Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(30)

"Mm-hmm. That's Adelaide. One of my very best friends. We grew up together. Lost touch over the years, but she'll send a letter every so often. When I, well, we, I suppose, moved to Jamesburg to settle down a little, she was still sewing her wild oats."

"And she's a... well, she's like me?"

"Oh yes, and it bothered her just like it does you. Are your parents the same?"

"They're dead," Jamie said flatly. "Oh, you meant half... no, they were both regular old folks. Well, as regular as we get, you know."

Cora was smiling, with a look of distant reminiscence on her face. "She always thought the same as you - that being different, you know, it was bad somehow. But it isn't. It took her a very long time to figure that out. I don't think it was until she met... well, until she met someone who looked at her the same way I noticed Ryan looking at you. There's someone for all of us, you know. Someone for all of us to grow old together with, to pester and pick on and jabber with. Someone that will take care of us when we're sick and make us laugh when we're sad."

Jamie found herself nodding along with the things Cora was saying. "Who is that?" she asked, pointing to a very grumpy looking old man. "Marmite?"

"Oh no, dear, that's his father. Apparently with koalas, the grumpiness is genetic." She chuckled softly and reached over for a stick of something that she began to chew on. "Sorry for the eating, it's just that we have to do it all the time."

Jamie shook her head. "No, no, I understand. Eating for me is something best kept in the dark." She didn't really mean that as a double entendre, but there it was. And there, a few seconds later, was Ryan.

"You show her your deepest secrets?" Ryan asked.

Cora looked at him with a very cross, grandmotherly face. "Now don't you know how rude it is to barge in when two ladies are chatting? You've no idea what you'll overhear."

Ryan raised his hands in a defensive gesture, but they were both smiling. "Old man beat me twice already, says he won't play me again because it makes him dumber."

Cora was shaking her head.

"Anyway, I'm guessing it's about time for us to head out, anyway. Don't want to take up any more of your time. “Thanks for showing her the pictures. What did you look at anyway?"

"Oh, just some old memories. Good ones. The kind that make you smile when you think about them, even though you know those times are long gone."

Ryan gave Jamie a questioning look, but Jamie just shrugged. She let her shoulders relax when his hand went there, although this time, she was conscious of what Cora told her when they first walked into the kitchen. Maybe she's right, she thought. Maybe...

Ryan was leading her away, and at some point, the hand on her shoulder turned to an arm draped around her, lightly, but enough that she felt the safety of the weight against her neck. They waved, Cora and Marmite waved back, and Ryan and Jamie walked in silence for a time, back to the wood pile where all this started.

"Why'd you take me to meet them?" She asked, turning him to face her and studying the lines of Ryan's face. "I was expecting something to convince me of the dire need to move faster with whatever we're going to do... but it wasn't, was it?"

His smile told her all she needed to know. "It's hard for me to imagine a life like that," he said. "That sort of contentedness."

Jamie felt like there was a 'but' coming.

"But," he looked away, trailing off.

She tilted his head back, searching his face. "But what?"

"But with you? From the first time I saw you, sitting in that courtroom... I suddenly," he took a breath. "Well, it all started to make sense. How a couple can be like that for so long. I can't explain it, it just... just sort of occurred to me."

"Her asking me if I was pregnant surprised me," Jamie breathed, "but somehow, you saying that? It doesn't."

The hand on her neck squeezed gently, and she laid her hand on Ryan's bare chest. His heart, thudding softly in his chest, possessed her imagination. For a moment, Jamie imagined him with her in his arms, kissing her, caressing her neck.

"This is a hell of a spot," Jamie said with a nervous laugh. "I'm supposed to be the detached, analytical one, and here I am, falling for a criminal."

The kiss he gave her was the sweetest, gentlest, one she'd ever tasted, and when he pulled away, Jamie's eyes were still closed. She pulled him back, parting his lips with hers as he explored her mouth with his tongue. Their breath seemed to mix in the air between them, in and out as one being with two bodies.

His fingers curled against her back, sending tingles up her spine all the way to the nape of her neck. That time when Ryan pulled away, she chased, but only for a second. His next kiss brushed her cheek and then behind her ear, in a place that made her purr and go a little weak in the knees.

She wanted him - needed him - but for the life of her, couldn't understand why.

"What are you doing to me?" she asked, eyes only slightly open as his tongue painted a hot trail along her jaw. He nipped gently on her chin, then enveloped her mouth again, breathing in through his nostrils, and groaning as he exhaled.

He pulled her tight against his chest, and she felt a stir in a place she hadn't felt one in way too long.