“I’ll tell you who she is, but only if you take me with you when you go talk to her.”
“You’re hardly in a position to make demands,” he growled, tugging her closer until she was flush with his hard body. And he was hard . . . all over. Damn it.
“That’s my offer,” she said stubbornly. “Take it or leave it.”
Aden regarded her silently, and Sid stared as his eyes seemed to glow, taking on a deep blue hue like moonlight on a cloudy winter night. His gaze skimmed her face, down to the swell of her br**sts and back up again.
“Oh, I intend to take it,” he crooned in that deep voice.
Chapter Six
SID SHIVERED. “That’s not—” she whispered, then had to swallow on a dry throat. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” he said smugly. “I just wanted my intentions to be clear.”
He stepped back abruptly, and the loss of his heat, of his strength, was sharp.
“So where are we going?” he asked.
“I’m not sure where she is. But she knew I was meeting you tonight, so she’ll expect me to call. I can tell her I need to see her in person.”
“All right. But watch what you say, Sidonie, because I’ll be listening.”
“Stop threatening me,” she demanded. “I don’t like it.”
Aden laughed again, but it was genuine amusement this time, not like before. “Just make the call,” he said. “And we’ll see what your professor friend has to say for herself.”
As Sid dug her cell phone out of her coat pocket and brought up Dresner’s number, she considered the possibility that the professor wouldn’t want to talk to her. If Dresner had tipped off Silas about Aden, and if she knew the plan had backfired—after all, Aden was still alive, which clearly hadn’t been what Silas was hoping for—she might want to distance herself from Sid, at least for a time. But as it turned out, Dresner didn’t seem troubled at all. She was either secure in assuming Sid didn’t know anything about what was going on with the vamps, or she actually hadn’t been the one who warned Silas that Aden was coming.
Sidonie was willing to consider both possibilities. Unlike Aden, she wasn’t prepared to hang a guilty sign on Dresner just yet.
“Sidonie,” she said, answering the phone. “I didn’t expect your call until later. Was your meeting with Aden cancelled again?”
“No, just the opposite,” Sid said, letting just a touch of anxiety flavor her words. She didn’t want to overplay it, but there had to be a reason for her to insist on a face-to-face meeting. “I have some information for you, but it’s… it’s pretty explosive. I’d really like to meet you on this one.”
“Of course, but are you all right? You sound shaken.”
“I guess . . . I didn’t expect it to be like this.”
“Where are you? Can you come to my place?”
“I don’t know where—”
“I’m in Wrigleyville, on Lakeview. I’ll text you the address. How soon can you be here?”
Sid looked up and met Aden’s dark stare. “I’d rather not take a cab this late. Is it okay if a friend drives me? We could be there in half an hour or so.” Aden’s sensuous lips curved slightly in what she supposed could be called a smile, if it hadn’t been for the cold calculation in his eyes.
“A friend . . .” Dresner repeated hesitantly.
“He lives here in Chicago. We work together.”
“Oh.” She hesitated, and Sid thought maybe she’d overplayed it, but then Dresner continued. “I suppose that’s all right. Don’t ring the bell, though, just knock. The neighbors complain about my late-night visitors.” She hung up without saying good-bye.
Aden took the phone from Sid’s nerveless fingers and pressed the button to disconnect before saying, “Very good, Sidonie. Is lying one of the skills you learned as a journalist?”
“I didn’t lie.”
He didn’t say anything to that, just raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Are you still determined to go along?”