“No,” Kessler said through gritted teeth as I helped him to the door. “It’s not that serious.”
“That’s a lot of blood that’s not supposed to be on the outside.”
“I’ll be fine.”
We made it up the stairs and back out through the door.
“You still alive?” the doorman asked.
“As much as ever.”
He nodded, quietly impressed that I hadn’t been eaten, eviscerated or suffered some other fate.
“Can you give me a lift home?” asked Kessler, seeming to lean on me more and more with each step. “I’m not sure I can drive.”
“Been drinking, huh?”
He grimaced a smile through the pain. “Yeah. Can’t be trusted behind the wheel when I’m like this.”
I helped him into my car. “You’re not going home.”
“I’m not going to a hospital.”
“I didn’t say you were,” I said, sharply. “I’ll take you back to my place.”
Kessler grinned with lady-killing charm. “Even bleeding to death I still score with a beautiful woman. Nice.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re going to rock my world.”
“Guaranteed.”
I got into the car and glanced back at him. He was in pain and covered in his own blood, but I could still see that on any other night, he could have his pick of women.
“Hold on tight.”
It was only once I had gotten Kessler home, bandaged up and into my bed that I was able to get a decent look at him as he slept. Werewolves heal fast, and though he had bled a lot, I was confident that he would be fighting fit tomorrow, which made my leering at him as he slept a little more acceptable.
He really was a very handsome man. His sharply green eyes, currently hidden from me, glittered with a devilish mischief, and ‘devilish’ was a good word for his looks in general, or perhaps saturnine. His hair was dark, his cheeks smooth, his mouth a firm line. Elsewhere on his body, things got even more interesting. When I had taken off his shirt to tend to his wounds, I had been too busy mopping up blood to really appreciate the torso I could now observe at my leisure. The sheet had slipped down his body, leaving his chest bare, save for the bandages I had applied, and they did nothing to disguise the clean, smooth lines of his pecs, sculpted and perfect. His abs were not overworked, but clear and beautiful, while those powerful arms I had seen in action in the club seemed, even as he slept, to have a quiet potency. It was like watching a lion sleep; something so beautiful, even cuddly, and yet you were always aware of its strength and size, and the fact that it could wake at any moment and…
I felt a hot flush stealing up my neck and across my face as I thought about what Kessler could do to me if he woke now. And I would let him.
I closed the door. What the hell was going on with me? I was an experienced woman who had been with her share of men. I wasn’t prudish about sex or childish about relationships. I knew the score; a good man is hard to find and so on. And yet the sight of Talbot’s hands or Kessler asleep had me in schoolgirl mode, blushing and fantasizing. Crazy.
I made up the couch and bedded down for the night. But I didn’t sleep at once. I recalled what the woman at the bar had said about some girls projecting their sexuality like an aura. Some men could do it, too, and right now I could feel Kessler’s coming through the wall.
Chapter 5
I woke up later than normal. Back when I was on the force, I’d been used to days like yesterday but I guess I’d gotten unaccustomed to them and my body needed some rest. As I rolled over in that early morning fog of half-sleep, I tried to remember why I was sleeping on the couch.
I shot up into a sitting position, wide awake as I recalled there was a strange and potentially dangerous wolf in the apartment with me.
“You’re up. Breakfast?”
I started about, looking over to my little kitchen to see Kessler standing there, shirtless, as he prodded a pan of bacon and eggs with a spatula.
“Hope you don’t mind me helping myself. Healing makes me hungry.”
The bandages were still on his chest but there was not a sign of weakness in him now. Even as he did something as prosaic as fry eggs, there was still a suppressed athleticism to the way he moved. I tried not to stare at his bare torso, looking even more impossibly perfect than I remembered it from the night before.
“Is there coffee?” I asked.
“No. I was looking for orange juice, but you don’t seem to have any.”
“I don’t.”
“Ah well. I’ll put the coffee on if you want to have a shower.”
“Right.” He was treating me like I was the guest, and I didn’t like being on the back foot like this. On the other hand, it was a long time since any man had made me breakfast, let alone a shirtless one with a body that could best be described as god-like.
I took my shower, carefully selected clothes that were casual and yet sexy and didn’t look like they had been carefully selected, then went back to the kitchen.
“Coffee is served,” said Kessler as I entered. Irritatingly, he had put a shirt on, but Kessler had one of those bodies that you remained aware of even when it was covered up. Now I had seen it, I knew that it was there, lurking beneath a thin layer of material. “Eggs? Bacon?”
“Thanks,” I smiled.
“No problem. I’ll join you.”
“Haven’t you already eaten?”
He shrugged. “I can eat again.”
We sat on opposite ends of the couch as we ate together and it was all very convivial and something that had been missing from my life lately. I had deliberately cut myself off, and now I was starting to wonder why.
But, for all that this was the best breakfast I had had in a little long while, I couldn’t just let sleeping dogs lie forever. I might be retired from the force but I was still a cop underneath, as the last day or so had shown, and I wasn’t giving up on the investigation on which I had embarked. An investigation which Kessler seemed to be part of.
“Who are you?” I asked, shooting him a glance over the top of my coffee mug.
“I told you; Kessler.”
“I didn’t mean your name. You know Talbot, yeah?”
Kessler watched me carefully. He seemed to be assessing how much he could reveal to me. Or perhaps he was deciding whether I already knew too much and would have to be killed. I really didn’t know this guy well enough to be sure.
Finally, he shot me a devil-may-care smile. “You know, my name is more than I tell most women I spend the night with.”
“I’m honored.”
“You should be. Do you know how many women I’ve left without making them breakfast?”
“No.”
Kessler sighed. “Me neither. Keeping count just seems so crass.”
“You and Talbot are friends?” I wasn’t to be dissuaded by talk of his previous sexual conquests.
“Do you really think you’ll be happier if I answer your questions?”
“As a matter of fact, yes, I do.”
Kessler shook his head. “And I thought we were having a nice breakfast together.”
I drained my coffee. “Look, you saved my life last night, and I’m grateful.”
“Well, you may have saved mine, too.”
“But however grateful I am,” I continued, “doesn’t change the fact that I need answers.”
“You’re not the only one.” He leaned forward, his face suddenly more wolfish in its intensity. “You don’t get many humans around The Silver Fox.”
“I would imagine not.”
“Care to tell me what you were doing there?”
“Don’t see why I should.”
He shrugged. “And I don’t see why I should tell you anything about myself, either.”
Fair point. Stale mate. If this mutual interrogation was going to progress then one of us had to give up something; a gesture of good faith to keep the conversation moving, and then it would be a question of who gave up the least
.
I decided to make the leap. “Couldn’t help noticing that we both have the same picture in our pockets.”
Kessler assessed me silently before speaking. “Sad about Dog.”
“Yeah.”
“You knew him?”
“I put him in jail. You?”
“Never met him.”
“Then why do you have his picture?”
“Same reason as you, I would guess,” said Kessler. “I’m interested in the company he keeps.”
“You know Lovely?”
He ignored my question. “Dog was here a few nights ago, how come?”
My turn to shrug vaguely. “I often have random male guests. As you know.”
“And I’m grateful, but Dog came to see you. Why?”
I picked up my plate and mug and took them to the kitchen. “Like I said, I put him away. He turned out to be innocent. He wanted a word.”
“Revenge?” suggested Kessler. “If he was trying to kill you then that would give you motive to kill him.”
“Do you think I did?”
He shook his head. “Seemed like you had a bit more luck than me asking questions last night. I guess that’s the advantage of being a beautiful woman in a room full of men.”
“No, that’s the advantage of asking the right questions in the right way and not starting a fight.”
“Sure, that, too. You learn anything about Lovely?”
I had. Not much but maybe enough to trade. I had to choose my words carefully. “What do I get in return?”
I had been washing up in the kitchen and had not noticed Kessler get up from the couch to stand behind me until I felt his breath hot on the back of my neck.
“Anything you want.”
I tried to suppress the hot tingle of arousal that shivered through my body at his words. It seriously weakened my bargaining position if it looked like I would give up everything I knew for a few hours in the sack. On the other hand, it had been months since I had been with a man, and Kessler was not just any man. His presence, so close to me, now was almost overwhelming, his sexuality smoldering from him so I could taste it on the air. I wanted him in a physical way that I could feel in my stomach, more like a need or a craving than a mere desire. If my libido had been running the show then I would already have been spread-eagled across the work surface, rhythmically screaming out everything he wanted to know.
Fortunately, even with the months of abstinence making my body cry out for Kessler’s touch, my brain was still in charge, and my brain was cop enough to ignore my horny side.
“Information,” I replied.
Kessler touched my shoulder lightly and ran his fingers down my arm, leaving a trail of raw sensation in its wake. “Pity.”
Fiercely attractive though I found him, I was not a woman who put up with any of this sort of shit from men. Taking Kessler by surprise, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it swiftly behind his back, thrusting his head forward into the sink and under the running tap.
“I said, information.”
Kessler wrenched his arm free and whirled about. I held myself ready for his attack, but the look on his face was one of admiration and amusement.
“Damn, you are fantastic.”
He wiped the water from his face, and in his eyes I saw a hot arousal that damn near matched my own. For the first time, I began to think that Kessler wasn’t just trying to seduce me into answering his questions, but that he might actually find me desirable. Well then, that made this a different game. If he could try to use his sexuality against me, then I could damn well do the same.
“Information,” I repeated. “And anything else we can discuss afterwards.”
“You’re a hard woman.”
I let my eyes flash down to the front of his pants. “You’re not far off yourself.”
“What can you tell me about Lovely?”
“What information have you got to trade?”
“What do you want?”
What did I want? He obviously didn’t know where to find her and why bother trying if he knew who killed Dog. The trouble was that I didn’t know enough about this damn case to know the right questions to ask. This wasn’t like the old days; I didn’t have any resources to call on; I couldn’t drag people into an interview room to sweat the truth out of them; I didn’t have forensics to put me on the scent. All I had was a gut sense that something was wrong and a matchbook with an inscrutable note.
Perhaps my uncertainty was evident in my face because now Kessler spoke again.
“Do you trust me?”
“Absolutely not.”
He laughed. “Fair enough. Dumb thing to ask. Do you trust me to play fair with you if you play fair with me?”
His green eyes met mine and behind the obvious attraction that crackled between us I saw something more.
“Okay.” I’d gone on my gut so far, I would go with it once more and give this fascinating guy the benefit of the doubt.
He smiled. “Good. Then tell me what you know about Lovely and I will tell you something useful.”
“How do you know what’s useful to me?”
He raised one corner of his mouth in a smirk. “Let’s not mess about. We both know we’re on the same trail here. Maybe coming from different directions, but still. I know what’s useful to you because it’s useful to me.”
I considered this a moment before speaking. “Lovely started working at the Fox when Dog was already there. She quit not long after he went inside. Dog was asking around for her a few days ago but if he got any information out of them then they weren’t sharing it with me.”
Kessler nodded slowly and it seemed to me that his bright green eyes shone even brighter than before. He had gotten more out of this information than I had, though what he had gotten out of it or what part of my brief spiel had interested him I could not say.
“Thank you,” he said.
“No problem,” I returned. “Now; quid pro quo, Clarice.”
Kessler grinned. “Don’t worry, I stick to my bargains. Back when Dog and Lovely were working there, The Silver Fox was known as a place where a werewolf could buy bane.”
‘Bane’ was the shortening of wolfbane, a werewolf drug. In the old werewolf mythology, from back when we thought they were just some other made up monster like vampires, and not something very real, though still monstrous, wolfbane was used as a defense against werewolves, or even something that could kill them. Actually, it’s more like catnip to them. Sometime early this century, some smart wolf figured out a way to refine it and concentrate its properties to turn it into a powerful and highly addictive hallucinogen. As with most drugs, the illegal trade in bane has become an endemic problem in poverty-stricken districts – places where people want some escape from the grim reality of their lives. This meant that bane was particularly rife in MacKenzie territory.
“Word was,” Kessler went on, “and word was accurate – that The Fox wasn’t just a place you could buy, that it was connected with the gangs who produced the stuff. Now, I don’t think that’s the case these days – one too many close calls and they cleaned up their act – but back then…”
He trailed off and I was left with a pretty big question.
“What’s any of that got to do with Dog’s death or this girl, Lovely?”
Kessler shrugged. “I said I’d give you useful information, I didn’t say I’d explain it point by point. I’m not doing your job for you.”
“You might upset your boss?” He was obviously working for someone.
Kessler grinned and shook his head. “You take your shots, don’t you?”
“Only way,” I nodded. “You never know when you’ll get another chance.”
Somehow, perhaps because we were trading clandestine information, we had edged closer during this exchange. Kessler had me backed up against the work surface in my kitchen. But I didn’t feel trapped, I felt eager.
“You have to take your chances when they appear,” nodded the handsome werewolf, his
sharp eyes glued to mine. “The opportunity may never come again.”
“Nothing worse than wishing on what might have been,” I agreed. His body seemed to radiate a heat, along with its palpable sexual energy.
“If you want something, you gotta go for it.”
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world to be contemplating. I knew nothing about this guy and everything about him screamed warning sirens like he had the word ‘dangerous’ flashing above his head in sixty-foot-high neon letters. But if there was a long checklist of reasons that I shouldn’t go through with this, my mind was fully occupied with the list of reasons I should.
I had been attracted to Kessler the moment I met him and that attraction had only deepened.
It was an attraction that seemed to be mutual.
For all that we might be on different sides in the same fight, I did trust him.
I even liked him.
He was devastatingly handsome and what I had seen of his body only made me yearn to see the rest.
It had been over six months since I had slept with a man.
I didn’t think I could stop now even if I wanted to.
Chapter 6
Kessler and I kissed in a moment of blind heat. It didn’t feel as if we went towards each other but more as if the air between us had become so charged that a separate force of attraction pulled our lips together. I grabbed him by his shirt, dragging him to me, crushing my body against his and my lips tighter against his mouth. His hands were on my hips and, with little effort, he lifted me up and sat me on the work surface, moving between my spread legs so the hardness of his body worked against my core.
By now, Kessler’s lips weren’t enough for me, I bit at his face and even licked his skin as my long pent-up arousal drove me on. I had never wanted a man so much in my life. My hands were on Kessler’s belt before I even knew what I was doing, swiftly unbuckling it, yanking his pants open. I could feel Kessler’s hands moving across my hypersensitive body. At this point, I was so aroused that every touch felt like it might set me off, and knowing that it was Kessler just made it hotter, though I was at a loss as to explain why.
Her Guardian Harem: Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance Page 4
