Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(33)

"Sleeping with the enemy?"

"We haven't slept together," she said with a mischievous grin. "Yet."

"Is that an invitation, Miss Ampton?"

"I'm a traditional girl," she said. "In some ways more than others."

"Give me a for instance?" Ryan's hands rested on the small of Jamie's back, fingers curling against her skin. Each time he did, he brought little goose bumps to the surface and made her breathe just a little harder. "Because from where I'm standing, it sure as hell don't look like it."

"For instance, I only have sex indoors." She paused to nibble Ryan's neck, a little above where she sunk her fangs in three days before. "Unless it's dark."

Another chill, autumn wind whipped through the clearing as the door to the overly ample house swung open and clattered to again. The sound of metal on wood preceded a shuffling of feet.

"Oh for the love of... he finally got a woman, Moo-maw. And he's about to strip her down in front of God and everybody."

Ryan tried his best to keep his face tight and serious, but his raving uncle got to him. He closed his eyes tightly and smiled. "That is my uncle, Boston."

"You have an absolutely fascinating life, don't you?" Jamie reached around her huge bear and grabbed a handful of ass-cheek, squeezing hard enough to make him jump.

"Ha!" Boston squealed. "I like this one. Moo-maw, come look! She squeezed his butt and now he's blushing!"

"I better get going," Jamie said with a sad tinge in her voice. "It's getting late enough that I better check in at the courthouse or someone will wonder where I am, or...”

"Let them wonder," he said, taking hold of her again, possessing Jamie with a gaze and then a kiss. "You have a phone."

This is going places, and quick.

"I want to, trust me, I really want to. But the problem is, you," she punctuated her words with a jab of her finger in his chest. "Are, in fact, suspected of several counts of burglary. And I," she took his hand, kissing the palm, then sucking on the end of his finger just briefly. "Am a civil servant working for the town where you are currently suspected of said burglary."

He took a deep breath. Jamie watched the rise and fall of his chest, feeling the familiar twist of pleasure between her legs and wanting oh so badly to do something about it. "Give me time? Let me see what I can do?"

"I can't," Ryan said. "I've got to—"

She hushed him with a finger on the lips. "You said you dreamed about me? You said you wanted me worse than anything?"

He nodded.

"Then you have to trust me, too. Let me see what I can do, Ryan. Let me try to help. If I screw up, you can go right back to thieving and scheming. All right?"

"Deal," he said.

With a smile, Jamie turned and unfurled her wings, but before she took off, she returned to face him. "And don't think I didn't realize that you never told me about yourself. You won't get away so easy next time."

As her feet left terra firma, Jamie heard Ryan say, "Neither will you."

She closed her eyes, not willing to look back at him for fear of not being able to force herself to leave if she did. Instead, she took a deep breath as the nerves and muscles all over her body twitched, pulled, and flared.

"God," she whispered. "I hope not."





-10-


“Don’t expect me to spend much time cleaning dishes I don’t use, got it?”


-Jamie


Jamie took the scenic route back to the center of town. She needed time to think, time to figure out what she was going to tell Erik, and time to figure out what the hell was going on in her own heart.

That last one? That was the real trick.

It had been six months since Dominic - the dashing, wealthy, prick of a vampire - had left her cold. Or rather, six months since he told her she needed to start doing more for him so that he felt appreciated and heavily implied that she needed to quit her joke of a job and start being his full-time maidservant.

She didn't take too nicely to that, and one explosive fight later, she was back on her own, very glad she never found anyone to rent her little house. She'd never been happier than she was that night to sink back into her own bed for once, alone and with no one touching her.

It took all six months between then and meeting Ryan for Jamie to come to grips with the fact that she needed to be happy on her own terms, not anyone else’s. She didn't need anyone to make her happy.

She threw herself into work, tirelessly rising to every task, every challenge, that anyone put in front of her. Then Izzy got pregnant, Erik got distracted, and she realized just how lonely it was when everyone has a life except you.

Slowly, she circled the courthouse, relishing the high-altitude warmth on the skin between her wings. All those thoughts, those pinpricks of light in the sea of existential angst swirled over her as she swooped in long, lazy circuits.

If I didn't have these wings, I don't know what the hell I'd do to relax, she thought with a little smile. Probably take up knitting.

All the languid circling didn't get Jamie any closer to a solution, but it did give her enough exercise that she was able to relax a little bit. When Jenga and the two zombie bears shuffled out - Atlas was wearing a safety guard uniform which was just about the most adorable thing ever - she decided it was probably time to face the music.