He didn’t appear in any hurry to tell her exactly what had him so damned amused at her expense, though.
As he returned the cup to the counter, still watching her silently, Gypsy sat back on her stool, her head tilting to the side.
Crossing her arms over her breasts, she watched him angrily, waiting, and it wasn’t patiently.
He merely stared back at her with a hint of a smile on his face.
“What kind of game are you playing with me?” she asked him, suspicion beginning to grow within her. “And why?”
She’d known him for years, had worked for him at the Navajo Covert Law Enforcement office for the last few years. He had been a friend of her brother’s, though he hadn’t arrived in Window Rock until after Mark’s death. He’d quickly become a friend of her parents’, and of hers and Kandy’s. She had always known he was arrogant, but this cool, merciless amusement she hadn’t seen in him before.
“No game, Gypsy,” he promised, flashing her a quick smile as he lifted the coffee cup to his lips once again and sipped. Lowering it, he sat back as well. “My only intent is to do whatever I can to help you. I knew Mark was an informant for an unidentified group that aided the Breeds, and I greatly admired him for it. Just as I’ve always suspected you were as well.”
Well, didn’t he just know a whole lot of nothing.
At least, according to him.
“You aren’t part of that group, then?” She had wondered, she had hoped he was part of it, just for her own safety.
“Don’t ask questions.” His voice hardened, as did his gaze. “You’re only going to waste our time, and we don’t have long before that Breed you ran from finds you.”
“I took the scent blocker.” Her head was shaking before she could stop it.
“There are instances when the scent blocker doesn’t work,” he informed her, his voice still as hard as stone, his gaze icy. “I rather doubt it’s working now. Any Breed who gets within a quarter mile of this place will know a Breed mate is in the vicinity once he catches the scent of Mating Heat I’m sure is rolling off you at the moment. At the most, we may have an hour before he arrives, simply because it should take that long before a team passes by here. If we’re lucky.”
If they were lucky.
The irritation along her flesh was growing worse, amplifying the longer she sat there. The arousal Rule had left burning within her not only was still there, but it too was worse than it had been before she left her apartment.
And she’d read of those symptoms in the past, in the tabloids and gossip rags that carried the outrageous stories of “Breed Mating Heat.”
“What’s going on? Mating Heat is supposed to be a rumor, nothing more.” Could that really be what was going on inside her? She could feel a difference in her body that didn’t make sense, in the arousal and physical need for him. But it wasn’t supposed to be real . . .
She might not have a lot of experience in arousal or sex, but even she knew she shouldn’t be growing painfully aroused without a reason. And she’d left her reason in the shower after he’d jumped from her as though she sickened him.
“Are there other instances when the blocker doesn’t work? I searched his suite a few weeks ago; could he have somehow learned I was in his rooms?” she probed when he didn’t answer her. There wasn’t a chance Rule had learned she worked with the Unknown, but he could have somehow learned she was in his rooms.
“I doubt he has a clue.” That gleam of curious amusement. “If he had, then he would certainly not have taken you to his bed. Instead, he would have charged you for crimes against Breed Law.” A quick glance at his watch. “I would guess you have perhaps forty-five minutes now.”
He wasn’t helping her.
“Then if we’re short on time, perhaps you should tell me, if I’m his perfect special mate,” she sneered, “why am I here instead? Why would he be searching for me at all when he was the one who rejected me?” Her breath hitched involuntarily as the pain ambushed her, thickening her voice, pushing tears closer to the surface. “How did I mess up, Cullen?”
Surprise registered on his face as sympathy filled his gaze now. “You’re always so certain you’re the one who’s messed up,” he said gently. “You’ve done nothing wrong, Gypsy. Maybe you finally realized there was more to life than vengeance when you slept with your Breed.”
If she had, then she’d found out quickly just how wrong she was, hadn’t she?
She rubbed at her arms nervously, the sensitivity increasing as she felt wariness rising inside her. And perhaps even a hint of fear.
“How do you know—?” She broke off when his expression immediately darkened.
“That you’re his mate?” he broke in. “I know because you suddenly have two teams of Breed Enforcers that Jonas Wyatt can ill afford to put on surveillance for one unimportant party girl, and trust me, little girl, Commander Breaker won’t be far behind. And I know because several Breeds I’m in contact with notified me immediately upon catching the scent of it as you rushed by them when you left the hotel.”
“Why?” she cried out, the pain-filled anger that burned inside her setting fire to her emotions, her denial. “Why the hell would he come after me? He didn’t want me, Cullen.”
“You’re his mate.” He leaned forward intently. “He may be shocked, surprised. As I understand it, most male Breeds don’t handle the initial mating phase any better than their human mates, but it won’t have taken that territorial, possessive-as-fucking-hell animal inside him long to convince him that there’s not a chance he’s going to really let you go.”
His mate. This couldn’t be possible. The stories were warped, many hinting at depravity, at sexual acts that Gypsy just couldn’t believe.
The stories in the tabloids had supposedly been proven to have no basis. They still abounded. With each engagement or marriage between a Breed and their partner, the stories would flare up again for a day or so before dwindling away.
She couldn’t believe it was true. It was so farfetched, surely it was impossible.
“Stop shaking your head,” he ordered brusquely. “Didn’t think there could be a grain of truth to the rumors in the tabloids?”
“Impossible.” Jumping from the bar stool, she faced him furiously now, fighting to deny what he was suggesting. “Trust me, if mating existed, then I wouldn’t be sitting here with you, Cullen, I’d still be in the bed with him.”
There was no denying it had happened. He knew she had slept with Rule. Evidently he had a very reliable Breed contact after all, just, hopefully, a delusional one.
Gypsy watched him warily now. “If you have a Breed contact, then why weren’t you asked to search those rooms?”
Cullen grimaced. “Evidently whoever they are, they don’t trust me enough to contact me regarding it. I was to be your backup. Nothing more. And my contact within Jonas’s organization is a very clever ploy I suspect to enable him to gain his own contact within the law enforcement community.”
“Why you?” She watched him carefully, wondering now how far she could truly trust him.
“I’m commander of the Covert Law Enforcement Division, Gypsy. Who else would have the information they need when it comes to any secret activities in the area?”
And she knew that, she really did.
Lifting her hand to her forehead, she could feel the perspiration gathering there as her senses continued to riot while arousal tightened her sex and spilled the silky release of her juices.
“Gypsy, whoever you spy for, it can be very dangerous. As I understand it, Jonas already suspects your involvement, though Rule has fought him over it,” he told her grimly. “Don’t allow either of them to become certain. It could be more dangerous than you realize.” The cold, hard edge to his voice had her watching him closely.