A Werewolf in Manhattan (6 page)

He could beat this attraction, no matter how strong it seemed now. Just because he wanted to rip that red dress from her body and explore every inch of her soft skin didn’t mean that he would. Just because he longed to stroke her pert breasts until—

“Can you see it okay?” she asked. “I can make the text bigger if you need me to.”

“Thanks, but I can see it just fine. I’m thinking.” His eyesight was far better than she would ever know. And he hadn’t lied. He had been thinking, just not about the e-mail in front of him. As a result, his pelt had grown even thicker. When he transformed, his fur was deep brown tipped with silver, and he was afraid that some silver fur might be sticking out of the open neck of his dress shirt already.

Once again he focused on the e-mail, and this time he was able to actually read the damned thing.

Aidan growled.

“Aidan? Are you okay?”

Shit!
He’d growled, and she’d heard him! He made a big production of clearing his throat before he turned to answer her. “I felt like I had something stuck in my throat. It’s gone now.”

She laughed. “You clearing your throat sounds a lot like a Doberman guarding the front door.”

She couldn’t know how close she’d come to describing exactly how he felt. Some asshole was trying to make contact with her for the purpose of sex. Aidan no longer cared whether the guy was a werewolf or only pretending to be so he could meet her. Aidan would track him to his lair, wherever that might be, and put him out of commission.

Emma’s laughter faded. “You’re looking really fierce right now. In fact, you’re scaring me a little.”

Immediately he offered her his most winning smile and hoped to hell his canines didn’t look too frightening yet. “Sorry. It’s just that I hate guys who use the Internet to harass women.”

“Do you think you can find out where he is?”

“Absolutely. And I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to start the process.” As Ralph pulled up in front of her building, Aidan reached inside his suit jacket and took out another card. “If you’ll send the e-mail to that address, I’ll get on it tonight.” Unwittingly he’d created a great cover for the fact that his guys were already working on the trace.

“Now that we’re at my place, why not come up to my loft and use my computer? I’ll make coffee.”

God, did she have any idea what she was saying? He thought maybe she did. Lust shone in her blue eyes. She knew exactly what she was saying, and Doug had mentally been kicked to the curb.

He clenched his back teeth together to keep himself from saying yes. ... Yes to the invitation, yes to the coffee, and yes to the sex that would definitely take place if he stepped foot inside her apartment. He might be able to accomplish the deed without her noticing that he’d become unusually hairy.

But he wouldn’t do it. Roarke was going to be so proud of him. “Thanks, but you need sleep, and I can work better on my own equipment.” Saying that nearly killed him, but he felt noble as hell.

“But—”

“Seriously, it’s important to accomplish this, and it’ll all go faster at my place.” Which would be his office instead of his apartment, but she didn’t have to know that. “I’ll e-mail you the results when I’m done so you’ll have the information in the morning and can pass it on to Jenny.”

“Okay.” The word was drenched in frustration and disappointment.

Hell, she seriously wanted him to spend the night with her. And he wasn’t going to. Roarke should give him a damned medal.

“We’ll wait here while you let yourself in and go upstairs,” he said. “Leave your phone on, and if there’s any problem when you get up there, call me.” He pulled his phone out of his jacket and turned it on. “I can be there in no time.”

She gazed at him. “Sure you won’t come up?”

His tail was growing and beginning to bush out. “I’m sure.”

“Then I probably won’t see you again until the next book comes out.”

“Guess not.” He doubted he’d be at her next signing. He could get a book autographed through Roger Claymore. That would be a safer option.

“Thanks for a terrific evening.” Before he could stop her, she leaned forward and kissed him full on the mouth. Then she scrambled quickly out of the car, out of his reach, and closed the door.

His mouth felt branded by hers, and he wanted more, much more.

Ralph chuckled. “Guess you have something stuck in your throat again.”

“Listen, Ralph, old buddy. You’d growl, too, if you—”

“Yeah, I know, Aidan. You get major points for not going up there.”

“Mmm.” Aidan kept his eye on her window until he saw the light go on. Then his phone rang and he immediately answered. “What?”

“Just wanted you to know that everything’s fine. Good night, Aidan.”

“Good night, Emma.” He disconnected the phone and closed his eyes. “Drop me off in the park, Ralph. And step on it.”

Ralph quickly navigated into traffic. “The park’s risky. Let me take you north to the estate.”

“No. Can’t afford the time.” Aidan gritted his teeth and fought the shift that was coming whether he wanted it to or not. “I want to make sure the guys are working on that e-mail trace.”

“You’re the boss.” Ralph wove in and out of traffic.

As they neared the park, Aidan began pulling off his clothes. “If I run for a while, I should be able to shift back in an hour or so. Wait for me.”

“Will do.” Ralph drove into Central Park and cruised along slowly. “How’s this?”

“Good. Not much light. Give me three minutes to finish shifting, and then come around and open the door for me.”

“All right.” Ralph didn’t sound happy about it, but he would do what Aidan asked.

In exactly three minutes, the back door of the town car opened. Aidan leaped out and began to run, his paws scattering the remnants of snow left on the ground. He would run until he was exhausted. Maybe then he wouldn’t want Emma with the fierceness only an alpha male could feel toward a woman who’d awakened his instinct to mate.

Chapter 4

Doug called at eight, waking Emma from a hot dream that involved Aidan and a grassy knoll. Aidan was licking up drops of the coffee martini he’d poured all over her naked body and she was ... delirious.

She would have loved to find out what happened after that, and now she’d never know. She must have sounded as annoyed as she felt, because Doug immediately became contrite.

“Bad turnout last night, huh?”

“No. Why would you think that?”

His tone changed. “Because you’re in a crappy mood.”

“You woke me up, Doug. I haven’t had coffee yet.”

“Woke you up? It’s past eight.”

Barely.
Emma rolled her eyes. Doug kept regular hours and had never quite adjusted to the fact she didn’t. “I slept in.”

“Did you and your mom stay out late last night, then?”

“No, Mom had to leave right after the signing, so I went for a drink with one of my fans.” There, she’d said it. She hadn’t exactly told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but she’d thrown out a piece of information that was correct as far as it went.

“I’ll bet you made her evening, too. See, if I’d gone, you wouldn’t have felt free to do that, and I’m sure you girls had a great time sipping umbrella drinks and talking about sexy werewolves.”

If Doug had called at nine, after Emma had brewed herself some coffee and consumed a cup or two, she might not have reacted so adversely to that patronizing remark. But he’d called at eight, when she was involved in a most excellent dream of passion and sexual adventure with a man who made her current boyfriend look like a dweeb. She was at least a quart low on caffeine, and come to think of it, her boyfriend
was
a dweeb.

“You know what, Doug? I just decided we should take a break from each other.”

“What?”

“A break. A hiatus. A sabbatical. It’s perfect timing because you’re heading into tax season and I’m leaving on a book tour Friday morning.”

“Emma, don’t do this. I know you wanted me to show up last night, but the meeting was important. A couple of members are thinking of giving me their corporate business, and that would be huge.”

“This isn’t about last night.” And it really wasn’t. It was about this morning. Well, it might be about last night, but not in the way he thought. She might not be able to have Aidan Wallace, but she could start looking around for someone who was more exciting than Doug.

Because of her heavy writing schedule, she’d allowed herself to settle for someone who was near at hand, even if he did virtually nothing for her sexually. That wasn’t fair to her, and it wasn’t fair to Doug.

“Emma, let’s have lunch today. We’ll talk it out. I promise to come to the next book signing you have here in town.”

“I’m not free for lunch, and I mean it, Doug. I don’t think either of us is invested in this relationship the way we should be. Let’s take a step back. After tax season is over, if we decide to continue seeing each other, we can talk about what we each want in a partner.” Unfortunately for Doug, she now wanted muscles on her man.

“You don’t want to see me until after April fifteenth? That’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“We have to review your tax picture.”

She almost laughed but caught herself before she did. Laughing would be mean. The fact remained that he was more worried about her 1040 than their future as a couple. “Doug, you’ve been doing my taxes for five years. I don’t think we need to review them in person.”

“It’s better if we do.”

“You could be right.” Privately she thought Doug liked using the sessions to parade his knowledge and pass out what he considered gold-plated advice. He got to be the authority and the big cheese during those meetings. She’d never enjoyed them much.

“Then let’s set up a time.”

“Let’s not.” She hoped he wouldn’t screw up her taxes on purpose, but she didn’t think he would stoop that low. “We can communicate by e-mail. Have a great tax season. I truly wish you the best.”

“Wait. You can’t just do this.”

“It’s for the best. Good-bye, Doug.” Then she disconnected the call. When he immediately called back, she didn’t answer. She did, however, listen to the message he left.

Yep, he was a dweeb.

 

Aidan and his team had spent several hours on the e-mail trace, and then he had managed to grab some sleep at home. Now he was headed back to the Wallace building in lower Manhattan to report his findings to his father. Ralph picked him up, as usual.

Technically Aidan should have been exhausted, but the challenge of this case and his concern for Emma kept his adrenaline pumping. A good run always helped, too. His recreational romp through Central Park had been without incident.

Few people with any sense wandered around in there late at night anyway. Anyone at the park at that hour likely wouldn’t be the kind of person who ran to the police for any reason, let alone because he or she’d seen a large brown-and-silver wolf loping through the trees.

Still, it had been a risk. Anything that called attention to the pack constituted a risk. Yet he’d been forced to do something that would allow him to work off his sexual tension so he could shift back into human form. Once he’d felt that beginning to happen, he’d bounded back to the town car so that he could use the privacy of the backseat to shift and then dress in the clothes he’d left there.

The sun was shining brightly the next morning when Ralph pulled up in front of the fifty-story building that housed Wallace Enterprises on the top two floors. “Want me to wait for you?”

“That’s okay. I’m thinking you could use some time off. If I need a ride anywhere, I’ll get one of Dad’s drivers.”

Ralph smiled. “Thanks. I’ll take you up on that. Maybe Fran and I will have lunch uptown and go to a matinee.”

“Good idea. Have fun. I’ll be in touch tomorrow.” As Aidan entered the tall building and headed for the elevator bank, he realized he envied his driver, who’d been married to Fran for almost thirty years. They still loved each other, still enjoyed simple things like lunch and a movie. Aside from the fact they were both werewolves, they lived a fairly typical middle-class life.

Most of the time Aidan was happy about his privileged position in the Wallace empire. But a less privileged position would mean he’d be free to mate for love and not political expedience. He might look forward to a marriage like Ralph and Fran’s.

He still wouldn’t be able to choose a human like Emma, though. Sex with humans was common,but marriages were almost unheard of. A Were would never be able to keep his or her wolf status a secret from a spouse, so the spouse had to be trusted with the sensitive knowledge that a werewolf community existed. Understandably, that made the rest of the pack extremely nervous.

Because of Aidan’s strong attraction to Emma, one that was mate-worthy, he’d have to steer clear of her, and he would, right after he fixed the current problem. Stepping out of the elevator, he walked across thick green-and-brown patterned carpet. Weres preferred something that reminded them of grass and the spongy texture of the forest floor.

Plants abounded here in the lobby. Aidan glanced at the giant flat-screen running videos similar to his that featured trees and waterfalls. Visitors thought the Wallaces were eco-conscious, and they certainly were that. But the decor was a matter of personal sanity more than a statement about conservation. Being surrounded by images of nature soothed his father and any other members of the pack who felt overwhelmed by the noise of the city.