me, Damon…exactly who is going to be the lucky one? Is she going to do the deed?”
“The Lady doesn’t like to get her hands dirty,” he whispered, his voice a low, rough rasp. He traced another scar, one that curled around my hip. When he reached the end of it, he kept his hand there.
“I bet.” Swallowing, I turned around, holding my shirt to chest. “What exactly is your position in her pack?”
He blinked and I noticed that he had ridiculously thick black lashes. He studied me through them for a long moment before he finally said, “Pretty much an enforcer. I handle security. Problems.”
“And if I don’t find her nephew, she’ll decide I’m a problem.”
A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I can’t tell you what the Lady will decide.”
“But you know how she’s likely to think.” I reached down and closed my hand around his wrist. “I’d rather you not keep touching me.”
It was like trying to drag away a boulder.
“Damn it, stop it,” I half-shouted, shoving at his chest. “Would you get the hell away from me?”
“Not in a thousand years,” he muttered.
When he moved again, it was to pull me against him and move, spinning me around so that the bathroom door was against my back. “You’ll find the kid, Kit. That’s all there is to it.” He pressed his lips to my shoulder.
“It’s been almost two weeks.” The futility of it was getting through to me. “Two weeks, damn it. And in case you haven’t noticed…if he’s involved in what we saw yesterday? He may already be dead.”
“No. Doyle is smart. He’s determined. You’ll find him. But…” A shudder wracked his body. “If you don’t—”
I turned my head and made myself open my eyes, made myself meet that intense gaze.
I had to acknowledge this.
I wanted him.
He was bad for me, I knew this.
He was bad for me the same way too much coffee was, the same way too much chocolate was, the way everything good and sinful sweet thing was…and I wanted him anyway.
The problem was that if I failed my job, his Alpha would order him to kill me, and I didn’t have a chance in hell against him.
Nor was he going to ignore that order. I knew enough about the fucked-up hierarchy of the werepacks.
They just didn’t ignore orders. If they did, they died.
“If I don’t find him, she’s going to tell you to kill me,” I said softly. “And as…” I paused, closed my eyes and searched for the right word. How in the world did I describe the feel of his body against mine? The way I somehow felt safe around him—safe around a man who could kill me in a blink, safe around a man who’d damn near strangled me within a few hours of meeting me? Oh, this was insane.
“As insanely interesting as this feels? There’s no way I’m going to even think about getting horizontal with a man who may well decide to kill me in the next few days, the next few hours, the next few minutes…”
His eyes flashed.
He leaned in.
My brain damned near exploded as he caught my lower lip between his teeth and nipped me. “Pretty little kitten, we don’t have to be horizontal. Right like this is fine,” he growled against my mouth. Then he shifted and whispered against my ear. “I decided quite some time ago that I wouldn’t be killing you. It doesn’t matter what the outcome of this job is. And anybody who tries is going to have to go through me. Nobody and nothing is going to hurt you as long as I’m around. Nobody hurts you when I’m around, you got me?”
His hands glided up my sides. It was a sensation that sent all sorts of hot, trembly little sparks crashing through me and for the longest time, I couldn’t think. It got so, so much worse as the heels of his hands glided over the outer curves of my breasts. “You got awful quiet there, little kitten. Cat got your tongue?”
Dumbly, I just stared at him.
He might have been a cat, but the smile that lit his face just then looked decidedly wolfish.
“Actually…I haven’t had that pleasure…” he muttered against my mouth. “Yet.”
Seconds later, he stroked his tongue across my lips.
A gasp escaped me.
One of us shuddered. I don’t know if it was him or me.
But then he pushed his tongue into my mouth and I wrapped my arms around his neck. Bad for me or not, he tasted