touch me. Even sleeping in the same cabin would be pushing it—but I was tired of how careful we had to be, and of how distant he was with me after both Royce and that psycho vampire, Max Carlyle, had temporarily bound me to themselves by blood. Offering to sign a Notice of Mutual Consent to Human/Other Citizen Relationship and Contractual Binding Agreement with him should make him sit up and take notice that I wasn’t going anywhere, that I truly wanted to be with him, and that I trusted him again.
My worry was whether or not he trusted me enough to sign it, too.
This little camping trip seemed like the perfect opportunity to make things right between us. We’d gotten a good group discount at a small resort up in the Catskills. It was too early for snow but too cold to tempt many vacationers. Plus, now that school was back in session, tourist season was officially over. Chaz had assured me that the guy who owned the property wouldn’t have any problem with the Sunstrikers—he was also a Were. One well-known among the supernatural community for having bought a bunch of forestland out in the mountains and cordoning off his borders to keep out hunters and tourists, which helped any packs staying with him know exactly how far out they could safely range on the hunt.
It was hard to picture anything going wrong. After all, I’d been introduced to Chaz’s pack before. We’d even gone out to dinner or the movies with a few of them. The only other time I’d seen the entire pack in one place was when we showed up to fight David Borowsky, the crazed sorcerer who meant to enslave all of the Weres and vampires in New York using a weird magic artifact. Sure, they were dangerous, but since I was the pack leader’s girlfriend and had helped save their furry butts, as long as I didn’t do anything too stupid they should be able to hold their hungers and tempers in check.
What could go wrong?
I pondered these things while I stared at the contract. Screw it. I tucked the papers away in my bag and followed Jen’s example, amusing myself with a card game while I waited for the clock to tick by and Chaz to come pick me up.
Chapter 2
I wasn’t pleased when a familiar face showed up at the office an hour before Chaz was expected to arrive. Though I’d been strenuously ignoring anything going on beyond the haven of my office, I couldn’t help but overhear Jen arguing with someone outside. I figured if it was that important, Sara could handle it.
Then Jen’s voice rose, loud enough that I couldn’t mistake who she was speaking to, or who he was here to see.
“Mr. Pradiz, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come back next week. Nothing has changed since I told you over the phone an hour ago that she isn’t available. Now would you please leave?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “Mr. Pradiz” was the tabloid reporter who had splashed my personal life across every newspaper in town while I was busy trying to stay alive. He’d been following me from a distance ever since Royce scared off one of Max Carlyle’s minions who’d come to kidnap me. We had an uneasy understanding that I’d give him the scoop behind the supernatural hoopla that always seemed to blow up around me as long as he left me the hell alone and let me come to him when I had a story. I didn’t like him following me around, but all he’d agreed to was keeping his distance and not approaching me or my friends in public. For him to show up here, now, couldn’t be good news. Whatever he wanted, it could wait until I got back to town.
I groaned and heaved myself out of the squeaky office chair, cracking my office door open and peering out. Jim’s clothing was neat, but nondescript, his skin bronzed by hours in the sun and blond hair fashionably tousled. Aside from the tiny digital camera peeking out of his shirt pocket, he didn’t seem to be armed with anything other than a complete inability to take a hint. The avid interest gleaming in the reporter’s hazel eyes when he spotted me instantly put me on my toes.
He grinned, showing whiter than white teeth in a practiced look that might have been attractive had I not been overexposed to the charms of far greater