"Okay, let's get you out of here," he said as he drew away and helped me down the hall.

He didn't ask me any questions. He didn't push me. He just walked with me. And as soon as we'd cleared the threshold of Francine's house, he picked me up and carried me home.

"I can stand," I insisted as Lucien kicked our front door closed.

"Leave it to me," he said, as we headed for the stairs.

You're not listening, I protested, or maybe I just thought it as he carried me up the steps like a child, all the way to his room.

His bed was an ornate cherry wood antique with bloodred sheets. "I'm not sleeping in your bed," I groaned.

"Of course not," he said, easing me into the soft mattress and stretching out next to me. "Advil?"

My head hurt too much to argue. "Better make it a double."

He fetched me four pills and a chaser of water. I swallowed them down and wished he could just knock me out. "I feel like I got hit by a garbage truck."

The bed dipped as he sat down next to me. "Is it always this bad?"

"No." I'd pushed myself hard tonight. "Go away." That's what my pack did at this point. They cleared out and left me to my pain.

He stood. The lights dimmed and I thought that would be the end of him, but Lucien came back. "Where does it hurt?" he asked, the bed creaking under his weight.

"My head."

His cool hands slid across my cheeks as if he were preparing to play a delicate instrument. His fingertips found my aching temples and lingered, rubbing hypnotic circles until I felt the tension loosen.

He kept on. Every thought I had focused on the way his hands soothed me. I shouldn't have let him touch me like that. No one else did. Why should he be any different? He was vampire. Not pack.

He was dead. He was a Predator.

I swallowed and let him touch. To h.e.l.l with it. I needed this.

His hands moved through my hair, over my aching head, sending tiny chills down my body.

"Not my neck," I murmured.

"No worries." I heard him grin as the palm of his hand slid down the back of my head to rest at the aching spot at the top of my spine.

He wasn't going to bite me. I knew that somehow. And as soon as I decided, I tried to shove it out of my mind. I didn't want to think of him any other way. I needed him to be a Predator. I was good at having enemies. The rest was too hard to figure out, especially right now.

His hands found my shoulders.

I rolled onto my stomach and let him dig his strong fingers into my aching muscles. Good lord, I hadn't been petted in a long time. Ever, really. d.a.m.n, it felt good.

His hands found the edges of my silk top and I let him strip it off. The air felt wonderfully cool against my skin, his fingers soothing.

I floated above the pain, focusing only on Lucien's touch. He worked the muscles along my spine, easing away the tension.

He found the back of my bra. "Take it off," I ordered. My voice betrayed none of the shakiness I felt.

It was no big deal to be naked around pack. But it was different with Lucien. I knew that now.

Still, I needed his skin against mine. It was a werewolf thing. It had nothing to do with the way he was touching me.

The pain had eased somewhat, replaced by ... what-comfort? No, it was more than that.

I had the sudden, maddening urge to touch him back.

Gah. I shoved both hands under my pillow. "Take it off," I said, voice m.u.f.fled by the pillow. I wanted to feel his hands and nothing else.

"Heather," he said, his voice husky.

"Please," I said, before I could change my mind.

I closed my eyes as his hands slid up either side of my chest, skimming the outer edges of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Awareness p.r.i.c.ked me as his fingertips lingered above my nipples. It was everything I could do not to press forward against his hands.

He wanted to touch me. I knew he did.

I wanted it, too. But it would change everything.

Lucien was too much of a gentleman to press me. d.a.m.n it. I let him slip my bra off.

I didn't even care about my lucky boot knife.

Right now that didn't matter. Nothing did.

I was facedown, half-naked under a vampire and I didn't care.

Scratch that.

I wanted him.

It would be so easy to roll over and let him run his hands over my b.r.e.a.s.t.s, my stomach, and every other part of me that ached for him.

"Lucien." I felt the weight of him on the backs of my thighs as I turned over on the bed.

I couldn't help smiling at his hunger.

"Watch it, werewolf." He stroked a finger down my cheek, over the pulse of my neck and down to my breast. My breath caught as he found my nipple.

Our eyes met.

His faltered.

"Not like this," he whispered, pulling the covers over my body.

The crisp white sheets felt smothering. "What do you mean?" I started to sit up until the pounding in my head returned, or maybe it had never stopped and I just hadn't noticed.

"You're hurt," he said, as if that would keep me from wanting to see him naked.

"I'm going to be more hurt in a minute." My body was screaming with frustration.

He made it worse by pressing a kiss to my forehead, and then to the soft spot in front of my ear.

I sighed. "You like to torture me, don't you?"

"More than you'll ever know." He settled in next to me. "Sleep." He pressed against my back until he was spooning me in the most delicious way. It was warm, protective. It felt like the pack I'd never had.

"Lucien, I-"

"You need to rest, Heather." He nuzzled his chin on my shoulder. "You did too much."

"But-" He was so close.

"Shhh ..." His steadying weight blanketed me. "We'll talk later."

I snuggled into the pillow, almost content. It did feel good. "You're bossy."

"I know."

He held me like that until we drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 6.

A curtain creaked open and sunlight flooded my face. "Wake up. You going to sleep all day?"

I cracked an eye open. Sweet heaven above. An Alexander Skarsgard look-alike stood next to my bed, shirtless, wearing battered Levi's and a smile.

He c.o.c.ked a grin. "Don't get too excited. It's me."

Vinny.

Of course. I'd recognize that New Jersey accent anywhere.

I squinched my eyes closed and burrowed into the pillow. My head pounded and my stomach churned. I'd hoped the hangover would be gone by now.

"Yo, sleeping beauty." Even his voice made my head hurt.

"If you want to investigate Bliss's house, you'd better hurry."

Of course Lucien had updated Vinny. Worse, Vinny didn't seem to be surprised to find me in his master's bed. I was the worst werewolf ever. Sleeping with a bloodsucker.

d.a.m.ned vampire.

I shoved a pillow over my face. Naturally, it smelled like him.

The pillow went sailing across the room.

Oh, who was I kidding? It wasn't Vinny's fault. Lucien had touched me and rubbed me and comforted me through my pain like no one else had, or probably ever would. I didn't even know I needed that until I had it.

I'd better not get used to it.

I groaned and rolled over, certain traitorous parts still wishing they'd had their way with Lucien last night. Of course it would have been amazing. d.a.m.ned vampire. I sure hoped he didn't tell Vinny everything.

"Come on." Vinny shook the bed. "Lucien said you might want to do some investigating that didn't involve thwacking your brain against a mental wall, so to speak." He yanked back the covers. "Up and at 'em." My shirt thwomped me on the head. "The lady just left for her weekly ma.s.sage and seaweed wrap."

"Who?"

"Bliss," he said, losing patience.

"Oh yeah." I rolled over, tugging on my shirt. "And how do you know that?"

"I flirted," he said, as if it were obvious. "She's leaving the alarm off for me. It's a one-time opportunity, babe."

He tossed a key at my head.

"Cripes, Vinny," I mumbled as I caught the key, almost jealous of the fact that he'd allowed himself to flirt without feeling guilty about it. "What are you supposed to be anyway?"

"I'm your gardener," he said, relishing the role. "I mow things. I chop down trees. I flirt with the neighbors."

"I don't think you're supposed to chop down trees."

"Oops."

"Okay, scram," I said, forcing myself out of bed. I needed to get started.

Knowing these women, a beauty treatment would give me several hours alone in the house. I'd like to find a bankbook and check into her money situation, maybe uncover anything else that I could ask her about. I needed to keep my conversations with these women useful and targeted-or else my head was going to explode.

Besides that, we were on a deadline here. I had less than two days to figure out who'd killed Sunny or this would all be for nothing. My pack would be at war.

A shower and four Advil helped perk me up. Then I grabbed a cream and blue sundress with straw sandals that Tia had picked out. She'd labeled them with matching florescent yellow dots, which she'd found demeaning and I'd found extremely helpful. I tossed the dots into the trash and committed the outfit to memory.

I waved to Vinny on my way out the door and couldn't help grinning when he accidentally sliced a chunk off the front rosebushes. I had to think that was for me. And I enjoyed it immensely. Maybe it wasn't so bad being a girly girl-at least while I was undercover.

Of course, it would have been wiser to wear black while breaking into a house, but somehow, I fit in better in this neighborhood as I was. And it wasn't like there'd be anyone home.

According to Vinny, Bliss lived in the chocolate brown house on the corner. It was accented by large dark timbers and leafy palm trees. I was pleased to see that plants, rather than a fence, formed the barrier to the backyard. I'd rather not be seen entering through the front door.

I ducked between two bougainvillea bushes. Dark-green leaves slapped at my face and thorns clawed at my skin and my dress, but I didn't care. Once I made it past, I'd have plenty of cover to enter through the back.

A finger nudged me on the shoulder.