Page 39 of Blue Moon Mistress

“Almost.” But he doesn’t move. “And hopefully not for long.”

He takes my hand, pulling it up and presses a kiss to the inside of my wrist-that sliver of skin between my glove and coat sleeve. I shiver at the contact.

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Research.” I smile ruefully. “There’s some strange stuff popping up, that warnaway included. One of the things that doesn’t pay well is keeping us all safe… more than that, keeping everyone who shouldn’t know about this stuff in the dark.”

Humming, he pulls me to him again. “I do like what we get up to in the dark.”

“We could get up to more in the daylight…”

With a groan, he says, “I could get away with it, but, I’m the boss… have to set an example for others to follow.”

He rolls his eyes with a little head shake.

“You forget… I had to watch you guys for a while to be sure. You can pretend you want to play hookey, but you love your job, and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

“It has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with how tempting you are.”

“Don’t spend too much time researching. I want to see you again soon. And I’m not the only one.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

And we didn’t for another five minutes. But once we’d untangled, I went home. Any plans I’d had to check in at Wexxon’s had flown straight out the window after that unfortunate interaction.

“Speaking of unfortunate interactions…” I say to myself as I catch sight of the message in the ephemera glass.

It’s never a fun call when my mother sends a “call me when you get this” note.

She wants me home for whatever she has to say.

I dial the number and put her on speaker. There’s no one else around to hear whatever it’s going to be this time.

“It is about time!” My mother says in lieu of an actual greeting. “Whydid I have to hear that you’re seeing someone from Anthony Wexxon of all people?”

“I didn’t realize you had a spy in my midst.”

She tuts her tongue. “It’s not like that and you know it. He wasconcernedabout you telling secrets to a plain human. And frankly, I thought you knew better. You can’t have been seeing him long, if I haven’t heard of him before.”

“You’re right, it is very new. But… he’s not human.”

“Not human?” My mother’s voice fades, and I let her take a split second to get scared. Hopefully, whatever she imagines, would get me a worse reaction than the truth.

“He’s a werewolf.” I purse my lips at the silence. “Actually, I’m feeling things out with the whole pack.”

“Scarlette.” There’s a pause. “You know that’s dangerous. They are volatile creatures. When they spend too much time in a wolf’s skin… that bleeds over into the days they pretend they aren’t monsters.”

I don’t argue with her that they’re not monsters. That would only make her more obstinate.

Not that what I’m about to relay to her will calm her down.

“Actually, I took care of that on Saturday night.”

“How would you—” The sharp inhale tells me she connected the dots. “You didn’t.”

“I did. They won’t change unless I make them.”

“No.” My mother’s words are low, and for the first time in my life, I think she might be scared.

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