Werewolf Upstairs (12 page)

Roz drew in a deep breath. “Okay, let’s give Arwen a shot. She even has a handy ‘contact Arwen’
link.” She handed the laptop back to Konrad.

“You want me to contact her?”

“Sure. You seem to know more about it, so why don’t you go first?”

“Okay, here goes nothin’.”

He clickety-clicked across the keyboard in a rush of words that made her curious.

“Isn’t there some kind of form to fill out?”

“No. Just a blank page to give her some basic information and whatever else you want her to know.

“I guess you want her to know everything about you. Hell, even
I
don’t know that much.”

“Wisenheimer.”

“Hey, you talked me into this.” She kicked at him and winced. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

He smirked.

After he typed what seemed to be an extremely long message and sent it, Roz asked, “What was all that about?”

“She needed certain information. Name, date of birth, time and place of birth. Plus I had a bit of explanation I had to include…about the need for a fast track to the new career and how we’re trying different things, I mean.”

“It sounds as if she’s doing astrology, with all the birth info. When is your birthday, anyway?”

He grinned. “It’s easy to remember. Twelve, twelve.” “
Don’t ask the year.
”

“Why don’t you want to tell me the year?”

Damn.

“Are you afraid to let me know how old you are?” She crossed her arms.

“I’m older than you; let’s leave it at that.”

“Not much, judging by your looks.” She cocked her head and studied him. “To be honest, you could even be younger. Ah, ha! So that’s it. You’re younger than I am, and you don’t want me to feel old…or worse, like I have the upper hand by being older and wiser.”

He rolled his eyes. “Trust me, I’m older. And I like having you on top now and then.” He gave her a conspiratorial wink.

“There you go, always thinking about sex.”

“Can’t help it. You turn me on.” He cupped her breast and raked a thumb over the fabric of her blouse.

Her nipple registered the sensation, and she groaned. “Not much we can do about it until this ankle heals.”

“Sure we can. We just have to think creatively. Do you have any duct tape or masking tape?”

Roz’s eyes rounded. “Du…duct tape? What for? My ankle is already wrapped in an Ace bandage.”

Konrad laughed. “I just want to tape the ice pack on.”

“Oh.” Roz’s face heated. “I could probably leave it off. The discharge instructions said to keep it on no more than twenty minutes at a time, and then to leave it off for twenty.”

One side of Konrad’s mouth hitched up. “I guess we can make twenty minutes count.” Then he waggled his eyebrows.

“Wait a minute, cowboy. I haven’t even said I
want
to have sex right now.”

“Oh.” His face fell. “Don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. Depending on what your creative position requires.”

He chuckled. “I think you can manage it. It’s called missionary style.”

Roz laughed.

Konrad swooped in for a deep kiss.

A few minutes of making out on the couch later, Roz’s laptop pinged, announcing she had email. “Whew, saved by the bell. Would you mind?” She reached in the general direction of the laptop, and he handed it to her.

She opened her email and saw that Arwen had responded. “Wow, that Arwen is fast. She sent payment information and something else. A message for you, I guess.”

Konrad practically ripped the laptop out of her hands, looking nervous.

It just said, “I understand. You can trust me.” Roz’s curiosity was piqued. “What is that about?”

“Oh, I added some personal information…about my strengths and limitations.” “
Don’t think about it; don’t think about it…
”

There he goes again.
“I see.” Roz eyed him suspiciously. “What is it you don’t want me to know?”

He hung his head. “Someday I’ll tell you, but right now I just…I just can’t, okay? It’s a long story.”

“You can trust me, you know.”

“I know. And even that turns me on.”

He stood and abruptly scooped her into his arms. Roz gulped, unable to tear her gaze from his. Konrad’s stare grew molten as he carried her to the bedroom and laid her in the middle of the queen-size bed. He unbuttoned her blouse carefully and popped open the front closure of her bra. Then he climbed in beside her.

“You seem to have better control over your rough side this time.”

“You’re hurt.”

His tender treatment of her spoke volumes, and she relaxed, ready for anything he wanted to do with her.

He traced a calloused fingertip across her nipples, and she shivered. He brought the finger to his mouth, wet it, and circled each nipple in turn.

The cool air mingled with her dampened nipples, and they puckered. She wanted to jump him, hurry him, but her injury prevented her from doing anything more than lying next to him, completely at his mercy.

His blond head bent, trailing kisses over her collarbone, licking the dip between her breasts, then, at last, licking one of her nipples. Her breath hitched when he caught the tight bud between his lips and tugged.

Konrad slipped his hand under the other globe and lifted it as if appreciating its weight. His thumb scraped across the nub while he sucked the one next to his mouth. Glorious electricity shot from her nipples to her pussy.

Her heart pounded as he backed away and unsnapped her pants. Placing her weight on her good heel, she arched and lifted her buttocks. Konrad peeled her pants down her legs and carefully pulled them over and off her injured ankle.

Even though she was exposed and vulnerable, she didn’t shy away from his piercing stare. She wanted him to finish what he’d begun.
Strip, damn it. I want to admire you too.

Konrad grinned, and his canines seemed longer.

Must be my imagination.

He pulled his T-shirt over his head, exposing his impressive pectoral muscles and six-pack abs. She’d grown used to his massive biceps, but even they seemed to loom larger than normal. She remembered he’d been carrying her around all evening.

Roz had never been very bold in the bedroom, but this man made her want to try it all. Gentle sex, rough sex, twisted-ankle sex. No one else had ever made her come undone like he did. She could starve to death in bed with Konrad, and for as much as she loved food, that was saying quite a lot.

He lay down beside her and leaned over for a long, languorous kiss. She held him by the shoulders, always worried about accidentally pulling his hair. When their lips finally parted, Konrad planted wet, hot kisses down her abdomen to her navel.

He began to part her thighs by moving her good leg.

“You don’t have to do that,” Roz said.

“I know I don’t
have to.
”

“I mean, I love it when you do, but it might be kind of awkward—” Surprise overtook her as he jumped over her good leg, and as she tried to spread her knees, pain stabbed her ankle. “Owww!”

He froze. “I can’t do this. I might hurt you.”

Roz took some deep breaths until the pain subsided. “I’m sorry. I wish I could—”

“Don’t be sorry. There are bound to be times when one of us can’t handle having sex.” He leaned over and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

“And you won’t dump me for someone less accident prone?”

He laughed. “Not a chance.”

“Here it is, ‘Tarot reading by Arwen for Konrad Wolfensen.’” Konrad had taken Roz’s laptop to her bedroom and stretched out beside her.

Roz, still naked but covered with a sheet, lounged with her foot propped on a pillow. “Read it out loud.”

Konrad had stolen a peek before taking it to Roz and made sure nothing incriminating, like his year of birth, 1912, was mentioned. He wasn’t ready to explain that werewolves aged at a much slower rate than humans. Hell, he wasn’t ready to reveal he was a Lycan at all! Fortunately, Arwen referenced his birthday only as December 12.

Since Roz looked comfortable, reading aloud seemed like the best way to share the information, despite the fascinating pictures of the tarot cards themselves. He set the laptop in front of him so he could read and run his fingers lightly over Roz’s arm at the same time. She shivered.

“Sorry. Do you want me to stop doing that?”

“As long as you can read and avoid touching me in those
especially distracting
places, I should be able to handle it.”

He grinned. “I’ll try to behave myself. Okay, so the first heading says, ‘How do you see the people around you?’ You don’t really want to hear that part, do you?”

“Of course I do! I’m around you, and I’d like to know how you see me.”

He laughed. “I think it’s more general than that, but here goes. ‘People around you represent opportunity. They are your chance to achieve and show off a bit. Sometimes you see what they have and yearn for that.

“‘You have an unopened bag of tricks yet. There are things these people still have not seen about you. Things you still have to show them. There is some need to prove yourself to these people.’”

“Hmmm…” Roz interjected. “I wonder what that could be?”

“Yeah, well…who knows? Should I continue?”

“Please.”

Konrad cleared his throat. “Okay, just a little left of that category. It says, ‘The ships in the harbor represent coming chances with three people. You are focused on one of them, and it is possibly causing you to be a bit off your game. The sandals in the sand indicate that some part of you is ready to put down roots.’”

Roz raised her eyebrows as if asking a question, but didn’t verbalize it.

“Here, I’ll show you the picture of the card, so you can see the ship and sandals.” He turned the screen toward her.

She nodded at it. “Pretty. It kind of looks like a guy is playing limbo on the beach. Maybe it’s the Club Med card.”

He chuckled, but more to cover his disappointment. Okay, so it didn’t seem like she was ready to talk about commitment. He’d have to wait for the right moment. Things like that shouldn’t be rushed.

He turned the screen back to where he could read it and scrolled down. “The next category is ‘How are you seen by the people around you?’ Ha, now it’s my turn.”
And my chance to have a little fun.

“Hey, it may not refer to how
I
see you.”

“You doubt everyone sees me as gorgeous and great in bed?”

Roz rolled her eyes.

He leaned over and kissed her. When he returned to the screen, he feigned surprise and said, “Hey, how about that? It says, ‘You’re viewed by others as handsome and virile.’”

“It does not.”

He grinned, sheepishly. “You saw through that, huh?”

“A little bit. Now go on. Read; I’m enjoying this.”

“Okay. ‘The Queen of swords is a very mentally focused person. You are seen as driven. Sometimes your sarcasm comes out wrong.’ Hey! I’m not sarcastic.”

Roz shrugged. “This is how others see you. Maybe you’re not aware of it.”

“Humph. I suppose.” He took a deep breath and continued. “‘Those around you may see you as a bit of a loner as well, because where you live is so different from where they live, even if it’s on the same street.’”

“Now that I can believe,” Roz said.

“What do you mean…because our building’s full of weirdoes?”

“Ah ha. That’s the sarcasm that doesn’t come out right!
I
live in this building, you weirdo.”

“Sorry. Hey, do you want to see the card? It’s a woman on an ice-covered cliff holding a sword, and a couple of white eagles soaring around the snowcapped mountains.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Go ahead. Keep reading.”

“‘Folks see you as someone with many responsibilities and projects. You seem to have your eye on the prize always. There is one very close to you who watches and learns from you.’”

“Well, that’s interesting.”

“Do you think that has something to do with you?”

Roz smiled shyly and lifted one shoulder. “Maybe. I’m learning to accept my body. I’m not learning how to dance, but I
am
learning how to take care of a sprained ankle, thanks to you.”

“Oh, nice. Now who’s being sarcastic?”

She grinned. “Never said I wasn’t.”

“Fine. I’ll just continue reading. “‘When people come to you for advice, they know they’ll get true Sagittarian honesty. Low on tact, but high on blunt information.’”

Roz laughed. “I guess you really mean it when you say you like the extra pounds I’m padded with; otherwise you’d tell me how fat my ass is.”

“You see? I’m an honest guy. Now do you believe me?”

“I guess I’ll have to. The cards don’t lie.”

“No, they’re kind of blunt and honest too.”

She sat up and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t worry; they can’t say anything that will turn me away from you. I’m not hearing much to guide you in a career choice, though.”

“The next part might have something. It’s titled ‘What is your most important goal?’”

“Yeah, that sounds promising. Let’s hear it.”

“‘The nine of swords is an interesting goal. It is about nightmares and anxieties. It is about feeling as if you haven’t done enough. You carry some past guilt. Your goal seems to make sure that others are never in this same position. You would move heaven and earth to protect those you consider yours.’”

Konrad stopped reading aloud. This information hit too close to home, and he didn’t want to explain to Roz what it meant. He knew the truth, though.

He’d failed his pack. He allowed another Lycan to challenge him for alpha status, knowing the bastard couldn’t be trusted. He didn’t bother to dispute the lies that Petroski spread, either. He thought his pack knew him well and would never believe that crap.