by C. D. Gorri
She didn’t feel the need to check the state of her wild mane of thick curls every six minutes, either. In fact, she felt fine. Anxious as opposed to nervous. But what did she expect? The sexy PRIC detective had kissed her senseless not ten minutes ago.
“I’m sorry to land this on you.” Concern made him frown. “I wish I could have just bumped into you and asked you out for coffee or something.”
“It’s fine,” she murmured. “I need your help finding the meatball bandit, and you need mine finding your client’s son.”
“So, does that mean you’ll do it?”
She tried not to sigh as he said cawfee instead of coffee. Damn that cute accent. It had her stomach twisted in knots. She knew what he was asking was wrong, but how many exploits had she heard about FUC agents who went over the line to get the job done?
Why should a Conflict Resolution & Situation De-escalation Counselor be held to different standards than them?
“I get it if you want to back out,” Tony offered. “You know, this kind of work isn’t for everyone.”
Sofia narrowed her eyes. Tony’s charm didn’t end with his good looks. It was in his cocky mannerisms, his confidence, and that Jersey accent she found downright charming. Especially when he was tawking to her like this. But now that he showed concern for her, well crap, that pretty much made her want to jump his bones.
Concentrate on the job, Sof. She’d need more than a little pep talk if she was going to get through the evening without mauling him. Maybe it was time she and her battery-operated boyfriend made up? Sex with a toy had never been her thing, but sometimes a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
Right then, she was distracted by the way her sex throbbed and her breasts grew heavy. The longer she was in his presence, the more tempted she was to crawl into his lap and do the naughty things she’d been imagining for the last few hours.
It probably happened to him all the time. With those crazy bad-boy good looks that were driving her wild, Tony Leeds had probably forgotten more about sex than she’d ever learned.
Her first impression of him had been lady killer. The way he’d handled Maude was unbelievable. He had the chef eating out of his hand! Still, to be honest, it was only flirting. She hadn’t seen any actual evidence that he was a playboy. He could have pressed his advantage back there in the hallway, but he’d held back. That had to mean something, right?
Whatever. It did not matter. There was no way she was getting down and dirty with Tony Leeds. Her chinchilla cried mournfully, but Sofia was resolved.
This was a business arrangement only. Even though he kissed like a sex god, she would not allow this to go any further. She looked at his hooded gaze and shivered.
Sofia was right to say no. She couldn’t survive sleeping with Tony Leeds, Jersey devil, PRIC detective.
She couldn’t give herself to him then watch him leave. She just knew it deep down inside.
20
“Sofia?” He queried.
Oops. She’d clammed up when her brain had gone into overdrive. Overthinking was a problem she’d had since childhood, but hey, at least she’d stopped the hair chewing. Her animal chittered away inside of her, and she knew the little beastie was not happy with the reminder of the days of yore.
A human teen could chew on the ends of her hair with nothing to really worry about in her overall appearance save for split ends. Now imagine a chinchilla with bald spots. It was not a pretty sight.
“Uh.” She closed her eyes and shook the memory from her brain. “Sorry, I was thinking.”
“Look, doll face, there’s no shame in backing out-”
“I am not backing out.”
“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable with this here.”
“Oddly enough, Tony, uncomfortable is not the word I’d use when it comes to how I feel right now.”
“Really? You’d, uh, let me know if you want to do something about that, right?” His wide grin was the panty-melting kind, but Sofia managed to not drool. Barely.
In her current emotional state, Sofia could practically feel her heat coming on. Shifters in the order Rodentia tended to have short periods of high fertility in which a frenzy to mate was sometimes experienced. Not that she’d ever experienced such, but what else could it be with the way her pulse was racing and her blood warmed just from being near him?
“So.” She changed the subject. “What makes you think this missing person is here? Would Scarab send his kidnap victims to the Academy?”
“That’s the thing. After I began working for PRIC, I located all of the old case files from my kidnapping and the various agencies that had worked it, human and shifter.”
“And?” She gripped the edge of the sofa.
Imagining what he’d gone through, she couldn’t help but reach out and take his hand. Relief coursed through her when he squeezed back. And there it was, mutual support and understanding. It shocked and amazed her, but she didn’t let go. She held strong while he continued.
“I found it, Sof,” he sighed heavily. “The place where I was taken as a kid. It was long abandoned by the time I discovered it. So damn close to where my family’s campsite was located, we must have alerted their security with our presence, but my parents didn’t know. They tried to cover their tracks with fire, but I knew from the remnants of labs and cells that it was the right place. The scent of shifters still clung to the old brick and wood bones of the place. And I found this.” He withdrew his cell phone from his pocket and, after a couple of swipes, held up an image.
“That looks like a beetle. Oh, I see, Scarab.” Sofia squinted and moved closer to the phone.
“In ancient Egypt, it symbolized change and rebirth. Sort of like the kind of change a mad scientist might look for with his experimentations.”
“Oh, Tony. That’s incredible work, but how is it related to this case?”
“A few years ago, I was looking for a client’s son. He’d only just been taken from a central Jersey shopping mall. I was able to track the kid with a special GPS device the parents had implanted under his skin because the little tyke kept wandering from home. He was a sleepwalker, apparently, and the father was a veterinarian, so he didn’t see the harm in it-”
“That’s nuts, but I guess it proved useful.” Sofia squeezed his big, warm hand and moved closer to him.
“Hell yes, it was useful. I found them loading him into a van.” He looked around, seeming to take in the white walls room and neat blue furniture.
Suddenly, she felt as if she were being inspected. What did he think of her taste? Was he appalled, delighted? She couldn’t tell. She’d lived alone for a while now, and the moderately sized space reflected her personality and her bank account.
She would have expected such a manly male to object to the many-cushioned sofa and flowering plant on the coffee table, but he seemed perfectly at ease. Even smiled when he saw the antique tea service she kept on the side table.
“Why is it always a van?” She turned her attention back to what they were discussing. It sickened her to think that children were being targeted by some mad scientist.
“I don’t know. Easy access, I guess. It was a huge break for me and the family, though. I caught up with the kidnappers on route to their final destination. I should’ve waited to grab him, but the parents were so worried–”
“That was really intuitive, I mean I can’t imagine how I would feel if someone were to use my child as bait.” She shook her head, missing the heat in his eyes.
“Do you want children?”
“Yes, I do,” she replied and wondered how happy she would be with a whole herd of little boys with thick black hair and equally dark eyes.
Sigh.
“I see,” he continued and cleared his throat. “I got the kid and cuffed three of the four offenders as soon as I stopped their van. Had to wait for another PRIC to come before I could head out after the fourth guy. But I was too late, by the time I found the new facility, it was already burning. The bas
tard had already alerted his bosses.”
“Oh no! So, it was empty?”
“I wish I could say that. I found three bodies inside. All adults and all burned beyond recognition. No children. But there were rooms, cells more like, with children’s books and toys. The labs were all destroyed, but it was obvious what was going on there. Experimentation,” he growled the word. “I also found this, along with some files that were not completely damaged.” Again, he flipped his phone towards her, and Sofia saw the same beetle logo as in the picture he showed her earlier.
“What does it mean?”
“That’s just it. Whoever is behind this has somehow perverted the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph, the bastard is looking for a way to change. He is trying to create his own brand of shifter hybrids.”
“How can you tell that?”
“The Leeds family, you know the grandmother you keep seeing pop up on my phone?” At her nod, he continued. “Well, she and a cousin of mine are my only two biological relatives. They are both Jersey Devils, but when they shift, their faces remain, for the most part, human. It’s what concerned her when I had my first shift. I am what I am, Sof, I don’t make no apologies.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to. It’s not your fault, Tony.”
“I get it though, if you want to walk away, you just say so.”
“I’m not doing that.” She frowned. What did he take her for? A wimp?
“Look, DNA analysis by a shifter run lab confirmed that someone added a few extra shifter genes to my make-up. I am different, even by Jersey devil standards. A little extra, you might say.”
“Oh, well, what does that mean?” Sofia was full of so many questions, but she didn’t know where to start.
“I realize this might be a game-changer for you, doll face. You just need to let me know now, because once my devil has made up his mind to pursue you, I won’t give up.” He slid a finger along her wrist and brought her hand to his mouth, kissing the palm while holding her gaze.
Sofia’s stomach muscles clenched, and her sex throbbed at the imagery that flitted through her mind. He was seducing her with barely a touch. And she wanted it. Yes, she did. But first, they had other things to do.
“We can talk about this thing between us later, Tony. For now, we should get going. The offices should be empty, and we have a meatball bandit to catch.”
The smile that bloomed over his face was sweeter than anything she could have ever imagined. The sexy little devil was into her. Imagine that?
Filled with a new sort of confidence, Sofia went to grab some things for their adventure before they headed out.
21
Tony stepped into the clear night and looked at the sky while he waited for Sofia to change out of her work clothes. He’d offered to carry her back to FUCN’A, but she shook her head and told him she’d be able to keep pace.
He had no idea how a chinchilla could keep up with a winged beast like him. He was a Jersey devil, not a pigeon. Even without flying, he’d never met a shifter as fast as him except for that ostrich he’d been after. Someone else caught that flightless bird, but the loss didn’t damage his reputation.
“Hey doll face, you wanna shake your cute little tail or what.” Tony turned to face the door. He almost swallowed his tongue at the sight of Sofia holding a drawstring bag out to him without a single stitch curving her delectable self.
It was typically bad etiquette to stare at another shifter, but Tony couldn’t help himself. Curvy didn’t begin to describe the sensual hills and valleys of her beautiful body. If only they had the time, he’d drop to his knees and give a thorough exploration of every delectable inch of her.
She was a feast for the senses. Fresh as spring rain on a meadow of flowers and tall grass, her smooth skin glowed in the light from the quarter moon, and Tony felt his skin grow hot. A slow growl built up in his chest as he took in the heavy mounds of her breasts, down her indented waist, then back out to the flare of her hips and her long shapely legs. He’d never felt this way about a woman, like he could burn up just by staring at her.
“Hey.” She snapped her fingers in his face though he could tell from the way she was breathing she felt the pull too. “You said you could carry this?”
“Yeah,” he said. “let’s go by the edge of the woods to change.”
He made sure she was out of sight of any possible passersby as they ducked behind the townhouse. The pair of them hurried past the line of fir trees behind the development and into the woods.
Within minutes he took off his clothes and his Italian leather shoes, stuffing them into his bag and exchanged his human skin for the tough red hide of his devil. He waited for a beat for her to acknowledge him with either a gasp or shriek as had been known to happen.
The humiliation of his first shift in front of his family had been forever etched into his brain. Clearly, they’d apologized and embraced him afterwards, but he carried that fear of initial rejection around with him always.
“Wow,” Sofia said as she stood before him unflinching.
Tony held his breath. She didn’t smell afraid or repulsed. That was something. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by her bravery, or concerned.
Surely, he was a fearsome beast. Scary, to say the least. Why, he’d made grown men cry and women shriek with only a glimpse of him in all his devilish glory! And yet, this little pastry stared up at him, amber eyes wide with a look on her face that made him want to blush. Not that you would see it what with his skin color and all.
“You’re even bigger shifted!” She marveled.
He looked down to check, but her eyes were on his shoulders and chest, not down to where his privates were hidden in a protective pouch under thick skin and fur.
Whew! For a second, he thought he’d come undone in front of her. Now, that would’ve been embarrassing. Unlike other shifters, devils like him retained all of their human emotions and feelings, including base sexual instincts, but he stopped at just thinking. No sex while in his fur. It reeked too closely of bestiality for him to indulge.
He tried to get a read on her, but it was almost impossible given the height difference. He’d been taller than her before, but now he positively towered over her in his massive cloven hooves. Unlike his cousin and grandmother, Tony did not retain his human countenance when he shifted to his devil.
His face was a far cry from the red-skinned humanoid shifter of his kinfolk. Unlike them, Tony’s entire head changed shape, growing longer and more animalistic. Short, dense, dark red fur covered his dragon-like phizzog. His irises glowed red while his pupils shifted from the rounded human shape to the horizontal slit associated with goats, or in his case, devils. His teeth elongated, becoming razor-sharp inside his mouth and his throat warmed, readying his ability to breathe fire.
“You’re really something else, Tony,” she said and reached out with her hand before dropping it as if she’d only remembered it was impolite to touch.
“Change, little one,” he said in his deep guttural voice.
“You can speak?”
He nodded. He understood her shock. Shifters did not speak in animal form, but like he’d told her earlier, he was no animal.
“Okay. Here I go,” she said and turned away from him.
Tony waited patiently while she crouched onto the floor and began her shift. It was one of the most difficult things he’d ever seen. He’d had no idea how much went into that kind of shifting.
Sofia was so much stronger than she gave herself credit for. Watching her shrink down to an animal a tenth of their size was incredible. He held his breath and stood guard. He was ready just in case she needed anything.
Sofia managed the magnificent change with grace and dignity until suddenly, he was looking at the most adorable creature he’d ever seen.
Her chinchilla was a light brown color, much lighter than her hair, but she still sported those luminous amber eyes he found so sexy on her human form.
Her fluffy fur coat gleamed in the moon
light and he itched to touch it but refrained from doing so. Looking at the tiny bundle of cuteness, Tony wondered how in the heck she figured she’d be able to keep up with him.
As if she’d read his mind, Sofia chittered, and her nose twitched angrily. She was cute when she was mad. Tony’s devil rumbled approvingly though he was still worried about her ability to keep pace with him.
Just like that, with her amber eyes glowing in the darkness of the woods, she took off. It wasn’t often he was caught by surprise, but watching her bound from one tree trunk to the next was absolutely stunning.
The barely foot long chinchilla was using the woods like her own personal trampoline jungle. She barely landed before taking off with each jump, bringing her deeper into the forest and further away from Tony.
Shit. He’d better hop to it if he wanted to keep up. Sofia’s chinchilla led Tony on a merry chase through the woods. Each of her bounds sent her forty feet ahead, and he was hard-pressed to follow.
The little furry beastie was incredibly fast for her size and was able to jump lengths of over thirty-feet at a time. By the time they arrived on campus grounds, Sofia was beating him by a good fifty feet.
Not if he could help it, he puffed out a breath of smoke and flapped his wings, leaving the ground and snatching the furry bundle right out of the air. Holding her gently to his naked chest, he wasn’t prepared for the shock and pain of the nip she delivered above his right nipple.
“Ow! Hey, I’m not hurting you, I just thought you might want a rest.” He shrugged after he shifted back into his skin.
He lifted her eye level and tapped her nose lightly, noting the gleam in her eye before setting her gently on the grass. She was a feisty one, and he more than approved. Tony turned around to give her privacy while he pulled on his own clothing.
“You know you’re really fast for such a tiny pasticcino,” he joked.
