“So why were you out there?”Elias asks the question on my mind.
“Looking for clues.I told you, I need a story for my boss.”
“You could have been attacked.”Elias seems incredulous at her actions.
“I had bear spray.”
“As if that would have helped.”He shakes his head and gestures to me.“Shift back, for goodness sake.”
I draw my panther brows together.Elias has always been a bossy bastard.But I do as he says and summon my human energy.I stretch upward as my skin chills and my spine contracts and arches.
“In the name of...”Maisey is staring at me as I refocus with my human eyes.“That was...”
“Showing off.He’s always been super quick at shifting,” Elias says with a huff.“Get dressed, will you?”
“You never used to complain about me being naked.”I reach for my boxers and grin at him.
“Yeah, well, Maisey doesn’t need to see you flaunting your goods.”
I glance at her.She’s studying my cock like she’s hungry for it.It twitches and my balls tighten.I quickly pull up my boxers.What the hell am I doing getting turned on by a woman’s attention?That isn’t me.Never has been and never will be.
She gives me a half smile.“You have a great body, human and panther, I’m not complaining if you want to be naked.”
Elias laughs sharply.“You’re barking up the wrong tree.He doesn’t bat on your team.”
“Is that right?”She looks at me as if she’s seeing into my soul, at desires I don’t even know I have.
Suddenly I feel like it is only a thin veil separating me from her.As though she has cast some kind of spell on me in a language I can’t understand but want to.
“I need a drink.”She stands suddenly and reaches for a purse.“A proper one.”After withdrawing a brush, she pulls it through her long silky hair.
Elias watches mesmerized and I wonder if she’s unwittingly cast the same spell on him.
“I’m buying if you want to join me.”She slips on boots and then stalks to the door.
We both rush after her, in the hallway our shoulders jostle and Elias growls when he insists on going through the doorway first.
“Oh, give it a rest,” I whisper.“We are in deep here.”
“I know.And it’s time to figure out what is going on.”
“And who the hell she is.”
The Gin Room is only a few minutes’ walk from Maisey’s apartment block.The daylight is fading and the air is cooling but once inside we are wrapped in subtle golden lighting and the warmth of bodies and breath.There is a low hum of conversation and Maisey walks straight to the bar.“My usual, please, Terence.”
“Coming right up.”The tall barman with the small round glasses pours her a Bombay with light tonic.
“What do you guys want?”she asks.
“That looks good.”Elias points at her tall fizzing drink.
“Sure.”I nod.“That.”
“Two more,” she orders.
We don’t usually drink, maybe the odd beer, not much else, but right now we need to fit into Maisey’s world as best we can and that includes a drink at The Gin Room.
After a few minutes we find a booth at the rear.Several candles, dripping wax, sit on a shelf next to us, and the mellow music is much quieter.I settle opposite Maisey, Elias folds down at her side.
