A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing (Heart of the Wolf #9)

That meant he really needed to sleep with her. After he’d kissed her in the sand, he wasn’t sure how trustworthy he could be. And she sure as hell wasn’t discouraging him.

He stalked into the bathroom to take a shower, breathed in the damp air where she’d taken one a few minutes earlier, and imagined what running soap over every delectable inch of her would be like. That made him hard all over again, and he quickly started the water—cold water. He took a Navy shower, lathering up with the water off and then turning it back on to rinse off. He’d never get used to a luxurious Hollywood shower. Then he smiled. Unless he was sharing it with one hot little gray female, and he wouldn’t be taking it then cold, either.

Shaking his head at himself, he realized he didn’t want to go there again. He wrapped a towel around his waist and headed down the hall to the bedrooms, breathing in the air and tracking her like a wolf hunting for his prey. He stopped at the first closed bedroom door and meant to rap on it, but he listened instead. The room was dark and quiet. She had to be in bed already. Probably asleep. He opened the door and stared at the empty bed. His heart did a triple flip. He swung the door wide. Unless she was hiding under the bed or in the closet, she wasn’t here.

He stalked out of the room and down the hall to the next bedroom, barely registering that her scent was down, too. He realized she had probably checked out each of the rooms before she settled on the one to sleep in. He pushed the door open and stared at the bed. Empty.

Hell. He stormed down to the last room—the master bedroom suite, threw open the door, and stood frozen in the entryway for a split second, staring at the mattress. The bedcovers were still undisturbed, just like the others.

He whipped around and hurried for the kitchen, hoping to God she hadn’t hot-wired the Hummer and taken off, that somehow Anna had gotten to her and she’d just said to hell with everything and—well, where in the world would she have gone? Back to her cabin? Or maybe to Hunter’s place? Damn it to hell.

Movement in the living room caught his eye, and he turned and stared in the direction of the couch. There, curled up under a blue-and-yellow starred quilt, was Meara, her dark hair splayed out over a white pillow, her eyes shut in sleep, her breathing soft and sleepy.

Relieved didn’t even touch the insurmountable way he felt at seeing her safe and secure. He just stood there watching her, unable to stop observing her, his heart still pumping up a storm. She looked like an angel, when he’d thought she’d been the devil, slipping away from him for some unknown reason. Or maybe not so unknown. Was she afraid he’d ravish her in the middle of the night? Was that why she preferred sleeping on the couch?

He walked over to the couch and touched her shoulder. When she didn’t stir, he lifted her into his arms, one hell of a soft bundle of woman, and carried her into the first of the three bedrooms. He wouldn’t ravish her, and he had to prove he could be trusted, but he sure as hell was going to stick close to her. Two assassins had come for them. He wasn’t going to risk her being in another room alone.

Not until this was all over.

Chapter 8

Before Finn went to sleep with Meara, he set up his laptop and checked email messages while monitoring the camera in her living area and kitchen. Although he had meant to use the cameras to monitor whoever came to Meara’s home while she was living there, he’d continue to watch from time to time to see the new cabin renters as they came in, take pictures of them, and forward them to his associates. But he also wanted to see who was staying at her place to check in the renters. He heard movement down the hall in her home where he hadn’t placed any cameras, footfalls getting closer, indicating the person was headed for the living room.

He tensed a little in anticipation of seeing who it was. Chris Tarleton, Hunter’s sub-leader. Finn couldn’t imagine Chris would be checking in renters, not when he was a sub-leader and had the additional duty of watching that newly turned reporter, Rourke. So Finn wondered why he was at Meara’s place. Ensuring no one else was there? Or something more personal? Maybe whoever he had assigned on such short notice had to be relieved for a while to take care of other business and Chris was just filling in.

Chris peered around the room as if looking for something. Then he spied the notebook that Meara had written in and the notes she’d made about the renters. Finn suspected Chris wouldn’t like it. Sure enough, he read a couple of pages and scowled. After he flipped through the rest to find nothing else but blank pages, he tossed the notebook on the counter with a mumbled curse.

Chris stalked out of the house and shut the door. No sense in watching an empty house any longer, Finn figured. So he did some looking into Imposter Joe himself, since he hadn’t received word that anyone had been able to uncover who he was.

But after a good hour, Finn gave up the search and shut down his laptop.

Nothing. Not a known assassin. A phantom. Who the hell was he?

Bjornolf pulled into a service station, began filling his tank, and shook his head as he stared at the coast road, which was virtually deserted at this time of night. One minute he was tracking Finn and Meara and listening to them making out in the car. He figured that was a ruse, but damned if it didn’t sound like the real thing—and all he could do was envision himself in Finn’s place and ended up with a hard-on he couldn’t do a thing about. The next minute, Bjornolf was pursuing an assassin. Well, two, but they’d split forces, and he had been obliged to track down one before he could go after the other. And then?

After he’d taken care of the one, the other had vanished, only to reappear dead in his own car a couple of miles from where Bjornolf had first spotted him. Bjornolf swore the contracted assassins they were hiring weren’t half as well trained as in the good old days. Lucky for Bjornolf, the second one had been human, not lupus garou, and appeared to have died from a heart attack. What kind of idiot would hire assassins with weak hearts?

But he didn’t think that actually was the case. Someone from Hunter’s team must have gotten to the man. Worse, Bjornolf had lost Finn. His Hummer was at a dealership, where he’d traded it in for a new model. Now, Meara’s and Finn’s trails had grown cold.

Bjornolf shook his head as he again thought about the scene they’d played out for him—as if they were having sex in the vehicle. He knew Finn had to have been looking her over for bugs and found the one in her pocket. But hell, Bjornolf figured Finn wasn’t faking the way he’d sounded so hot and bothered. Bjornolf smiled evilly, sure that Finn would be ticked off to know her cabin renter had slid his hand into her pocket, and she had let him without even a reproving look.

He finished filling his tank, climbed into his car, and wondered where to go next. He’d find them. He always did. He just hoped he wouldn’t be too late this time.

A navy Dodge pickup truck drove by slowly. He wouldn’t have thought anything of it except that he was damn sure he’d seen the vehicle headed in the direction of the second assassin who’d turned up dead with a heart attack shortly thereafter. Now the pickup was headed this way again?

Through the truck’s darkened windows, he studied the petite driver, who appeared to be a woman. She didn’t look in his direction, but she didn’t have to. She could have spotted him way before he noticed the truck again. She continued on past without slowing down. The coincidence probably didn’t mean anything.

But he had no other leads to pursue at the moment, and he wasn’t ready to call it a night. He pulled onto the road and headed in her direction. If she wasn’t anyone to worry about, he’d soon learn that. If she was, he’d discover that before long also. And if she was with Finn, eventually she’d lead Bjornolf to him and Meara.

There was something intrinsically satisfying about pursuing his prey when the object of his attention knew he was following him or her. Although hunting on the sly appealed as well, he loved to see the reaction of the one being pursued when he or she realized the pursuer was hot on the trail. Good guy, no reaction. Unless she was worried he might be stalking her.

He backed off on the accelerator.

Bad guy, he’d get a reaction sooner or later. The woman would try to ditch him or kill him. Try was the operative word.

He smiled. The night was still young, as far as a wolf’s sense of timing went, and perfect for the hunt.

Anna Johnson didn’t have to look at her rearview mirror to know she was being followed. She’d suspected something was off when she’d spied the silver four-door sedan sitting at the service station. The driver—male—had already finished filling the gas tank and was staring out the windshield as if he didn’t know where to go next. Who wouldn’t know that?

Unless he’d just broken up with his sweetheart, or received bad news or good news, and was lost deep in thought.

But the thing that had caught her eye most? His haircut.

Sure, men other than those in the military wore their hair short, but she bet he was military or had been. She would bet one of her contract fees that he was the one Finn had warned her about. Although on this mission, none of them were getting paid. It was more a rallying of the Musketeers in support of one of their own or, in this case, four of their own—a whole SEAL team.

The man had been headed in the same direction as Finn and Meara, and that made Anna suspicious. Maybe the guy in the sedan was sitting there wondering how to locate them, since Finn had successfully ditched his older Hummer at the dealership, bugs and tracking devices and all. Most of all, the man looked suspiciously like the one in the picture Finn had emailed to all the team members who were working this case.

Yeah, she’d just bet he was the one. He hadn’t looked in her direction when she came upon him at first. Wolf types, particularly those in the business they were in, were always wary, always watchful. Then he’d turned his head to look at the vehicle she was driving, and she’d quickly refocused on the road, her skin prickling with worry heat. Had he made her? She feared he had.

The telltale sign he had was when he started the vehicle’s engine and swung around to follow her instead of heading in the direction Finn and Meara had taken. All of a sudden, he had both a mission and a direction. And she was the focus.