Iron Master – Jennifer Ashley Page 0,30
Peigi rested her head on his shoulder and breathed out, touching him with her warmth.
Stuart gathered her close, unaware of what she did. Peigi would explain later, but the Shifters around them would know he was under her protection. Mine.
The other Shifters got the message. By the time the song segued into another, the Shifter women around them were alert, but backing off.
Peigi expected Stuart to want to sit the next song out, maybe have a drink. She smiled as he pulled her close again, and they continued their slow dance in the middle of the tumult.
When they finally left the club, which kicked Shifters out before their curfew so they could get back to their Shiftertowns on time, Dimitri and Jaycee were giving Reid strange looks.
Jaycee started to speak, but Peigi shook her head imperceptibly, and Jaycee closed her mouth. Dimitri appeared to be suppressing laughter with effort.
Reid had no idea what Shifter thing they were discussing with their body language, but he’d have to ask Peigi later, when they reached the house and before she bedded down for the night … Or maybe they’d take a walk under the stars. They could talk, he could ask, and they could kiss, finishing what Dimitri had interrupted.
“How about we ditch these and go to another club?” Dimitri tapped his Collar as they reached the semi, dark and alone on a side street. “Bars stay open for a while longer.”
Reid had no intention of spending his time with Peigi trying to shout to her over extreme music while people around them got drunker and drunker. He’d seen enough of what alcohol and late nights did to people when he’d been a cop, and didn’t want Peigi around that.
“Mind if we head back to the house?” Reid asked, as though he didn’t care what any of them did, really. “Peigi and I want to get an early start to head back to the cubs.”
Dimitri pulled keys from his jacket pocket. “Can you drive a rig?”
“I can, in fact.” Reid had driven as a trucker undercover once. He’d enjoyed it so much he’d toyed with the idea of giving up the police and hitting the road. Too bad his obsession with finding his way back to Faerie had stopped him.
“All right then.” Dimitri tossed him the keys. “Jase and I will find another club. She can’t get enough of the dancing.”
“Don’t have much opportunity,” Jaycee said, leaning into Dimitri. “And once this cub comes, we’ll be home all the time.”
“Yeah, that will suck.” Dimitri’s smug expression betrayed the lie.
“How will you get back if we take the truck?” Peigi asked in concern.
“Let us worry about that. We have a lot of friends.” Dimitri pulled Jaycee to him and they began to walk away, Jaycee waving her farewells. Soft clinking sounds told Reid they were pulling off their Collars.
Watching them, Reid wondered what it would be like to kick back and have friends and family, a simple existence. To hell with missions, obsessions, and high Fae czul who ruined his life over and over again.
For the joy of it, he drew Peigi to him and kissed her.
She softened in his arms, rising on tiptoe to kiss him back. Her warmth surrounded him, soothed him, spread contentment through him he’d never felt in his life.
Reid parted her lips, letting the kiss turn deep. Peigi quietly laced her arms around his neck, relaxing against him. The New Orleans street grew quiet, Jaycee and Dimitri long gone, the tourists seeking other parts of town. Peigi and Reid were alone in the night, a moment for the two of them to kiss, touch, explore each other and the needs they’d bottled up for so long.
Peigi’s mouth warmed him in the night, her hands roving his back. Reid slid his hand up her waist and cupped her breast, feeling its weight through her jacket and sweatshirt. Peigi made a noise in her throat and the kiss turned a little bit wild.
Reid’s only warning was the smell. A foul odor assaulted him, and he pulled away from Peigi in time to see her eyes fill with terrible fear.
Shifters melted from the shadows to surround them, most in human form, but some as animals—wolves, a slinking shadow that might be a leopard, two bears. No Collars glinted on their necks.
One of the bears morphed into a huge man with mottled brown hair. One side of his face was scarred with old burns, and Stuart instantly recognized him.
Shifters grabbed Reid before the