“You aren’t a monster,” he said. “After the run-ins we’ve had with the traffickers and the supernaturals who fight with them, I know a monster when I see one, and you aren’t even close. I’m not going to apologize for your parents’ behavior. They turned their backs on you and that’s on them. But what they believe doesn’t matter. You’re a werewolf—a beautiful, perfect werewolf.”
His words made her—and her inner wolf—feel warm all over. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but one moment she was gazing at Sawyer, wondering if it was magic that had caused her to stumble across the most amazing man in the world, and the next, she was kissing him.
It was merely a gentle brush of the lips at first, like he was giving her the chance to pull back if this wasn’t what she wanted. If that was the case, he’d be waiting a long damn time.
She slipped both hands into his hair, weaving her fingers into it as she opened her mouth to his teasing tongue with a moan. He tasted even better than the cinnamon coffee cake he smelled so reminiscent of.
Harley was so into him, she didn’t even realize his fangs were out until they grazed her tongue. The sensation sent sparks of arousal through her body, making heat pool between her legs. She moaned as his burning hot lips traced their way along her jaw and down her neck. And when his fangs grazed the sensitive skin there, she growled a little—something she never ever did.
It wasn’t until his big hands slipped under the hem of her shirt, the warmth of his fingertips gliding along the sides of her ribs, that she felt her gums and fingertips begin to tingle like her fangs and claws were trying to make an appearance. She had a sudden vision of herself tearing Sawyer’s shirt open and latching on to the muscles at the junction of his neck and shoulder and biting him. Excitement pulsed between her legs at the image.
Okay, where the hell did that come from?
She didn’t have a lot of time to figure it out because her hands were too interested in the front of his button-down, preparing to tear it open. Her inner wolf knew what it wanted and at least a part of that involved getting Sawyer naked.
Harley was more than ready to give in to the werewolf inside when she heard a noise outside the villa.
She was off Sawyer’s lap in a second, pulling her gun and spinning around to face the door even as Sawyer did the same. That was when she picked up a handful of familiar scents drifting into the room. She wasn’t sure what was more surprising—that her nose was working so well it could ID people through a closed door, or that she’d smelled their scents even before Sawyer had.
Both she and Sawyer had put their weapons away by the time Caleb, Erin, and Forrest walked in. Harley thought they did a good job hiding what they’d just been doing, but if the look on Caleb’s face was any indication, he’d realized they’d been up to something. She prayed his crappy omega nose wouldn’t tell him that she and Sawyer had been making out. Beside her, Sawyer looked like he was wondering the same thing.
“Anything interesting happen?” Caleb asked, eyeing her and Sawyer curiously as he walked over to the monitors.
As Erin moved over to stand beside him, Harley couldn’t help but look twice at the odd pair. Ever since the fight in the tunnels below the Central Market in Morocco, Caleb and the abrasive MI6 agent had been acting differently toward each other. They definitely weren’t friends or anything, but the open animosity wasn’t there anymore. Maybe getting tossed around by a scaly-skinned lizard shifter had made the two of them able to see past their differences.
Or maybe they’d declared a detente until the next wrong word screwed everything up.
“Just a lot of construction,” Sawyer said, gesturing to the mountaintop still bright with lights. “No sign of any of the traffickers, but from the looks of it, they’ll definitely have the tram built and ready in time for the auction.”
“Speaking of the auction,” Harley said, hoping to distract Caleb, who was still looking back and forth between her and Sawyer with an all-too-knowing expression. “Has Jake come up with a plan on how we’re going to get up there? It’s not like we can just sneak on the tram when no one is looking.”
“Misty is doing her magic on the computer, sifting through the international arrivals from both air and sea,” Forrest said, checking each monitor to double-check the cameras and recording connections. “Luckily, the people rich enough—and twisted enough—to attend an event like this aren’t worried about hiding their movements. Jake wants her to find some of them who are fairly similar in appearance to us, then Jes will do the makeup thing to make sure we can pass for them.”
In another life, Jes had been into theatrical makeup and special effects. The things she could do with a little polyurethane, latex, and contact lenses were almost scary. But the chances of finding clones for all of them wasn’t going to be easy.
“What about those of us who won’t pass for attendees?” she asked, worried she already knew the answer.
Forrest glanced out at the mountain before looking at them. “We have to hope they aren’t afraid of heights because they’ll be climbing up the monastery.”
Harley groaned. That was exactly what she’d been afraid of.
Chapter 10
Don’t look down.
Sawyer wedged the inside edge of his right boot against a slim ledge of rock, carefully testing it before putting his full weight on it.
