Complication: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Shifters Forever After Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

the night away, then gone to his place for more. He’d never found out why she was going overseas, but he was glad about one thing.
    “I’m happy you made it back in one piece.”
    Her face fell. “Not exactly.” Her mouth clamped into a thin line.
    “What?”
    She shook her head and parted the seam in her lips just enough to let one word out. “Nothing.”
    “Well?” He cocked his head, waiting for her answer. “Did you think of me at all? After that night, I mean.”
    Her swallow wasn’t only audible, it was a lump he watched travel down the neck he’d kissed that night. Had she been thinking about the same things he’d been thinking? Did she remember that night as vividly as he did?
    “Yes,” she admitted. “Now, how are we going to solve this? I can’t have this getting out.”
    “I’ll take care of it.” He contemplated an idea. This is so fucked up. “Have dinner with me.”
    Her black eyes widened, and her lips parted with surprise. “What? That’ll only make things worse. You can’t be seen with one of the judges.”
    “Okay. After the case is over, then.”

----
    L aken couldn’t breathe . What the hell was she supposed to say? Was he asking her to have dinner in exchange for his silence? Why would he?
    She didn’t have to go, when all was said and done.
    Her panther screeched a roar in her head, almost pushing her to cover her ears.
    Dinner with this man was the last thing she needed to do. He was too sexy. Too much. A man like this would pull her away from her goals to work with the innocent victims of war.
    She needed to run away as fast as she could. But running away was the one thing she didn’t want to do. She wanted to have dinner with him.
    She wanted a repeat of that night.
    Fat chance of that, with me, with him.
    She fought a grimace as she said, “I’ll do it. Dinner.”
    A smile curved his full lips, transforming his face from that of a no-nonsense soldier to that of a bedroom-eyed god.
    “Mr. Romanoff.” What was she supposed to call him? That seemed too formal for someone who’d seen her naked once, long ago, when she was another woman—a very different woman.
    I’ve seen so much. Been through so much.
    “Malachi,” she corrected herself.
    “Ky.” He smiled. “My friends and family call me Ky.”
    “I need to get back to the hearing. The judges have to deliberate.”

7
    S omehow , Laken managed to keep her eyes off of Ky Romanoff, concentrating on everyone except for the sexy shifter when she reentered the room after he did.
    No sooner had she sat down than her phone buzzed. She chanced a quick glance.
    Cadence’s text read: If you can’t go to the beach, we’ll bring the beach to you.
    And there was a picture of Cadence and Carina on the beach in Cozumel, fruity frozen drinks in hand. The drinks were garnished with colorful umbrellas, and her sisters’ faces were garnished with half-drunk grins. She bit back the sigh of frustration she wanted to give in to.
    She tore her mind away from Cozumel and back to the present.
    David Partlay, looking uber-professional in his dark suit and dark-blue tie, rose and pressed a button that rang a bell. He cleared his throat, and the room silenced. “It’s time for the judges to deliberate on the case.”
    The three of them filed out of the room and into a private room that was soundproofed against supernatural shifter hearing.
    Once they’d dropped into their chairs, Benedict Morris called for them to take a few minutes to review their notes and reflect.
    Laken looked through her papers. She didn’t have much experience with SSC hearings; this was the first she’d ever attended.
    These people are putting their future in my hands.
    She’d listened objectively and had tried to weigh out the facts. Fedor Kozlov kept saying that Tanner Navarro had killed his son, but there was no proof of that, and Vey Kozlov’s death wasn’t part of the case, anyway. The hearing had been established for the purpose of determining