Page 45 of Artemis

Spiraling inward, Artemis got closer to the little nubs at the center until she was bumping into the metal sticking out of them. She gasped and her head fell back. “Finley!”

“I’m here,” he said, his hands twitching on the couch, desperate to reach out to her. “I’m watching. Does it feel good when you play with your piercings?”

“So sensitive,” she moaned. “I’m thinking of getting a tattoo,” she added.

“Really? What and where?” he asked, only half his brain able to focus on the question because she was now flicking her fingers over the hard little nubs that were drawing tighter, pebbling as her arousal grew.

“I don’t know. Something for Alexander, maybe his name. I’d want it over my heart.”

“Fitting. Painful over the ribs, though.”

“Do you have any tattoos?” Artemis glanced from his face to his arms; looking for ink, he supposed.

“No. Not as yet. But I can make dragon scales appear whenever and wherever I want.” The skin of his left arm rippled and shifted, blue dragon scales appearing in a scattered pattern. He continued it under his shirt sleeve and up the side of his neck, ending behind his ear.

“That is so...” Artemis trailed off, her jaw hanging open.

“Cool?” Finley suggested smugly.

“No. Well, yes. But I was going to saysexy,” she purred. Artemis stopped playing with her breasts and picked up his arm, touching each scale delicately with her index finger. “Can you feel a difference between these and your skin?”

“The nerve endings are still there,” Finley said, a trifle breathlessly. “Just like a tattoo.”

“Did you see the cop’s tattoo?” she asked, pressing her front against his so that she could reach the scales on his neck. He couldn’t decide whether her feather-light touch or the hardness from the barbells was more distracting. “It was like a snake on the back of his hand and up his arm.”

Finley froze. “It waswhat?” he demanded urgently, gripping her by her shoulders and pushing her away from him to stare in her eyes. “A snake on his hand?”

“Yes, that’s what I said.” Artemis’s brow furrowed in confusion and she pouted a little from being torn away from him.

“The first kidnapper, the snake shifter, had a snake on his hand. It wasn’t the same guy; I would have recognized him. But what are the odds that two guys with similar tattoos wouldn’t be after the same thing?” Finley said grimly, half to himself. “I fully bet that the cop was a fake. I’d stake my life on it.”

“I’d better call Chloe and let her know the number on the card,” Artemis said. She leaned over the edge of the couch to where she’d dropped her purse on the floor. Rather than fish around inside it from that position, she dropped it on the couch where she’d been sitting and dug through it for the business card and her phone. Finding both, she sat comfortably back on his lap, phone set to speaker in between them.

Chloe picked up on the second ring and they told her their suspicions.

“We definitely did not send anyone over to the daycare. Thank you for informing us. We’ll be on the lookout for a man matching your description,” Chloe said briskly.

They said their goodbyes and Artemis hung up.

“What now?” Finley asked her, using all his will power to keep his eyes above her neck.

“I think we should test Mercury,” Artemis said thoughtfully, tapping the edge of her phone against her chin.

Finley’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You mentioned him to the fake cop. But who is he? And why?”

Artemis explained that Mercury had been the reason she was late the evening of the first kidnapping attempt. His excuse had been flimsy and unreasonable. “He left with a threat, but I don’t know,” Artemis finished. “Kidnapping a child because of a rumor sounds unlikely, even for him.”

“It does sound extreme,” Finley agreed. “Granted, I don’t know the guy.”

“Trust me.” Artemis tapped out a number and hit the call button.

Mercury picked up on the third ring. “Mercury Delivery Service, you’ll think your packages have wings, Mercury speaking. How can I help you?”

“It’s Artemis Chase. We need to talk.”

Finley heard a squeak and a loud thump before silence.

“Are you still there?” Artemis asked, brow furrowed.

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