was flooded with afternoon light, and she felt deliciously sore—and not just from dancing. She could still smell Mick’s aftershave on her pillow and on her skin, mixing with her own scent and the smell of passion, and she felt flames between her legs as fantasies of their lovemaking invaded her thoughts. No, not fantasies, memories. It had all really happened, every exotic detail. She sighed, rolled over and opened her eyes.
She was alone in bed.
But she saw a note and a rose on the pillow beside her.
She reached for the paper and read, and felt her breath stop. She dropped back on the pillow, delirious with sudden wanting, imagined his body rising up hard and naked over hers, to claim her again....
And then a sudden and unnerving thought.
I want him. Not just want him, like, now.... I want him. Always.
The heat in her face was no longer desire but confusion mixed with a little bit of terror.
Oh, my God. This is real.
The erotic afterglow disappeared in the overwhelming reality crashing in on her.
After all, where was he? Rose on the pillow and pornographic note aside, she was alone in bed, wasn’t she? Except for the cat. Who was giving her a wide berth this morning, as she absolutely should be, given that her mistress had apparently lost her mind.
Focus, focus, focus, Barrie told herself with a touch of panic, or maybe that was hysteria. You’re investigating a murder—or two, or three. Do your job.
She sat up and looked at the clock. Amazingly, still before eleven.
She knew she was in for a barrage of questions from her cousins, but she couldn’t very well miss the Morning Report, so she jumped out of bed and headed straight into the shower to wash off the telltale traces of the night, absolutely not allowing herself to think of Mick in the shower and almost succeeding, and then pulled on a severe gray dress that was the closest thing she had to a nun’s habit. She forced herself to slow down and walk what she hoped was nonchalantly over to the main house. It wasn’t easy, given that her body felt both charged with electricity and lighter than air.
All pretense of nonchalance instantly vanished as she walked through the back door into the kitchen. Sailor and Rhiannon were there at the breakfast bar, and they both jumped up as she walked in.
“Tell tell tell!” demanded Sailor.
“Tell what?” Barrie said innocently. She closed the door behind her and tried to keep a straight face as she walked to the counter to pour herself coffee.
“A certain shifter departed the house at dawn in a limo,” Rhiannon said mock-sternly. “And these came an hour ago.” She indicated a huge spread of flowers displayed in a vase on the cutting board. “I had the deliveryman bring them here, because I think we have a right to know.”
Barrie felt her breath quicken at the flowers, an absolutely breathtaking tropical arrangement. There was a card, but she certainly wasn’t going to read it in front of her cousins.
Instead she took a casual swallow of coffee. “I had a nice time.”
“Oh, a nice time,” Sailor mimicked her. “You look like you swallowed a klieg light.”
Barrie gave up on nonchalance and what was left of her mind as a rush of endorphins and exultation rushed through her. “All right, I had a fantastic time. A fabulous, mind-bending, once-in-a-lifetime time.”
And all the cousins burst into giggles like teenagers.
“That’s more like it.” Sailor shoved her playfully. “The man is stunning. He could be a movie star.”
“Oh, he was,” Barrie said, and burst into giggles again. “He was about ten of them.” This time Sailor and Rhiannon stared at her, mystified, and she got hold of herself enough to tell them about the little shifter show Mick had put on for her.
“Wow,” Rhiannon said admiringly. “Not just gorgeous but fun. You may want to keep him.”
“Shifters do have their uses,” Sailor said.
“It wasn’t all fun and games, you know,” Barrie said, trying to get some control over the conversation. Good luck with that, she thought to herself. “I was working. And I got an interview with DJ.”
“You’re kidding!” Sailor was wide-eyed. “Barrie, that’s fantastic.”
“He wants me to come to his house today. Tonight. Well, at dusk.”
“At dusk?” Rhiannon looked skeptical. “What kind of a lame vampire trope is that supposed to be? Vamps are just as capable of moving around in daylight as we are.”
“Oh, I think he was just being edgy,” Barrie said, but