most impressive cabin first. “This is the main quarters, the master suite. Because of its location, it has quick access to anywhere on the yacht.”
“The captain’s quarters,” Jade said.
“Yeah. But it sure could use a captain’s mate.”
She smiled at him, not believing he could be seriously considering her for a mate.
There were no stairs to climb to reach the main quarters, which she thought was really neat. The room took up the whole bow, the full width of the yacht, with portal windows across the room on either side. It was furnished with a king-size bed. A spacious lounge area had a love seat for watching videos on a HD flat-panel TV with a Blu-ray DVD player, music, and a desk for working on a laptop. Unbelievable. She was expecting a tiny cabin.
“Each of the guest rooms has a bathroom en suite. Everyone has unlimited hot and cold water and air-conditioning with individual controls.”
Then Rafe showed her the next two cabins located forward of the main salon, which was the common room on the ship. Each of them featured a spacious floor plan with queen-size beds and a separate daybed, as well as portholes for letting in light.
“Drawers are under the beds to store clothes and the like. Glassed-in showers and the rest in here,” Rafe said, pointing to the cabin’s bathroom. Then he took her to another cabin in the stern and showed her the interior. “This one has two beds and a small love seat for seating.” He showed Jade the bathroom, then led her to the last cabin and said, “For those who want to spend more time on deck, this one has two single beds and built-in storage on the starboard side. Bathroom in there. So room enough for several guests.”
The smaller cabins were still spacious enough to move around, but closer to what she had expected. “Wow, just beautiful.”
He guided her to the covered aft deck, where chairs were placed for a lovely view of the ocean, and the covered fore deck where bench seating was available. Then Rafe showed Jade the main salon for indoor dining and relaxing.
“It’s all beautiful.”
“I love it out here but I don’t go out as much as I’d like. Ready for some breakfast?” he asked.
She was expecting Rafe to fix breakfast since he liked to cook for himself, but he had a chef for the cruise, a white-haired wolf with twinkling amber eyes and a ready smile. Jade thanked him after he served them fruit, omelets, hash browns, and ham in the main salon.
“You keep her, no?” Chef Pierre Fontaine asked.
Rafe only smiled, and she swore the unspoken message was that he had every intention of doing that.
She was enjoying herself so much. They ended up spending the whole day out at sea, having lunch and dinner out there. Afterward, they were standing on the deck, looking toward land, but the wind began to whip about, and she could smell rain coming as they headed home.
“Storm’s coming.” The ocean swells grew higher, and
Rafe took Jade inside. The yacht rose and fell, and she lost her balance, realizing she’d have to be on the water for a lot longer than just a day to earn her sea legs.
Rafe caught her before she fell, held her tight, and kissed her. He knew that everything could change between them once they located Jade’s son, but he loved being with her. If they hadn’t had another care in the world, he would have already swept her off her feet and made her his mate.
He loved his yacht and had hoped she’d love the sea as much as he did. And she seemed to, lost in the moment while thinking about the explorers of old, just as he had done countless times.
She was good with his staff, so polite and respectful, not like some of his wealthy human guests who had seen them as hired help and not worthy of their time. Jade always thanked them like she really appreciated anything they did for her. It was refreshing and made him care for her even more.
And there was this, the kissing that made him want to go further than was prudent. Right now, with her arms wrapped around his neck and her tongue in his mouth, sliding over his, her hot little body pressed against his, he wanted to take this to the next level and not be cautious about what would happen when she was reunited with her son. He wanted to carry her to the master suite, undress her, and make hot and passionate love to her, turning this trip into the most memorable experience he’d ever have. It was killing him to kiss her like this and always have to let go.
He brushed the wind-tossed strands of golden hair from her face and kissed her cheeks and nose and mouth. She was mouthwateringly sexy in a halter top and short shorts, and he wanted nothing more than to pull them off and kiss her satiny skin all over.
Her breathing was fast-paced and erratic as she held on to him, partly for balance as the waves built and the craft rocked up and down.
“Are you all right?” he asked, kissing her ear and nibbling on the lobe.
“No,” she said so breathlessly that he looked at her expression, her eyes closed, her luscious lips parted.
Her comment worried him and he frowned down at her. “Seasick?”
Her eyes opened and she smiled at him so vixen-like that he knew his smile was hotly wolfish in return before he claimed her mouth. The yacht was bouncing too much for this. He moved her to one of the cushioned bench seats and laid her down. Then he was partly on top of her, untying her halter top, and baring her breasts to him. No one would intrude on him while he was with the she-wolf, but he wasn’t sure she’d be okay with this development.