“Where’s Lonna? I’m surprised she wasn’t woken up by all the commotion.”
Gabriel smiled. “She was very upset last night and asked for something to help her sleep.”
“Ah. Are you going to turn us all into addicts? Because I may need something.”
“In your case, I’m going to say no. Warm milk, that’s it. You need to be alert when Sheriff Knowles comes to question you in a few hours.”
“Oh, that’s right.” I rubbed my eyes and couldn’t help but think that dealing with Knowles was the last thing I wanted to do. “Warm milk it is, then.”
“With a cookie?”
“If you’re offering.”
He rose, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Gabriel?”
“Yes, Doctor?”
“Thank you. I’m glad you’re here.”
“I am, too.”
It was too quick to tell, but I thought I saw an extra sparkle in his eye. In spite of all the drama of the evening, I smiled.
If I slept at all the rest of the night, I didn’t know it. My wrist throbbed from Louise’s twisting of the injury, and I couldn’t get comfortable. Away from the hum of city noise, every small sound was magnified against the backdrop of silence. Not even the insects sang. Every time I was just about to drift off to sleep, some small noise startled me awake. One time it was Lonna crying out in her sleep, and then I heard Gabriel get up and walk outside. I supposed he was as restless as I was. Or maybe he had other reasons to be out.
Finally I gave up, put a different robe on, and walked to the balcony. Dawn tinged the sky in the east faint blue, then golden, and then a blaze of pink and orange as the sun strained to rise above the trees. I had to look away, and when I did, I saw what looked like a large brown wolfhound on the lawn. Its tongue lolled out at me, then it rolled on its back and stretched in the grass. In spite of myself, I laughed. It became blurry around the edges, rolled on its stomach, and gave a great heave. Instead of a wolf, I found myself looking at the fuzzy backside of a man.
That was it. No going back now. I’d seen one of them change, and the fire inside me was lit.
“How did you do that?” I called.
“I wish I knew.” With a grunt, Gabriel straightened up from his hands and knees, rolled up one vertebrae at a time, and stretched, his back still to me. I heard bones and joints pop back into place under the smooth muscles.
“Madam, would you mind?” He made a circular motion with his hand, and I obediently turned around. “All right, then.”
He stood below the balcony in a plaid flannel robe.
“What was that all about?” I asked. “I thought you weren’t going hunting?”
“I needed to wash the scent of blood off. A mountain stream seemed preferable to a shower.”
I shivered. “Suit yourself.”
“Coffee?” he asked.
“Would love some. Be right down.”
I didn’t know much about werewolf etiquette at the time, but I later learned allowing a human to watch the transformation was one of the most intimate things a werewolf could do.
I ran down the stairs to the kitchen, where I found a full pot of warm, steaming, fragrant coffee. Thank God for coffeemakers with timers. I poured two cups and waited for Gabriel to come in.
The Gabriel that walked through the door was not the same man I had become accustomed to. Rather than glance at me, then immediately away, his eyes raked me, and I felt them take in every inch of flesh under my robe and pajamas.
“Um, coffee?” I asked. He came to stand by me, but he didn’t take a cup.
“Gabriel, something’s different about you.” I stepped back. I held my coffee in front of me. Its scent mingled with that of crisp mountain air and the dampness of his clothes, and electricity crackled between us. Standing so close to his energy, his raw wildness, I felt my nipples tighten, and my panties became moist.
“I don’t want any coffee, Madam,” he said. The look in his brown eyes told me exactly what he did want.
“I don’t think I do either.” I put my cup down and held my breath.
I could sense Gabriel’s usual self-control at war with the wildness and passion born with a dawn run and transformation. Envy blistered my heart. I wanted to run, to shed the responsibilities of convention, the grief and trauma of life as a human.
I wasn’t a werewolf, but by God, I could get as close as possible to this one.
I grabbed his robe and let my nails rake through the soft hair and along his chest as I pulled him to me. I felt his head tilt toward my neck, and for one exhilarating instant thought he would bite me and invite me into that world, but he merely nibbled without breaking the skin and kissed along the side of my neck to my earlobe. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he pulled me to him.
“Well, isn’t this interesting?” Lonna’s voice, low and icy, broke us apart. “I get lectured for sleeping with the married lawyer, and here innocent little Joanie is dallying with the butler. How juicy.”
I scowled. “Nothing happened.”
Gabriel tied his robe back and looked at her with disdainful, hooded eyes. Guilt blossomed in my chest. Caught with my hand in the werewolf cookie jar.
“At least he’s not married,” I muttered.
“This time.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. My cheeks warmed.
“Didn’t she tell you? She was having an affair with her boss. Her married boss.”
“I can see how the man would be tempted.” Now he was back to the old Gabriel, guarded and careful. “Pardon me, I think I shall dress unless you need me to fix breakfast for you.”
“No thanks, we’re fine.”
“Very good, Madam.” In spite of the awkward situation, he kept his back erect as he walked out of the kitchen.
I slammed my coffee cup on the counter and tried to ignore the hot liquid that sloshed on my hand. “What the hell has gotten into you? I thought you were up here to help me, not judge and get in my way.”
She sucked her breath in like I’d hit her. “You judged me first. Peter—”
“Is our number one suspect for now.”
“Which you’ve pegged him without even talking to him.”
I wiped the coffee off my hand with a dish towel. “I did talk to him. And it took him less than a minute to threaten and try to bully me.”
“He was only trying to talk to me. Some men don’t know how to do that with finesse.”
“He’s a lawyer. He should know better.”
“He’s a damn good lawyer. Remember the Oliver case?”
The room spun. Deja vu. My dream.
With shaking hands, I poured more coffee into the cup. “Yes.”
“Yes. Peter knows it. One of his law firm partners represented the parents.”
“What?”
“I didn’t know it, but his senior partner took on the case as a pro bono one. Cleared the father and pegged the teacher. With my help.”
I sat down at the table. My head hurt. “So he’s one of the good guys?”
Lonna laughed. “Good at some things. Don’t worry, I won’t let him fool me.”
“Like Robert fooled me.”
“You have to stop being so sensitive. Look,” she said as she sat beside me and put a hand on my arm. “There’s something about being up here that’s creeping me out.”
“I feel the same way.”
“By the way, why is the den such a mess? There’s blood on the sofa.”
