He did remember and he’d been a damn fool to believe he was safe to be near. “That was before I realized I’m not in control of myself right now, Laney.”
“Are you going to eat me?” she asked, turning one foot as she put a hand to her hip, standing in a cocky pose, eyeing him up and down. “You just made out with me. Was that how you tenderize your meat?”
“No. Well, shit. I don’t think so,” he said, looking at his hands which were still in human form. He held them out, staring at them, fearing at any minute they’d shift and he’d have no control over his wolf. That it might hurt Laney.
No!
His wolf thrust up at him, angry he’d even think such a thing. It wouldn’t hurt her. Others, yes, but not her. Not the woman before him.
Laney groaned and reached for him, her hands going to his face. “Dude, seriously? You just saved my life. You put yourself over me to protect me from bullets and then carried me as I cried. If you were going to kill me, wouldn’t you have just let the bad guys do it? I’d figure the Man would be all about bullet-saving.”
“You accepted candy from strangers as a child, didn’t you?” he asked, staring at her, realizing she must be crazy to trust him. He had frigging red eyes. He didn’t even trust himself at the moment.
“Oh yes, buckets upon buckets of it,” she replied with a sarcastic expression. “Are you done being stupid? You’re not going to eat me.”
His gaze eased down her, to the top of her short mini skirt. He wanted to slink it up and reveal her womanhood. Hell yeah, he’d eat her, just not in the way she was asking about.
Before he knew it, his hands were acting independent of his brain—roaming down her body, feeling her curves before settling on her hips. He yanked her to him and she gasped, looking up at him, her lips parting.
James kissed her and he didn’t bother with being gentle either. He went strong and hard at her mouth, loving the taste of her. The little vixen pressed against him, pushing, almost scaling him—showing her eagerness and willingness to accept him.
His cock was more than pleased to have her on board with what it had been wanting to do for a week.
The more she rubbed on him, the more he realized he had about as much control over his orgasm in regards to Laney as he’d had when he was in his teens, and the very idea of a woman’s body could make him spill his seed. The revelation wasn’t one of his finer moments. He only hoped he didn’t embarrass himself with her.
He sensed his wolf pushing at him, wanting him to take their interaction past the point of acceptable. James didn’t trust it or himself and he froze. He eased away from her slightly, remembering her words about if he would or would not eat her.
His gaze traveled back to her groin area. His mouth watered at the idea of being able to ease his tongue over her slit and taste her cream. Inhaling, he took in a deep breath, drawing in the scent of the very cream he wanted to sample.
She snapped her fingers. “Eyes up, Wolf Doc.”
He looked up at her face and had to take a second to gather his wits. His brain was currently operating from between his thighs. Not in his head.
She gave him a knowing look. “Just because I’m a virgin doesn’t mean I don’t know what you were just thinking. I didn’t even need that fancy mind-reading gig you’ve got going for you. Deduced that one all on my own.”
He closed his eyes, ashamed at his behavior. He was acting like a randy rake. Hell, Striker behaved better. “I’m sorry.”
“We can do that later,” she said, a slight smile appearing on her face. That smile was so damn suggestive that James found it hard to see past it. “For now, I need to know what you know. What is really going on, and I need to know if my boys are all right.”
Stunned, James stood there, his mouth agape. “Did you just tell me I could do what I think you said I could do later?”
She touched her lower lip and nodded. “Yep. I did.”
He stiffened. “Let just anyone do that to you, do you?”
He couldn’t stop the jealousy that rose inside him.
“Don’t be a douche,” she snapped, bringing him back to his senses. “Of course not. Virgin, remember? Besides, you’re not just anyone, are you, Hagen?”
He grimaced, embarrassed by the way he was acting. It was as if he’d suddenly taken dating tips from Striker or even Duke, prior to Duke’s mating. Duke had been a complete ladies’ man—never denied it, and the endless line of women he bedded knew the score. It was sex and that was all there was to it. Until Mercy. From everything James had heard, Mercy made him work for it.
Just like Laney is making you work for it. He cleared his throat, reminding himself that Mercy and Duke were mates. He and Laney were just…
What were they?
Friends?
Yes.
More than that?
Maybe.
But how much more?
He licked his lips. “No. I’m not just anyone.”
“You’re the man I’ve spent the last week forgoing sleep just to talk to. I told you a lot of things about myself. More than I told most.”
“Laney, I was supposed to gather information on you,” he said. He waited for her anger to come. He felt like the lowest of the lows. He’d used her to do his job. “You were supposed to be just a mission to me.”
She sighed. “Hagen, I worked that out on my own when I saw the fur on your arms.”
“Oh.”
“Are you sure you’re a doctor, because right now, I’m not believing it,” she returned with a grin. “Seem a little slow on the response time and all.”
James shrugged. “Most go-rounds I’m a healer of some sort. Once, I was a hot dog vendor.”
“Most go-rounds? A hot dog vendor?” Her brows raised. “That is a story you are going to tell me more about, bucko. When we get through this, I want to hear all about that.”
She wanted to see him again? Even after all he’d lied about? After being shot at? After he practically wolfed out in front of her?
“Are you crazy?” he asked.
“Certifiable,” she answered. “How about you?”
“Pretty sure I have issues, yes.”
She walked right up to him and touched his shoulder. He leaned, expecting to be slapped by her. She was well within her rights to haul off and let him have it. Instead, she kissed the tip of his nose. “Show me someone who doesn’t.”
He held her as he turned, hearing footsteps in the distance. He brought a finger to his lips, indicating the need for silence. She stood still and he turned his body, putting it before hers, shielding her as the footfalls grew louder. They were accompanied by something else. Wheels and rattling.
James prepared to attack whoever was coming around the corner. He put his hands out to his sides, ready to let the wolf up if need be. He’d do anything to protect her, even if it meant throwing caution to the wind and hoping for the best with a beast he wasn’t sure he could control.
He waited with baited breath, wondering if it would be Bertrand who emerged. The sick fuck had eluded his team in France, managing to escape after juicing himself with his own concoctions for months—making himself some sort of supernatural blend. A hodgepodge with super-human strength and an already sadistic nature. James was different from many shifters in that he already had small amounts of Fae in him naturally. After what they’d pumped into him after they captured him, he had who knew what else swimming around in him.
James took a fighting stance, crouching despite the pain to his leg. The need to pace was great. He felt like a caged animal. He stood in place only because he didn’t want Laney exposed to whatever evil was coming around the end of the building.
Get ready.
His heart hammered in his chest and his muscles tightened, expecting a battle.
An older man, wearing an old trench coat with patchwork spots dotting the elbows, came around the corner pushing a grocery cart. The cart was filled to the brim with trinkets, all reflecting the low lighting from the sec
urity lights at the end of the building. The man smelled human and as if he’d not had a bath in a while. Laney pushed on James’s arms, forcing them down, as if she understood now that they were weapons in themselves.
“Emit!” she exclaimed, rushing around James to the homeless man. She stopped just shy of him. “What are you doing wandering around this time of night? You don’t like the dark very much. Were the shelters full again?”
“Ms. Laney,” he said, a smile finding his face. He was missing a few teeth, but the joy in his expression at the sight of Laney couldn’t be denied. “Ms. Laney is okay. Casey was worried.” The man twisted in a circle and pointed with one gloved hand at no one in particular. When he spoke, he threw his voice to be deeper. “No. Emit, it’s not safe here tonight, Emit. You have to go to a shelter for the night. You can’t be here. Bad things are afoot. Leave now, Emit. Go.”
Laney gasped and touched the man’s arm. “You went to the hotel tonight?”
Emit stopped spinning and nodded. “Casey said no. He made Emit leave. Said the bad was coming. Said Emit wasn’t safe there.”
Laney choked up. “Did you see Gus and Bill?”
“Gus has books. Bill has planes.”
She pressed a smile that didn’t look genuine to her face. “Go to Mary’s on Second Street. Tell her I sent you. She’ll find you a bed for the night. I don’t want you trying to sleep on the streets.”
“Ms. Laney is good people,” he said, turning his cart in the other direction and heading off.
Laney returned to James’s side. Touching her chin, she seemed to ponder what had just occurred.
“Emit isn’t a fast walker,” she said and inclined her head. “At his current pace, accounting for the number of times he stops and speaks with strangers and his affinity for picking up anything shiny, by my calculations, he would have been at the hotel before I even left to meet you for coffee. Before we even agreed to meet, Hagen. How would Casey know there was danger afoot before I even agreed to meet you for coffee?”
Surprised, James watched her, realizing she’d done the calculations that quickly. “Laney, did you just figure that all out in your head?”
She raised her shoulders, letting them fall again as if it were no big deal. It was a huge deal. He didn’t like the feeling that was creeping up the back of his spine. Didn’t like the idea that Laney could be more than met the eye. If she was, then the Corporation wouldn’t rest until she was dead—or captured.
He would permit neither to occur.
If she’s not human, she’s mate material, he thought, need slamming through him once more for her.
He took her hand and began walking again, ignoring his leg as it protested all the activity. When they were far enough away from the fading sounds of sirens, he motioned to a crate, pushed up close to the backdoor of a building near them. “Rest.”
“How will your people find us?” she asked.
He touched his nose. “Smell will lead the way.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That is so weird.”
“You get used to it.”
His leg was now screaming in pain. He knew it must have showed on his face.
Laney lifted the crate and brought it closer to him. “You sit.”
“I’m fine,” he said sharply. He didn’t like appearing weak in front of her. He’d once been fierce and now he felt like someone who needed a nursemaid.
“If you don’t sit, I will run screaming through the alley and let the bad guys know where I am.” From her stance, she looked serious.
He was about to call her bluff when he realized she was crazy enough to not be bluffing at all. With a grunt, he sat and gave her a hard look.
Damn purple-haired woman.
James glanced at her, loving the vivid streaks that matched her personality. There wasn’t anything about her he didn’t like.
“You can spank me later,” she said with a sexy pout. “For now, rest your leg.”
“I said I was fine,” he replied, making a move to stand. He got a mental image of what it would be like to bend her over his knee, her sexy little backside offered up to him, and he paused, his hand going to his groin as he adjusted himself. “You had to bring up spanking, didn’t you?”
She laughed and shrugged.
Chapter Twelve
Laney stared down at Hagen. He was a big man, muscular and tall with broad shoulders, yet something told her he was normally even bigger—more muscular. That he wasn’t quite himself. He was hurting and she couldn’t stand to see him in pain.
She put her hands on his shoulders and held him down. “I get that I’m not very strong compared to you, but if you try to get up, I will body-slam you.”
He glanced at her arms. “Actually, I was going to comment on just how strong you are.”
She laughed. “Casey tells me all the time to mind my strength. Like I’m some sort of Amazon warrior princess.”
“You spend a lot of time with this Casey,” he said, his voice off.
“We’ve been over this. He’s like family to me.” She glanced around and spotted a door. She left Hagen long enough to check it out. It was locked with only with an old rusty chain and a padlock. She nearly laughed. Like that would keep someone out.
Reaching into the back of her hair, just under her ponytail, Laney felt for her bobby pin. She’d had a strict never-leave-home-without-one policy since she was twelve. They came in handy and often helped to get in or out of things.
In this case, in.
She pushed it into the padlock’s keyhole and did what she’d taught herself to do years ago—she picked the lock. It popped open and she turned to tell Hagen to follow her, only to find him standing directly behind her, watching her with amused eyes.
“I’m on a date with a criminal, aren’t I?” he asked, his eyes crinkling with mirth.
“Could be worse.” She clucked her tongue. “You could be on a date with a werewolf.”
“Fair point.”
“Come on,” she said, looking back at him, enjoying the feel of doing something that fell into shades of gray according to right or wrong. “Let’s go in and get off the streets for a little bit. Will your team find us if we’re not out in the open?”
“Yes.” He followed her in, his large body crowding her decidedly smaller one. Heat moved through her and Laney was sure the building must be on fire because all that heat couldn’t be coming from her, could it?
She moved slowly in the darkened corridor before Hagen put a hand on the small of her back, causing additional heat to rush over her. He eased around her, his hand finding hers as he took the lead.
“I can see in very low lighting,” he said, the timbre of his voice licking at her insides, making them feel as if butterflies filled her. Harmony would laugh at her, calling her naïve in the ways of men.
Laney gripped his hand and she followed close at his heels. She wasn’t sure what he meant by low lighting, because it seemed pretty much pitch black to her until Hagen pushed open a door and light spilled out. Several old, beat-up washing machines and dryers lined the walls. Each was coin-operated.
Hagen turned and lifted her, his large hands fitting nearly all the way around her waist. She gasped as he pulled her close and then set her upon a washer. He stood there, his body pressing to hers.
She couldn’t stop herself from touching his face. What was it about him that drove her so nuts with lust? Her girly bits wanted his manly bits in bad way. To the point they were about to beg. And her girly bits had never begged for anything in her twenty-two years.
This man could punch my V-card any day.
“You should sit,” she said, needing to say something to fill the silence between them. Having him sit and rest his leg seemed much more safe for her V-card than what she’d wanted to say, which had been do me.
Harmony would have loved that.
“Hagen,” she said, a thought hitting her. “I need to check in with my friend. I need to make sure she knows to stay away from my place.”
“If the Corporation is as good as you, what do you think they’ll be doing?” he asked.
She pondered his question and then felt deflated. “Monitoring my known associates.”
“They’ll know if you reach out, Laney,” he said. “They’ll know and it could get your friend hurt.”
“Harmony lives a pampered, rather sheltered life,” she pushed. “I don’t want her brought into this. I dug my own grave.”
“You’re not dead yet.” He winked.
But she’d probably gotten her boys killed.
Casting her gaze downward, she felt the tears wanting to return again. Felt the severity of the situation soaking through her every pore, settling around her neck like a noose. “I shouldn’t have wanted to find out about my birth and its weird circumstances. I should have left well enough alone. I shouldn’t have let my curiosity get to me when Blue Butterfly gave me the tip on the Asia Project. It’s been nothing but a curse.”
Hagen put his hands on her bare thighs. “What did you say?”
She sniffled. “My stupid hunt for who I am and where I come from got me here.”
“Did you say Asia Project?” he asked.
She nodded.
“What do you know of it?” he asked.
Laney did her best to keep herself together. Breaking down more wouldn’t fix anything. Nothing would. “It’s linked to my birth. I was part of it somehow. My biological mother was in it while she was pregnant with me.”
Hagen stepped back and spun, punching the cinderblock wall of the building’s laundry room. The room shook and Laney half expected the place to crumble around them. She yelped.
Hagen kept his back to her, and when she saw the fur on his arms, she knew why—he was doing that wolf thing again. She knew she should have been terrified of him, but she wasn’t. He felt safe to her. Didn’t matter how furry he got.
“What is it?” she asked. “Do you know more about it?”
“I do, but you shouldn’t know the details. You’d be in even more danger,” he answered, his back still to her, his voice deep.
“More than people already wanting me dead? How much more dead could I get?” she asked with a snort.
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