“Yeah, it is,” he agreed with a nod. “That doesn’t mean John Tyler reports fiction. He’s a damned stickler for truth in the articles he publishes as well.”
“And he just recently married a Feline Breed.” She smiled smugly.
Well, hell, that information was so carefully buried that even the Alphas of the other Breed communities were unaware of it.
“I think we should discuss this later,” he suggested—later, after he showed her, rather than telling her, the full truth involving mating heat.
“Why later, Stygian? When? After you’ve kissed me and tied me so irrevocably to you that I have no other choice but to keep your secrets?”
Pretty much.
The mocking thought had a rush of guilt pricking at his senses.
“Come on, Liza.” Sighing, he scratched at his jaw and watched her thoughtfully. “Do you need an excuse for wanting me so desperately that you’ll believe any trash story you find to explain it?”
“Why not?” Her brow arched suggestively. “It beats believing I’m suddenly so tired of living that I’ve chosen suicide by Breed.”
“Suicide by Breed?” Incredulity filled his expression then. “How do you figure that one? Baby, we might kill ourselves f**king, but I’d never physically harm you.”
Her face flushed, but the sudden darkening of her gray eyes and the scent of her pu**y heating further assured him it wasn’t from anger or embarrassment.
“Emotional suicide by Breed.” She shrugged, though the subtle scent of her wariness wrapped around him like an invisible cloud.
“Emotional suicide?” he questioned her. “Do you think you’re in danger of losing your heart to me, Liza?”
“Only if you’re in danger of being honest with me.” She snorted. “I detest liars.”
“Honesty goes both ways, baby,” he retorted. “If you want it, then you have to give it as well.”
How could one woman look and smell so f**king innocent no matter the provocation?
“Your boss has no doubt had me so thoroughly investigated that the lot of you know the last time I masturbated.”
She didn’t even flush as she made the statement.
Innocence, sensuality and pure bravado.
Damn, she should have been born a Breed.
“The masturbating part we’re actually uncertain of,” he stated with a grin. “But next time you go there I wouldn’t mind an invitation to join you.”
The grin that edged her lips had his dick swelling impossibly harder and his balls drawing so tight they felt tortured.
Hell, no woman should have the ability to destroy a man’s senses so easily.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” The look she threw him was less than reassuring.
He wasn’t going to hold his breath waiting on that invitation.
And wasn’t that too bad.
Damn, he was killing himself here, aching for her as he’d never ached for anything in his life.
He was here on a mission. A mission he’d been working for over a decade: Find Honor Roberts. This woman didn’t appear to be the one he was searching for, but he was damned if he could pull himself away from her.
Watching as she shifted her head, her eyes moving to the lake again as her expression turned thoughtful, he realized there was nothing about this woman he didn’t like.
Her strength. Her will. Her pride and determination.