Dima was here!

Zoe yanked Rollo away from the window the moment she saw Dima and his henchmen walk through the open doors into the dining room. Dima wasn’t supposed to be here yet. She had three more days until their delivery drop. What the hell was he doing in the lodge?

Was he following her? Was he angry?

People tended to get shot in the head when Dima was angry. Zoe’s heart beat a mile a minute as she dragged Rollo away from the dining room windows. She couldn’t let Dima see her. She couldn’t let Rollo see Dima. She couldn’t let anybody see anybody.

Thinking fast, she tried to come up with an excuse for why she dragged him all the way around the back side of the lodge and down the stairs toward the lake. It was dusk now and the porch and path lights around the lodge had already flickered to life.

“Where are you taking me?” he asked in a husky voice.

She had ahold of his forearm, but he grabbed her hand and forced her to hold it. She continued to lead him by the hand down the path towards the forest.

She had been to the lodge several times and knew the grounds fairly well. As a shifter, she had a kind of sixth sense for directions and remembered exactly which way to go. After a few minutes they were standing under the cover of ponderosa pine mixed with Douglas fir along a secluded path. The cool air from the lake swept down the path and goosebumps rose along her exposed arms.

Rollo held onto her hand and moved closer, sniffing the air.

“Zoe,” he whispered in her ear, his body growing closer by the second.

His hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her soft curves against his muscled flesh. She gasped, looking up at him as the moon rose overhead.

“Rollo,” she said, pushing against his chest.

“We’re both shifters, Zoe. There’s no reason to beat around the bush,” he said, pushing his erection against her throbbing sex. She groaned, wanting him so much deeper.

“I’m not ready for this,” she breathed.

“Why did you bring me out here?”

“I needed some air.”

“I don’t believe you,” he growled.

She didn’t think before she pressed her lips against his. A jolt of electric pleasure shot through her core and exploded in her brain, tightening her nipples into hard little buds. She groaned, tasting his tongue as it flicked between her lips. The liquid heat of their kiss washed over her skin, and she was enraptured by his touch. His hands roved her body, cupping her ass and pulling her against his stiff erection. She felt herself gush with need as their kiss deepened.

Rollo slid his hand along her thigh and under the hem of her dress, pushing upward until his fingers slid across the damp cloth between her legs. She shuddered, his fingers igniting the deep need, buried inside her. His fingers slipped under her panties, pushing through her wet folds until he pressed against her swollen clit. Zoe gripped the lapels of Rollo’s suit jacket, wanting him so much closer. His deft fingers worked her body, showing her exactly what he wanted.

Her pleasure built as Rollo kissed her harder. His fingers slid inside her, caressing her g-spot as his thumb focused on her tight bud. Zoe leaned her head back as she felt the flood of release rising over her. She moaned in the moonlight soaked forest and an owl hooted in reply. As she came, she felt her connection to Rollo solidifying. The invisible cords that bound them, strengthened with each throbbing contraction of her sex.

Rollo kissed her neck, moving his hands over her ass once more as he pressed his erection against her stomach. She knew he wanted her. She knew he wanted to claim her.

Zoe couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than the exact same thing. Pulling away from him was like ripping off her own limb. But she had to do it. Getting involved with Rollo now, with Dima already here in Fate Mountain would be an inexcusable mistake.

She’d only brought him out here to get away. Rollo couldn’t know she was connected to Dimitri Ivanov. She had to keep her involvement a secret from him just like the theft of the jewels and all of the other mistakes she’d made over the last three years. She stepped back from Rollo, her head in a daze and her body alive and calling out for more.

“Where are you going, little kitty?” he asked in a low, husky voice.

“I told you, Rollo, I’m not ready for this,” she said.

“You kissed me. I’m beginning to think you’re just a selfish lover,” he teased.

She leaned back into him, his scent filling her senses. She could not get enough of him. If he were to pick her up and take her now, she could not resist him. Part of her wished he would do it.

“I’m anything but a selfish lover,” she purred. “But you are going to have to be patient if you want to find out just how giving I really am.”

“When you put it that way, I guess I can let you go. For now,” he growled in her ear.

She stepped away, giggling nervously. She didn’t want him to let her go now or ever. But she knew that’s what had to happen for everyone’s safety. If Zoe ever wanted to be free of Dima, and the repercussions of what she had done, she had to keep her involvement with the Russian mafia a secret from Rollo.

He was the police commander. If he knew anything about what she had done, he’d throw her in jail and throw away the key.

Wouldn’t he?

Of course he would. He was a law enforcement officer, and he had the responsibility to uphold the law. And technically, Zoe was a criminal. There was no getting away from that fact. She had broken the law numerous times, and she would do it again if she had to, in order to buy her freedom from Dima once and for all.

Maybe, just maybe, if she could ever pay off her debt to Dimitri Ivanov, she could start her life over again with Rollo. She would have to keep her past a secret from him for the rest of their lives, but that was a price she was willing to pay for true love.

The spark between them was new, but Zoe could tell that in time it would grow into a raging inferno. Rollo was everything she had ever wanted. If only she could have him.

“Will you drive me home?” she asked.

“I will,” he said with obvious reluctance.

He took her hand gently in his, covering her with his warmth. They walked quietly through the moonlit forest until they came back to the parking lot where his SUV was parked. He opened the door and helped her inside. She’d just taken a half mile hike in a pair of Louboutin pumps, and her calves were killing her. Zoe might be a shifter, but that didn’t make hiking in heels any easier. Next time she ran off into the forest with Rollo, she hoped they would both be naked.

She couldn’t get the image of her and Rollo running naked through the forest, out of her head the entire trip back to the Bright Institute for Shifters. When Rollo parked in front of the dormitory and opened the door to help her out of the car, they stood in the orange glow of the halogen street lamps above the parking lot.

In the silence of the night, they looked into each other’s eyes. She had not expected this evening to go this way. No, that was a lie. Zoe was a shifter, and she knew exactly what Rollo meant to her. She would be lying to herself if she couldn’t admit that she knew exactly where the night would go.

And now she was trapped. She hadn’t wanted to meet him for this very reason. She was physically and emotionally bonded to him already. She wanted him with every muscle, every nerve, every layer of her soul. He excited something inside her that she couldn’t express in human words. Her jaguar would not quit moaning and groaning, and constantly showed her images of Rollo sinking himself deep inside her softness.

He leaned into her and pressed a gentle kiss against her lips before he drew way.

“This was the best date I’ve ever had,” Rollo said.

“You have very low standards,” Zoe teased.

“On the contrary, I have extremely high standards. The only one I want is my fated mate. And that is you. Any date with you is the best date. The next one will be better than the last. I guarantee it,” he said in a seductive voice.

Zoe knew exactly what he was talking about. They both knew it, and they both wanted it. She knew that his grizzly was driving him mad, insisting that he sink his teeth deep inside her neck and claim her as his own.

Her jaguar wanted exactly the same thing. The animal drive inside a female shifter was exactly the same as that inside a male shifter. She wanted to claim him too. She wanted to ride his cock and slash his chest with her claws as he thrust himself inside her. She wanted to feel their mutual release as they tasted each other’s blood.

“Oh God,” Zoe muttered, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss Rollo one more time before she pulled away and started toward the stairs.

“Good night,” he said behind her. “Until next time.”

She turned back to him, his body silhouetted by the lamplight behind him. “Until next time,” she breathed.

Zoe trotted up the steps to the dormitory of the Bright Institute for Shifters and slipped inside, her heart pounding like a maniac beating a drum. Confusion thrashed and her mind felt fragmented between her need for Rollo and her need to stay away from him.

Zoe had always been an independent, confident woman. And she didn’t intend to let that change one little bit. But Rollo did something to her that made her want to allow him to protect her. It made her want to tell him all her secrets.

But if she did, she could compromise it all. After their first kiss she knew now that, more than anything, she wanted to be with him forever. But she couldn’t allow herself to have it yet. Not with the threat of Dimitri Ivanov hanging over her head. She had to deal with him once and for all and finally be free before she could have Rollo and claim him as her own.