“Yes.”
“And that is?”
“Just down the hallway.”
There was amusement in his expression, cold calculation in his eyes. I liked neither, and wasn’t sure why. I’d seen both often enough in the last two years. Talon was an extremely successful businessman, and arrogance had always been a part of his makeup. Until very recently, it had never bothered me
He followed me up the hall, a heat I could feel but not hear. I found my clothes, and the folder was with them, but before I could get dressed, he slipped behind me, his hands snaking around my waist to pull me back against him. He was hard again. He might be a wolf, but his hunger and his rate of recovery were definitely abnormal
“Let me go, Talon.”
“Tell me why you won’t stay with me.” His breath caressed my neck, and a second later, his teeth grazed my earlobe. This time, it wasn’t pleasure that shuddered through me, but annoyance
“Because I don’t want to.” I elbowed him hard enough to force a grunt. He backed away, and I got dressed. “And because occasionally it would be nice to have a bit of foreplay before sex.”
He crossed brawny arms, his expression an odd mix of amused tolerance and steel. “I thought you liked it hard and fast.”
“I do. Sometimes. But it would be just as nice to take some time.”
“Then meet me for breakfast. We’ll eat, flirt, fool around some, then do the hard, passionate sex.”
I hesitated, but the truth was, the moon had me in its grip, and when that happened, it was simply easier to be with partners I knew than starting afresh with strangers. And as much as I enjoyed Misha, Talon was right. Misha couldn’t do to me what Talon did to me. Couldn’t satisfy me in the same way. It was an addiction all right, but his type of danger was far different from the one Jack was trying to force on me
“I don’t know.”
“Then let’s agree to just breakfast, and we’ll see what happens from there.”
I hesitated again, but only briefly. Addiction or not, I couldn’t walk away from Talon. Not when the moon rode me like this. “Where?”
“The Kingfisher, in Collins Street.”
The Kingfisher was one of Melbourne’s boutique hotels, and from reports, spectacular. It also wasn’t that tall, scraping in at nineteen floors. “Okay. But I also have to go to work and I’m not sure how long I’ll be there. I can’t give you a definite time.” But not because of work, and not because of Rhoan. I needed time to recover from his demands
“So call,” he said, as he escorted me to the door
But before I could escape, he pulled me close and kissed me. There was nothing gentle about it—it was a possession, an affirmation of right, and left me both shaken
Yet relief was all I felt as I drove out the gates, and the sheer depth of it made me determined that I was never coming back to his house. And maybe, just maybe, it was a sign that after the current moon phase, Talon and I should part ways
I glanced at the time, saw it was close to nine, and dug around in my bag to find the phone so I could call Misha and tell him I had to stop by work. There were several voice messages waiting
I hit the replay button, and Misha’s rich tones filled the air. “Hate to do this, Riley, but it looks like I won’t be able to keep our date tonight. My sister’s had a car accident, and I’ve been called home. I could be gone for over a week. Keep the car until I get back. I’ll call you.”
The message had been recorded just after six—which wouldn’t have been that long after I’d blanked out after drinking Talon’s fine champagne. I hoped Misha was okay. Hoped his sister was okay. Wished he’d left me a number so I could get in touch with him
I hit delete, then moved on to the next message
“Riley, it’s Quinn.” The warm, sexy lilt in his voice caressed my skin as sensually as a touch. What was it about this vampire that affected me so? I didn’t even know him, and yet I’d wanted him, even before the fever had hit. Which was strange, because I’d never felt an attraction that strong to anyone who wasn’t a wolf
“I’m not sure why you’re running from me, but I
He paused, and I could hear music in the background. It sounded like Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation,” which probably meant he’d been at the Rocker when he called
“Meet me on the Casino steps at eleven.” He hesitated again, then added, “There’s more going on than what you think. Meet with me. Please.”
The call intrigued me, that was for sure. But until I’d talked to Jack, there was no way in hell I was about to risk going anywhere near Quinn
I drove to work. Jack looked up from the computer screen as I entered, and his gaze widened
“Darlin’, you look like shit.”
“Thanks, boss. That’s always nice to hear.”
He rose, grabbed my arm, and pushed me into the chair. “No, I mean it.” He caught my face in his large hands, and stared at me. “Your irises are the size of footballs. Have you taken something?”
“Champagne that didn’t agree with me.”
“This is more than that.” He grabbed the phone and ordered a medical team down to our floor, pronto. “I’ll get them to take a blood sample, because I think you’ve been drugged.”
Only one person really had the chance to drug me, and really, why would he bother? He was getting what he wanted. Yet I remembered the memory loss, and, as much as I didn’t want to, I wondered
“It’s just a bad reaction to champagne.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince—myself or Jack. “It’s happened before.”
In fact, this was the second time in as many months, though on the other occasion it hadn’t happened so quickly. But I’d lost several hours, at least. I was going to have to stop drinking Talon’s fine champagne, because it definitely didn’t agree with me
The medical team came in, took what looked like enough blood to supply the guardians downstairs for several days, said they’d analyze it straightaway, and left
Jack sat on the edge of the desk. “You asked me earlier if I’d ever done a check on Gautier. Was it only to see if he had a brother or did you want more information?”
I leaned back in the chair and studied him for a moment. “This is another of your lures, isn’t it?”
He grinned, confirming my fears. “A taste here, a taste there, and you’ll be hooked before you know it.”
I shook my head. “It’s not going to happen. I’m not a killer.”
He just raised an eyebrow. “Then you don’t want to know any more about Gautier?”
I sighed and rubbed my aching head. “Of course I do.”
“You knew he joined the Directorate about eight years ago?”
I nodded. He’d apparently arrived a year before Jack and two years before me. “And?”
“It appears that up until nine and a half years ago, Gautier didn’t even exist.”
I stared at him. “Impossible. I’ve seen his file. He has birth certificates, passports, citizenship cards, the lot, and everything was checked.”
“Forgeries, one and all.” His computer screen beeped. He rose and walked over to it
“How can you be sure?” I asked
“Because we have a very sophisticated system running here now, and there’s nowhere you can’t go if you have the access.”
And Jack obviously had the access. Interesting. As the head of the guardian division, he’d naturally have access to more files than most, but his words suggested there was no place he
Which begged the question—why Jack and not the other directors? Because the others didn’t have it—they always came to Jack when they wanted information about particular aspects in the guardian division
I studied him a minute longer, then said, “But the same system would have checked his credentials when he first joined.”
