I sat down on the step and removed my boots. “I know he likes his routine, but you know Crush. He’s always been a big teddy bear.”
Switch belted out a laugh. “More like a grizzly.”
“I don’t mean to everyone else, but to me.” I stood with my boots in hand. “I love him. I just want someone else to love him too, even if it is a mangy old dog.” After a quiet beat, I settled my eyes on the large owl and clock tattooed on his left arm. My father told me that ink has a personal meaning for everyone, and sometimes a painful one, so I didn’t go around asking people about it. As far back as I could remember, Switch had that tattoo. Maybe he liked the idea of something wise on his arm. Teaching seemed to be in his blood.
He gave me a pensive look, as if he wanted to tell me things. “I need to find Hunter. I told Shepherd I’d round him up for bed.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You guys just let him wander around by himself?”
“Hell no. Gem took him exploring. God knows where the hell they are, so I’m gonna let my wolf sniff them out. Gem’s a sweet girl, but she’s a little awkward around kids. He might have snuck away from her.”
I didn’t bring up Gem’s business. She’d been robbed of a childhood and had lived as a slave. In many ways, she was childlike herself. I noticed how uncomfortable she became when Hunter was upset. I’d seen her that way once with an infant. Through no fault of her own, she lacked the skills to know how to comfort a child and make them feel safe. Their distress made her panic, and her attempts were ineffectual.
“I’ll see you around,” I said, marching up the steps.
“Raven?”
I paused and looked down at him.
Switch didn’t look up. “Nothing. Never mind.” He shifted, his brown wolf giving me a sideways glance before racing down the stairs.
A few months ago, I might have thought that look was all about his feelings for me. But I no longer got the love vibes from Switch. That look was something else entirely.
Switch had a secret.
When a woman holds a secret, it’s either deeply personal or juicy. When a man holds a secret, it’s nothing but trouble.
Christian rarely entered my room uninvited, so I didn’t bother going there. His Honda and Ducati were both in the garage, so unless he’d gone for a long walk, he was probably in his room or having a drink downstairs.
I knocked and then pushed open his bedroom door. Viktor had assigned us rustic living quarters, but I’d dressed mine up with sumptuous bedding, a painting, rugs, and flower arrangements. Christian hadn’t done a damn thing to his room since day one.
A fire crackled in the hearth on the far wall, only a basic chair in front of it. I peered around the left-hand entryway into the bathroom but didn’t find him there either. Tempted by the candy dish, I padded over to the bed, set my boots on the floor, and plopped down. His crystal dish was the only real décor in his room, if you could even call it that. Christian liked the old-fashioned stuff my daddy used to buy: butterscotch, ribbon candy, various hard candies, and sometimes lemon drops. Tonight it was green peppermints. After twisting off the wrapper, I popped the delicious sweet into my mouth and set the wrapper on the bedside table.
“There’s a waste receptacle by the bed, you know.”
I noticed his shadow in the doorway. “I wasn’t sure when you were coming back, so I wanted you to know I’d been here.”
The door closed behind him. “I always know when you’ve been in my bed, Precious.” He strode to the table and tossed the wrapper into the trash.
“How?”
Christian bent over and put his mouth to my ear. “I can smell your blood.”
That sent tingles where it shouldn’t have.
“Since when are you a fan of the brassiere?” he asked, lifting my shirt over my head.
“I can’t interview grieving families with my tits out.”
“’Tis a shame. They’re fine tits.”
“I tried to find you this morning before we left. Where did you go?”
He tossed the shirt on the floor. “Shifters aren’t fond of Vampires on their land.”
“You could have stayed in the truck.”
“To what purpose? I’ll go with you tomorrow on the rogue cases. How’s that? Now tell me about your day at the office.”
I lay back and locked my fingers behind my head. “Two completely different deaths. One woman died in bed. Her boyfriend and the Relic said it was her heart. The second death was a young guy who fell off his motorcycle.”
He unzipped my jean shorts and slid them off. “Hardly sounds suspicious.”
“They found the bike in the middle of the road. No skid marks, no front-end damage to the bike, nothing to indicate it was hit by another vehicle.” I yawned and crawled all the way onto the bed, my head just below the pillow.
Christian rounded the bed to the left side and sat against the headboard. “Motorbikes are death machines.”
The wood snapped in the hearth and split in two, sending a shower of sparks up the flue.
I turned on my side and propped my head in my hand. “He was wearing a helmet.”
Christian frowned. “That’s peculiar. A Shifter would heal his wounds unless he was knocked out. Any other injuries?”
“The usual scrapes you would get, but his father didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary. Their alpha suggested internal injuries. I guess it’s possible he could have passed out from the pain.”
“Aye, but eventually he would have woken up and shifted. Even a broken neck isn’t enough to kill a Shifter. If something knocked him unconscious, he was out long enough to die. No blood?”
“Nothing obvious.”
Christian stroked his beard, his eyes fixed on the wall ahead. “I don’t see how they could be connected even if they were foul play.”
“I guess the Packmasters thought it was enough to look into. They’ve seen it all, so maybe something just doesn’t feel right in their gut. I said I’d look into it, but I didn’t promise to solve it.” I rested my hand on his inner thigh and gave it a light squeeze. “I’m glad you’re coming with us tomorrow for the rogues. We only have one pack—you can sit in the truck for that one.”
“I’ll not squeeze into that infernal contraption between two women.”
My hand slid upward, and I cupped him. “Sounds like every man’s fantasy.”
Christian’s onyx eyes drank me in as I massaged him. “You’re my fantasy. You and you alone.” His breath hitched when I unzipped his pants.
“Don’t you like people watching us?”
He chuckled. “Aye, but not someone I know. That would be like my sister watching.”
“Too bad you don’t have a window in here.”
“Why? So you can jump out of it?”
I scooted closer and freed his cock. “So you could take me in front of that Chitah,” I said, stroking his hard shaft. “I bet he’d like to watch.”
Christian tensed all over. Teasing was one of his favorite pastimes. It was a game between us to see who had the most willpower. There were nights both of us wound up going to bed completely unsatisfied because of our competitive nature. That made every single encounter between us even more explosive.