Beauty Dates the Beast(32)

Beau’s cell phone lay on the counter, and on a whim, I picked it up and called the office.

“Midnight Liaisons, this is Ryder. How can I make your Afterlife?”

“Very cute,” I teased her, my mood light and sunny. “New company slogan?”

“Just trying out some new ideas,” she agreed. “Wow, you sound happy. Things going well with the dates?”

“Just one date,” I said. “And yes, going really well. How are things in the office?”

“Good, good,” she said in a bored voice. “Got a few new vampires this week, a faerie prince looking for hot changeling action, and a random assortment of shifters. Business as usual.”

“And Sara?” I said in a casual voice. “Has she been in?”

“She came to pick up her check when Giselle wasn’t in, but other than that, she’s been out of the office,” Ryder said, and I could hear the loud banging of her fingers on the keyboard as she typed. She always typed as if she were attacking the computer. “She came in with the new boyfriend, too. I had no idea she liked ’em so scary.”

She must mean Ramsey. “The big guy? Blond hair? Kind of scowly?”

“That’s him,” Ryder agreed. “I swear I can’t picture the two of them together, because she’s so tiny and he’s gargantuan, but he was hovering over her like she was some delicate flower that needed to be shielded from the world. Which was kind of sweet to see.”

That made me uncomfortable. Did Ramsey have a thing for Sara? Or was he simply being diligent because he knew she was the wolf everyone was looking for and didn’t want her to get away?

I changed the topic back to office work. Ryder and Marie were happy to pick up the extra shifts and the additional money, but Ryder confessed she would be happy to have me back because she couldn’t seem to make the ledgers balance.

“I guess I could ask Giselle,” Ryder said uncertainly. “She’s been in the office all day.”

“Oh?” I said. That seemed unlike Giselle. Weekends weren’t really her thing. “What’s she up to?”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “Some project with the werewolf packs? She’s pulled every single file that we have on the wolves and has been holed up with them.”

My entire body went cold.

Giselle wasn’t playing around—if I wasn’t going to date all the weirdos she had lined up for me, she was going to sell Sara out to the nearest pack. Any traces of happy contentment in me disappeared.

All I wanted was to crawl back into bed with Beau and kiss him until he pulled me close again, but I couldn’t. My only choices were getting out of town or holding up my end of Giselle’s deal.

I sighed heavily. “Ryder, I need a favor. Did Beau Russell leave a home address on any of his files?” I waited as she banged on the keyboard.

“Nope, nothing. There’s an emergency contact number,” she said. “Want it?”

“No, that’s okay.”

As soon as I hung up, I flipped through Beau’s apps on his phone. Sure enough, there was GPS—which meant I now had a ticket out of Beau’s cabin.


In no time I was hiking through the woods, using the GPS to guide me. After a while I came out to the road and a small locked garage and mailbox. I pulled out a magazine and noted the address, then called Ryder back, asking her to pick me up.



It took another hour or two before she arrived, the time ticking by endlessly, with me positive that Beau would show up and drag me back to his cabin for more lovemaking. When Ryder’s red pickup pulled up, I was actually a little disappointed that it hadn’t happened.

We drove back to the office in silence. If she thought I looked like a mess wearing Beau’s shirt and workout pants, my hair in a snarled ponytail, she was too tactful to say anything. As soon as we got in the office, I went straight to Giselle’s office and shut the door behind me.

The siren gave me a tight smile, her sharp blue eyes scanning me with barely veiled anger. “Well, well, well. Look what the were-cat dragged in.”

“Hello, Giselle,” I said, calm on the outside.

She gave me a disdainful look. “It’s obvious that it’s too late for any sort of discussions.” She crossed her arms over her generous chest. “Do you know how much shit you’re in?”

“No,” I said, sitting down across from her. “But I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

She stared at me as if I’d grown another head. “This lip of yours. I don’t like it.”

I’d always been submissive and quiet before, and my mouth twisted in a wry smile. For some reason, her superior attitude now irritated me instead of frightening me. Maybe being with Beau had bolstered my courage, or maybe there was so much other crap happening that I didn’t have time to worry over her. At any rate, it was a refreshing feeling.

“I’m here to tell you that I didn’t forget about our deal,” I said. “You’re not going to touch my sister.”

“Our deal?” She sneered the words. “Does your pathetic little human brain recall that the deal was for a human virgin? Then as soon as I turn around, you go into hiding and bang the first shifter who sticks his hand in your panties!”

I decided that I’d try to be the adult one about this. “It’s not what you think, Giselle.”

“No?” She leaned forward, eyes glittering with animosity. “Tell me what it is, then, because it seems to me that we had a bargain and you broke your end, which means I don’t have to pay attention to my end of the deal.”

“Someone broke into my house and tried to kill me.”

Giselle snorted.

“It’s true.” I detailed what had happened—the terrible stench of the creature, the attack, its strange appearance. As I spoke, Giselle’s mouth compressed into an even thinner line of disapproval.

“So how is it that you decided to go stay with Mr. Russell? I assume that is where you went.” She slid her fingers along her desk, absently flicking away a speck of dust.

He kidnapped me, I wanted to say. It was the truth and it’d get me off the hook, but at Beau’s expense. I didn’t want to do that to him, not after he’d been so good to me. So I fudged it a little. “He asked me to go—to spend his heat with him. I agreed.”

“I see,” she said in a surprisingly calm voice. “So you decided to have sex with him despite our agreement that would keep Sara safe?”

I swallowed. “That’s right.” When it didn’t sound convincing enough, I added, “I was blinded by passion.”

She gave me an odd look. “Well, you’re of no use to me now. You’re not a virgin. His bites are all over your neck.”

I clasped my hands over my neck to hide the incriminating marks. “No one has to know but us.”

She quirked an eyebrow at me.

“I can fake it. I don’t plan on sleeping with anyone else, so I’ll just smile and blush and we can keep telling them that I’m a virgin. Nothing has changed.”

She made a small noise in her throat and shrugged, clearly mollified but trying to hide it. “You’d do that? What about Mr. Russell?”

My heart was aching as I said, “If he wants to see me, he’ll have to go through the service.”

Giselle’s smile bloomed, a thing of beauty. “Good. I’ll line you up some dates, and we’ll jump right back into business.”

I gave her a wan smile and stood up to leave. “Sounds good.”

“Oh, and Bathsheba,” she said as I turned to go. “If you break another date with one of my clients, I’m selling your sister to the Anderson wolves. I hear they’re looking for another female for their pack. Eight wolves and only one female to relieve their urges. I told them I’d help out any way I could… . Understand?”

I swallowed hard. “I understand.”


I thought longingly of Beau all day. It made matters worse when I pulled into my driveway and saw a tall, leonine man with brown hair waiting in a sports car in the driveway. To my intense disappointment, it was another Russell were-cougar. Jeremiah had an easy smile and relaxed manner as he explained that Ramsey had insisted he keep watch over the house. I let him have the guest bedroom.



The evening passed agonizingly slowly and I stared at Beau’s phone. I could give it to Jeremiah and tell Beau I never wanted to see him again. But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to hand over the phone. I went to sleep with it on my bedside nightstand.

It was no surprise that Beau invaded my dreams. They were wicked dreams, too. I dreamed that I lay in bed and he pulled the covers off my body, his hands warm as they skimmed the thin cloth of the nightgown. The long fabric had bunched up around my legs and he knelt between them, kissing my stomach through the fabric and murmuring soft words that I didn’t understand. In my dream, his eyes gleamed like a cat’s just before he ducked his head and I felt his mouth on the apex of my thighs, seeking that one perfect spot and scoring. My breath caught in a shudder and my thighs clenched as I stirred. Warm hands grasped my hips, holding me steady, and a hot tongue drew circles around the sensitive flesh.