One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3)(62)

The weight dropped off me. I didn’t realize I was carrying it. I kissed him. One moment I was looking at him and then my lips touched his, forging a connection between us.

The muscles of his arm tightened under my fingers. His lips closed on mine, hot and hungry. The kiss deepened, turning possessive, hot, heady like the intoxicating heat of strong wine gulped too quickly. He licked my tongue. He tasted so good. I slid my arms around him, wanting more. I didn’t care if the whole galaxy burned, as long as he kept kissing me like that.

He broke the kiss. His eyes were completely wild. The wolf was staring back at me and he wanted me more than anything in his forest. It made me feel beautiful.

“Not tonight,” he said. “You’re not in the right place tonight.”

He was right. I slid closer to him and put my head on his chest. “Okay.”

A few seconds passed.

“I’m an idiot,” Sean said. He sounded resigned.

“No,” I told him. “You’re my wolf.”

He turned to me and a sharp humorous spark lit up his eyes. “Don’t you know wolves are dangerous?”

“I do. You should kiss me again, Sean Evans. I really want you to.”

He kissed me back and I melted into it.





CHAPTER 10


“Aunt Dina,” a whisper floated into my ear.

My eyes snapped open. Helen was leaning over me, her hair all but glowing in the light of the early morning. I was laying on the pillows by a dead fire. The last thing I remembered was curling up next to Sean on the couch, but now I was on the floor on a blanket, with a pillow under my head, and another blanket over me. He must’ve moved me after I fell asleep. I glanced right. I glanced left. A second pillow lay next to me, the indentation from Sean’s head still on it.

“What time is it?”

“Just after sunrise.”

“Why are you here and not in your room?” Helen asked.

I opened my mouth.

Helen sniffed the air, wrinkling her nose. “And why is Lord Sean hiding on the balcony?”

Lord Sean chose that moment to walk back into view, since further hiding was clearly pointless.

Helen frowned. “Were you having private time?”

Um, ah… eh.

“Mom says private time is very important.”

“Where is your mom?”

“She’s outside. She said to find you right away because ‘that cop is about to go middle evil on Mrak.’”

I bolted off the floor. “Window to the front!”

A window opened in the wall. Maud stood at the edge of the inn’s boundary, her back stiff, her arms crossed, looking across the street. On the other side of the road, the small rectangular metal cover guarding access to the water and sewer lay open. Kiran Mrak and three other Draziri, swaddled in hoodies and jeans, stood on the left side. On the right side, stood Officer Marais, one hand on his Taser.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a tiny moment and opened them. Officer Marais and the Draziri were still there.

“Shut off all water and sewer!” I sprinted out of the room and down the massive staircase. Sean swore and ran past me. Helen chased us, jumped onto the stair rail, and slid down, leaping to her feet at the bottom.

Why? Why in the world would Marais even be here the day after Christmas? Did he not have a family to go home to? Why couldn’t I catch a break?

Sean grabbed my hand. “Dina, open the void field. I’ll double behind them.”

“Done.”

His eyes flashed amber. “Please stay on the grounds. I want them to see you.”

“Okay.”

I tore through the house, pushed the door open, and marched across the lawn to where Maud stood. Beast trailed me.

“…understand perfectly well who you are,” Kiran Mrak said, his voice suffused with derision. “You are what passes for local law enforcement. Undertrained, undereducated, likely coming from a background so poor that you view this job as a step up; a steady, respectable way to take care of your family.”

“Treaty,” I called out.

He ignored me. “If we had met at night, things may have been different. But here we are in broad daylight. Therefore, officer, it so happens that our interests align. You want to take care of your family, and so do I.”

The moment I stepped foot off the inn’s grounds, the Draziri would forget all about Marais and key in on me. I had promised Sean to stay in plain view inside the boundary and I would do it. But the urge to walk out there was strong.

“Where is your wolf?” Maud asked me under her breath.

“Sneaking around them from the back.”

Marais wasn’t saying anything. He clearly was determined to find out what was going on once and for all.

“So,” Kiran Mrak said with the resignation of a man who’d done this hundreds of times, “how much will it take?”

“Sir, are you trying to bribe me?” Marais asked, his voice very calm.

“No. I’m trying to help you supplement your pay. It is clearly inadequate for a man of your intelligence.”

Marais smiled. Oh crap.

“A man should be compensated in line with the amount of danger he faces in the course of his job,” Mrak said. “And your job is exceedingly dangerous, especially at this moment.”