Beauty Dates the Beast (6 page)

“What are you
talking
about?”

He leaned in close, setting my pulse to thrumming hard, and I instinctively leaned back.

“I’m going into heat,” he said.

I
shied back at his declaration. “You’re what?”

He reached for the lock of hair again, playing with it. “In heat. So to speak.”

“I … I …” I blinked, trying to gather my thoughts. “I thought only females went into heat.” Didn’t men have the wrong equipment for that? Trying to be nonchalant, I flicked a glance at his package. Well, now. Either he truly was in heat, or he was as well built as he claimed.

“We all use the term, and you’re right, only females go into heat.” His mouth twisted. “One of the female cougars in my clan is about to go into heat in a few days. Her need affects all the males, so there’s fighting among the unmated guys to claim her, and clan politics get really messy right about now. Normally she would just leave town if she didn’t have a mate, but … she can’t this time.” His face grew tight.

“Oh,” I breathed, thinking hard. My gaze darted rapidly to the sensual curve of his mouth, the hint of tongue that touched his lips. Oh, my. “So why don’t you and the female hook up?”

“It’s complicated,” he said, and slid a little closer to me. “And I want you.”

“Oh,” I repeated, retreating. The back of my head smacked against the fogging window of the Viper. Maybe it was taboo for him to date her? I didn’t know much about Alliance politics—or cougars in general—but they had their own special hierarchy. “Is that why … Rosie … ?”

He nodded and whisked his hand to my hair, pulling out the clip that kept my tight bun in place and releasing the blond strands to spill over my shoulders. “I’ve been wanting to do that all night,” he said, running his fingers through it and then kneading them against my neck, like a cat kneading its paws. His voice was a low growl. “Your hair is sexy as hell. How long is it?”

“To my waist,” I breathed, my breath quickening to match his, my eyes locked on his face. “So you were using the dating service to find someone because you were in heat?”

He lifted a handful of my hair and let it slide between his fingers like silk. Definitely a hint of purring in the back of his throat. “I don’t give a shit about Rosie. Your dating service was the only option
available for a last-minute date that wouldn’t mind what I am, so I paid the ridiculous fee and set up a profile in the same hopes.”

I jerked my hair back out of his hand. “Our business is not ridiculous. We cater to a very specific need.”

“It’s a dangerous business, and Giselle knows it. What’s worse is that she doesn’t care.” His gray eyes searched mine. “She’s a fool for hiring humans to do a delicate job. You’re going to cross some line you won’t even know about, and then you’ll all end up in trouble.”

“Oh?” I shoved my hair back over my shoulders. His eyes followed the move, and my body tingled with awareness. “Like the way you crossed a line by dating a human?”

“Something like that,” he growled, leaning in.

I planted my hand on his face and shoved. “You picked the wrong girl for your heat.”

His smile curved against my fingers. “What makes you say that?”

“I’m a virgin.” No one had gotten into my panties for twenty-five years, and this cocky guy wasn’t going to be the first.

“I suspected as much,” he said.

I opened my mouth to ask why when something caught the corner of my eye. A shadow passed behind the upstairs window, blocking out the light.
“Someone’s in my bedroom.” I leaned forward, staring out over the dashboard.

Sara never went into my room. She was too afraid of her scent contaminating my clothing.

His eyes were intense on me. “Are you trying to distract me?”

But then Sara peeked out of the downstairs window—in the living room—and the shadow passed behind my bedroom window again. My heart pounded, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Beau tense.

“Hold this,” Beau said, handing me his keys and his cell phone and leaping out of the car.

“Wait,” I called after him, throwing my door open. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll get her out of there,” he said. “Stay in the car.” He disappeared to the far side of the car and out of my sight.

I stared at my bedroom window, wanting the shape to reappear so I would know I wasn’t mad, and dreading it at the same time. Sitting in the car was pointless. I jumped out of the Viper and dialed the home phone, my hands shaking so hard it was difficult to dial. I had to try twice before the call went through.

“Hello,” Sara said, confused.

“Sara, are you there with Beau? Is he in there with you?” I was babbling so fast that I sounded incoherent.

“Beau? I thought he was with you. Why are you calling from the driveway?”

“Never mind. Just get out of the house, right now. Come meet me on the front lawn.”

“I’m not dressed—”

“Just
do
it, Sara!” I ended the call and scrutinized every window. Where was the intruder? Where was Beau? He was nowhere to be seen.

And neither was my sister. Damn. If she wasn’t coming out, I was going in after her.

I tossed Beau’s keys on the hood as I ran forward … and stumbled over a man’s shoe. Confused, I looked down. There was the match to it, along with a pair of slacks and an expensive shirt matching the one Beau had worn to our date.

It didn’t register in my mind at first.

The sound of breaking glass made me look up, and I saw an enormous tawny shadow disappear through the downstairs window.

Had … had Beau shifted to go after Sara? I heard the roar of the cat inside—and Sara’s scream.

Shit.

I ran forward, the urge to protect Sara overwhelming, nearly blinding me with fear. My sister needed me—

As my hand touched the doorknob, the bushes on the side of the house rustled. I turned, drawn in that direction despite myself. My purse wasn’t
heavy, but I’d use it as a weapon anyhow if I needed to. I took a few steps toward the bushes. “Beau? Is that you?”

A low, unearthly growl met my ears.

Was it Beau … in his cat form? I took another step toward the bushes, then stopped. Would he recognize me if he was in his cat form? Was this quite possibly the dumbest move ever?

I took a step backward and decided to try another tactic. “Sara,” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Beau!”

“Over here,” Sara said, her voice distant and odd.

I turned and saw the most beautiful sight in the world—Sara’s tiny frame was cradled in Beau’s arms. They stood on the far side of the Viper, having emerged from our small backyard on the far side of the house. I bolted toward them. “Sara! Thank God!”

My sister was in a pair of pajamas, her body stiff with fear, shoulders hunched in a way that I recognized—trying to make her body smaller in the hopes that she might curl it tight enough to mask her scent. As I ran toward them, I realized Beau was buck naked. With the massive breadth to his shoulders and the light sprinkling of hair on his chest—much lighter than I’d imagined for a were-cougar—and the narrow hips and …

Oh, boy.

“Hi,” I blurted, my voice cracking, but fear for Sara quickly overrode my awkwardness at Beau’s nudity. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” Beau said, still holding her against him. “When I came in through the back of the house in cougar form, I scared her and she fainted.”

Of course she had. She had probably thought he’d been coming for her, or she’d been on the verge of doing another shift. Sara gave me a tiny smile of embarrassment and rubbed her arms, as if warding off another involuntary shift.

I could understand that. I felt a little faint myself. “Who was in our house?”

His gaze darkened. “No one that I could find. When I went upstairs to check, the place was empty. It was like no one had been there, except there was a smell …” He frowned to himself.

“What sort of smell?”

“Like rotten meat,” Sara added. “I didn’t know what was going on, just that the house stank. I was changing the garbage when you called.”

I gestured at the bushes on the opposite side of the house from where they’d come. “I thought I heard something over there, but I didn’t smell anything.”

“I’ll check it out.” Beau immediately set Sara down and crossed the yard.

I watched his buttocks flex in the moonlight as he walked toward the bushes. It was hard to force myself away from the sight, but concern for my sister drew me back to her, and I turned, touching her arm and examining her with my gaze. “Are you all right?”

“Just trying to hold it together,” she said in a shaky voice. “He caught me by surprise. I … I hope he didn’t smell me.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, lying to comfort her. To be safe, I surreptitiously hid my hand behind my back and wiped it on my dress to try and remove her smell.

She looked over my shoulder, and choked a little. “He’s coming back.”

I turned. Blood roared in my ears as I stared at the man striding across the lawn, all tawny skin and rippling muscles and completely, utterly naked. And judging by his casual, graceful stance, he didn’t care that he was naked.

“Oh, I am in so much trouble,” I breathed, watching him move. Then I picked up Beau’s pants, holding them out to him with my eyes closed so I wouldn’t see anything else and be tempted.
“I’m fine, really,” Sara protested from beside me in the Viper. The wind was high and icy outside, so I sat in the driver’s seat while we waited for Beau. “You’re making too big of a fuss.”

“I always fuss over you. Besides, you fainted.” I ran a hand over her bare arm, feeling for telltale fur. “How are you now? Are you good?”

“I’m fine,” she said, shoving my hands off of her like she would an overprotective mother. “It just startled me. Tell me about your date.” A shadow crossed her face. “He didn’t ask about me, did he?”

“Dinner was very nice. The restaurant was lovely. You would have liked it.”
If you ignored the car thing, the drop-in from the werewolf, and my date telling me he was going into heat.

“Your face is red,” she said. “You like him, don’t you?”

I focused on the front yard, avoiding her gaze. “Don’t be silly. I’m just going out with him this one time. It’s not going to go anywhere. You know it can’t.”

“You like him,” she restated slowly. “And you don’t like anyone. Huh.”

I ignored her, scanning the house for Beau again. He had insisted on checking out the place one more time in cougar form. When that yielded nothing, he shifted back and made a few phone calls while Sara and I waited in his car.

All of my suggestions to go into the house were met with a small growl.

“Should we call the police?” I rolled down the window and asked.

He shook his head at me. “I don’t think what was in your house was human. We can’t notify the police—that would compromise the Alliance members in the immediate vicinity.”

I didn’t give a crap about the Alliance. I wanted to get back inside my house and see what was missing or touched or disturbed.

Beau circled back toward the car, pulling his pants on and buckling his belt. “I smelled a mixture of things. Like werewolf and something else.”

Sara stiffened next to me, and fear clenched my heart. “We can’t smell anything,” I told him. “You’re the one with the shifter nose.”

He gave me a sheepish look. “Right. I keep forgetting.”

“Isn’t it safe to go back in?” I asked again. “You’ve gone over the property three times.”

He shook his head and reached for his shirt. “One of the tigers in the Merino clan knows forensics. He’ll be over shortly to dust the house and look for evidence.” His hand stretched toward me. “House keys, please?”

I held my purse tightly. “Why?”

“So Mike can check out the house while I take you two to a hotel.”

No way. Not with Sara’s scent all over the place.

Beau continued, “Mike insisted that we leave the crime scene intact, and that’s what we’re going to do. I can go inside and get you some clothes once he gives the okay.”

Sara’s hand clutched mine anxiously, and I knew what she was thinking. If Beau went inside and dug through her things he’d find wolf scent all over her clothing—or worse, he’d find the clothes that she had last used when she changed: a torn T-shirt and a wrinkled pair of shorts that reeked of the change.

“We’re fine,” I blurted. “We don’t need clothes. Let’s just go.”

Beau’s eyebrows went up and he glanced over at Sara in her pajamas. “All right,” he said slowly. “I’ll buy you girls some clothes and we can check things out in the morning. Sound good?”

I still didn’t like the thought of a stranger poking around in our house, especially one with a shifter’s nose. “We sometimes take care of the neighbor’s dog for her,” I lied, to explain the canine scent sure to be in the house. “Tell Mike that if a woman with a dog comes to the doorstep in the morning to call me.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Beau’s mouth. “I’ll tell him.”

Without another reason to stall, I handed him the keys.

He walked away to greet the car that pulled up.

Mike turned out to be an enormous man with short, close-cropped black curls and a cheerful expression, despite it being nearly midnight and freezing outside. He and Beau talked for a couple of minutes, then Beau showed Mike to the front door and they went inside. I clasped my hands tightly to stop myself from dashing inside and dousing the house with some scent-masking sprays—or better yet, chasing the men out of the house.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Sara told me, trying to ease my worry. “You know I’m careful. And if Beau didn’t notice anything before …”

At least I had the clothes on my back. Poor Sara had only her pajamas.

Beau returned a few moments later and I got out to meet him. He moved to my side as if he belonged there and began to rub my shoulders. “Mike’s going to be several hours, so he’s going to drop your keys off to me in the morning.”

“All right. Sara and I will stay at the office,” I said.

“You can’t sleep at the office,” Beau argued, putting his warm arm around me. He gestured at Sara, still huddled in the car, her legs tucked under
her. “She looks a little freaked out. Wouldn’t you rather stay in a nice, comfortable hotel room?”