Mated Read online

  Cale nodded. “Tell Brian we’re a little more than an hour out. We have to move on this. Get him to call Rome and tell him to get his ass over to the office.”

  Rome Purcell, another Sentinel, was a top criminal attorney who kept the organisation out of trouble when business forced them to skate on the edge of the law.

  “Okay.” He snapped his phone shut after a brief conversation. “He’s on it.”

  * * * *

  Linnea was curled in Cale’s lap in the big chair in the living room. All the tears she’d been holding back all this time had burst forth and she’d cried until Cale worried she’d make herself sick. What they’d found had indeed been Cathy Porter’s body, but there’d also been a bonus—what was left of the woman Gray Fisher’d had an affair with before coming to The Gage Foundation. Apparently beneath his too-smooth exterior, he concealed a raging temper. Afraid the woman would come to San Antonio and make trouble for him, he’d had her meet him at the cabin and strangled her.

  No one had been aware that Cathy had come back to the office the night she disappeared to work on reports for the donors, killing time while she waited to meet her sister for dinner. She had apparently discovered some major discrepancies in cash flow that worried her. Normally she would have waited until the next morning to confront her boss, but he was meeting that night with his good friend Brad McIntyre, so she barged into his office. And two men with everything to lose had killed her and buried her near the cabin.

  “It’s just not fair,” Linnea said. “She was such a good person. I wish you’d had a chance to know her.”

  “I do, too, baby.” He stroked her hair. “But at least the bad guys are in jail and nothing’s going to get them out. And Texas has the death penalty.”

  “That’s the only thing that makes me feel better,” she sniffed, then pressed her face into his neck.

  “You do that again and we’ll have to move this into the bedroom real quick,” he said, only half-teasing.

  “I wouldn’t mind.” Her arms stole around his neck and they sat that way for a few moments. Then she let out a huge sigh. “Cale?”

  “Yeah, darlin’?”

  “So what happens now?”

  He frowned. “Luke and I might have to testify at the trials but we’re cool about that.”

  “No, I mean about…about us.”

  “Oh.” He smiled against the softness of her hair. “Well, to start with, I’d like to take you down to see my ranch. Spend a few days there if you can get away.”

  “That would be nice.” She cuddled closer. “And then what?”

  He knew he had to be careful here. She might not want the same things he did. “I think that depends on you. I know what I want, but you’ve got a great career here, and a beautiful house. And I can’t exactly run my ranch from here.”

  She reached up and touched her fingers to his lips. “Details,” she said. “Houses can be sold. Jobs can be moved. What I need to know is if you meant what you’ve been saying. Are we mated, Cale? For real?”

  He stood up with her in his arms. “Damn straight. And I’m about to show you just exactly how well.”

  About the Author

  Desiree Holt has lived a life of excitement that brings the colour to her writing. She was a summer fishing guide, a summer field hand where she was one of only three women working, a member of a beginning ski team that skied in competition (and no, no broken bones!). She spent several years in the music business representing every kind of artist from country singer to heavy metal rock bands. For several years she also ran her own public relations agency handling any client that interested her. She is twice a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award, a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio as well as a CAPA for Best BDSM Book of the Year, winner of two Holt Medallion Awards of Merit, and is published by four different houses. Romance Junkies said of her work: “Desiree Holt is the most amazing erotica author of our time and each story is more fulfilling then the last.”

  Email: www.desireeholt.com

  Desiree loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.totalebound.com.

  Also by Desiree

  Crude Oil

  Beg Me

  Afternoon Delight

  Summer Spice

  Down and Dirty

  The Sentinels: The Edge of Morning

  The Sentinels: Night Moves

  The Sentinels: Dark Stranger

  The Sentinels: Animal Instinct

  Wet Dreams and Fantasies: Interlude

  Wet Dreams and Fantasies: Game On

  Brit Party: Fourplay

  Night of the Senses: Carnal Caresses

  Caught in the Middle: Swingtime

  Threefold: Party of Three

  Feral: Black Cat Fever

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