Netherworld II: Blood Potion No. 9 (16 page)

He was so hard, and his rigid length
was rubbing directly on the best part. I gasped as I answered, “I
don’t know that I can. There’s nothing you can do to get her out of
the way?”

“I can drug her from time to time to
give you a break, but this is bad, Brandilynn. You’ve got to keep
her under wraps for me.”

Darn it, I couldn’t think of how to
argue with him with him dry humping me like this. The roughness of
his jeans was amazing friction on my clit, and my guts were
starting to seize up. I would get off if he didn’t quit pronto.
“Stop, Bane,” I ordered.

“Levi. My name is Levi when we’re
alone.” He looked me in the face, and a slow smile spread his lips
wide. “Does it feel good, sugar? Right there?”

The big jerk quickened his pace, and I
yelped as a surge of white-hot heat seized my lower parts. Oh,
there was no stopping it now, it was stampeding through me, and I
clutched his very nice butt with my calves even as I begged him to
stop.

“No. No! Oh! My! God!”

Incredible warmth burst all through me.
I groaned as my womb flexed, relaxed, flexed, relaxed, flexed and
relaxed again. Bane growled his approval as I convulsed beneath
him, his avid gaze taking in my fluttering eyelids and wide-open
mouth. Then he groaned too, and he stopped moving.

When our breath calmed, the shifter
pressed a very gentle kiss on my lips. “That was nice, little
lady.”

“I hate you,” I mumbled.

He chuckled and kissed me again. “I
wonder what you look like. The real you.”

I forced my lax limbs to move, to push
against him. “Never you mind what I look like. Get off
me.”

“Yes ma’am.”

He sat up, and I grabbed Fizz’s jeans
off the floor. I slid the tight, uncomfortable fabric over my legs
as the undercover agent contemplated the dark wet spot on the
crotch of his jeans.

“I wonder if that’s more me or you?” he
mused.

I sucked in to button my pants. Jeez,
why did she have to wear such tight clothes? “I really do hate you.
I don’t like you even one little teensy bit.”

He smiled up at me. “Well, I know I
like you. Once you get past my rough edges, your feelings for me
will change.”

I stomped over to sit on the recliner,
as far from him as I could get. “Don’t flatter
yourself.”

Bane looked at me until I shifted
uncomfortably. The slight smile that continued to play over his
lips (his yummy, too-kissable lips, darn him) irritated
me.

I scowled. “Look, you need to drug Fizz
so I can report to Tristan what’s going on. Unless you want him to
send a contingent of vampires to the Beasts club searching for me.
He’ll do it too.”

“All right. Let me go visit the
dealer.” He finally stopped staring at me. He stood and made his
way to the front door, sliding his feet into thong flip flops lying
there. “I’ll be back in about half an hour. Beer’s in the
fridge.”

He walked out, leaving me to fume and
worry. No doubt getting my jollies with Bane, even without his cock
slipping into anything, counted as cheating. Darn it, how did I
keep getting myself into these situations?

I wished I had stuck to playing ghost
at the Sanderson Cottage. This spy stuff had turned into one big
cluster-eff.

There was nothing to do but wait for
Bane to return. I went to the refrigerator and was happy to see a
diet soda in addition to the beer. I figured I should feed Fizz’s
body, but my nose wrinkled at the leftover takeout pizza and Thai
food. I found a frozen meal, and though the thought of overly
processed salisbury steak wasn’t the most appetizing thing I could
think of, it was what I had to work with.

I moseyed back into the living room
with my freshly microwaved culinary masterpiece and settled down to
watch some TV. I surfed the channels, noting Fizz’s heightened
interest in a talk show where the guests regularly devolved into
fisticuffs. I snorted and changed the station, finally settling on
the History Channel and a nice, instructive show on the suffragette
movement.

Swallowing a grainy mouthful of instant
mashed potatoes, I told Fizz, “You need to expand your mind, girl.
You know, being someone’s property when they don’t really love you
is as low as you can get.”

There was a sense of pouting and
withdrawal. Okay, so she didn’t want unsolicited advice. I could
live with that.

Dan suddenly popped into the room
between me and the television. I jumped a little, splattering gray
gravy on the coffee table. Really, why was the gravy gray? No, I
don’t want to know.

“Hi Dan,” I said, wiping the table with
a napkin.

“What are you doing in
there?”

This wasn’t going to go well. I
resigned myself to another blow up. “Fizz remembered everything
Bane and I discussed about the case and was about to report him to
C.K.”

Dan didn’t say a word. The fury in his
chocolate brown eyes spoke volumes.

I waved a forkful of scary meat at him.
“What was I supposed to do, Dan?”

For a wonder, he didn’t have an answer
to that. Thank goodness. I was tired of feeling stupid.

He finally declared, “Well, you can’t
stay in her indefinitely.”

“I’m not. Bane is pretty sure he can
have this thing wrapped up in a few days. In the meantime, we’ll
drug Fizz’s body when we can so I can meet with you and Tristan.
Unless you have some idea of how I can get out of this?” I added
hopefully.

“I thought you wanted to take up
residence anyway until the case was closed.” His expression stated
loud and clear he thought I’d done this on purpose just to spite
him and Tristan.

I grimaced at my plastic tray of food.
“I’ve reconsidered.”

“Government doesn’t wrap anything up
within a few days.” Dan huffed a breath, rubbing the back of his
neck as he considered the situation. “I guess you’re stuck for now.
Come to the library as soon as you can.”

“
I will.” I pushed the
half-eaten dinner away. If I’d had any appetite before, it was long
gone now.

Dan’s brows beetled together as he
looked at me. He was angry all over again. “And don’t sleep with
Bane, no matter what the situation is. I mean it, Brandilynn. We’re
over if I find out you’ve been with him again.”

I swallowed, thinking that my little
dry-humping episode with the agent was going to be a deep, dark
secret for the rest of my death. Both to myself and Dan I vowed,
“It won’t happen. I promise.”

Dan nodded and disappeared without
saying he loved me. I put my face in my hands and fought off tears
of regret.

* * * *

Bane finally got back. The instant he
walked in I said, “That was much longer than half an
hour.”

He kicked off his flip flops. “Hello to
you too, princess.”

“Did you get it?” God, I sounded like
an addict.

He pulled a prescription bottle out of
his vest pocket and shook it at me, producing a cheerful rattling
sound. “Brandilynn’s little helper.”

Impatient to get the heck out of here
and away from Bane, I held out my hand, and he deposited the bottle
in my palm. “How much do I take?” I asked, worried over the lack of
a label.

“Just one should knock Fizz on her–” My
warning look was greeted with an indulgent chuckle. “—keester,” he
finished.

I started to take a pill with my warm
soda. I could feel Fizz paying attention with a mixture of
anticipation and dread, and I paused. “This stuff isn’t addictive,
is it? I don’t want to make her life worse than it already
is.”

Fizz vibrated with surprise at my
concern for her. I stomped my rising sympathy down. She would have
seen Bane dead. I only wanted to do what was right, not feel sorry
for her. Sorry could lower my defenses and allow her to make
trouble. I had to stay on my toes.

Bane answered, “It’s addictive, but
hopefully we’ll have this case over and you out of there before any
damage is done.”

Crap. I did not want to be responsible
for Fizz getting hooked on drugs again, but I wasn’t seeing any
choice in the matter. I couldn’t stay in her nonstop. With an
unhappy sigh, I downed the pill.

Bane watched me, his expression
unreadable. “From what you told me, C.K. and Hazel plan to move on
this delivery soon. I hope to get into Hazel’s computer at the
strip club, see what I can find out about any shipments due in from
England.”

“Maybe I can help.”

“Maybe. Fizz is scheduled to work
tonight.”

Something sank in the pit of my
stomach. “You mean strip? Oh crap. I don’t know the first thing
about that.”

Bane shrugged. “You’ll be taking off
your clothes. Who cares how you dance when you’re getting
naked?”

I caught a wave of disdain from Fizz.
Apparently she thought there was a gift to effective stripping, but
I was kind of with Bane on the matter of talent and
disrobing.

“Men are incredibly easy to please,” I
agreed, taking delight in giving him my less than stellar opinion
of his gender.

He snorted at me. “Cute, Brandilynn.
What color is your hair?”

I started at the change of topic. He
had that musing look on his face again that told me his thoughts
were not on work where they should be. I folded my arms over my
chest, being my most unfriendly. “What does it matter?”

He gave me a half-smile that was both a
little shy and a lot charming. Handsome man-wolf … and definite
trouble. “I’m curious. Come on, give me something to work with. Or
maybe I can do an Internet search on you. What’s your last
name?”

I knew he had a laptop, and I could
have directed him to the news stories from when I was murdered
seven months prior. The picture they’d run had been stunning, a
glamour shot used by the escort service I’d worked for to lure in
prospective clients. The stories themselves told the more lurid
story of how I’d slept with some of those clients for extra money,
important names in Fulton Falls society. The furor against some of
those men, the movers and shakers in our little town, continued to
this day. One man even faced trial because he’d used county funds
to entertain me. Ugly stuff, stuff I wasn’t in any hurry for Bane
to find out.

I’d done some unethical things in my
life. I even thought I’d been doing them for good reasons at the
time. I wasn’t terribly proud of myself, and I tend to be a little
sensitive about the life I’d led.

“I have red hair,” I
muttered.

“Like auburn red?” Bane looked at me as
if trying to superimpose my features on Fizz.

“Copper penny.”

“Pretty. Long or short? Straight or
curly?”

Boy, he just never let up. “Long. It
was wavy when I was alive, but since it frizzed I always ironed it
straight.”

I was getting sleepy, thank goodness. I
was more than ready to escape Bane’s interrogation. If he was this
dogged just for a girl’s physical description, how rough was he on
criminals when trying to gain evidence?

I settled back on the sofa, getting
comfortable. I’d forgotten how heavy sleepiness felt, dragging down
the eyelids, making the head feel thick and slow. It was a nice
feeling. I missed sleeping.

“Eyes?” Bane’s voice came from far away
even though he came over to perch on the edge of the
couch.

I yawned. “Green.”

“Like hazel or really
green?”

I thought how nice it would be to drift
into slumber held in those big, strong arms of his. Oops, bad
thought. “Really green,” I told him.

“Red hair, green eyes. A temper to
match, from what I’ve seen. I bet you were a beauty.” His fingers
stroked Fizz’s much shorter hair.

The gentle touch lulled me. My eyes
slid shut. “Good enough for men to wear on their arms to impress
their friends,” I mumbled.

“Trophy girlfriend, huh? That’s too
bad. There’s a lot of substance to you. I hope your current
boyfriend sees that.”

I snuggled down into the sofa and came
in contact with Bane’s thigh. He was so warm, even through his
jeans. I slid close, aligning my cheek, chest and stomach against
his leg. I curled an arm around his thigh, cuddling it like a teddy
bear.

“Dan’s not too happy with me right
now,” I said. “He’s really mad at what I did with you.”

“I’d be jealous too if I was him. I
wouldn’t want to share such a special lady either.”

His arms were around me, lifting me up.
Then Bane’s mouth was on mine, tender and sweet. He kissed me long
and slow, and if I hadn’t been so stoned, I might have climaxed
just from that delicious kiss. Gosh, that werewolf knew what he was
doing.

My sluggish brain managed to warn me,
and I jerked away. I pried my eyelids open. Boy, he had pretty gold
eyes. “I told you no, Bane. Only a big jerk takes advantage of a
drugged woman.”

“It’s Levi.” He laid me back down on
the couch, his dark face deepening in embarrassed color. “Sorry,
sugar. You’re hard to resist.”