Tropical Leopard's Longing (Shifting Sands Resort 8)

The back seat of a van was not the most comfortable place for two people to lie. Breck’s arm was wedged uncomfortably against a seatbelt, and every time Darla shifted in his arms, he got an elbow somewhere tender, or a limb went numb.

He still wasn’t willing to let go.

These were his last stolen moments with her.

It was nearly morning, and she would be occupied for the entire day preparing for her wedding. Tonight she did a chaperoned all-night vigil, and the following day, she would go through a ceremony and exchange vows with someone else, completing an iron-clad contract.

So he breathed in the smell of her hair and caressed the soft planes of her body and held her for all the moments he’d never hold her again as the first light before dawn crept up over the island.

“I’m so tired, but I don’t want to sleep,” Darla said, her voice slow and drowsy. “I don’t want to miss a single second with you.”

Footsteps crunched on gravel and they both froze.

“I’m telling you, I saw a light up here, they’re sure to be this way.”

“Mother,” Darla whispered in panic, just as Breck realized they’d left the flashlight on, wedged in the window to illuminated their workspace.

“It’s possible she only went for a walk,” Scarlet’s voice said, sounding perfectly reasonable. Cold chills went down Breck’s back. “She may have felt the need to work off some of her wedding jitters.”

“Crap,” Darla hissed, and she scrambled quietly off of Breck, accidentally kneeing him as she tried to navigate the darkness and the narrow space between seats.

Breck’s explicative was no less quiet, but much less polite.

“Sorry!” she breathed.

“Working off wedding jitters isn’t what I’d call it,” Jubilee said clearly, right beside the van.

Then the van door was yanked open, and she said with triumph, “I told you that pervert was defiling my daughter!” She was holding the kitchen apron that Darla had tucked under her pillow in her hand.

Frozen in the act of reaching for their damp clothing, Darla and Breck stared back at Scarlet and Jubilee.

“So I see,” Scarlet said, voice icy.

“Mother…” Darla started.

“You will be hearing from my lawyers,” Jubilee said to Scarlet, ignoring her daughter. “And if you expect a penny out of me, you’ll be informing me of his immediate termination.”

“Mother…”

“I assure you he will be dealt with.”

Breck swore the temperature dropped several degrees with Scarlet’s words, and there was a building feeling of pressure and power as her green eyes went from surprised to furious.

“Scarlet…” Darla attempted to plead.

She finally received her mother’s attention. “Get your clothes on, you shameless hussy,” Jubilee hissed. “You are getting married tonight, if Liam will still have you, and you will bless your stars that I’m not tossing all of you into the poorhouse over this.”

Darla was pulling on the only clothing she could find, and Breck managed to find pants while both women folded their arms and glared into the dim van. “Mother…” Darla protested again as she emerged from the neck of Breck’s shirt. “Breck is…”

Jubilee, patience exhausted, reached in and took her firmly by the arm, dragging her from the van. “I don’t care what disgusting thing he is. You are my daughter, and you will do as I say.”

Breck reacted to her manhandling with an instinctive growl, and surged forward to defend his mate… only to be intercepted by a hand at his shoulder.

He had always known that Scarlet was strong; she had a simmering power that was hard to miss. But he had not expected her to be this strong.

Her grip was iron, absolutely unmovable against all of his considerable shifter strength. Breck would have needed to literally rip his muscles from her grasp to be free. His collarbone creaked in protest when he struggled briefly.

He could do nothing but watch as Darla meekly followed her mother away, casting him one agonized look back over her shoulder.