SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (177 page)

With a happy sigh, she stretched her arms toward the roof of the car like a cat in the morning sun, then sat upright in her seat. “I’m fine. A few minutes was all I needed. How much longer until we get there?”

The computer on the dash displayed their route and estimated arrival time. He missed his Mustang, but the car Clark had secured for them screamed money, as it was meant to do. He preferred manual steering, but it was okay to let the car drive from time to time. “Three minutes. We’re stopping off first.”

“Where? The animal shelter?”

“Parkfield Pavilion. I promised you a shopping trip, didn’t I?”

Her eyes went wide. “Really? Do we have time for that?”

“We have to make time. No offense, but you can’t play my entitled-mistress-plaything with what you have in your suitcase.”

“Hmm… I understand. No offense taken,” she said, but when the apples of her cheeks darkened, he felt like shit. He hated making reference to the fact that she was as poor as dirt. He’d been there himself once.

“So we’ll stop at the Pavilion,” he continued, “get what we need, then we’ll be sleeping at the new house tonight. The furniture and supplies Clark ordered arrived last week, and a designer had everything arranged. A rich couple like we’re supposed to be wouldn’t have moved their own furniture anyhow.”

“So we don’t need to do anything on the interior of the house? It’s all set?”

“Buy some groceries, I guess. There won’t be food there. Other than that, Clark’s team has already thought of everything—dishes, sheets, you name it. After we’re done with this assignment, they’ll pack it up and ship it back. IB makes sure the covers are rock solid, so the greatest threat to getting our cover blown is us. We’ll need to go over our stories front to back tonight until I’m sure they’re gonna stick. We can do the dog thing tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Evelyn replied, but the way she bit her lip told him she wasn’t convinced.

“But?”

She looked over at him, surprised. “No buts. Looks like you guys have thought of everything. It’s just…you know, I’m curious how it’s all going to work. Isn’t it really Lauren who needs to be in on all of this ‘playing house,’ since I’m only supposed to be the body?”

The car pulled up to the curb in auto-valet mode, and Jesse handed Evelyn her cover identity’s credit card. “It’ll be fine. Lauren could do this job in her sleep.”

“Yeah, but can she do it in her death? Sometimes people change when they come back.” Evelyn took the credit card, and he figured she’d put it in her purse, but instead, it looked as though she slipped it into her pocket or maybe even her underwear. He wasn’t sure where it had disappeared to exactly, but he would pay good money to find out.

“Don’t worry about Lauren. We’ve done a lot of missions together, and she’ll be ready. Plus, Sasha’s been prepping her for this since way before you were hired.”

Her full lips parted. “The house… The mission… You had it all ready before I’d even been hired? What if I’d said no? Would you have found someone else to do my job?”

He leveled his gaze at her. “You heard what the steward said. Commissioner Hart is threatening to pull our contract if we don’t have suspects in custody in less than a month from now. So no, we haven’t been sitting on our hands, waiting to start planning the mission until we found the perfect body.”

Unhappy thoughts flashed across her eyes. “How many people said no before me?”

He couldn’t help laughing. “None, Doc. You were our first choice and best choice, and you said yes.” As she sat there digesting what he’d told her, he grasped the door handle. “Okay. Game on. Yes, we’re clothes shopping, but from now on we don’t drop our cover in public. You’ll wait for me to get your door, and you’ll stay close to me. Got it?”

An hour later, Jesse was starting to get anxious. He’d never been clothes shopping with a woman before, but he was pretty sure Evelyn Vale sucked at it. He was taking her to all the best shops, but she’d only bought five new outfits so far, and every one of those looked like something she’d wear to a funeral. She couldn’t stop mulling over the price tags and dismissing everything she tried on.

The young department-store attendant, Carol, was trying hard to get his attention—asking if he’d like to be measured for another pair of slacks, staring his way with blatant take-me-now eyes—but his clothes were being delivered tomorrow. Tonight was about his partner, and some guilt-ridden part of him wanted to make sure that when she went back to that shithole to live with her folks, at least she went back in style.

“Hey, baby. Can I talk to you?” he asked Evelyn when she emerged in yet another outfit better suited to his deceased grandmother.

She looked surprised for a moment, then she caught on. “Sure, honey-pie. Wanna step into my dressing room?” The wink and accompanying smile she sent his way made his blood heat. He had to remind his body that she was simply playing along.

He scooted by her at the threshold of the door, his thighs brushing along her rounded backside, and he knew instantly that being this close to her was a bad idea. Every feral desire in him roused, and his cock stirred to life. His body liked the idea that Evelyn was his, even for a short while.

He slid the lock on the dressing room door, then leaned down and touched his mouth against the rim of her ear, whispering. “Two things. First off, your card has a $25,000 limit, but Clark won’t even need to sign off if you keep it under $10,000. Second, we’re not going to be invited to any clubs if you dress like that. You’ve got a body, woman. Use it.”

She smirked and said quietly, “I thought that’s what you and Lauren were doing.”

He replayed his words and frowned. “Sorry, that didn’t come out right,” he whispered back.

To his surprise, Evelyn wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and brought his ear down to her mouth. Goose bumps broke out over his skin at the feel of her breath in his ear. “Okay. I get it. I need sexier clothes. How much do I need to spend before we can get out of here?”

“You should spend at least the first ten thousand. It’s, uh…part of your performance review.”

He felt her mouth twitch against his ear, like she was biting those damn lips again. “Dressing sexy has never been my thing, you know?”

He traded positions with her, his mouth on her ear. “Well, I’m not good at shopping, but I know sexy. Can I help?”

She chuckled and ran her hand over her earlobe. “You’re tickling me. Do we really have to whisper like this?”

Because he enjoyed watching her shiver, he breathed warm air deliberately onto the sensitive skin of her neck, just below her ear. “Yeesss. We dooooo.”

She didn’t contain her laughter then, and a few seconds later, the attendant came by and knocked on the door to the changing room. “Hello. How are you doing in there? Can I get you a different size in anything?”

He looped one arm behind Evelyn’s waist and pressed his other hand to her lips, effectively silencing her. Then he hooked a gray skirt over the door and said in his best falsetto, “I’ll try this in a size ten.”

Evelyn clamped her hand over her mouth, but the squeal of muffled laughter wasn’t fooling anyone. With his arm fixed around her waist, Jesse unlocked the door and smiled at the attendant. “She’s going to need a few more things.”

“Absolutely, sir.”

He dragged Evelyn to the lingerie aisle and raised a pair of black silk panties for her inspection. The panties were trimmed in lace so fine it seemed a sacrilege to actually cover them with clothing and not show them off. “The black or the hot pink, babe?”

He loved it when Evelyn slid her hand around his torso…until she pinched him. “Whatever you want, honey-pie.”

He shrugged and said loud enough for the attendant to hear, “Either one. You won’t be wearing them long enough for it to matter.” With that, he ducked his head and kissed the corner of her lips. “See?” he whispered against her hair when the attendant turned. “That’s how this undercover stuff is done.”

But he knew he’d met his match when she got a calculating look in her eye.

“No, it’s not fair that I get all the fun stuff. What about you?” Evelyn complained aloud. “Carol, do you have anything in the men’s department that’s really skimpy, the way my honey-bear likes it? You see this?” She swatted his ass, leaving a small sting on his skin. “With glutes like these, only G-strings will work. Anything else is too bulky between those quads.”

Carol practically licked her lips. “Yes, I can imagine. Come this way. I have just the thing.”

His hand tightened on Evelyn’s waist and he wondered if she could feel the growl in his chest. If she could, hopefully she’d think he was properly pissed about the smack she’d given him instead of how he was really feeling—ready to leave an impression of his own on her smoking hot body.

* * *

She’d never known shopping could be so exhausting…but then she’d never had enough money to stay at a mall that long. The car’s trunk was stuffed top to bottom with bags and boxes. Half the things Jesse picked for her she vowed never, ever to wear. But at the same time, she knew he was probably right, and if she didn’t give Lauren some reasonably slutty clothing options for the mission, the woman would probably commandeer Evelyn’s body to go find something truly embarrassing.

Jesse closed the file he’d been reading when their auto-piloted car began to slow in one of Parkfield County’s most affluent new developments. Evelyn kind of missed seeing her partner’s strong hands on the steering wheel of his Mustang. Driving was so much safer now than it had been when she was a girl, but still, maybe a little risk was worth it.

“Well, this is it,” he said.

She tore her gaze away from Jesse’s hands and looked up, then felt her eyes go wide. “
This
is our new house? There’s no way.”

He punched a code into the car’s computer, and the black wrought-iron gates opened onto a circular, cobblestone drive with a tall fountain in the center, already lit up and bubbling away in the waning light. The setting sun created a magical lavender-orange backdrop against the most beautiful house Evelyn had ever seen. It took her a minute to catch her breath. She’d just never visited anything so magnificent, much less been allowed to stay there.

“Do they call this style
French Renaissance
?” She’d only had one architecture class in college, and an intro course at that, but the home’s gray slate roofs, stone and stucco façade, and dramatic archways gave her that impression. It seemed to be two stories, but with decorative windows peering out from the deeply sloping rooftops, she couldn’t rule out three.

“French what? Hell if I know. For the next month, I’m just calling it
home
,” Jesse replied.

“Judging from the new lawn and the pristine paint, the place looks brand new.” The builder had chosen large specimens for the landscape, palms and shrubs and flowering plants, but they all looked freshly planted, and given that it was located in a fairly new development, the home couldn’t have been that old anyway.

“Yeah, the estate is certified first-owner and spirit-free. You shouldn’t have much trouble here with wandering spirits wanting a piece of you.”

She swallowed. “Wow. If IB spends this sort of money on our covers, I can’t imagine the bounties they rake in.”

He smiled, but it was strangely sad. “And part of that money will be yours. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, Doc. It’ll be worth it. I promise.”

Why did Jesse look so off all of the sudden? Did she seem too starstruck with the whole thing? “You know it’s not all about the money for me, right? Immortal Bounty means more to me than a hefty paycheck or staying in a fancy house—it’s about justice. It’s about restoring order.”

She didn’t know why that was important for him to know, but it was. He’d seen how she’d grown up. Of course she wanted to better herself, support her family, and pay off her student loans, but she didn’t want him to think she was simply in it for the money, like she would truly prostitute her body for cash.

He reached out and playfully tapped his knuckles to her cheek. “I know, Doc. But the money doesn’t hurt, either.” And with a wink, he walked down the drive toward the front doors of the home.

Evelyn pulled her cover identity’s wallet from her purse and took out her key card as the gates shut behind her, enclosing her and Jesse in a whole other world. She was so far from her old neighborhood, it might as well have been a different planet.

Jesse waited for her by the big wooden doors and his gaze went to the key she had out. He gestured to the console beside the door with a grand flourish. “Would you like to do the honors, my lady?”

Evelyn swiped her key and the little lights on the front locks flashed green. “Now let the scanner read your thumb print,” he said, “so you can come and go without the keycard.”

She held her thumb to the glass and a few seconds later, the doors slowly opened inward. When she stepped into the foyer and the automatic lighting engaged, she tried hard not to gasp.

The first thing that caught her eye was the mosaic design set into the marble tile of the foyer. It was a mermaid poised on a rock and her green tail was made of pearly glass. “Wow. Just…wow. I’m going to stop saying that now. I promise.”

He laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Take a night to get used to it, because come tomorrow, this isn’t all that exciting anymore. You were born to it—right?”

“Yeah. Right.” They’d told her that she might need to improvise depending on how long Lauren could stay in her body. Yesterday, the Sentinel’s spirit hadn’t been able to last more than three hours. That would be enough to get them through the front doors of a club after being tested, but if anyone had any significant level of supernatural discernment, they’d know when Evelyn took over again.

She walked into the gourmet kitchen with Jesse right behind her and ran her hand over the sleek granite countertops. Amazing… Harvesting rock like this was supposed to be outlawed. They must have gotten this slab from a retro build site. “So how is this going to work? If Lauren can’t stay put long enough, am I supposed to pretend I’m her?”

He tapped his index finger across the computer panel on the refrigerator and adjusted the temperature. “No way. That’ll get us caught faster than anything. You’re going to pretend you’re in love with me and a willing participant in all of this. Lauren and I will spread the rumor that we’re bored with you and are quietly looking for another host. That way, you can just be you until Lauren gets the hang of sticking around longer.”