Cain grunted at that, and his fingers stroked along the base of her back. “What? Some wild cat? A jaguar out prowling the countryside?”

Miranda stretched beneath his touch. They’d already made love once, but she wanted him again. “Something like that.” Yet despite Sam’s blustering words, she’d seen the real knowledge in his eyes.

It was a knowledge he didn’t want to deal with, not yet. She didn’t particularly blame him. The world was a bad enough place just with the screwed-up humans.

When you threw monsters into the mix, things truly went to hell.

“What does the deputy really think?”

Ah, he’d read her so easily. Miranda sighed. “I think he believes it’s best to keep pretending, for now.”

“He can’t pretend forever.” A quiet warning as his fingers stilled on her spine.

“No.” No one could. She stretched and kissed the rough line of his jaw. “I didn’t thank you before.”

“Baby, you said you loved me. Trust me, that was thanks enough to last me a lifetime.”

And she knew he meant those words. Miranda swallowed. “Where do we go from here, Cain?” Could a shifter settle down with a human? What would happen? Would he go back to working with the FBI while she taught high school students?

“I was thinking maybe an engagement,” he said and his fingers skated over the curve of her ass. “You know, third time being the charm for you and all.”

Her lips parted in surprise. Okay, she hadn’t imagined his confession in the middle of all hell breaking loose. He loved her. “That is what they say.” Grandma Belle had often said those words. Try it again, sweetie. Third time’s the charm. Grandma Belle’s soft voice seemed to whisper into her ears.

“Not too long,” he murmured. “Don’t want you to change your mind on me like you did with the others.”

Never going to happen. She loved him so much there was no room for any doubt in her mind. “Not too long at all,” she agreed.

“We’ll get the rings, book a church, and then you’ll be mine.” He kissed her, one of those kisses that made her feel like she was the most desirable woman on earth.

God, but she loved those kisses. She moved, shifting so she straddled his hips. His bare cock brushed against her sex. Already erect. Warm and hard.

Miranda rubbed over that length, teasing him with the folds of her sex. “Will you keep working for the FBI?” Dangerous, but he was used to danger, and she wasn’t going to ask him to stop being the man that he was. She would fear for him, but she would accept his choice.

A muscle jerked along his jaw and the fingers that had been caressing her now clamped over her hips in a steely grip. “No.” His gaze dropped to her lips. Then herbreasts. “Took the last case for you. I’m done.”

Another slow glide of her sex against his aroused flesh. The cream from her core coated the hard line of his shaft. “What will you . . . ah . . . do?” Though right then, she didn’t really give a damn. He could sell shoes for all she cared.

She just wanted to keep feeling that firm flesh pressing between her legs.

No, she wanted more. Wanted him inside. Deep.

Flesh to flesh. Finally.

“Gonna teach . . . criminal justice . . . community college . . .” He barely got the words out before her mouth crashed onto his.

Enough talking.

The guy had offered her marriage. Love.

Time for some serious celebrating.

His tongue drove into her mouth just as she angled her hips against him and impaled the length of his cock in one fierce move.

She moaned around his tongue, loving the hot feel of his flesh inside her.

No barriers.

Sex to sex.

Man and woman.

Perfect.

Miranda rode him hard, driving faster and faster. Sweat soon filmed on her body, on his. His mouth moved from her lips to her breasts. Sucking. Licking. Biting with rough care.

Her sex tightened around him. The telltale clench right before orgasm.

Cain twisted, rolled hard and fast, and Miranda found herself staring up at him. His face was taut, etched into stark lines of lust, but his golden eyes were blazing with love.

His fingers pushed between her legs, strumming her hungry flesh, and Miranda came with a gasp as the pleasure blasted through her.

Cain held his body perfectly still as her sex contracted with her release. She could hear the rough sound of his ragged breathing in her ears, and when she finally opened eyes that she didn’t remember closing, his stare—glowing now with the power of the beast—was locked on her.

“No . . . protection . . .” The words rasped from him.

Miranda shook her head.

His jaw clenched and he started to withdraw.

“No.” Her legs clamped around him. Her hips arched. “I want all of you this time.”

His lips parted on a breath of surprise and she caught sight of his sharp teeth.

Then he was driving deep and fast. The rhythm was wild, and Miranda held on to him as fiercely as she could. Her head thrashed against the pillow, her nails dug into his shoulders, and when he came, exploding in a white-hot wave inside of her, she held him even tighter.

Then she waited, letting her heart slow, and finally heard the soft sound of his purr.

She smiled and pressed her face against his shoulder.

Damn, but she loved her shifter, and though their life together might not always be easy, well, that would be okay. Grandma Belle had told her once that the good things never came easily.