He reached for her hands, surprised when she actually set them in his and didn’t immediately yank them away. How to tell her? How much to tell her… And if he told her the truth, he’d have to tell her about himself as well and he wasn’t sure he or she was ready for that.
It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable about his fur—far from it. He was proud of his heritage. But out of all the females who’d seen that side of him, none of them had been human. It had never been a problem holding it back, either. Until now. But he needed time to prepare her. Especially after yesterday. Something told him there might come a time with her—soon—that he wouldn’t be able to stop the animal.
After that little goodnight kiss, it had been on his mind all night.
“Look, Crissy. All jokes aside, I don’t mean to frighten you, but like I said yesterday, Chad and I both feel that this is a whole lot more serious than a mugging and a random break and enter. Considerably more. I’ll be here until we’re sure the threat to you is removed.” He reluctantly let go of her hands and walked over to the coffeepot for a refill.
“So does that mean you want to follow me around today as well?”
He leaned against the counter and took a sip of the strong, hot brew. “As much as I’d love to, I think the threat is more likely to come after dark.”
“Why?”
“Because the kind of, er, criminals we think we’re dealing with work best after dark.” Wimp.
“Oh.”
“I’ll check out that list of yours, go see what, if anything, Chad’s uncovered, and come back and catch a few hours shuteye. But if you come home before I get back, I want you to lock the doors, okay?”
She rolled her eyes at him.
“I mean it. No chances until we know for sure what we’re dealing with. Promise me.”
“Okay, okay. I promise.”
“Good.”
* * * * *
Leaning against the wall next to the door, Randy rang the bell again, smiling and waving at the cute little number who lived in the house next to Chad’s. She was gardening—again. Normally he appreciated the tight little short-shorts and the skimpy midriff tops, but today it left him unimpressed, thoughts of a tall blonde with twice as much of everything filling his thoughts. After ringing one more time, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching and the door was opened to reveal a sleepy, tousled and very naked Chad.
“About time,” Randy complained. He shut the door after him and followed Chad through to the kitchen. “You get many chicks that way?”
“Huh?”
“Flashing them like that.”
“There you go—you’ve learned the secret to my irresistible charm and unbelievable success with women.”
“Uh-huh. So, you alone?”
Chad scratched his chest absently as he stood in front of the open fridge and yawned. “Yeah. Unfortunately. Marcus and I spent most of the night sniffing around the haunts seeing what we could find. Didn’t get in ‘til nearly dawn.”
“Find anything?”
“Maybe. Nothing definite. Just rumors here and there.” He held up the juice carton as he searched on the sink for a glass that looked passably clean. “You want some?”
If anyone needed a woman to look after him, it was Chad. Randy figured he’d live a lot longer if he didn’t eat or drink at Chad’s house. “Nah. Already had breakfast. What sort of rumors?”
Chad took a deep swallow and sighed, jerking his head in the direction of the living room. Once he’d flopped into a green velvet armchair, he continued. “Well, this is where it doesn’t make sense. All we’ve been able to find out so far is that there’s a photo that a pretty big somebody wants to make sure doesn’t reach the light of day. Real bad.”
Randy picked up the unstable pile of roughly folded washing and placed it on the coffee table, clearing a space to sit on the lounge. He could just imagine Crissy and Chad sharing a house—it’d be like the aftermath of an atomic bomb going off. “How do you know it’s a big somebody? You got a name? A whisper?”
“No, but word is some big dollars were offered for its ‘retrieval’. And we heard from one source that some talent was brought in from outta state to…ah…help.”
“That’s not so good. West Coast or East?”
“East. And we also hear it’s become a personal thing. They don’t just want the photo—they want Crissy too.”
“They? Who the hell is they? And why?”
“Don’t know, don’t know, but we’re working on it. One of Marcus’ young guys has a lead he’s checking out for us.”
“So is that where the vamp comes into it?”
“Who knows?” Chad shrugged. “Maybe it’s his photo.”
“That’s not much to go on.”
“Tell me about it.” Chad yawned and stretched. “Marcus and I are going to do some more checking out tonight. His kid is meeting us at Baby Blues.”
Baby Blues was a jazz and blues nightclub in the Quarter. It made sense. Not only was it frequented by a lot of weres and vamps, but it was owned by a consortium of them—Marcus being one. But then Marcus had a finger in every money-making pie in town.
Randy stood to leave.
“Where you heading now?” asked Chad.
“I’ll finish checking out these last three contacts on Crissy’s list and then I’m heading back to her place to sleep.”
“Oooh, keep you up all night, did she?”
“I was guarding her, remember?”
“No reason you can’t do that from under the covers.” Chad waggled his eyebrows.
Randy laughed. “Yeah, well maybe I just have a bit more finesse than you.”
“Finesse!” Chad snorted in derision. “Uh-huh. She’s got your number, man. Face it. Move outta the way and let a master…” he blew on his knuckles and rubbed them on his bare chest, “do his stuff.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen some of your moves. You’re about as subtle as a sledgehammer.”
“Hey, the chicks like it. They get a kick outta bringing the animal out in me.”
“Go back to sleep, Chad. You’re still dreaming.” He smirked and turned to leave, calling out as he opened the door, “Maybe I’ll catch you later.”
* * * * *
After a quick shower, just long enough to steam out a few kinks from the previous night on the couch in Crissy’s room, he sprawled out on the sofa downstairs, this time lying down instead of sitting up. His feet hung over the edge, but he’d tough it out. No way was he using that damn bed in the spare room. There was only one bed he’d be using. He was quite prepared to wait.
When he woke a few hours later, the sound of talking in the kitchen alerted him to Crissy’s presence. How in the hell had she come in without him hearing her? The woman made enough noise usually to startle a slumbering hippo. That wasn’t good. If she could slip by him, then anyone could. Maybe he’d been more tired than he thought. Swinging his legs over the side, he stood and stretched, feeling the pop and click all along his spine. What he really needed was to go for a long run, preferably on four legs, not two, but that wouldn’t be happening until this thing with Crissy was done. He didn’t plan on leaving her alone that long.
Leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his bare chest, he watched Crissy on the phone. She hadn’t noticed him. She’d changed out of the jeans she had on earlier, and though he loved the way the denim had hugged her ass, the sight of her long, firm thighs bared by the short, little bit of a dress made his mouth water. As she stood there twirling a blonde lock of hair around her finger while she talked, he felt a sharp stab of jealousy at the familiar way she spoke to whoever was on the other end.
“…okay, hon, but I’ve got to go… Forget it! I am not wearing that… I don’t care, you jerk. Look for me in a burlap sack.” She laughed, the sound relaxed and husky. “Nine o’clock. Yes. I’ll be there. Bye, Jerry.”
Jerry. From the sound of Crissy’s voice, Randy wondered if their relationship had ever been anything other than profession
al. One thing was for damned sure—he’d be meeting Jerry tonight. No way was he letting Crissy out of the house without him.
* * * * *
“So this is all of them for the last…what? Three weeks?”
“Four, actually.”
They’d spent the last three hours huddled over her laptop on her coffee table, going over prints, negatives, looking at photos—nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, nothing, certainly, that seemed to warrant the attacks on her.
“What about the other camera, the one that was stolen?”
“Noth—” She smacked her forehead. “God, what an idiot! Of course.” She jumped up off the lounge and grabbed her handbag. Withdrawing a little plastic case with a small black disc inside, she held it up triumphantly. “Ta daaaa!”
“What’s that?”
“This is the memory card from the new camera. I always take the card out of the camera after a shoot and slip in a blank one. Just a habit of mine.”
Sitting in front of her laptop, she inserted the card and clicked the mouse, bringing up the photos from that night.
“Where were these taken?” he asked, as he took the mouse from her and backtracked over a few of them.
“Baby Blues. I go there at least once a week. There’s always something happening, and I can usually get some shots for the social pages of the Women’s Weekly.”
He pointed to a photo. “I don’t recognize this. Where is it?”
She leaned against him to get a better look. “That’s the Blue Room, out the back of Baby Blues.”
“Yeah, I know the one. Just never been inside.”
“They had a function in there. I wandered in by mistake, took…oh, I don’t know…about half a dozen shots before this guy with a serious five o’clock shadow came over and escorted me out. He was nice enough about it—but very firm. I’m heading back there tonight with Jerry.”
“And me.”
“Yeah, shadow,” she teased, bumping his shoulder, “and you.”
“See anyone in there you recognized?”
“Not really. I did notice it was all men though.”
“And they made a beautiful woman like you leave? Must have been a meeting of queers.”
She laughed. “Well there was some nice-looking eye candy in there, so if they were, it just goes to prove that the best ones are either gay or married.”
Randy leaned closer, the grin on his face an adorable blend of cheeky and sexy. “I’m neither gay nor married, beautiful.”
She chuckled. “You think I’m going to touch that, you’re crazy!”
“So touch something else…” He waggled his eyebrows. “I promise not to bite.”
She shook her head and laughed, and then closed the lid on her laptop before leaning back on the sofa.
“You never give up, do you?”
“True. The best ones never do until they get what they want.”
Her smile dropped a little when he turned fully to face her, his expression suddenly serious.
“So what’s wrong with me, Cris? What don’t you like about me?”
“I do like you, Randy, and there’s nothing wrong with you. You and I just don’t fit.”
“I think we fit very well. We’ve already proved that.”
“I don’t mean like that, silly. I mean, where it really counts. We want different things.”
“Like? What do you want?” He settled in beside her, propping himself sideways so he could watch her, wanting desperately to touch her, but holding back. She was finally talking to him openly and the last thing he wanted to do was distract her.
“You really want to know?”
“Yes, I really want to know.”
“Okay, then.” She bit her lip, mulling over her thoughts before she started. “I want to be with a man and know he’s mine, the same way that I’m his. To be able to connect with him on every level—mentally, physically, emotionally…”
“And?”
“And I want kids. Lots of them. Or I did. I might have to review that part. I’m not exactly twenty anymore.”
The silence hung heavy in the air between them.
His lack of response probably gave her the wrong idea. Considering his history with women, her version of heaven should have been enough to have him tearing for the hills. What scared the crap out of him was the dawning realization that he wanted it too.
“See? No fit anywhere.”
“You might be surprised about that.”
“Uh-huh.” Her tone was heavy with disbelief and she made no effort to hide it.
“I mean it. Maybe,” he looked at her squarely, his expression intent, “I just hadn’t found the right woman.”
A corner of her mouth turned up in a wry smile. “From what I hear, you’ve certainly been looking hard enough. Is there any woman in town you haven’t slept with?”
“One—in particular.” With a finger under her chin, he turned her to face him. “And I suspect she may be the one I’ve been searching for.”
“Nice line—”
“It’s not a line, Crissy. Do you…” He ran a hand up and down her arm, before leaving it to caress her cheek with the back of his hand. “Do you remember last New Year’s Eve?”
All she had to do was say no. If she could deny what had passed between them then, he’d drop it. But the skin on her cheeks blushed, the heat spreading down her neck as she bit her bottom lip. He knew it!
He ran a finger down her nose and across her lips, catching her chin in his fingers. This time when he kissed her, his lips played over hers like a feather—teasing, cajoling, tender. “I thought so. Do you know how long I searched for you after that night? Not even a name. Nothing to go on. You just disappeared.”
“I didn’t want to be one of the many—”
“You aren’t.” Lowering his head again, he pressed a kiss across her lips. “Never were.” Another one, deeper this time, making her heart pound. “Never will be.”
Without leaving her lips, he lay her back on the sofa. He edged over her, settling his body against her, hemming her in.
She closed her eyes and trembled as he licked and nibbled a path up her neck to her ear, a silky trail of heat and dampness before he tugged on the lobe. His tongue flicked out to lick the shell and she shivered.
“You okay?”
“Uh-huh,” she gasped. “Goose bumps.”
“Let me see…” His fingers eased the strap of her dress down so that it hung loosely off her shoulder. His mouth followed his fingers, kissing, licking. Laying a moist path to settle finally in the soft dip of her breasts. He took a moment to inhale the sweetness of her, a heavenly combination of scents that robbed him of all reason—other than getting inside her. Christ, it had to be soon, dammit. He’d never waited this long with a woman. What the hell was wrong with him? What was different about Crissy? So what if she spooked? He’d just go get another woman…
That thought lasted a whole five seconds until he slipped a finger under the first button on her sundress. It popped. Then another. And another, his lips moving to warm the skin laid bare as her dress fell open. Two coral nipples, hard, puckered. His mouth watered. When she moaned and arched up against him, the animal inside was all for just plowing inside her and getting it over with. It wasn’t natural, the voice inside him pleaded. Just fuck her and get on with it, for Christ’s sake!
“Crissy?”
“Hmmm?”
“Want you.”
“I kinda got that impression.”
After licking a circle around her areola, he blew on the puckered nipple.
Her hands gripped his shoulders and she moaned. Again.
“Goose bumps?” he gritted out.
A small shiver passed over her body. “Big time.”
Wrapping his lips around the succulent bud, he sucked on the hard tip, tugging, nibbling, biting.
Her hands traveled to his head, fingers threading through the strands and gripping tight. “More, Randy. I need more.”
She gasped when his other hand tweaked and pinched the neglected nipple. Lifting himself over her, he nudged his swollen cock at the folds of her cunt. Damn clothes. But to get closer, he’d have to move away. He didn’t think he could. When she arched up against him, pushing all that heat and dampness up against the straining length of his cock, he all but blew it in his jeans.
Moving back to her mouth, he kissed her roughly, ripping buttons off his shirt as he pulled at it, shrugging it off frantically, all sense of calm and control evaporating as he fed the need to get skin to skin. Now, oh, Jesus fucking Christ, now! He worked a hand between them and slipped a finger under the elastic of her panties, traveling the short distance to her pussy, swiping along the folds. Wet. Dripping wet.
He plunged two fingers in, barely registering the surprised gasp under his plundering lips. What he did notice was the slickness, the little muscles grabbing his fingers. Deeper. His fingers curling up, searching for and hitting the sensitive bundle of nerves high up until she went still, rigid, tremors starting to travel down her body. Oh, God, she felt so damn good! He wanted his cock in there, wanted to feel those muscles gripping him, sucking him in.
She was ready. He sure as hell was ready. So what was he waiting for?
He was about to pull out of her juicy cunt, reach for his zipper and rip the thing out with his teeth if he had to, when her whole body tightened, the first tremors of an approaching orgasm pulsing with every thrust of his fingers. Dammit! Too soon.
“Don’t come. Don’t you fucking come yet, sweetheart.”
Too late.
When she screamed his name, he lost it. His cock started pumping and all he could do was grind it against her. Minutes, hours—who knew how long it went on—but by the time she went limp, his body felt like he’d been screwing her for days straight.
His forehead dropped onto her chest. “Jesus, Crissy.” Damn, she was going to be the death of him.
He lifted his head to look at her.
Beautiful. So damn beautiful. Dark lashes fluttering over blue eyes still darkened with lust. Lips wet. Chest rising and falling as her breathing slowed, gradually returning to normal, her body flushed from head to toe.
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