Aaron looked up at her and frowned. “There haven’t been any wolf attacks in this area,” he said firmly. “You need to relax and talk to me.”
Nikki blew out a frustrated breath, then plopped back down in the chair. “There has to be,” she said desperately. “The reports have been flooding into the office.”
He furrowed his brow, the frown growing deeper. “What reports?”
“The reports say that the small communities around here are being slaughtered. The reports came in with pictures and everything.”
He sat forward in his chair. “Who sent you those reports?”
She shook her head, bewildered. “I don’t know, they came in anonymously.”
“Well, didn’t your employer check them out first?”
Nikki shrugged. “I guess so.” She leaned over and put her face in her hands. “I wasn’t in the office when they came in.” She looked up and shrugged again. “I just don’t know.”
Aaron was beginning to believe that this girl and her brother were in serious trouble. Someone was feeding them false information to get them here, but why? That was the question gnawing at Aaron, and he was determined to find out. “Who exactly is your employer?”
“I told you before that Seth and I work for The Paranormal Bounty Hunters Organization.”
Aaron shook his head. “Yeah, you did mention that. I’ve never heard of them. How much do you know about your employers?”
She shrugged again. “Seth found their ad on the Internet, and we’ve been there ever since the attacks. They’re a little rough, but they were the best way for Seth and me to keep up with the werewolf attacks. We want those wolves dead.”
Aaron heard the anger and frustration in her voice. “And that is the exact reason I don’t think you two are thinking clearly.”
Nikki narrowed her eyes, glaring at Aaron from across the table. “There is nothing wrong with the way we are thinking.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t there?” he said skeptically.
“You don’t even know me.” She shook her head. “My head is clear.”
“Huh. Clear you say?” He shook his head to make his point. “Nikki, if you two were thinking clearly, you would have never traveled all this way to fight a pack of werewolves alone.” Nikki’s face turned white as his words sunk in. “If you two attacked a pack of werewolves head on, you wouldn’t survive. They would kill you both. They’re vicious, and very hard to kill.”
She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand, Aaron. Seth and I have both been trained. We were taught the best kill methods. We could have done it.”
“Do you hear yourself?” He stood, placing his hands on the table, leaning toward her. “If the two of you attacked just one, you might manage to injure it a little before it killed you.” She frowned, then looked away from him. He took both her hands in his, and she raised her gaze to his hesitantly. “Nikki, I will repeat myself. There haven’t been any wolf attacks in this area.” He looked deep into her eyes. “You may have been led here by whoever sent those false reports.”
Nikki swallowed hard. “Why would anyone go through that much trouble?”
Aaron shook his head solemnly. “I don’t know you or your family well enough to answer that question.”
“Are you saying that this person, or these people, have a vendetta against me or my family?”
Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe.” He sighed heavily, then sat back down. “It could very well be possible. It doesn’t sound random.”
She took a quivering breath. “Seth isn’t going to believe this.”
He squeezed her hands reassuringly. “Finish your beer. I have to finish getting this place ready to close. I’ll take you back to your hotel.”
She shook her head. “I’ll call a cab. I don’t want to put you through that much trouble.”
He smiled. “It’s no trouble.”
She nodded, then took a swallow of her beer.
Aaron went to the bar and put the case of beer into the cooler. When he closed the cooler he looked around the room, and noticed that the rest of the customers were gathering their things together to leave. He wiped down the tables and threw the empty bottles in the trash. Taking the trash out back, he dumped the bags into the dumpster. When he came back inside everyone had left except Nikki. Reaching over, he snapped the lock on the back door then turned off the lights.
“Nikki, are you ready to go back to your hotel room?”
She nodded and grabbed her purse. “Aaron, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out who it could be.” She sighed. “I am coming up with blanks. I don’t know who could be doing this.”
He put his arm around her shoulder, and she leaned her head against him. “I’ll help you figure this out. I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you or your brother.”
“I don’t want to drag you into the middle of all this mess,” she said softly.
“You didn’t. I did.” Turning around, he turned the lights out from the front door and secured the door and locked it. “My truck is over here.” He walked her to the truck and opened the door for her. Once she climbed in he shut the door and made his way around to the driver’s side and climbed in. “Which hotel are you and your brother staying at?”
“Uh, I think it’s that little mom and pop hotel up the street. I think it’s called The Lone Wolf.” She yawned. “I’m sorry for that. I’m just rather tired tonight. Seth and I like to frequent local establishments rather than the big chains. It’s a little more personable.”
Aaron smiled. “That place is owned by some friends of mine. You should be safe enough there.” Aaron started the truck’s engine and pulled out of the driveway in the direction of the motel. “You look tired. You need some rest.”
Nikki looked out the window and shook her head. “How can I rest when someone is trying to set me and my brother up?”
“Nikki, we don’t know that for sure.”
Aaron pulled into the motel parking lot slowly. “Which room is yours?”
Nikki pointed to her right. “I’m in room 103, Seth is in 105. There’s our truck. It’s the burgundy one right there.”
Aaron pulled the truck into the spot in front of her room. He put the truck in park and cut the engine. “Since we don’t know what’s going on, I want to check out your room before I just leave you here.”
She sighed heavily. “Aaron, I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t really think that’s necessary.” She yawned again. “Seth is just next door.”
He turned his head, lifted an eyebrow, and stared into her eyes. “I’m checking the room out. You can come with me or wait for me in the truck.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr. Macho Man, I’m just too tired to argue with you tonight.”
He nodded, a slight smile playing on his lips. “I’m glad you see things my way.”
She shook her head. “Would it matter if I didn’t?” she said dryly.
He flashed her a crooked smile. “No, not really,” he said with some amusement. “I’m concerned about your safety, so if you object to that, then I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “You’re not half as sorry as you’re gonna be if my brother catches you alone with me in my room,” she said, and gave him a half smile. “I don’t think I’d be able to stop that fight.”
He laughed softly at her remark. “Your brother is just concerned for your virtue. That’s an honorable trait. I wouldn’t be able to fault him for that.”
“I can,” she said irritably. “I’m a grown woman. What I want to do or don’t want to do is my business, not his.” She reached over for the door handle.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She sighed dramatically. “I’m going to my room.”
“I said I wanted to check it out first,” he growled.
The corner of her mouth twitched like she wanted to smile, but didn’t. “Is this where you start to beat on your chest and give a Tarzan yell?”
His eyes sparkled with amusement, but a smile didn’t cross his lips. “I’ve never really participated in those kinds of games,” he said in a seductive tone. “I’d be very interested in learning the rules.”
She couldn’t hold the smile back any longer and gave in, laughing softly. “Either I’m really tired, or I genuinely like you, Aaron.” She wiped the tears of mirth from her eyes. “Maybe it’s a little of both.”
He laughed softly at her comment. “Come on. Let’s go check your room out so you can get some sleep.”
He reached for his door handle and got out of the truck. Nikki got out on her side and met him at the front. He held out his hand for the key, and she fished it out of her back pocket and placed it in the palm of his hand. “Thanks,” he said softly, and closed his fingers around hers a little longer than necessary.
Nikki looked from their joined hands up to his eyes, and what she saw in their golden brown depths was barely repressed passion and…something else. Confused and a little nervous, she looked closer, and could see or somehow sense something wild, something untamed…something that was calling to her at a primitive, subconscious level. She felt like he could see into the depths of her very soul. Catching her breath and pulling her hand back in confusion, and she whispered, “Who are you?”
The intensity of his gaze grew. “Nikki, you know who I am.”
Looking away self-consciously, she took a hasty step back. “Aaron, I….” She swallowed hard. “I must be more tired than I thought.” Nikki shook her head again to clear it. “I must be hallucinating.” She cautiously looked back into his eyes. “I couldn’t have seen in your eyes what I thought I saw. My tired mind must be playing tricks on me.”
“What do you think you see?” he asked softly.
She shook her head again in confusion. “Uh…I see a great beast. I feel like it knows me, or I know it somehow. But…that can’t be.”
“It can’t?” he said softly. She took a step back and swallowed hard. “Why don’t you believe what you see?”
“I…I don’t know. What do you believe?”
He shrugged. “I believe that the eyes are the windows to the soul.”
She gave him a self-conscious smile. “I believe that I’m just tired enough that my mind is playing tricks on me.”
The smile left his face, then he turned to open the door. “Believe what you want.”
She knew from his tone that she had somehow hurt his feelings or offended him. “Aaron…uh…did I say something wrong?”
“No. In time you’ll learn to trust your eyes,” he said simply.
She shook her head again, because what he’d just said made absolutely no sense at all to her. “Aaron, I’m a witch. I know that this world is full of illusions. I know that I can’t always trust what the eye sees.”
Aaron opened the door and turned to look back into her eyes. “I offer you no illusions. What you see is real. Stay close behind me.” Turning back to the dark room, he stepped through the doorway and flipped the light switch. The lamp in the corner illuminated, casting a soft eerie glow over the room. Tilting his head, Aaron concentrated on the shadows of the room. “Do you own a dog?”
“No, I haven’t owned a dog since before the attacks five years ago.” When Aaron glanced her way she drew her eyebrows together and frowned. “Why would you ask that?”
He narrowed his eyes and searched the room quickly. Dropping to his knees, he lifted the bedspread and looked underneath the bed, then opened the closet and moved the clothes aside. Still not satisfied, he opened the bathroom door and stepped inside and pushed back the shower curtain.
Nikki rubbed her hands briskly over her arms to stave away the goosebumps that had suddenly appeared. She could tell he suspected something, and his silence set her nerves on edge. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck rose. She suddenly felt vulnerable standing in the open room by herself, so she stepped inside the bathroom to be near him. For some reason she felt safe in his presence. His silence to her question didn’t help. “Aaron, are you going to answer me?”
He cocked his head to the side again and looked into her eyes. “I ask that because I can smell a canine animal has been in this room.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have a dog.” She shrugged. “Maybe the last people to rent the room had a dog.” She sniffed the air. “Aaron, I don’t smell anything. Are you sure you smell a dog?”
He walked past her back into the main room, then sniffed the air again. “Yes, I’m sure. The scent is fresh. It couldn’t have been from the last people renting the room.”
She looked closely at his eyes again. Her own eyes were still playing tricks on her, because she could still see an untamed beast within their depths. Mesmerized, she asked, “How can you tell?” His words were starting to creep her out just a little.
Aaron tilted his head and smiled at her confused expression. “I can sense things.” He looked around the room again. “Whatever was here earlier is gone now. To be safe, I want you to latch the safety latch when I leave.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Her gaze darted around the room. “It makes me feel a little uneasy knowing something was in my room earlier when I wasn’t here.”
He took her hand in his to lend her his strength. “Are you afraid for me to leave you here?” he asked softly.
Smiling, she looked at their joined hands, feeling a deep attraction to him. She would love, more than anything, an opportunity to get to know him better, but her current circumstances didn’t leave much room for a serious relationship. This was the first time, since Paul, that she’d even desired the opportunity. Tilting her head, she gazed into his eyes with a denial ready to cross her lips. That’s when she saw it again, the raw, primitive side reflecting back from his stare. She was strangely drawn to it. Her heart and her body unconsciously reacted to it. Stepping closer, she tilted her face up to his and closed her eyes.
He brought his lips gently to hers, and that was where good intentions left and instinct took over as the kiss grew more demanding. When she pulled him to her tighter, she felt him run his tongue across her bottom lip, begging entrance. She opened her mouth to him, and stroked her tongue eagerly with his. The strength of his arms circled her, bringing her firmly against his hard body.
Pure, raw desire coursed through Nikki’s veins as her heart raced in a frantic rhythm in her chest. Need coiled in the pit of her belly, and the ache between her legs grew stronger as the kiss progressed. She had never felt a reaction that strong to a man before, not even Paul. She had been attracted to Paul, but it was never anything as strong as this. Her nipples beaded and ached as she brushed them seductively against his rock solid chest. Molding her body to his, she felt his hard erection between them. She had never wanted anyone or anything that badly in her life; she couldn’t get enough. A desire to feel his bare skin beneath her fingers was too hard to resist, so she ran her hands up beneath his T-shirt, across the hot firm muscles of his abs and chest. She felt the moan escape his lips as his hands slid down from her waist to her butt and pulled her firmly to him, lifting her feet off the floor to wrap her legs around his waist.
“What in the hell are you doing? Get your damn hands and mouth off my sister!” Seth shouted.