To Catch a Snake: Book Three - Supernatural Bounty Hunter Romance Novellas (9 page)

Chapter Ten

Marcus listened crossly as Ling told Carly about her date that evening. His snake hissed furiously, urging him to do something. But Marcus held fast.

She’d returned a little while after him, looking absolutely radiant in a snug skirt and almost see-through shirt. She’d seemed a little subdued but otherwise was her naturally charming self. She chatted on and off with Mia and anyone else who happened to pop in and out of the agency. She’d talked about the weather, the latest episode of The Sands of Lunar Beach, where the best place was to get shoes re-heeled and so on.

He knew all this because he’d been ducking in and out of his office all day long ostensibly to get cups of coffee and to look at files. Mia had probably never seen him so much in her life, and shot him surprised looks every time he popped out.

Ling, however, studiously avoided his gaze, and he couldn’t blame her. His beast was furious with him for dismissing her that morning, and couldn’t understand why he’d done it.

Marcus made himself another cup of coffee, his tenth that day, as Carly tried to wheedle information out of Ling.

Ling rolled her eyes at Carly’s probing questions. “Look, all I know is that his name’s Damian, he works for Lunar Burger, and he’s picking me up at 7. Okay?”

Carly folded her arms. “But I thought you, you know, liked…” She coughed and none-too-subtly inclined her head in Marcus’s direction. He pretended not to notice, but his animal rumbled in satisfaction.

A look of hurt overtook Ling’s face before she smothered it and sniffed. “I have to go,” she said primly, “I have to get ready for my date.”

Ling bid everyone a stilted goodbye and ran out of the office like she was on fire.

Carly gaped at her retreating figure before turning to Marcus. She opened her mouth to speak.

“Something you’d like to say?” he demanded, eyes flashing.

Carly sucked in a breath through her teeth before shaking her head. “No, sir.”

Marcus nodded, retreated to his office and slammed the door.

He decided to catch up on some paperwork. The work he should have been doing earlier if he hadn’t been hanging around the office like a lovesick idiot.

As he shuffled the papers on his desk, he thought back to that morning in the police station. She looked… bedraggled, quite frankly. But still beautiful, with her warm face and deep brown eyes. He’d have given anything just to kiss her at that moment, to wrap his arms around her and never let her go…

But he couldn’t. After hearing that she had been in danger, he’d been furious. The old familiar feelings of rage had overtaken him. He’d wanted to rip apart the shark shifter for daring to go near his mate. He wanted to howl at Carly and warn her never to put his mate in danger again. He wanted to drag his mate back to his bed and chain her to it so she could never be hurt again…

Marcus panted with the effort of maintaining control.
Mate
. Fuck, he already thought of her as his mate. It was even worse than it had been with his wife, Kelly. He’d loved Kelly, but he knew she wasn’t his true mate. He’d fallen for her hard and fast, and his beast had been unbearably possessive of her,
taking him to a place he never wanted to go again…

Rather than lose control in front of Ling, he’d chosen to run away from her. It seemed like the easiest solution, even though it wrenched his heart, and he had serious doubts his beast would forgive him.

He should focus on work. That would clear his mind. He needed to find that damn camel. Every day he was roaming free was a slap in the face. For heaven’s sake, the damn camel was stoned out of his brain half the time; it was an insult that he had been able to elude Marcus for longer than an hour.

Marcus pulled out Norman’s file. It was now a little dog-eared from being read so many times. He stared at it without really reading,
his mind wandering back to the damn panda again.

His snake slithered round his mind, urging him to go to her. He thought of the way that fucking mongoose had his hands on her, and had been trying to kiss her. Would her new date try and do that as well; would he be even more handsy than the mongoose? Even worse, would she welcome his attention?

Marcus slammed his fist on the desk. No, he couldn’t allow another man to touch her. He had to see her. His snake rumbled in happiness.

It didn’t have to be like it was with Kelly. Ling could be his true mate, which would mean she was meant to be with him. If she were, she wouldn’t cheat on him; she would be loyal to him, and she would soothe his violent temper. He’d seen it with his brother and his mate. He was even worse than Marcus, and yet just a smile from his rabbit mate, and he was purring like a kitten.

Yes, he needed Ling; he needed to be with her, right that second.

Crap, she was on that damn date, god only knows where. By the time he found her, it might be too late. Even if he did, what would he do? Rock up to her and her date and say, ‘I’m sorry I was a tool, but I’ve really enjoyed our mild flirtation, please marry me.’ No, that wouldn’t do at all. Knowing his luck she’d probably laugh at him and trip off to be with her date. He was probably six foot five, with bulging muscles, and a multi-millionaire who owned his own private island.
God, Marcus hated the fucker!

He felt his skin tighten and flex as his snake started to push through. Marcus tamped him back and relaxed.

There was an easier way to get her attention. He was her boss after all. Maybe there could be a work emergency. Technically she had to do what he said… His lips curled up wickedly; oh the things he would like her to do.

He reached for his phone.
He was finally thinking clearly.

*

Ling plastered a smile on her face as she stirred her peanut butter milkshake.
Yes, she loved Lunar Burger, but it wasn’t exactly her idea of a great first date.
She expected to be wined and dined.

Hmmm, maybe she’d just been spoiled by Robert and Myron. Considering how those relationships had turned out, perhaps she should give this guy a chance.

She looked at him objectively; he was pretty handsome. He was a couple of years younger than Ling and had a youthful, smiling face. He was just under six foot and a tad skinny. He could do with a few muscles, nothing outrageous, just a few tight, sinewy muscles to fill out his shirt a little more, the way Marcus did…
No, bad girl, we’re not thinking about him anymore
. Her panda grumbled before the animal turned her back and became sullenly silent.

Damian hadn’t really talked about his family, but she knew from her mother that his parents came over from China, and he was born in Playa Lunar like she was. He was human but didn’t seem to have any issue with her stripping down and becoming a hairy, little critter once in a while. Hmmm, she wondered if Marcus would really have had a problem with her being a panda? Snakes tended to be quite speciesist. Although, he did have a niece who was a rabbit, so maybe…
No, stop it!
They had to get Marcus out of their heads; he made it quite clear he wasn’t interested. Her panda whined, and Ling ignored her completely.

“So, Damian,” she said, suddenly, interrupting his flow, “what kind of movies do you like?”

Damian blinked at her a few times. He’d been prattling on about the new Lunar Burger ad campaign, and before that he’d spent the entire car ride rhapsodizing about their new menu. Lord it was tedious;
a burger is just a burger!

When her mother arranged the date, he’d offered to pick her up, which was good because her car still smelled like that damn shark shifter.
Ugh, she needed to Febreeze it, asap.

He’d told her they were going somewhere special.
Yeah, real special
. You could find a Lunar Burger on every other street corner in Playa Lunar. He got all his food free from Lunar Burger, so he pretty much ate every meal there. He thought Lunar Burger served the best food in the world, and he saw no reason to try any other restaurant. Although put off by his narrow-mindedness and thrifty nature, she was impressed by how thin he was considering he ate fast food morning, noon and night.

He didn’t say anything. “Movies?” she prompted.

“Oh, right, yeah. Well, I don’t really have a lot of free time, I work long hours, after all, Lunar Burger doesn’t run itself. In fact, the last film I watched was a documentary about how healthy Lunar Burger is compared to our main competitors…”

Sigh
. Ling took a big bite of her Lunar turkey burger and, although the taste was exquisite, she groaned as a glob of the Mediterranean mayo plopped onto her shirt.
Fabulous
.

Damian didn’t even notice. He didn’t seem to notice anything about her. While Howard had lecherously watched her every movement, Damian barely even glanced in her direction. He actually seemed to spend more time looking at the restaurant counter, to see what people were ordering.

She wasn’t sure whether this was worse than last night or better.
Worse, definitely worse
. Last night, Marcus had shown up and given her a devastating kiss. Her panda practically panted at the memory, and Ling rubbed her fingers over her lips. She could almost still taste him. She looked around the restaurant, hopefully, before slumping back into the booth.
It seemed unlikely lightening would strike twice.

Damian started reciting the calorie content of all their burgers and Ling gave up completely on listening. She should have tasked Carly with calling her during the date. She could have pretended there was an emergency and ran off. They used to do it all the time when they were teenagers.

Oh, well, too late now.

She almost jumped as her phone trilled.
Holy crap! Was Carly psychic?

She fumbled to answer, murmuring to Damian that it might be important. He wasn’t listening. “Hello? Hello?”

There was a pause on the other end. “Ling?”

Ling felt like her heart actually missed a beat when his silky voice echoed down the line. “Marcus?” Her panda yipped.

Again, a pause. “I’m sorry to call you; I know that you’re busy.”
Was it her imagination or were the last few words spat out?
“But it’s about work; I could really use your help.”

Her help? Were there some files that needed alphabetizing as a matter of urgency?
“Are you sure you need my help?”

“Yes,” he hissed.

Ling glanced at Damian. Did she really want to run out on her date so she could moon over a guy who didn’t seem the least bit interested? Her panda yapped.
Yep, she did.

“Okay, but I don’t have my car with me…”

“I’ll pick you up, where are you?”

She gave him the address, and he hung up. She stared at her phone for a few beats, frowning.
What was going on with this guy?

“Problem?” asked Damian.

Ling put on the most apologetic face she could muster. “That was work; it’s an emergency. I really have to go.”

Damian nodded solemnly. “I understand.”

Ling tried not to roll her eyes. Of course he understood; he’d probably miss his first child being born if work called with an emergency.

She apologized again and left him to his double Lunar burger. He didn’t seem any more or any less happy by her absence.
She’d tell her mother to hold off on booking the wedding chapel for now.

Moments later, Marcus’ BMW roared up, and she eagerly ducked inside.

He was silent for a few minutes as he drove; when he finally spoke, she almost leapt out her seat in surprise. “I’m sorry I had to cut your date short,” he said crisply.

Ling smoothed her skirt over her thighs and was pleased to note Marcus was glancing in that direction. He wasn't totally immune. “It’s fine; it seemed like he was already in love with someone else anyway. I don’t think I could ever compete.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned. “He loves Lunar Burger far too much to ever let anyone else in.”

A smile pulled at his lips. “Interesting choice.”

“I know; if I were going to fall in love with a fast food restaurant, it would definitely be The Thai Factory.”

He chuckled before sobering. “I take it a second date isn’t on the cards.”

“No, and I only went on this one because my mother guilted me into it. I certainly didn’t want to be there.” She looked at him searchingly.

Marcus’ snake hissed in happiness. “We’re here.”

He rolled to a stop and turned the lights off. Ling looked at the window wonderingly. “Where is here, exactly? I thought you needed me to do some filing or something.”

Marcus fidgeted. “I need to do a bit of surveillance.”

Ling burst into laughter. “And you thought I’d make good back-up? Why didn’t you ask one of the bounty hunters?”

“They will all be busy.”
Not that he’d actually tried to find out.

Ling looked at him through narrowed eyes. “Busy, huh? And you didn’t think that maybe I was too busy for this?”