Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  Chapter Twenty

  By the time the twilight began to fade to night, Kylie was nearly worried sick about what would happen when Titus got home. She wasn’t in the backyard tonight. She was pacing in front of her house as though that would somehow make Titus come home a little sooner. Where was he anyway? Had he already left? Why hadn’t she thought of that possibility this morning when she let him leave her bed? She’d been tired. That was the truth of it. Kylie had spent most of the afternoon napping in her chair where she’d been staring out the front windows in hopes of catching a glimpse of Titus.

  She could have called or texted. But the truth was Kylie was afraid of the answer she’d get. Or rather, that she might get no answer. She didn’t want to think he would just up and leave, but perhaps he would. What if he did? The question was haunting her.

  A flash of headlights coming down the street jarred Kylie. She’d fallen asleep. Disoriented, she stood up and swayed a bit. Her hand touched the edge of the sofa and she grabbed hold just to steady herself. It wouldn’t do her any good to fall and hit her head now. Staggering toward the front door, Kylie felt a sense of panic as her mind tried to focus on whether or not the headlights she’d spotted were Titus’s.

  She stumbled onto the front porch and her front door clicked shut behind her. Kylie grunted and blinked her eyes to try to clear up the haziness behind them. Finally, she was able to see the headlights had belonged to another neighbor three houses down from Ms. Wankenfurter. Mr. Morris, probably. He liked to fish late in the evenings. Kylie’s heart began to sink until she spotted Titus’s truck in his driveway.

  “When did that get there?” Kylie whispered in confusion.

  Struggling to stay upright on her bare feet, she hurried across the street with uneven, mincing strides. The rough aggregate road bed wasn’t exactly pleasant, but Kylie wasn’t about to turn around and go back for shoes. She tiptoed and jumped and finally landed in the grass in front of Titus’s front walk. Then she tried to open his front gate and found it locked.

  Damn. She’d left her phone somewhere in her house. She was so tired. Her eyes were burning with the need for sleep and she wished she could just curl up against Titus and forget all of her worries. That sounded divine. A few minutes of no worrying. Nothing. Talk about a grand dream.

  The gate. She needed to get past the gate. When she reached over the waist high structure, she could feel the latch. It had a little lock in place. Why had he locked it? Did he honestly think Pugsley and Ms. Wankenfurter were going to show up and try to sneak past it or something?

  Kylie didn’t care. The top of the gate was smooth. At least it wasn’t a white picket fence. She put her belly on it and swung one leg over as though she was mounting a horse. For a second she wobbled awkwardly at the apex of her climbing move and she felt like she might be in serious trouble. Her toes barely touched the ground on both sides.

  Then she lurched to the back of the gate and fell right onto the sidewalk with a grunt. The stinging on her palms, knees, and bare ankles suggested she’d skinned the hide off in the process. She just didn’t care. Maybe this would make her point. She could show up on his front doorstep bleeding and begging him to stay. Yes. That would be a great idea.

  Kylie painfully walked the rest of the way to the door and knocked. When there was no answer, she started to pound on the door. “Titus! Titus, are you in there? You’d better be in there! I see your truck, Titus!”

  It occurred to Kylie that she was acting like the worst sort of stalker girlfriend. The woman that every man dreaded getting involved with. That chick who sleeps with a guy and then assumes there is a relationship as if the sex is somehow a binding agreement between two people that they are suddenly monogamous and totally involved with each other. Basically, like she can show up on the doorstep the following evening with her toothbrush and a box of tampons.

  But this wasn’t what Kylie was doing. She just wanted to make sure her one night lover hadn’t skipped town! Surely, that wasn’t too much to ask. Was it?

  The door swung open with such speed that she actually fell into the house. “Kylie! What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

  Titus was in a towel and his hair was dripping wet. Shit. He’d been taking a shower. Of course. He’d been gone all day long. He’d probably been working. She had let her mind run completely away with her and she’d just made a total fool of herself. Plus, there was the whole stalker/wannabe girlfriend thing too. There was no way she could possibly make herself seem like a crazier person right now.

  “Kylie?”

  She got to her feet slowly. She had smeared blood on the wood floor of his entry way and up and down the outside of her calves too. She could see this in the soft glow of the recessed overhead lighting in his foyer. “I’m so sorry, Titus. I just…” She bit her lip. What was she supposed to say? The truth felt silly. “I guess I thought you might have just left.”

  He looked confused at first, and then his expression slid toward concern. How was it possible for one man to be this handsome? “You thought I left town? Like I just packed up and left without saying a single word to you? Honestly? You think that’s the kind of person I am?”

  Oh. She hadn’t actually thought of his leaving in those terms exactly. Now she felt kind of bad. “It’s not that I thought you were a bad person or something.” Wow, that sounded lame. “Uh, it’s just that I realize it wouldn’t take much effort for you to just fall off the grid and go dark.” Now she sounded as though she was in some kind of spy movie and didn’t want the double agent to hide in fear of his life. She was making a total muck of this.

  “I see.” He rubbed a hand through his wet hair.

  Water droplets from his hair splashed Kylie’s cheeks and spattered the floor around him. The wavy mass of dark hair was softer than it looked. Kylie knew. She’d been stabbing her fingers through it all last night. She’d felt it on her belly when he… She could not think about that. Not right now. It wouldn’t help her think rationally.

  “Come with me,” he told her.

  She followed his lead, but he didn’t make his way into the living room or the kitchen as she had expected. Instead, he went into the bedroom and around the corner through the narrow walkway that went between two walk-in closets and then finally into the airy master bath. The lights were on and the steam was still fogging over the mirrors and shower doors. He had literally been in the shower when she showed up banging on his door.

  Kylie felt the worst sort of sheepish. She needed to apologize. The poor guy had probably had it with her already. And he didn’t even know what she’d done. God! She didn’t want to think about it. That conversation with Hilary Allenwood had been a disaster. Titus would be well within his rights to send her packing just for that debacle.

  “Get up on the counter,” he told her suddenly.

  She met his gaze in the huge mirror that hung over the double sink vanity. There was a flat spot between the two sinks and this was where Titus was pointing. Kylie frowned. And then she felt a drip on the top of her foot and looked down. Her right knee was bleeding onto the top of her right foot and her left ankle was quickly making a pool of blood on his otherwise pristine tile floor.

  Kylie didn’t really notice how severely her palms stung until she put them against the cool countertop and attempted to hop up onto the space between the sinks. She hissed in pain and waved her hands in the air as she wiggled to settle her butt on the counter.

  Titus grabbed her hands and held them palms up to the light. “What on earth did you do to yourself, sweetheart?”

  His words made her feel a little better, but they really shouldn’t have because he was saying them before he heard all of the things she’d done. He might change his mind and call her something else after he’d heard her confession.

  “I—uh—your gate was locked.”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry about that.” Titus seemed nonchalant. He didn’t even look up from his perusal of her palms. Instead, he reached into the alcove beside the left
sink and grabbed a washcloth. He turned on the water and steam rose from the hot tap. He soaked the cloth and pressed it between both of her hands. “I keep it locked these days just as a very minimal deterrent to anyone who might be snooping. And it makes sure Pugsley can’t nudge it open with his nose to come pee on my paper. I swear the little rat does it on purpose.”

  Kylie got momentarily sidetracked. “Wait. On purpose? You think that dog pees on your paper because he knows it bothers you?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes.” Titus glanced up briefly before removing the cloth from her hands and reaching for a pair of tweezers. “He can tell I’m as much canine as human and it confuses him. Makes him a little irritable honestly. He does all kinds of things to poke at me. Peeing all over my property, crapping in front of my mailbox, but I consider it a doggie dominance thing.”

  “Because you’re a wolf,” Kylie whispered. What a fascinating thought. “And animals can sense that?”

  Titus bobbed his head and Kylie hissed as he prodded and picked at a particularly deep spot on her scraped right palm. “Yes.” He seemed to be talking to keep her mind occupied. Kylie didn’t mind though. “A good example is the fish in the lake. I got dragged on this fishing expedition for a bachelor party and the guys were all wondering why the fish refused to come anywhere near the boat.”

  “They can smell you?”

  “With fish, I don’t know that it’s the smell per se. But I have to be in my animal form to do any fishing and I have to do it with my paws. Which isn’t hard, mind you. But I can’t exactly do that in front of a bunch of the guys from the office. Can I?” He winked at her just before he stabbed her left palm and made her want to cry.

  He seemed happy enough with her palms. At any rate, he re-soaked the cloth and moved to pressing it against her right knee. Evidently, her left one had escaped damage. Kylie tried to focus on what he was telling her.

  “The guys you work with don’t know what you are?” She was shocked by this. It seemed impossible. “How does that happen? How do they not notice that you’re different?”

  “People see what they want to see and it always fits in with their concept of reality,” Titus murmured as he poked at her knee. He was wiping up her blood while kneeling in front of her wearing only a towel. Had anything ever been so yummy?

  Kylie considered his words. They were undoubtedly true. But if the guys at work didn’t know, and she was literally the only one, what did that mean? “Why did you tell me then? You didn’t have to, other than the fact I’m going to guess that’s the reason behind your incredibly short refractory time, I wouldn’t even think it necessary.”

  “You’re different,” he said simply. He didn’t look at her though. “You’re the exception to my rule.”

  Kylie swallowed. The exception to his rule and she had gone behind his back and told Hilary everything! Well, at least she hadn’t told Hilary his biggest secret. But still! Kylie had to get it out.

  “I talked to Hilary Allenwood today. I told her about your dad and about the hanging and about your brother and how she needs to stop pursuing you.”

  He didn’t say anything at first, but Kylie could not help noticing his shoulders grew a whole lot tenser. He pressed the cloth to her left ankle now. The thick nap of the white washcloth was stained with her blood. He seemed to be thinking. Maybe he was thinking. Maybe he was just processing the betrayal she’d just admitted out loud.

  Finally, he spoke. “That seems a bit of a rash choice, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t want you to go!” Kylie burst out. She put her hands over her mouth even though they stung like hell. “I’m so afraid I will come home and you’ll just be gone! It will be like you were never here. I’m not stupid. I know you intended to just disappear and leave the office and the neighborhood and your house and just go.” She was really on a roll now. “And why wouldn’t you? You can, right? You could just change into a human somewhere along the way and make a call to the office to let them know what to do. You could set up a post office box somewhere and get correspondence to sign. Or you could set up a power of attorney and let one of your employees take care of that for you. You would never have to be here again. And Hilary couldn’t do a thing about it.”

  “You’re right,” he told her softly. “I could. But you couldn’t. And that’s the rub for me.”

  Wait. What? She was confused. “What does this have to do with me?”

  He stared up at her and for just a moment she could have sworn she saw love in his deep dark gaze. “I love you, Kylie Overton. You are my mate in every way that counts. I know you don’t realize it, but I’ve been with you...” He pursed his lips and trailed off. “I have been with you in ways that I’ve never been with another woman before in my life. And I don’t take that lightly. It’s not in my nature to do so. I’m not going to leave you behind. Never.”

  It was like someone had let the air out of her as she felt as though she deflated right there on the counter. And that’s when the tears started.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  What was it about the tears of a human woman that just made your heart feel as though it was breaking in two? There had to be some chemical reaction. That was the only possible answer. Maybe there was a pheromone secreted in the tears of a human female that had the ability to make any male human within a five mile radius feel instant pity and also feel weirdly like he was somehow at fault.

  Helplessness. That was what Titus felt as he watched poor Kylie sob on his bathroom counter. She was a mess. An absolute mess. Titus let her cry though. He could tell she needed to get it out. He just handed her another washcloth so she could mop herself up and went about his business bandaging her scrapes so they wouldn’t bleed all over his bed before they scabbed over. These poor humans and their pathetic healing abilities. He could not begin to imagine how annoying that would be.

  “You’re not mad at me?” She stammered the words through her tears and Titus wondered what, exactly, she was referring to?

  But he could safely say it didn’t really matter what she was referring to. He wasn’t concerned. “No, I’m not mad at you. I’m just sorry you thought I was going to leave without you. I couldn’t do that. And even if didn’t feel the way I do, I wouldn’t just leave you with no word at all. I would have told you I was going.”

  She started crying again. Titus sighed. He’d made it worse? He’d been trying to make her feel better. He wasn’t going to ditch her. That was good news, right?

  Titus gave up trying to solve her problems and stood up. He plucked her off his counter and carried her into the bedroom. His bed was a mess because he didn’t see the point in making it. Now, he tossed her into the middle of the huge mattress and began to carefully pull up and tuck in the sheets and blankets around her. He wasn’t one for frilly overdone bedding, but he did like soft textures and pleasant low-key colors. Furs would have suited him nicely. And of course, furs would have suited Kylie as well.

  “Get naked,” he told her suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  Her tearstained face looked slightly bemused. But she didn’t actually argue. She pulled off her camisole instead. As she was squirming out of her shorts, she finally asked the question. “Why?”

  “Because you’ll sleep better naked.” He raised both hands and held them up. “I promise to let you sleep this time. At least for a while.”

  She nodded and laid down. The woman looked exhausted. Titus was going to have to be more aware of her human need to sleep. This was new territory for him. He’d had a few lovers of course. Who didn’t? But he’d never actually spent time with a human before, outside of the work environment. He knew he couldn’t push them there but this was different.

  Kylie looked as though she was drifting off to sleep when her eyes suddenly opened again. “But you didn’t let me tell you what I told Hilary!”

  “You sort of already did,” Titus mused, trying not to sound flippant. “And I can guess the rest. I know your heart was in the right
place. I spoke to Caroline today. It was informative and very interesting indeed.”

  Now Kylie was fighting to keep her eyes open. “You talked to Caroline? Did she tell you anything? What did she say?”

  “She said enough,” Titus told Kylie gently. Then he dropped his towel and moved onto the bed. He lay alongside Kylie and gently cupped her against his body. There was a thin sheet between them, but it did nothing to dampen his desire to make love to her that very second.

  “You’re so warm,” Kylie whispered.

  He kissed her forehead and slowed his own breathing. Soon enough, her inhaled and exhaled puffs matched his and she was asleep. She was tempting. God, he was sorely tempted to kiss her awake once again and make sleepy love to her before he let her drift off again. He wanted to be inside her. It was an experience that went far beyond just the physical release and pleasure of the love act. Titus had never imagined anything like that was possible. It was as if Kylie were a part of him and he was part of her. They became one for those incandescent moments during their lovemaking and it was a slice of heaven he would never grow tired of.

  But right now, his beloved needed her sleep. Titus got up and stood in his bedroom for a moment just staring at her, which caused his erection to grow. It was with a rueful chuckle that he finally located some underwear and shorts in his drawer and put them on. Then he padded out of the bedroom and turned the light off on his way out. Closing the doors, he headed for the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

  Titus was halfway through his third peanut butter and jelly sandwich when he heard a car pull up out front. He put the remains of his sandwich down and strode silently on bare feet toward the bedroom doors. There was a key sitting unobtrusively above the doorframe. He took it down and locked the doors. Then he slipped it into his pocket just in case. The doors could still be unlocked from the inside, but he sure as hell didn’t want anyone barging in on his Kylie while she was sleeping in the nude.