As the wolf inside me returned to her dormant state, my skin cooled to its normal temperature. The flush in his coloring faded as well. Never before had both of the monsters inside me woken at the same time. The wolf had wanted to mate, the vampire had wanted to feed, and both desires had felt like one and the same.
“I’m sorry. ” Heat flooded back, this time only to my cheeks.
“Why on earth are you sorry?”
“That was so inappropriate. ”
He laughed. It was an exuberant, booming, honest laugh. He put an arm around me, and I flinched before realizing there was no sexual overtone in the gesture.
“If you hadn’t done it, I would have. Just being in the same room with you makes me dizzy. ”
“Me too. ” Though dizzy should have been substituted with horny as sin, his phrasing seemed more polite.
“You’ll get used to it. ”
“I hope not. ”
“This is how it’s meant to be with us. Is there any better evidence that we’re supposed to be together?”
“I don’t know if an irresistible urge to shred your clothing and molest you is really evidence that we’re soul mates. ” I managed a smile. I still wasn’t so certain we were destined to be together, but I couldn’t deny there was something remarkable about our physical connection.
“I hope this hasn’t put you off having dinner with me. ”
“No. ” I bit my lip in contemplation. “But if you don’t mind, I’d really like to eat out. ” I faced the door so as to not look at the bed.
“Don’t trust me?”
“I don’t trust me. ” That was the God’s honest truth. “I think it’ll be a lot safer with a table between us. ”
I got a mental flash of him pushing me down on a large dinner table and ripping my shirt apart with his bare hands. I turned my face away.
“If you think that’ll help. ” I knew from the chuckle in his voice he’d been thinking the exact same thing.
Chapter Sixteen
The elevator ride down was silent and tense. I was wedged between Lucas and Desmond, and it created a bizarre flavor combination in my mouth. On Desmond’s right was the blond werewolf who, at only an inch or so taller than me, looked short compared to the other two who were each over six feet. With all the oddness of meeting with Lucas, I’d forgotten his name, but he reintroduced himself as Dominick. He had the carefree smile and glinting eyes of a troublemaker. I liked him instantly.
Desmond had returned to being surly and stared at the elevator doors with a steadfast scowl. From this angle I could see his hair was longer in the front than in the back, and he constantly pushed it out of his eyes. Against my better judgment, I decided the way his eyes squinted in frustration was actually rather attractive. What the hell was wrong with me?
As I contemplated Desmond’s profile, Lucas took my hand in his. I didn’t shake free in spite of the fact that I normally loathed any kind of public display of affection.
It felt odd for me to allow it since we weren’t really a couple. But I couldn’t deny I liked the way my hand felt when it was wrapped inside his large, warm palm.
We exited, not in the lobby but one of the basement levels. The parking garage was lit by scattered fluorescent bulbs, giving it a cold, blue hue in sharp contrast to the warm light of the hotel. The shadows were abundant, providing plenty of ideal locations for people and things to hide themselves. I found myself wishing I’d gone home to get my gun after meeting the Tribunal. Weapons of any kind were forbidden inside the council headquarters. I thought it was unnecessary to ban them considering the vampires themselves basically were weapons.
A familiar black town car was waiting for us. This time Dominick held a door open for me to enter on my own, rather than me being forced into the back. I sat far enough from Lucas for another person to fit between us, looking out the tinted window as we drove into the light-dappled night.
There was a feeling of unease in my gut that had nothing to do with my wolf or what had happened between Lucas and me upstairs. I kept seeing Sig’s face and hearing him say, we would very much like him alive.
I’d like to go on a Dominican cruise and get a tan. I’d like to not wrestle with a monster who threatened to burst out of my skin every full moon. Both of those things seemed about as likely to happen as my capturing Alexandre Peyton alive.
It also brought back the nagging question, what was Peyton doing here in the first place? His vendetta against me was secondary to whatever brought him to New York. Keaty and I had established that last night during our post mortem.
Peyton wouldn’t have crawled out from whatever rock he’d been hiding under unless he had a damn good reason. He was old and smart, and you don’t get to that age without a strong survival instinct. For him to emerge as a known rogue in the city where three of the most powerful vampires in the Eastern U. S. ruled, though? It was more than just bold, it was a declaration of war.
But I still didn’t know why that war was starting. I also wanted to know how high Kill Secret McQueen was on his to-do list.
Lucas, ever the gentleman, allowed me to stew on this as we drove, until he placed his hand on my thigh. “Secret?”