Alyssa said that last part so softly she probably thought he wouldn’t hear. But he’d heard all right. That’s when his inner werewolf told his human side to get lost. The animal inside him wanted her, risk be damned.
Chapter 7
“I don’t have any tea, but do you want to come in for coffee?” Alyssa asked when they pulled into the parking lot of her hotel the next morning. Zane had admitted he preferred Earl Grey over java, but they’d both consumed copious amounts of Starbucks dark roast during their late-night shift, so she knew he drank it sometimes. All that coffee was probably the reason she wasn’t aching to crawl straight into bed even though she’d been awake for well over twenty-four hours. “I have a couple of boxes of Pop-Tarts I’d be willing to share, too. I know it’s not much, but I feel badly I still haven’t bought you breakfast. And since you paid for dinner last night, that’s two meals I owe you.”
Zane gave her an appraising look as he parked the SUV. She’d caught him doing that several times last night. Like she was a puzzle he was trying to figure out. Then again, he might simply be wondering if she had an ulterior motive for asking him in. She didn’t. She’d had a good time last night and was hoping the fun didn’t have to end just because their shift was over.
It was sad to admit, but that stakeout had been the most fun she’d had with a guy in years. That pretty much defined her love life, didn’t it? A twelve-hour stakeout on the graveyard shift with a guy who might not be totally human was the best date she’d been on in years. Christine had been right—her love life was pathetic.
“What kind of Pop-Tarts are we talking about here?” Zane asked, clearly intrigued by the offer, but not shutting off the engine yet. “Please tell me you don’t eat those unfrosted fruit-filled things? If so, forget it. You couldn’t pay me enough.”
She laughed. “Nope, I’m old-school. Chocolate fudge and brown sugar cinnamon.”
He flashed her a grin. “You had me at chocolate. But I won’t turn up my nose at the brown sugar cinnamon, either.”
Killing the engine, Zane climbed out and fell into step beside her as they walked into her hotel. As they rode up in the elevator, Alyssa knew she’d be lying if she said the possibility of getting another kiss out of him didn’t make her giddy with anticipation. They’d only kissed once, but damn, it had been a doozy. She was seriously hoping for another one, even if it meant bribing him with toaster pastries.
“Do you always drag your own coffeemaker with you when you stay in a hotel?” he asked as Alyssa made a fresh pot at the counter in her room’s kitchenette. “What’s wrong with the one they have?”
Alyssa made anickface as she dumped fresh grounds in the filter of her eight-cup machine. “Are you kidding? Those things are nasty. It’s a known fact that most hotels never clean them. I shudder to think about the freaky crap people probably pour in there. And if that’s not enough, the coffee that comes out of those contraptions tastes like pond scum. With all the time I spend in hotels, it makes more sense to bring my own.”
While the coffee dripped, she dug through the cabinet above the sink and pulled out two boxes of Pop-Tarts, one of each flavor. The chocolate felt a little light and she could foresee a scenario where she might have to fight Zane for the last one in the box. If so, she wasn’t sure if she could take him. It would be worth the tussle, though. She couldn’t imagine anyone she’d rather wrestle with more than Zane.
“Speaking of hotels,” he murmured, following her over to the small table, “are you ever going to tell me what the FBI has you running all around the country doing? And before you answer, I noticed the way you avoided talking about yourself the entire night.”
Alyssa sighed. Even though they’d talked the whole night, she’d managed to avoid telling him almost anything personal. Instead, they’d spent the time talking about what it was like growing up in London, his family, his time in the British SAS, and especially his SWAT teammates. Zane had told her so many crazy stories about his friends back in Dallas she almost felt like she knew them.
Was it really fair of her not to give him a look inside her own life? As long as she made sure not to say anything she shouldn’t.
She pulled the single silver package of the chocolate flavor out of the box and shook it in his direction, “Only two left. You okay with sharing?”
Zane seemed to consider that. “Normally, I’d say Sauron does not share. But in this case, I think I can be persuaded.”
Alyssa snorted at theLord of the Ringsreference, tearing open the foil package and handing one of the frosted toaster treats across the table to him.
“When I first joined the FBI, I worked in the Sacramento field office for four years,” she said in answer to his earlier question. “But for the past year and a half, the FBI has been paying me to fly around the country and investigate cases that either haven’t shown up on anyone’s radar yet—like the kidnappings here in LA—or ones that seem destined for the cold-case stack. They run the gamut from murders and kidnappings to missing persons, assaults, and rapes.”
That was a shockingly good synopsis of her job—if you left out the weird, supernatural stuff and the fact that none of her cases ever made it to a trial. Well, a normal trial at least.
Zane didn’t say anything as he walked over to get their coffee. He fixed her cup exactly the way she liked it, then came back over to the table with mugs in hand, sat down, and picked up his Pop-Tart.
She liked a man who ate his Pop-Tarts cold. It was damn sexy in her opinion.
“The FBI sends you out on all these cases by yourself?” He eyed her. “Isn’t that kind of crazy?”
She shrugged and sipped her coffee, wondering why it tasted better when Zane made it than when she did even though they both added the same amount of cream and sugar. “I work better on my own.”
That earned her another look that was hard to interpret. “Everyone needs backup now and then, no matter how good they are.”
“I call in backup when I need it. Admittedly, it can take a little while since the rest of my team is spread out all across the country, but if it’s important, my boss in DC will get people to me.”
Alyssa realized how horrible that arrangement sounded the moment the words were out of her mouth. But it was the truth, and at least in this particular area, she didn’t feel the need to make up a lie.
Zane regarded her silently, his expression still unreadable. “I won’t bother to point out how incredibly stupid that scheme is. In the past year or so that you’ve been part of this team, how many times have you called and asked for backup?”
Alyssa knew Zane wasn’t going to like the answer. “Technically, I’ve called for backup twice. But in both of those situations, I only needed them for cleanup. I’d already handled the situation.”
He only grunted and swigged his coffee. He took his with cream, no sugar.
