“I’m going to lie down on my bed for a while. If you two want to stay down here and argue, please keep it down.”
Jonathan pushed a strand of sweaty hair away from my forehead. “You need to be careful. If you want to move, I can help you.”
“By the sounds of it, you’ve already done enough. Thanks for healing the bite, or whatever.”
Jonathan speared Papan with a quick glance before taking my left hand. “Sierra, I also healed the grazes on your cheeks, and the cut on your hand. How did you get that cut on your palm? It didn’t look like something a wolf would do.” He ran his fingertips over the sealed skin where Oren had cut a neat line to feed the dowsing rod. I didn’t feel like sharing the info, though. “I tried healing the bite, but it didn’t work.”
“She wasn’t attacked by a wolf,” Papan called.
“Whatever it was, I can’t heal the bite completely,” Jonathan added, releasing my hand.
“What do you mean?” Was that why I could still feel it? I thought it was just a remnant, while it faded. Just like what happened to Papan’s injuries. Then again, he was a werewolf and I wasn’t.
“I tried to clear it up, but the skin had already sealed.” Jonathan shook his head. “I’m not sure how it happened, but someone else took care of it before I did. Still, it’s not completely gone.”
I nodded, looking past his shoulder to focus on Papan. He was staring back at me, with a poker face that gave away a lot more than a reaction would. While I’d been delirious, a dog had licked my wounds…but it hadn’t been a dog, had it? Papan had somehow helped a lot more than he led on.
“I’ll need to find out more,” Jonathan said, still continuing his train of thought even though I was only half listening. He got to his feet. “Do you want me to help you get to bed before I go?”
I shook my head. “I’ll be fine. Besides, Papan can help me. You go off and do whatever it is I interrupted.” I probably shouldn’t be giving him this much attitude when he’d helped me, but something Papan had insinuated bugged me. Jonathan made a phone call while in the kitchen, and although I hadn’t been able to hear, I was pretty sure Papan’s wolf hearing allowed him to eavesdrop. What had he heard? I’d overheard Jonathan speaking to someone about me before, but he later denied it. This only made me more suspicious of his motives for bothering to heal me.
Besides, hadn’t I broken up with him already? He seemed to be using this situation to gloss over what happened the last time he stopped by. I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with it right now.
Jonathan’s eyes darkened to black when he took my hand again and squeezed my fingers a little harder than he needed to. “I can do it. I’ll take you up to your—”
“No, I’m fine.” I yanked my hand away before the darkness that appeared at the corners of my sight took over. What the hell was happening to me? Was I about to pass out again?
“Suit yourself. I’ll see you at the meeting tonight.” Jonathan left the living room without another word, slamming the front door behind him.
“That guy’s got some serious jealousy issues.”
I nodded. This Jekyll and Hyde routine Jonathan was pulling off lately was starting to grate on my nerves.
I held out my hand. “Will you help me get to bed?”
Papan’s sexy grin teased the corners of his mouth. “Ah, Foxy Lady, if only you weren’t asking me just because you’re about to pass out.”
I laughed. “It’s that obvious, huh?”
“You look very pale.” He headed for the kitchen. “Before I do that, how about you have a little something to eat? You need to get your strength back.”
“Sure.” I rested my head back for just a second, but when I opened my eyes he was heading back into the living room with a blueberry muffin, a glass of milk and two tablets. “Thanks, Papan. I didn’t know you were so domestic.”
“I can be, for those I care about.” He handed me the muffin.
I was surprised when I polished it off in a matter of minutes, then took the pills and washed everything down with the milk.
“I feel a little more human now.”
“Good. Let’s get you upstairs.” Instead of helping me to my feet, Papan actually took me in his arms and carried me up to my bedroom.
When he placed me on the bed, gently, I lay back against the pillows and closed my eyes. “Papan, can you stay for a while?”
“I’ve got nothing else planned, so I suppose I can.” He made his way around the bed and sat on the other side. “Come here, I’ll help you get comfortable.”
If he’d propped himself up on my right side, it would’ve been a hell of a challenge, but with my left shoulder being fully functional, I squirmed closer until my head was pressed against his chest. He felt so strong and comfortable. I could feel his heartbeat beneath my ear and it helped soothe away all my jumbled worries.
“Can you make sure I get up at eight?”
“Sure thing…”
I could feel sleep slowly tugging at me, but I wanted to tell him something before I faded for a few hours. “Papan?”
“Yeah?”
“I know it was you,” I whispered against his chest. “Your wolf tried to heal me, didn’t he?”
Papan’s chest rose and fell. “I did what I had to, to make sure the bite didn’t get infected. I’ve got enzymes in my wolf saliva that can speed up the healing process and help minimize the scarring. I’m not sure if it worked properly on you. It’s something we use on our own.”
“Thank you.” I took a deep breath and released it in a sigh. “Are you saying you consider me one of your own?”
“Fox, I’m a lone wolf, have been most of my life. But you, you’re the closest thing I have to a pack. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe, and that includes keeping your boyfriend away. I shouldn’t have called him. I was just…desperate.”
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore. You were there when I broke up with him.”
“Well, he didn’t get the message.”
“Then I’ll have to make sure he does.” He was right. Jonathan hadn’t acted like someone who understood we weren’t a couple anymore. I’d have to make sure he got the message loud and clear. “Who was he talking to on the phone?”
“Sleep now. We’ll talk later,” Papan whispered near my hair, before I felt his lips on the top of my head.
I leaned against his hard body and let go of everything. Until my body felt so relaxed, sleep overcame my innermost desires almost instantly.
I lowered the straps of my bra and tank top, leaning closer to the mirror so I could get a better look at the bite mark on my collarbone. It looked nasty. Although there wasn’t any actual torn skin, the obvious teeth marks stood out in a vicious, jagged oval.
The thought made me a little queasy. I didn’t know much about lycanthropy, but if Papan was right and some sort of canine beast had bitten me—well, he actually tried to take a chunk of my flesh—did it mean I would now be infected? Would I go furry during the next full moon?
Damn, it itched like crazy.
At least I could be grateful that between Papan and Jonathan, the pain had receded. I’d never forget how much it hurt when the beast pinned me down and took a bite. I shivered as the memory filled my mind. I hadn’t seen what he looked like, but the menace had emanated off him pretty strongly. He’d wanted to hurt me.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to shake the memory of pain from my mind. To keep the darkness at bay, and what he’d said to me. “You’re not getting away from us this time, bitch!”
What had he meant?
A knock at the door interrupted my jumbled and very terrified thoughts. I made my way to the bathroom door and pushed it open. Papan stood in my bedroom with a look of concern on his face.
My bedroom had a bathroom attached to it, and when I’d woken up and found him still asleep on the bed, I hadn’t disturbed him. Now, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. The blue T-shirt hugging his taut torso made his eyes shimmer aquamar
ine. I loved the different shades of his irises.
It took me a few moments, but I finally found my voice. “Hey,” I said by way of greeting.
His gaze moved to my collarbone and I remembered I was still holding down my top and bra, baring my shoulder right in front of him, and maybe even a bit of breast. Yet somehow I couldn’t bring myself to cover up. After he’d taken care of me for over a day and held me while I slept away the exhaustion, I felt as if something very important had changed between us. An intimacy, which went a lot deeper than the quickly evolving physical relationships I used to stumble into.
“Are you okay?” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down before he lifted his gaze to meet mine.
“Yeah, I was just looking at this nasty bite.” I turned away, headed back into the bathroom and to the mirror, inspecting the ugly-looking laceration. I wasn’t sure if it was real or just a psychological stain in my memory, but I could feel the graze on my actual collarbone. As if the beast’s teeth had scratched at my very bones and gone deep into them. The black outline the teeth marks made were a little disconcerting but was probably a fading bruise.
I looked up at Papan’s face, not surprised to find the faint bruising on his cheek completely gone. As if it had never been there.
“It should’ve cleared away by now,” he said, stepping into the bathroom. “All you should have is a faint scar. Even your boyfriend said the same.”
“I wish you’d stop calling him that.” I also wish I could bring myself to ask you what you meant about protecting me from Jonathan. Was it just because of the constant confrontations the three of us seemed to be finding ourselves in lately? Or had he overheard something during Jonathan’s mysterious telephone conversation earlier? I never did get an answer from Papan.
“That’s what he is, right?”
“You know he’s not,” I said with a shake of my head. “Who was he talking to on the phone?”
Papan exhaled. “Some guy called Mauricio.”
“What were they talking about?” My heart sped up. I didn’t recognize the name, but I still wanted to know what Papan overheard.
“They were vague.” He looked away. “J was warning him to stay away, and the other man insisted they stick to the plan.”
“Was that all?”
He shrugged. “J told him he wasn’t ready yet. That they had to slow things down before everything blew up in their faces again.”
“That’s it?”
“Like I said, vague and very short… If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he remembered I was nearby before the conversation got any deeper.”
I nodded. That made sense. Jonathan liked to be elusive on the phone. And if he’d remembered a werewolf was in the house, he would have put on the brakes before giving anything away.
“Does it mean anything to you?”
“Not really.” Not yet. “What about you?”
“It means that he can’t be trusted. I need to keep a closer eye on him.”
I looked into the mirror, staring at Papan. I was grateful that he’d filled in some of the blanks, but didn’t want to get into a discussion about my problems with Jonathan right now. “I might rub some aloe, or moisturizing cream on it. It might help the sting and keep me from scratching.”
He frowned. “Is it itchy?”
“Yeah, why?”
He shook his head.
“Papan, if you know something, you have to tell me.”
“I don’t know for sure. Let me check with a few contacts before I say anything that’ll freak you out.”
“Too late for that,” I said with a sigh. “I’m already freaked out. It’s obvious that someone wants me dead. Just because this monster failed, it doesn’t mean someone or something else won’t succeed.”
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He now stood right behind me, both of his hands pressed against my upper arms.
“You can’t be with me all the time.”
He leaned down a little closer. “Sometimes, I wish I could.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. If he didn’t move soon, who knew where this was going to end up. Maybe back in my bedroom.
“You don’t need anything else, but this.” He dropped his hands from my bare skin and pulled out a small tube from his back pocket.
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but after I told him what had happened, the old man brought it over when he stopped by. He said it would help.”
“How did he know what would help, when we don’t even know what attacked me?”
Papan shrugged. “How about I just put some on?”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I want to.” Papan was already unscrewing the top off the tube and had some of the green ointment on his fingertips.
When he dabbed it on my skin, I felt as if he’d placed a little bit of ice on my shoulder. It soothed away the itchiness almost instantly, and then settled enough to numb away the entire area. The sensitivity faded and I couldn’t help but moan a little.
“It feels good, huh?”
I looked at Papan in the mirror and nodded. I watched as he placed the tube on the sink and pressed the front of his body a little closer to mine. I leaned back to encourage him, enough for his face to lean closer to my unwounded shoulder. His mouth hovered over my skin and I could feel his warm breath rouse gooseflesh all over my body. When he kissed my skin, I tilted my head to the side, giving him enough access to kiss a line up and down the side of my neck as my pulse quickened so much I felt like my legs were going to give out beneath me.
“You taste nice, Foxy Lady.” I caught the shine of his green eyes in the mirror, and the dimples on his cheeks. His left hand moved up and down my side, reaching my jeaned hip and then rising up the side of my waist before he stopped just below my breast.
I held my breath, waiting for his touch. Even beneath my bra, I could feel the heat of his hand as he covered it entirely and squeezed. My nipples reacted instantly. He stopped kissing me enough to smile that cheeky grin, the one that had taunted me for so long. I closed my eyes for a second, enjoying the feel of him against me, his lips now on my jaw and his hand still over my breast.
“Papan.” A soft whisper, filled with the desire he stirred inside me, slid between my parted lips. Heat pooled between my legs, intensifying when I felt his erection at my back.
“Foxy Lady,” he said into my ear, dropping his hand from my breast.
I opened my eyes and found him placing the square bit of bandage I’d left on the sink over my broken skin. He pressed the tape against it.
I swung around, causing his hands to fall away but staying as close to him as I could. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, which was now a little harder to do because he was so tall and my shoulder felt rigid. It didn’t seem to bother him. His gaze never left mine as he lowered his face closer to mine.
An electric buzz stung my lips as soon as our mouths connected, but I didn’t move away. I’d wanted this for so long, and it felt nothing like the only other time we’d kissed. That day in his office, when he surprised me and then let me go just as quickly, had almost felt like a test. As if he’d wondered what it would feel like to kiss me, had a taste and then drew away. He didn’t do that this time.
Now, his hands went to my butt and pulled me closer against him, until his erection was pressed tight between us, pressing against my stomach.
As our mouths moved together, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. When the tip of his tongue parted my lips, I opened up and almost collapsed against him when our tongues collided. His breathing was getting as ragged as mine and my blood rushed in my ears. All I wanted to do was rip his clothes off and have him do the same to me. I wanted our bodies naked, together, and to have him inside me.
He groaned, leaving my mouth just long enough to lift my butt onto the sink. I wrapped my legs around his hips and he returned to kiss me, even wilder than before. As if we wanted to devour each other. I lost my hands in
his longish, blond hair and felt the burn of desire tearing through me.
He stuck his fingers under my tank top and ran both his hands beneath, up my back. It was my turn to moan into his mouth.
I thought I heard a sound coming from downstairs, but with this much lust and fever flowing through me, I didn’t dwell on it. Not until I heard a familiar voice calling my name.
Oh, shit. It’s Ebony! Talk about bad timing.
I tried to ignore her insistent knocking and calling, but it got too deep inside my head to ignore. Besides, she had a spare key I told her to use for emergencies. Her emergency scale was a little different to mine.
Papan sensed the change in me and pulled back, our ragged breaths blending together when he pressed his forehead against mine.
“Damn,” I cursed. My lips felt swollen, and all I wanted to do was continue what we’d started. We seemed to be starting a lot lately, without finishing anything.
“Shit,” he said.
“We can ignore her.”
“I don’t think that’ll work.” He exhaled. “She’ll probably jimmy the lock or something.”
I laughed. “She’s got a key.”
He pulled his hands out from underneath my top. “We almost got there this time, Foxy.”
“Almost…”
“I won’t give up.”
“Me neither.”
His green eyes blazed like emeralds.
“Maybe Ebony suspects something’s going on and decided to stop it,” I said, by way of lightening the mood.
He seemed confused. “Why would she care? Does she have some sort of loyalty toward your boyfriend?”
“Papan, stop calling him that,” I said, rolling my eyes. As far as I was concerned we were well and truly over. I just had to make sure Jonathan accepted it as well.
“Sorry, it’s a bad habit.”
“Besides, I’m talking about you and Ebony sleeping together.”
“What? When?”
I didn’t know what to say for a moment. “Uh, Ebony told me…you and her slept together several months ago.”
Papan took a step back and laughed, so hard it echoed around the bathroom. “I don’t understand why she told you we did, but it’s not true.” He stopped laughing and became serious. “Look, maybe she’s having trouble keeping her fantasies and real life straight, because I’m telling you I didn’t do anything with her. That’s the kind of thing I would remember.”
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