Another time the human’s discomfort with his nudity might have made Luis grin, but not now. His muscles were jumping with adrenaline, and every word they spoke felt like a delay. He could change back to a dog and make that uncomfortable run for the bars, but he didn’t want to give anybody plausible deniability for shooting a dangerous stray they found running loose through town. Better to stay in human form and take a vehicle.
From outside the trailer, another man called, “Dan, Stewart—what’s keeping you back there? Are we playing poker any time soon?”
“I’ll try on anything you’ve got,” Luis said to Jackson.
“Right,” Jackson said.
Even as the two humans turned to leave, lights flashed across the trailer windows. A car pulled around the corner of the house and rolled to a stop. The headlights cut out. Luis gently nudged the curtain away from the window, looking outside as the trickle of adrenaline running through his veins became a flood.
The car was a 1984 BMW. Claudia climbed out of the driver’s seat. She still wore jeans and a black sweatshirt, her lean, graceful body and hard, composed face illuminated by the light that shone from the house’s windows. Metal glinted briefly as she tucked her Glock at the small of her back. Luis relaxed as his immediate sense of urgency eased. He let the curtain fall back into place.
“Be right back,” Jackson said. Stewart had already stepped out, the frigid night air swirling into the trailer’s interior.
Luis nodded. He glanced at the older male as he said, “Thanks. For everything.”
Jackson returned the nod then shut the door behind him as he left.
Luis twitched the curtain aside again. He watched Jackson intercept Claudia, and they stood close together, talking. Claudia glanced at the trailer.
He turned away and looked around the interior. After a moment’s hesitation, he strode over to the shadowed alcove of the bed, took a sheet, folded it a couple of times then wound it around his waist. You know, to at least cover the basics.
As he knotted it, the trailer door opened again and Claudia stepped inside, talking as she entered. “Jackson told me about the healing potions and that you were able to—” Her voice cut off abruptly.
He turned to face her, one eyebrow raised, and a vain part of him felt intensely satisfied as she looked as poleaxed as Jackson and Stewart had, her vivid green gaze stricken.
Then one corner of her beautiful mouth lifted. She said, “Boy howdy, Precious, you really are one big son of a bitch.”
“Yes,” he said.
He walked over to her, moving gently. The distance was not far, perhaps four paces. Her expression changed and grew wary, eyes watchful, but, he was glad to see, she didn’t retreat like Jackson and Stewart had. Ready to pull back at any sign of aversion, he bent and tilted his head. He noticed she held her breath, but he didn’t. He inhaled deeply her warm scent that carried a hint of gun oil and now held a hint of beer.
So goddamn hot. And that was no longer hypothetical.
He pressed his lips lightly, quickly, to the high, firm curve of her cheekbone and drew back to look into her eyes. He said quietly, “Thank you for saving my life.”
The stiff wariness eased from her long body. She gave him a faint but real smile. There were tiny laugh lines in her smooth, tanned skin, at the corners of her mouth and her eyes.
“You’re welcome, Luis.”
Really shaken for the first time that evening, Claudia tried to hide the impact that Luis in his human form had on her.
He was so tall, she noticed he had to be careful that he didn’t scrape his head on the trailer’s ceiling. His body was massive, heavy muscles overlaid on strong, sturdy bones, with a wide, powerful chest that tapered to a long, washboard stomach. His smooth, brown, silken-looking skin wrapped the whole package like the world’s most extravagant Christmas gift, and that sheet he’d knotted at his lean hips was the bow. He had dark, bitter-chocolate eyes, boldly molded features and a mouth that was so full and sensual, it should have looked girlish but didn’t. His thick, black, gleaming hair held a hint of curl. It was a touch too long for the style he wore and flopped in his eyes, as though he were a couple weeks’ late in getting it cut.
As he walked toward her, he moved with a fighter’s easy, athletic confidence, and when he brushed her cheek, his mouth was very warm against her chilled skin.
She was used to big, tough men, and experienced with commanding them in combat missions. In some ways, Luis’s physical presence was so damn familiar it was comforting on a visceral level. That was disturbing all on its own, because her gut insisted that she recognized him and his presence filled a hole that had been inside of her ever since she had lost the others in her unit and retired.
As if that weren’t enough to knock her off balance, his presence had an intense vitality filled with a sexuality that ran dark and hot. It was sultry, powerful. It was knowledgeable. He carried that knowledge in his DNA, and it manifested in every languid, graceful move of his body and in those dark, intelligent eyes.