Demon's Embrace. Elle James
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I could slip the straps up my arm and deliver a suitable comeback, warm hands reached around from behind me to cup my breasts.
“Tell me you want me to stop, and I will.” He kissed the sensitive area below the back of my right ear, his breath stirring tendrils of hair, tickling my skin and sending shivers down the length of my spine.
Oh, sweet Jesus. How was I supposed to resist him when he was a damned demon with the ability to throw my hormones into hyper-drive with a single touch?
I dragged in a shaky breath, reveling in the heat he generated, his naked body aligned with my backside, his cock nudging at my bottom. With the strength of a saint, I shoved his hands from my breasts and leaped out of reach before I faced him.
“We can’t do this anymore,” I said. “I want my employer to respect me for my skills as an officer of the law, not for my skills at pleasing our token demon.”
He nodded, the smile disappearing from his too-handsome face, his ice-blue eyes boring into mine. “As you wish.”
In the time it took me to complete dressing and brush my hair into a ponytail, he was dressed and waiting by the door to my apartment.
Together, we walked the couple blocks to the station. When we were within a stone’s throw of our destination, I paused at a newsstand. “You go ahead. I want to get a pack of gum.”
Blaise stopped. “I’ll wait.”
“Not only are you arrogant, you’re thickheaded. I don’t want to arrive at the same time as you. Now, go.” I shoved him toward the station and turned my back on him. When I’d paid for the pack of gum, I resumed my trek, a good fifty yards behind the demon.
Take that, Lieutenant Thomas. We’re not together.
Yeah, yeah. The only person I was fooling was myself.
In the War Room, Lieutenant Thomas paced the floor in front of the huge whiteboard, deep lines furrowing his brow. “About time you got here, Agent Danske. Now we can begin.”
I glanced around at the empty chairs. “Where’s the rest of the team?”
The lieutenant’s lips thinned. “Out patrolling the streets where you and Michaels should be.”
“I wasn’t due on duty for another hour. If you’d wanted me earlier, you could have called earlier.”
“I did. No answer.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket and scanned the recent calls. Just as the detective stated, there were three unanswered calls from Lieutenant Thomas. “I don’t understand. I didn’t hear it ring.” I glanced across at Blaise.
His gaze didn’t meet mine.
Irritation flared, pushing heat into my cheeks. “Perhaps my phone was mysteriously off at that time.”
“I suggest you talk to the technical personnel and get that fixed. I have to be able to contact you at a moment’s notice. Paranorms can’t be trusted to stay on a set schedule.”
“You were right when you said paranorms can’t be trusted.” I glared at my partner, the only paranorm in the room.
Lieutenant Thomas calmed. “You’re assigned to follow Jimmy Raggio tonight. He’s a small-time werewolf druggie. I have it from a good source that he’ll be making a purchase to stock up on drugs to push to the local lupine teens. I want his contact. Teens and drugs are a bad combination to begin with. Werewolf teens and drugs can get downright dangerous.”
“Got it.” I gathered the street address of one Jimmy Raggio and the keys to one of the unmarked vehicles at our disposal. Without waiting for my partner, I headed for the door.
Blaise caught up with me as I reached the elevator. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have set your phone to silent, while we were...”
I jabbed the down arrow. “Damn right you shouldn’t have.”
“I promise I won’t do it again.” He gave me that dark-eyed, heart-stopping, sad-demon look that always made my knees go weak.
Not this time.
The door dinged and slid open. “Damn right you won’t.” I stepped in and hit the button for the garage level and the button to close the elevator door. “You’re not ever going to come into my apartment again.”
Blaise jumped in before the doors closed. “You don’t mean that.”
“The hell I don’t.” I faced him, all the anger I’d contained while in the same room with my boss bubbling up. “You have no right to interfere with me or my job, and today you crossed the line.” I turned away. “Don’t show up at my apartment, uninvited.”
“What if I need to get a hold of you?”
“You can call my cell phone. I’ll leave it on, unlike you.”
Blaise stood beside me, his height and broad shoulders filling the tight confines of the elevator car.
Before he or I could utter another word, the bell dinged and the doors slid open into the garage. I found the car and slid behind the wheel, turning the key in the ignition as Blaise dropped into the passenger seat. With more force than necessary, I whipped the shift into reverse and backed out of the parking space, laying a strip of rubber on the pavement when I gave it more gas than necessary.
We drove to an area in Brooklyn that had seen better days and bordered on a warehouse district. Some of the buildings were being renovated, others stood dull and poorly maintained, dusk adding to the air of gloom. Warehouses built in the 1940s stood empty, broken windows like so many sad eyes staring down at them as they passed.
I parked in an alley a couple blocks away from our designated pick up point, picking a spot behind a stack of broken pallets and trash. Jimmy was due to leave his apartment building around nine o’clock. I sat for a few minutes, taking the time to check my Glock and flipped the safety switch on.
Blaise and I hadn’t spoken two words since we’d gotten into the car. It suited me just fine. And the demon hadn’t pushed any words into my thoughts. Even better.
Beside me, his lips twitched. I was afraid you’d shoot me.
I’d spoken too soon. “I’d appreciate it if you’d stay the hell out of my head.” Infuriating demon.
With more force than accuracy, I jammed my radio headset into my ear and handed one to Blaise.
He shook his head. “We’re going together on this.”
“I want you a block over. We don’t want him to catch our scents and make a run for it.”
With a heavy frown, Blaise plugged the miniature radio into his ear and tested it. “I don’t know why I can’t just push thoughts.”
“I like having a back up.” I got out and stretched, checked my watch and nodded. “It’s time.”
Before we reached Jimmy’s apartment, I spotted a man fitting his description on the other side of the street, heading away from where we were standing. He disappeared around a corner.
“You take the next street over. Don’t lose him.” I took off at a controlled jog, eager to close the distance before I lost the werewolf.
I slipped through the streets, dodging yellowed streetlights and hugging the shadows of buildings as I ran a parallel course from my target, one street over. “You have Jimmy?” I whispered into my headset.
Yeah. Blaise’s warm tones invaded my head sans the headset, sending shivers of awareness across my skin. Twenty yards ahead, moving slowly.
Pushing aside the toe-curling lust his voice induced, I focused on the task at hand. “Stay far enough back he doesn’t get wind of you.”
One of Manhattan’s young werewolves, Jimmy Raggio, had better olfactory nerves than I did and could smell