Night Moves (2 page)

“All right.” She uncrossed and re-crossed her legs, doing her best not to let her skirt ride up, especially when she saw his eyes drop to the exposed area of thigh, a faint flame flickering in them. “I seem to have picked up a stalker.”

“A stalker.” Those eyes seemed glued to her face, and with an unexpected jolt, her nipples hardened and moisture dampened her panties.

Holy shit, Regan! This is a business appointment. Your life might be in danger and the guy you
want to hire is waking up your almost dead hormones?

“I think so. It started with hang-up calls at night. One then another, until now, it’s every night. Then I got a couple of text messages on my cell, followed by three emails to my personal email address.”

“So…someone who obviously knows you.”

She shrugged. “A frightening thought. And now, he’s taken to leaving messages under my windshield wipers.” She pulled the most recent note from her purse and handed it to him. “This is why I decided to call you.”

Brian studied the note. “
You’re dead, bitch. You can’t run away from me now,”
he read.

“Seems pretty explicit to me. You were smart to call us. What else can you tell me?”

Regan shifted uncomfortably in the chair. “I think maybe…that is, on a couple of nights, I was sure I heard someone outside my house, but when I looked out the windows, I couldn’t catch any movement. I turned on all the lights, so maybe if there was someone out there, it scared them away. And no one’s broken into my house. At least, not so far.”

“Anything else? Any actual attempts or just warnings?”

“The other night in the rain, I thought someone was trying to run me off the road, but it could have just been the wet pavement.”

“That’s always a good cover up,” he pointed out. “Anything you’ve left out?”

She wrinkled her forehead, trying to think. “I don’t know. I haven’t exactly been keeping track.”

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

10

“I would imagine being someone who handles high profile cases would put you in the line of fire a lot.”

Regan leaned forward in her chair. “Listen, Mr. Spencer—”

“Brian,” he interrupted. “We’re big on informality here.”

“All right. Listen,
Brian.
In my job, you get nutcases threatening you all the time so I tend to disregard most of it. And I’m usually quite good at taking care of myself.”

“So what makes this one different?”

“Usually the perps I put away, or whose lives I make miserable, threaten, yell, scream, and then, if they’re actually going to do something, they act on it. They don’t play these kinds of game. They’re actually pretty predictable.”

Brian narrowed his gaze. “There are other agencies in the city. What made you choose The Sentinels?”

She brushed an imaginary piece of lint from her skirt. “Linda Gillette convinced me to at least let you look into it. And these threats are more plentiful and vicious than usual. After the first vent of rage, whoever it is usually goes away, but not this time.”

“We aren’t cheap,” he warned her and quoted an hourly rate. “There’s a retainer if you sign a contract with us, but we provide everything from bodyguard services to electronic snooping.” He opened a drawer and took out a folder, sliding it across the desk. “Take a minute to look at this. If it suits you, please sign it, and we’ll get started.”

Regan glanced through it, but she’d already looked at the one Linda had signed.

Scrawling her signature in the appropriate place, she pulled out her chequebook and wrote out a retainer cheque then handed both of them to the man across from her.

He raised one eyebrow at the speed of the transaction but silently signed his own name to the contract. “I’ll make you a copy before we leave.” He sat up straighter in his chair and pulled one of the keyboards onto his desk. “Start from the beginning. Every note. Every incident. Any little thing that comes to mind. I’ll want to take a look at your house and check out your office as well.”

“My house? My office?”

“Your car, too. Places where you’re most vulnerable.”

“But I have an alarm system at my house,” she protested. “And on my car. And in my office, there are people around all the time.”

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

11

“But these places are also vulnerable to bombs and other explosive devices. And a good sniper can pick you off through a window. Besides,” he pointed out, “this could very well be someone you work with.”

The thought had occurred to Regan, too, but she’d hated to think someone at her office had it in for her like this.

“Actually, a man I convicted a few years ago was just released. Mickey Walker. Rich and powerful and thought he could get away with murder. He made a lot of threats then.

I…thought maybe this might be him.”

“Did you ask the cops to check on him? They ought to be able to do that easily enough.”

She snorted. “The cops are so overworked they don’t know up from down. I checked with his parole officer, and a couple of the guys paid him a visit, but he’s been out a while and nothing has happened. So…” She shrugged.

“So they wrote him off and left it at that,” Brian finished.

Regan nodded. “I don’t blame them. Anyway, it’s a stretch. But he’s the only one I can think of.”

“You never know who else might be lurking around that doesn’t even occur to you.

Let’s go over everything and see what we’ve got.”

By the time, she’d finished answering all the questions, including a list of everyone who might have the slightest reason to do this, Regan was beginning to wonder how it had taken her so long to be frightened. Especially when she listed the people at her office who might be motivated to threaten her, out of anger or envy or something she couldn‘t even think of. For one crazy moment, she thought about asking Brian Spencer if she could just hide in his office until he caught whoever it was.

“Do you have your cell with you?” When she nodded, he said, “Let me see it. I hope you saved the messages.”

She dug into her purse then handed the phone to him. “Not the first one, but when the second one showed up, I kept it just in case.”

At the time, she’d still thought it was some stupid prank. Now she was glad she hadn’t deleted it, also.

“What about the emails you got?”

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

12

“I’m sorry, but I deleted them. I just thought it was some idiot amusing himself by giving the prosecutor a hard time.”

“Too bad. We might have been able to backtrack it. Okay, give me your best guess of anyone—and I mean
anyone
—at your office who might possibly have a reason for doing this.

Other prosecutors who think you’ve screwed them over. Support staff who have a hard-on for you. Anyone. Let’s get started.”

He finished inputting information on his computer, saved the file, typed an email and hit the Send key then pushed the keyboard away. He picked up his phone and punched a button. To whoever answered, he said, “I’m off with the new client. I sent you an email with some instructions for you to hand out. I’ll have my cell on if you need me.“ He replaced the phone and stood up. “Come on. I’ll follow you to your house. I want to check out every inch of it, inside and out.”

His hand touched her shoulder as he guided her out of his office, and again, she felt that snap of energy between them. She’d need all her wits about her to keep from making a fool of herself with the dark, sensual Brian Spencer.

Walking Regan out of the building, Brian wondered if he had just made a very stupid mistake. The minute he’d opened the building door for her, his wolf gene had woken up and caused his blood to roar through his body.

Mine!

Shit. Just what he needed. Not that he hadn’t waited a long time to find his mate. He just hadn’t expected one in human form. It worked out fine for his brother, Luke, and his sister-in-law, Sierra. But successful human and shifter matings were very rare. Even when the pack had been at full strength and more accepting of outsiders, something like this was very uncommon. Now that they were reduced to such a small group, they all had to be exceptionally careful.

And what would she think if she knew he was half wolf? Could shift from human to wolf and back again? Would she run screaming into the night? Call the police? Shoot him?

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

13

But looking at her thick blonde hair with its wild, natural streaks and her eyes like glittering emeralds, her lush yet petite body, he knew he was doomed. Somehow, before tonight was over, and without frightening her away, he’d have her naked beneath him, his cock buried in her cunt, his body imprinted on hers.

Yeah, Brian, good luck to that.

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

14

By the time Brian had prowled every corner of her house and checked every inch of her small yard, Regan was a jangle of nerves. The sexual energy sizzling between them was almost palpable. Although he kept his face implacable, she saw an answering light in his eyes that he quickly extinguished. She wondered if she wasn’t in greater danger from her protector than her tormenter.

He’d told her to close all the drapes and blinds, but she couldn’t help peeking between two of the slats on the sliding door verticals. She could barely see him, blending into the night the way he did. And once, she could have sworn she saw the wolf again.

“Ridiculous.” She let the slats fall into place. “There are no wolves in the city of San Antonio.”

Regan busied herself making a pot of coffee. When Brian let himself back inside, it was ready and she poured a mug for each of them.

“Well?” she asked, watching him over the rim of the mug. “Everything okay?”

“Not as okay as it should be.” He set his mug down on the counter. “It hasn’t rained in more than a week, and unless you have a habit of standing in your own beds of shrubbery there’re some clear footprints that indicate someone has indeed been prowling. I’m going to take pictures of them.”

“Someone was really here?” Her heart began to bang against her ribs.

“I’d say yes. And that’s only what I can see in the dark. Tomorrow, while the office is doing a rundown on all the names you gave us, I’ll do a more thorough check. I also want to make some modifications to your security system and install a new one in your car.”

He had moved as he talked, and now, he was standing so close to her she was afraid to breathe. His masculine scent mixed with something that hinted of the outdoors and teased at her nose. Her nipples, which had softened, snapped back into hard points. She could feel moisture dripping onto the inside of her thighs. What the hell was happening with her?

Regan Matthews
never
ever
reacted to a man this way. Especially a stranger.

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

15

When he reached his hand out to put his mug on the counter, it brought him into full body contact with her. She felt the hot bulge of his erection through the fabric of his pants and her thin silk skirt. His eyes burned into hers, holding her gaze and making it impossible for her to look away. Her breathing hitched, and her heart rate sped up.

“I’ve never come on to a client,” he told her, his lips a whisper away from hers. “But the minute you walked through the front door at the agency, all I could think about was stripping you naked and plunging myself inside of you.”

Regan was so shocked she couldn’t make herself form words. Maybe because his words echoed her own feelings. Invisible fingers of hot and cold raced over her body, making the entire surface of her skin tingle.

If I had any brains I’d slap his face and tell him to get out of my house.

Instead, she reached out with a shaking hand to set down her own mug and stared back at him. Her entire body throbbed, yet he’d hardly touched her.

His large, warm hands came to rest on her shoulders, and his head bent so their lips almost touched.

“I know this is crazy, not to mention unprofessional, and you have every right to kick me out of here. But if you don’t, I’m going to fuck your brains out until neither of us can move. So which is it, Regan? Stay or go?”

She couldn’t speak, merely lifting her head a fraction of an inch until their lips touched.

The kiss exploded, his tongue tracing the line of her mouth, forcing her lips apart, sweeping inside to find her own small tongue and wrapping his around it, sucking it into his mouth.

Her head reeled and pulses she didn’t even know she had came to life. His hands found her breasts beneath the thin material of her blouse, squeezing and plumping them, his fingers pinching nipples now almost painfully swollen.

“I have to have you.” His voice was harsh, thick with need as he lifted his mouth from hers. “Right here. Right now.”

“Yes.” She barely got the word out before he was stripping her clothes off, dropping them into a heap on the floor. Seconds more and he was out of his own clothing, pressing her against the kitchen wall and dropping to his knees in front of her. Lean fingers separated her thighs. He bent his head and swiped the length of her slit with his tongue. She shook with sensation, a mewling sound coming from the back of her throat.

NIGHT MOVES

Desiree Holt

16

Calloused thumbs pressed her labia open, and his tongue invaded her inner lips then circled the opening of her cunt with the tip. She shivered at his touch, her cream poured into his mouth, and her inner walls fluttered in response. Her fingers dug into his shoulders as she clutched them for balance, feeling the flex of hard muscle beneath his warm skin. Her head fell back, hitting the wall, but she couldn’t have cared less. All she could focus on was that hot, wicked tongue doing clever things to her cunt. She rocked her hips forward, urging him to plunge his tongue inside her.

When he did, she couldn’t restrain the tiny shudders that raced through her, pulling at her, drawing more liquid from her. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, fingers digging into his flesh, as one spasm built on another. When he bit down lightly on her clit, her whole body tried to clench, but Brian was relentless, not giving her a moment to catch her breath.