She sniffled. Oh good grief, she was crying. I gritted my teeth and counted to five. “Look, Eugie. Rand’s freaked out and he’s mad that he had to find out about the baby from one of the wizards. By the time he processes it and tomorrow rolls around, he will have calmed down.” And so will you, I hope.
“Okay. You’re right. He just gets on my last nerve.”
“It’s his greatest talent.” That earned a chuckle at least, and Eugenie hung up with a promise to call me if Rand made contact again. Unfortunately, it was harder for me. I might never be able to sleep again.
One thing was for sure. I had to come up with a Rand-friendly compromise by two o’clock tomorrow afternoon, but first I needed to talk to one loose-lipped, might-never-have-sex-again enforcer.
CHAPTER 11
After an hour during which the snowscape had rendered me semi-comatose, I forced myself to get up and roll the food cart outside the door for housekeeping to retrieve. I felt my big-mouthed shapeshifter long before I saw him rounding the corner. His shifter aura, fueled by adrenaline, radiated more strongly than I’d ever sensed it. Then again, he usually kept his brain buttoned up when he was around me lest my empathy pick up on something he didn’t want me to know.
Plus, I’d never encountered him after he’d been with a whole bunch of testosterone-laden enforcers, most of whom were either werewolves or alpha shifters. Even the women, or so Alex had said.
Enforcers, he told me, were drafted based on badassitude, not gender.
His badass self turned the corner from the elevator, and I stifled a smile. Black boots, black combat pants, black sweater with the sleeves pushed up, and no coat. His dark hair was its usual tousle of almost-too-long dark waves, and his cheeks had a rosy glow from the brisk wind. He was gorgeous.
I had to remind myself how annoyed I was with him, especially when he treated me to the sexy grin that caused a sexy crease on the left side of his sexy mouth. Damn his eyes, which also were sexy.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, wrapping me in a bear hug and lifting me off my feet. He put all that pent-up energy into one hell of a kiss. Man, I hated to ruin this by bringing up problems, but all I had to do to get in the proper mood was envision Rand’s petulant face as he talked about being elf.
I wrenched my mouth from his with some effort. “Put me down.”
“Uh-uh. Don’t wanna talk.” He kissed me again, full of promise of what we might do if I’d just let it go and enjoy the ride. He nibbled his way down my neck, edging close to my souvenir from Garrett Melnick.
I threaded my finger through his thick hair, still damp from melted snow, singled out a few strands, and jerked them out.
“Ouch.” He let me go and rubbed his head. “You play dirty.”
I turned and went back into the room, holding the door open for him. “You can’t kiss this conversation away.”
“It almost worked. Maybe more tongue next time?” He gave me a grin that made him look about sixteen. Well, a really hot sixteen. It was hard for me to stay mad at him, and he took shameless advantage of it.
“Look, let’s talk about Zrakovi and Eugenie and then we can kiss the rest of the night.” If the talk went well, anyway. I figured if Jean Lafitte had half a brain, he’d stay in nice, warm Barataria until morning. I should have a few pirateless hours to spare.
“Fine.” Alex stretched out on the bed, and I pointedly pulled the straight-backed chair away from the window, planted it several feet from him, and sat in it with my arms crossed. If I got anywhere near that bed we wouldn’t be talking. He knew that, too, which was why he stretched like a cat, causing all the muscles under that sweater to flex.
Cheater.
He huffed out a sigh. “Yeah, okay. I told Zrakovi about Eugenie, as I’m sure you know. I understand why you wanted me to wait, but I didn’t want him blindsided if Rand found out another way and stirred up a conspiracy theory.”
All of those things were true, even the part about Zrakovi needing to know. He just hadn’t needed to know this morning. That brigantine had set sail, though, so I let it go.
“What did he say? And what did you expect him to do once you’d told him?”
Alex sat up and swung his legs off the bed, probably either deciding I wasn’t going to join him or figuring he needed his feet on the floor in case the situation called for a quick escape. “His exact words were, ‘Oh my.’ Which, with him, is like dropping an f-bomb.” Alex scraped his hands through his hair. I think he was going for sexy bedhead but kind of crossed into crazed territory. Or maybe I was just annoyed.
“I figure he’ll go back to Edinburgh and think about it for a day or two,” Alex said. “As far as I know, that’s what he’s done.”
I crossed my legs and examined my un-pampered cuticles. I thought the Monteleone had a day spa I needed to visit, at Zrakovi’s expense, and I planned to tip big. “Well, you are dead wrong. He made a detour before he went back to Edinburgh, or either came back once the Elders finished their meeting.”