Page 48 of The Healer

With small towns, she would’ve heard about his interest in her if this morning’s intrusion into her room hadn’t enlightened her. He remained relaxed despite his eagerness. His senses tuned into her approaching steps, the softness of her breathing, and a deep inhale that screamed her human genetics.

“I hear you’re asking about Devereaux?” Her voice was raw, husky, and his bear roared a greeting.

Last night, the pitch had been higher in her distress, and this morning, he had thought she was hoarse from sleep.

Fuck. He tightened his grip on the bottle, almost to breaking point. Make that a full hard-on. With a voice that sexy, distinguishable, as he thrust into her, he would never call Callie’s name. He twisted slowly, arching a brow at Lona.

He snagged on a bare belly button exposed by low-riding jeans clinging to wide hips. Last night, when she had asked him to help her undress, he hadn’t had the time to ogle. Well, maybe a quick peek at her heaving breasts marred by blood trickling into her cleavage. Leather boots adorned her feet. His gaze shot up, past a tight camo-green T-shirt clinging to her abundant assets.

Her skin looked like toffee.

He grunted at that random thought and let his grunt stand as a greeting. “Not really. Just thought you were family of Callie’s. It doesn’t make any difference to me either way.” Because he wanted Ilona, with or without the Devereaux blood flowing in her veins.

He sipped his beer, ignoring her. But damn, it was hard. He wanted to taste those plump lips, nibble on her pert chin, see lust darken her hazel eyes. The Devereaux traits were there, in her direct gaze and inner strength that sang a siren’s call.

“Give me a beer, Aiden.” She claimed the stool beside Rhys, bringing with her a mixture of lavender and antiseptic.

He sucked it into his starved lungs, able to do so without alerting Aiden to his interest. His bear rumbled in pleasure.

“Ilona, let me officially introduce you to my older brother, Rhys.” Aiden grinned. “He’s city folk.”

“You were city folk too, you know.” Rhys chuckled. “I went for a run last night and have to admit, there’s an appeal to living in the wilds.”

“Shit, does that mean you’ll visit more often?” Aiden faked a shudder, but Rhys recognized that sparkle in his eyes. It was good to see it. Inner City and what Alrik had done to Aiden had all but snuffed it.

“No, Callie keeps me busy. Her ex-captain too, who makes Alrik look downright friendly.”

“Didn’t you say Callie got married?” Jillie asked, back in her seat with her spritzer.

“Yup, to Gabriel de Winter. Turns out vamps have mates too.” Fuck, and he had hated seeing her slip out of his grasp.

“No shit.” Aiden gaped.

“But she adopted a shifter girl, so regardless of the alliance, I’d have reason to meet with her.”

“And you allowed it?” Ilona’s husky voice rubbed across his senses.

Rhys twisted to look at her, grateful for the opportunity. No derision or judgment crossed her eyes.

“I didn’t have a choice, believe it or not. George’s mother kicked her out, forced the little girl to survive on her own. I dealt with the mother.” He grimaced at the memory, of finding neglected pups trapped in a pen, their mother sprawled in the empty kitchen with the stench of drugs filling the house. “Since Gabe thinks of George as his daughter, I can’t intervene. All I could do was convince them to let her play with shifter children. Vamps don’t have any of their own.” Yet.

“It’s an unusual situation,” Ilona said, sipping her beer.

His gaze lingered on her lips as she wrapped them around the bottle’s mouth. “Yes, it ties the Knights Ridge to the de Winter hold. It’s complicated.” His thoughts settled on Dimitri Vasiliev and his pal’tsy.

“What kind of name is George?” Jillie frowned.

“Her birth name is Tara, but since her mother abused her, she’s not partial to it. She’d shifted into a rat when Callie met her, and thinking her a male, Callie named her George.”

Jillie coughed on a sip of her spritzer. “The girl’s a poly?”

“Yes, and now she’s in the hands of vamps.” He’d thought himself in love with a vamp, but he didn’t say that. Jillie’s horrified expression didn’t need to petrify. “What kind of a doctor are you?”

He settled his gaze on Ilona, allowing it to trail the scar on her cheek, the indent of her neck, the heaviness of her breasts. Did he ogle her? Hell, yes. And he would continue to do so at every damn opportunity.

She spun the bottle and coaster between long-fingered hands. “By training, a human one, but now I dabble in veterinary.” Saluting Edison with her bottle, she offered him a smile.

“That must’ve been a sharp learning curve.” Rhys winced. Was last night her first excursion into the shifter world? Where was she when the news channels had broadcasted their existence a mere three years ago?

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