Page 10 of Moonlighting with the Werewolf

Because she’s playing you, you fool. And worse, you’re falling for it.

Before I completely lost my head, I pushed her down onto the stool, my hand remaining firm on her shoulder to keep her there.She’s a witch, she’s a witch, she’s a witch.

“Let’s take dinner to your place.” I lifted my finger to snag Gina’s attention. “Have you ordered already?”

Minor consolation: Dr. Ryan was at least as flustered as I’d been a second ago. She glanced behind the bar, toward the shelf of alcohol and the window to the kitchen, as if she’d forgotten where she was—casting around for information like the dirty witch she was. “Oh. Yeah. But we can just stay here at the bar to ea?—”

“Gina, can you grab me two double burgers and two orders of fries? To go.”

Dr. Ryan gulped, and I decided I’d better soften for long enough to get her to her house where we’d be alone.

“Does that work for you? Trust me, you can’t go wrong with the burgers and fries.”

She nodded, and I sat on the stool next to hers, turning so my legs caged her in, her knees against my inner thighs.

“Before I answer any questions, you at least owe me your first name.” I possessed a better built-in lie detector than most. I cast my senses outward, focused on picking up the beating of her heart.

She fidgeted, taking up the foot bouncing from earlier, when I’d been watching her through the window with the help of a nearby bush to camouflage me. “I suppose that’s fair. And I didn’t mean to pry. I mean, I did, but I wasn’t trying to dig up dirt or anything. Not that there’s dirt to dig up.”

Seriously?Thiswas the woman who’d pulled one over on me? She rambled so much I wasn’t even suresheknew what she was saying. Her pulse sped up, but in a way that suggested I made her nervous rather than she wasn’t telling the truth. Or was that what she wanted me to think? “Still haven’t heard that name.”

“It’s Kerrigan. Speaking of names, did you know that your name means”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“wolf wolf? A little redundant, don’t you think?”

I rubbed my fingers over my jaw, never taking my eyes off hers. “I haven’t the faintest clue what you’re talking about.”

It should be illegal for a nose crinkle to be so adorable. “Nothing. Forget it.” Kerrigan spun toward the counter but met the resistance of my knee.

I scooted closer, using my massive frame to its full advantage. “Explain.”

“It’s probably going to sound a little bit crazy. Possibly even stalkerish. But you should know that I get bored easily. See, there’s nothing for me to really do around here in the evenings. I’ve been reading this survival guidebook, but too long of trying to cram the info into my brain and I go cross-eyed. My TV’s not hooked up yet, either, so I get bored.”

“Explain more succinctly.”

She fired a dirty look at me that only made me smile, and that served to piss her off further. But I continued to stare, sure she’d give in as most people did underneath my steady glower.

“While I was doing some googling about the town, I...” Kerrigan fiddled with the ring on her finger, spinning it round and round. “I’ve always been fascinated by the meaning behind names...”

“This is succinct?”

“You’re succinctly being a pain in the butt. Long story short, Mr. Impatient, Conall’s an Irish name that means ‘strong wolf.’ Shaw is derived from the Gaelic wordSitheachmeaning wolf. I’m guessing your family were all...you know. Thus the name.”

First I’d heard of it. Checking the meaning behind names was such a girly thing to do, which made me wonder if my mom had purposely gone so on the nose as she’d been searching out baby names. Unfortunately, she wasn’t around to ask.

There was a reason I’d spent the last half of my life training, fighting, building a compound, and doing whatever it took to protect my people at all costs. It was the result of being helpless against preventing a coven of witches from murdering my entire family, along with the majority of my original pack.

I hadn’t crossed paths with a witch since, but my hatred hadn’t faded through the years. Which was why I couldn’t let myself be amused by the way Kerrigan had called me Mr. Impatient or delude myself it was casual interest that led to her googling me late at night.

“So?” She batted her eyes at me, and it was going to suck ass to extinguish that light inside of them. “Am I right?”

“I’ll neither confirm nor deny.”

“But you said you’d answer my questions.” Exasperation wafted off her, and how many times was I going to ruminate on how hard it was going to be to kill her? She was so fun to mess with, and under literally any other circumstances, I might be able to forgive and forget. But the only good witch was a dead witch.

“I asked what you wanted to know,” I said. “I never said I was going to give it to you.”

Her gaze dipped to my crotch, and she casually twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “You sure you don’t wanna give it to me? I can handle it, I swear.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, she was attempting to flirt information out of me by turning that last line into an innuendo. While my brain understood, my body didn’t get the memo about not falling for it, and I shifted in my seat, cursing the wooden stool for being so ungiving.

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