human bad guys. But if you won't believe in the inhuman ones, you could get really hurt." He moved closer and ran his hand up my thigh. "You could get dead."
I shook my head. I couldn't believe we were even discussing whether werewolves were real and running around in my forest. I couldn't believe he'd supped his fingers beneath the hem of my shorts and was stroking the soft skin where my thigh met my hip.
"You really believe in werewolves?" I managed.
He leaned close and his breath brushed my hair. "There's more to this world than what we can see, hear, and touch."
"Like what?"
"There are things out there for which there's no explanation."
"I've never heard or seen them."
"You haven't listened; you haven't looked."
True. Maybe I would.
His finger slipped beneath the elastic leg of my panties.
Later. I'd look later.
His nails scraped me, his thumb rode me hard as he slid a finger inside. His mouth swallowed my cries of completion and I tasted red wine on his tongue. His moan made my lips vibrate.
He continued to stroke me, slower, gentler, then more quickly. More quickly still until I was ready to explode again. What was it about this man that made all my usual inhibitions vanish the instant he touched me?
"My turn," he whispered, taking his hand out of my pants and unzipping his own.
I should have been limp, sated, half-asleep; instead the thought of having him inside me at last revved me up so high I couldn't sit still.
I reached for him, clasped him, tugged him forward and back. He put his hand over mine and showed me what he liked. He was hard, smooth, and hot. I wanted him more than I'd wanted anything for a long, long time.
He seemed to feel the same, since he practically tore the button off my shorts. Neither one of us heard the knock on the door. Hell, they could have been knocking for half an hour and I wouldn't have heard them. Then someone shouted my name and started to pound. The door rattled and shook.
Together we cursed and tugged our clothes back where they belonged. I hurried to the door.
"This had better be good," I said as I opened it.
Edward Mandenauer stood in the hall. Some of my neighbors had come out to see what the fuss was about. They stared at him as if he were crazy. Of course they rarely saw an emaciated old man with a rifle in each hand and a bandolier full of bullets slung over each shoulder in our neck of the woods. He resembled Rambo, sixty years after his last war.
"He's with me," I told my neighbors, and shooed them back inside.
When they disappeared, albeit slowly - we didn't get much excitement in our neck of the woods, either - I turned to Mandenauer. "What are you doing here?"
"We must hunt, Jessie." He tossed me a rifle. I had no choice but to catch the weapon or eat it.
"It's nine o' clock. I thought we were supposed to meet at eleven."
"We meet now."
I heard Cadotte get to his feet behind me. His movement drew Mandenauer's gaze. The old man's eyes narrowed, and he gave Cadotte the once-over, then turned to me and did the same.
My cheeks heated. It was like being caught in the backseat of a car by your grandfather.
But he wasn't my grandfather. I was over twenty-one and I was off duty, for crying out loud.
"I'm busy."
"Someone has been bitten. We must go." He turned and started down the hall.
"Wait!" I called.
This changed everything.
Mandenauer paused. "We must get to the scene. Quickly."
I glanced down. I couldn't go running through the woods in shorts and a shirt with no sleeves. I'd not only be scratched to pieces; I'd be eaten alive by bugs. Distractions like that destroyed a person's concentration. Without my concentration, I could get killed - and Mandenauer along with me.
"Two minutes," I said, and ran for the bedroom.
I took three, but tough. I had to get my rifle out of the safe. I put the company issue inside, grabbed a box of bullets, and ran.
Cadotte and Mandenauer were staring at each other like two dogs who'd found the same bone. What was the matter with them?
"I've got to go," I told Cadotte. "Sorry."
And I was sorry. My life had been rolling along quite nicely when Mandenauer showed up.
Cadotte nodded. "I know. I'll just clean up and let myself out."
I hesitated. I didn't want to leave him alone