by Arthur, Keri
He leaned back in the chair, his face expressionless. “Why?”
“Because Rhoan warned against getting too involved with you, and since he rarely gives that sort of advice, I’m wondering why he chose to do so now.”
Surprise touched his stern features. “Rhoan said that?”
“You’ve said that, too,” I reminded him. “I’m gathering that we werewolves are good enough for a dance or two, but nothing more?”
His gaze met mine, the dark depths cold and hard. “Basically, yes.”
“Meaning, you hold the all-too-human view that werewolves are little more than whores who have little or no control over their base instincts?”
“Yes.”
I snorted, inexplicably disappointed. “And here I was thinking that a thousand years might have knocked a little knowledge into your brain.”
His smile was grim. “A thousand years has knocked knowledge into my brain. And my experiences with wolves have confirmed my beliefs.”
I thought back to the pictures I’d seen of his fiancée. Remembered the articles saying she’d disappeared. “Eryn was a wolf, wasn’t she?”
His nod was short, sharp.
“What did she do?”
His hesitation was brief, but nevertheless there. His reluctance to talk about the subject was obvious, and yet he was. Did that suggest he wanted me more than he wanted to keep his secrets?
“We met during a moon phase,” he said, voice low and devoid of the sexy lilt. “But the fever continued on after. I couldn’t get enough of her. I thought it was love.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And it wasn’t?”
“No. It was a drug called Everlasting.”
I frowned. Everlasting wasn’t a drug I’d ever heard of—though there were certainly plenty of them to be found in the clubs. “What does it do?”
“Imitate the moon fever in races other than werecreatures.”
My gaze widened. “That’s dangerous.”
“Very. Thankfully, it was only experimental. Eryn was working for the company developing it and decided to do a little field test. I was the subject she chose.”
Then she didn’t research well enough, because anyone with half a brain could see you didn’t want to mess with this particular vampire. “So she never loved you?”
“Oh, I’m sure she loved my money.”
I blinked at the sheer depths of anger so evident in his flat tones. “What happened?”
“I bought the company, then destroyed the whole project.”
“So Everlasting is no more?”
“No.”
“And what about Eryn?”
“Last I heard, she was working in a whorehouse in Sydney.” His sudden smile was ferocious. “A suitable occupation for a wolf who was little more than a slut after money.”
I stared at him, knowing he’d taken her mind, altered her self-image. Made her believe she was what she’d become. A shiver ran through me. As punishments went, it was as cold as you could get.
“And what do you think I’m after?”
“Nothing more than sex.” He hesitated, then gave me a slow, sexy smile that had my hormones scrambling and toes curling. “Which brings me neatly back to my original question—when?”
“My brother insists I eat and regain some strength before I do anything too vigorous.”
“And I intend for it to be very vigorous.”
Oh, man . . . “How about we seal the deal with a kiss?” Because if I didn’t at least taste him, I might just explode with frustration. Though it was very possible that I would explode even if he did kiss me.
He leaned forward, his hand cupping my cheek as his mouth captured mine. It was a kiss unlike any I’d ever experienced—a long, slow possession that left me gasping for breath and hotter than I’d ever been for a man.
I couldn’t wait to see what he could do when he had the time to explore more fully.
“Your brother’s climbing the stairs with your dinner,” he whispered, brushing his lips across mine a final time before he sat back.
I took a deep breath, but it was filled with the scent of him, the richness of sandalwood combined with sheer masculinity. He smelled good enough to eat. Or at least nibble. And lick.
“My brother has always had bad timing,” I muttered.
Quinn chuckled softly and rose. My gaze slipped downward, and I noted with pleasure he wanted me every bit as badly as I wanted him.
“Sorry to break in on your fun,” Rhoan said as he appeared. “But you have to eat before you go expending too much energy.”
“And so do I,” Quinn commented, giving me a look guaranteed to make my insides combust. “Though synth blood is not my meal of choice right now.”
He disappeared down the stairs, and I suddenly remembered how to breathe.
“Are you sure there’s no wolf in his background?” I said, sitting up so Rhoan could place the tray on my knees.
Rhoan grinned. “The man is potent, I’ll give him that. Damn shame he’s straight.”
I gave him a long look. “Don’t tell me you hit on him.”
“Hell, yeah. Wouldn’t you if you walked into a bar and saw him?” He placed the tray on my knee and sat down. “He refused nicely, we got talking, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“This was how many years ago?” I picked up my knife and fork and studied the mess on my plate. I think it was bacon and eggs, but I couldn’t be sure. A cook my brother wasn’t.
“Only one.”
“So why haven’t you introduced us?”
It was his turn to give me a long look. “This from the wolf who rants about all vampires being arrogant pigs?”
“Well, all the ones I’ve met have been. Quinn isn’t.”
“He can be on his bad days, believe me.” He rose again. “If you’re feeling up to it after you finish that, come downstairs.”
I nodded. “Why has Jack allowed Liander to stay?”
“Because this is looking bigger than the three of us can handle.” He shrugged. “Liander’s here because I need him, and because he’s one of the best makeup artists in the country.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That sounds like a plan.”
“It is. When you come down, we’ll enlighten you.”
“And just what am I supposed to go downstairs in? My birthday suit?”
He grinned. “We retrieved your bag from Misha’s car. It’s on the chair near the stairs.”
He headed back downstairs. Once I’d eaten the mess he’d laughingly called a meal, I shifted shape to help the burns along some more, then threw on some clothes and followed him down.
Everyone was sitting at the table, including Liander.
“How you feeling, darlin’?” Jack asked, his green eyes sweeping me in a concerned, fatherly way.
“A little achy, but otherwise fine.”
He nodded. “You want to tell us what happened?”
I sat on the last remaining chair and proceeded to do that.
Rhoan frowned. “Genoveve and Libraska aren’t research facilities I’ve ever heard of.”
“Nor I,” Jack agreed. “We may have to go through the records to find them. If they are on the record, that is.”
“What do you mean?” I reached for one of the apples sitting in the middle of the table. “I thought all research facilities, whether government or private, had to be listed?”
“Only in the last fifty years. There were a lot of places, particularly military ones, that were built in the twentieth century that were never recorded—for security reasons. It was a volatile era.”
“What about the thing that attacked her?” Quinn asked. “That doesn’t sound like any creature I’ve heard of.”
“No. But if they’re playing around with the basic building blocks of life, who knows what they’ve come up with?” Jack glanced at me. “You up to a little more investigating?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Like I have a choice?”
“There’s always a choice.�
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I snorted softly. “Between you trying to railroad me, and these nutters coming after me, I think choice has temporarily flown out the window.”
He didn’t bother to deny my allegations, merely smiled. “You are going to make such a wonderful guardian.”
“You’re better off chasing after Liander than me—you’d have more hope.”
“He’s already come after me,” Liander commented, his silver eyes sparkling with a combination of amusement and annoyance. “And I have temporarily been seconded into this outfit, whether I like it or not.”
“Well, you were military, and you do slide in rather well.” Rhoan’s smile was decidedly wicked. “And just think of the advantages—me, primarily.”
Liander grinned. “Why do you think I’m here? At least I don’t have to share with the lush.”
“Bitchy.” Rhoan’s smile widened.
“The truth,” Liander said, voice dry.
“Enough,” Jack said, and glanced at me. “We’re planning a two-prong attack. An accident has been planned that will wipe out the power in the Ferntree Gully area. Rhoan and I will break into Moneisha and do a little investigating.”
Which left me with Quinn. The thought had my hormones doing an excited little dance. “Surely Moneisha will have backup generators?”
“And probably handheld scanners,” Quinn added.
Jack nodded. “But the generators only handle essentials, and we can avoid any guards, whether or not they’re holding scanners.”
“And in the meantime, I’ll be doing what?” I asked.
“Searching the paperwork in Alan Brown’s office.”
“How? All the offices upstairs have eye scan locks.”
“They do. Except the scanners have mysteriously started acting up the last twenty-four hours, and all staff have been issued with special keycards and codes until the problem is resolved.”
“Convenient,” I said dryly.
He merely smiled. “Alan Brown has a long-known habit of bringing prostitutes into his office. Unfortunately, Brown took some coffee that didn’t agree with him earlier this afternoon and went home sick. He won’t wake until tomorrow.”
“And how was this managed? You and I both know Brown wouldn’t touch anything you gave him with a ten-foot pole. And you couldn’t exactly ask any of the guardians to tamper with his coffee, because you don’t know whom to trust right now.”
Jack nodded. “But I know I can trust the director.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Alex Hunter? The woman is a bitch.”
“And that bitch is my sister.”
Trust me to put my foot in it. Or open my big mouth, as the case might be.
Rhoan laughed, and Jack reached across the table, patting my hand comfortingly. “It’s okay. She is a bitch, most times. But she wants to know what is going on every bit as badly as us. The Directorate is her baby—she was one of those who pushed to get it set up—and she has no intention of letting it be used for nefarious purposes. As of this weekend, you, Rhoan, and I are on special assignment and reporting directly to her.”
Meaning I was taking the first step down that guardian path. And there wasn’t one damn thing I could do about it. If I said no, he’d lock me away somewhere safe, and that would be almost as bad, not only because I was a wolf who couldn’t stand enclosed spaces for long but because some warped part of me wanted to be involved. I might not want to be a guardian, but these bastards had come after me twice now, and the wolf wanted revenge.
I glanced at Quinn. “But how are we going to get into Brown’s office when Quinn looks nothing like Brown?” He was far, far too handsome, for a start.
“He will by the time I’ve finished with him,” Liander said.
“You think you can do something tarty for me as well?” I couldn’t risk wearing the blue wig and makeup again, just in case it set off alarms somewhere.
Liander grinned. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to redo your look. You have to keep up with the times, Riley.”
It was a comment he’d made more than once. I stuck my tongue out at him before looking back at Jack. “When are we moving?”
“As soon as everyone is ready. Liander will be holding the fort here.”
“And we meet back here afterward?”
Jack nodded. “Let’s move it, people.”
I grinned. He sounded like the old army sergeant he’d once been. I rose, munching on my apple as I headed back upstairs for a shower. Raiding Alan Brown’s office wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping to do tonight, but at least I was with Quinn.
And come hell or high water, it was going to be the night I rocked his staid little world.
Chapter 9
You could have hired a less conspicuous car,” I said, accepting Quinn’s offer of help as I climbed out of the Porsche.
He shrugged and slammed the door closed. The doors locked automatically, and the car beeped softly as the alarm was set. “It’s fast, comfortable, and besides, I’m half-thinking about getting one. This is a good way of testing it.”
The stiff breeze caught the thin gray strands of hair that had been combed over his newly bald cranium, standing them on end like flags. Match that with a goatee beard, puffy cheeks, and a small beer belly, and you had the picture of a man well past his prime. It was hard to believe that under all the makeup there was one incredibly handsome individual. I grinned.
“Liander should get a medal for the work he’s done on you.”
He took off his coat and put it around my shoulders, then slid his hand down my arm and twined his fingers through mine. Heat trembled through me, and the fires of need leapt into focus. It was barely nine in the evening, and the moon had only just begun to rise. Yet the fever was a slow burn in my blood, a force ready and able to explode. I took a deep breath and tried to ignore it. Yet I couldn’t ignore the caress of his body’s heat as we strolled toward the Directorate building a block away. Couldn’t ignore the tension emanating from him, a tension that spoke of a need as great as my own.
“He hasn’t done such a bad job on you, either.” The soft lilt in Quinn’s voice had disappeared, thanks to the modulators inserted into his cheeks. What came out was Brown’s harsh tones. “Though I think I prefer the blue toning to the white. It makes you look too ghostly.”
Which was the effect Liander had been going for. Apparently, ghostly was going to be the next big fashion trend. Personally, I agreed with Quinn. White contacts, white hair, and powder white skin were just too spooky.
But at least I’d been able to keep my sexy boots, though he’d swapped the peekaboo shirt and microskirt for a thigh-length dress that was little more than gossamer, and very similar in design to the outfits Brown’s tarts wore in the security vids we’d viewed. Brown liked his women naked and ready to go, it seemed.
Which is probably why Quinn had wrapped his coat around my shoulders—I was wearing zip underneath the gossamer, and in the gleam of street lighting all was revealed. I didn’t particularly care, but Quinn had made a couple of comments about indecency and respectability that had made me smile.
It was going to be so much fun dragging his complacent sexual views out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.
We climbed the steps and walked to the Directorate’s main doors. Quinn pressed the code keys, then swiped the card. As the doors swished open, the red beam of the scanners ran down us. Neither of us was carrying weapons, so we didn’t set off any alarms. And there was no problem with the handprint scanner, either. Liander had covered that—with a little help from Jack and the prints he’d taken from the files.
“Assistant Director Brown,” the guard at the desk said, his eyes all but popping out of his head when he saw me. “We weren’t expecting you in this evening.”
“Got a little business to attend to,” Quinn replied, his grin lecherous as he patted my behind awkwardly.
He had Brown’s movements down pat, and I bit the inside of my cheek, trying not to laugh.
“I’ll have to code an elevator for you,” the guard said. “We locked them down for the night.”
Quinn nodded, and the guard scooted ahead of us. He unlocked an elevator, but didn’t step back, forcing me to press past him to get into the elevator. As I did, he slid his hand across my rear, taking a quick feel.
Quinn moved so swiftly it was only when I heard the crack of bones that I realized something had happened.
“No touching the merchandise on my money.” His voice was flat and cold, and the guard paled.
“Sorry, Director,” he stammered.
“Do it again, and I’ll have you fired.”
He let go of the guard’s hand and stepped into the elevator with me. I waited until the door closed, and said, “That was a bit much. The tapes show that’s a somewhat regular occurrence when Brown brings his women in.”
“I don’t care. That man has no right to touch you.”
“We’re here in disguise. We have to follow the pattern set.”
He glanced at me, eyes unreadable thanks to the blue lenses he had in. “That may be your game plan, but it’s not mine. Not when it comes to something like that.”
“Brown’s not a gentleman, and he certainly doesn’t mind sharing. Remember that.”
“I’m not Brown. You remember that.”
The doors opened before I could reply. Quinn pressed his hand into my back, guiding me down the shadow-filled hall. Warmth pooled around his fingertips, lapping across the rest of my skin in waves. The fever flickered in response, surging through my veins. It was ignorable—but for how long?
Cameras tracked our progress up the hall. When we got to Brown’s office, he pressed in the code, swiped the card, then motioned me inside.
The lights came on as he reset the lock. I stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. Though I knew the basic layout of the office, the sheer size of it still surprised me. It wasn’t as huge as the office Talon had in his house, but it was still pretty amazing. Nor was the furniture the standard-issue cheap stuff we got downstairs. This was mahogany and leather right down the line.