Prologue
Six months ago—San Diego, California
Former SEAL and current PI Vaughn Greystoke leaned back on his barstool in the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club, smelling cats everywhere. He wasn’t sure what to make of the packed place. His twin brother, Brock, slapped him on the back. “Drink up. You’re way behind.”
Douglas Wendish, a friend from their wolf pack in Colorado, was dancing again with his date. Vaughn’s date was more for show, and Brock’s looked too tipsy to do anything more than sit and stare into space. Around them, women in skimpy leopard-skin bikinis and men in leopard-skin loincloths were grinding on elevated platforms in the jungle-themed club.
Genuine potted palms and ferns, rock walls covered in moss, and vines crisscrossing over the ceiling made it feel like they were really in the Amazon rain forest. The chirping of crickets, the calls from macaws, and the sound of water rushing over rocks in the jungle played in the background while the music offered a riveting South American jungle beat.
Lots of gyrating females were twisting around on the floor, but only one really caught Vaughn’s eye. A dark-haired beauty wearing a tight black skirt split up the side that showed off shapely legs, a pair of sparkly sandals that exposed red-hot toenails, and a low-cut leopard-print blouse that revealed a nice swell of breasts. Unfortunately, she seemed to already be taken.
Vaughn was fascinated with the way she danced with the redheaded guy—sensuously, but not like they needed a room. The way she moved her body made Vaughn feel he needed a room. With her. Observing her, he was swept up by the jungle heat, the warm bodies, the cold beer, the infectious laughter, and her hot moves. Then the redhead she was with leaned down and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his waist, tilted her chin up, and kissed him back. In that instant, Vaughn wanted more than anything to be on the receiving and giving end.
“Hot,” Brock said. “Wonder if she smells like she’s got a ton of cats at home too.”
Fine with Vaughn. As long as he had her.
“Have another beer,” his brother said. “That might cool you off.”
The only way Vaughn would cool off was by taking an ice-cold shower.
A woman—who smelled overwhelmingly of cats—asked him to dance, and so he did, if only to get his mind off the brunette woman. “I’m Kira. You must be new here,” the blond purred next to his cheek, her body pressing closer to him than he really wanted.
“Name’s Vaughn. Does it show that I’m new here?”
“Colorado license plates,” she said.
He smiled. Here he’d thought she’d heard an accent, though he didn’t believe he really had one. “So you live around here?” he asked out of politeness.
“Yeah, nearby. You pulled up when we did. I always notice out-of-state license plates.”
She sounded like a private investigator or a cop. “Own a lot of cats?”
She smiled in a wicked way. “Love them.” She didn’t say that she owned any, though. “What about you? Own a lot of dogs?”
He smiled back. Wouldn’t she be surprised if she knew he was all wolf? “Dogs are man’s best friend.”
“So I’ve been told. Are you going to be around for a few days? Return to the club?”
“Not sure. Do you hang out here all the time?”
“Every chance I can get.” Kira glanced at his table.
She must have been wondering about his date.
“She looks bored.”
“She doesn’t care to dance.”
Then the black-haired woman Kira had been talking to came over and asked him to dance. Bethany. Three more cat women danced with him after that. He guessed they didn’t mind that he smelled like a dog. He wondered if they could even tell. He could tell they were cat lovers because of his enhanced wolf’s ability to smell.
Afterward, he took his seat at his table again, glad to have danced, though he wished he could have been with the brunette.
Douglas returned with his date, but Vaughn had already forgotten her name. No, wait… Wendy. If his friend mated her, she’d be Wendy Wendish. Douglas pulled out his camera and began taking pictures. Again. But then Kira asked Douglas to dance. She acted as though she hadn’t already danced with Vaughn. He only smiled at the fickle woman, wondering if she was looking for someone to spend the night with. He clearly hadn’t fit the bill.
When Douglas returned, he smiled at Vaughn. “Saw you dancing with her first. She’s just dancing with everyone, I suspect, until she finds the guy she wants to hook up with.”
Vaughn shook his head. Humans.
“Hey, see someone I know. Be back in a minute.” Douglas took off while Vaughn watched him, expecting him to dance with another woman.
Instead, he was talking to some guy, probably about boating, as much as Douglas loved to boat. Vaughn, Brock, and Douglas were all going out on the water tomorrow. One of these times, Vaughn was going to convince Douglas to take a plunge into the water and show him how much fun swimming as a human could be.
Vaughn observed the brunette laughing at something the redhead said at their table. She turned her head in Vaughn’s direction, as if she realized someone was watching her. He hadn’t meant to stare, but everything about her appealed, and he just couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He smiled. She smiled. In that instant, he felt they’d made a connection. As lame as that was. When she left the club tonight, she was going home with the muscular guy who had his arm wrapped around her like he was afraid he’d lose her. From what Vaughn could tell, she hadn’t once shown any interest in anyone else but her date. Oh sure, when she was seated at her table and sipping from a drink, she was watching other dancers, but she wasn’t focusing on any one person. Not like he was focusing on her.
Her gaze caught his again, and he couldn’t help but smile. Not that her checking him out meant anything. But he sure could fantasize.
* * *
Formerly an army intelligence officer and now a PI, Jillian Matthews had agreed to go out with her brother Miles’s friend as a favor, but man, did the guy have octopus arms! Oh sure, he was fun, but way more interested than she was. The guy several tables over… Now he captured her attention. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was all wolf, though some human males showed the same wolfish interest in a woman, even if she was with someone else. She’d never think about dumping a guy on a date when he was being nice, especially when it was to pay her brother back for his help in solving one of her cases. But she’d made sure she said it was only one date, unless she changed her mind.
Everything about the club was a blast—the music, drinks, dancers, and atmosphere—yet the man at the other table truly stole her attention tonight.
“Did you want to come back tomorrow night?” Miles asked.
She smiled at her brother. She’d love to if that other guy was going to be here. He had dark hair, chiseled features, and tanned biceps. He was muscular but not overdone, and had a darkly intriguing smile that made her melt.
“Sure,” she said, secretly wishing she could see Tall, Dark, and Intriguing again at the club. Maybe tomorrow he would ask her to dance or she’d ask him. The guy’s own date looked bored, and Jillian hadn’t seen him dance until women began asking him. As soon as a blond did, it was like a signal to other single women that he was interested and available. If Jillian had been without a date, even she would have asked him to dance. She’d help him move that gorgeous body right up close and personal. Her own date wasn’t interested in dancing with anyone else, so she curbed the inclination. She could envision hanging on to the guy too, if he still piqued her interest, and not allowing any other woman to take a turn with him.
“Hey, you ready to go?” Miles asked, breaking into her fantasy. “If I’m going to help you on that next case, I need some sleep.”
His date was a human woman, and Jillian knew her brother too well. Sleep wasn’t what he had in mind.
“Yeah, agreed.”
“I can take you back to your hotel,” her date said, as if he was looking for some mattress action too.
“Oh, thanks so much, but no, that’s fine. Miles is right. We have to get up before the crack of dawn.”
She and Miles rose from the table, Jillian’s date not making a move to leave. “See you tomorrow night then,” he said.
Not if she could help it. She gathered her sweater and bag, and though she didn’t want to seem too obviously interested in the other guy, she glanced back at him. He inclined his head a little to her, and her whole body flushed with heat.
He was so hot. Yeah, he was the date she wanted tomorrow night, whether he had a date with him or not.
Then suddenly a scream caught Jillian’s attention. One of the corner chains holding a dancer’s platform had broken loose, and the dancer on it screamed again. Thank God the dancer had reacted quickly enough to grab one of the remaining four chains holding the platform before she fell. Dangling twenty feet above the patrons, she clung precariously to the end of the chain, looking up as if she was thinking of trying to climb it. Before Jillian could do anything, the wolfish guy she had been admiring had climbed the ladder to the platform. He leaped to one of the chains still holding the platform, climbed the chain, and shimmied across the top to reach the chain the dancer was holding on to.
The music was still in heavy jungle-beat mode, most patrons unaware of the potential tragedy unfolding before them. Jillian rushed to tell a server to get help and to turn off the music so the guy rescuing the woman could concentrate.
“Hell, that’s part of the show,” the server said, smiling at her. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“The guy trying to rescue her is part of it too?”
The server glanced up at him. “No. Once in a blue moon we get some hero type who has to show off how macho he is. He must not be from around here either.”
“He could injure himself! Kill himself even!”
“Safety nets spring up and will catch them if they fall. We’ve only had one case where we had to use them, and everyone, including the would-be hero, loved it.”
Then the man managed to climb down the chain to the woman and had her crawl up his body. As agile as she was, she probably could have made it up the chain by herself if the heroic guy hadn’t tried to rescue her. The dancer wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he made the treacherous climb up.
Even so, Jillian was practically holding her breath. The visitor wasn’t part of the show, and any misstep on his part could mean the two of them would fall. Maybe he knew this was part of the show. Maybe the waiter just didn’t realize that.
The music was still playing, but a lot more of the patrons had stopped to watch, probably because only once in a blue moon someone came to the dancer’s rescue.
At the top edge of the platform, the guy made his way across the wooden edge until he reached the next corner chain. He paused there for the longest time. The music was still playing, the only lights the ones highlighting the dancers on their platforms. The other dancers no longer moved, riveted by their fellow dancer and the heroic guy. If he jumped to the ladder and missed, that would be the end of the show, and the dancer and the good Samaritan would fall. What if the net didn’t appear in time?
Jillian wanted to do something, anything to help him. All she could do was lamely watch and pray he was successful.
He leaped for the ladder, and her heart stopped. One of his hands grabbed the ladder, the other swinging to grab hold too. Then he climbed down, the woman still clinging to him.
Jillian wanted to give him a hug and thank him for being a hero, wishing she had a guy like that in her life, when he reached the floor. The woman he’d saved gave him a big kiss, several other women crowding around him to give him hugs and kisses, and her brother said, “Show’s over. Let’s go.”
At the hotel later that night, Miles told her he had a job the next day and would be leaving bright and early in the morning, so he couldn’t help her with her case, and Jillian had to head back to Tacoma for her next PI assignment. The hot guy would just be one of those dreams she had when she needed some fantasy in her life.
But she would always remember the handsome Samaritan who had risked his life, unless the dancer had made it clear to him that it was just part of the show and a safety net could catch them if they fell. Still, he had been there for the dancer when she had seemed to need someone to save her, and he had only meant to come to her rescue.
How could Jillian not admire such able-bodied heroism?