With a slow nod, she said, “I think I just needed some time to think—like my body needed a time-out, while my brain could be working it all out in my head. I mean, you have to remember where I live, Elliot. I’ve seen... I’ve seen some fairly scary stuff. And, yeah, I was pretty scared to see all that blood, and the claws...and his fangs.” She paused and gave him a deep, searching look, before licking her lips and blurting, “I’m sure you have some, too, right? I mean, you must. But...that’s not the point. The point is that I get it.”
Thinking he must have misunderstood her, he tried his hardest to get a clear read on her. “You get what?”
“Why you killed him. I heard what he said. You were protecting me, so I can’t really be grossed out by it, can I? Or judgmental. At that moment, I wanted to kill him, too. And he’s hurt so many women. He could have even been the one who hurt Viv.”
“Yeah, but I... I wasn’t sure you would see it that way. I know the way we do things—the laws we have—are very different from humans,” he heard himself say in a low voice, hoping like hell she hadn’t overheard the part about her being his life-mate.
“I’m sure they are. And I... I’m not going to sit here accusing you of being a monster. The ones responsible for all this, they’re the monsters.” She closed her eyes for a moment as she drew in a deep breath, then blinked them open as she slowly exhaled, and his muscles tensed, because he knew what was coming. “You told Max in the message you left for him that you’d learned some sick stuff about someone named Chiswick,” she said quietly, her green eyes burning with determination. “What did the guy you were questioning tell you?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Skye, you—”
“Don’t,” she whispered, cutting him off. “Just...please don’t say something stupid about how I don’t really want to know. This is my life, and Viv’s life, that we’re talking about. I deserve to know what you learned.”
He frowned, but damn it, he knew she was right. Stabbing his fingers back through his hair, he cleared his throat, and forced himself to give her the truth. “He said no one knows what Chiswick is—but whatever his species, it sounds like he’s a...cannibal,” he scraped out, the hoarse words sitting like something sour on his tongue. Especially given his own twisted past. “The bastard said something about how Chiswick eats the ones who displease him while they’re still kicking and screaming.”
Hands suddenly cupped over her nose and mouth, her green eyes wide with shock, she breathed out something that sounded like Ohmygod. That’s so freaking sick!
Standing up, Elliot moved his chair closer to hers, then sat back down and reached for one of her cold hands, holding it pressed between his. “I swear we are gonna handle this, Skye. I am not going to let anything happen to you.”
“But...you’re not really a PI, right?” she asked, drawing her hand away and crossing her arms over her chest, her gaze troubled. “It was all a lie? Or a cover?”
He winced, hooking one hand behind his neck as he lowered his head and tried to think of the best way to explain. He hated that this was just one more lie he had to admit to.
“Elliot, just tell me.”
Lifting his head, he hoped she could see that he felt like shit for what he was about to confess. “The license I showed you is a forgery.”
“So that means that you got a federal agent to lie for you. How? I mean, why would he do that?”
Lowering his hand to the table, he gripped the edge, wishing beyond anything that he was holding on to her instead. “I, uh, don’t think Monroe would see it that way—as outright lying. In his eyes, the work we do is similar in a lot of ways to that of a private investigator. We just don’t get official recognition for it.”
Curiosity filtered through her confusion. “He knows what you are?”
With a jerk of his chin, he said, “Yeah. His sister is actually married to one of the males in my pack. So Monroe has known about us for a long time now.”
She looked intrigued. “When you say we, who are you talking about exactly? Your...pack?”
“No, it’s more like my family,” he explained, so incredibly grateful that he was able to say that. Because while he might not feel like he had a whole hell of a lot to offer someone as wonderful as Skye, his family was as kick-ass as they came. “Max and I, we’re part of a small group called the Bloodrunners. Our job is to protect the secrecy of the Silvercrest Lycan pack, but first and foremost, we’re hunters.”
Her eyes went wide. “Wow. What do you hunt?”
Rubbing his hand across his jaw, he forced himself to give her another honest answer. “The bad guys, Skye. If one of our kind turns rogue and starts breaking the laws of our pack by feeding on humans, we hunt their asses down and take them out. We protect our territory, and look out for the human towns that fall under our jurisdiction.”
A myriad expressions flashed across her face during his explanation, but she didn’t freak out. She just pulled in another deep breath, then slowly let it out as she reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “And there are other packs? Like yours?”
“Yeah,” he breathed.
“But you don’t know what...what species Chiswick is, and I’m assuming that the women he’s taken have all been human. So how did you get assigned to the case?”
“Monroe really did ask us for help.”
He could tell by the way her lashes flickered that his answer had surprised her. “You and Max?”
“Yeah. We have a good relationship with him. And at the moment, we’re the only single Runners. The others, they don’t like to be away from their families, so we’re the ones who take the cases like this nowadays. The ones that require traveling out of state.”
“I’m...glad.” She flushed, but still pulled her shoulders back as she looked him right in the eye and said, “That it’s you, I mean.”
Exhaling in a heavy rush, he collapsed back in the chair, his relief so potent he felt dizzy with it.
“What?” she asked, studying his expression.
He gave her a brief, crooked grin, and shook his head a little. “Honestly? I just... I didn’t expect you to take this so well.”
She gave a quiet laugh. “Did you think that once you explained everything, I’d start pulling at my hair and screaming like a crazy person?”
His lips twitched. “Something like that.”
“Well, I won’t lie and say there’s not a part of me that wants to do exactly that,” she murmured. “But...I know what I saw, and I know you did what you did because you wanted to protect me.” Shoulders lifting with a deep breath, she went on, saying, “I know those things just as strongly as I know, in my gut, that you’re a good man. So I’m going to pull up my big-girl panties and act like a rational adult. One who is probably going to think twice about ever going outside at night again,” she added with a little laugh, “but that’s all the crazy I’m going to allow myself. With everything that’s going on, I just... I just have to suck it up and deal.”
Carefully studying her with a narrowed gaze, he asked, “You’re really not afraid of me?”
She tilted her head to the side a bit, the look in her beautiful eyes deep and breathtakingly tender as she quietly said, “Yeah, I’m really not afraid of you.”
He had to curl his hands into fists in his lap to keep them from shaking, his throat so tight he could only swallow and nod.
“I’m sorry, by the way,” she added with a slight wince.
His eyes shot wide, seeing as how that was one of the last things he’d expected her to say. “For what?”
With a rueful expression on her pretty face, she said, “Until they showed up at the cabin, I don’t think I really believed that they wanted me, too. I should have listened to you.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” he offered in a low voice, rubbing his palm against the hard, whiskery edge of his jaw. “I get how crazy this all sounded.”
She looked as if he’d surprised her again. “It sounds crazy to you, too?”
/> “I’ve seen some insane shit over the years,” he told her. “But...yeah, this isn’t anything like our normal runs.”
Leaning forward so that she could brace an elbow on the table, she rested her chin in her hand and gave him a wry smirk. “So be honest with me. Do you think I’ll wake up tomorrow and completely freak out?”
Even though Elliot could tell she was teasing, it was his turn to wince. “Christ, I hope not.”
“Me, too,” she agreed with another soft laugh. And then, a bit more seriously, she said, “But I don’t think I will. I mean... I knew you were different, in a special kind of way. I just didn’t realize how different.”
Figuring this was as good a time as any to tell her his plan, he started to speak, when she suddenly blurted, “What do you want?” And then, a bit more slowly, “I mean, what is it that you want to happen?”
He didn’t even have to think about his answer. “I want you to be safe.”
She searched his expression as she bit her lip, then softly said, “That’s it?”
The air thickened between them, so heavy with anticipation Elliot could barely breathe it in, and he had to clear his throat a little before he could say, “I want you...with me, Skye. And that doesn’t play into how safe I want you. I mean, I would protect you no matter what was between us. But I... I’d be lying if I said my interest in you didn’t make the need to protect you more...vital.” Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his knees, and there was no mistaking the possessiveness in his low voice as he said, “I want to take you back to my mountains with me, and when we get there, I want you in my cabin. I want you in my bed.”
Her cheeks flushed a beautiful shade of rose, and he could have sworn there was something even deeper than desire burning in her warm gaze as she asked, “Are you sure? Because we’ve only known each other for a few days, if that.”
“You really think it makes that much of a difference?”
She kind of shook her head and nodded all at the same time. “Yes...no. I don’t know.”
“Some people know their lovers for years, and still don’t really know them at all.”
“That’s true,” she murmured. And then, with a slow blink, she asked, “You really want me to go home with you?”
Wondering if he’d slipped into some kind of fever dream, he said, “I just want you, period. You should know that by now. But, hell yes, I want to take you home with me.”
He started to reach for her, intending to pull her onto his lap, when she suddenly sat back in her chair, moving out of his reach—and it was like a sharp slap of reality across his face, making him wonder if he’d been reading her as clearly as he’d thought he had.
Watching him carefully, she said, “And if I go to Maryland with you, you’ll stay there with me?”
Of all the fucking questions she could have asked him, it had to be that one. “Um, yeah,” he scraped out, licking his lips.
She narrowed her eyes, almost as if she could hear the lie in his words. But, damn it, it’s not like he could tell her that he planned on leaving her in the safekeeping of his friends so that he could be free to track down the bastards trying to hurt her.
But after that—hell yeah, he would stay there with her. He’d spend the rest of his life doing everything he could to make her happy.
“I swear you’ll like it there, Skye. I wouldn’t take you someplace that you’d be uncomfortable. I promise.”
“Then...okay,” she murmured, giving him a brief smile. “I’ll, um, go with you.”
Satisfaction curled through him like a warm, lazy ray of sunshine. “Good,” he rasped, hunger making his body hard and his eyes heavy. “Because there’s another reason I want you there.”
* * *
“There is?” Skye whispered, more than a little surprised by how quickly this guy could turn her on.
“Yeah,” he said with a slow nod, his dark gaze hooded and hot as it moved over her face, lingering on her trembling lips, before lifting back to her own. “I want you to see with your own eyes that something between us could work. There are three other couples who are like us there, Skye. Lycan males and human females. And they’re some of the happiest people you’ll ever meet.”
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” she asked in a soft, breathless rush of words.
The sin-tipped smile on his lips was so gorgeous, she felt a little dizzy just looking at it, the deep, rich timbre of his voice as he said, “You have no idea, baby. None,” making it impossible to ignore the fact that she was so aroused she was about to come out of her skin. And then there was the way he was looking at her, as if her agreement to go with him had actually meant something special to him, and it made her chest get this warm, gooey feeling that Viv would have said could get her into some serious trouble. But, then, Viv was the only girl in the world more wary of putting her trust in another person than Skye was.
“Enough with the damn distance,” he muttered, suddenly reaching out and pulling her onto his lap. With his strong arms wrapped around her, he went for her mouth, but she turned her head at the last second, still struggling to believe this was actually happening—that it was real—and he ended up nuzzling the side of her throat instead.
“So many things I want to do to you,” he said in a low, husky rumble, rubbing the words into her sensitive skin. “I thought I fantasized a lot about sex before I met you, but that was nothing compared to the things that fill my head now. I want to do everything to you, Skye. Want to touch you and taste you and get inside every beautiful part of you.”
“Oh, God,” she moaned, letting her head fall back so that he could press those breathtaking kisses to the front of her throat.
“And I want you to do the same to me,” he growled, licking his tongue across her hammering pulse. “I want you lost in me. I want you as fucking hungry as you make me feel.”
“Elliot.”
Spreading his big hands across her back, he pulled her tighter against him, his warm mouth rubbing across the trembling line of her jaw. “And it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with being in danger or fighting for our lives. I want you because you’re the sweetest, sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, and I’ll do whatever it takes to have you. To make you want me again.”
Wait...what? “Make me want you again? Are you freaking serious?”
He nipped her tender earlobe. “Deadly.”
“Elliot,” she huffed, gripping his hair and pulling until he was looking her in the eye. “I already want you,” she said shakily, unable to believe he could have any doubt, since it seemed so freaking obvious.
“Then why the hell do you keep pulling away from me?” His tanned, corded throat worked as he swallowed, and his voice was softer than she’d ever heard it as he asked, “Are you sure you’re not afraid of me?”
With her hands still buried in his hair, she said, “I’m sure.”
His eyes narrowed, and he looked pale. “Jesus, Skye. Do you think I’d hurt you? Is that it?”
She shook her head, hating that he could even think that. “After everything you’ve done for me? No, of course not.”
“Then why?” he demanded roughly, frustration bleeding into the raw edges of his voice.
Shoulders lifting in a helpless shrug, she said, “I’m not sure. I guess... I mean, I think it’s because I’m... I’m just...me.”
He looked confused. “Yeah? And?”
“That’s it! I’m just Skye. Just...average. Boring.”
A scowl wove its way between his dark brows. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Elliot,” she groaned, thinking he was adorably obtuse. “Just look at us. I already thought you were way out of my league before, and then I learn that you’re like this amazing male who can turn into another creature. That’s...that’s pretty freaking incredible, and it puts you even more out of my league.”
“First off,” he muttered, looking at her like he thought she might be a little insane, “that’s pure and
utter bullshit. If anyone’s reaching here, it’s me.”
Curving her hands over his broad shoulders, she said, “But I’m the one who’s only a human.”
His dark eyes flared with irritation. “You’re not only anything. And I wouldn’t change a goddamn thing about you.”
“Elliot,” she groaned for a second time in only a handful of seconds, wondering how she was going to get through to him.
“Yeah?” he rasped, giving her a look that said he still thought she was a little crazy, but that he also thought she was the most beautiful, endearingly frustrating woman in the entire world.
“I... You... We...” she spluttered, before finally giving up with a huff. “I’m trying to get you to see reason here, but it’s impossible. You’re really not easy to argue with.”
With a sexy smirk on his even sexier mouth, he said, “In that case, good. I think we can both agree that you should just stop trying.”
Bracing her hands against his firm chest, she locked her troubled gaze with his, silently pleading with him to understand. “I just... I don’t want to get hurt...emotionally. And I know that if I let myself get all crazy over you, it will completely wreck me when you finally see what I’m talking about.”
Voice little more than a gentle, husky murmur, he said, “You could hurt me, too, Skye. More than you know.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered, his words doing something painful to her heart. “That’s the last thing that I want.”
His dark eyes went heavy with lust and need...and other breathtaking things that were far too primal for her human brain to read. “Then stop torturing me and give me that sweet mouth before I go out of my mind.”
In the next instant, his lips were on hers, and she couldn’t help but moan and open up to him. With her heart pounding and her pulse rushing in her ears, she lost herself in the hot silk of his mouth, thinking she could kiss this man or Lycan or whatever the hell he was for the rest of her life and die happy.
But despite all the incredible things that he’d said to her, Skye knew damn well that there was no promise of forever here. And if her past had taught her anything, it was that moments of peace and joy and pleasure were as fleeting as wisps of smoke. Which meant that she really needed to slap some sense into herself, and start devouring every moment with him that she could, before her luck ran out.
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