“This is a bad idea. Maybe I should go back to the hotel.”
He lowered his head and inhaled a deep breath before he dropped his hold and stepped back, taking with him the warmth of his body. “That’s not necessary, especially when you have three men willing to help you solve your case.” She heard the disappointment in his voice and saw it in the shadows that flickered in his eyes. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
****
Rhys inhaled a deep breath, taking in Elizabeth’s familiar scent and letting it wrap around his body. His cock hardened against his zipper, and it took every bit of control he had to drop his hands and step away when all he really wanted to do was bend her over the nearest chair and bury himself deep inside of her hot channel until she screamed his name in ecstasy. How the hell was he supposed to do “slow” with her? Her unusual, intoxicating smell made him drunk with need. She smelled of sweet honey with an exotic spice that he couldn’t name. If she was a bear, he couldn’t tell what kind. Hell, he didn’t care. She was his, and he was hers, no matter if she was too stubborn to acknowledge it.
Unable to stop himself from touching her again, he slid his fingers through hers and guided her back down the hall, pointing out the room next door where he’d be sleeping. A single wall would be separating them tonight. He’d take what he could get until she decided to give in to the lust that was evidently tugging beneath their skin. It was like a live wire. He could feel it every time he touched her, and he’d lay money that she could feel it, too.
She didn’t pull free, even though her body stiffened, uncertainty on her face. A small victory for him as the underlying storm brewed within her.Get ready for me, doll.He grinned to himself, released her fingers, and jogged down the stairs ahead of her.
“Food and then work?” he asked while walking backward through the living room. He couldn’t take his eyes off her, not after she’d run last night and he didn’t know if he’d ever see her again. No, he wouldn’t be letting her out of his sight. Not now, not until he convinced her that they were meant to be together.
“I appreciate your hospitality.” She slowed, stopping a foot away from him. “But let’s deal with the elephant in the room. What’s it going to take for you to realize I’m not your mate and this can’t happen?”
Keep lying to yourself, sweetheart.
“How does this work? A quick roll in the sack, a bite of my neck?”
Hell yeah, now she’s talking.
She crossed her arms over her chest as if she’d read his mind. The body language meant to close him off did nothing more than lift her perky breasts for a better view.
Damn, she was feisty. His bear growled with desire and approval. “First of all, when I take you to bed, it will be anything but quick. I’ll spend hours tasting and worshiping your body.” His lips quirked in an attempt to hold in his grin. “The biting can happen at any time, but it generally happens when I have you in a lust-filled haze, when you can’t think of anyone or anything other than what it feels like to have me thrusting inside you.” He said it matter-of-factly. “You’ll accept me as your mate, the one man who can please you unlike any other, and I’ll accept you as the one woman that I’ll love for the rest of my life. Some shifters look at it as an age-old tradition that tells all of the other shifters to back the hell off. But with me…it’s so much more. You’ll be mine, and I’ll be yours.”
He closed the distance between them and cupped her face. “As for you being my mate, I don’t need a bite to tell me you are. I already know it. One taste from your lips,”—he felt the shimmer of his beast trying to surface—“the electricity from your touch, the way you look at me…” He swiped the pad of his thumb across her juicy red lips, dying to continue the kiss he’d started last night. “Your scent may have peaked my interest, but your kiss fueled my flame. Make no mistake, Elizabeth Hanson, youaremine, and Iamyours.”
Her expression turned guarded at the mention of her name. She took a hesitant step back instead of leaning into the warmth he offered. He’d had her. For a brief second, he saw the resignation in her eyes and electricity stirring between them. The mention of her name worked like scissors cutting the cord.
“Thanks for the lesson, but I think I’ll pass.” She sidestepped around him disappearing into the kitchen. His bear roared in aggravation. The animal wanted her just as much as the man, equally wanting to haul her over his shoulder and take her back upstairs and kiss her until she admitted he was right. She was going to be the death of him. His self-control was being tested. “Damn.”
The house phone rang as he stepped into the kitchen. Elizabeth was already seated and involved in easy banter with his brothers. The lucky assholes. How could she be so at ease with them after just meeting them, instead of with him after their shared kiss?
“Speak,” Rhys barked into the phone while watching his mate interact with his brothers. She took a small bite of the bacon and grinned, and his heart melted more by the second.
“Put Elizabeth on the phone.” Trapp’s voice was anything but cordial.
“Lizzy.” Rhys held out the phone. “It’s the warden.”
Elizabeth brushed his fingers while taking the phone from his hand. The small contact made her frown, yet made him grin. “Hello.”
Her brows dipped lower with each second that passed. She was quiet, listening rather than talking. She nodded a few times. “Yeah, he’s standing right here.” She glanced up at Rhys. “Yeah, we’ll be right there.”
She shoved the phone into his chest and shrugged. “Time for work, fellas. It appears you guys are coming with me.”
She grabbed another piece of bacon before disappearing out of the kitchen.
“Trapp, she just got here. Can’t this wait?”
“Afraid it can’t. They found another dead body, and the marks on her body, indicate this one was killed by a shifter.” There was a slight pause. “She was found less than a mile away from the club, with one of your matchbooks sitting next to her hand. We need you guys to come with Lizzie to see if you can identify her.”
“Even if we don’t, we can check the surveillance at the club. If she was there, we’ll know who she left with. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
Rhys hung up the phone, informing his brothers what he’d been told. They were on their feet and all of them out the door in mere minutes.
