“Fine, you dried it.” She glared back at him. “Now give me the damned towel. I’ll dry myself.”
The scent of her distrust only grew and, even more disturbing, also a sense of fear as he’d continued attempting to dry her. Why would taking care of his luscious little mate cause her such distress?
Narrowing his eyes, Rule did as she asked, reached out and pulled another towel off the shelf on the outside wall to finish drying his own body.
Seconds later she found the strength in her legs, rose to her feet and quickly wrapped the towel around the slender curves he would have enjoyed watching a bit longer.
Tossing his own towel to the corner of the shower, he moved from the cubicle and headed to the bedroom. The scent of the continued distrust and that edge of fear had been joined by the hint of pain.
Dammit. She was tempting those crazy fucking animal genetics into surging free again. And that was something he’d prefer to ensure never happened again. Well, unless he was buried deep inside her again.
Pulling on a pair of jeans, he zipped them quickly, aware that his cock was still hard enough to ensure it wouldn’t be long before he was indeed buried inside her again.
Until then, he’d wait patiently.
It wasn’t long before she moved into the room, glancing at him nervously before moving to the dresser. There—his brow lifted as she found the drawer that held his shirts on the first try.
Lifting a dark gray T-shirt free from the top of the pile, she unfolded it, drew it over her head, then pushed her arms into the sleeves and let it fall over her body before dropping the towel.
Those animal genetics—
He normally cursed them; in this second, he was doing more than cursing them. The animal snapped inside him. A hint of a scent. The awareness of something not just right as his normally dependable senses failed him.
He’d come into this room weeks before, aware of the slightest scent that he should have recognized, only to have it elude him.
It wasn’t eluding him now.
“Where did you get the scent blocker the night you searched my room, mate?” he asked her softly. “And who provided it?”
CHAPTER 21
How had she given herself away?
Her gaze was locked with his, normal now, all evidence of the animal he shared his genetics with no longer present. But there was no way she could hide her response and she knew it. She was caught. She could feel it. She could see it in the flare of anger that lit his eyes and tightened his body.
“What are you talking about, Rule?” That didn’t mean she had to go down easy.
He’d already destroyed the plans she’d made for her life so many years ago. Nine years she’d spent vowing to avenge her brother’s murder and to make up for being the cause of it.
He chuckled.
It wasn’t a comfortable sound, she observed, watching him nervously. And she really wished he’d snap the band of his jeans and put on a damned shirt. Socks. Maybe some shoes too. That would definitely make her feel more comfortable. Though not in any less trouble, she was betting.
“You know.” Leaning against the dresser she’d just pulled a shirt from, he watched her curiously as he crossed his arms over his broad, naked chest. “Several weeks ago my room was gone through. A scent blocker was used, but what the intruder was unaware of is that the perspiration they left throughout the room wasn’t safe from detection when the room belongs to the intruder’s unmated mate.”
Unmated mate? It was all she could do not to roll her eyes, but she was pretty fucking tired. His bathroom sex had pretty much sapped what little energy she’d gained while she slept earlier.
“You’re reaching, Rule,” she breathed out roughly, certain there was really no getting out of this, at least without really lying to him, and that, she found suddenly distasteful.
A spy who couldn’t lie? Hell, wasn’t that one a first?
His gaze focused on her like a laser, brightening, the blue iris enlarging just enough to send her heart racing.
“Then,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken, “when we picked up those tails last night, you knew exactly how to pull up the GPS on the Dragoon and evade whoever was following us. How did you know that, Gypsy? No one outside the enforcers who use those vehicles knows about the new systems that went in just before we left for the op in Window Rock. That, or the transponders and satellite phone trackers we carry. Especially no human civilian.”
She shrugged nonchalantly, rather enjoying the game he’d started. At least for the moment. She was certain that the time was coming, though, when he wasn’t going to allow her to deny her knowledge of where she’d gained her information for long. And God help her, she could only pray he didn’t get Jonas Wyatt involved with this.
“Someone must know about it,” she informed him, as though the subject were no more than amusing. “Because I had to have heard about it somewhere. Though it’s really not that dissimilar to the GPS and backup systems used by National Law Enforcement.”
“And how would you know about their GPS and backup systems?” He latched onto that immediately. “Last I heard, National was just as proprietary about their technical information as the Breeds are.”
“More so, actually.” She smiled. “I guess it’s all according to who you have as friends, Rule. I have a lot of friends. And remember, I do work part-time at the Navajo Covert Law Enforcement office.”
He actually grinned. Ducking his head for a moment, he stared at a point that could have been his bare feet. He was shaking his head, though, and that smile was flashing a bit more of the healthy canines at the side of his teeth than she found comfortable.
His head lifted enough to stare up at her through the veil of those thick, inky lashes. The gleam of those blue eyes, barely glimpsed for the long lashes, was entirely too wickedly sexy. It made her stomach kind of jump.
“Yeah, you have a lot of friends, baby,” he said softly, causing her heart to trip nervously. “And whoever the fuck trained you did a damned good job of it. Had any Breed other than Jonas questioned you, then I have no doubt you would have convinced them you were just the party girl you pretend to be. But no other Breed would have seen your response when you jerked that towel from my hand. And I know, only training can create the quickness you used in doing that. Just as only training could have taught you the move you used last night when Rhyzan made the mistake of touching you in that bar. And yes, one of the enforcers watching that little move described it perfectly as I was pulling in.”
Gypsy widened her eyes innocently. “That is one freaky Breed, Rule. You should keep him out of the general public if you really want to convince the public you’re harmless.”
“Is that what we’re trying to do?” he asked her.
“Isn’t it?” She kept her appearance amused, archly mocking, and prayed she could pawn off the racing of her heart and her nervousness on the simmering arousal still vibrating through her body.
“You’re not distracting me,” he warned her then. “You’re calm, giving all appearances of being slightly confused, a little nervous but game to play along. Damned good training, just as I said. But I’m probably the one person in the world you’re never going to be able to fool whenever you attempt to lie to me. I know your scent more intimately than any other Breed ever will, and I’ll catch that hint of deceit creeping out. You won’t have to say a word. I’ll know you’re preparing to deceive me before the words ever leave your mouth.”
Well, wasn’t he just damned sure of himself?
Gypsy moved across the room then, watching him warily, as though she were indeed just as confused and nervous as he indicated she was playing at. They both knew he was right, but nothing could hurt her, or him, if she didn’t admit to it.