“You don’t know how to handle her,” Cabal injected.
Handle her? No one handled her, period.
“Only with a whip and a chair,” Jonas growled. “Callan and Merinus give her much too much freedom in Sanctuary. She thinks she deserves it elsewhere.”
“And this is my problem how?” Cabal argued. “She’s a reporter. You should have known better than to allow the invitation she was given to stand.”
Bodies shifted. Cassa was dying to look over the top of the shrubs, but she leaned to the side instead, to try to get a view through the open foliage of thick branches.
The glimmer of light from a nearby building revealed the two men. Jonas was still dressed in his tuxedo. Cabal though had changed into jeans, T-shirt and a rain-resistant jacket and boots. His black-striped golden blond hair dripped with the misty rain and fell long to his shoulders.
His shoulders were broad, his waist lean, his thighs muscular and his legs long. Standing there in the rain, he looked like the animal he was. In his prime, ready for action. Sexy as hell, mouth wateringly male.
She breathed in slow and easy, and felt the familiar slick warmth between her thighs.
“Just make certain she’s in her cabin, and well guarded, if you don’t mind,” Jonas ordered in a drawl heavy with mockery.
“And if I mind?” Cabal asked carefully.
Jonas’s teeth flashed in a hard, cold smile as the chilly rain dripped along his face and saturated his short, clipped hair.
“Then I might make you part of her protection detail rather than sending you to Glen Ferris. Come to think of it, that might be a good idea after all.”
Cabal’s brilliant green eyes narrowed, and Cassa could have sworn she saw the glitter of the amber flecks within the green as he stared back at the other Breed.
“I’ll check on her.” The hard fury that echoed in his normally cold voice surprised Cassa and sent a chill racing down her spine. Fine, so he didn’t want to be anywhere near her. She didn’t want him anywhere near her either. She would consider herself lucky if she didn’t have to run into him again, period, and she didn’t appreciate Jonas sending a babysitter to make certain she was in place.
She had to get back to her cabin before Cabal arrived there. If he found her missing from her cabin or, God forbid, sneaking around in the rain, she could just imagine the consequences. She’d lose every privilege she had gained in the past years where Sanctuary was concerned. Not to mention the fact that she would have to deal with yet more of his arrogant I own you bullshit. She almost snorted at the thought of that.
She slid back from her position silently. Heart racing, she fought to move slowly, carefully.
She was running out of time anyway, with the single pill she had taken. Two hours, the information had warned. She had spent most of that time testing it against the Breeds patrolling the compound.
Once the time limit was reached, her natural scent would return quickly, which meant she had less than half an hour to get back to the cabin.
She couldn’t let Cabal know she hadn’t been there all along, and she damned sure couldn’t face him while that drug was still in her system.
They continued to discuss her, much to her dismay, as she slowly retreated. She could hear their voices, but not what they were saying. Once she reached a safe distance, she straightened again and moved hastily through the shadows back to her cabin.
She used the heavy trees that grew throughout the compound to hide her return. Skirting the areas she knew the Breeds were prone to guard more heavily, she made it back to her cabin within twenty minutes. The delays were nerve-wracking as she waited for sentries to move slowly past her, or when she was forced to backtrack to avoid them.
Rushing back through the unlocked window of her cabin, she raced to the bathroom as she heard a vehicle pulling up in the small driveway outside.
Hell. For once, Cabal hadn’t wasted any time in following Jonas’s orders.
Twisting the knobs to the shower, she quickly adjusted the water and stripped the wet clothes from her body. Tossing the saturated fabric into a nearby closet, she grabbed her scented shampoo, squeezed a large amount into her palm and worked it quickly into her long hair before snatching the bottle of bath gel from a shelf and soaping up a sponge.
She needed scent, lots of it. Pear-scented shampoo in her hair, apple-scented bath gel. Lather built over her body from head to toe as she fought to make damned certain Cabal had plenty to smell when she faced him.
Rinsing quickly, she beat back the racing of her heart, forced herself to remain calm and assured herself the drug had time to get out of her system by the time she conditioned her hair with the pear-scented conditioner, rinsed it and shut the water off.
Minutes later she left the bathroom, her hair bound in a towel, a heavy robe wrapped around her and plenty of apple-scented body lotion smoothed over her. She smelled like a damned orchard.
Normally, she would have used the products sparingly. She preferred unscented shampoos and conditioners, even soaps. The heavy scents bothered her, as well as the Breeds she interviewed or worked with. Tonight was an exception, and she was thankful her assistant had once again slipped the scented stuff into her overnight pack.
Kelly thought everyone should smell like a fruit stand just because she did.
Calm, poised, Cassa stepped out of her bedroom into the wide living room and came to a stop at the sight of a damp-haired, much too handsome Breed, sitting in the large easy chair across the room.
It was no more than she had expected, and it wasn’t the first time she had walked into a room that should have been hers alone to find a Breed waiting for her. Though, she admitted, it was rarely this particular Breed. Thankfully, Cabal had kept as much space as possible between the two of them in the past eleven years.
“A little late for a visit, isn’t it?” She tugged at the towel around her hair as the mocking question passed her lips.
She didn’t miss the flicker of his gaze to her hair as it fell around her shoulders, curled down her back and landed just above her waist. Damp, riotous curls snaked over her shoulders and fell down the front of the robe to lie over her breasts. His gaze touched there, and Cassa was suddenly thankful for the thick material. It hid the hardening of her nipples, but she knew nothing could hide the scent of her arousal now.
Cabal’s nostrils flared, his eyes narrowed and his muscles bunched as he rose slowly from the chair to a very impressive height of six feet, four inches tall. Too tall for her, she thought.
She felt dwarfed by him, despite her own five feet eight inches. She felt too feminine, and too physically weak. She felt like those silly little twits that cooed and ahhed at the sight of him. The ones she hated because they lusted after him with such determination. The slinky little redheads that hung to his arm. The vapid little brunettes she had seen him squire around. She detested each and every one.
“You’re normally up rather late,” he stated, his voice low as his gaze flickered to her laptop. The one she hadn’t turned on all day. “I expected you to be working on whatever story you were coming up with.” There was an edge of suspicion in his voice.
Could he smell her nerves along with her arousal? Probably. But who wasn’t nervous around him?
“I don’t consider the story or my hours any of your business.” She shrugged, moved across the room and headed to the open kitchen. “I’m going to fix a pot of coffee. Interested?” In the coffee, she should have said. It was rarely a good thing to leave a question or a sentence open around a Breed.
She felt him follow her. Like a heated breath of air at her back, she could feel him behind her as she moved into the kitchen and headed for the counter.