before heading to the kitchen.
Not surprisingly, he found Sophia leaning against the marble counter, her arms folded across her chest. She would have sensed him the moment he entered her yard.
Halting in the center of the ceramic-tiled floor, Luc allowed his gaze to run over her slender body barely covered by a lacy red camisole and matching silk shorts.
He bit back a growl, his gaze lifting to the beautiful face framed by the pale golden hair.
The lust he didn’t mind. What male wouldn’t be hot and bothered by the sight of a gorgeous, half-naked female?
But the sense of recognition from his wolf, as if she ... belonged to him, was unnerving.
Especially when the emerald eyes were glowing with a warning that was far from welcoming.
“Do your duties include breaking and entering?”
He deliberately glanced toward the door leading from the breakfast nook onto the patio. A dew fairy could break the flimsy-ass lock.
“No, but they include an inspection of your alarm system.”
She snorted. “I’m a pure-blooded Were. That’s all the alarm system I need.”
Scowling at her nonchalant tone, he turned back with a glare of frustration.
Dios.
Did she know how her seeming lack of concern was challenging his wolf to do whatever necessary to protect her?
“Obviously not if some lunatic has managed to wander around your place without getting caught,” he growled.
“The lunatic always trespassed when I was at the club.” She allowed her gaze to drift down to his heavy boots and back to his narrowed eyes. “At least until tonight.”
“You need an alarm system.”
She heaved a purely feminine sigh of exasperation at his stubborn expression.
“Did you find anything at the office building?”
He moved past her to open the fridge and pulled out a bottle of perfectly chilled beer. Twisting off the cap, he downed half of it in one swallow.
“I found that the secretary from the insurance claims company is staying late to burn the midnight oil with the janitor.”
“Midnight oil?”
He smiled. “And that the loan officer is sleeping on the couch in his office. No doubt his wife kicked him out.”
Her gaze lingered a tantalizing moment on his lips before she was visibly squaring her shoulders.
“Fascinating.”
“That was just the first floor.”
“Did you find any clues that might lead us to my stalker?”
“Nothing.” He polished off the beer and tossed the bottle into the recycle bin. “Which means they’re very, very good. Or very, very lucky.”
“So you basically have jack squat?”
He ignored her taunt, moving until he could grasp the counter on either side of her hips, effectively trapping her.
He was going to get answers.
One way or another.
“Actually, I have a question.”
She stiffened, her power swirling through the air. Oddly, however, she made no move to shove him away.
“Let me get this straight,” she mocked instead. “You break into my house at an ungodly hour. You help yourself to my private stash of imported beer. Now, having absolutely zero information for me, you expect me to play Twenty Questions.” She tilted her chin. “And, for the true cherry topper, I’m supposed to pay you a weekly wage for the privilege?”
His gaze swept down to the delectable glimpse of her breasts beneath the red lace.
“Yeah, but I’ll throw in the night of mind-blowing sex for free.”
He heard her heart miss a beat, the scent of her ready response more enticing than any perfume.
Still she held herself rigid, clearly as wary as he was by the potent force of their attraction.
“What’s your question?” she asked huskily.
“Tell me what you’re hiding from me.”
Her eyes widened before she was hastily smoothing her expression.
“Hiding?” She lifted her brow, trying to brazen her way past his question. “What the hell makes you think that I’m hiding something?”
“A pure-blooded Were doesn’t hire a bodyguard just because she’s being harassed.”
The realization had struck him as he watched her flounce away from him in the stairwell. He’d started to halt her retreat then and there to demand an answer, but the rigid line of her spine had warned she wasn’t in the mood to cooperate.
And in truth, he’d still been so cranked at being led around like a dunce by the mystery gunman that he knew he was bound to make matters worse if he tried to pry the truth from her.
Now he wasn’t going to leave until he knew exactly what the hell was going on.
“My son-in-law made me promise I wouldn’t kill any of my neighbors the day I moved in.” She tried to hold her ground. “He didn’t say I couldn’t hire someone else to kill