There was no way she stank badly enough for them to smell her all the way from the doorway.
Even if they did have super goddamn noses.
Ryan lowered his hand and blinked.The move was so exaggerated, she knew it was more than just a regular movement of his eyes.
It reminded her of when you were in a room where the smell of something like ammonia could make your eyes water.
“Sweetheart, you need to go upstairs.”
Marc appeared at her back, then growled at the sight of the cops staring at her.
Ryan held up a hand when he started to stride forward.“Marc.Take El back upstairs.”
El stomped her foot.“No!I want to know what the cops have to say, dammit.”
She knew whatever was going on was serious because Ryan quickly nodded.“Okay, stay there.We’ll go to the office and you can sit in the ante-room and listen to us on the intercom, okay?”
She frowned at him, astonished by his quick capitulation.
He wanted her to agree so badly that she was allowed to listen in without him bitching at her?
Trip strode forward, seeming to sense her confusion.He cupped her chin in his hand just as she’d done to Marc a few moments before, and murmured, “It’s okay, sweetheart.You’ve gone into heat and your scent is very strong.”
Her eyes widened in mortification.“Heat?”she squeaked.
His grimace was rueful.“Yeah.It’s potent.”This close, she could feel his cock tenting his pants—and though she was used to that around them, she wasn’t accustomed to them having a hard on outside of a sexy situation where they were all fully dressed with visitors attending them.And not just any visitors either, but cops!Cops with very important answers to questions that had life or death consequences.
Marc grumbled.“Fuck, she must have gone into it last night.I knew something was different, just didn’t know what.”
Trip cut him a look.“Your Lion must have gradually grown used to the scent change; because if you couldn’t scent her, Jesus, Marc.”
Behind her, she sensed Marc’s approach and didn’t mind when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.“We’ll wait upstairs for you to pass.”
She blinked, bemused as he half-dragged her up the stairs.When they were on the landing, his ears were pricked for the sounds of the men moving.She heard them herself and started for the stairs without a prompt from him.
“You should stay up here,” he said blandly, but there was a thickness to his tone that told her he was aroused, and that if they stayed up here, there would be more sexy times to be had than anything else.
She narrowed her eyes at him.“You guys have a lot of explaining to do.”
His nostrils flared at her challenging tone but she jerked her chin up defiantly.
“You never told me I went into heat.”
“We, I,” he corrected, “never expected you’d go into heat so soon.But I guess it fits.”
“Fits what?”She shook her head at her own question.“Never mind.Tell me later.I refuse to miss whatever the hell the cops are here to discuss.”
She didn’t know why, but her instincts were clamoring at her.Maybe it was because she was in heat, and for whatever reason, that made her touchier than usual.Or maybe it was just because her life was such a goddamn shitstorm at the moment, she was sick of all the BS…
Either way, she wanted to know more.And if it meant wading through horny males to make that happen, then it was just tough shit.
She pressed the button on the intercom the minute she reached the desk in the outer office of Ryan’s study.
She wasn’t sure why he had an office here; not when he had one in Pride House and when he worked, he was usually over there anyway.But, he did, and at that moment, she was relieved for it.
“…news from the Pantera?”
She recognized Bailey’s voice the least because he was the only one she’d met in Panther form and not human.She strained to get used to his tones, wishing she could sense more nuance from him—it was astonishing what she’d started to pick up from voice alone.
