Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (20 page)

His touch traveled over her shoulder. “Of course it is. I can do it. You can do it too. It will just take time. I’m willing to wait.”

“I’m tired, Cole.” She sounded pitiful, and she didn’t care.

Cole’s other arm went around her, and she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. Her bare flesh touched his, and she sighed.

“It will be over soon. Just let go, find the wolf within you and surrender to her. Don’t fight her,” murmured Cole, trailing his touch over her upper arm, dancing over her elbow, and running against the soft flesh of her waist.

She moaned, opening her eyes. “Why won’t you just let me go?”

He smiled sadly. “I can’t.”

“Sure you could,” she said. “You could unchain me and you could give me clothes and—”

She broke off, because Cole’s hand had closed around one of her breasts.

She drew in breath sharply.

“I can’t let you go.” He squeezed the mound of flesh gently, then brushed her nipple with his thumb.

She groaned.

He pressed his lips against her temple, then her ear. “So beautiful, Dana.”

He shouldn’t be able to do this to her. His touch shouldn’t undo her. She shouldn’t be growing moist and eager in all the right places. He was a bad man. She hated him. And... dear God, she wanted him. She arched her back, pressing her breast more firmly into his hand, writhing against him as he fondled her.

He lowered his mouth to her breast, and it was bursting pleasure.

She threw her head back, sighing.

“Do you feel the wolf?” He was speaking against her breast, his hot breath tickling her nipple.

She shivered. And she did feel it. The wolf was stretching languorously inside her. The wolf was eager, ready to be let out. “I think so.”

He kissed his way over to her other nipple. “I feel my wolf. But it’s different than the way it felt at the SF. It’s not...” He closed his lips around the sensitive nub of flesh, sucked.

She moaned.

“It’s not violent and angry, taking over me.” His voice was thick with desire. “It’s just another part of me. I can let it out soft and easy.” He touched her, fingers on one of her breasts, his mouth on the other. “Do you feel that, Dana? Do you feel the wolf?”

She wasn’t sure what she felt. Everything was a swirl of sensation. Lust, exhaustion, pleasure, disgust... The wolf was at her spine. Its claws were caressing the base of her skull. Or was that Cole’s hand? Or was his hand between her legs?

“Shift,” he whispered. “Shift for me.”

“No.”

“Nice and easy, Dana. Let it happen. It’s natural, just like getting wet.” His fingers slid between the lips of her sex, nudging her clitoris.

She felt like she was falling apart. It felt so
good
. She was so tired. Everything was confusing.

And his voice was there, always his voice, smooth as cream, flowing over her. “Shift for me, Dana.”

* * *

“I resent that,” said Beverly Martin, crossing her arms over her blue jumpsuit. “I do not have an obsession with being a werewolf. That’s like telling a feminist she has an obsession with being a woman.”

Beverly Martin was talking. Dana kind of wished that she was still being quiet. The woman had a very overbearing manner. She clearly thought highly of herself, and she took offense at anything she perceived as a slight, whether Dana meant it or not.

“We don’t have to use the word obsession,” said Dana. “But according to your friends and family, you seemed to become much more interested in werewolves seven months ago. Would you say that’s true?”

“No,” said Beverly. “I know who told you that too. My ‘best’ friend Yvonne. She’s having an affair with my husband.”

Dana sighed.

“You don’t believe me?” said Beverly. “Ask them. They aren’t ashamed of it at all. They didn’t have any problem telling me about it. Why do you think I chomped up that grocery store?”

“Are you now claiming that you killed the people in the grocery store on purpose?”

“I’m not claiming anything,” said Beverly. “Look, the point is that I have no rights. I’m a werewolf, and I ain’t got rights. You’re keeping me locked up here with no trial, no lawyer, no phone call.”

“Mrs. Martin, I assure you that if you need to contact someone, arrangements can be made.”

“No trial.”

“I’m trying to help you,” said Dana. “I’m looking for evidence that you didn’t do this on purpose. But you say you did it in order to get back at your cheating husband, which doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. I mean, why not just kill
him
?”

“That’s not why I did it,” said Beverly.

“So, why, then?”

“I...” Beverly took a deep breath. “What was it you were saying about looking for evidence that I didn’t do this on purpose?”

“I’m investigating that possibility.”

“And what would happen if you found evidence to support that?”

“A lot of things.”

“Would I be released?”

Dana didn’t want to make the woman lie just to get out. She wanted the truth. She really shouldn’t have let Beverly get to her. “I don’t know one way or another on that. It wouldn’t be my decision.”

Beverly smiled. “But you’d have to let me out, wouldn’t you?”

“Like I said, ma’am—”

“I’ll answer your questions,” said Beverly.

“Do you feel that you became more interested in being a werewolf seven months ago?”

“Not really. But maybe I did. I really can’t be sure,” said Beverly. “I know that at one point in my life, when I was younger, I wasn’t that interested. I got more interested as I got older, but I can’t say exactly when it happened. Could have been seven months ago.”

This woman was now saying anything she could to try to get out of the SF. Dana was going to have to word these questions carefully. She forced her face to be expressionless, not wanting to give anything away to Beverly. “Is it correct that when you shifted in that grocery store, it was the first time you’d shifted since being in the SF as a teenager?”

Beverly chewed on her lip. “You know, it’s funny that you should ask that.”

Was Dana imagining it, or did Beverly seem more sincere. “Is it?”

“A while back. I don’t know how long. A long while back on a full moon, I thought I might have shifted. I know I lost some time. But I’m not sure. I sure didn’t hurt anybody that time.”

That was similar to what Coraline had said. Hot damn, was there an actual pattern? Dana struggled not to smile, still not wanting to give anything away to Beverly.

“Have you ever had any contact with Cole Randall?” Dana asked.

“Cole Randall? The serial killer?”

“That’s right.”

Beverly shook her head slowly. “Why would you ask me something like that?”

“Have you or haven’t you?”

“No, of course not,” said Beverly.

“Listen, if he’s threatened you, we could protect you,” said Dana.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” said Beverly. “I’ve never met the man. Besides, his threats wouldn’t scare me. I’ve seen pictures of him. He looks harmless.”

Dana pressed her lips firmly together. Beverly Martin was beginning to infuriate her. “All right then, thank you for your cooperation.” She stood up.

“Wait,” said Beverly. “Was I supposed to have talked to him? If I say yes, does that mean I get to leave? Because maybe I have talked to him.”

Dana headed for the door. “Thank you, Mrs. Martin.”

“Wait, he was in contact with me!”

Dana closed the door on Beverly, heaving a huge sigh.

Avery was standing outside waiting for her. Dammit. They were down in the maximum security wing questioning the rogues. She’d hoped she’d be done sooner than Avery, and that she could sneak down to see Cole. No such luck.

* * *

“I don’t understand,” said Hollis from her couch. “How did he force you to shift?”

Dana was coming back from the kitchen with two cold sodas, one for each of them. The interview was winding to a close, and she was thirsty. It had only seemed fair to offer one to Hollis too. “I don’t know exactly. It’s possible that I only did it because I was under so much stress and pressure. I was probably pretty impressionable at the time.”

Hollis pursed his lips. “Seems plausible.”

She handed him the soda.

“Thanks,” he said. “And that’s how you got away?”

“Yeah,” she said. “He unchained me after he had forced me to shift the way he wanted me to, and I got away.”

“He didn’t try to stop you?”

“He was a wolf at the time as well.”

“So?”

Dana opened the soda and took a long swig. She really wished Hollis wouldn’t push about this part. This was the touchy part. This was where she’d really lied, not just left things out. “He might have chased me, but he didn’t catch me.”

“So you got free, and then what?”

“Then I called for help, and the SF was able to track Cole and bring him in.”

“Track him? Had he fled from his house?”

“Yes, I think he did. He must have realized that if I’d escaped, people would be looking for him.”

Hollis drank some soda and set down the can on Dana’s coffee table. “Well, I guess that’s it then.”

Really? She wasn’t going to have to endure any more of these interviews?

“I’ll be talking to Randall, of course,” said Hollis, “and I might double-check some things with you, but I think I’ve got what I need.”

“Great.” She smiled.

“Hey,” said Hollis, “don’t look so happy to be rid of me.”

“That isn’t what I—”

“Teasing.” He grinned at her, dimples and all. He switched off his recorder. “Actually, I was wondering if we could talk.”

“About?”

“You know, what happened last time,” he said. “Does that happen every time you get... excited?”

Dammit. He wanted details on that. She’d made them up last time. What if she said something now that contradicted what she’d said before? She decided to stay as vague as possible. “I don’t know. I haven’t exactly been dating since it happened.”

“I’m not going to lie. It was pretty scary. You freaked me out.”

“Sorry.”

“No, I’m not trying to make you feel bad.” He shifted on the couch. “I’m just... I mean, that’s why you said you couldn’t be with anyone, right? That’s why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“That’s part of it,” she said. Now that this lie had become so significant to Hollis, she wanted to minimize it. “There’s also the fact that I’ve been terrorized by a crazy man. I haven’t been in the mood for going out with someone.”

“But you knew about this too. Right? Because all that shifting he made you do made you unstable.”

“I guess so.”

He picked up his soda, but he didn’t drink it. Instead he ran a finger around the rim. He didn’t meet her gaze. “Thing is, Dana, even though it was scary, it was kind of...”

“We don’t actually have to talk about it.”

“I want to, though.” He looked up at her. “It was fucking sexy, okay? I mean, I was scared to death, but I was
really
turned on.”

Dana hadn’t been expecting that. She gripped her can of soda tighter, her fingers denting the metal.

“You were obviously having fun too, and so I was thinking that maybe... you know, if that’s the only reason that you don’t want to be with me, maybe I don’t mind so much. Maybe I could handle that.”

She sucked in breath through her nose. How was she supposed to respond to that? “Look, Hollis, I really wouldn’t be comfortable—”

“You asked me something when you were all over me in the hotel room,” he said. “You asked me why I wanted to date you when we didn’t have very much sex. Remember that?”

Yeah, she did. She cringed. “I’m sorry I said that. I should never—”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Because I started thinking about it, and I realized that was one of the things about you that was the most attractive to me. You’re so... lethal, Dana.”

“Lethal?” Had he really just said that?

“Yeah,” he said. “You’re a werewolf tracker, and you can do all this neat stuff. And you’re dangerous, you know.”

“I’m not dangerous,” she said.

“But you are,” said Hollis. “You’re all about your job, and you’re real efficient and business-like, and that makes me crazy. It was never about the sex, not exactly. It was about the rush. Being with you is a total rush.”

She held up her hand. “Stop.”

She didn’t want to hear any more. Hollis didn’t understand her at all. He was telling her that the thing about herself that she hated was his favorite part. She didn’t want someone to date her because she was a werewolf. She wanted someone to date her because she was
her
. Even if all the weirdness with Cole wasn’t going on, she wouldn’t want to be with Hollis. Not if he only wanted the rush.

“There’s no way that I can be with you, Hollis,” she said.