Page 23 of The Scent of Seduction

“There’s something that I promised to help Nicole with today—”

Shaun started laughing, and Jaryn rolled his eyes. “Not that, you pervert. Well, not only that,” he said, smiling. “Actually, she hasn’t contacted any of her family since her escape. I promised to set up a secure link so she could do so.”

Shaun sobered and nodded his head. “You let me know when you’re ready. The council is on permanent standby with this situation, so we have free rein to contact them at any time.”

Jaryn looked up and saw Nicole standing in the doorway of his office. He waved her over and patted his lap. His eyes were trained on her as she moved across the room. Her movements were both graceful and sensual. Each slight roll of her hips had Jaryn’s hands itching to hold the curves in his palms once again. Nicole settled her slight weight in his lap and Jaryn couldn’t help but bury his nose in the elegant column of her neck. He kissed along the tendon, and placed a small lick over his mating mark. Nicole’s head fell back on his shoulder and she ground her bottom against his filling cock.

“Alpha? Do we need to finish our conversation later?”

Jaryn opened his eyes and looked Shaun’s image. His Beta sat at his own desk with his arms folded, but there was a definite gleam of longing in his best friend’s eyes.

“Sorry.” He caressed Nicole’s jeans-clad leg. “Say hello to Shaun, love.”

The sweetest blush covered his mate’s pale skin as she said hello. Jaryn continued to caress every inch of bare skin he could find while Nicole and Shaun chatted for a moment. He got an elbow to the gut for his efforts from his mate.

“Pay attention, Jaryn,” she scolded.

“Sorry love, I was distracted by your silky skin. Now what is it you need?”

Jaryn looked up at the wall and saw Shaun roll his eyes.

“Never mind, Nicole, I’ll pin him down later. He’s useless to me right now. Call me when your mind is ready to focus on more than the beautiful woman in your arms, Alpha.”

“I fear that may be never, but I’ll do my best to raise my head above the fog of mating heat smothering my brain sometime later today.”

Jaryn disconnected the signal of the link with a tap to the laser keyboard lighting up the surface of his desk.

Nicole smiled and leant back to kiss him. Her lips parted and Jaryn slowly fed his tongue between the lush flesh. He adjusted their bodies so he could deepen the kiss and sank his hand into the cool curtain of Nicole’s fiery hair. She tasted of the strawberries they’d had for brunch and the uniqueness that was his mate—the addicting essence that fuelled his senses and made his heart thump to the beat of an earthy drum. When he felt a vibration low in Nicole’s chest, Jaryn separated from his mate and stared in wonder.

“Did you just growl?”

Nicole’s eyes fluttered open in confusion. “What?”

He must be imaging things. “Nothing, love. As pleasurable as this is, let’s make that call I promised you last night. Then we can get lost in each other for hours on end.”

Nicole sneaked a quick kiss from Jaryn’s lips. “No, then you and Shaun are going to contact the council and put a plan in motion to rescue Adam’s hostages.”

“How did you…”

“While you were busy nibbling on my neck. Shaun filled me in on your plans. Please be careful, Jaryn. Adam has that place so wired any trip of his alarms will send it into instant lock-down. You wouldn’t be able to get in if you had rocket launchers. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”

“I won’t say ‘don’t worry’ because that’s useless. But I will say have faith, my little mate. This isn’t my first rodeo, which is why the council nominated me for this task force.”

Nicole got up off Jaryn’s lap and sat on his desk facing him. “What do you mean?”

“I know we haven’t got to sharing everything about our lives yet, but in our reckless youth, Cooper and I spent a decade in the military. We were part of a Spec Ops team that comprised individuals with… shall we say, extra abilities. It’s where we eventually met Shaun.”

“You’re telling me you were some type of clandestine military operative who was part of a team of shifters?”

“Shifters, vamps, individuals with paranormal talents,” he chuckled. “There was even this fairy named Collin who played the best practical jokes. Nobody was safe from his shenanigans.”

“Wow. Didn’t see that one coming. Did you say vamps? As in vampire? And a fairy?” Jaryn nodded. “You didn’t think shifters were the only paranormal group in the world, did you?”

Nicole tilted her head and frowned. “I never really thought about it. If Adam has someone like Kenneth imprisoned, maybe he also has some of the other kinds as well? I’m sorry, I didn’t even think of that when we were going over the details. It makes sense, though. So how come we haven’t heard anything in the public about those groups?”

“Don’t worry, love. I did think of it, even if you didn’t. Besides, you told me that Broyles kept you locked up in your suite. It’s not as if you could organize social mixers. When it looked like our secret was about to be exposed, the Council of Praeternaturals, which is essentially a worldwide council that represents all paranormal groups, minimized the blowout. Shifters volunteered to be the scapegoat. So we announced our presence to the world to deflect exposure from the other groups. So far, it's been effective, but we all know it's only a matter of time before people uncover more and more information. We’ve kept most of our secrets safe for around fifty thousand plus years. Not a poor track record, if you ask me, but time is always moving forward and we have to move with it.”

“Shifters have been around for fifty thousand years?”

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