One Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 1) (7 page)

She tried to close her legs, but her held her firm, while his mouth tortured her clit, licking her, nipping the swollen bud, and then plunging his tongue into her sex. She fisted his hair, watching as his head dipped up and down, his tongue lapping at her, penetrating her, in a steady rhythm until the night air was filled with the sound of her voice as she cried out in ecstasy.

“Ohh, Cade. Fuck. Damn. Right. There.” His fingers had joined his mouth, thrusting in and out of her, hooked to graze the side of her sex, hitting the spot that made her come again and again.

Only when she was utterly spent did he stop, retuning to kiss her thighs to give her time to recover her composure. Not something that was going to happen any time soon, not when his cock was still hard and her body so willing.

She urged him to stand, kissed his mouth while her hand took hold of his cock, and then guided him towards her. The ache for him returned, and when he lunged forward to penetrate her, another wave of ecstasy swept over her. Cade shuddered as he lunged forward, his body covering hers, his mouth on her flesh, kissing her, licking her breasts, his hand under her bottom, to stop her from sliding away from him across the slippery hood.

In and out, his rhythm fast and hard as he took her. Isabelle cried out and then buried her face into his chest, her teeth nipping his skin, and he groaned, his arousal too much, and then he came, his breathing ragged as he spurted his seed deep into her.

Isabelle shifted the angle of her body, tilting her pelvis. The friction between their bodies increased and he cried out her name. Then she came, her world exploding around her, the stars above their heads, so bright in the clear night sky, seemed to grow closer, as if she were floating up there with them. Then it passed, slowly ebbing away to leave her clinging to him while he tried to recover, his hands placed on the cool metal of the car, while he took deep breaths.

“Fuck, Isabelle. I never expected it to be so…” He shook his head.

“Right?” she asked, unable to put it into words either.

“Right.” He chuckled. “So damn
right
.”

She wrapped her arms and legs around him, wanting to stay like this under the stars, the warmth of his body chasing away any chill of the night. “What do we do now?” She voiced the words that had suddenly come to her.

“I don’t know.” He pushed himself upright and withdrew from her, and she wished she hadn’t asked the question, hadn’t broken the spell between them.

“Cade…” She placed her hand on his chest, covering his heart, wanting to feel the beat of it, to reassure herself that he was real, that she hadn’t dreamed him after all this time.

The look he gave her made this feel more than real. Then he spoke, his voice breaking with emotion, “Whatever happens, we do it together. I know I’ve brought complications into your life, and I know you don’t deserve them. But…”

“I don’t care about the complications, as long as you promise me you won’t just disappear in the night. That if there is anything from your past, or Maisie’s past that haunts you, you will talk to me about it. We’re a team now.”

“I promise,” he said and kissed her lips. “Damn, I want you again.”

“I know. But you need to get home.”

He sighed heavily, and pulled away from her, but as she slipped down off the hood, Isabelle said, “I understand that little girl comes first.” Her legs were unsteady as she groped around for her clothes.

Cade stood up straight after pulling on his jeans. “That’s what worried me.” He shook his head. “When I’m here with you, I could forget about everything else in the world. Including Maisie. It tears me in two.”

She came to stand next to him. “I swear I will never make you choose.”

He looked down at her, his eyes the deepest pools of desire, and he lowered his head and kissed her lips softly. “I know. It’s the rest of the world that bothers me.”

“The people who are after her?” She hated herself for the next question she had to ask. “What if her mom ever shows up?”

He looked at her quickly. “I don’t even know if she’s alive or dead. When I got here, I half thought about leaving Maisie with my parents while I went and tried one more time to find her. I thought if I slipped back into that world, went deep undercover on my own, then maybe I would be able to reunite them. But my choice, if that happened, would be to stay with you. You are the only woman for me.”

“If you go looking for her again, I’m coming with you,” she said adamantly.

“No, Isabelle. I won’t ever put you in danger.”

“I can handle myself.” She pulled on her shirt. “Listen, give yourself some time to settle down. Why don’t I make some inquiries internally? I can make something up, some reason I’m trying to track her. Then if you can’t let it go, we’ll go look for her. Together.”

He nodded his head, although he looked reluctant. She just hoped he would stick to that and she wouldn’t wake up one morning with him gone.

Cade looked up as they reached his parents’ house, Isabelle had driven him home, and although sex had eased the sexual tension between them, their conversation had been sparse. As he got out of the car, and went around to kiss her good night, Cade realized they still had a lot of ground to cover to get to know each other.

“I was thinking,” she said, looking shy, her eyes averted as she stared at the house. “Why don’t we spend a couple of days getting a room ready for Maisie in my house?”

“Are you sure? That’s a big thing for me to ask of you,” he said, stroking her cheek and wishing he was going home with her right now.

“Yes. We’re going to be together, Maisie is going to be a big part in that, so let’s all get to know each other. I understand you’re a package deal.”

“You are an amazing woman, Sheriff Isabelle Malone.” He kissed her again, her lips warm against his.

“Good night, Cade. I’ll see you tomorrow after my shift.”

“Maisie and I might come by and pay you a visit,” he said, watching her put the car in reverse.

“I’d like that. Good night.”

“Good night, Isabelle. Sweet dreams.” He knew he would have the sweetest dreams, full of his mate and her lovely, curvy body.

Walking to the house, he turned once to watch her taillights disappear, then he opened the door and went inside. The house was quiet, and he thought everyone had already gone to bed. It felt weird that the door hadn’t been locked, and the difference between his life here and the one he had left behind came sharply into focus once more.

“You got lucky with the sheriff. Best kind of woman you could meet.” His dad was in the sitting room reading his book, just as Cade remembered him doing for all of his life, it comforted Cade that some things never changed.

“Hey, Dad.”

“I thought we should have a talk, your mom’s gone to bed, and Maisie’s sleeping,” he added, when Cade’s eyes flickered to the stairs. “Come and have a drink with me.”

His dad got up and fetched two glasses, getting a bottle of scotch out of the cupboard and pouring two small glasses. Cade smiled. His dad never was one for too much liquor; he liked to have a clear head at all times. A trait Cade had inherited.

“Here.”

“Thanks,” Cade said, taking the offered glass and sipping it. “That’s good.”

“Bernie brings me a bottle every month or so. Damned if I know where he gets it from, but it’s a smooth drink.” His dad took a sip and then set the glass down. “I thought maybe there were some things you might want to talk about that you might not want your mom to hear.”

“You mean about Maisie?” Cade asked.

“About anything. You disappeared, Cade. We knew you were undercover, but we usually hear something from you. Then you turn up on the doorstep with a baby who isn’t yours.” He held up his hand and said, “I am not saying she isn’t welcome. The opposite, we will love her as if she were our own granddaughter. Which she’s not. Is she?”

Cade shook his head. “No.”

“And now you’ve found your mate. You know, if it’s an issue for Isabelle, having someone else’s daughter living with her, Maisie can stay here. We’d raise her, love her.”

“I know, Dad. But Isabelle is all right with it. At least she says she is, and I believe her.”

“Good. She is a good woman, fair, just, and doesn’t take any crap. You’re a lucky man, Cade.”

“Am I?” He took another sip of his drink, and then looked at his dad.

“You can’t take the blame for other people’s actions, son,” his dad said gently.

“But if I had somehow stopped it… Or searched harder for Jenni. If only I hadn’t been undercover, she might have found me sooner and she could have kept Maisie. I could have helped her clear her name.”

“We all have parts of our lives we would change if we could. But we can’t, so we make the most of now. You work through it, and make the best of it.”

Cade put his face in his hands and shook his head. “I know. I never thought life could get this complicated. When I went undercover, it was simple. You play a game, you pretend to be what the bad guys want you to be, and then you nail them. But this time I feel like I got nailed. But then there’s Maisie… Like you said, I wouldn’t wish her away. I wouldn’t want to change a thing. And that spears my heart. Her mom is out there suffering.”

“So she just left Maisie with you?” his dad asked.

Cade nodded. “Jenni said the job ended, she put in her report. Then the evidence against the guy they were investigating went missing. Everyone thought it was her, that she had grown too close to the mark. She couldn’t deny it; she was carrying his child. She ran. Then one day I opened the door, and there she was, on my doorstep with a baby, looking as if hell itself was on her heels.” He took a large swig of his drink.

“What happened to her, to make her want to give away her child like that?” His dad sat shaking his head.

“Someone got to her. Someone knew her secret. I wondered if it was the mark. That was where I looked first. It took a lot of digging around to put the pieces together as to who he was. It seems they had enough to still charge him: he’s rotting in jail, got fifteen years. I went to see him. I came away convinced it wasn’t him. It appears someone was after the money that was confiscated and the drugs for the same reason, to sell.”

“How many people on the team knew about her relationship with the mark, and also knew about her pregnancy?”

“I don’t know. I went to see the detective in charge of Jenni’s case, Stanhope. He was also the lead detective on the case I worked with Jenni. He was helpful because he thought he had let her down too. I never mentioned Maisie though, never mentioned I even knew she was pregnant. I just told him I heard through the grapevine she had made some mistakes.”

“Do you trust him?”

Cade shrugged. “I don’t trust anyone right now. No one from my old life, at least.”

“Which is why you came home,” his dad stated.

“Which is why I came home,” Cade repeated. “I grew up here, I know the people, I know no one is going to sell me or Maisie out.”

“Cade, now you’re home, you should let this go. I can see it haunts you, but you have Maisie and Isabelle now, enjoy what you have been given.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Cade said sadly.

“You have always followed your heart, and done the best you could to find Jenni. Don’t let it become an obsession that stops you making a good life here. The past is the past. Maisie and Isabelle are your future.”

“Not the most promising of futures. I had to get myself medically discharged so I could go and look for Maisie’s mom. I used all my savings, I have no job, no home, no prospects.”

“And that would tell most people, Isabelle included, that you are a good man. A loyal man, not to mention you have taken on the duty of father to a child that is not your own.” His dad got up, downed the last of his scotch, rested his hand on Cade’s shoulder, and then said, “I’m going to bed. But I want you to know your mom and I are very proud of you, and will always be here for you. And Maisie.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Cade said, resting his hand on his father’s.

As he sat alone, finishing his drink, he thought over what had happened and realized he would never truly be at peace until he knew Maisie was safe. And he would never know that unless he went back and faced his demons, and finally put things straight. Whether he found Jenni or not, he had to know the answers, or they would eat him up inside.

“This doesn’t look good,” Isabelle said, looking up from her paperwork as Cade walked into her office, Maisie in his arms. She could tell by the set of his face that she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say.

“I spent last night going over what happened, with Maisie’s mom and everything.” He came and sat down in the chair opposite her.

“And you’re going to go and find her,” she stated.

“Yes.”

“That’s what I thought, so I’ve done some digging, and this is what I’ve come up with.” She slid a piece of paper towards him, then waved at Maisie. “Hi there, sweetheart, can I have a cuddle?”

Cade looked at Maisie, who was smiling at Isabelle, and then let her go to his mate. It made her feel better that he trusted her with his ward. Isabelle got Maisie settled, and watched Cade’s face as he went over the document.

“And these are genuine?” Cade asked.

“Yes. The photos are recent,” she said.

“The dates on them show it was about four weeks ago.” He flicked through the papers. “She resurfaced? She’s set up shop selling a new drug, Niq It. Mind-bending stuff. And very dangerous.”

“Do you think she’s the brains behind it? Jenni is there in the thick of it, according to surveillance.”

“Is there anything to suggest she is undercover? Maybe she resumed her old job.” He frowned as he sifted through the information.

“Her name was never cleared; she’s still wanted by the police.” She tried to judge his reaction. “And there is no ongoing case linked to this warehouse.”

“So how did you get these?” he asked, confused. “I searched for months for any sign of her.”

“OK, so when I said I would do a little digging, I went to my source in the shifter community. I explained what I needed. He said he would do what he could. This way it does not get traced back to you. Or me.”