His gaze never left her face. “Gentlemen. Dr. Standish.”
A ripple of pure awareness went down her skin at his words. She wasn’t even sure if it was because he knew her name or because he was close enough to feel the intensity of him, smel the faint musk of his scent, see the ebony ring around his silver irises. A lock of wheat blond hair fel over his forehead, but did nothing to soften the sharp angles of his face. He took another step forward, looming over her. His shoulders were huge, the heavy muscles of his torso tapering to his narrow waist and flanks. She sighed and felt a flush heat her cheeks, the warmth spreading through her body to make it throb. He was even sexier than on the night she’d met him. Gods, how was that even possible? How could she be here, in a police station, about to be questioned for the murder of her ex-lover, and stil be fighting her attraction for the man?
Madness. Insanity.
This was why she’d crept out of his apartment and run like hel after their night together. Her reaction was too intense, pul ed her in too deep, until she felt like she was drowning in it. And she had no desire to rescue herself, just to let herself go and hold on to him forever. That wasn’t how she liked her affairs, but she couldn’t deny her body liked him too much.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she hid the fact that her nipples had tightened to points. Merek’s gaze fol owed the motion, the gleam in his eyes tel ing her he knew exactly what she’d done and why. She licked her lips, and he stared at them, his expression as hungry as it had been the last time he’d pul ed her under him, mounting her to slide his cock into her wet sex.
She sucked in a deep breath, struggling for calm, and more of his tantalizing scent came to her. The buzz of the people around her, the hum of magic moving through the air, faded until there was nothing and no one but him. If she took a step forward, she’d be able to feel the heat of his body, two steps and she’d be in his arms again.
The officer on her right spoke, breaking through her daze. He gestured toward a hal off the main room.
“We were just escorting Dr. Standish to—”
“I’l take it from here.” A slim woman with a badge and a gun clipped to her belt walked up and nodded to the men. She glanced at Chloe. “I’m Detective Selina Grayson. If you’l fol ow me.”
Merek blinked, and the fiery passion was gone, replaced by a remote, professional coldness that sliced through her like a razor blade. She shook herself, felt that same iciness stiffen her spine.
Forcing herself to think of something— anything—else, Chloe focused on Selina’s face. What kind of Magickal was this woman? An elf, or maybe a fairy. She had the right bone structure for either race. Chloe tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, opening her senses a bit. Fae, witches, and elves al vibrated with magic, like the same song hummed in three different pitches. Vampires hissed like the low, ominous quiver of a rattlesnake’s tail. Werewolves were a deep rumble, a subvocal growl that made prey freeze before a dangerous predator. The detective sounded more like an elf than a Fae, but sometimes it was difficult to tel .
Maybe other Magickals sensed it differently, but since Chloe’s skil s revolved around clairaudience, she heard the differences between the species. Someone with telemetry might have to touch to know. A clairvoyant or someone who sensed auras might be able to tel with a single glance. She’d never asked anyone else about it, but maybe she should. She wondered if any empirical studies had been done on the subject, and her mind began to ponder the scientific anomalies of divergent magical powers.
Selina cleared her throat, wrenching Chloe’s wayward attention back to the present. “Dr. Standish, if you’l fol ow me. Now.”
Flushing, she ignored the strange looks Merek and the officers gave her. Merek’s presence flustered her more than it should. Turning, she scurried toward the hal way Selina indicated, escaping Merek and the feelings he generated within her with a mere look. Just as she had the night they’d met.
Twenty minutes later, Chloe stared down at a cracked Formica table until the ugly gold flecks began to blur before her eyes. Air-conditioning kicked on and cooled the already frigid room. Goose bumps raced over her skin, and she couldn’t fight the chil with a spel because this room had been warded against the use of magic. It made her nerves jangle even more. This couldn’t be happening. It could not be happening.
Even worse, she knew she focused on her physical discomfort, her impaired magical abilities, to stop herself from thinking about Detective Merek Kingston. Kingston. She hadn’t known his last name, hadn’t known he was a cop. She hadn’t wanted to know. He was supposed to be a one-night lover, a memory that became hazy almost as soon as it was over. Instead, seeing him had demonstrated exactly how clear her memories of him were, how they’d been etched into her mind with stunning clarity.
One more ugly shock for the day.
“Dr. Standish?”
She jerked a bit when the door opened and Selina walked in. “Yes?”
“Thank you for waiting.” Her brown hair swung in a layered bob around her sharply featured face, and her warm skin tone contrasted with the icy demeanor and cold, flat eyes. “I have a few questions for you.”
“So I gathered when they asked me to come down here.” Chloe’s voice came out sounding almost normal, which surprised her. Nerves made her hands quake a bit, so she curled her fingers around the Styrofoam cup of coffee one of the officers had given her. Sitting in an interrogation room was intimidating as hel , even if she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Stil , her bel y looped a bit. Her heart pounded in slow, painful beats as she tried not to fidget or squirm.
Damien had been murdered, but she hadn’t done anything il egal, no matter what they might think. Turning his familiar into a lampshade might not have been total y aboveboard, but she hadn’t kil ed anyone.
The slender woman slid into a chair across from her, settling a file folder on the table between them. She didn’t look at Chloe for a few seconds, and while Chloe knew it was a ploy to set her more on edge—just as making her wait had been—she had to admit it worked.
The detective tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and the barest hint of a point showed. Elf, just as Chloe had suspected. She might have al owed herself a momentary sense of victory, but the black ice of Selina’s eyes sent pinpricks down Chloe’s spine. “What can you tel me about your relationship with Dr.
Raines?”
Chloe swal owed and didn’t let her gaze waver. “We work together at Desmodus Industries. I mean . . . we worked together.” She suppressed the urge to giggle nervously, that sense of pure unreality buzzing through her mind again. “Two months ago, we broke off a two-year-long relationship.”
“Why?” Selina’s gaze sharpened, and yet Chloe didn’t think she was startled by the information, just that she was judging every word and movement Chloe made.
She clenched her teeth, knowing the answer to this question wasn’t going to get her out from under any suspicion. “He left me for another woman—a vampire. Last I heard, they were engaged, and she was pregnant.”
“Do you know the woman’s name?” The detective stroked her finger over the paperwork in front of her, and Chloe resisted the urge to try to angle for a look.
“No. I didn’t ask.” She took a breath, let it ease out, and tried to get a grip on her emotions, on the hol ow feeling that opened in her bel y. “I frankly didn’t want to know. He wanted out of the relationship, and when I found out why, I was more than happy to see him go. I don’t share.”