The Shifter's Fake Fiancé Read online

  “Hello, Valerie,” Carl Lancaster’s voice came through the line smoothly. “I trust you’ve had a good day?”

  On second thought, Bloom wouldn’t have been so bad. Valerie bit back a curse. “It’s been a long day. Not necessarily a good one.”

  Lancaster chuckled. He sounded so much more relaxed now than he had when she had spoken to him before that it made a chill run up her spine. Something had happened that made him think he had the upper hand again. Or… She flinched. He had heard something.

  “I also hear that congratulations are in order,” he said, confirming her fears. “You’re going to be trying my son’s case now, aren’t you? How very fortunate for you. Something this big, it will almost certainly revive your career.”

  Valerie slid into her car and locked the doors. She sat there, not talking, trying to think of what to say, for several moments. Nothing came to mind and she resisted the urge to curse.

  “Valerie?” Lancaster’s voice almost sounded concerned. “Are you still there?”

  “I didn’t want the case,” she bit back, fighting the tremble of anger in her voice. “But apparently I have to take it, otherwise I’m going to get fired.”

  There was silence on the other end and Valerie almost laughed. Why was she acting like such an idiot? First making out with Kavan in a public place, then threatening the governor, now telling Lancaster something like that? Maybe she didn’t deserve to be a judge. Maybe she was having a mental breakdown. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a proper vacation. Now with everything snowballing…

  “If you’re expecting me to throw out your son’s case, you can forget about it,” she continued. “My career and life are a giant clusterfuck already right now, and I don’t have the energy to deal with your beating around the bush and sly prods to try to get me to do what you want. You know all about my relationship with Kavan now, don’t you?”

  “I’ve seen it on the news, yes.”

  “Then you know that I shouldn’t even be trying this case, and if I put one toe out of line, then all that will happen is I’ll be tossed out and someone else is going to be put in charge of it. Someone that you don’t have blackmail material on.”

  Lancaster sighed. “I suppose that is true enough. My patience is not unlimited, though. I want to see some progress at least. Set a bail, put it at whatever you want. I want my son back with me right away.”

  Valerie sighed. “I’ll set it tomorrow.”

  “Good.”

  The line went dead. Valerie tucked her phone back into her pocket, then rested her head on the steering wheel. This was a clusterfuck indeed. She knew that more deeply than anything else at the moment. Not only was she being pulled apart at every side, but she didn’t have any time to try to come to terms with it. No time to try to figure out another way for it to roll.

  No matter what she did, she was going to lose her job. That was obvious now. Bloom wanted her gone and he would see her gone. It was just a matter of how much her name was going to be dragged through the mud before that happened. Then, there was Lancaster. She couldn’t just let his son go, but if she didn’t, then he was going to tell everybody about the money he had given her. And that would most likely end up seeing her put in jail, what with how much Bloom hated her.

  Maybe it would be best to recuse herself from the trial. Claim that because of her relationship with Kavan, she couldn’t trust that there wasn’t something fishy going on. Although that could potentially open up Kavan to suspicion…

  And that was something she didn’t want. Sure, he was a criminal and sure, he was going back to jail soon, but she didn’t want him accused of crimes he didn’t commit. She didn’t want to hint at him still being tied to the Lancaster mafia when they were the ones that cut the ties with him. It was important to her that she not drag a party into this that had nothing to do with it.

  Her shoulders relaxed a little as she turned on the car. Maybe she should just follow up her fake story. Find evidence that Bloom was sabotaging her and release it to the public. It might not get her to the governor’s seat as she threatened but it would at least take him down a notch, right?

  The thought amused her as she headed home. She was on the brink of losing everything and her life being ruined. Was it possible to bring Bloom and Lancaster down with her in a great, dramatic flaming ball of hellfire and social judgment? Maybe even some law enforcement, too.

  Did she have enough on Lancaster now? Probably not. He’d be able to sneak out of it. And she didn’t have enough on Bloom… out of the two of them, though, Bloom was the more dangerous. Sure, Lancaster broke laws and ran a criminal empire but the fact was, his influence was limited. Bloom, on the other hand, had the potential of killing thousands by taking away basic protections. He could end up ruining far more lives than Lancaster. Taking down Lancaster would just mean another head of the family would pop up. Taking down Bloom meant they might be able to protect paranormal beings and other vulnerable citizens for a little while longer.

  And of course, I could just continue on, toe the line and desperately hope I keep my job.

  Valerie turned it all over in her head so much that her brain ached by the time she got home. She had also completely forgotten about the possibility that Kavan might be home until she was walking into her house and smelled the delicious scent of roasted vegetables.

  The dining room was laid out with her best tablecloth, fancy china dishes on it with two tapering candles lit. Kavan came out of the kitchen, carrying with him a green salad.

  “Hi, honey,” he said brightly as he set the salad down. “I didn’t know when you’d be home, so I’ve been keeping everything warm. Are you hungry?”

  The long, hard day seemed to just melt away as Valerie took off her coat. This beat a microwaved dinner any day of the week! “Starving. This looks delicious. Where did you find the candlesticks?”

  “I’ve had them for a while.” Kavan shrugged nonchalantly. “Thought it might be nice to have a dinner to celebrate me moving in with you. Don’t worry,” he added quickly, “I’ve put my stuff in the guest bedroom. I won’t be trying to seduce you, your Honor.”

  He poured her some sparkling apple juice and Valerie was almost disappointed. After the day she’d had, a martini would have been nice. Just enough to get the buzz on, so she and Kavan could have a repeat of the previous night.

  She glanced down at the ring she still wore. It needed to be cleaned, and the diamond needed to be replaced. Maybe after dinner, she’d give it to Kavan so he could get it fixed. She still needed to get it checked out to make sure it wasn’t stolen…

  Right.

  The fight they’d had earlier came back to her, and she dropped her hands into her lap. Kavan grinned as he dished up the salad, humming under his breath. He seemed so relaxed. Like he was just having fun. Did she really want to bring that up again?

  “How was your day?” Kavan asked her as he set her salad before her.

  “Ugh.” Valerie leaned her elbow to the table and rested her head on it. “It was… awful. I threatened the governor, have to take on a case trying Carl Lancaster’s son for human trafficking, had a major fight with my fiancé over trust issues and that’s just the start of it.”

  Kavan dropped the tongs, though he recovered them quickly. “You’re trying Lancaster’s case?”

  “You heard about it?”

  “Saw it on the news, yeah.”

  Valerie hesitated. “Don’t suppose you’d—”

  “We are not talking about it.” Kavan sat heavily across from her, his brow furrowed. “Not tonight. Let’s just have a nice dinner. Can we do that?”

  Valerie lifted her glass to him. “Yes. Let’s just have a nice dinner, then.”

  Chapter Seven

  Valerie pinched out one of the candles, pleasantly full. Even though the days were getting more and more stressful, at least she had the comfort of coming home to a delicious meal every night. A delicious meal and good company.

  “You�
�re going to make me fat again,” she joked as Kavan collected the dirty dishes. She knew it was still the ‘honeymoon’ period of this fake engagement of theirs, but she enjoyed being waited on a little. Especially since she was now getting flack for letting Matthew Lancaster out on bail. And the media had doubled down on her, so she had to believe that Bloom was taking his behind-the-scenes smear campaign to the next level. “I need to find ways to relieve stress that don’t involve eating.”

  “Oh, come off it.” Kavan laughed as he patted her back. “You’re not fat. You’re beautiful and sexy and—”

  “Doesn’t mean I’m not fat.”

  Kavan rolled his eyes. “Fat has negative connotations that don’t apply to you.”

  Valerie wasn’t going to argue that point, too sated to care about semantics. She stood and started helping clean up, despite Kavan’s protests. She couldn’t resist licking off the spoon they’d used to dish up the chocolate mousse he’d made for dessert.

  “Have you ever considered attending a cooking school or maybe opening up your own restaurant?” she asked him.

  “No.”

  Valerie glanced at him. “Why not? You’re an excellent cook. You could make a lot with this. Maybe catering, if you don’t want to cook every day. You could charge a ton for a little and work off that. I’m sure that I’d be able to get you a few starter jobs.”

  “I wouldn’t even know where to start with that. Besides, I like cooking privately. Making someone food,” he said, taking the dishes from her, “is a very sensual act. All that heat and butter and sizzling.”

  He set the plates down and put his hands on her hips. His eyes sparked with heat as he ran his hands up. It had been almost a week since they had officially become ‘engaged’ and they had not kissed since. Now, Valerie felt her own flaming heat rise up inside of her. Her breath caught in her throat, a fire zinging through her skin straight to her core.

  Well, she did say she needed to start dealing with stress with something other than eating.

  She swallowed dryly as he lifted her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. “Isn’t there anything else I can do to help you relax, your Honor?”

  “I…” Valerie was at a loss for words. “You haven’t done this before.”

  Kavan laughed and continued to kiss up her arm. “Because the last time I started kissing you, you pushed me away. I had to make sure that I was reading your signals right and you weren’t just giving me bedroom eyes because you were hungry for my cooking.”

  Heat flared in her cheeks. “I haven’t been giving you bedroom eyes.”

  “You’ve been looking at my tattoos like you want to chew them off me.”

  “If I do it’s only because I hate tattoos. And if you’re suggesting I get one on my arm, well…” She trailed off, uncertain where she was going with that.

  “Oh, I know exactly how you feel about tattoos.” Kavan stepped back. He stared hungrily at her, his eyes roving over her body.

  For a second, a look of hesitancy entered his eyes, but it disappeared soon enough. That casual, cocky smile was back, and he took her other hand and kissed the inside of that wrist, too. The look in his eyes was enough to make her legs go weak. Valerie held her breath, warring with herself. She didn’t want to tell him to stop. She wanted this to keep going. She wanted to forget about all the crap she was facing and just have him in her arms.

  She wanted him. Why did anything else matter?

  “Kavan,” she started, quite sure she wasn’t drunk enough for this.

  “Let me help you relax.”

  “I can’t. Maybe if I had something to drink…” She pulled away from him, the ache inside of her deepening as soon as his fingers were no longer on her skin.

  Kavan let out an aggravated sigh. “Are you saying that if you had something to drink, you’d relax, or if you had something to drink, you’d let me seduce you? Because I can tell you right now, if you have to be drunk in order to want to sleep with me—”

  “It’s not that at all,” Valerie snapped at him.

  “Then what is it?”

  She turned away from his challenging eyes. How many times did they have to go over this before he understood? She was a judge. He was a criminal. He was going back to jail. If she let herself get attached, if she started to care and then lost him… Or would she use her leverage to keep him out of jail? Would she reject everything she stood for, for him, the way she had rejected everything she stood for when she took Lancaster’s bribe to save her father? It had seemed like such a small thing at the time.

  Now look where it had gotten her. Could she risk that same thing happening with Kavan?

  “Well?” his voice was husky with annoyance and desire. “What is it?”

  “How do I know you’re not using me?”

  A brief pause. “I suppose you don’t. But—”

  “You could be planning on filming us and then leaking it online.”

  Kavan growled in irritation. “Do you still think that’s the kind of person I am?”

  Reluctantly, Valerie turned back to him. She studied him deeply for a moment before she shook her head.

  “Then?” He arched a brow and held out his hand. “Let me do this for you. Trust me when I say you’re going to enjoy it.”

  Valerie knew she was going to enjoy it. Her body was already heating at the thought. She bit her lip, considering, before finally taking his hand. Whatever he was up to, if it was something nefarious, then what harm could it do, really? It wasn’t like he was going to get her in bed to kill her. She didn’t think he’d take advantage of her sexually. And honestly, what could he do that was worse than what she was already facing.

  The wide grin that broke over his face made her heart speed up. Locking his eyes on her, he led her to the bedroom.

  Valerie’s heart pattered against her chest as a swell of excitement came over her. Kavan wore a dark, fitted shirt and dress pants. He even wore the silk tie she’d bought for him. Once in the bedroom, he turned to her and pressed her against the closed door. His hands moved over her body, light as a feather sometimes, rough and demanding at others. Valerie gasped as her head fell back against the door.

  “Do you want me?” he whispered in her ear, lips brushing against her skin.

  It felt like her whole body was on fire as she breathed back, “Yes.”

  Kavan stepped back. The look in his eyes—it filled Valerie with heat, made her ache between her legs. It had been a long time since somebody had looked at her like that. With that raw, pure lust, the desire for her. It seemed like there was always something attached to the desire when men looked at her. Desire for power, desire for money, desire to have what they thought they couldn’t or shouldn’t have. But with Kavan? The way he looked at her made her feel like the sexiest woman alive. Like if Cindy Crawford was standing right beside her, Kavan would still be looking at her, Valerie, with that same look in his eyes.

  “You are beautiful,” he murmured, his hands coasting to her waist. He found the first button on her blouse and undid it. “You are sexy.” He undid the second. “You are so strong. You are brave. You are magnificent.”

  He finished off the buttons and tugged the blouse down her arms. He tossed it away, then cupped her breasts in both his hands. He kneaded them with his fingers and the tingles of pleasure sharpened. It was like a string was pulled tight between her breasts and her core, making her swell with need. Her arms were flat on the door behind her, her knees weak. Why did Kavan affect her like this?

  “You are perfect,” he continued, his voice growing lower, more gravelly. He pressed against her, and she could feel his erection hard on her thigh. She moaned with want as the heat in her body grew more intense. Kavan grinned wickedly, apparently liking this. His hands moved down her torso, and he undid her pants. “What do you want me to do?”

  Valerie couldn’t stop her gasp of surprise.

  Kavan paused, her pants halfway down her thighs. “Is something wrong?”

  Valerie shoo
k her head. She didn’t want to say that she’d never actually been asked that before—not genuinely, at least. It had always been about what her lovers wanted.

  The whisper of fabric against her legs exposed her to the slightly chilly air as Kavan got to his knees. He lifted one leg out of her pants, removed her sock, then did the same with the other. He stayed where he was, his hands running up the back of her legs. Valerie put both her hands on his shoulders, supporting herself as her knees grew even weaker.

  “Kavan,” she moaned.

  A hand slipped between her thighs, massaging her through her underwear. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I…” She closed her eyes, letting images fill her mind. His head between her thighs, tongue lapping at her clit. Him over her, her legs around his waist as he thrust in steady, staring her in the eye. Her on her stomach, his hand around her throat, not so tight to hurt but enough to let her know he was in control. Him lying on the bed while she rode him, his hands on her hips. “Everything. I want you to do everything to me.”

  “Okay,” Kavan readily agreed. “But what shall I do first?”

  Valerie groaned with the unfairness of it. Her clit was swelling under his attention, her underwear growing damp from her desire. What was she supposed to choose first? Everything she thought of seemed too much and not enough at the same time!

  “You choose,” she finally blurted. “I want you in control this time.”

  A light chuckle answered her. Then Kavan stood. He removed his hand—she moaned in disappointment—and seized her about the waist. She cried out, then laughed at how startled she had been. Kavan slung her over his shoulder, took the few steps to the bed and threw her down. Her frame creaked when she landed and she winced, holding her breath.

  “Don’t do that,” she admonished. “The bed could have broken.”

  “That would be fun,” Kavan teased back, a twinkle in his eyes. “Now. Spread your legs, your Honor. Let me taste you.”

  Valerie shivered as she obeyed. Kavan dropped down, pulling her a little closer as he tugged at her underwear with one hand. “Do you mind if I just rip these off your body?”