Page 11 of Ivory's Familiars

“How do you know it has nothing to do with the case? It could be directly related to your stalker. But we can’t determine that until you tell us,” he told her. He was leaning in closer now, his body a bare inch from hers. He saw her pupils dilate and her nostrils flare. That was the exact same reaction Ronan had when he was aroused.

“You’re just going to have to trust me the same way I’m going to have to trust you.”

Her words were whispered, the warmth of her breath sighing against his lips.Definitely aroused,he decided. Before he could decide what to do, Ivory moved fast, ducking under his outstretched arm and clearing her throat;

“If you’ll excuse me, I have some accounts to go over. The bar opens in less than an hour but I took the liberty of taking the day off today. I assumed we’d need time to go over things, plan a course of action. But I have employees that need to be paid, so I’ll be spending some time working from my computer. Make yourself at home,” she added, spinning on her heel and striding away briskly in the direction of her study.

He took the moment of privacy to bang his head soundly against the wall. She was going to be trouble. He could feel it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Aknock on the door forced Vaughn from his head-bashing. Ivory had escaped to her study twenty minutes ago and he had been staring after her ever since. Shaking himself from his stupor, he unlocked the door to find Ronan and Seth on the other side loaded down with their luggage and equipment.

“Ivory?” Ronan questioned, dumping their stuff in the centre of the room.

“In her study,” he replied, “Don’t worry, I checked it out. It’s relatively secure but we’re going to want to go over this place in more detail, set up our own system, change some locks …”

Ronan nodded, looking around the living space with blatant curiosity, “This is nice. Really nice,” he said, “Very much like the bar downstairs – unexpected.”

He snorted sardonically, “Wait until you get a gander at her bedroom. Doesn’t really match our dowdy client, does it?”

“She’s not dowdy,” Seth defended. And he was right, she wasn’t at all. If she had been, he wouldn’t have looked at her twice, let alone be so interested in her.

“My point is, she’s not an easy person to pin down. She seems so plain and yet has this vibrant, sexy home. She’s scared and vulnerable and yet fearless and strong at the same time. She’s got enough initiative to hire us but not enough to go to the cops.”

“She hasn’t been to the police?” Ronan’s voice held shock, but also suspicion.

“Nope. And is very firm about not wanting to as well. Freely admits she’s hiding something – something she assures me is unrelated to her being stalked. We’re going to have to get it out of her eventually.”

“I don’t want to doubt her – my gut tells me we can trust her,” Seth volunteered, frowning in the direction of the hallway. Vaughn saw him raise his head and sniff as if he were homing in on her exact location, “We need to be careful,” he muttered quietly and had Vaughn wondering if he was talking to himself or all of them.

Watching their reactions, he decided right then and there to be completely transparent with his partners, “We’re going to have to be careful for a number of reasons,” he established, “None the least, the fact that she’s pretty damn attracted to me – to all of us if I’m not mistaken.”

“What?” Ronan looked shocked, but Vaughn thought there was also a hint of relief and happiness in there too.

“I made sure to get in her way earlier – you know – invade her personal space a little.”

“Vaughn!” Ronan reprimanded.

“Oh, relax. You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. I just wanted to see what her reaction would be. As we established before, she smells like us. It’s pretty damn strange.”

“And what did she do?” Seth asked.

“Nearly kissed me, that’s what,” he replied, rubbing his lips. They were still tingling in anticipation of feeling her skin pressed to his.

“Did you want to kiss her back?” Ronan’s voice was quiet.

Vaughn took his time answering. This was tricky – yes, he wanted to kiss her back, and he also wanted to do much more while he was at it. But he didn’t want to hurt his two lovers. Three people together in a relationship may not be commonplace, but there was no mistake – the three of them were committed and had been exclusive for a long time. Hell, he may not have been the most articulate person but he was very much in love with the both of them and couldn’t imagine his life without his two panthers. He also couldn’t imagine touching anyone else or sharing his men with another – until now.

In fact, his panther was extremely possessive and just the thought of anyone touching Seth or Ronan made him see red. He’d quite happily kill anyone who touched them, be they male or female. They were his. But when he pictured the smaller woman with her soft curves, husky voice and bowed lips sandwiched between their three bodies as they moved as one, he felt horny as hell.

Both men were watching him intently, awaiting his answer. Given their few previous comments and observations, he was pretty sure they were all on the same page, “Yeah, I wanted to kiss her back. A lot,” he admitted, watching them closely for their reactions, “Does that bother you?”

Ronan frowned as Seth shifted uncomfortably, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times without answering. Vaughn felt his stomach plunge, had he misjudged the situation and hurt his lovers? He was about to beg forgiveness when Seth finally spoke, raising clear green eyes to meet his;

“No. It doesn’t bother me. Not in the slightest,” he admitted, “Why is that?” he asked, looking his way and then Ronan’s, “Ro?”

Ronan was still frowning but Vaughn could now see that it wasn’t in anger – it was his thinking frown – and his pulse began to calm once more, “I feel the same way. Last night at the bar, when I ushered us all out of there so quickly? It was because my panther and I wanted to jump her bones. I felt guilty as hell.”

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