“I’m taking you out to dinner. That is a celibate dating activity, is it not? Besides, your previous entrée is now cold, and it looked none too appetizing when it was hot.”

  “But what if…” her voice trailed off.

  Bones arched a brow. “What if what, Kitten?”

  She paused, her guilty expression confirming that she’d almost said, but what if someone from my work sees us? They eventually would. He wouldn’t be her dirty little secret this time, from her mum or anyone else in her life.

  Granted, if he had his choice, he’d just slaughter Don and run off with her, but Cat would probably object to that. Moreover, if Bones was right, then Don was more than her employer. How much more, Bones would find out soon.

  “Well?” Bones said.

  She drew in a deep breath. “I’ll go change. Wait for me.”

  Bones let out a wry laugh. “I’m rather used to that, luv.”

  18

  Cat had taken the week off from work, which delayed her confrontation with her team about him. Bones didn’t mind. It gave him more time to secure the final bit of information he’d been seeking.

  After their first night at dinner, Cat seemed surprised when Bones drove her straight home and left her at her front door. She seemed surprised the next night, too, when he took her out for drinks followed by a movie, and then dropped her off at her house without even a peck on the cheek. Night three was a lovely meal at a café and a stroll around the city, and this time, when he walked away after seeing her to her porch, Cat wasn’t surprised, but she did seem disappointed.

  “You could come in for a whisky,” she offered.

  “Kind of you, but I have whisky at home,” Bones replied with a straight face. She was the one who’d demanded celibacy. He’d give her exactly that until she requested otherwise.

  “Of course,” Cat all but stammered. “Um, good night, then.”

  Her embarrassment was so obvious that he extended an olive branch. “Back at the cave, I never had a chance to show you that I’m an excellent cook. I could make you dinner here versus going out tomorrow night, if you fancy.”

  “Yes.”

  Bones bit back a laugh as she glanced away after her emphatic response. Oh, yes, she was growing weary of her abstinence vow.

  “Then I’ll see you tomorrow night,” Bones said, letting his gaze linger on her before he walked away.

  “What groceries should I get?” she called out after him.

  “None. I’ll bring everything I need.”

  “I should do something,” she argued.

  He glanced back with a wicked grin. “I’ll leave dessert to your imagination, then.”

  Green sparkled in her eyes, and she drew in a sharp breath. He savored both before forcing himself to leave. She’d set the restriction. She’d be the one to lift it. From her reaction, that would likely be tomorrow night.

  At six o’clock the next evening, Bones pulled back into Cat’s driveway. He was an hour early, but he couldn’t wait any longer. Cat answered the door before he could knock. She was in sweats and a tee shirt, her long hair loose and damp.

  “You’re early! I haven’t had time to get ready,” she said with a self-conscious glance at herself.

  “Nonsense, you’re lovely.”

  All true. The heat from her shower flushed her cheeks more effectively than the best rouge, her tousled, damp hair invited him to plunge his fingers into it, and the stray drops that clung to her skin absolutely begged him to taste them.

  “Look at all this!” she said, interrupting those thoughts as she gestured at his five groceries bags.

  Yes, he’d brought enough for multiple courses, although he had plans for the hot fudge that involved drizzling it across her body versus using it on the ice cream. Then, the nape of his neck suddenly tingled, a warning honed from growing up in the poverty-stricken streets of London, where even what little he had could be stolen away.

  Someone was watching them.

  Bones bent to pick up the bags, the movement concealing his gaze seeking out the source. Not there, where a neighbor glanced at them while the bloke walked to his mailbox. Not the nosy, elderly biddy that yanked open her curtains every time a car pulled up in the neighborhood, either. Ah…there.

  A black Dodge Challenger was idling at the end of the street, its driver concealed by the bushes near the bend in the road that led to the cul-de-sac. Bones didn’t need to see him to know who it was. The car was distinctive enough. Bones had seen it coming and going from the compound several times while he’d staked out Don’s secret base, and he’d had Ted run full background checks on the owners of all employee vehicles.

  This one belonged to Tate Bradley, and he and Bones had met before. Or, more accurately, Tate had shot Bones right before Bones used his own body to stop the car that was carrying Cat away. Then, Bones had drunk from Tate before hurling his body onto the highway’s shoulder. Judging by Tate’s newly hammering heart, he either recognized Bones from that brief, bloody encounter, or Cat had trained him to spot vampires at a glance.

  Cat noticed Bones’s tenseness. “What’s wrong?”

  “We’re being watched,” Bones said quietly.

  Her whole body tightened, but she didn’t do anything other than pick up a grocery bag. “Ian?” she whispered.

  “No. It’s your bloke from the highway crash that day. From the way his pulse just shot up, he knows what I am.”

  Whether Tate knew who Bones was remained to be seen. Tate had only glimpsed him for a moment, and people injured in serious car crashes tended not to remember all the details.

  “Tate?” Cat sounded surprised. “Why would he be here? You think my mom called him about you?”

  Bones picked up the remaining bags and used their bulk to usher Cat inside the house. Then, he shut the door, splitting his attention between her and the man down the street.

  “No, he’s shocked. He wouldn’t be if your mum had called him and told him in advance about me. He probably thought to come by and offer you some company during your time off.”

  Scorn coated the word. Tate Bradley had exactly one picture in his Spartanlike home, and it was of Cat. Clearly, Tate hadn’t changed from being a decorated Special Forces sergeant into a secret vampire hunter for the challenge of the job alone.

  Cat paced. Bones unloaded the groceries into her refrigerator while keeping his senses on Tate. So far, the bloke was doing nothing more than breathing heavier and muttering “fuck” over and over. Then, the mechanical growl of a muscle car filled the area as Tate drove away.

  “I wanted more time, dammit,” Cat said with a sigh.

  Bones said nothing, but when he was finished with the groceries, he poured a hefty amount of gin along with a splash of tonic into a glass and handed it to her. Cat downed it like it was water and she’d just come out of a blazing desert.

  “That stuff is your bloomin’ security blanket,” Bones said in amusement. It wasn’t as if the alcohol numbed her. With her bloodline, she’d need to drink a five-gallon drum for that.

  “I like the taste,” she said with a wry smile. “That’s what all the drunks say, right?”

  Justina might not risk alienating Cat by running to Don about him, but Bones had no doubt where Tate Bradley was headed.

  “Do you want us to leave? Or stay? I told you, if they come with force, we’ll hear them long before they arrive. Your call.”

  She said nothing for a long moment. Anxiety burned away the sweet edges of her scent, but fear didn’t sour it. That was night and day compared to how she’d reacted to this possible scenario a mere week ago. Finally, she forced a smile.

  “They were going to find out about you anyway. It’ll take Tate half an hour to get to the compound, another thirty minutes for Don to decide on their course of action, and then another thirty if they send a team back here. We may as well stay and wait for them. If I could tell my mother about you, Don should be a cakewalk.”

  The only reason he wouldn’t be a cakewalk is because Cat must care about the wanker’s opinion, though Bones couldn’t fathom why. Still, he said, “It will be all right, Kitten.”

  An hour later, Cat was pacing next to her weapons, which she’d taken out as a precaution. “But we’re not killing anyone,” she stressed. “We’ll only wound them to escape as a last resort if my team doesn’t listen and full-out attacks us.”

  She expected Bones to coddle the blokes even if they tried to kill her? Was this her idea of a terrible joke?

  Cat’s mobile rang. She snatched it up so roughly, her glass screen cracked. “Hello?”

  A male voice flowed out, his American accent tinged with throatiness that was either tension or the low rasp that long-term smokers had. Bones didn’t need to glance at her screen to know that this was the man he’d hated more than anyone else these past several years.

  “Cat? Is that you?” Don Williams said.

  “It’s my cell, who else would it be?” she asked with a small laugh.

  Now Bones was sure about the tension in Don’s voice when he said, “Is everything okay over there?”

  Cat met Bones’s eyes. “Fine. Why? What’s going on?”

  Don said nothing for three of Cat’s heartbeats. Then, “There’s been an emergency. How soon can you get here?”

  She raised her brow at Bones. He shrugged. He’d already put Charles and Rodney on standby over at her compound, and he was ready here, so it was all the same to him.

  “Give me an hour,” Cat said.

  “An hour,” Don repeated crisply. “Fine. I’ll be waiting.”

  19

  Don hung up without saying goodbye. Cat set down her mobile and began to pace again.

  “I’m not giving you up,” she said, as if affirming that more to herself than to Bones.

  “Too bloody right,” Bones said with a snort. “I’m not leaving just because they withhold their blessing.”

  Cat sighed before she met his gaze. “I’m not just going to quit, either, though. This is more than a job to me. I make a difference in people’s lives who don’t have anywhere else to turn. Yes, Don and the guys won’t be wild about you, but I’m not leaving this operation unless they force me to.”

  And there it was. She wasn’t only going to insist that Don and her blokes accept him. She also wanted Bones to accept them. The Fates must hate him. What other explanation could there be?

  “I understand why helping others matters to you,” Bones said in a carefully controlled tone, “but if you want to continue your crusade to rid the world of undead murderers, you can do that with me. You don’t need them.”

  “You’re right,” she said at once. “But they need me. They’ll try to hunt vamps and ghouls without me, and it’ll get them killed. I became friends with many of them over the years, and they’re good guys. If Don leaves me no other choice, I’ll leave, but until then, I will fight to make him reconsider.”

  She always took the hardest path. Always. Somewhere along the line, he’d forgotten that. Wasn’t this a ruthless reminder?

  “All right,” Bones said at last. He wouldn’t try to stop her, but he also couldn’t let things continue the way they had. Still, that was a talk for later. “With luck, we’ll have a little time before we have to deal with Ian. Perhaps even a month. Don’t tell your boss who I really am, if Tate hasn’t figured it out. There are some details I need to settle first before Don realizes that you didn’t kill me back in Ohio.”

  “What details? With Ian?”

  Bones grunted. “With Don. I’m waiting to confirm some information on him, and I’ll tell you when I have it.”

  Her gaze turned sharp. “What information?”

  “I’ll tell you when I have it,” Bones repeated. It shouldn’t be long, either. One of his people had rung him earlier and said to expect a delivery tomorrow. With luck, it would contain the proof he needed.

  His determination not to say more now must have shown on his face because Cat closed her mouth with a disappointed click.

  “Now, I’ll follow you over there, but tell me more about this building,” Bones said, changing the subject. “If they tried to force you to leave, where would they take you? The airstrip?”

  “Yes, they’d try to fly me out, if they were going to get rough with me. Planes and helicopters don’t normally take off there, so if one does tonight, chances are I’m on it.”

  Bones gave her a hard look. “Your mind’s set on wanting to work there, but think a bit, Kitten. If they can’t persuade you to leave me, and they reckon you’ll try to escape if they hold you, what’s to stop them from simply killing you? I guarantee no aircraft will take off with you on it, but I don’t fancy you walking into a death trap. How certain are you of these men?”

  Her lips pursed as she considered it.

  After a minute, she shook her head. “Unless they’ve exhausted all other options, they won’t pull that trigger. They’d try to salvage me first. If I started randomly killing people, then yes, they’d try to take me out, but otherwise…no. That’s not Don’s style.”

  She paused, drawing in a deep breath while her gaze became strafed with pain and guilt.

  “What is it?” Bones said softly.

  She stared at him, her eyes turning brighter not from the green lights that heralded her vampire nature, but tears.

  “When I left you, I thought it was the only way to save both you and my mother. Really, I did. But over the years, I’ve gotten to know Don. He can be a calculating son of a bitch, but he’s not the prick I first thought him to be. Don would never leave my mother defenseless if I took off with you, which is what he threatened to do when I first met him. Yes, Don might try to kill me if he thought I’d destroy his operation, but only as a last resort, and only because he genuinely wants to help people that vampires and ghouls have victimized. That’s why I’m not afraid to go in now, Bones, no matter how much Don will hate that I’m dating a vampire.”

  So many words to sum up just a few: I was wrong. That’s what her gaze said, and it rang through her voice as she admitted-finally-that she hadn’t needed to leave him before. There had been another way.

  Bones came nearer, forgetting his intention to let her make the first move. He also didn’t care about the clock ticking away on when she had to leave, or anything else as he stroked her cheek, feeling her warmth seep into his palm. Then, his other hand moved to her hair, and he tilted her head back while gripping that silky mass.

  She stared at him, her heartbeat fluttering as her hands slid up to grasp his arms. Only the space of a breath separated their lips, and hers parted in anticipation.

  Bones dipped his head, claiming their soft, velvety fullness. A moan vibrated in her throat, and he savored it before moving past her lips to taste the sweetness within. Her tongue met his, brushing it with greedy strokes that blasted at his crumbling control. Her body seemed to flare with new heat, too, until each brush of her hands seared him, and when she pressed her full length against him, it nearly undid him, as did the way she touched him with desperate, almost fevered strokes.

  Her heartbeat pounded against his chest, and still, she wasn’t close enough. He needed more, and he ravished her mouth until he felt drunk with her taste. Finally, he let her feel how much he wanted her, and when he rubbed his hard length against her center, her muscles bunched, and a cry wrenched out of her.

  She suddenly hurled herself out of his embrace. Bones let her, but he couldn’t keep from gripping her arms so he still touched some of her. She was panting and staring at him with animal-like need that still didn’t come close to the fire raging through him, and when she looked at his mouth, a groan tore from him.

  “If I kiss you again, I’m not going to stop.”

  A strangled sound escaped her; half invitation, half despair. “We can’t. Not now. If we do, it’ll be easy for my team to capture you since you’ll already be pinned underneath me.”

  He laughed even as the image tore through his control, making his hands tighten on her before he forced himself to relax. Still, he couldn’t let her go.

  “I’ll happily risk it.”

  She closed her eyes for a second. Then, she peeled his fingers from her arms and backed away.

  “Not now.”

  She was probably right. “Now” would be a mistake because then he’d kill whoever interrupted them, and she’d been very, very specific about not wanting him to slaughter her team.

  “I have to take care of this,” she went on. “It’s overdue, don’t you think?”

  Bones couldn’t contain his snort as he glanced at his tented trousers. “Very overdue.”

  She laughed, but her gaze lingered there before she shook her head as if trying to clear it. “You know what I mean.”

  He did, and while Don and her team was the last thing he wanted to deal with at the moment, he’d been the one to insist that she come clean to them about him.

  “Right, then. Let’s go over possibilities if they take the news badly,” he finally said. “I can prevent them from taking you away from the compound, but you need to be prepared if they try to trap you within it.”

  That was the only eventuality he hadn’t planned for, beyond a full-scale attack with him, Rodney, and Charles blasting into the compound. Cat didn’t seem bothered by the possibility, though. In fact, she smiled.

  “Don’t worry about that. In the event they ever turned on me, I’ve had backdoor security passwords plus an escape route planned for years.”

  20

  Bones stayed well back on his Ducati as Cat turned off at the private exit that led to Don’s compound. Then, he drove past it to the next public exit before doubling back on foot as far as he dared. Charles was already in place on the far perimeter, past the furthest range of cameras and ground sensors.

  Charles’s ivory face was the only splash of color against his all-black ensemble. His long, spiky black hair blended into the darkness, too, and his six-foot-four frame was stretched on the ground in a manner that looked leisurely, if you couldn’t feel the currents crackling off his aura.