Chapter 2
Stay here.
The damned Were was delusional if he thought he could order her around like a pet dog, Sophia told herself, swiftly rising to her feet and following him through the shattered window.
Okay, he’d saved her life. And while it annoyed the hell out of her that she’d needed his protection, she was willing to offer her gratitude.
But that didn’t mean he was going to go around snapping out commands and expecting her to obey.
Some bastard had just tried to kill her and she was going to find who the hell it was.
Then she was going to rip out their heart and feed it to the vultures.
Or at least that was the plan.
Managing to get through the window without slicing open a major artery, Sophia paused as she realized that Luc had already crossed the street and entered the three-storied brick office building.
Holy shit, he was fast.
And wicked strong.
And so gloriously, spectacularly male that he made her ache in all the right places.
Which, of course, was why she was so twitchy when he was near. And why she was so reluctant to hire him as her bodyguard.
Even if she would rather bite off her tongue than admit it.
Realizing that the gunshot had already attracted unwelcome attention, Sophia forced herself to walk at a steady pace across the street and into the building where the shooter must have taken aim at her. Humans were always so easily spooked. A few gunshots, even when they weren’t the target, and they were ready to panic.
It made her long to shift and really give them something to fear.
Muttering beneath her breath at the realization that her attacker could be halfway to St. Louis by now, she pulled open the glass door and entered the empty lobby.
Cautiously she sniffed the air, catching Luc’s enticing scent that blended with the humans that filled the building. But there was no hint of another demon in the area.
Could it have been a mortal who had taken a shot at her?
Puzzled, Sophia ignored the bank of elevators and pulled open the door to the stairwell. She hesitated only long enough to make certain nothing was lurking in the shadows before moving up the metal steps tucked against the wall.
She had only a second of warning before Luc was vaulting from the top floor to land directly before her.
Show-off, she silently muttered, even as her blood stirred at the grace of his movements and the power of his male body.
Then, reluctantly lifting her gaze from the impressive width of his shoulders, she met his burning black glare.
“What part of ‘stay here’ don’t you understand?” he snapped, his voice pitched to ensure it wouldn’t echo.
She slapped her hands onto her hips. “I’m the boss here and I don’t take orders from you.” Her expression hardened. “Or anyone.”
“Surprise me,” he muttered.
“What?”
“It’s my job to protect you,” he growled, stepping so close that his heat seared over her skin. “And if that means giving you orders then you’ll obey them. Got it?”
“Why you ...”
Brushing past him, she headed up the stairs. She bypassed the second floor, knowing from the angle of the bullet currently lodged in her desk that it must have been fired from the third floor. Personally she preferred her kills to be up close and personal, but she was a trained marksman.
Continuing upward, she sensed Luc directly behind her.
Hell, she more than sensed him. The pinpricks of his anger were biting into her skin, warning that his wolf was prowling close to the surface.
A powerful wolf, she inanely acknowledged.
One that was more than a match for her own.
Trying to shake off her distraction at his proximity, Sophia halted on the top floor landing. Before she could reach for the doorknob, however, there was a faint squeak on a stair below them.
The sound had barely reached her ears when Luc had her shoved up against the wall, caging her with his larger body. At the same time there was the deafening crack of a gunshot followed by a nerve-shredding screech as a bullet pierced the thin sheet of metal exactly where they’d been standing less than a second before.
“Por Dios.” Pushing back, Luc ran a searching gaze over her tense form. Once assured she was injury-free, he moved to glance over the railing. “Stay here.” He turned his head back to glare at her with eyes that were more wolf than human. “This time you’ll do as I say or I’ll handcuff you to the door. Got it?”
Without bothering to wait for her response, the idiot was leaping down the stairs, pursuing their trigger-happy attacker with a reckless disregard for sanity, self-preservation, and the basic laws of gravity.
Not that she should bother being worried.
Luc was obviously a trained thug who probably spent a large portion of his day chasing after crazies. If he wanted to take a bullet or two to prove he was a big, strong Were, then let him.
Except he had saved her life, a tiny voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Twice.
She at least owed him a thank-you before he got himself offed, didn’t she?
That was the only reason she was pacing the cramped landing instead of returning to her club and getting on with her day.
“Pain in the ass,” she muttered beneath her breath, her head snapping around as Luc jogged easily up the stairs.
“Were you saying something?” he asked, a faint smile toying at the edges of his mouth.
She ran a swift gaze over his magnificent body, refusing to allow herself to linger on the rippling muscles and the broad shoulders that were displayed to perfection by the tight T-shirt.
He was unharmed.
That was all that mattered.
“Did you find the shooter?”
“Nothing.” His jaw clenched with frustration. “Whoever it was managed to enter and leave the building without leaving a trace.”
“A witch?”
“Impossible to say without further information.” He shrugged. “I’ll do a more thorough search when the building closes for the night.”
She cleared her throat. “I haven’t thanked you.”
Expecting him to gloat, Sophia was caught off guard when he abruptly stepped forward, grasping her upper arms as he regarded her with a fierce glare.
“I don’t want you to thank me, Sophia. I want you to let me do my job.”
She shivered as the heat of his hands seared against her bare skin, her wolf growling in low approval.
Traitor.
“I haven’t given you the job.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’ve heard any number of rumors about you, but none of them mentioned that you were stupid.”
She stiffened. Until this moment she’d never given a damn what people said about her.
Who cared if she was known as an immoral, heartless slut?
Now she scowled at the thought he might be judging her without ever knowing the truth.
“What rumors?” she growled.
“That you’re the Queen of Bitches.”
“True.” No point in trying to deny that. Not that she wanted to. “What else?”
The dark gaze skimmed over her face. “That you’re exquisite.”
“Also true.”
“That you were blessed with four pure-blooded daughters. An amazing gift to our people.”
She lowered her gaze. Although the word of Cassie’s talent of prophecy, as well as her recent disappearance, weren’t state secrets, they hadn’t yet become common knowledge.
The fewer people who knew, the better.
“Yes.”
“And that you’re a survivor,” he continued, ignoring her sudden wariness. “Which was why you were smart enough to seek help when you needed it.”
She lifted her head with a wry smile. “Slick.”
“Skilled,” he corrected, frustration still simmering in his magnificent eyes. “And unfortunately late to the party. Take me back to the beginning.” His brows drew together as she hesitated. “Sophia?”
She ground her teeth. Dammit. He was a wolf on the hunt.
He wasn’t going to let this go.
“I’m not really sure,” she muttered.
“Something spooked you or you wouldn’t have felt the need for a bodyguard.”
“It’s all been so ... childish.”
His hands loosened their grip so he could run his fingers lightly up and down her arm, sending a series of pleasurable quakes through her body.
“Childish?”
She struggled to keep her mind on track. Not easy when her thoughts were being consumed with how quickly she could have him stripped of his clothes and pressed against the wall.
The things she could do to that fantastic body.
Mmmm.
His eyes dilated as the spice of her arousal filled the air, his body tensing with an answering hunger. With a low curse, she wrenched her mind back to the conversation.
Where were they?
Oh yeah, her murderous stalker.
She shrugged. “It started with spiteful notes left on my door.”
“What did they say?”
“The usual. ‘I hate you.’ ‘Go away, bitch.’ ‘Whore.’ ” Her lips curled in disgust. “Something a juvenile human would do.”
“What else?”
“My tires slashed. A dead rat left in my swimming pool.” Her gaze shifted past him to the bullet hole in the floor. A few more inches and she would have been skewered. “At least until today.”
His frown deepened, his expression distracted. “Strange.”
“Strange that someone tried to shoot me, or strange that they hadn’t tried before?” she asked dryly.
“It usually doesn’t escalate so swiftly.”
She forced herself to hold his questioning gaze at his unnerving perception.
It wasn’t bad enough his mere touch could make her wolf pant with need, he also had to be intelligent?
“You mean the attacks?”
“Exactly.” His hands shifted so his thumbs were brushing the sensitive line of her throat, pausing over the unsteady beat of her pulse. “It’s a hell of a leap from scribbling a nasty note to pulling a trigger. Most people never progress to that point. And those that do take longer than a few days to go from catty to psychotic.”
“Hmmm.” Her expression was noncommittal. “I see your point.”
His eyes narrowed. “When did you receive your first threat?”
“A few days after I moved into my new house. Two weeks ago,” she promptly answered. “I assumed it was a jealous neighbor.”
“Nothing before then?”
“Lots.” Her lips twisted wryly. “I am the Queen of Bitches, remember? But most of my enemies have the balls to face me, not creep around like an angst-ridden adolescent.”
He gave a slow nod. “Tell me about your neighbors.”
“I’ve only met a handful.” She hadn’t been particularly concerned by the lack of a welcoming committee. “Most of them are mortal. Big yawn.”
“But not all?”
“No. There’s a vamp who has a lair directly behind my tennis courts.”
His thumbs skimmed up and down her throat with an intimacy that should have made her wolf snarl in warning. A Were’s neck was considered off-limits to all but their most trusted pack mates.
Instead she battled the urge to tilt back her head and offer her tender flesh to his teeth.
Christ, what was wrong with her?
“A vamp wouldn’t waste their time with notes and tire slashing,” he said, his gaze following the path of his fingers, a glow deep in his eyes. “You piss one off and they go directly for the throat. Literally.”
“Kirsten’s barely out of her foundling years,” she informed him. “She’s still at the mercy of her human emotions.”
He seemed to dismiss the vamp, although Sophia didn’t doubt he’d tucked the info in the back of his mind.
Nothing was allowed to escape this Were’s notice.
Not the most comforting thought.
“Anyone else?”
“There’s a nymph down the block.” Sophia grimaced. “She’s always polite in public, but I sense that she has no intention of becoming my BFF.”
“She might be responsible for the drive-by harassments, but nymphs aren’t usually bloodthirsty.”
“You haven’t seen how possessive she is of her current lover.” Sophia shuddered. There had been a fanatical glint in the nymph’s eyes when she’d introduced her boyfriend to Sophia, her hands clinging to him with an embarrassing desperation. “It’s creepy.”
Luc lifted a dark brow. “Lover?”
“A cur.” Curs were humans who’d been bitten instead of being born a pure-blooded Were. They were capable of shifting, but they couldn’t control the shifts as a Were could, and they weren’t immortal, although their lifespan was greatly increased. “Well, more or less.”
“What does that mean?”
“He’s been turned, I can smell it, but he’s a pathetic excuse for a cur.” The image of his short, pudgy body and pasty face turned Sophia’s stomach. “He’s an embarrassment to curs everywhere. I’ve never encountered such a timid creature.”
He stepped forward, pressing her body against the wall. “Not your type at all.”
“You know nothing of my type.”
Lowering his head, he allowed his lips to brush over the racing pulse at the base of her throat.
“I know I’m it.”
Hell, they both knew he was it.
She was going up in flames from a mere touch.
What would happen if he actually kissed her?
Not about to stay around and find out, she shoved her hands against his chest.
“Ugh,” she muttered, marching around him and down the stairs.
It was bad enough that she’d spent the day dodging bullets. She wasn’t going to make it worse by becoming another victim to Luc’s fatal charm.
She had no doubt there were enough of them littering the streets of Miami.
Luc finished his sweep of the office building and was pulling his black Mercedes SL550 Roadster past the uniformed guard who was opening the gates of Sophia’s neighborhood when his cell phone beeped.
A glance at the flashing ID and he grimaced, knowing he couldn’t ignore the call.
Turning up the car stereo, he put the phone to his ear. There were too many demons with superior hearing to take chances.
“What’s up?” he demanded, sighing at his caller’s response. “Sí. I’m headed back to her house now.” His jaw tightened. “No, she doesn’t suspect anything. Not yet. But she’s too smart for me to fool for long.” There was another burst of sharp words. “Yeah, I got it. I’ll keep in touch.”
Tossing his phone into the passenger seat, Luc parked his car at the end of the tree-lined street. Then, briefly considering the benefits of shifting, he gave a shake of his head and jogged toward Sophia’s house.
He’d already called his wolf to search the office building. His human form couldn’t begin to match his wolf senses, but while he was stronger than most Weres, he didn’t want to waste unnecessary energy.
Not when he couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t need to protect Sophia.
Reaching the nearly half acre of parkland surrounding Sophia’s house, he did a swift search of the grounds, including the pool house, before entering her home through the patio doors.
He’d checked through her living room, a guest bedroom, and the fully equipped gym before heading to the kitchen.
Not surprisingly, he found Sophia leaning against the marble counter, her arms folded across her chest. She would have sensed him the moment he entered her yard.
Halting in the center of the ceramic-tiled floor, Luc allowed his gaze to run over her slender body barely covered by a lacy red camisole and matching silk shorts.
He bit back a growl, his gaze lifting to the beautiful face framed by the pale golden hair.
The lust he didn’t mind. What male wouldn’t be hot and bothered by the sight of a gorgeous, half-naked female?
But the sense of recognition from his wolf, as if she ... belonged to him, was unnerving.
Especially when the emerald eyes were glowing with a warning that was far from welcoming.
“Do your duties include breaking and entering?”
He deliberately glanced toward the door leading from the breakfast nook onto the patio. A dew fairy could break the flimsy-ass lock.
“No, but they include an inspection of your alarm system.”
She snorted. “I’m a pure-blooded Were. That’s all the alarm system I need.”
Scowling at her nonchalant tone, he turned back with a glare of frustration.
Dios.
Did she know how her seeming lack of concern was challenging his wolf to do whatever necessary to protect her?
“Obviously not if some lunatic has managed to wander around your place without getting caught,” he growled.
“The lunatic always trespassed when I was at the club.” She allowed her gaze to drift down to his heavy boots and back to his narrowed eyes. “At least until tonight.”
“You need an alarm system.”
She heaved a purely feminine sigh of exasperation at his stubborn expression.
“Did you find anything at the office building?”
He moved past her to open the fridge and pulled out a bottle of perfectly chilled beer. Twisting off the cap, he downed half of it in one swallow.
“I found that the secretary from the insurance claims company is staying late to burn the midnight oil with the janitor.”
“Midnight oil?”
He smiled. “And that the loan officer is sleeping on the couch in his office. No doubt his wife kicked him out.”
Her gaze lingered a tantalizing moment on his lips before she was visibly squaring her shoulders.
“Fascinating.”
“That was just the first floor.”
“Did you find any clues that might lead us to my stalker?”
“Nothing.” He polished off the beer and tossed the bottle into the recycle bin. “Which means they’re very, very good. Or very, very lucky.”
“So you basically have jack squat?”
He ignored her taunt, moving until he could grasp the counter on either side of her hips, effectively trapping her.
He was going to get answers.
One way or another.
“Actually, I have a question.”
She stiffened, her power swirling through the air. Oddly, however, she made no move to shove him away.
“Let me get this straight,” she mocked instead. “You break into my house at an ungodly hour. You help yourself to my private stash of imported beer. Now, having absolutely zero information for me, you expect me to play Twenty Questions.” She tilted her chin. “And, for the true cherry topper, I’m supposed to pay you a weekly wage for the privilege?”
His gaze swept down to the delectable glimpse of her breasts beneath the red lace.
“Yeah, but I’ll throw in the night of mind-blowing sex for free.”
He heard her heart miss a beat, the scent of her ready response more enticing than any perfume.
Still she held herself rigid, clearly as wary as he was by the potent force of their attraction.
“What’s your question?” she asked huskily.
“Tell me what you’re hiding from me.”
Her eyes widened before she was hastily smoothing her expression.
“Hiding?” She lifted her brow, trying to brazen her way past his question. “What the hell makes you think that I’m hiding something?”
“A pure-blooded Were doesn’t hire a bodyguard just because she’s being harassed.”
The realization had struck him as he watched her flounce away from him in the stairwell. He’d started to halt her retreat then and there to demand an answer, but the rigid line of her spine had warned she wasn’t in the mood to cooperate.
And in truth, he’d still been so cranked at being led around like a dunce by the mystery gunman that he knew he was bound to make matters worse if he tried to pry the truth from her.
Now he wasn’t going to leave until he knew exactly what the hell was going on.
“My son-in-law made me promise I wouldn’t kill any of my neighbors the day I moved in.” She tried to hold her ground. “He didn’t say I couldn’t hire someone else to kill for me.”
“Dammit, Sophia, I can’t help you if you’re not honest with me,” he snapped. “Tell me.”
They glared at one another, the air filled with a sizzling heat as they both fought a silent battle for dominance.
At last Sophia muttered a curse, sensing his grim determination.
“The harassment has been annoying, but I would have ignored it if I hadn’t started feeling like I was being hunted,” she grudgingly confessed.
“Hunted.” He latched on to the revealing word. “Not followed?”
A shadow darkened her beautiful eyes. “It’s been more than some pervert lurking in the bushes and peering in my window.”
“Explain.”
“I can’t.” Her sharp tone didn’t entirely disguise her unease. “I just know that there’s been someone shadowing my movements for the past week. And there have been”—she turned her head to glance out the window, as if hoping to hide her expression—“incidents.”
“What incidents?”
“One day I was crossing the street and I was nearly run over by a car. The next day I was jogging through the park and I was attacked by a rabid pit bull. Then, two days ago, I was nearly brained by a stone urn that fell from the top of a building I was walking past.”
Luc’s fingers tightened on the granite counter, his wolf enraged by the mere thought of someone terrorizing this female.
His female.
When he finally got his hands on the stalker, he was going to make the coward very, very sorry.
“Why didn’t you tell me this from the beginning?” he demanded, his voice thick.
She turned back to stab him with a glare. “In case you missed the memo, I’ve been trying to get rid of you, not give you a reason to stay.”
No, he’d gotten the memo.
His brooding gaze slid down to the sensuous curve of her mouth before returning to the emerald fire burning in her eyes.
“And you thought if I discovered someone’s been trying to kill you instead of just harassing you that I would be more likely to stay?”
“Of course,” she said, regarding him as if he were being particularly dense. “You’re an alpha.”
“True.”
“Which means you turn into a caveman when you think there’s a damsel in distress that might need your protection.” Her gaze warned him not to even try to deny the truth of her words. “I don’t blame you. It’s all that testosterone rotting your brain.”
As if being drawn by a magnet, his gaze returned to her lips, all too easily imagining the havoc they could wreak as they moved down his body.
“It does more than rot my brain. Do you want me to demonstrate?”