"I'm in charge," Mik repeated in a low, cold voice.
"In charge of the Colorado Chapter of RADOPA, not of me," I whispered back. Mik turned his face away from my neck and our eyes met, our mouths inches apart. Heat flooded between my thighs, and my muscles clenched in protest. It'd been so long since I'd gotten laid, and here this asshole was, tempting me, using his vamp pheromones against me.
I slapped my hand over the bite wound on my neck and Mik went completely still. He moved toward me carefully, slowly. And then he closed the space between us, pressing his mouth to mine, sliding our tongues together.
Our kiss was fucking everything.
My hands dropped onto his shoulders and squeezed, just before Mik wrapped his arms around me and lifted me onto his desk, stepping between my thighs. His hard crotch met the throbbing heat between my legs. Considering I was wearing little more than a t-shirt, Mikhail's black denim jeans were right up against the thin cotton of my panties. It would take little effort for us to shed our clothes and …
Breaking glass snapped us out of the moment, sending Mikhail wheeling back from me.
I saw Riot, shaking his hand out and spattering blood across the floor, and Finley standing there with his fangs out and his muscles so taut, he looked like his skin was about to split.
"You're fucking the vampire," Riot said, pulling a shard of glass from his knuckles. "All makes sense now."
"Get the fuck out of my office," Mikhail said quietly, and I couldn't decide if he was talking to Riot, Finley, or me. But then his face lifted and I saw his expression.
He wanted me as much as I wanted him.
Tearing my gaze away, I slid off the desk and stepped out through the broken glass of Mik's door, sliding between Riot and Fin.
"Don't do this," Finley said, his voice almost desperate as he reached out and curled his fingers around my upper arm. His touch burned me, flames of desire licking my flesh at all the points our skin met. When I met his gaze, the expression in it stole my breath away, and we had one of those short, sweet, silent conversations that we’d always used to have. Can’t you see how much I love you? he said without words. When he did speak, it wasn’t much easier to hear. "Don't leave us, Thea." The pleading in his voice is what really sent me running for the hills.
I pulled my arm from his fingers and then walked as slowly and evenly as I could toward the stairs, and then down to the street.
Once I was outside, I let out a small scream.
When the fuck had my life gotten so damn complicated?
My house was fucking obscene.
And I mean that in the best way possible. It was a hell of a long way from the treehouse I'd lived in with Riot and Fin, the treehouse that I still missed so much I dreamed of it on a weekly basis.
"Goddamn it," I growled, throwing a barbell across the room and watching it bounce on the padded floors of my home gym.
A home gym.
How obscene was that?
Sitting there on a workout bench in the downstairs gym area, I looked around and for a moment, I couldn't figure out who I was or what I was doing here. I'd wanted a different, less humble life. Well, I'd gotten it, hadn't I?
But at what price?
Choking back a laugh, I stood up and grabbed a rag to mop the sweat from my brow. It was hard for me to get a real workout down here by myself, especially after all the training I put in with the guild. Right now though, I just needed to blow off some steam.
I climbed up on the treadmill, cranked the speed and the incline, and took off, my gaze focused on the large oil painting of Ziff hanging on the wall across the room from me. If I'd had my way, Revel and I would already be sitting down for dinner and I'd have my best friend back.
Instead, we had reservations at some swanky ass steakhouse downtown.
Reservations.
Guess she was taking this whole mating thing seriously.
I sprinted in place for several more minutes and then just felt stupid as hell. What kind of kitsune was I, running inside a beige painted basement?
Slamming my hands against the treadmill to turn it off, I felt this rage inside of me. I did need to run, but I needed to do it outside.
"Screw this." I headed back up the stairs to the main level and shifted into my fox form, white paws moving across the marble tile floor and toward the open back doors. The trees blew in a soft, sweet wind and even though the sun was setting, there were still enough golden rays left to light up the backyard.
I sprinted across the patio and then the lawn, squeezing between the thin metal bars of the fence and onto a greenbelt that was protected by the city. I had no destination in mind, just an insatiable need to run.
Taking off down the grassy stretch, I headed for the least busy street in the neighborhood, looked both ways, and then crossed. Look at me, following the rules and everything. Such a good girl. Insert eye roll here. My fox form might be small and thin, the complete opposite of Bennett's wolf and Nix's coyote, but I was fast and agile; I knew what I was doing.
The park on the opposite side of the road was empty; it was too cold out for humans. Just as that thought crossed my mind, little flakes began to fall, dancing in the dying sunlight. Well, there was that snow Bex had mentioned.
My white form disappeared into the flurry as I skirted a playground and made for a copse of trees. I didn't feel better until I was beneath their canopy. So many thoughts were running through my mind. The laced party drugs and Nix Locklear, though, those were far away. Mostly, I was thinking about Mik. And Fin. And Riot.
The image of my ex's bloody knuckles was haunting my brain. I paused in the shadow of the trees, sat down in the dirt, and watched snow fall outside of the copse. I'd traded in moments like this, wrapped in my fox form, surrounded by nature … for a big house and a home gym and a really nice fucking car.
I should've been over the moon about all that.
Last week, I was.
But I couldn't stop the heavy hand of guilt from bitch-slapping me across the face.
What, exactly, I was going to do about that, I had no clue.
Hopefully, this was just a passing fancy.
Dinner with Revel … and then maybe I could offload Fin and get rid of this guilt.
Because shifters losing their ability to change was an apocalyptic nightmare, one that I planned on at least helping to solve. Because I didn't join RADOPA just for money, right? Originally, I'd been looking to make a difference, yet somehow, I'd settled for killing people. But Mik's organization was about more than just death.
We took down bad guys.
We solved problems.
So first problem up was my magic and lack thereof.
With a sigh, I rose to my feet and then stretched in a deep bow, fluffing my white tails around me and wondering why, of all people, I'd been blessed with nine at such a young age. As far as I knew, I wasn't particularly special.
The Fox Goddess, Inari, must be looking out for me, I thought as I trotted back toward the house.
A dinner date.
It'd been a long time since I'd had one of those, and I was hellbent on enjoying it.
Revel Jones had picked a table in the back corner of the restaurant, near a roaring fireplace whose glow highlighted her high, sharp cheekbones and full mouth. Ziff was sitting on her shoulder which sort of infuriated me and threatened to steal my good mood. What was it with this woman that had me so bent out of shape?
This irrational jealousy wasn't like me at all, and I didn't like it.