“I’m sure I appreciate it,” Cat assured her. “But does your alpha?”
“Oh, Del Rey was called back to the hotel. He left Brim Stone to babysit. He’s still spoiling me and allowing me to be a bad girl.” Ashley drew the words out, her accent heavier, and Cat could practically see her winking before blowing Brim a kiss while she twirled her artificially highlighted blond tresses.
One of these days, Del Rey was going to lock her up for the sanity of the free world. She spread laughter and craziness wherever she went, if the potential for it existed.
“So, would you like my company for a minute?” Ashley asked brightly. “I thought I would saunter over to the very charming reporters, flash a little teeth—you know, my incisors were sharpened and polished to a wonderful sheen yesterday—then I could just hop over that little wall of yours and make them all feel like lazy little bums because they can’t quite make that jump.”
Oh, she so wanted to see that.
“Go ahead,” Ashley suggested. “You want to dare me so bad, don’t you, Cat?”
Never dare a Coyote. Cat almost laughed at the saying. Ashley begged to be dared. It was one of her favorite hobbies.
“Okay, Ashley, I dare you. But you can’t hurt the reporters. Knee another one in the groin and you forfeit the hot chocolate I’m making.”
“Ooh, I get hot chocolate, Brim,” she told the alpha’s second in command teasingly. “And she did dare me.”
One day, Brim was going to put the pretty, flirtatious little Breed over his knee and paddle her ass.
“Fix my chocolate, Cat. I’m on my way.”
Cat really wanted to watch the fun, but she was terrified of being called as a witness for Ashley again when she “accidently” maimed another reporter. No way in hell was she watching. What she didn’t know, she didn’t have to give a statement about.
She would make the chocolate and let Ashley tell her all about it.
Brim could give the statements.
? CHAPTER 11 ?
No reporters were harmed in the spectacular display Ashley gave them.
Of course Cat couldn’t help but turn back to watch the show. Ashley was simply far too entertaining.
As she said, a flash of her canines, God only knows what she said to them, then a lithe little jump and she was crouched on the edge of the adobe wall eight feet from the ground while cameras flashed. No doubt, she would definitely be on the front page of nearly every newspaper and website, in the nation.
“You’re crazy, Ashley,” she declared when the little blond Coyote female strolled into the kitchen, a pleased smile curving her lips as laughter lit her soft gray eyes.
Cat placed two cups of hot chocolate on the table set within an alcove surrounded by windows.
“I’m a Coyote,” Ashley declared with a careless shrug.
Sliding into a chair, the Breed female propped one leather-clad foot on the upholstered chair seat, leaned back and eyed the steaming chocolate avariciously.
“Drink the chocolate,” Cat laughed, taking a seat across from her. “And tell me what’s going on.”
A little pout pursed Ashley’s lips. “I can’t visit a friend?”
Cat lifted the cup of chocolate and sipped at it before setting it on the table once again and staring back at the other woman as she did the same.
A Breed’s enjoyment of chocolate was simply astounding. The look on the Coyote Breed’s face one of complete bliss. The sweet was to Breeds what some drugs were to humans.
Nothing more was said until the hot chocolate was consumed to the last drop, then Ashley sat back and stared at her, her expression more somber.
“Breeds are a strange lot, yes?” she asked softly, a hint of resignation touching her accented voice.
“I prefer the word ‘unique.’” It sounded much better to Cat’s ears.
“It is much the same.” Ashley sighed. Leaning forward, she propped her chin on her palm and watched Cat with an intensity that was strangely disconcerting. “You have mated that crazy Bengal, have you not?” A quirky little grin touched her lips. “I knew he was no Lion.” A little wrinkle of her nose followed the statement. “That scent was a little too perfect to suit me.”
Cat merely stared back at her, refusing to comment either way.
“Now, Jonas,” Ashley continued, “for all his intuitive powers, is so focused on one single-minded goal that he does not see what is right in front of his face. A Breed who is just as deceptive and just as intuitive as he is. They would make a frightening team, would they not?”
“Ashley, what the hell are you talking about?” Cat would be damned if she would allow this impish woman-child face Ashley put on to trick her into admitting anything.
She’d seen Ashley fool far too many people and silently acknowledged the young Coyote’s ability to endear the trust of the most hardened Breed antagonists.