03 - You Only Live Nine Times (12 page)

“Wow, that’s uh, wow.”  He definitely hadn’t been expecting that.  “So what does it mean?”

“Usually I hole up in my apartment with some vibrators and wait it out, but being around you, just seems to be making it worse.”

“Must be my animal magnetism,” he joked.

“It is,” she said seriously.  She pulled back and traced a thumb over his lips.  It was a sensual move that he was more akin to giving than receiving. 
Hmmm, actually felt nice
.  “I’ve never been with a human.  I know my friends have, but I don’t know whether we’d really be able to make it work.  You’ve never seen my tiger, it might freak you out.  But I’ve never met a male that appeals to my tiger half as much as you, and it’s sending her wild.  And making my heat go nuts.”  She growled the last part, obviously annoyed at herself, or possibly him.

“It’s been a long night,” he started hesitantly and she sagged a little in his arms.  “And I don’t think either of us is in any position to start making life-changing decisions tonight, but how about I do something to show you that if we wanted it to, we could make it work.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked, breathily.

He didn’t say anything just nodded his head for her to follow him.  Her statement, her admitting to her desire for him emboldened him to take action.  He got in the back of the car, and frowning she followed.  When she was sitting, she arched an eyebrow that said, ‘your move’.  He had a feeling that she didn’t usually allow men to take charge – even the huge, dominant Gunner – so he was going to enjoy this.

“Take off your pants and underwear,” he told her firmly.  He didn’t exactly know a lot about shifters, but he had heard that they responded better to commands than requests, something about obeying an alpha.

Isis stared at him with an unimpressed look for a few moments, and he thoroughly expected her to laugh in his face and stalk away.  Instead, her cheeks flushed slightly, and with fluid moments, she followed his instructions.  He steeled himself on seeing her creamy, curvy legs unveiled, and he bit back a groan as his eyes followed the long lines of her legs up to her sex.  So pink, so pretty, so ready for him.

With gentle movements, and with her yellow, eager eyes watching his every movement with predatory-like attention, he slid her round, so she was lying on the seat, her legs pressed up against her chest.  He thanked every deity he could think of he had a large car, even still, it was kind of a tight fit.  Neither he nor Isis was particularly small.  However, he was determined to make it work.  He wanted to taste her; he wanted her sweetness on his tongue, and he wanted to show her that he, a lowly human, could bring her pleasure, that he could slake her needs.

Hunching down in his seat, one hand gripped the silken smooth skin of her thighs while he traced the lips of her sex with the other.  She gasped in surprise at the first touch, even though it must have been obvious what was coming. 
He liked that
.  Beads of her honey clung to the lips, showing she was already turned on, already wet for him. 
He liked that, too
.

He pushed a finger inside her and relished her response as her inner muscles tried to suckle at his digit.  Isis moaned and leaned her head back, closing her eyes and giving in to the sensations.  He added another finger and pushed his thumb against her clit.  Her hips bucked against him slightly, and she growled.  He continued his movements inside her, thrusting and stroking, mimicking what he would eventually do with his shaft - because he knew that he couldn’t possibly let her go.  Forget his worries over their different species, he needed this woman, wanted her with a burning, aching need, and damn if she didn’t feel the same.  He moved more quickly and her fingers dug into her legs, pulling them more firmly against her, opening herself up to his sensual attack.

Raf could feel her jerking and clutching more insistently and knew that she was getting close.  He replaced his thumb with his mouth as he drove another finger inside her.  He sucked on her tender nub, rolling his tongue around her swollen flesh.  She panted rhythmically as methodically he started pressing his tongue against her clit, in time with his finger thrusts.  He got faster and faster until Isis roared her released, and her hips rocked against him.  He quickly withdrew his fingers and pushed his mouth against her channel, lapping at her juices.  As her body began to relax, to come down from her climax, she gazed at him with a blissful look on her face, and he felt like a freaking god.

Chapter Thirteen

Raf whistled and almost kicked up his heels as she strode into the precinct.  He almost expected animated birds to start singing to him.  He’d probably watched Mary Poppins one too many times when he was younger – it had been his little sister’s favorite movie, and they watched it over and over. 
Plus he kind of liked the part where Dick Van Dyke dances with the penguins.

But, back to his point, the previous night with Isis had been incredible.  Giving her pleasure, seeing the satiated, sensual look on her face as he made her come had made him feel invincible.  Like he was the greatest man in the world.  There was no mountain too high, no ocean too deep – he could do freaking anything.

He could…

His buoyant thoughts were interrupted as he walked up to his desk.  Someone –
some motherfucking jackass
– has taped a picture to his computer.  Not just any picture.  It was a picture that had been knocked up on the computer by some freaking pervert who had too much free time on their hands.  Someone had put together a picture of him having doggie style sex with a tiger.  It had a title under it that said 'Rafael Silva and his new girlfriend'.

He stared at it for a few beats, allowing his anger to pulse through his body until it became a dull ache.  He heard a few snickers around him, but he didn’t even bother to look in those directions.  He didn’t care who was laughing at him.  With forced, slow movements, he picked up the picture, balled it up and dropped it into the trash.

Raf caught Georgia glaring at him out of the corner of his eye. 
Yeah, mystery solved
.  Something as dumb and childish as this had her fingerprints all over it.

He checked his e-mails and looked over the crime scene technician’s report from the incident the previous night – it was in no way helpful.  They’d also left him the small key they had found when visiting Arkham Cemetery, it had no usable prints on it and as for its origin, they suspected it was from some kind of locker – they just couldn’t ascertain where in the city the locker might actually be located. After half an hour, he got up to leave.  He stopped to pick up a donut, mercifully finding a lemon crème that had escaped Johnson’s grubby fingers.  Unmercifully, Georgia caught him before he left.

“Do you like that animal?” she demanded.

He gave her a freezing glare that actually made her shuffle her feet.  “Her name’s Isis.”

“So you do like her.”

More than like
.  “Georgia, it’s really none of your business.”

“It’s not natural,” she sniffed.  “You’d be having sex with an animal!”

“I wouldn’t be having sex with her while she’s a tiger unless we got really freaky.”  He added the last part to wind her up, but the silly girl took it seriously.

“It’s disgusting,” she spat.

“No, what’s disgusting is people who are still prejudiced against shifters in this day and age.”

Georgia’s face tightened.  “Whatever.”

Raf sighed and took a big bite of his donut.

*

Isis sauntered into the coffee shop, called out her order and lo and behold, in spite of the long queue, a pimply, young man brought her the order within fifty seconds.  She ignored the outraged looks of everyone in the queue.

“Fan of yours?” asked Raf, wryly as the young man simpered and rushed back to start filling other people’s orders.

“He’s a sweetie,” she said as her hand idled on Raf’s thigh.  She didn’t say it, but her eyes told him that she thought Raf was an even bigger sweetie.  “So why did you want to meet here?”

Raf hesitated.  He could tell her the truth, and say he feared for her safety at the station, but he didn’t want to risk offending her.  Their relationship had taken a sharp shift, and the urge to protect her was now a glaring need.  “Less distractions.”

“Less chance we’ll sneak off and do something naughty in a supply cupboard?” she breathed, curling her lips into a wicked grin.

“Forget the cupboard, if I weren't a professional, I’d just drag you to my apartment and not let you leave for days.” 

Isis leaned over and tickled his ear with her breath.  “When this case is over, I’ll let you.”

He shuddered and took a sip of his coffee to try and steady his nerve, or was it to keep his hands occupied, so they didn’t wander over Isis’ delicious body. 

“So, down to business,” she leaned back in her chair and pulled out a laptop.  She seemed completely at ease, not at all drowning in arousal like Raf. 
Lucky, sexy feline
.  “Since we haven’t been able to get anything from the witch angle, I asked Jessie to look into the cadaver angle.”

“Think our grumpy mole shifter, Trip might have been onto something with Burke and Hare?”

Isis scrunched her pretty nose.  “Maybe, but I’d never admit it to his face.”

“You sure we should leave the witch idea so quick?  I think it was a good angle and Kalinda did say that there were a lot of potential potions and spells that could use these, uh, particular ingredients.”  He decided not to blurt out the words ‘dead body parts’ in a crowded coffee shop.  The grandmother with her three grandchildren sitting next to them might not appreciate it.

“Witches are terrible gossips, and Kalinda makes it her business to know everyone else’s.  If there is a witch acquiring these particular ingredients in Los Lobos, they are doing it uncharacteristically quietly, and the only way to find them will be to catch them actually in the act of stealing these particular ingredients.”

“Fair enough.”

Isis blinked in surprise.  “No more arguing?  You’re giving in just like that?”

Raf held up his hands in defeat.  “I bow to your expert knowledge.  But I promise you, I’m not so docile where it really counts.”

“Oh, believe me, I already know that from experience,” she purred.

He willed the image of Great Aunt Brenda into his mind and moved his leg, so his desire wasn’t quite so obvious.  Judging by the sizzling look, Isis already knew. 
Time to change the subject
.  “So, uh, back to the cadavers.”

The grandmother gave them both disgusted looks and shepherded her grandchildren to the other end of the coffee shop.  Isis didn’t seem to notice or care.

“Jessie checked out all the colleges in Los Lobos, and they haven’t used corpses in years.  They all use pigs.”

“So we’re at a dead end?”

“Au contraire, Jessie widened her search and found a company that does use corpses.”  Isis tapped on her laptop and then turned it to face him.

Raf looked at the screen.  “Forever Young, your life is just beginning.  Is this a company or an ad for a Hallmark card?”

“It’s a company, take a look through their website.”

He read the blurb and then started going through a few pages.  “I’m reading this, but I have no idea what they actually do.  Looks like the place is run by a creepy looking guy called Victor Howler.  Sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain.  I’m guessing they’re dedicated to trying to lengthen lives.”

“Exactly.  They’re trying to delay the aging process.”

Raf snorted.  “And they’re achieving this by experimenting on corpses?”

“Don’t look at me, this is mad science territory mixed with magic.  Two concepts that don’t generally mix well.”

“You don’t think that they might be trying to reanimate these corpses, do you?”

Isis scrunched up her nose doubtfully.  “Not them, no.  That’s zombie territory, and lengthening lives isn’t quite the same as bringing people back to life.  However, interestingly enough, they currently have a lawsuit pending against them.”

She sat back and looked very smug with herself.

“You going to tell me or I am going to have to… tickle it out of you?”

Isis giggled, girlishly – a surprisingly erotic sound from her mouth.  “Tickle later, for now, I’ll tell you.  There’s some dispute about how they acquire their dead bodies and what they do with them.  Some families of the deceased they experimented on are accusing Forever Young of taking the bodies without consent.”

“Shit,” said Raf with feeling.  “How can we have missed that?”

“They’re going to great lengths to keep it as quiet as possible.  We only know about it because Jessie may have done something, ever so slightly, just a little itty bit illegal and hacked into the e-mail accounts of Forever Young.”

“Isis,” frowned Raf.

She held up her hands and attempted an innocent, butter wouldn’t melt look.  It didn’t work; she still looked like a predator in kitten heel boots.  “Hey, I told her it was a bad idea.”

“Did you?” he asked pointedly.

She sighed exaggeratedly.  “Well, no.  But, ‘told her it was a bad idea’ or ‘suggested it’, what’s the diff?  The point is they’ve just reached the top of our naughty list, and we should go talk to them.”

“I agree, but let’s try and keep this all within the law, this time.  I’ve already risked the case by snooping around the fertility clinic.  We need to make sure we’re careful; otherwise the case will fall apart, and our perp will get away with it.”

She nodded her head enthusiastically.  “From now on, I’ll be one hundred percent angel.”

Raf looked at her dubiously.

“Would you believe I could manage seventy-five percent?  How about I just let you take the lead, and you tell me if I’m doing anything that might be considered wrong?”

“Sounds like a plan, and just so we’re clear, you can be as bad as you want in private.”

Isis bared her teeth and allowed her fingers to graze the front of his trousers as she stood up.  “Oh, I intend to.”

He watched the evil minx hungrily as she sauntered out the coffee shop.  As did just about every other male in there, and her favorite barista may have actually started crying when she left.  Did she have any idea the effect she had on men? 
Yep, she probably did.
  Crap, where was a bucket of ice when you needed it?