She suddenly looked like a sulking teenager annoyed by her parents’ presence. “Yes?”
“Need to have a talk,” Daniel said.
“Haven’t we talked enough?”
“Sure, if you actually said anything. However, since you decided to phone in the questionnaire, we’ll need to try it again.”
She sat up, then pushed up her glasses so they rested on her head. “I told you everything you’re going to get out of me.”
The screeching of the patio chairs against the concrete grated on Kyle’s senses, but the slowness of it helped to send the message. They were in no hurry and she couldn’t maneuver or manipulate them. Once the chairs were moved over—three, since they left her onthe ground—Kyle handed over a fresh packet of papers and a pen.
She narrowed her eyes. “No. You don’tneedto know any of this.”
Kyle offered her the same stubborn look back. “Actually, we do, and this isn’t negotiable. It’s about the only thing that isn’t, sugar.”
She snorted at the nickname. “What are you going to do? Refuse to work with me?”
Playing hardball?Kyle wasn’t sure if that was her just being difficult or if she was truly that uncomfortable with the idea of sharing her past with them.
He leaned back in his chair as if it didn’t matter to him a bit. “Yeah, we will.”
That got to her. She sat up tall. “You’re bluffing. You need me for this.”
“Yeah, we do need you, but we won’t hesitate to call it off if we need to. We won’t do this the wrong way, won’t put you or us in danger by going into it when you won’t even fill out a simple form. I mean, Alison, if you couldn’t trust us to even tell you some of our history, would you ever want to put your life in our hands? Would you think we could handle a case like this then?”
She shifted to her knees, the action seeming almost instinctual in a way that Kyle tried to ignore. “You didn’t fill one out,” she argued.
“That’s where you’re wrong, sweet.” Daniel held up the three packets the alphas had filled out. “This isn’t a one-way street. We aren’t asking anything from you that we won’t do. In case you didn’t know, my safe word is red and I am not into pegging.”
Her eyebrows inched toward one another.
Daniel’s laugh was downright pleased. “Oh, you are too much fun. Doesn’t really matter what pegging is right now. My point is, this all goes both ways. You want to know about us? It’s here. Now, are you going to be a good girl and fill that out?”
She blew out a hard breath but nodded. She might not like it, but apparently, she’d damn well do it.
And Kyle had to admit, he couldn’t wait to hear her answers.
I wonder how much trouble I’d get in for rebreaking Kyle’s nose…
Probably quite a bit. If they threatened to pull the plug on the case over paperwork, she suspected broken bones was one of those hard limits they’d talked about.
She held her hands out for the paper.
“Uh-huh, pet,” Trent said. “You had your chance. I want to make sure each answer is satisfactory, so we’ll ask, you’ll answer, and I’ll write it down. Don’t like it? Then next time, do as you’re asked the first time.”
Alison’s mouth hung open. She’d never been spoken to like that, at least not since she’d become an adult.
And yet all the indignation in the world didn’t change what needed to happen. “Fine,” she muttered and crossed her arms. Only after a too-long stare by Kyle did she realize the action made her breasts press together and gave her a hell of a lot of cleavage. She stopped immediately and ignored his chuckle.
The first questions were easy. Medical history—only a tricky shoulder that acted up from time to time—and personal history. That one she was vague about.
Trent’s lifted eyebrow meant he’d caught it, but they let it go. Her childhood wasn’t relevant, and she had no desire to put it on the table for them to dissect.
“Virgin?” Kyle asked.
She offered up her best deadpan stare. “I’m thirty. Of course I’m not a virgin.”
“Have you ever slept with an alpha?”
