by E A Price
“Are you free this evening? Maybe we could go for a drink together.”
Her hedgehog sniffed. “I can’t, I have plans with a friend.”
And if she hadn’t, she would have made plans. She regretted she wasn’t ballsy enough to say that out loud. Isis or even Avery would have. Although, Dale probably wouldn’t have been offended. She bet women rejected him all the time. His personality certainly seemed to suggest that was the case.
“Another time, Lacey.” He shrugged and walked away.
“Actually it’s… oh, what’s the point?”
Lucie almost leapt into the elevator when it arrived; only when the doors closed did she relax and fish out the memory stick from her bra. Her heart was pulsing wildly in her chest. Well, at least James Bond had nothing to fear from her. She was not cut out for deception.
*
Cutter alternately grunted, growled and frowned as he pawed his way through Lucie’s wardrobe. She had a lot of male clothing – a disturbing amount for someone who was single. His wolf prowled unhappily. Who the fuck did it all belong to? At first, he was elated to think it might be her father’s or her brother’s, but he had the impression that she didn’t have close relatives.
Worse still, it was all too big for him! He was six-foot-three with a wide chest that would make a superhero envious, and yet, they were too big for him. The clothes were designed for someone at least three inches taller and at least five more inches on their chest. Who the fuck was this giant who dared keep clothes at his hedgehog’s house?
Her phone started ringing, and Cutter ambled downstairs to listen and see if whoever it was would leave a message. He was still wearing the pink robe and was surprised at how comfortable it was. Truthfully, he was loath to take it off.
Two people had already rung and left messages today. The first was from someone called Malcolm telling her he had extended his honeymoon by a week and asking her if she would continue collecting his mail. The second was from her dentist confirming an appointment.
The phone stopped, and Lucie’s chirpy recording echoed in the quiet house. “Hi! I’m not in right now, but if you leave a message I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.” Beep!
“Hi, Lucie, it’s Xander.”
Cutter and his wolf snarled – in the same way they did when Malcolm’s voice came through. With any luck, it would be the same kind of message – from a married man.
“I haven’t heard from you in a few days, call me, okay? Anyway, I’ll be by on Saturday. I can’t wait to tell you about Italy. Love you.”
How long he stared at the machine, he couldn’t say. He tuned out his irate wolf and focused on looking at it, memorizing every inch of it. His first instinct was to rip it out of the socket and hurl it across the room. But no, he could be reasonable. It wasn’t the machine’s fault. He didn’t hate the machine. He hated Xander. Xander who had just come home from Italy. Xander who was threatening to visit on Saturday. Xander who loved Lucie. Fucker.
To his irrational mind, the fact that Lucie had spent the better part of a year throwing herself at him, and he had spent that time rejecting her, was irrelevant. No other man had any right to claim he loved her. Was he selfish? Yes. Was he an asshole? Yes. Did he care? No.
The phone rang again, and he almost snatched it up, ready to yell at Xander that Lucie wasn’t interested. But, instead, he dug his claws into his palms and waited to hear the message.
Followed by Lucie’s greeting message and the beep, a much more welcome voice tickled his ear, had his wolf prancing like a puppy and made his manhood stir. “Hi, it’s me. If you’re there, pick up.”
Cutter grabbed the phone. “Lucie,” he breathed. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did that fucking lion try anything with you? Do you need me to rescue you? Answer that last one first.”
“Cheeses, that’s a lot of questions.”
He snickered. Cheeses. Seriously, the dumb curse words made him ridiculously hot. He was so twisted.
“Okay, umm, let me get this straight. In answer to your questions: absolutely not, fine; no and definitely no. How are you? How are your shoulder and your leg?”
“What? Oh, yeah, fine.”
Apart from a few twinges when he tried to use his afflicted arm or leg too much, he barely even noticed. While obsessing over his predicament and those fucking clothes in Lucie’s closet, he’d pretty much forgotten about his injuries.
“I don’t want to talk too much over the phone – there are ears everywhere…”
Cutter groaned; she’d been watching too many spy movies.
“But I managed to get what you needed.”
“Good. I guess there's only one thing left to ask - why do you have men’s clothes in your wardrobe?”
Come on – she already told him what he needed to know about the case. Now, he had to move onto the second thing that was bugging him. He had his priorities.
“That’s not important,” she sighed down the phone.
“Disagree.”
“Look I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
He pursed his lips. “Humph, just be careful. Has anyone asked about me?”
“A few people,” she admitted, reluctantly.
“I don’t like you being there alone.”
Lucie giggled indulgently. “I’m not alone; I’m surrounded by people.”
Cutter snorted. “Yeah, that’s what Erin thought right before she ended up being chased through the building by the last crazy medical examiner. You should stay away from the new medical examiner, just in case.”
“Umm hmmm, try to stay out of trouble, and call my cell phone if you need me.
“Ditto, sweetheart.”
They hung up. His wolf grouched at him for not broaching the topic of Xander. But Cutter decided he wasn’t going to. It was none of his business and Lucie didn’t have to explain herself to him. No, he had bigger things to worry about. He was going to take the high road and just delete the phone message. There – problem solved… for now.
At that moment, his whole future was in the balance. He worried that he wouldn’t be able to sort this mess out. He worried about what would happen to his son if he went to prison. He worried about Lucie being in danger.
He needed a distraction. He should shower and dress. But first, he needed to look through Lucie’s underwear drawer. For men’s underwear, naturally. He wasn’t looking through her underwear because he got a perverted pleasure out of imagining her wearing them – no siree. The fact that he always went commando seemed to have slipped his mind at that moment.
*
“Hey!”
Lucie screamed and spun around to find Avery leaning against the wall and Wayne smirking, sinewy arms folded over his chest. She cursed her hedgehog senses as she pressed the heel of her hand into her heart; why did she not sense they were there?
“Hey, guys.” She smiled weakly.
Avery looked around. “Whatcha doing out here?”
Lucie shrugged exaggeratedly, almost cracking her shoulders. “Just getting some fresh air. Ha ha ha.”
She took a deep breath and started choking as she inhaled two lungfuls of cigarette smoke. That probably wasn’t the best excuse given that she was standing next to the smoker zone.
Avery raised her eyebrow. “Really?”
“Actually I’m thinking of taking up smoking again. I used to smoke but then I quit. I gave up after my divorce because it was getting so expensive, and given that I couldn’t rely on my husband’s income anymore I had to choose between smoking and wine and I decided to give up smoking. But now that I’m in a new job, I have more money, so I’m thinking of starting again. So, I decided to come out here and inhale some cigarette smoke so that I could get acclimatized to it again.”
Phew, she may have just pulled this off. Hard to believe that she hadn’t prepared that speech in advance, or that she hadn’t ever smoked.
“Wow, that was a weirdly detailed explanation,” mused Avery.
Wayne pulled a pack
of cigarettes and a lighter out of his back pocket, tossing them both to Lucie. “Here, have one on me.”
She fumbled as she caught them. “Oh, umm, thanks.”
They both watched as she struggled to get the packet open. “Uh, don’t think that you have to keep me company.”
“We’re on break,” explained Wayne.
Finally freeing a cigarette, she tapped it against the packet – she’d seen people do it in movies. She placed the cigarette between her lips and started flicking the lighter.
After a few moments, Wayne pulled the cigarette from her lips. “Wrong end; I guess it’s been a long time since you had one.” Lucie blushed as he turned it around and put it in his own mouth, quickly lighting it and taking a drag.
“That your boyfriend on the phone?” asked Avery.
“Sort of.”
“Something’s going on with Cutter.”
“Oh?” she squeaked, feigning surprise.
“Yeah, you don’t happen to know what, do you?”
Both Avery and Wayne looked at her closely.
“Me?” Her voice sounded like she had inhaled a tank of helium.
“Nobody will tell us anything,” grumbled Wayne stamping out his cigarette with a little more force than necessary.
Avery scowled. “All we know is that Cutter isn’t here, and Diaz and some guy from II want to know where he is. He’s not answering his phone, and the Director told us to butt out of it.”
“I don’t know why you think I know anything.”
Avery snorted as Lucie squirmed. “We’re not idiots. We can see that they think Cutter had something to do with the recent deaths.”
“There’re lots of rumblings around the building about II trying to arrest him,” said Wayne in disapproval.
“Do you two think he had something to do with the deaths?” Lucie asked, timidly. Her hedgehog grumbled; wasn’t it better not knowing?
Avery laughed in surprise. “Cutter? Nah. I can’t see him going to the effort of covering up a conspiracy.”
“He’s more likely to beat the person up and then grumble about how the guy had it coming,” agreed Wayne.
The lioness gave her a shrewd look. “But if I were Cutter, I’d go to the person who cared about me most if I wanted to stay hidden.”
Lucie flushed and looked at her feet. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, wherever Cutter is, I just hope he gets the message that he can count on us if he needs help.”
“Yeah, I hope he gets the message, too,” mumbled Lucie.
Avery bit her lip. “Be careful, Lucie, if things really are bad…”
“Just stay out of trouble,” intoned Wayne in a deep voice.
“I will.”
She left the two agents as quickly as possible, lest they change their minds and decide to grill her about Cutter’s activities. She spent the afternoon trying to avoid Rick and glancing at the clock every ten minutes. She almost cried with relief when the clock finally hit 5pm.
The SEA didn’t really close at 5pm, but most workers had the day shift and there were a nominal crew of nightshift workers – most of which tended to be vampires and nocturnal animal shifters who couldn’t get on with being awake during the day.
Lucie grabbed her purse and was almost out the exit when she was waylaid by Rick, dressed in jeans and sporting a genial smile. It was such a shame that he really did nothing for her.
“Hey, Lucie, you fancy getting a drink together?”
She flustered. “Oh, umm, I can’t. I have plans with a friend.”
He nodded, but she could tell he didn’t really believe her. Well, that was his problem. She moved past him.
“It’s not doing you any good to pine after someone who doesn’t want you,” he told her, harshly.
Lucie paused and looked back at him over her shoulder as her beast wailed in furious outrage.
The lion shifter softened a little. “You’re better off cutting ties with Cutter, considering the situation.”
“Situation?” she asked innocently, clutching the memory stick Jessie had given her in her palm.
“Haven’t you heard the rumors?”
“Only that people are looking for him,” she lied, surprisingly effectively.
“He’s wanted for questioning for two murders.”
Rick sneered as he said the words. Apparently Cutter couldn’t count on Rick to be on his side.
“Oh, my,” she muttered inching to the exit.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you.”
He really did look apologetic, and she felt a little guilty for lying to him, but she didn’t have time for this, but, perhaps, this was the time to nip Rick’s interest in the bud.
Lucie forced herself to look sad. “It’s fine. And I know you’re right, I shouldn’t pine for someone who doesn’t want me. I’m trying to get over that, but I wouldn’t want to rush into something with someone else either while I’m still in pine city.”
“I understand that I need to be patient.”
She faced him and bit her lip. “But, can you understand that even if you are patient, it still doesn’t mean that the result you want is the one you’ll get in the end?”
Rick looked at her as if she were an alien – one with six head, red skin and tentacles. “You mean, even if you weren’t in love with the wolf…”
“I don’t think I’d want to be with you either; I’m sorry,” she said softly, with as much regret as she could muster.
He raked his fingers through his hair. “Wow, I’ve never, ah…”
“Never been rejected by a woman?” Why was she not surprised?
“No, not by a woman like you.”
“A woman like me?” she repeated incredulously.
“Well, uh,” he stammered, realizing he may have made a mistake, “one of your ilk.”
“Ilk?” she squeaked as her hedgehog growled.
The lion held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not saying this right. Pride lionesses can be cold and haughty, they really make lions work for them, and they reject men out of spite, but shifters like you…”
“Are usually grateful that handsome predators like you are interested in them?” she interrupted in a mixture of amusement and amazement.
“Quite frankly, yes.”
Arrogant dillweed! “So you assumed I’d just swallow the whole ‘looking for a mate’ schtick, and I’d be falling at your feet to let it be me?”
Rick chewed on his cheek. “You’re angry.”
Talk about Doctor Perceptron, she thought, snarkily.
“No, just flabbergasted, to be honest. The men I’ve dated could hardly be considered prince charmings, but they’ve never expected me to be grateful to be with them.”
“I didn’t really mean…”
She held up a hand. “I’m glad I could give you this new experience of being rejected by someone of my ilk.”
“Lucie, I’m sorry.”
“We can still be friends, Rick, but no more flirting,” she told him, firmly.
“You’re right. Lucie, really, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“It’s fine,” she replied snippily.
Actually it was fine; while she was a little put out by his egotism, this whole confrontation actually solved her problem. She managed to rebuff Rick’s advances without even coming out of it as the bad guy. Win-win situation.
“Great, see you tomorrow?”
Lucie frowned. “Tomorrow?”
He smiled. “At the softball game.”
Right… sugar puffs! She’d forgotten, so much happening and all that… he stood watching for a reply.
“Yes, see you then,” she said absently.
*
He watched as the chubby little hedgehog shifter left the building. She looked around self-consciously to make sure no one was watching her. The dumb bitch didn’t even glance in his direction. Hedgehogs really were a lesser, pathetic species. How Cutter could even give her the time of day was mind-boggling. A wo
lf and a hedgehog together, was there anything more grotesque?
He knew Cutter was hiding underneath the hedgehog’s skirt. He’d run like a coward, straight into her waiting bosom. He could just burst into her house and kill them both, but no, he wanted Cutter to suffer.
Let the traitorous wolf have his fun with the hedgehog. It will be even more delicious when she’s dead. Three years is a long time to wait, but, finally, Cutter will get what is coming to him.
Chapter Fourteen
“Cutter! Cutter come on, baby, wake up.”
Lucie came home to find Cutter snoozing in her bed. At first pleased that he was taking some much-needed rest, she was soon horrified as he started violently yelling and lashing about on the bed. Her animal howled at her to help him.
She grasped his shoulders, clinging to the scorching, sweat-beaded skin as he thrashed underneath. Unable to control him, she straddled his waist, pushing her weight down on him.
“Baby, you’re having a bad dream, wake up,” she pleaded.
Lucie yelped as his fingers roughly clamped onto her ass and with a lurch toward her, his eyes snapped open. Violent amber eyes regarded her with confusion. He blinked, and slowly the amber tinges seeped away.
“Lucie?” he choked out.
She pushed his shoulders back down to the bed. “Hush, it’s okay, you were having a bad dream. You’re okay; you’re fine.”
“Lucie,” he groaned more forcibly.
Instead of removing his hands they were kneading her buttocks, manipulating her fleshy orbs. She licked her lips as she felt heat pooling between her legs. He rocked her over his stomach. The material of her panties rubbed against her sensitive folds, making her wet and needy. She needed to get out of there before she did something embarrassing like scream ‘take me now.’
“Do you need anything?” she whimpered, barely able to concentrate.
Cutter pushed her down his body until she pressed against his arousal. “You.”
Lucie squealed as he flipped her onto her back. With a flash of claw, he ripped through her clothes and pulled the tatters away from her body. Her hedgehog mewled in joy.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
