Page 21 of The Claiming of the Shrew (Fated Mountain Lodge #4)
FAWKES
Maggie wasn’t in the campground, and her trailer didn’t smell of Leah in the slightest—but none of that mattered when the lights went on in the costume trailer and someone started yelling about shrews.
Fawkes outdistanced Hester by quite a ways, even in bare feet with the robe flapping around him.
He wrenched the door of the trailer open, startling someone he vaguely recognized from the bonfire a couple of days ago.
Ralph? Something like that. The guy was standing holding a long-handled net, and he could think of only one reason for that.
“Where the hell is Leah?” Fawkes demanded. He couldn’t see her anywhere. But there were a million places for a shrew to hide in here. He stopped just inside the door, afraid of accidentally stepping on her, and leaned forward—the trailer wasn’t large—to grab Ralph by the collar.
Fueled by fury, Fawkes hauled him out the door and flung him down the steps. He hit the ground with an “oof!”, losing his grip on the net.
“Where is she? Where’s Leah?”
“Whoa, hey!” Hester arrived at a run. She was already dialing on her phone and speaking into it. “Mauro, I need you in the campground. There’s a situation.”
“If you’ve hurt her, nothing’s going to save you,” Fawkes snarled, planting a bare foot on Ralph’s chest. He was still wearing nothing but a bathrobe.
“I’m here!” Leah’s beloved voice called from inside the trailer, slightly muffled.
Fawkes abandoned Ralph, leaving him to Hester to deal with.
He plunged inside, and found a naked Leah, at least he hoped it was Leah, trying to thrash her way out of what appeared to be a giant pile of tutus and other loose, gauzy fabric, with a big green thing bobbing around on top.
The green thing, he realized, was an oversized mask in the shape of an absurdly caricatured dinosaur head with a goofy look on its face.
Fawkes helped her pull it off. Leah’s real head emerged from it, hair tousled and cheeks flushed.
“Fawkes!” she said. “You’re here!”
Fawkes scooped her up without thinking. Leah clung to his neck and kicked her legs and kissed him fast and hard.
“That sounded awesome! I wish I’d seen it with my actual eyes! My shrew is losing its mind, by the way. I’m starving. Do you have food? Ralph sabotaged the sets, I need to find Maggie—Oh my gosh, I’m naked.”
All of this spilled out of her in a rush as soon as their lips parted.
Fawkes was still hung up on having Leah in his arms, alive, but the naked part he could at least do something about.
He looked around, grabbed the nearest thing that was big enough to cover her (he had no idea what it was; it looked like a sparkly curtain) and wrapped it around her.
“Thanks,” Leah said as he carried her out of the trailer. “That was great. Nice save. I was going to get out on my own, you know. And I’m not kidding about being hungry.”
“I know you would have.” Fawkes held her tighter. She was a very wonderful double armload, warm and alive and wiggly in his arms, clinging to him securely for all her bravado.
Ralph remained down on the ground, with Hester brandishing the butterfly net in his face. Several other members of the theater troupe had begun to arrive, drawn by the commotion, with robes thrown over their sleepwear. None of them were Maggie.
“How did you find me?” Leah asked, clinging to Fawkes’s neck.
“Well, the yelling was a tipoff. But we were already investigating by smell.” Fawkes glanced back at where Ralph was being pinned by several of the larger and stronger members of the crew, including Halstadt. “Did you say he’s the saboteur?”
“Yes! He confessed to me. He wanted the Hook part. Someone needs to tell Maggie.”
“Leah,” Fawkes said. “Maggie is the jewel thief.”
“What?” Leah turned to look up at him. “Maggie the director ? Why on Earth?”
“I don’t know, but her smell was all over my room and now she’s disappeared.
She’s the person who planted the jewelry, I’m sure of it.
I assumed she was involved with your disappearance, although finding you was more of a priority than finding her, obviously.
Maybe she and Ralph are working together. ”
Leah shook her head. “I didn’t see her anywhere. And he didn’t act like he has an accomplice.” She frowned. “Ralph tried to pen me up in a coffee can. Maybe he’s got Maggie in a cage or something. Someone should check his campsite.”
“What does she turn into?”
“I’m not completely sure. I know it’s some kind of bird, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her shift.”
“That tracks,” Fawkes said. “I found her room empty and her window open.”
“Put me down,” Leah complained. He was carrying her toward the hotel. “No wait. Where are my crutches?”
“In your sister’s room. Actually, you should call her and let her know you’re okay. Hold on.” Fawkes stopped and adjusted his grip on Leah, causing her to do a happy little wiggle, so he could get out his cell phone. “Use my phone. Joy’s number is on there.”
Leah sent Joy a rambling text while he carried her into the hotel and, with increasing strain, up the stairs. Leah was light and he was shifter-strong, but it was a long way to do a bridal carry. By the time they got to the door of Joy’s room, he was happy to put her down.
At that point he discovered the door was locked and he had no way to get in. He about-faced and carried her to the other end of the hall and the door to his room—where he remembered that the key was in his pants. Which were in Joy’s room along with the rest of his clothes.
“I’ll get Hester?—”
“No, I’ve got it.” Leah plunged out of his grasp, he heard a tiny plop, and as he moved aside the sheet of fabric he’d wrapped her in, he saw a small gray thing wriggle under the door.
A moment later, Leah, standing up and propped on the wall, opened it from inside.
Under the room lights, he had a glorious view of her lean, naked body.
“Nice,” Fawkes told her. In spite of his aching shoulders and back, he swept her off her feet again and carried her to the bed.
“Nice?” Leah repeated, laughing, as he laid her down on the bed. “I’m blushing, I can’t bear it, I’m going to die from these compliments. Nice!”
Fawkes nuzzled into her neck. “You smell nice, too.”
“I was just in a coffee can.”
“Oh, that’s probably it, then.”
She bit his ear. “Why are you wearing a bathrobe?” Her hands were exploring down his chest now. “Were you a raccoon?”
“I hate to tell you this, but you’re not doing so great at the dirty talk yourself here,” he said in between kisses of her luxurious neck.
“If you keep up the compliments, I’m going to swoon. On that note, Fawkes?”
“Yes, you beautiful shrew?”
“I’m entirely serious about eating before we go any further.”
The honeymoon suite had come with a complimentary basket of snacks, which he largely hadn’t touched.
He brought it to the bed, and Leah sat naked and scarfed down two muffins and a chocolate bar while Fawkes filled her in on the broad outlines of what had happened after she went missing.
Fawkes sent a text to Hester telling her that Maggie might be in danger and Ralph’s campsite should be checked.
Do we know if she’s the thief? Hester texted back .
Don’t know. You have the jewelry?
Got it right here.
“Hester wants to know if we should tell people about Maggie or not,” Fawkes said.
Leah sighed. “I’d love to throw her under the bus like she did me. But we don’t know for sure.”
Fawkes texted back, Please wait to say anything until we can talk to her. We don’t even know where she is.
Fine, Hester replied. I’m going to bed. Deal with the rest of this in the morning.
Fawkes showed Leah the text. “Good enough?”
“Fine with me.” Leah licked chocolate off her upper lip with an enticing pink tongue.
“Are you fed enough yet? Because I can think of other things you could put in your mouth.”
“Eeeeeeeeee!” was Leah’s only response, a high-pitched squeal that he suspected was similar to the voice of her inner shrew, and she pounced on him.
At least with only a bathrobe between them, undressing was easy.
The honeymoon suite conveniently provided condoms in the bedside table, and in moments he was finally, gloriously pushing inside her, while Leah tried to climb him enthusiastically.
It turned out she was a very active and vocal sex partner.
(At one point someone banged on the wall.
“It’s the honeymoon suite!” Fawkes yelled back, and Leah collapsed in giggles.)
When they finally wound down, she’d come twice and he had barely managed to hold himself back for the second one, collapsing finally on top of her with one elbow as a prop to keep him from flattening her. They were both covered in sweat, and most of the fancy pillows were on the floor.
“Do you think they clean those pillows between guests?” Leah asked thoughtfully.
Fawkes kissed her to end any further investigation of that line of thought.
They snuggled on the bed for a while, and then Leah said with a little sigh, “At some point I probably ought to get my crutches. They’re still in Joy’s room, I assume, along the rest of my clothes.”
“You’re pretty good at opening doors,” Fawkes pointed out.
“You know, Joy’s not going to be back until morning, and she did say I could use her room ....”