But she’d asked for privacy, and right now it was the best thing he could give her. The gift of his absence.
Which was the whiniest thing he’d thought all day. Fuck.
He stabbed the call button a little too violently, and swore again when the plastic casing creaked. But a moment later the call connected with a soft sound, proving he hadn’t done in this phone like he had the last one he’d tried to use during a temper.
Andrew answered on the third ring, sounding as crabby as he felt. “Is your cousin always unreasonable, or is she just that way with me?”
It wasn’t nice to be amused, but it didn’t stop Derek’s smile. “I don’t know. Has she started screaming about Cousin Arrest yet?”
“I take it that’s a familiar refrain?”
“Tell her she’s the one who thought working for supernatural PIs would be more fun than a video rental store. What the hell set her off? She was fine when I talked to her earlier.”
Andrew hesitated. “I might have told her she couldn’t get her stuff from the office until I could go with her. And she just started screaming at me.”
Screaming wasn’t an understatement, because Derek heard Kat’s voice clearly through the phone. “That’s because you joined the dark side, you impossibly chauvinistic bastard.”
A door slammed, and Andrew sighed. “On the upside, she’s not trying to climb in my pants anymore.”
“I guess not.” Thank God. “Sorry, man. If it helps, she’ll probably forgive you a lot faster than she forgives me.”
“Did you miss the part where she just compared me to Darth Vader?”
Derek fought another grin. “I don’t know, I’m pretty sure I was Darth Vader in that insanely fucked-up insult.”
“Dude, in this metaphor, I’m Vader. You’re obviously Palpatine.”
This time he lost the battle with laughter, and it felt good to laugh about something. “Shit, man. Sometimes I forget why my geeky little cousin’s in love with your rock-climbing frat-boy ass, and then I remember you’re just a big fucking dork.”
The front door slammed open, and Nick stormed out of the house. She muttered harsh curses as she jumped off the porch, avoiding the steps altogether.
Derek’s laughter faded. “Hate to leave you to the enraged geek princess, but I’ve got to go. Hang in there, okay? She’ll get over it, I promise.”
“Take care, Derek. Tell Nick I said… Hell, I don’t know. Something reassuring.”
“I will. Thanks. I owe you one. Or two. Or twelve.”
“What you owe me can’t even be quantified, man. Later.”
Derek snapped the phone shut and shoved it into his pocket as he pushed off the tailgate. “Nick?”
Color flamed high in her cheeks as she growled and covered the space between them with quick steps. “I’m angry. I’m angry because it’s easier.”
He reached out and caught her shoulders in a gentle grip. “Easier than what?”
She looked up at him and laughed almost hysterically. “Easier than completely and utterly losing my shit.”
“Oh, Nicky.” She felt so tiny as he slid his arms around her, delicate and fragile. Even knowing that seeming weakness was deceptive, every urge in his body clamored to find someplace safe to hide her away from the world and the misery in it.
But it was her world. He didn’t know the first damn thing about protecting her from it.
Her teeth scraped his arm through his sleeve, and she stumbled out of the circle of his arms. “I’m sorry. I just—I’m losing it.” Her eyes had gone wild, and she dragged her shirt over her head as she kicked off her sandals.
Too late he realized what the power gathering around her meant. “Are you going to run?”
“I have to, Derek.” Her skirt billowed to the ground, and she tore at her underwear. “Come with me. Please.”
“Of course.” His instincts wouldn’t let him stay there while she ran off by herself. Derek tugged his T-shirt over his head, anticipation prickling along his skin. The heat that preceded a change stole through him, something hot and heavy and tinged with a lust fueled by Nick’s naked body.
Her wolf must have been close the surface, because she’d barely hit the ground when the air around her shimmered and then pulsed with energy that washed over him in a hot wave. She stood before him, a small gray wolf who shook and pawed impatiently at the grass under them. Derek yanked at his belt and kicked off his boots, itching with the need to join her.
The change was usually easy, but he’d never done it in front of Nick before. He was far too aware of his body’s reaction, of the fact that he was hard and aroused and shaking under the force of the magic. Closing his eyes, he sucked in a breath and reached for that flickering bit of power inside him, the animal waiting just below the surface.
It felt like magic because it was. Pleasure pounded through him and his skin tingled, and he crouched down and gave in to it. The most natural feeling in the world, because now he was free…
Instinct lifted his face, and the wolf howled pleasure at being let loose. When his exultant howl faded, he found Nick watching him. After a moment, she yipped and took off toward the woods.
Her scent enflamed him. Her challenge entranced him. Human concerns bled away as he launched himself after her, wanting nothing more in the world than to run at her side.
Nick’s muscles burned. She had to focus on breathing, on drawing in one gulp of muggy night air after another. That was exactly what she wanted, to occupy her mind with something other than the fact that, one way or another, her sister might die.
Even if she hadn’t heard him, she would have sensed Derek behind her, a warm zing of magic that dovetailed perfectly with her own. He felt solid, right, with his trampling steps echoing hers.
She knew he’d follow her until exhaustion claimed him, if it didn’t take her first. But it was too hot to run for long, and Nick stumbled over a fallen log and tumbled to the ground under an ancient oak tree.
Letting go of the wolf was easier with fatigue quelling her nervousness. Twigs snapped under hands and feet instead of paws, and she collapsed onto a bed of moss, her chest heaving.
Fire. If it had only been the pull of exertion, she could have ignored it. But the change burned through her and scraped her nerve endings into a vicious flurry of arousal. “Derek,” she rasped.
It took him longer to regain human form, but soon enough he crouched at her feet, his muscular chest straining under his panting breaths. He looked massive in the moonlight filtering through the trees, a hulking giant of tanned skin stretched over hard muscles. When he lifted his head, she caught a glimpse of eyes still glinting yellow.
His gaze caught hers and drifted down her body, the stare so blatantly sexual it stole her breath. One hand dropped to her ankle, and his large fingers encircled it easily. “Tell me to stop.”
She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. “No.”
Derek dragged her ankles apart and dropped to his knees between her legs. He tickled his fingers up her calves as he jerked his gaze to hers again. “Put your hands over your head.”
Sheer primal instinct drove her to obey. She licked her lips and exhaled a shuddering breath. “I need you.”
“Not as much as I need you.” His thumb traced along the inside of her knee, a small teasing caress that vanished when he moved his hands to the ground on either side of her hips. He loomed over her, his wide shoulders blocking out the light filtering through the trees.
His expression was wild. Feral. His gaze locked with hers, and he shuddered. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” The answer would have been the same even if she hadn’t been aching to feel his skin against hers, even if they hadn’t spent the last few days learning about each other. “With my life.”