Blue Moon ns-1 Page 10

  "You never told me what you found out."

  "1 wanted to." He lifted one inky brow. "But I was distracted."

  My face heated at the memory of that distraction. Suddenly he was staring at me with an expression I could only describe as hungry.

  He pushed away from the desk and crossed the space between us in one stride. I should have done something to stop him, but I caught the scent of his skin and my body responded, going tight and wet without him touching me at all.

  He stopped less than an inch away. I had to tilt my head back to see his eyes. I wasn’t used to being so much smaller than a man—one of the reasons there’d been so few men. Not only did they not like me being as tall as them or as strong; I didn’t like it, either.

  Call me sexist, but I wanted a guy to tower over me. Right now I wanted this one to do a lot more than tower—I wanted him to touch me, teach me, take me.

  As if he had heard what I wanted, his eyes narrowed; his nostrils flared. He grabbed my hips and pulled me against him, then crushed his mouth to mine.

  He was rough. 1 didn’t mind. Our teeth clicked together; his scraped my lip; then he licked the tiny hurt. I shuddered. I wanted to take his flesh into my mouth and suckle. I wanted to feel him skin to skin.

  He spread his hands over my ass and ground us together. He was hard. It felt so good. I was going to come again, right there in his office. While on duty. Shit.

  I shoved at his chest. He wouldn’t let me go. I wasn’t afraid. I was the one with the gun, but how could I explain shooting him? It wouldn’t be easy.

  His mouth was doing amazing things, and I had a difficult time remembering why I wanted him to stop. While I hesitated, he backed me up against the door, then laid his body flush with mine.

  My hands were still pressed to his chest, but instead of shoving, as I should be, my treacherous fingers had found their way into the collar of his shirt and stroked the smooth skin of his throat. One thumb slid into the hollow beneath his Adam’s apple. I ran my fingernail lightly across his skin. He growled and the sound vibrated from the tip of my thumb to far more interesting places.

  Goose bumps erupted, enhancing my sensitivity. I already felt as if the air ifself sizzled. Now my skin was on fire.

  The door at my back moved—opened an inch, then slammed shut beneath the weight of both my body and his. Someone knocked, the sound right next to my ear.

  "Professor?"

  I jumped and Cadotte pulled his tongue out of my mouth. His eyes were so close I could see his pupils dilated almost to the rim of the iris. If I’d been any farther away, I wouldn’t have been able to distinguish one from the other, so similar were they in color.

  His mouth was swollen and wet. His breath puffed along my face, chilling my own damp lips.

  "Yes?" he called, in a cool, distant, nearly normal voice. How could he do that when he was still plastered all over me?

  He flexed his hips, riding his erection against the zipper in my pants. My eyes crossed and he chuckled, then kissed my forehead.

  "Will you be teaching your first class, Professor, or should I dismiss them?"

  "I’ll be right there."

  I must be losing my mind, but having him talk to the department secretary about mundane daily tasks while his body was doing a vertical tango with mine on the other side of the door was the most erotic moment of my life. Pathetic, but true.

  Heels clicked in the other direction, sounding sharp and somewhat annoyed. Why hadn’t I heard them approach? Stupid question.

  Cadotte brushed his knuckles against the underside of my breast. A moan escaped my lips before I could stop myself. "Though I’d like to stay here and kiss you until you beg, I’ve gotta go."

  Beg? Me? Where was my quick and cutting comeback? I couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  "I need to go, too." I shifted against him. He stayed right where he was. I stared at a place on the far wall and refused to look at him.

  "Jessie," he murmured.

  Crap. He wasn’t going to let me go until we talked about this. Why did everyone always want to talk about sex, even when they hadn’t really had it yet?

  Yet? I was going to have sex with William Cadotte?

  My eyes met his. He smiled. I sighed.

  Yeah. I was.

  Chapter 15

  "When do you get off?" Cadotte asked.

  "Any second now if you don’t move," I muttered.

  He laughed and stepped away. Without the heat of his body against mine the room felt cool, though I knew it wasn’t. Though the day had not yet warmed beyond the fifties, his office was like a furnace. How did he stand it?

  "I meant, when do you get off work?"

  I scrubbed my fingers through my hair. I was a mess. No sleep, a night in the forest. Hell, I hadn’t brushed my teeth since yesterday. Why on earth had he continued to kiss me?

  Cadotte stepped close and rubbed one thumb against my chin. "Quit thinking so much."

  "What kind of statement is that for a teacher to make?"

  "Just answer the question, Officer."

  "I’m already off. You got overtime."

  "Above and beyond. I’m flattered."

  "You should be."

  "I suppose you practically bribed someone else to come here so you wouldn’t have to."

  I blinked. Close enough. How did he know me so well when he didn’t really know me at all?

  Cadotte slipped on his glasses. I wondered again what he’d look like wearing those and nothing else. I really, really liked his glasses.

  Picking up a folder, he scowled at the label, then put the folder back down and chose another.

  "Would you meet me for dinner tonight? I’ll tell you what I found out about the totem."

  "Meet you?" I echoed.

  "You’d rather I picked you up?"

  "No. I mean…" I wasn’t sure what I meant.

  The thought of having dinner with William Cadotte, in public, caused no small amount of unease. For one thing, I didn’t date. Dinner with a man would raise all sorts of questions. Dinner with this man would raise even more.

  He was Indian; I wasn’t. He was pretty, same thing. He was off-limits, according to my boss.

  Cadotte could be more trouble than he was worth. I let my gaze wander over him from the tip of his black, shiny hair to the toe of his… toe.

  He wasn’t wearing any shoes. His feet were tanned, smooth, his toes straight, the nails clipped and clean.

  Damn. I was even aroused by his feet. Trouble, trouble, trouble.

  I still wanted to see him. More than I’d wanted anything for quite a long time.

  "Come to my place instead," I blurted.

  Cadotte glanced at me over the rims of his glasses. "Why?"

  I had quite a few reasons, the most important being we couldn’t seem to keep our hands off each other—even in public. I’d think there’d been a spell cast over me, if I believed in such things.

  "Because," I said, and left it at that.

  He frowned and a flicker of uncertainty passed through his eyes. I’d never seen him uncertain before.

  "What?" I asked.

  "‘You don’t want to be seen with me?"

  "No! It isn’t that."

  And it wasn’t. Not really. I wouldn’t mind being seen with him; hell, I’d love it. What woman wouldn’t? What I didn’t want to face were the questions, the stares, the speculation.

  What on earth was a man like him doing with a woman like me? The inevitable answer: I must be an incredible lay.

  "What is it then?"

  He’d taken off his glasses so he could stare at me through naked, intense, searching eyes. I glanced away.

  "I don’t want to discuss business in public."

  He didn’t say anything. I heard the rustle of papers, the thud of a book. "Fine." His voice was cool and brisk. I wanted the heated huskiness back. "I’ll come to your place at… ?"

  "Seven."

  "All right. I’ll bring my notes. You bring the totem.
"

  "What?" I shot him a startled glance.

  He juggled two books and three folders as he walked past me, then shoved his bare feet into the sandals he’d left by the door. "Bring the totem so we can compare the markings to some of the drawings I found."

  The totem again. I ran a thumb over the stub in my pocket. For an instant I could have sworn the thing was hot to the touch. But that was no doubt just my skin—still flushed and sensitive from Cadotte’s assault.

  He opened the door and paused, giving me a chance to study him. I found no hint of deception in his steady gaze. If he’d wanted the totem for himself, he wouldn’t have given the thing back.

  I let my eyes wander over the ransacked office. Hell, he’d have the perfect alibi right here. Pretend the totem was stolen, then keep it. I’d be the one taking the heat for letting him have the evidence in the first place.

  "I’ll see you tonight." He jerked his head toward the hall. "I’ve got a class."

  "Sure. Tonight. I’ll—um—order a pizza."

  He smiled. "Pepperoni and black olives?"

  "No way. Sausage, mushroom, and onion."

  He tilted his head and his earring swung free, glittering gold like a harvest moon in a midnight sky. "How about half and half?"

  I had a feeling I was agreeing to more than a pizza, but what the hell? "Deal," I said, and then he was gone.

  I was left alone in his office with a whole bunch of questions.

  Cadotte hadn’t been the one to trash this place, so who had? Since nothing had been taken and nothing had been ruined, there wasn’t much of a crime. I could call in a fingerprint tech, but we’d have to cross-reference everyone who had been in here.

  I thought of all the students, all the teachers, all the staff. "Good luck," I muttered.

  My radio crackled. "Jessie?"

  Clyde’s voice made me jump. What was he doing on the radio?

  "Yeah?"

  "What’s going on out there?"

  "Nothing much." I filled him in on what had happened.

  "Tell me you got that evidence back from Cadotte, and that it’s safely tucked away in the evidence room right now."

  I tugged the totem from my pocket and twirled the stone round and round in my fingers. Why was everyone so damn concerned with this thing? It was a carved wolf, nothing more, nothing less. Interesting, but not life-changing—no matter what Cadotte believed.

  "Jessie!" Clyde snapped. "Where is that totem?"

  I didn’t like his tone. It made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. I’d learned over the years to listen to those hairs. They always signaled trouble.

  Of course they’d been standing up and dancing since Professor Cadotte had walked into my life. Maybe that was what was wrong with them now, but I didn’t think so.

  I folded the tiny wolf into my palm. "I got the totem back."

  "Good."

  Was his sigh of relief just a little too relieved? When had I stopped trusting Clyde? I wasn’t quite sure.

  "But it isn’t in the evidence room."

  "Why the hell not?"

  Well, he had to find out sometime. Better now, when he was on one side of town and I was on the other. "Because someone’s been in there and everything having to do with Karen Larson’s accident is gone."

  "Everything?"

  I took a deep breath, then did something I had never done before. I lied to my boss. "Everything."

  I might be sorry later, but I didn’t think so. I opened my hand and stared at the strange little wolf—no bigger than my thumbnail—that lay in my palm. Too many people were far too interested in this thing. Until I found out why, maybe it would be better if they all believed the totem had disappeared.

  As I listened to Clyde rant and rave, I pawed around on Cadotte’s desk until I found what I needed. A piece of twine, probably used to bind books or papers, which fit perfectly through the tiny hole at the top of the wolf.

  I still had a hard time believing someone was after this bit of rock. But since the other evidence had disappeared, I was going to make certain this didn’t, too. I was going to keep it in the safest place I could think of—on me.

  One knot later, I dropped the icon over my head and under my shirt. The totem slid into the hollow between my breasts, and if I didn’t know better I’d swear it snuggled in close and went to sleep.

  Which is what I did as soon as I got home. I should have gone in and filed a report on Cadotte’s office, as well as one on the missing evidence. But since I didn’t want to meet Clyde face-to-face right now, I turned off my radio, my cell phone, and my house phone, and dived between the cool, welcoming sheets of my bed.

  I slept and I dreamed. Of wolves with human eyes. Of people I knew with the eyes of a wolf—Cadotte, Clyde, Brad, Mandenauer, even Zee.

  Someone was chasing me through the forest. I was naked, which explained why I was so afraid. No place to carry my gun.

  And whatever was chasing me sounded big, mean, gun-worthy. Branches thrashed; sticks cracked; heavy footsteps pounded in my wake. But more than two feet. Two people? Or perhaps four paws.

  My side ached. I’d been breathing through my mouth, fear making me forget all my lessons in endurance. I hated being afraid as much in the dream as I did when I was awake.

  I glanced back. Always a mistake. Something big, black, and furry was after me. I knew what it was.

  I stumbled over a branch and hit the ground hard. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was going to die. Then suddenly air returned to my lungs. I gasped greedily.

  Something leaped on top of me. I twisted, grabbed fistfuls of fur. My fingers tangled in rawhide and a wolf totem swung in front of my face, hanging around the animal’s neck like a collar.

  The big black wolf with human eyes went for my throat, but instead of biting me, he licked my collarbone, then moved lower and lower still. 1 shuddered, aroused, and began to come.

  I awoke with an audible gasp to find myself on the floor, the sheets tangled around my ankles, the twine tight at my neck. I was slick with sweat and on the verge of an orgasm.

  "Hell. Shit. Son of a bitch!" I loosened the twine, shoved sweaty hanks of hair from my forehead.

  Thankfully I was alone, so no one heard me curse like a dockworker or saw my hands shaking as I went into the bathroom and turned the shower to a temperature somewhere between ice-cold and lukewarm.

  I stepped into the tub and stuck my head under the spray, gasping as chilly water cascaded over my heated skin. My mind cleared instantly, but I couldn’t stop trembling, even when I turned the water from cold to hot.

  The dream had disturbed me far more than any other I’d ever had.

  Chapter 16

  I’d slept the day away and only had an hour before Ca-dotte was supposed to show up. The damn twine had rubbed a raw circle around my neck. A cold compress plus a liberal application of vitamin E took away the sting.

  To hide the mark, I put on a sleeveless mock turtle-neck instead of a tank top; then I transferred the totem to a gold chain my mother had given me for my sixteenth birthday, which I’d never worn.

  I doubted she’d approve of the way I was wearing it now, but the chain was my present and she wasn’t here. My rationalization for a lot of the things I did that my mother wouldn’t approve of.

  I chose shorts instead of jeans. Judging by the heat of my apartment, we’d enjoyed the first true day of summer while I’d been asleep. I threw open a few windows. I couldn’t see turning on the air-conditioning when the setting of the sun was only a few hours away.

  Besides, I had good legs and, being tall, I had a lot of them. Swimming toned much better than jogging. I preferred round, feminine muscle to stringy sinew and emaciated calves.

  I turned my cell phone on long enough to dial a pizza, then shut it off again. If there were messages pending, they were no doubt from Clyde. I’d have to deal with him later, and later was when I would deal with him. Right now I was going to enjoy the evening.

  A little pizza,
a little Cadotte. If things went well, I might even be in a good mood by the time I went to work. I was hoping sex could erase the memory of that very strange dream. I’d never been into bestiality, so what was the matter with me now?

  The stone shifted between my breasts, making me jump. I’d been standing at the floor-length window, staring at the summer sun. I hadn’t moved. Why had the totem?

  The dream had me spooked, that’s all. Dreams were just dreams, despite any woo-woo propaganda to the contrary. They were not truth or predictions, not buried secrets or hidden hopes. They were just images that meant nothing at all. But what images!

  Illusions tumbled through my mind of bodies entwined, sweat-slicked skin, heated flesh. These were followed by the tactile memory of soft fur, a smooth tongue. A man and a beast become one—or had that been a woman and a beast?

  The doorbell rang and I started. I was rolling the totem between two fingers like a worry bead. The stone was warm. I dropped the icon back down my shirt as if it were on fire.

  Woman and beast? That was a bit too kinky for comfort, and my mind shied away from the thought.

  Cadotte stood in the hall with a pizza. I was so hungry I wanted to eat them both. What was wrong with me? Nothing that a little pizza and a lot of sex wouldn’t solve.

  "I met the delivery boy coming up."

  "I’ll pay you." I opened the door wide, inviting him in.

  "Yeah, you will." He crowded me close, kicked the door shut, then kissed me—hard, deep, and wet. Maybe sex, then pizza was a better idea.

  He stepped back and tilted his head. "There, all paid up."

  "With one kiss?"

  "You’re a very good kisser."

  I was left standing stunned in the hall when he strode into the apartment. I got so few compliments, and I’d never received one on how well I kissed. I had no idea what to say.

  I wasn’t required to say anything. By the time I reached the sofa, he had his mouth full of food. He’d brought wine. I got him a glass and a corkscrew.

  "You don’t drink?" He eyed the single glass.

  "I have to work in four hours."

  "That doesn’t answer my question."