Thank God for the twins, otherwise Frankie might be tempted to do some very inappropriate things with Detective Kennedy. He was currently melting her heart as he played cars with them. They’d given up parking the toys in the garage and were now using him as a road, rolling the cars over his washboard abs and muscled thighs. And wow, did she want to use his body as a road, too, only with her tongue, her teeth, and some very intimate parts of her body.
Was this what happened to people who were facing imminent death? Every moment, every emotion, was heightened until she thought she’d explode from the need to experience it all. She ought to be thinking of ways to survive the next few days. Now that she’d started telling people she intended to take over the pack, her brother had no reason to hold back from killing her. She was convinced the only reason he’d left her alone was because she’d been too busy helping people to mess with pack politics. She’d been keeping up the apartment complexes, built the community center, and helped whenever someone was sick or hurt or old.
But now she’d stepped into the ring and instead of planning ways to take him out first, she was thinking about things she could do with Detective Kennedy.
He caught her looking at him. His gaze was curious at first, then darkened into smoldering. She doubted the man read minds, but maybe he noticed her flushed face or her tight nipples. God, she needed to turn away. Just suppress all her lust because now was not the time or the place.
But if not now, then when? After she was dead by her brother’s hand? After her father took them into a war with the bears and she got swiped by someone’s deadly claws because she refused to fight?
How had the world sunk to this level of madness? How had her choices become a fight to the death for control of the pack or fight in a ridiculous war against bears who were completely innocent of the disaster her brother had created? She was dead either way, so why not embrace life while she could?
Because the situation was complicated and difficult enough without adding romance to the mix. And with a bear, no less. That’s what she told herself as she started scooping casserole into a dish. She’d barely gotten halfway when one of the boys erupted in a furious scream.
“Hey, hey,” Kennedy said before she could do more than spin around. “There are plenty of cars, you don’t have to take the red one. That’s your brother’s.”
Nice try, but she could already see that the boys weren’t going to respond to logic. They were tired, cranky, and not in the least bit interested in sharing. Especially since the two were now grappling with each other and starting to bite.
“And we’re done with the cars,” he said.
She was about to intervene when Kennedy spoke, gently disentangled them from each other. Then he stood up with a boy in each arm. It was an impressive display of strength and agility given that the kids were squirming and not at all happy with the situation. And yet, he was completely calm as he jostled them into position and faced her.
“So what’s the plan? Do they eat? Or maybe a bath first?” He wrinkled his nose as he held them. “They do smell kind of ripe.”
“Their stomachs can’t take regular food yet.” She waved at the casserole. “This is for us and for Noelle when she gets back. But they can eat some animal crackers.” She held up the box and pulled out a bear. “Hey, Jax. You want to eat a bear?”
She wasn’t speaking metaphorically or even suggestively, but a graphic image flashed through her thoughts. And her libido answered enthusiastically. Yes, why yes she did indeed want to eat a bear. Or at least suck on one.
Her face heated at her thoughts even as Jaxon grabbed the cracker and started to gnaw on it.
“Got any wolves in there?” Kennedy asked, his voice rough and with an undercurrent of awareness.
Her gaze shot to his and he smiled, a slow, charming smile that had her melting. So yes, he was aware of her sexual thoughts. And yes, he shared them. But again, she reminded herself, this was not the time or place.
She ducked her head rather than look into his blue, blue eyes. She rooted through the box for a wolf. She found one eventually and handed it over to Harley, who wasted no time in chomping down on it.
“Darn,” Kennedy said, humor in his voice. “I wanted the wolf.” Then he grinned. “Well, maybe I’ll find a different one.”
“You cannot be flirting,” she said sternly, though obviously he was. And even worse, she liked it.
“I can’t?” he asked, his tone completely innocent. “And here I thought I was.”
She paused and looked him in the eye. She wanted to ask him why. She wanted to know how they’d gone from enemies to playful flirting in the course of a few hours. “This roller coaster is hard to ride, you know. I don’t know which end is up.”
She expected him to say a cheesy, sexual thing that she could use to stomp down her libido. But instead of dismissing her, his expression sobered, and he answered honestly. “I feel the same way, you know. I don’t know what direction I’m supposed to go. I just know how I feel.”
“You’re a bear.”
“You’re a wolf.”
“We might be at war. There could be a notification on my phone right now telling me to kill or capture you.”
He arched a brow. “Are you going to look at your phone anytime soon?”
She shook her head.
“Then I guess we’re still friends.” He watched as she passed over a giraffe to Jaxon and a squirrel to Harley. “And for the record, I don’t go to war unless it makes sense, and there’s no other way. I haven’t exhausted all the possibilities yet, have you?”
“Not in the least.”
