Radiant Violets Book Four of the NOLA Shifters Series Read online

  “We will stay as long as you like, Solnyshko.” He stayed close to her throughout the celebration. When they finally headed back to New Orleans, it was the wee hours of the morning, the sun was beginning to peek up over the horizon, and Jacob was so tired he couldn’t keep his eyes open. By the time Nikolai pulled into the driveway, Jacob was sound asleep.

  “Let me get him for you, Solnyshko.” When Casey nodded her consent, Nikolai gently lifted him out of the SUV, carried him inside, and up to his bedroom.

  “Stay? I just want to be held.”

  “Anything you wish, Solnyshko; if it is in my power to give it, you will have it.” He followed her into her bedroom, and while she changed in the bathroom, he removed his shoes and T-shirt before he slid into the bed. “You are beautiful,” he murmured when she returned in lounge pants and a tank top. The faint blush that stained her cheeks made him smirk. “Come. Sleep. You’re exhausted.” When his mate crawled into the bed and curled up next to him, Nikolai wrapped his arms around her, pulled her closer, and drifted off to sleep with her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Casey

  A week after Josette and Bastien were born, Casey met up with several members of the Pard, along with their children, to give the kids a day out. They’d discussed it at the celebration and after a little debate, they’d chosen to take the children to the aquarium. Izzy and her daughter, Lexi, were there, as well, and Casey noticed the way Jacob seemed to gravitate toward the younger girl. He was being very protective and she thought it was sweet.

  An hour into their trip, Casey saw something, or rather someone, out of the corner of her eye that made her stop in her tracks. By the time the shock wore off and she turned, the person was gone.

  “Is everything okay, Casey? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  She turned to Izzy, who’d asked the question, and after making sure Jacob was out of earshot, she responded. “For a minute I thought I saw Jacob’s birth father. I don’t see him now, though.”

  “Are you sure it was him?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. It might have just been someone who looks a bit like him. I only saw him from the corner of my eye so maybe I was wrong.”

  “Well, if you see him again, you should confront him. If he followed you here, that’s just creepy.”

  “Yeah. Creepy. That’s one word for it,” Casey replied with a faint shudder.

  By the time they left the aquarium, she’d put the incident out of her mind as much as she could. Surely she’d been mistaken. There was no reason why Garret would have followed her to New Orleans.

  Nikolai

  Nikolai could tell something was bothering his mate. It was evening and they were curled up together watching a movie with Jacob. “What is wrong, Solnyshko?” He watched as Casey lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him.

  “What makes you think something is wrong?”

  Nikolai growled softly. “You have been tense all evening.” The sigh that escaped her spoke volumes.

  “Can we talk after Jacob goes to bed?”

  “Da. Of course.” He tightened his embrace for a moment and pressed a kiss to her temple before he returned his attention to the movie.

  “All right, kiddo, bedtime.”

  Nikolai watched as Casey turned the television off and stood to walk her son upstairs to tuck him in.

  “Do I gotta, Mama?”

  “Yes, you gotta. You have an early day tomorrow, remember? You’re spending the day out at the Pard’s compound.”

  “Oh, yeah! Okay. Goodnight, Nikolai.”

  “Goodnight, Malen’kiy.” He watched them go upstairs and felt the increasingly familiar pang of longing. The more time he spent with Casey, the more he found himself falling in love with her. She was smart, funny, compassionate. She had an inner strength he admired and a calm nature that soothed his tiger. He wanted to be more than just the man Jacob’s mother was dating. They weren’t to that point though. Not yet.

  While Casey was upstairs getting her son tucked into bed, Nikolai carried the now empty bowl, they’d been eating popcorn out of, into the kitchen, rinsed it out, and got it in the dishwasher. By the time he was back in the living room, Casey was coming down the stairs. “Will you tell me now what is bothering you?”

  When Casey moved to the sofa and sat, tucking her feet beneath her, Nikolai joined her. He slipped an arm around her so she was nestled against his side, and waited for her to speak.

  “While we were at the aquarium today, I thought I saw Garret out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to where I thought I saw him, he wasn’t there.”

  Nikolai tried to keep his temper at the mention of the man who raped her when she was a girl. “Do you believe it was him?”

  “To be completely honest, Nikolai, I don’t know. It might have been someone who just looked like him from an angle. I kept an eye out the rest of the afternoon but I didn’t see him again. It doesn’t make sense that he’d be in New Orleans. Why would he? And why would he be at the aquarium watching me or Jacob? I had to have been mistaken, right?”

  “Perhaps, krasavitsa.” At the puzzled look she gave him he smirked. “It means beautiful.”

  “You and your Russian compliments.”

  The teasing tone in her voice made him laugh. “You seem to like them. Your face lights up every time I call you Solnyshko,” he pointed out.

  “It does? I didn’t know that.”

  “Da, it does. I like it.” He dipped his head and kissed her. It was intended to be a tender kiss, but once again, the moment their lips touched, passion erupted between them. When Casey moved and straddled his lap, he groaned. “Careful, krasavitsa, you tempt me too much and I will not be held accountable for my actions.”

  “Fuck me, Nikolai.”

  The soft whine that slipped past her lips had his cock standing at attention, but her words sent him into overdrive. He picked her up and carried her upstairs to her bedroom.

  As soon as the door was closed behind them, he pinned her against it and ravished her mouth. He kept her in place with his body while his hands moved down her sides to grip her shirt and tug it up and over her head. Her bra didn’t survive his desire to get to her skin. The sound of fabric ripping made them both shiver with need.

  “I liked that bra.”

  “I will buy you a new one,” he growled before he lowered his head and took a nipple in his mouth. The sensitive bud stiffened under his ministrations and he gently gripped it between his teeth.

  “Oh gods. That feels so good.”

  Her words of encouragement had him giving the other breast the same attention. His hands moved down to her jeans and soon they, along with her panties, followed her shirt to the floor.

  Nikolai kissed a path down her body until he was kneeling in front of her. “Put your leg over my shoulder,” he growled and when she complied, he buried his mouth against her sex. He lapped at her like a kitten with cream until he had her writhing against the door.

  “Nikolai.”

  When her fingers gripped his hair, he smirked against her. He slid a finger into her while his tongue teased her clit. Several times he brought her to the edge only to back off, before he finally let her fall over. Her cries of release had his cock throbbing to be inside her.

  Casey

  Her legs felt like they were made of jello by the time she stopped shuddering in little aftershocks from her orgasm. When Nikolai stood and crushed his mouth down on hers, a moan escaped her. Her hands moved to his shirt, and she quickly unbuttoned it before she slid it off his shoulders to join her clothes on the floor. His pants and boxers quickly followed suit.

  Nibbling on his bottom lip, Casey gave him a mischievous smile before she dropped to her knees.

  “You do not need to do this, Solnyskho.”

  “I know. I want to,” she breathed before she leaned in and took him into her mouth. She’d fantasized about this since the night they’d made love and wanted to give him the same pleasure he’d bestowed upo
n her. Casey was careful to not scrape his sensitive flesh with her teeth as she licked and sucked his cock.

  “Enough.”

  The single word came out more as a growl than anything else.

  She kissed a path back up his chest and smiled up at him. “Take me to bed, Nikolai.”

  “What my mate wishes, she gets.”

  When he scooped her up and tossed her on the bed, she squeaked but didn’t have time for much more before he pounced on her.

  Casey watched as he snagged his pants and removed a condom. “Let me.” She took the package from him, opened it, and rolled the latex down his shaft. His groan turned her on even more than she already was.

  When Nikolai slid into her, Casey’s back arched and her fingers gripped his shoulders. “Yes.” The word was a soft pant.

  With each thrust of his hips, he sent her senses soaring. As her orgasm crashed over her, Casey bit his shoulder to keep from waking her son with her cries. She thought for sure Nikolai would follow her, but he obviously wasn’t done. She whined when he slid out of her, but it turned into a growl when he uttered the words ‘On your knees’.

  Casey scrambled to comply. She rested the upper half of her body against her pillows and lifted her ass in the air for him. When he slid back into her, the change in position had him pressing against nerves she hadn’t known existed. She was soon writhing and thrusting back to meet every hard thrust of his hips. Her hands gripped the bed and she muffled her cries with a pillow.

  When Nikolai’s body draped over hers, Casey felt like she’d come home. Just as another orgasm rocketed through her, she felt Nikolai’s teeth grip the muscle between her shoulder and neck, and it was like a switch was flipped inside her. Everything went still and calm even as her hips arched back and her inner walls clenched around him to finally drag him over the edge with her.

  Just when she thought her legs were going to give out, Nikolai rolled them onto their side. She was barely lucid enough to take note of him removing the condom and tying it off, before her eyes drifted closed.

  “Sleep, Solnyshko, I will be right here in the morning.”

  “M’kay,” she mumbled and let sleep claim her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nikolai

  Waking up with Casey in his arms was, by far, the best feeling in the world. When she began to stir, he leaned in and nuzzled her. “Good morning, Krasavitsa.”

  “Good morning. I could get used to this.”

  “That makes two of us,” he growled softly. “You stay in bed. I am making breakfast.”

  “You don’t have…”

  He put a finger to her lips to stop her. “I am making it. You are to relax.” The sweet smile she gave him warmed his heart and he leaned in and kissed her tenderly.

  “Okay.”

  He kissed her once more and slid out of bed to tug on his pants. He decided to forgo the shirt and padded barefoot downstairs to fix them all something to eat.

  An hour later, when he returned to the bedroom, with a tray loaded down with breakfast for her, Nikolai found Casey curled up with his shirt on. “Beautiful,” he growled.

  “The way you look at me makes me feel beautiful.”

  He set the tray across her lap and kissed her. “Eat. Jacob is awake and already devouring his breakfast downstairs.”

  “Oh, crap, that’s right. I have to get him to the dock soon.”

  “Relax, Solnyshko, there is time enough for you to enjoy your breakfast.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll eat. This smells delicious, Nikolai. Thank you. I probably would have just gone with cereal today, so seriously, thank you.”

  “Anything for you,” he replied and kissed her cheek.

  “Wait, where’s yours?”

  “I will be back with it.” He was only gone a few minutes before he returned with his own plate and a cup of coffee. He slid onto the bed next to her and smiled when she scooted closer to him before she dug into the eggs, sausage, pancakes, and fresh fruit he’d brought her.

  “Have fun today. Remember, if you want to come home early, all you have to do is ask.”

  “I know, Mama. Love you!”

  “I love you too, kiddo.”

  “He’ll be fine, Solnyshko.”

  “I know. I’m just not used to him being away from me for the entire day. Even when he visited with my parents it was usually just for a few hours.”

  Nikolai wrapped his arms around Casey, and they watched as the boat Jacob was on slowly faded out of view. “What do you have planned today?”

  “I’m meeting with Lily and Malcolm for lunch and working on my next gallery showing. There was such a positive response that I want to do it again. What about you?”

  “Work meeting.” He felt her tense up. “What is it?”

  “It’s nothing. I know your job is very important to you. How dangerous is it, Nikolai?”

  He debated on what to say before he went with the truth. “It depends upon the job. Some are quite dangerous but I am the best at what I do, Solnyshko. There is no need to worry.” He caressed her cheek. “I have a reason to be even more cautious now.”

  “What do you do for the security company?” There was curiosity in her voice.

  “I am a munitions specialist, first and foremost. I developed a knack for it in the military, prior to joining Special Ops. I am also a tracker and, when needed, I can get in and out of dangerous places quickly. Many of the jobs we do for the private sector consist of rescue missions.”

  “That’s…scary. Don’t ask me not to worry, Nikolai, because that’s not possible.”

  “Nyet. I would not ask that of you because I know you will, regardless. That is what one does when their mate, their other half, is doing something that could be dangerous. But I make you this promise now, I will always come back to you.”

  When she leaned into him, Nikolai tightened his arms around her. “Always, Casey. I will always come back to you.”

  “I hope that’s a promise you can keep.”

  He refused to let anything stop him from keeping that promise. When they said goodbye at her house, so he could get to his meeting, he lingered for several moments, just holding her. “Have a good day, Krasavitsa.”

  “You too. You know, I’m going to have to think of something to call you,” she teased.

  Nikolai chuckled. “I look forward to seeing what you come up with.” One last kiss and he slid behind the wheel of his SUV and was gone.

  Casey

  Little Eden Cafe was busier than usual, and as a result, they ended up at a table near the large windows that let in a plethora of natural light. Sitting at the table with Lily and Malcolm, Casey sipped at the chocolate milkshake she’d opted to get with her meal.

  “All right, babe, it’s time to dish. How are things going between you and your hunky tiger?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh at Malcolm’s question. “He is a bit of a hunk, isn’t he?” she replied with a grin.

  “Yes, yes he is. You are one lucky girl.”

  “Oh, as if you don’t have your eye on a hot little redhead right now,” Lily countered, making all three of them laugh.

  “Yes, well, he’s being stubborn so I have to live vicariously through you bitches.”

  Casey balled up her napkin and threw it at him with another laugh. “You’re awful! Okay, okay, to answer your question, things are going really well. He stayed the night last night and decided to make me breakfast in bed. I just wish…” she trailed off with a soft sigh.

  “Just wish what?”

  At Lily’s question, she chewed on her bottom lip. “I just wish he didn’t have such a dangerous job. Every time he goes out on one, now, I’m going to worry about him.”

  “Oh, honey. I know. Declan doesn’t go on many but there have been a few and when he does, I worry myself sick about his safety. What you have to remember is that Nikolai has done this for years, first for the government and now for the private sector.”

  “I know, Lily, but I can’t hel
p worrying.” She finished her milkshake and set it aside before she turned her attention to the cheesecake in front of her. Before she could take a bite, the spoon dropped and her head whipped to the side. There, watching her through the glass, stood her worst nightmare. “Oh God.”

  “Casey? What’s wrong?” Lily asked, alarmed.

  The worry in her friend’s voice pulled her gaze away from the window. “Garret. I thought I saw him at the aquarium yesterday but I told myself I had to be mistaken. But I wasn’t. He’s here. In New Orleans.”

  “That’s the fucker who raped you?”

  Malcolm’s growl made her blink.

  “Don’t, Mal. I’ll deal with him.”

  “Not alone, you won’t,” Lily and Malcolm said together.

  Casey stood on wooden legs and made her way outside with her friends right behind her. “What are you doing here?” There was no preamble, no pretense of friendliness by saying hello. She got right to the point once she was standing in front of Garret.

  “Casey. You look good. We need to talk. Alone.”

  “Like hell you do. You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here, Garret Michaels.”

  “This isn’t any of your business. This is between me and Casey.”

  When Malcolm moved to put himself between them, Casey touched his arm. “Why don’t you and Lily go back inside? I’ll be there in a minute.” She smiled a little when Malcolm held two fingers up to his face, pointed at his own eyes, then pointed at Garret to indicate he was watching him. Her friends were so protective of her and it was touching.

  “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

  Casey stared at Garret for a moment. “No, we can’t. Whatever you have to say, you can say it here and then go the hell away.”

  “Fine. I want to know why you didn’t tell me you were moving my son to New Orleans.”

  Casey felt like he’d hit her with a two by four. The air left her lungs in a whoosh and she was slightly dizzy before she straightened her shoulders and glared at him. “First of all, Jacob is my son. According to you, we never even slept together, remember, so how could he possibly be yours? Second, where I move with my son is none of your damn business.”