Oh, the things he could do to her, the pleasure he could show her. Dallas fought back the urge to lick his lips as she leaned in even closer against him and placed a hand against his chest.
At the touch, his tiger growled possessively.
Mate.
He shook away the thought quickly.
Not possible.
He had been right. Spending time around her was dangerous for a whole lot of reasons.
Dallas was both relieved and a bit disappointed when they got to the small ranch and he had to set her down. She still wouldn’t look at him, fanning herself with her hand as they stepped up onto the porch.
It was a small estate, with only a house and small barn off to the side. It looked like it had been a while since any repairs had been done, but everything seemed to be in working condition.
When they knocked on the old oak door, an aged rancher answered. He was wearing a faded flannel and blue overalls, and he frowned at them.
“What do y’all need?”
Mel stepped forward. “You must be Vern. Harry told me you saw something interesting the other day.”
Vern nodded, inching the door open a little more as he eyed them warily. “That’s right. I seen it, and no one’s believin’ me. Good thing my daughter got it all on video.”
Uh-oh.
Dallas cleared his throat. Hopefully, the video didn’t contain anything too interesting. If it did, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.
“Can we see it?” Mel asked, eyes lighting up in excitement. “I’m a reporter, and I really think there’s a story here.”
“Yes, I s’pose you could,” Vern said, nodding as he looked over his shoulder. “Franny!” he called out. “Bring the video of that lizard dino thingy!”
Mel shot a curious, excited look at Dallas, and he just shrugged.
A few minutes later, a woman who couldn’t have been more than twenty-six showed up at the door, holding her phone. She swiped through it for a bit, then handed it to Vern.
“Here, Pa, like you asked for,” she said.
“Thanks.” Vern held out the phone to them as the video played on the screen.
Dallas narrowed his eyes at it from over Mel’s shoulder. The footage was blurry and dark, definitely taken during one of the more recent storms. Most of it was too dark to see anything, but midway through, lightning struck the sky, illuminating what looked like the giant shape of a basilisk for a second.
Dallas frowned.
“Hard to see, I know,” Franny said, folding her arms. “But I seen it as sure as I’m seeing you now!”
Mel sighed. “Thanks so much for showing me. Unfortunately, it’s maybe too blurry to use, but it’s a start. The best I have so far.” She grinned at Franny, then Dallas.
Dallas just stood there, unsure what to say or do. Her vivaciousness just seemed to take root in him, making something light take hold of him maybe for the first time.
“Where was this taken?” Mel asked.
Franny pointed out over the hills. “Thataway, a few miles south.”
“Thank you.” Mel handed Franny’s phone back. “Would it be okay if we came back and went out to investigate it?”
Vern’s eyes went wide. “Do as you like, but I ain’t going near that range. If something that frightenin’ exists, I’m keeping me and my daughter as far away as possible.”
With that, he closed the front door, leaving Dallas and Mel standing on the porch in the waning evening light.
“I knew it,” Mel said triumphantly. “I knew something was going on out here!”
“I don’t know,” Dallas replied skeptically. “Could be fake.”
She nodded slowly. “Could be, but either way, it’s a new lead.” She smiled warmly, staring out at the beautiful Texas sunset from their spot on the porch.
Dallas turned and watched it with her, enjoying the way the last beams of red and orange played against the dark-blue sky and the mountains in the distance.
“Oh wow, that’s so beautiful,” she said. “You get to see that often?”
“Every night.”
Mel sighed. “I could get used to that.”
Dallas nodded, enjoying the easy moment with her. It was like, for a second, everything was simple. He wasn’t a shifter trying to protect his home and his life. No, right now he was just a man standing next to a beautiful woman, enjoying a sunset more than he ever had before.
Thinking about it that way, he couldn’t help but look at her and wonder what her lips, rosy and soft and dark, would taste like. What would it feel like to pull her close and savor her?
“You’re staring. Is something wrong?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
Dallas looked away, shoving down the foolish thoughts. Of course things would never be that simple, and he didn’t have the luxury of wondering about such things.
He shook his head.
She eyed him warily for a second, then smiled and shrugged. “Fair enough. I’ll never know what goes on in that mysterious head of yours, will I?”
Dallas held her gaze for a moment, then frowned, not knowing what to say. “I’ll take you back to your hotel.”
She smiled and nodded, a flush tinging her cheeks. “You have to carry me again?”
He grinned, kind of looking forward to it. “I do.”
As he carried her back to her van, he forced himself to think about the basilisk situation rather than her curves.
How good it felt to touch her.
So instead, he focused on the fact that she was pretty adamant about coming out the next day.
The important question was: What were they going to find?
6
Mel leaned back against her headrest, her eyes gravitating toward Dallas as he drove.
They were almost back to her hotel now, and she still couldn’t believe that she had let him drive her beloved news van. Well, technically, it was the station’s van, but same difference.
But he was just the kind of man you trusted with control of important things.
The kind you could relax around.
He had
