Page 13 of A Queen and Her Knight

She tried to make herself seem less imposing. She moved her shoulders in an almost casual shrug. “It’s a nice night.”

Cleo’s work shirt was a tight black tee with a scooped neckline. Somehow the small amount of exposed skin was tantalizing. The outline of her clavicle made Zoe bite down on her lower lip. Cleo’s neck was smooth and enticing next to the blushing pink of her earrings.

Zoe dragged her gaze away, but she didn’t think she was fooling anyone. Cleo was still smiling, a knowing smile, happy and hot. Making her react like that was the most satisfying moment of the past several days, and Zoe had spent a considerable amount of time in the shower dreaming about her mate and making herself come.

She straightened her shoulders and tried not to whimper.

“You’re back in uniform.” Cleo made a small noise in her throat, not quite a hum, that slid through Zoe like liquid heat. Zoe had an urge to cross her legs the way she had when she’d first seenCharlie’s Angelsas a teenager and hadn’t been able to sit still. She felt noticed in a peculiar way, appreciated without being scrutinized.

She smoothed a hand down the side of her shirt, free of Tim and Nathaniel’s love scents for once, drenched only in her own anxious longing. She tilted her head to the side and smiled without showing her teeth.

“So are you,” she answered, aware the words didn’t exactly make sense, although her body language would have, to a were. Offering her throat, even a little, had her breathing harder.

“This?” Cleo wasn’t a were, so Zoe tried not to take it personally that Cleo didn’t respond to the small, nonverbal attempt at flirtation. Zoe had known going into this that she’d have to use words. Humans were picky like that.

Cleo pulled at her shirt. “I like that they provide a wardrobe that’s not awful, and one that’s easy to clean. But it can getboring. Normally, I would have showered and changed into my own clothes before leaving, but I was hungry and wanted to get home, so I figured I’d bring them back tomorrow and toss ‘em in the laundry.” She paused. “Oh right, your nose. I bet I stink like sweat and essential oils to you.”

Zoe quickly shook her head. “No, that’s good. I mean, you’re good.” She took a breath filled with metallic salts and ripe apricots. “You smell good,” she summed up, still breathless, and then flung out a hand in near panic. “There is… I should explain. The thing is nothing smells bad, especially not you. I mean, I’m a wolf.”

She shut herself up, hard.

Cleo tugged at one earring in what Zoe hoped wasn’t a nervous gesture. “So I smell, but I don’t smell bad?” Cleo summed up, with a question in her voice. “Okay.” That was a little more doubtful, but not repulsed. “What do you smell?”

“Um.” Zoe was torn between discretion and honesty. “Everything?” Cleo’s eyes widened. Zoe called it back. “Not everything. A lot of things. I can’t tell what you’re thinking, but some people broadcast a lot of what they’re feeling through their scent.” And body language, but that was probably something Zoe should wait to mention, like how next to fear, arousal was the strongest and easiest scent to identify. “It’s different for everyone. Some weres are more factual, others get poetic.”

Cleo tugged at her earring again. Zoe belatedly realized Cleo hadn’t been asking to learn all about weres, she’d been curious about what she smelled like to Zoe. Zoe learned forward about an inch and deliberately inhaled. She let her eyes fall closed to filter out everything that wasn’tCleo. “The spa. Herbs and oils. Sweet almond. Cucumber and water. Something on your hands, like soap but more… gentle? Then… perspiration: clean, salty, hint of coffee. Skin, flushed with health, natural as pollen. Yourscent is orange, yellow, and pink. Nasturtium, the flowers. Not on you, but you remind me of them. They’re…” Zoe cut herself off before she could sayedibleout loud and opened her eyes.

Cleo paused to lick her lower lip. “I guess I don’t need to ask if I smell bad, then.” Her heart beat hard for a few moments when she met Zoe’s gaze.

Zoe slowly shook her head. “You smell very good.” Her voice was husky.

Cleo’s stare was difficult to read, although Zoe couldn’t look away. She thought, maybe, Cleo was pleased, but embarrassed.

After a while she gave a small laugh. “There’s a whole industry built around perfumes, and then you say something so….” Cleo trailed off and regarded Zoe curiously. “Tim says scent is a large part of how you all communicate. He also said sometimes I’ll have to prompt weres to speak. I just wasn’t expecting….” Again, she left her thought unfinished. “It feels rude though, constantly asking people to explain what they mean. But if it isn’t, I should do it more.”

Zoe wrinkled her nose, more at her own failures than anything Cleo had said. “I know I don’t talk very much by human standards?” It came out as a question.

“Oh no, it’s fine.” Zoe stepped closer, as if she needed Zoe to know she didn’t mind how Zoe smelled her. God, Zoe hoped that was true. “It’s going to take some getting used to, truth be told. Let me know if I ever bother you.”

“As if you could,” Zoe immediately replied, then winced. That was too eager. She wiped her palms down her shirt and then crossed her arms. Except that was not a good attitude to take with her potential mate, so she had to uncross them. “Um.” She cast about for a safer topic. “Do you normally leave work this way?”

“There is a back entrance for the employees.” Zoe waved toward the hotel without taking her eyes from Zoe. “You look like you’re staking out the place. Are you?”

“Um.” Oh shit, Zoe was bad at this. “Kind of?”

Sitting and mooning over a mate was acceptable, according to Nathaniel. And Zoe hadn’t been spying on her or anything weird. But on the other hand, Tim had not been pleased to learn he’d made Nathaniel so sad and dejected he’d resorted to staking out Tim’s boarding house to be nearer to him.

She scratched the back of her neck. She still had no answer. “Uh.”

“Are you okay?” Cleo, to Zoe’s total confusion, came even closer. She seemed concerned. “Is this a body language thing? Tim warned me about those too.”

Little Wolf had told her almost everything. Zoe didn’t know whether to growl at him for it or sigh in relief. At least the presence of her mate was as calming as it was exciting. A few deep breaths and Zoe felt more forgiving. She cleared her throat. “Yeah. I’m fine. I just… I wasn’t expecting a direct question.”

Cleo grinned unexpectedly. “Well, when I moved here, they told me this town was full of werewolves sniffing the truth. It sounded great, to be honest. An entire town of people uninterested in deception of any kind. You guys don’t even respect deodorant. That’s commitment.” She ended with a small shrug. “I kind of expected to see a pamphlet about it.”

“Ah.” Zoe lowered her head to mumble. “Yeah. Little Wolf is working on that. He said we weren’t clear to humans. He… kind of took over the city council. He does that. Takes over things. But he’s right, about some things anyway. We don’t lie, and we expect the same in return, if you can. It’s, um, we aren’t offended by lies as much as… annoyed? That someone would try with somany of us around.” The concept was difficult to explain without reminding humans that they were surrounded by creatures who could hear their every heartbeat. Living in Wolf’s Paw involved a delicate balance of being exactly the wolf one was born to be without regard to the rest of the human-run world, and yet carefully not drawing too much attention from those humans. “Wolves don’t really lie—not that we can’t, it’s that we tend to be bad at it, so we don’t bother.” Having said that much, Zoe ventured a little more. “I always thought that would make it easier if humans knew that. But tourists can still be nervous about things.”

“You mean sex,” Cleo agreed warmly, with a nod. “This town’s whole ‘sex etiquette’ thing. That does help, actually. Wolves might not speak much, but they don’t lie.”

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