That sort of thing took time to develop, at least in his estimation. He couldn’t just invite her to join him in one of the hotel rooms conveniently located above them and expect her to go along with that. Any woman worth having was worth the trouble of wooing with a long, slow seduction. But he didn’t have that luxury.
She asked how he’d been as they both consulted the menu. He gave the automatic response that he’d been fine, but busy. Then he continued the conversational tennis match by asking how she’d been. Fine, but busy. He smiled at her response.
Eventually she’d tell him why she asked him to lunch. He wouldn’t push. His ego wanted to believe that she was as intrigued by him as he was by her. She was aware they didn’t have much time together in Portland, but maybe she wanted to make the most of what time they had. He wasn’t free to do that, but it would be nice to have her say it.
After they ordered—steak sandwich for him and a bowl of vegetable soup for her—she leaned forward, as if not wanting to be overheard. He took that as a sign that she had something intimate to discuss. He mirrored her by leaning forward, too.
Her eyes really were incredibly blue. He could gaze into them for hours. Her scent surrounded him, and his groin tightened.
She moistened her full lips with her tongue. “I saw you in the woods late yesterday afternoon.”
For a brief moment he didn’t get it. Then he did. But maybe it wasn’t as bad as he feared. “I went for a short hike.”
“Not exactly.”
Uh-oh. It was bad. “Abby, I don’t know what you think you saw, but—”
“Professor Wallace, you are a hypocrite.” Her blue eyes lost their friendly sparkle and bored into him like twin lasers. “Not only do you believe a Sasquatch pair is out there, you’re looking for them.”
So maybe she hadn’t seen him shift. Maybe she’d just noticed him walking in the woods. He’d take the lesser charge any day. “You found me out, Abby. Your grandfather’s story was so convincing that I decided to check out the situation for myself.”
“You have an interesting method for doing that.”
His heart pounded. Looking into her eyes, he saw what he’d been afraid he’d find there. She knew. Worse yet, hours had passed since then, hours when she could have spread the word about him to half of Portland. Any second a pitchfork-wielding mob could descend on Flan-nigan’s.
But that wasn’t the worst part. He’d compromised werewolves everywhere. He’d failed not only the Gentrys, but every werewolf in the world. If he’d shifted at the mansion, which would have been the sensible thing to do . . . but no, he’d let his temper rule. And now this.
He could tell by her determined expression that trying to convince her she hadn’t seen him shift into wolf form was pointless. “All right,” he said quietly. “Where do we go from here?”
She took a deep breath. “First of all, did you find anything last night?”
“No.”
“Why were you looking in the first place?”
“I’m here to make contact and relocate them. But before I say anything more, please tell me if people will be arriving soon to take me away. For all I know, you invited me here so I could be captured, studied, put on display.”
She cringed. “No.”
He relaxed a little. She’d seemed genuinely dismayed by that idea. But she still could have told her grandfather. Or maybe not. If she’d told Earl, he would be sitting here with her, both to protect her and to satisfy his scientific curiosity.
Slowly the hope grew that she’d told no one. If that were the case, he still had a problem, but it wasn’t a global one, at least not yet. They were involved in a very delicate dance. He had to step carefully.
“I know you have no reason to trust me,” he said.
“None whatsoever. But I might have to take my chances and trust you, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Despite everything, I think we have the same goal: to find that Sasquatch pair. My motivation is to validate my grandfather’s claim. What’s yours?”
He glanced around the restaurant. It was crowded and nobody seemed to be paying much attention to them, but that could change if someone happened to catch part of this conversation. “Look, you’ve said you may have to trust me, and if so, that needs to start now. We can’t have this discussion here. I’m too much at risk.”
She hesitated. “Where would you like to have it?”
“In my car would be good.”
She looked nervous about that.
“Okay, how about this. My car’s in a public garage. We can go sit in the car and talk. I won’t drive anywhere.”
“And you’ll give me the keys.”
“All right.” He fished in his pocket and handed over the keys to the Corvette. Then he took out his wallet and put enough money on the table to cover lunch. “Let’s go.”
They didn’t talk on the way to the parking garage. Roarke spent most of the time beating himself up for having shifted in the woods where Abby had been able to see him. The rest of the time he listened to the sexy click-click-click of her high heels on the sidewalk. And here he’d thought she’d asked him to lunch because she was hot for his body. Too bad he’d been wrong.
She clicked the locks open as they approached the red car and waved him away when he started to help her in the passenger side. “I’ve got it. Thanks.”
He climbed behind the wheel and scooted the seat back as far as it would go so he could stretch his legs. They closed their doors in a perfectly synchronized move, and then they were alone in the small cockpit of the sports car.
It could have been an erotic moment, considering how the tiny space was instantly filled with her compelling scent. But he was too worried about what this would mean to him and the Were community to be turned on.
He cleared his throat. “First let me explain something to you regarding my . . . kind. We don’t have the best of reputations among humans.” He glanced at her to see how she reacted to that.
She paled slightly, the first sign that she might not be as brave as she appeared. “So you’re not human?”
“Not in the strictest sense.”
“But right now you look like it.”
“Right now there’s not a single thing about me that isn’t human. My eyesight and sense of smell are better than the average person’s, but no one realizes that besides me. To the casual observer, I’m just a man.”
Color bloomed in her cheeks. Then she glanced away.
That’s when it hit him that she’d not only watched him transform into a wolf, she’d also seen him take off his clothes before the shift. “I guess you know exactly how human I am,” he said.
She met his gaze. “I suppose I do.” During a moment of silence, her eyes revealed the fascination she wouldn’t acknowledge. She cleared her throat as if struggling to remain aloof. “You mentioned a brother, and parents. Are they also—”
“No, just me,” he lied.
“Do they realize you’re a werewolf?”
“Abby, you already know more than it’s safe for you to know. Don’t make me tell you things that will only make this worse for both of us.”
“Can you explain that?”
He studied her, weighing the risks. “I can try. The usual reaction to my kind over the course of history has been fear. Fear makes people dangerous.”
She tucked the car keys in her oversized black purse and zipped it closed before settling it on her lap. “I managed to sneak in a little Google time this morning. It sounds as if your kind, as you call it, can be dangerous, too.”
He noted her choice of words—I managed to sneak in a little Google time. That reinforced his belief that she hadn’t told Earl yet. “I won’t lie to you. We—”
“Too late. You’ve been lying to me, and a bunch of other folks, ever since you arrived in Portland.”
“Out of necessity.”
She traced the stitching on her purse with one finger. “I guess I can understand that, but I still
don’t see how you could stand up there at those service club meetings and trash Grandpa Earl’s sighting.” Her glance was accusing. “He saw them, didn’t he?”
“I’m sure he did.”
Her fingers tightened over the strap of her purse. “Damn it, Roarke, he needs to know that. He’s dreamed about making contact his entire life, and although he clings to the belief that the sighting was legitimate, I know you’ve made him doubt himself. That’s not right.”
Roarke sighed. “There are bigger issues than fulfilling your grandfather’s lifelong dream. Unusual creatures like Bigfoot need to be protected, not exploited.”
“He wouldn’t exploit them!”
“Wouldn’t he? The minute he printed that picture, he was down at Flannigan’s telling the world about it.”
“He was just excited. He didn’t mean any harm.”
Roarke sat in silence and waited for her to realize that excuse didn’t cut it.
Finally she rolled her eyes. “Of course you’re right. He didn’t stop to think about the repercussions of broadcasting his discovery. I’ll admit that waving the picture around wasn’t a very good idea.”
“No, it wasn’t. Luckily the search parties weren’t well funded or well organized. If they had been, that Sasquatch pair would be on its way to a zoo somewhere, or worse, a laboratory.”
Abby shuddered. “That makes me sick to my stomach.”
“As well it should. They’re very sweet animals, but they’re not particularly smart. They wouldn’t have understood what was happening to them, and if the people in charge decided to separate them . . . They mate for life, and I’m afraid they both would have died of broken hearts.”
“I don’t want any of that. And neither would my grandfather, if he realized the problems he could cause. He didn’t stop to think, but he’s not totally insensitive. I just wish he could know that he really did see them.”
Tension coiled in Roarke’s gut. She held his fate in the palm of her hand and he wondered if she knew that. “Are you considering telling him . . . about me?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“Because then I’d be putting you in the same danger as the Sasquatch.”
The tension in his stomach eased. “I’m not quite as vulnerable as a Sasquatch.”
She smiled. “And I’m sure you’re a whole lot smarter. But as you talked about what could happen to them, I couldn’t help thinking that most of it applies to you, too.”
He was so fortunate that compassion was part of her personality. If he had to accidentally show himself to a human, at least it had been someone he might be able to work with.
“Some of it applies to me,” he said, “but my ability to shift back to human form makes a huge difference. And I don’t have a mate to be separated from, so that’s not an issue.” He didn’t know why he’d felt compelled to add that piece of information.
She picked up on it, too. “Nobody’s waiting at home?”
“No.”
“Confirmed bachelor?”
“Not that, either. I just haven’t met anyone who inspires me to settle down. It’s a big deal with us, because we also mate for life. I know humans say they do, but when you get right down to it . . .”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s more like mating for the time being, to see if it works out or not. I suppose knowing that you’re signing on for life would make you more cautious about making that commitment.”
“It does.” He wasn’t about to tell her that she smelled the way he imagined his mate would smell, or that the very sight of her brought him joy. That didn’t matter, because she was not Were, and he had no interest in a mixed marriage. Let Aidan be the trailblazer in that regard.
“Naturally you’ll choose another . . . of your kind.”
“Yes, I will.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
He watched the silver hoops in her ears sway as she moved. “Why did you arrange this meeting, Abby? What is it you want from me?”
“With all those degrees, I would think you’d have it figured out by now.”
“I have some ideas, but unless you want to play guessing games, why don’t you tell me and save some time?”
“All right.” She turned to gaze at him. “If you didn’t find the Sasquatch pair yesterday, I’ll assume you plan to keep looking.”
“I do. The female may have picked this area because she was born here and wants her baby to be born here, but they need to change the plan. I hope to find them and convince them that another spot would be far better.”
“Take me with you.”
He’d expected this, but it was impossible. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but that wouldn’t work. I’ll be moving quickly.” And in wolf form.
“But if I go with you and I see them, then I can report back to Grandpa Earl.”
“Who is liable to sound the alarm.”
“Not if I tell him what you just told me about their vulnerability. He’s a good man, Roarke. He wouldn’t knowingly cause them harm, not after all these years of studying them.”
“Abby, I really can’t take you. You’d slow me down and potentially spook the Sasquatch. I can come back and report what happened, but—”
“You have to take me.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I have the goods on you, Roarke.”
“Nobody will believe you. They’ll think you’ve spent too much time listening to your grandfather.”
“They might, except for one thing.” She patted the black leather purse. “I have pictures. I took them with Grandpa Earl’s very powerful zoom lens. They’re not fuzzy.”
Chapter 6
The situation was serious, and not without risk, but still Abby felt giddy with triumph. Judging from Roarke’s expression, she’d shocked him with her mention of the pictures. She’d never blackmailed anyone before, let alone a werewolf, and apparently she had a flair for it.
“Pictures.” His green eyes narrowed. “Of everything?”
“Everything.”
His face turned a dull red. “I see.”
“Just so you know, I erased them from Grandpa Earl’s camera, but I loaded them all on a flash drive first. I’ve hidden it, but if anything should happen to me, that hiding place would be the first spot Grandpa Earl would look for clues.”
He nodded, as if finally realizing she’d thought this through. She could thank her logical parents for that ability, plus several years at a job that required her to use her analytical skills. She might be a dreamer at heart, but she’d had plenty of practice using the left side of her brain, too.
She’d put the flash drive in a small cedar box with Portland, Oregon burned into the lid. Grandpa Earl sold those boxes in his store, and he’d given her one when she was a little girl. The box had a hidden compartment, and he’d told her she could keep her secrets in it.
She’d been thrilled with the box, but she’d left it on a shelf in the spare bedroom at her grandparents’ house because she’d been afraid her brother, Pete, would try to mess with it if she took it back to Arizona. The box was still there, and she and Grandpa Earl had joked about it just the other day.
She glanced at Roarke, whose blush was fading. She’d thought that blush was cute. “Would you like to see the pictures, so that you know I’m not bluffing?”
“Oh, I know you’re not bluffing. But yes, I’d like to see them.”
Opening her purse, she pulled out a five-by-seven manila envelope and passed it across the console. “I printed them last night after Grandpa Earl was asleep. I really don’t want him to know about this. If he realized that you were . . . different, he’d never let me go with you.”
Roarke unfastened the envelope’s metal clasp. “He wouldn’t have let you meet me for lunch, either, I’ll bet.”
“Not without him.”
He glanced at her. “You did take quite a chance, meeting me today.”
Her pulse qui
ckened. It had seemed like a grand adventure when she’d planned coming here, but maybe she had been a little naive, a little foolhardy. Cars came and went in the garage, but would anyone hear her if she yelled for help? Would anyone respond?
Roarke pulled out the pictures and glanced at the first few, which were of him fully clothed. Then he came to one of him in his birthday suit. He flipped through the rest quickly and shoved them back in the envelope.
Then he sighed. “Yes, I’ll be taking you with me.”
But now she wasn’t so sure she wanted to go. She’d be all alone out there in the woods . . . with a werewolf. What had she been thinking?
“This whole situation is unfortunate,” he continued, “but I’m going to do my best to see you through it safely. Please don’t ask too many questions along the way, because if I give you the answers, then—”
“Then you’ll have to kill me?” She said it lightly, trying to make it into a joke, but still her chest tightened with fear. She’d thought she was so smart; yet if Roarke didn’t want anyone to know he was a werewolf, he had one way to guarantee that she wouldn’t tell.
But his expression softened. “Abby, it’s not your fault that you saw me shift. It’s mine. Because of that . . .” He paused and when he spoke again, his tone was resolute. “Because of that, I will protect you with my life.”
That knocked the breath right out of her. Her hand to her chest, she struggled for air. “You . . . sound as if that might be necessary.”
“Not if we’re careful. I don’t want to frighten you, but you’ve stumbled into something you don’t understand.”
“Then I need to understand.”
He shook his head. “The less you know, the better. Your best bet is to destroy these pictures, wipe that flash drive clean, and stay out of the woods while I take care of business.”
“Unless you have one of those gizmos from Men in Black that wipes out my memory, I just can’t do that. I’d feel that I’d let down Grandpa Earl.”
“That was a handy little item Tommy Lee Jones had.” Roarke gave her a wry smile. “Believe me, if I had one, I would have used it on you by now.”
Werewolf in the North Woods: A Wild About You Novel Page 6