“No, put it near the window, he’ll love the sunlight in the morning,” I snatch it from him and set it right below the large window.
“Keep this up, and he will actually move in,” Nicholas says, smiling.
“He has an open invitation to that,” I tell Mickey, patting him some more as he makes himself at home in his bed. Unless his new owner comes as a package deal. That would be annoying.
I stand straight and look at Nicholas’s familiar but intimidating figure. The guy takes up too much space. He’s too loud. Even his expressions are loud. His eyes, dark looking right back at me, are big too. Predatory.
He stalks towards me and pulls me into him. “I’m so glad you invited me over the minute you came back,” he says gleefully.
“I did no—”
He crushes his lips into mine. Which isrude.
His hands slide over my arm, lighting their path. His lips are demanding, his tongue seeking entrance. I surrender, like I always do. I never want to. But I’ve never had any control here.
His hand rests lightly on my shoulder, but it’s still too much. I try to swallow a distressed noise that’s threatening to escape my lips. But he hears. Nothing ever escapes Detective McAnnoying, does it?
He pulls back, pinning me with his intense gaze. “Are you hurt?” His hands move over my shoulder, making me hiss. They travel down my arm, moving over my body, slowly, assessing.God, this man.
“It’s just a tiny thing on the shoulder,” I shake off his arms that were slowly snaking up my chest. No non-sexual touching needs to be happening here.
He pushes the sleeve of my T-shirt up, looking really angry the entire time. It’s so funny, I have so many insults lined up to throw at him, but his fury makes my throat dry. He narrows his eyes at my shoulder, which is now light purple.
“Whodid this to you?” he growls.Literally, his voice is so low I’m worried he’ll shift any second. If he’s so angry about a small bruise on me, what is he like with people he cares about?
Looking at him, I’m glad at least my neck didn’t bruise. Also, because that would have meant more injury and pain. But man, Nicholas has an unexpectedly short fuse.
“Why? You’re going to hunt them down and kill them?” I roll my eyes at his face.
His eyes narrow further, this time at me. “Most likely. Tell me,” he demands.
Wait, are his eyes glowing?Fuck. I snatch my arm from him and stalk towards the kitchen. There’s no way I’m letting him reveal himself to me. It’s in my best interest to keep pretending I don’t know anything about werewolves, at least with him. You know, a law enforcement officer?
“I can take care of myself,” I snap at him. I go around the kitchen counter and pull out a glass. I fill it with water. I suddenly feel thirsty.
Nicholas doesn’t move, facing away from me. His large shoulders move with his deep breaths. I take a few sips, letting him do his thing.
He turns to face me. I don’t point out how weird and obvious he’s being right now. He doesn’t acknowledge it either.
“I just don’t understand how someone gets injured at a veterinarian conference,” he says, sounding more like himself. Looking more like himself too, when he comes and stands in front of me on the other side of the counter.
“I was drunk, I fell against a wall at a club we went to after the conference,” I lie. My only options were to admit I was in a fight or to admit I was stupid. I’m going with stupid.
His eyebrows go up. “A wall did this to you?” he asks, sounding doubtful.
“Yes, do you want me to give you the address of the place so you can go beat the wall up for me?” I bat my eyes at him.
He frowns in response. “I thought you didn’t like to drink,” hesays suspiciously.
Why would he rememberthat? Ugh. “Well, I enjoy it occasionally.”
Time to change the subject. I walk over to the spare room and come back with a carton of dog food samples that brands keep sending over. I keep a few at the clinic, but bring the rest here because it clutters the small space.
“Let’s expand Mickey’s taste palette.”
He nods, still looking a second away from blowing off. I leave him by the counter and place a large feeding bowl in front of Mickey.
By the time Nicholas joins us, Mickey has tasted five different brands. I hand him the ones Mickey seemed to like and make him try a few more packets.
