Master of Desire (Merlin's Legacy #6) - Angela Knight Page 0,16

her fur the same inky black as her human hair, though without as much curl. A thick black mane made her look almost leonine. She’d worn nothing except for the holster around her hips. All that fur grew a little longer over her groin and breasts, and it looked so soft, he’d wanted to touch it. It was always hard to tell, given bras, but in human form, her breasts looked like generous handfuls, tempting and soft. He wondered what color her nipples were.

Conal belatedly realized he was staring again, and snapped his gaze away. Heat flooded his cheeks, and he knew he was going scarlet. He had a lot of advantages as a billionaire white guy, but his reaction to acute embarrassment wasn’t one of them. And you’re leering at a woman who turns into a werewolf… Which triggered an instant horrifying flashback of teeth sinking into his chest like burning knives. Well, that takes care of the hard-on.

Either way, I don’t hit on people who work for me, Conal reminded himself savagely, taking a ferocious bite of his steak. He spent the next couple of minutes grimly attacking the meal until the silence grew a little too taut.

Helena looked up at him, a faint line between fine dark brows, as if noticing something off about his reaction. Conal groped through his desire-addled brain for acceptable conversation. “So… Why did you join the FBI?” Helena studied Conal for a moment before she answered, brown eyes intent. Was that lust? Or is she thinking about taking a bite? babbled some idiot mental voice. Shut up, he told the voice.

Chewing a bite of steak thoughtfully, Helena considered the question. “Watched too much X-Files when I was a kid.” Her teeth flashed, very white. “Now I am The X-Files.”

Conal laughed, and her scent seemed to invade his skull. Oh God, she smells like sex. Not the raunchy reek he associated with Siobhan and her collar and that fucking spiked whip. No, this was a different scent, reminiscent of dark, snowy pine forests and clean fur. How the hell all that added up to sex, Conal had no idea.

Her eyes met his and he fell into their endless dark. And just like that, his erection was back. What is wrong with me? Conal jerked his eyes away from hers and picked up his glass. At least the tabletop hid the evidence pushing insistently against his fly. He cleared his throat. “So, were you more Scully or Mulder?”

“Definitely more Scully. My folks were all about education as the best way to remain in the middle class. They’re college professors and academics -- coauthored a book on Jim Crow and the Black diaspora.” A note of obvious pride warmed her voice. “Anyway, I read everything I could get my hands on about the FBI. The Bureau wants people with college degrees and real-life experience, so I got a bachelor’s in criminal justice and served five years as a cop in DC. It worked, too. I was hired at the FBI about ten years ago.”

“Your parents must have been proud.”

She shook her head. “I think they were a bit disappointed, to tell the truth. My brother’s a doctor, and they thought I should go into medicine or law. Plus, there’s the way Hoover treated MLK. Made them skeptical of the Bureau as a career choice.” Helena shrugged. “But I’m bullheaded, and I decided to be the change I wanted to see in the world.”

Conal’s erection was not going away. In fact, he thought Helena’s velvet voice was making it worse. He considered remembering how he’d spent his afternoon again, but Conal suspected she’d find the smell of terror even more offensive.

* * *

The intoxicating scent of Conal’s arousal was driving Helena crazy. So much for Sidhe being immune to werewolf pheromones. Given that and the five years since she’d gotten laid, it was all she could do not to dive for his seductive mouth. Which, arousal or no, would probably send him screaming, considering what werewolves had done to him just hours ago.

She should never have agreed to this lunatic plan. Pretending to be lovers was going to strain her fraying control to the breaking point. True, their obvious mutual lust would probably add believability to the whirlwind romance thing. Unfortunately, there was just no way in hell Helena could keep her hands off him. Especially not if it took a while before Siobhan lost her shit and came after them.

Helena eyed him a little resentfully