CHAPTER 7

ELOISE

It was not my finest moment. I'd slept with guys for less, of course, but still. Benedict was a nice guy. He might be a lawyer and a lion and an overall dick to pretty much everyone in the world, but he'd been nice to me. The only way to save his life was to get him to stop asking questions about my business with Val. And the fastest way to get a guy to stop asking questions was to give him something to do with his mouth.

At least he was handsome. And a lot fucking stronger than I bargained for, as his arms tightened around me and he pressed his face between my breasts. I kept fiddling with his shirt and tie, wishing I'd gotten stretchy jeans as the denim dug into my waist. Definitely going on a diet. If I lived through the week.

I pushed the thought away. Put away the concern for Lacey and the uneasiness over what could have broken all of Cal's bones, and I even tried to ignore the stark raving terror of dealing with Val. I'd used the scary mojo on Benedict when I first walked in and he hadn't flinched. Hadn't even noticed, really, because he still tried to use his lawyer voice to make me admit what I was. Everyone feared me, whether I wanted them to or not. And yet he stood there, unwavering, as I stared at him. Unbelievable.

His mischievous left hand slid down the small of my back and into my jeans, and I jumped forward. He laughed, leaving a trail of searing kisses across my chest and over my bra. "Ticklish, are you?"

"No," I said under my breath, but that was another one of my favorite lies. I wasn't ticklish like I wasn't a coward. My head tilted back as he squeezed my butt, and I revised my plans. Sleeping with him would be worth it, even if it cost me an hour. I slid my hand down between us, over the front of his trousers, and blinked. Maybe two hours. Fuck it, maybe I'd stay the whole night. Finding a man who wasn't immediately dick-droopingly terrified of me was pretty rare.

Finding one who also had an enormous hard-on and hands like a Swedish masseur was even rarer.

I rocked my hips to his and tore at his shirt, the buttons flying across the room. The mojo wanted him too, and I didn't think I could have stopped for any amount of money in the world. "Clothes. Off."

He grumbled something in his chest and stood, taking me with him until I floated, legs wrapped around his waist. Benedict smiled, looking all love-drunk and adorable, and he kissed me. It started sweet, like him, then deepened until I drowned, until the cold melted out of my eyes and fire ignited instead, until molten lava cascaded through my veins and all of me caught fire. My fingers ran up the back of his neck and into his hair, working at his scalp to keep his face close to mine.

Benedict dropped me on the bed and I bounced, trying to take a deep breath as he loomed over me. "Normally," he said, voice deep and rough. "I like to take my time."

I sat up and pulled at his belt, felt the fire consuming me from the inside out. "Don't make me wait."

He laughed, but it was half-purr, and he kissed between my breasts as he tugged on the button of my jeans. Fumbling clothes off took too much time but eventually our shoes and pants were off and his weight settled against me. He kissed my cheek, my jaw, bit at my earlobe, and I wiggled, hands sliding to his lower back. Benedict grumbled, fingers bold at my hip. "Did you know your underwear is inside out?"

My cheeks heated and I bit him back, taking his lower lip in my teeth before saying, "Is that really all you noticed?"

"Well," he said. His knee nudged between my thighs after he stripped off the offending garment, and his fingers traced a fiery trail down my hip and over my stomach, sliding down and over the aching flesh where desire gathered. I sighed and moved my hips, lifting to facilitate as he stroked and probed and gently explored territory no one had been brave enough to dare in years. "I may have sensed something else."

I knew it was the mojo working on us both. I knew it. I still wanted him, still pulled him on top of me until that massive cock nudged at my body and eased inside. He looked drunk or drugged, gaze fuzzy and heated as he kissed me. But even with the lust and burning magic between us, he held himself above me, careful to rock back and forth until my muscles relaxed and he slid deeper. There was none of the forceful thrusting or fucking or rutting that I expected from the lion, only a gentle taking, possessing. Asking.

My back arched as his stomach rested against mine and it was too much, too full, with a deep ache. His mouth trailed down my throat. "Are you okay?"

"Too much," I whispered, running my hands up his cheeks to seize his hair. "I love it but it's too much."

He kissed me, tongue lazily exploring my mouth as he eased back and I could breathe. His body slipped from mine and he squeezed my hip. "Get on top of me, baby."

Benedict lay on his back, muscles tense, and helped me slide onto his chest. He held himself still and guided me back until he entered me and I tensed, sighing with the unbelievable heat of his body. He countered the fire in my chest from the mojo, the angry gorgon blood running in my veins, and Benedict kneaded my ass to pull me down on his cock. "A little more, baby."

I lay full-length on him, head on his shoulder, and rocked until I felt complete. Full and complete and connected to him in a way I hadn't ever felt before. Ever. I moaned as he kept squeezing my ass and hips and thighs, pulling my knees to either side of his hips so I could brace and begin a leisurely ride.

He murmured in my ear, kissing me and squeezing my breasts and grasping at where my thighs sloped up to my butt, but he let me set the pace. The fire swirled up inside me and my muscles seized up, clamping down on him, and Benedict groaned, hips lifting to meet me for the first time in a sudden thrust. I cried out as stars sparked in my eyes and I couldn't move, almost paralyzed as pleasure rolled through me, wave after wave, and still he moved, thrusting steadily when I remained still.

Benedict's arms tightened around me, kept my breasts flattened against his chest as he moved with more urgency, more force, and another orgasm steamrolled through me. He growled in my ear and went rigid, jerking underneath me as the hot rush of his release flooded my insides. My eyes closed as I rested my head on his chest, listening to his racing heart. A fine sheen of sweat covered both of us; a drop beaded on my temple, rolled down my cheek and dropped to his chest.

He petted my back from shoulders to ass, over and over in a soft stroke that had me stretch and settle against him. Benedict kissed my forehead, exhaling in a gust as he reached for the sheet to cover us both. Something like a purr rumbled through him, turned into a snore.

I only meant to close my eyes for a moment to enjoy the afterglow and the strength of his arms around me, but the next time I lifted my head, the battered alarm clock on the side table said it was almost one a.m. With the mojo faded along with the rage and fire, reality set in. I had two days, probably less, to find Lacey and figure out who stole the money. I couldn't waste any more time canoodling with Benedict Chase.

He still slept, a snore rattling in his throat, and smacked his lips as I untangled myself and slid to the end of the bed. I got dressed after cleaning up as best I could — I didn't dare another shower, either from fear of waking him up or catching something toxic from that bathroom. I gathered his clothes and shoes and phone, and stuffed them into my shopping bag, looking back regretfully at where he still slept. If he chased after me, Val would kill him. She would figure out a way to kill the lion.

The thought haunted me as I slid out of the room and then out of the hotel, heading to a familiar bar a few blocks away. Calling in a favor from the owners of O'Shea's wasn't the way I would have liked to end the night, but it beat trying to go home. Doubtless the Chase brothers would be able to track me there. I needed to go to ground, and if any of the packs had a problem with Val using their territory for the ransom drop, Rafe would have heard about it.

I slid into O'Shea's and through a crowd of what looked like frat boys. I kept my eyes down but they still cleared a path, most looking at me and then moving uneasily away. Too much of the scary stuff still floated around me. I made a beeline for the bar, where Rafe pulled pints and Ruby argued with a couple of girls with clearly fake IDs. Rafe's dark, raven-wing eyebrows rose as he looked at me. "Well. Look what the cat dragged in."

My cheeks burned but I slid onto the bar stool without wincing too much. My lady parts would definitely remember Benedict Chase for a while. I rested my elbows on the bar. "I need a drink, but I need some information more."

He leaned to consider the paper bag of clothes I left by the end of the bar. "That's it?"

"Maybe a place to sleep it off tonight. If you don't mind."

"Hmm." He put a beer in front of me, then rested his elbows on the smooth wood of the bar. "What do you need to know?"

"Lacey Szdoka was kidnapped night before last, and last night someone stole the ransom money but didn't deliver the girl. Do you know who's got her?"

Rafe let out a low whistle, stepping back as if to get distance from just a hint of the hyena band's troubles. "Shit. Who'd be stupid enough to take one of Val's kids?"

I squirmed a little, trying to keep the door in the corner of my eye. Just in case Benedict Chase was psychic, too, and knew where I went. "That's what I'm trying to find out. The ransom drop happened about six blocks west of here, in the alley behind Aaron's Chili Bowl."

He glanced over at Ruby, then shook his head as he considered me. "That's not our turf, but the SilverLine Pack might know if anything funny happened. Have you dealt with Miles and his guys before?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose as the migraine returned with a throbbing agony. Miles fucking Evershaw and his band of merry men. I sighed. "Not recently. Most wolves don't like me."

"We'll send someone with you." Rafe concentrated on slicing a few limes and tossing them into the mixed drinks for a few frat boys farther down the bar. "But tell me, why is this your problem, Eloise?"

"Val is making it my problem," I said, closing my eyes as I drank and the cool alcohol extinguished some of the brimstone still percolating in my guts. "I dropped the ransom and she thinks I stole it instead."

"Did you?" Ruby asked, frowning as she took up real estate next to her brother.

Offended, I put a hand to my chest and sat back. "Moi? How dare you."

Her only response was to raise one of her slightly less-bushy eyebrows.

I winked and finished the beer. "Of course I didn't. I know better than to steal from Val Szdoka."

"What about from Benedict Chase?"

I choked on the beer, almost snorted it out my nose, and spent the next minute coughing and hacking and trying to breathe. When I finished, eyes watering as I struggled to inhale, Ruby didn't look away from me as she gestured at the bag. "Because some of his stuff is in that bag, and if I'm not mistaken, some of his ... stuff is in you, too."

"Holy shit, Ruby," her brother said under his breath, looking a little embarrassed on my behalf. "Mind your fucking business."

"She wants to shelter in our den, it's my business who she's fucking and who she's fucking over." Ruby pointed a crimson talon in my face. "Look at me, kid."

I ground my teeth but did as she said, knowing that the quicksilver in my eyes would throw her into the line of liquor bottles behind her. Rafe took a step back but Ruby remained leaning over the bar, unmoved and unimpressed. "Here's the thing, chickie pie. Our pack is officially unofficially connected to the Chases. So I'm going to ask, on behalf of Logan Chase and his mate Natalia Spencer, what is the nature of your relationship with Benedict Chase?"

The words caught in my throat as I stared at her, wondering why the mojo didn't work on Ruby O'Shea. She waited. When I managed to speak, though, my voice came out smaller than I intended. "He helped me. I ... thanked him. That's it."

Her eyes narrowed, dark and deep. "Your word that your relationship with Benedict is not at the direction of or for the benefit of Valentina Szdoka?"

"It's not." I cleared my throat and squared my shoulders. Time to be a big girl and a scary gorgon. "I'm trying to protect him from her. She did not like that he helped me."

Ruby made a disgruntled noise, then shoved off the bar and upright once more, glancing at her watch. "Okay. Get your ass upstairs and shower. Tomorrow morning you're going to mop the floors in here and help me drag stock up from the basement, and I'll have someone take you over to Miles."

Rafe shook his head and help up his hands. "Sorry, El. I would have let you stay for free, but everyone knows Ruby's meaner than I am."

"No shit." I got to my feet, feeling wobbly. "What am I going to have to pay Miles to get any info?"

"That's between you and Miles." Ruby snapped her fingers at one of her pack minions and gave directions to contact the other pack and start arranging the complex meeting arrangements. "So best figure that out yourself. It won't be cheap."

I sighed and dragged towards the stairs, just past the office they shared. "Thank you, Ruby. Please don't tell anyone about Benedict. It's not something I want spread around."

"Then get in the fucking shower," she said under her breath. "We have noses, you idiot. And you're welcome. Get some sleep, you look like hell fucked over."

"Go fuck yourself," I said under my breath, though my face burned as I climbed the stairs to their guest quarters. That was the worst part about working with shifters — they knew more about you than you could ever know about them. Not that I wanted to know when someone was in heat.

At least their shower had scalding hot water and fluffy towels and neutral shampoo and no mildew or creepy stuff on the floor. I stood under the stream of water and tried to force the tension from my shoulders. Mopping floors would be worth it just for the shower. Everything else could wait until tomorrow.