“It must be so hard for the lion to accept he’s not getting this kill.”
“I’ll somehow survive through this, although I will need a long time to recover and a lot of care.”
“Your quality of care will be directly linked to the quality of your roars and ability to make me purr. I am a selfish feline. And once I’m under the knife to peel these scars off and replace them with appropriate skin, I need to purr a lot. To heal.”
“Yes, you are so selfish.” Sebastian chuckled. “You’re something else. For the record, you’re not selfish.”
“I am totally selfish.”
“You’re not a lion. The market on selfish is totally cornered by lions. You, at most, pretend you’re self-centered.”
“I went to a spa for a week, and I took some random man with me. That is totally selfish. I’m the queen of selfishness.”
“And your family did what to make sure you actually went?”
The lion would somehow pay for his crimes. “I mugged them for their pocket change.”
“You usually refuse gifts, so they conned you into accepting a bunch of presents under the guise of it being a welcome package left by the resort for staying with them for a week.”
“That is not just ruthless, you lion. That’s mean. Mean! I don’t have to be conned into accepting gifts.”
“I detect a little lynx is lying to me.”
I hissed at him. “I have no problems accepting gifts.”
“Have your pants caught on fire yet? Outside of the cheese, your family’s gifts have left you a mess. I am proud you managed to put the watch on this morning, however. You, yourself told me your family had to manipulate you into accepting gifts through using the kittens.”
Sebastian Sumners would somehow pay for his transgressions. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re going to have to prove it to me, Miss Murder Mittens.”
I dug through the pile of junk at my feet for my new laptop, which I’d converted to be my work laptop at Sebastian’s recommendation, as he had opinions about the old one. Which had, thanks to those opinions, died a terrible death in a disturbingly sexy fashion.
I was a lynx to the core, and watching the lion dismantle it with his bare hands while naked had done me in—and gotten Sebastian his way. And would result in me finding old laptops he could tear apart while I watched, drooling over the flex of his muscles.
The lion couldn’t be permitted to get away with challenging me. My need to win stirred my virus, and as the game involved Sebastian, she settled in to enjoy the ride. “And how do you expect me to prove it, Mr. Mane?”
“I have a present for you, and I expect you to accept it in front of your entire family without looking horrified I got you something. No horror, no self-deprecation, nothing negative. You must be delighted you received a present. And since you’re receiving a gift from a lion, that’s something special. I mean, lions are truly selfish, and lions do not just get presents for anybody.”
Somehow, he would pay. “What do you mean I can’t be horrified you got me something and decided to show it to me in front of my entire family?”
“If you have no problems accepting gifts, you should be delighted I got you a present. I’m okay if you don’t shower me with public gratitude, but if you have no problems accepting gifts, this should be easy for you.”
“Evil, wicked lion!”
“But you don’t have a problem accepting gifts,” he teased.
“You will pay for this,” I muttered.
“But will you be in my bed while naked while you’re making me pay for my various transgressions?”
“Actually, yes.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
Neither did I. “What were we arguing about again?”
“How best to get proof that Stefan Loureni, our current top suspect in the serial killing of women in a disturbing copy-cat style of Jack the Ripper, is actually the one behind the murders. And if he isn’t, who is.”
“How’d you get a suspect name?”
“I glanced at the case file this morning before we checked out. That’s an upgrade from a week ago, where I had four or so suspects to work with, Loureni being one of them. I believe the FBI did a full profiling of the victims and found connections with him, but that’s not actual admissible proof—all it proves is he has had some form of contact with all of the victims before their disappearances. Most importantly, he’s the only person who has had some form of contact