Beneath the Skin: de La Vega Cats, Book 3 (6 page)

Zipping his jeans up over his cock was painful, which helped him get his control back after he’d lost it and tasted the skin of her shoulder. Stupid. Because now she was inside him and he wanted more.

He shouldn’t have touched her, even to get her attention, by taking her throat. He’d started to do it to get her cat to take over. But once he’d touched her, once his shirt was off and his jeans were halfway down and he got close… Well, once that happened he was in a whole world of hurt.

Of course, her response only made it harder to resist taking their contact to another level. Her pulse had sped, her pupils had swallowed all the color of her irises and her breath had stuttered. She dug it as much as he did.

He scrubbed his hands over his face to get it together again.

Digging through the drawer she’d indicated led him to a really good Puerto Rican place he quite liked. He ordered enough for six or so people and waited for her to come back out while he gave up on not thinking about her body.

She was small, probably barely five and a half feet tall. Her hair was a little darker than honey. Hazel eyes. They’d been more brown the night he’d met her, but today they had some more green. A sweet nose and freckles. He was a sucker for freckles.

She was lean and toned, with tits barely more than a handful, but perky. Goddamn he loved perky breasts. Mainly because women liked to go braless when they had boobs like that.

He also took in the evidence of the coma her brother had alluded to back at the store. She’d mentioned an attack back that first night. Something terrible had happened to her and he wanted to know more.

She was a beautiful, scary, sexy woman and he liked that a whole hell of a lot.

He might as well call in while he waited. Maybe talking to Max would help him think about something other than the way she’d licked her lips, or the way her skin felt against his lips, against his teeth.

Christ.
That
sure wasn’t helping at all.

He dialed his brother.

“What’s the story?” Max answered, without any preliminaries.

“I’ve sent the cat to the holding cells. Gonna sweat him a while. Says his name is Hal Pepper. Sounds like a fuckin’ character from a Dr. Seuss story. Dario is having Galen look into it. He shot Mia Porter in the thigh. Clean enough. Went clean through. The woman he was with left the scene. But they have surveillance footage. The brother will forward it to my office so we’ll see if we can’t figure out who she is too.”

“Do you think this is related?”

“At first he said he was acting alone. Then he said she’d pissed someone off. Probably by saving me. I don’t know for sure, but it’s awfully coincidental, don’t you think? Two cats in the same jamboree shot within the span of a week? And the second shooting victim is the person who helped the first one?”

“I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“No. Me either. They didn’t use silver though. With me they did. This was 9mm ammo. Enough to do a shitton of damage, even kill her if they’d hit her hard enough and in the right places. But I don’t know why they’d use it on me and not her.”

Max heaved a sigh. “I connected with Bertram’s second. Not his Bringer. Claims Bertram is in South America right now. Also claims to not know anything about this incident. I find that hard to believe.”

As did Gibson. At that point, he suspected everyone having anything to do with the Smithville jamboree.

“Where are you?”

“I’m questioning Mia. She’s in the shower right now.”

“Your definition of questioning must be vastly different from mine.”

Ha.

“She got shot in the leg. It bloodied her clothing.”

“Don’t even think I don’t know you smiled when I said that. Keep me apprised.” He hung up. Max knew Gibson would ask for help if he needed it. His brother let him do his job, as their father had before him. That was a source of great pride.

He wandered around the living room, pausing to look at the photographs. The place smelled like a male, but it was clearly someone she was related to. The resemblance was strong, just like it was with Drew.

There was a vague memory of her saying it was her brother’s place.

She’d been a pilot. He knew part of the story because he’d had a quick check of her done after he’d met her. But he saw pictures of her, medals on her chest, and it hit home. What had happened to her after she returned?

He spoke when she came out of the bathroom moments later. “I ordered some Puerto Rican food. Should be here shortly.” They’d known the phone number and the address so he took a guess that she ordered it frequently.

Simple delight rode over her features, making her beautiful. “Yes, that works.”

She’d braided her hair back from her face, exposing her features. “I like your hair like that.” He frowned momentarily, not having had any intention of saying that out loud. “Are you feeling better?”

She shrugged. The blush she wore heated her skin, sending her scent through his senses. “Better than I was an hour ago, sure.”

“Sit and get that leg up.” He pointed to the couch, more gruffly than he’d intended.

“You’re imperious, aren’t you?”

But she did it.

“You have two brothers, right?” He leaned forward to tuck a pillow under her knee before sitting down across from her.

“Yes.”

“So the bossiness of shifter males isn’t something new to you.”

“Not new, still annoying.”

“Difficult.” He sniffed. “Did you recognize the cats who came into your store today? Have you ever seen them before?”

“No. They came in and I noticed they were shifters. I thought it was funny that I didn’t recognize them. We have regulars from the jamboree.” She sounded nearly defensive and he felt bad anew about what had happened.

“You’re not shunned, of course you have regulars from the jamboree.”

She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, no, I didn’t recognize them.”

“What about from the other night? The night I got shot. What did you scent that night?”

“Cats first. There aren’t so many of us around here that it’s something I scent very often. Then the gun oil.”

“And then the shots?”

“Yes. Three pops. I was less than half the block away from you. They ran, but you were on the ground. I didn’t know if you were alive or not.”

“You made the right decision.” She’d already described the area to him in detail the night of the shooting, but it was good to go over it again. “Tell me about what happened. With the coma.”

She looked him over carefully. “It’s a really long and boring story.”

“You should let me be the judge of that.”

“Why? Why do you want to know?”

Why indeed? She was not for him. He had a job to do. He should leave and go do it.

“Maybe I want to know you.”

“Why?”

“You have trust issues.”

She laughed, this time she was delighted. “I do. My mother told me all about boys like you.”

It was his turn to laugh. “Like me?”

“You know. Bad boys. And you’re like, well, like five or six all at once. I bet you own leather pants and have a motorcycle.”

“I wear the leather when I’m riding.”

She threw her hands up. “Exactly. Cripes.”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

“Take a look at yourself. You are a supreme badass. Boys like you want girls to put out and why the hell not! You move like you know a lot about what to do with a lady’s best parts.”

He cocked his head. “And you don’t like…putting out? Because, I have to tell you, Mia, despite my better judgment I’d like to get all up in what you’ve got.”

She nearly choked and then the buzzer sounded.

He stood. “Food’s here.”

He smiled once he turned his back. He’d succeeded in getting her nice and befuddled. For whatever reason, this amused him greatly. And it’s not as if he’d lied. He wanted her.

He paid for the food, and when he’d returned to the living room, she’d set the table. “I’ve got water, juice, milk. The basics.”

Of course she drank milk. She was wholesome. Which also made him hot.

“You shouldn’t have gotten up. I’m capable of putting food on a plate for you.”

“I’m sure you are. But you and I both know you’re going to need me to go down to jamboree headquarters to look at pictures and whatever else.”

He’d been thinking that. Well, aside from the way he’d been thinking about fucking her. He had some pictures of the cats who’d come to their offices earlier in the week. He wanted to know if she recognized any of them. But he’d been thinking of having Dario bring the stuff to her place.

“You’re injured.”

“It’s fine. You can drive me there and I’ll cab it back.”

He frowned and sat. “You’ll do no such thing.”

She ignored him as she opened boxes to check what was inside.

“They had your last order in their system. I just doubled it and added a few things.”

She loaded her plate. “Thank you.”

He was the one who needed to be thanking her. She’d gotten involved in this mess, most likely, because of him. And she didn’t seem resentful about it. He might have been in her case.

“So, you don’t like bad boys?”

She piled black beans on a tortilla before she glanced his way. “I didn’t say that. I said my mother warned me about them. You’re one.”

“Am I?”

She took several bites. He’d tried dating human women a few times. But he didn’t like having to hide who and what he was. This female though, well she was thoroughly a Were. She ate with gusto. Moved with that predator’s grace shifters sometimes had. She was a warrior too.

“Your mother came to the shop today.”

He looked up quickly and Mia laughed. He had to admire the way she changed the subject so well.

“She was gracious and I think I avoided having a death sentence put on my head. I just remembered she’d come in. You might want to check in on her. She could have been the target.”

His phone was in his hand before he was even thinking about it.

She answered on the second ring. “Hello, Gibson. I hear we had some excitement with the Porters today.”

Of course she’d have heard already.

“Yes. I’ll brief you about it later. Mia told me you’d been in today. I wanted to be sure you were all right.”

“I went in to thank her. As your mother and as jamboree leadership. She’s quite something. Is she well?”

“She’s been shot. But no silver.” This time. “I’m feeding her and then we’ll go down to the offices so she can look at the pictures we’ve got of Bertram’s cats. I want to see if she can ID any of them.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow? She’s been shot, Gibson. Let the girl rest.”

Mia snorted and he had to fight his smile.

“I’d suggest it. But you met her today.” He didn’t say more.

His mother’s laugh was delighted. “Yes. I imagine she’d tell you she was fine and to just get on with it. See what you can do to get her and her family back involved with the jamboree. I think it’s well past time for it.”

He didn’t look up to see Mia’s reaction to that.

“I’m going to have Dario put some extra eyes on you. On Papi too.”

His mother sighed. “Fine.”

Mia liked that he called his father Papi. It was sort of adorable without being creepy.

She frowned as he finished his call to his mother. She’d tossed the visit out there to get him to change the subject, and now Imogene was trying to get him to do her dirty work. Their whole family was sneaky. Which was a quality she generally admired. But it meant most likely he’d turn that let’s-have-sex face on her again, and she was not strong enough to resist.

She knew her flaws. He was beautiful and masculine and really freaking hot. That in and of itself was hard to say no to. But he was a shifter, like her. There’d be no hiding. No holding back. Which…well, sounded pretty good, but she didn’t need this sort of complication.

Did she?

She shook her head, hard. No. She did not. She needed a nice, quiet life. With a nice male who didn’t carry sidearms and look broody.

Even if looking broody only made Gibson look sexier. Which seemed impossible. But it did.

“You’re deep in thought.”

“Just about what I’m putting on my plate next.”

He snorted. “Sure. And I’m driving you over to the building to look at some video. The cats who attacked me and the ones who attacked you seem connected. And they seem connected to an event that happened three days ago. I don’t want to color your opinion more than that at this point. And then there’ll be no cabs. I will bring you back here myself.”

“Hm.”

His features went wary. It was clear he had some experience with strong women. His mother was one, after all.

“Hm isn’t a yes, but I’ll take it as one. You should just be glad I don’t put a bodyguard on you.”