Page 19 of Stolen Mate

Derek grinned. All he could think of was how Zak had once told him that when Sienna got snarky, he just remembered what that mouth looked like swollen from his kisses or wrapped around his cock, and it got easy to just let it go. Zak was right. The idea of Tess’s lips wrapped around his dick as he slid it in and out of her mouth made snark immaterial. Deke had simply said he gave Annie something better to do with her mouth, which bordered on too much information when Derek thought about his sister.

“If you think I’m lying to you, just return my clothes, and I’ll find my way back to Trudy’s. Oh shit. Does she know I’m here? We were going to have dinner at Dash’s place.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Am I… what difference does that make?”

“If you’re hungry, I’ll fix us something. I’m a pretty decent cook.”

“I don’t want to have dinner with you. I want to get my clothes back and get out of here.”

Derek chuckled. “That’s not going to happen. Your clothes don’t exist anymore.”

“What did you do? Burn them?”

“No. They just went to that big laundry hamper in the sky.”

“What are you blathering on about?” she said, her temper rising.

“I’m sorry. You probably don’t see this as being humorous at all. Let’s start over. Hi, I’m Deputy Derek Grayson. Can you tell me how you ended up naked in a field just outside of Mystic River’s city limits?”

“You didn’t take my clothes?” she asked.

“Nope. When I found you, you were naked.”

That wasn’t exactly the truth, but he didn’t think telling her he’d found her in her polar bear form, they’d had a brief skirmish, he’d forced her to shift back, and then found her naked was going to get them where they needed to go. He wasn’t quite sure how he was going to bring the conversation around to the fact that she was a polar bear-shifter when she obviously had no concept of shifters or that they existed.

“Had I been assaulted? Did you take me to see a doctor?”

“No. You seemed perfectly fine to me, but we have a town doctor. I’m sure Doc Hadley would be happy to see you.”

Maybe he could fob this off on the doctor. Doc had to have more experience with this kind of thing than he did. But there were so many questions: how had she reached the age she was and not known she was a shifter? Derek guessed she was in her late twenties. Had she been turned? Surely, she would know that. And if not turned, then she had to have been born one. Why had her parents kept that from her?

“I need to leave here,” she said, flinging back the covers and then pulling them back as she seemed to remember she was naked. “First I need clothes.”

Derek stood up and approached the bed in what he hoped was a non-threatening manner. “I tell you what, why don’t we give Doc a call…”

“From what I can tell it’s nighttime…”

“Doc keeps kind of odd office hours.” Doc stayed open late a couple of nights a week for those citizens who were nocturnal. Derek glanced down at his watch. “In fact, I’ll bet he hasn’t left for home. How about if I give him a call and see if he can swing by? I don’t really think I have anything to fit you. If you like, I can ask him to swing by Trudy’s and pick up your clothes.”

“I don’t want to be any trouble.”

“You’re not. People in Mystic River take care of each other, and we don’t get a lot of outside visitors. Most of Trudy’s guests are friends or family of residents.”

“I wouldn’t mind having my things, but please tell Trudy I intend to come back so would prefer to keep my room.”

“Do you remember what happened when you went in the meadow?”

“The buzzing and nausea got a whole lot worse. I remember my knees buckling and everything went black. The next thing I know, I woke up here having you ogle me.” She said the last with a hint of humor in her voice.

“Trust me, Tess, if I’d been ogling you, the covers wouldn’t have been hiding you from me.”

She blushed but seemed to relax a little.

“I can give Trudy a call,” he offered. “Let me make you a nice cup of coffee or tea. I have a real nice local blend of tea that I find very soothing, both mentally and physically. How about if I make you a cup with a nice dollop of locally sourced honey?”

She brightened as a small smile began to form. “I love tea with honey. My sister always adds sugar, as did my mom, but I prefer honey.”

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