As she fell, he effortlessly caught her before she hit the carpet. Holding her in his arms, he backed onto the bed and sat, just staring at her. Who are you, Kalli Williams? There was something about her fiery spirit that called to him; something he couldn’t quite identify. Her sweet warm body fit so nicely into his arms, and he suspected that cuddling her in his bed would feel nothing short of heavenly. He shouldn’t be thinking about her this way given her condition, but damn, his wolf didn’t care. It was so wrong. Brushing back the hair from her forehead, he watched as her soft pink, very kissable lips parted.
“Tristan,” she whispered.
He stiffened, hearing his name on her lips like a lover’s breathy call. “Kalli, you’re okay, I’ve got you,” he assured her.
“Doctor,” she replied softly with a small smile on her lips.
He laughed. Fainting and unable to stand, she was joking with him.
“My fault,” she croaked with a weak voice. “I shouldn’t have tried to stand. What was I thinking?”
“You were thinking that I was giving you the Spanish Inquisition, and like any good prisoner, you tried to run. Granted, I’ve never seen someone in your condition try to outrun me, but you get points for trying,” he added, hoping to make her smile.
“I’m scared,” Kalli admitted. Her head had finally stopped spinning.
“Please don’t fret, chèr t'bébé. No one can get to you here. It’s safe.” He sighed, pissed that he had purposely pushed her to the edge. “I’m sorry for all the questions, but I have to know what happened. It’s not just the fire. I can’t go into it all right now, but please know, that I had to ask. And I’ll need your help finding them. But right now, you need rest. Come, get in bed. Please stay, I promise not to hurt you.”
She wriggled away from him as he stood to place her gently back in the bed. In the process her shirt rode upward, scrunching up near her breasts. Her taut stomach exposed to the cool air, she glanced down to see her bare skin and caught Tristan’s eyes as they roamed slowly down to her underwear. He raised an eyebrow at the discovery and smiled coyly.
“What? Julie said they belonged to you but were new. Would you rather have me wear no panties at all?” she quipped, tugging the shirt down. Flirting with the Alpha? She was playing with fire.
“Now that you ask, the thought did occur to me,” he replied, not missing a beat. “Clothes are highly overrated, you know. But I might not get much work done if I knew you were sleeping nude in my guest room, not to mention that we’ve only just met. But don’t you worry, we’ll have plenty of time to get better acquainted tomorrow,” he promised.
Kalli smiled, and closed her eyes, pretending he had not just said what she thought she’d heard. Naked? With Tristan? Together. She breathed in a deep breath and released it, trying to tamp down her arousal. Within minutes, a wall of exhaustion crashed into her, ushering her into a much-needed sleep. Her last thoughts were that she’d worry about her feelings for the sexy wolf tomorrow. Right now, she had to heal.
Tristan felt all the blood in his body rush to his cock at her mention of wearing nothing. And seeing her sweet body in his shirt and underwear…Jesus, was she trying to kill him right there? He would have to make sure Julie got her proper clothes to wear.
He pulled up the covers to her neck, willing his erection to subside. If he couldn’t see what was under the fluffy mound of covers, he reasoned, he could get it together. Damn, he was losing it. Maybe he should send her down to stay with Logan? Staying in his condo, she would most certainly cloud his judgment when he needed to be at the top of his game. He was confident that his beta would guard her with his life and make sure no one got to her. But he knew his beta as well as he knew himself, and couldn’t stomach the idea of Kalli naked in Logan’s bed, at least not without him.
Tristan reached for her hand and slowly rubbed circles into the small of her palm. There was something about her that seemed extraordinarily supernatural. Bringing her satiny wrist up to his nose, he inhaled her delightfully feminine scent, detecting only human blood. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but as long as she was in his home and bed, he planned to fully explore the attraction.
Julie poked her head around the corner in time to see Tristan making his way down the long hallway. She quickly got back to work, annoyed that he’d gone so far with his investigation. Their voices had carried well into the kitchen during the heat of their argument. She’d been tempted to intervene, but knew better than to interfere with Alpha business.
Padding into the room, Tristan eyed Julie standing next to the stove, pouring the broth into Tupperware containers.
“She sleeping?” Julie asked, already aware of the answer. He’d been down in her room for well over an hour, sitting in total silence, watching Kalli sleep, and she found it curious that he was taking such an interest in the injured human woman.
“You didn’t bring the soup,” he commented.
“You were busy,” she curtly replied.
“What gives, Jules? Just say it.”
“I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that you don’t take direction well, Alpha. Although I guess you’re more used to giving directions than taking them,” she huffed. “I could hear the ruckus all the way in here. No disrespect intended, but I did say not to upset her, didn’t I?”
“Yeah well, it’s not easy being king,” he remarked with a smart-assed inflection, grabbing a bowl of soup. He sat down at the counter and began eating while she finished working.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to be so hard on you. I know you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. It’s just that seeing her like that….all those scrapes and bruises and bite marks. My God, she was a mess. I suppose I’m going a little mother hen on you. I’m not used to having to deal with such violence. You are good to us, here.”
“No worries. We worked it out. She’s a tough one, you know. Believe me; she’ll be right as rain, soon. My spidey sense tells me so,” he joked.
“All right then, I’m going to leave you some crackers and ginger ale to put next to her bed in case she wakes up in the middle of the night starving. I was able to get a little bit of the electrolyte fluid into her before she woke up all the way. I have to say that it’s unusual for a human not to be dehydrated. I guess she must have been really, really healthy before this happened to her. It’s almost as if…well, never mind.”
Tristan stopped eating and stared over at Julie, who looked deep in thought. “What is it?”
“Oh, I’m just being crazy. I was just going to say that it’s almost as if she had the constitution of a wolf. Silly, huh?”
“Yeah, silly.” Tristan bit into a cracker, considering her assessment. Silly? Or right on target? He felt it too. Something about that woman wasn’t exactly human, but then again, she wasn’t at all supernatural.
Julie gathered up her purse and gave Tristan a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “Okay, hun, well, call me if you need anything. I’ll stop by tomorrow to check on our girl. Maybe bring up some clothes for her, too. Get some rest, okay? Love ya!” she chirped as she entered the elevator and the doors slid shut.
Tristan reveled in the quietness surrounding him. He needed to think about his next steps, his strategy. He planned to bring in a sketch artist, so they could put a face to the arsonists. The meeting with Jax Chandler was in another two days, and he needed to get his shit together before it all went down. Throwing his bowl in the sink, he went to take a hot shower. He needed to think, without his libido interfering. It was as if he’d just been given a few more pieces of a jigsaw puzzle for which he didn’t have the picture. But he was cunning, and that’s what he did best, work with the impossible to make the possible happen. He was Alpha.