* * *
Kelsey wasn’t out like Lacey had hoped. Instead, she was sitting on the floor in the living room with three of her girlfriends, buried in books and study notes. Crud, why did her sister have to be so responsible and focused on her schoolwork all the time? Leo immediately trotted over to see what they were up to but quickly walked off in disappointment when it became obvious that there was no food to be had.
Kelsey looked up with a smile. “Hey, you two! How was the party?”
“Great,” Lacey said, but her sister already had her nose back in a book.
Apparently, her three friends weren’t as committed to their studying. They were all staring at Alex like he was a naked rock star. Their mouths were even hanging open.
Lacey would have said something about at least trying to make it look like they weren’t staring but didn’t want to embarrass them. Instead, she took Alex’s hand and led him into the kitchen. They might not have the apartment to themselves, but she didn’t want the date to end just yet. If nothing else, they could hang out in the kitchen for a bit. It was either that or invite him into her bedroom—and she wasn’t ready to send that kind of message.
She checked to make sure there was water in Leo’s bowl, then glanced at Alex. “You want something to drink?”
She reached for the handle of the refrigerator just as Kelsey and her friends let out loud laughs followed by a round of girlish chatter. One look at Alex’s face confirmed that he was thinking the same thing she was. This wasn’t a very good environment if they wanted some quality time together.
“Maybe we should have stayed at the SWAT compound,” she said wryly. “It would have been quieter at least.”
“We don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” he said. “I know a quiet place over on Abrams Parkway. In the middle of the week, they usually have jazz or blues performers playing. We can just sit and listen, even dance a little if you want.”
Suddenly, the idea of having Alex’s big, strong arms around her as they swayed to some smooth blues rhythms seemed very appealing. She hadn’t been out dancing in so long, she wasn’t sure if she remembered how, but with Alex, she was willing to learn all over again.
Lacey smiled, kind of surprised that she was doing something like this but exhilarated too. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Kelsey barely looked up when Lacey told her sister they were going out again. “Have fun, just not too much fun. I don’t want to have to bail you out of jail.”
“You never let me have any fun,” Lacey said, a fake whine in her voice as Alex opened the door for her. “What good is dating a cop if I can’t use his get-out-of-jail-free card now and then?”
Alex just chuckled.
* * *
“How’d you find this place?” Lacey asked.
Alex glanced around as he led her through the cozy club. There was a small stage positioned near the back of the place, a bar along the far wall, and lots of small tables and booths scattered about in between. The dance floor in front of the stage was only big enough to hold ten people, but that was okay. This place was mostly about listening to good music and having a quiet conversation with friends. It was the perfect place to bring Lacey.
“The daughter of the owner was held hostage by her ex-boyfriend a few years ago,” Alex explained as they slid into a secluded booth in the corner. “When we got her out safely, he invited us to come by for some drinks on the house. I liked the place, so I kept coming back.”
She pursed her lips, eyeing him thoughtfully. “First a raid on an illegal animal operation that gets you backstage access to the Dallas Zoo, and now a hostage situation that ends with you getting free drinks at a jazz club. Does your entire social life revolve around people that you’ve helped?”
Alex laughed. “Pretty much.”
A waitress came by to take their drink orders, then told them that the blues band would start their set soon.
“I’m going to run to the ladies’ room,” Lacey said after the woman left. “I’ll be right back.”
Giving him a quick kiss, she slid out of the booth, flashing him a smile over her shoulder as she left. Alex leaned back in the booth, resting his arms on either side of him, following the sexy sway of her hips underneath her silky skirt. While he was thrilled with how well the date was going, Lacey had him more than a little off balance. He knew she was interested in him—he could hear the rapid beating of her heart, see her breasts rise and fall as her breathing picked up, smell her arousal.
But there were times when he could feel her put up a wall as she actively fought to control her body’s reactions. He had no idea why she’d do something like that. Worse, he wondered if she was doing it in response to something he’d done. He hated to think he was the reason she occasionally shut down on him.
He only hoped it wouldn’t happen tonight.
The waitress showed up with their drinks just as an extremely familiar scent hit his nose. His head snapped around, tracking the scent he was so used to smelling every day. That’s when he realized he wasn’t picking up one werewolf but two—and one was a woman.
Alex locked in on the band onstage. The guy was whipcord lean and wore jeans and a T-shirt as well as a tweed fedora cocked a little sideways on his head. He had a couple of tats visible along his arms and across the top of each finger too. The woman was about the same age, dressed with a little bit more attention to style, but with a bit of boho rebel thrown in, and her sandy blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
There was a third man on the stage, setting up drums in the back, but Alex was only interested in the couple. They were the werewolves. Their size and demeanor suggested they were betas, but he wasn’t necessarily sure of that. Jayna wasn’t very big, yet she was an alpha, while her pack mate Moe—who was almost as big as Alex—was a beta. What kind of werewolves they were wasn’t really important, though. The important part was that they were in town.
There might be a lot more werewolves in Dallas than there used to be, especially with Jayna and her beta pack, but Alex had never walked into a place and stumbled over any before. It wasn’t like they could all ignore each other and act like none of this had happened, since they were staring straight at him.
