Natural Evil (Elder Races #4.5)(25)

The more he watched her, the more he couldn’t look away.

He stopped noticing other women. Once, when he paid to gas up the Jeep, it was only when he saw disappointment droop the pretty cashier’s shoulders that he realized, belatedly, that the woman had been trying to flirt with him.

But something had happened. Something had caused Claudia to stop speaking to him.

Oh, she spoke to him. She wasn’t rude, and she didn’t subject him to total silence. But something essential had shifted. A wall had come between them, and he could even pinpoint when the change had occurred.

She had been looking right at him. He’d seen her eyes widen as if she’d been struck a blow. Then her expression smoothed over, and she’d started to treat him with the same competent f**king professionalism as she treated everyone else.

Before, they’d shared a connection. It was open, caring and vital, and it mattered to him. He didn’t think it had just vanished. She’d buried it for some reason. He’d waited for a while because he kept expecting it to change back, that the connection would return to the surface, but it hadn’t. And then he’d grown pissed at her for taking that away from him.

After the mine shut down, the days progressed. Luis had a long talk with his grandmother. He promised to visit her soon, but for the moment he had work to do. There was always cleanup after a case, and this one was particularly messy. Jackson returned from Fresno. Claudia stayed in the back trailer, and Luis took one of Jackson’s spare bedrooms. Luis told himself he took Jackson’s invitation because he didn’t feel like sharing a motel room with another Peacekeeper, but really, he knew better.

Raoul, the Peacekeeper Djinn, found a nine-hole golf course just west of town. The Djinn loved any kind of sport, and so did Luis. After work one evening, in an effort to blow off steam, he went with Raoul to thwack a golf ball around the course a couple of times. The layout of the holes was basic, and the course wasn’t very well maintained, so they soon lost interest and went drinking instead.

Claudia honored the “don’t go anywhere” admonition she’d been given. She spent a lot of time quietly reading and avoiding reporters. More often than not, she, Jackson and Luis ate dinner together, their conversations dominated by the latest discovery from the mine. Since they were all indifferent cooks, they took turns picking up takeout from the diner.

By the third day, Luis’d had it.

There was no drama, no explosion. He just got tired of waiting for things to change, so he went on the offensive. It felt good to finally follow his instincts, to stop throttling back, and, he had to be honest, it felt good to be challenged.

He started out small, stalking Claudia in subtle ways over the next few days. When they stood talking, he got a bit too close, invading her space. At the dinner table, when she passed the salt to him, he reached a little too far for it, closing his hand over hers. He slid his fingers down the length of her hand until he could grasp the shaker. Her bland expression didn’t change, but her pupils dilated, and sudden arousal thrummed low, rhythmic notes in her scent.

And there it was again, the connection.

He was clever enough not to show his triumph.

She liked to go running early. On the seventh morning, she emerged from the trailer, dressed in running clothes with her pale hair pulled back.

He was waiting for her in his Wyr form. She jerked to a halt when she saw him sitting in the yard, and this time she looked shaken. He didn’t wag his tail. He just waited for her to make up her mind.

She came slowly down the steps. “Oh, Precious,” she said. For some reason she sounded sad. For the first time in days she touched him voluntarily, laying a gentle hand on his head. Everything inside of him concentrated on the sensation of the warm, light weight of her palm resting on him. Deeper and more profound than pleasure, he felt comfort and recognition. She rubbed one of his ears before her hand fell away.

When he stood, his shoulders came up to her waist. She turned and started to run. He flowed along the ground beside her, his powerful body moving effortlessly, and for a while they shared perfect, seamless movement. The colors of the morning were so pure and new, they were downright righteous, and the air was biting cold. He could have run forever with her like that, but of course it had to end as the obligations of the day took over.

Later, when he let himself into Jackson’s house, around five, Luis found a note. Jackson had been called away on a vet emergency. They should eat dinner without him.

Luis thought about that. It was Claudia’s turn to get takeout. He went out the back, knocked on the trailer door and a moment later she opened it. The westering sun caught her full in the face, shining on her sleek, shoulder-length pale hair and turning her green eyes emerald. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and it was so goddamn erotic to see how that shirt molded to her tight, lean torso. His gaze fell down her length.

She was barefoot.

Suddenly he was rock hard with agonized hunger.

He looked up again and smiled. “Pick up meat loaf dinners for me and Jackson?”

“Sure,” she said. She glanced past him at the empty space where Jackson parked his truck. “I didn’t realize it had gotten so late. Where’s Dan?”

“He’ll be back,” Luis said.

She nodded. “Give me half an hour.”

“You bet.”

He went back to the house to take a quick shower, putting on jeans and a T-shirt too. Then he let himself into the trailer to wait for her. He stopped dead just inside the door.