“No joke.” Laina cast her eyes toward the now-invisible spell above them as they returned the way they’d come, wondering who her secret benefactor might be.
ChapterTwenty-Six
When Laina reached the mansion, she expected to find Milo in need of a walk and Kyle still asleep. After all, when he’d left her side after midnight, he’d put in several more hours at the club. But while Milo was still in his crate, what she found outside Kyle’s room chilled her to the bone. A camera crew had gathered in the foyer, a girl with a shield-sized reflective disk jogging up the grand staircase as if she were late for a meeting.
“What’s going on?” Jason asked from behind her.
“There’s a camera crew. They must be interviewing Kyle about the shooting yesterday,” she said.
A man with a fistful of cables paused, having overheard her comment, and shook his head. “Nothing that exciting. Just a routine photo shoot for the magazine. Do you want to come up and watch?”
She shrugged. “After you.” She followed the man up the stairs, navigating cords and a crowd of assistants and technicians who had assembled in the hall outside Kyle’s room.
“Maybe we shouldn’t.” Jason grabbed her arm from behind, turning her away from Kyle’s room. His expression confused her. Embarrassment? Yes. That was it. But not for himself. Jason was embarrassed for her. But why?
The two workers in front of her parted, and she turned her head to look straight into Kyle’s room. Her breath caught in her throat, and ice water poured into her veins. Kyle lay in the middle of the bed, his head resting in a nest of his fingers. A rail-thin redhead with creamy skin curled against his right side, her perky rose-colored nipples peeking over his chest. A platinum blonde, tucked into his opposite side, had her nude back to Laina, her lean muscles feathering out from her spine, while a brunette with a complexion like roasted cinnamon kneeled in front of him, straddling his legs.
“Lower your face to his lap, Bailey. I need to be able to see Kyle over the top of your head,” the photographer said. Wesley. He squinted into the camera viewer as the brunette spread her knees and lowered her chin toward Kyle’s crotch. The sound of the shutter clicking preceded Wesley saying, “That’s it. That’s it. You look beautiful.”
Laina took a step back and crashed into a girl with a nightmarish tray full of sexual props—dildos, floggers, a leather dog collar.
“Hey!” the girl yelled.
Kyle’s eyes caught hers in the doorway.
“Excuse me.” Cheeks hot, Laina navigated around the girl. Jason was right behind her, trying to calm her with a flurry of words she couldn’t hear through the pounding in her head.
“Wait!” Kyle called.
“Kyle, we don’t have the shot!” Wesley said.
“Just a minute.”
Laina broke into a jog, slipping into her room. “Lock the door,” she said to Jason. He did.
“Laina, let me in, please,” Kyle begged. “We need to talk.”
A deep growl rumbled up her throat.
“Give her some time, Kyle,” Jason replied. “I think everyone needs to take a beat and process this situation.”
“No. This isn’t what it looks like!” A thump that sounded a lot like Kyle’s forehead hitting the door sounded through the room.
“It looks like you’re being photographed naked with three equally naked women!” Laina’s wolf raged inside her, turning her voice gritty.
“It’s just for the magazine,” he called back. “It isn’t real. Nothing is going on.”
An uncomfortable facial tic twitched over her right eyebrow, and her wolf surged inside her. Fantasies of ripping the three women she’d seen in Kyle’s bedroom apart with her teeth filled her brain.
“Laina,” Jason whispered, reaching for her. “Your eyes. What’s happening?”
She backed deeper into the room.
“You need to get a grip. Your wolf’s really upset. I can see her under your skin.” He stared at her arm as a ripple moved from wrist to shoulder.
Laina closed her eyes and swallowed. A few deep breaths, and the wolf inside her calmed. She didn’t want to put this off. “Let him in, Jason. Then leave us.”
Eyes wide, Jason shook his head. “You could hurt him.”
