Eternal Hunter

Chapter 16

His claws wanted to spring free. Jude could feel the burn beneath his fingertips, but he held onto his control.

The cop. The one he knew Erin had cared for back in Lillian. They were in Erin’s office now. The guy stood less than five feet away — and he was watching Erin with far too much knowledge in his eyes.

“Jude, do you mind if I speak with Ben alone?”

Yeah, he did. He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered down at her.

She stared right back up at him. “I need to speak with him alone.”

Dammit. He was not happy with this crap. “I’ll be right outside.” He glanced at the cop. The guy had moved back and leaned against Erin’s desk.

Human.

Her fingers skimmed over his arm. “Thank you.”

Territorial. The word echoed in his head. The lady had no idea just how territorial he was feeling right then or how badly he wanted to rip into the cop.

Her lover. He knew it. He could see it in the man’s eyes. The detective had been with Erin. Hell, maybe he’d even loved her. Jude had heard the way the asshole first said her name.

And Erin — how did she feel? She’d told him things were over with the cop because she couldn’t fit into his “normal” world, but—

But Jude knew just how badly Erin longed for “normal.”

Rip him apart. Easy prey. Fight. Claim.

Mate.

The beast raged inside.

But he was more than the beast, and he was trying to prove that to Erin. Besides, she had her own choices to make.

He clenched his teeth and stepped back. “If you need me, I’m right outside.” Course, she’d be able to take down a human no problem, so the message wasn’t so much for her.

For the cop. His gaze held the other man’s. Right outside.

When he left the room, Erin swung the door shut behind him.

“Man, are you freaking insane?” Zane demanded instantly. “You’re gonna let that cop stay in there alone with your woman? Did you see the way he was eyeballing her, like a good fu—”

Jude turned his stare on the demon, and Zane wisely shut the hell up.

Then Jude crossed his arms over his chest and got ready to wait.

He’d agreed to stay outside, but it wasn’t like the thin walls would give Erin much privacy. Not to someone like him, anyway.

If that asshole cop yelled at her again, Jude was going inside, and the claws would be coming out.

“How did you find me?” Erin asked, keeping her voice cool and easing into her desk chair.

A shrug. One that tried to make him appear careless, but the lines bracketing his mouth belied the move. “When I linked the call at Katherine LaShaun’s place to your cell, the DA had to cough up the info.”

Ah, the cell call. She’d figured that would be traced back to her sooner or later. She just had been hoping more for later.

She’d forgotten just how good Ben’s contacts were. “I had to call her. I couldn’t let those boys see their father’s body. They never would have felt safe at that house, they never—”

“Still trying to save the world?” he asked softly.

Her lips pressed together.

Jude had understood. She’d seen the way he looked at the boys.

Had he seen himself in them? Yeah, she’d bet that he had. Just like she’d seen herself.

Her hands flattened on the desktop. “I didn’t break any laws by calling Katherine.”

“You tipped off a suspect.”

She jumped to her feet. So much for playing it cool. “Please! You and I both know there’s no way Katherine killed Trent! That’s not the kind of woman she is!”

“She thinks he killed her daughter. She’d do anything for her girl, you know that.”

She did, but…“Katherine didn’t kill Trent.”

“You seem awfully sure of that.” He walked around the desk, moving until he stood less than a foot away from her. “Why is that, Erin? And why is it that Trent had your picture in what was left of his hands?”

Because he was another freaking present. She didn’t flinch. “There are things going on here that you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh?” His lips twisted into a cruel smile. The smile didn’t suit him. Not at all. “Like I didn’t understand about you back in Lillian? Every time I tried to get close, you just shoved me back. When I was in the hospital, you didn’t even come to see me.”

“Because I was trying to protect you!” The words burst out. Oh, no, she hadn’t meant to tell him that. Now she was—

“And I find out now that you’re cozying up with some low-rent bounty hunter!” His face reddened as his voice rose. “I saw the way he looked at you, the two of you are — wait, what the hell did you say?”

“Uh…”

The door flew open. “Asshole, don’t raise your voice to her again.” Jude stood in the doorway, his claws out and his eyes glowing.

Ben looked at him and his jaw dropped. “What. The. Hell!”

Jude kicked the door closed with his heel but never took that deadly gaze off the cop.

“I told you there were things you wouldn’t understand,” Erin said. Then, “Jude, back off, okay? I’ve got this.”

“Bullshit. I could hear the prick yelling at you.”

Yeah, well, with his shifter hearing, he probably would have been able to hear a whisper. “This isn’t the way to handle the situation, okay?”

“He’s got claws!” Ben shook his head, hard.

“All the better to rip into prey.” Jude took a step forward.

“What’s up with his eyes? Why are they—”

“All the better to see the asshole who doesn’t need to be attacking my lady.”

“Jude!” Her snarl had him faltering and glancing over at her. “I can fight this one on my own.” Not helping. No, his big show and tell was making everything a thousand times worse.

“Sweetheart, it’s time your cop learned the truth.” In that devil-may-care grin, she caught the edge of his teeth, those too sharp canines. Erin swallowed and really hoped that Ben hadn’t seen them, too, because if he said something about the fangs, she could already hear Jude’s smart-ass response.

All the better to bite.

As much as she enjoyed his bites, Ben wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment.

And he might run screaming.

It looked like that response could be a near thing right then.

Thanks, Jude. “Ben, relax, okay? Everything is all right.”

“All right?” he thundered, still shaking his head. Then he shoved her behind him. “Do you see that guy? He’s got claws!”

She peered around Ben in time to see Jude shrug. “So does she.”

“What?”

“There are some things I never told you about myself,” she said to Ben, using a tone she hoped was calm and easy.

He twisted around and eyed her with too-wide eyes. “What things?”

“Like the fact that I’m not…completely human.”

A shocked laugh. “Right.”

She held up her hand. Let him see her claws.

He jerked back from her and rammed into the desk. Horror was etched on his face. Disbelief filled his gaze.

The reaction she’d always feared.

“You’ve stumbled into a hell you can’t fully imagine,” Jude said.

Ben just looked between them, shaking his head. “No, Erin, I cared about you, I—”

“You cared about the woman you thought I was.” And she’d just wanted someone to love her, as she really was.

Claws and all.

“This isn’t real,” he muttered, running a trembling hand through his hair. “Can’t be, it’s—”

“The guy outside the door,”—Jude jerked his thumb over his shoulder—“is a demon. I’m a white tiger shifter.”

“Not real.”

“And the killer you’re after — the one who left Erin’s picture in the hands of a dead man — is a wolf shifter.”

Ben’s brows bunched. “Were…wolf?”

“Close enough.” Jude nodded.

“No, that’s not even possible, there’s no way—”

Jude held up his claws and this time, he bared his teeth.

The gulp that clicked in Ben’s throat seemed way too loud right then.

Erin reached out her hand to him, claws gone, but he flinched back. Knew it would happen.

Jude had never flinched away from her. She glanced at her shifter. No, he’d never flinched away, not even when he’d found out she was part wolf.

He’d wanted her from the beginning. No holdups. No hedging.

Taking her, as she was.

Jude’s bright blue gaze held hers.

“Erin saved your ass by getting the hell out of Lillian,” Jude told the cop. “The werewolf who killed Trent is after her and, if she hadn’t left you behind, odds are high he would have killed you.”

“What?”

She managed to look away from Jude and turn her attention back to Ben. “Seems that I acquired an…admirer, of sorts.” Her lips pulled down into a frown and she rubbed her temple. “He does things, hurts others, even kills, and he thinks he’s doing it for me.”

Jude eased closer. “He killed a perp here in Baton Rouge and smeared the bastard’s blood all over the walls in her house. Another guy, a lawyer, made the mistake of arguing too much with Erin in court. The freak put him in the hospital. ICU.”

Erin flinched at that. She’d gone to the hospital that morning, before work, hoping to hear better news about Lee. His son had been sitting in his room, holding his hand. She’d stepped away, ducking into the empty room beside Lee’s as she fought to control her tears.

Seeing that boy, praying for his father to wake up…

He has to be stopped.

Clearing her throat, she tried to push the memory of that kid aside. Lee would wake up. Oh, but she hoped he would anyway. “I have very good reason to believe that this guy is also the one who attacked you.”

“Erin, there’s no way to know that!”

“I’ve got good reason to believe it, because he told me he did,” she broke across his words and dropped her hand. I took care of your lover. Fool wasn’t worthy. He’d been so proud of nearly killing Ben. He’d whispered his words to her that terrible night. “He’s been making my life hell for too long now. I tried running from him, hiding, but he just found me, and he started killing again.”

Ben’s mouth hung open. After a moment, he snapped his lips closed.

“It’s the truth,” she said. Might seem crazy, but crazy was her world.

“Wh-why didn’t you tell me? I thought you left because you didn’t care.”

“He’s a paranormal.” Simple. “You couldn’t have handled him. The other cops in Lillian are human, too. They wouldn’t have known how to stop him. He would have sliced right through them and—”

The cop’s head craned toward a watchful Jude. “This guy — let me guess, he can handle him, right?”

Jude shrugged.

“Yes.” Erin was definite. “When he’s in his tiger form, he’s the closest physical match the bastard has.” More than a match. Jude would be able to take the bastard down, she knew it.

“Werewolves?” Ben asked again and rocked back on his feet. “Come on, babe, I’ve dealt with some screwed-up killers in my time, but I haven’t—”

“Shifters have been around for as long as humans have walked this earth.” Jude crossed his arms over his chest. “Deny it if you want. If it makes you sleep better, do whatever the hell you have to do. But, the fact here is…you’ve got a paranormal killer out there. One who is obsessed with Erin, and you — well, you’re playing out of your league, human.”

There wasn’t room for Ben in this fight. “If you try to get involved in this, you’ll just get hurt.” The freak out there would like his pain too much. “Go back to Lillian. We’re going to stop him, and when we do—”

“What?” Ben’s voice snapped out, high and sharp. “When you stop him, I book a werewolf for murder? How’s that going to fly with the mayor and DA, huh? And what kind of cage am I going to toss him into?”

“This one won’t stay in a cage.” Jude’s voice was soft, deep. A calm opposite to Ben.

Erin knew he was right. The killer they were looking for was too strong for a human prison. “A cage won’t ever hold him,” she said, her stomach knotting. She’d known it would come to this.

“What are you saying?” Ben reached out a hand, as if he were going to touch her, but stopped, the fingers freezing in midair.

Can’t touch the shifter. Not normal. Her chin lifted. “I’m saying we’ll let you know when this threat is gone.” That was all she was going to say. She couldn’t really tell a cop that murder was the only option. Not really murder, though. Self-defense. “Now, I’m sorry, but I have work to do.”

“If you’ve got more questions, human, I’ll answer them,” Jude said.

Ben’s gaze drifted over her face. “This is the last damn thing I expected.”

“I know.”

“Erin…”

But there was nothing more to say. Like she’d told Jude, they’d ended in Lillian.

His hand fisted and he turned away from her. “I want to know everything you’ve got on this bastard.”

Jude’s claws were gone. For now. “Then I guess you’d better get ready for a little visit to Night Watch.”

Jude took the human to the agency. Introduced him to a few of the hunters. Left him with Dee for a while so that she could brief him, one human to another.

And the fury inside him built.

Erin had been hurt. The human asshole had hurt her. He’d looked at her like she was…like she was some kind of freak.

Erin.

Jude growled.

That was the prick Erin had been dating? An ass who didn’t recognize how great she was?

Idiot.

The cop’s hands were shaking when he finished his briefing with Dee. Yeah, she usually had that effect on men.

“Heard enough?” Jude asked from his slouch against the wall.

A jerky nod.

“Good, then it’s time to get your ass back on the road and head home to old Lillian.” He straightened, then remembered the way the guy hadn’t even been able to touch Erin after he’d learned the truth. “But first”—his fingers clenched around the prick’s shirtfront, and he yanked him inside the nearest office.

“Jude! What the hell?”

“Beat it, Gomez.” Gomez Montiago, charmer extraordinaire.

“This is my office, I’m not just gonna—”

Jude slanted him a hard look.

The charmer jumped up from his chair. “I had to go talk with Pak anyway.”

The door slammed behind him.

Jude turned his focus back to the cop. “I ought to kick your ass.”

The human got some spunk then, because his jaw clenched and he gritted, “You can try, but I’m not as weak as you may think.”

“No?” Yeah, he was. “Are you as stupid as I think you are?”

Ben blinked and a furrow appeared between his eyes. “What?”

“She’s not less because she’s a shifter. She’s not some kind of freak or abomination or monster.” The tiger roared inside. “She’s still the same woman you knew. Still smart, still sexy, still Erin.” He shook his head now, the rage burning his tongue and leaving an acrid taste in his mouth. “But after you knew the truth, you couldn’t even look at her the same way anymore.”

Humans. They could piss him off so easily.

Dee and Tony were the only ones who’d ever been different. Dee because well, she’d been introduced to the paranormal world at a very early age.

And Tony…he’d come across Jude mid-shift once. The guy hadn’t run or screamed. He’d just stayed and watched, gun drawn because he wasn’t totally stupid. When the shift was done, that gun hadn’t wavered. “That you, man? You still fucking understand me?”

Jude had managed a nod.

The gun hadn’t disappeared, not right away, but he’d helped Jude ambush two killers who’d been hiding in a slum.

When a guy had seen you at your worst and he didn’t flinch, but instead stepped up to the plate and helped get the job done — yeah, you could respect a guy like that.

“I didn’t know what she was.”

It would be so easy to rip his head off. “What she is. She’s a woman. Strong and beautiful. The same as she’s always been.”

“It’s a lot to deal with, all right? My head is spinning, I’ve got a body to deal with—”

“And you didn’t have to treat Erin like she’s something less.” Would Erin get too pissed if he clawed the guy a bit? What she didn’t know…

“I–I care about her,” the cop mumbled and his eyes fell.

What? Care, not cared. A snarl from the tiger that was echoed by the man as he said, “You didn’t act like you do.”

“Because I saw the way she looked at you!” Ben’s fists rose up between them and he shoved against Jude’s chest.

Jude didn’t move. “Run that by me again.” Maybe he wouldn’t use his claws on the guy. Not yet.

“I always knew Erin had secrets.” Another shove with those fists. Hmmm…the guy was stronger than he looked.

Jude still didn’t move.

“I tried as hard as I could to get close to her, but she always kept me locked out.” His eyes narrowed. “She doesn’t keep you out, does she?”

A smile curved his lips. “The woman tried.” A wolf. Who would have thought—

“But you got close to her. I saw it, when she looked at you, I saw it.” Another shove. Okay, more of a two-fisted punch this time.

Jude went with it and let his body slide back.

“You’re sleeping with her.” Bitten off. “Don’t bother lying, I could see that, too. When you looked at her, it was all over your face.”

“And Erin thinks I’m not territorial,” he murmured.

The cop’s eyes were slits. “She cared enough to protect me, but not to confide in me, not like she’s done with you.” Bitterness there.

Jude realized if the situation were reversed — damn lucky it wasn’t — he’d be bitter, too.

A hell of a lot more than bitter.

A muscle flexed along Ben’s jaw. “She left me behind. Do you think she’ll do the same to you?”

Not if he had anything to say about the matter. He was playing for keeps.

“You gonna be able to handle things if she walks on you?”

Jude stared at him.

“Guess we’ll see,” the cop said and Jude thought about punching him. Ben straightened his shirtfront. “I’m not leaving the area just yet. I’ll be around if Erin should need me.”

“Out of your league,” Jude told him again, meaning the words as a warning. He’d hate for the cop to get killed. Explaining his death to Erin would be a bitch.

“Yeah, well, maybe it’s time I got into a new league.” He shouldered past him and headed for the door.

Jude watched him, brows low. Easy prey, but…

Ben glanced back. “If you let that bastard hurt her, I’ll come after you, tiger.” A pause. “She’s not mine anymore, but—”

He broke off and shook his head, but Jude understood.

But she’s still Erin.

“Now you’re getting it,” he said softly.

The human let out a growl of his own and jerked open the door.

Gomez stood in the doorway, his hand raised. “Ah…Jude.” The hand dropped. “C-call for you. Some guy named Mickey.”

He’d known the guy was there, of course, but — wait, Mickey? Hyena-asshole Mickey?

Ben moved around Gomez and marched away.

“The guy says he’s got a tip, but only for you.”

Now wasn’t that some new shit. Mickey, offering him help on a case?

Jude went back to her, almost helplessly.

A jerk of his thumb had Zane heading out of the office, and Jude shut the door behind the demon.

Then turned the lock.

Erin glanced up at the soft click.

“Got rid of the boyfriend,” he told her and stalked slowly forward. He eyed the room. Too much paperwork on her desk and the thing didn’t look sturdy enough. He could always stand but—

Ah, that chair to the left, the one made of old leather would work fine.

“Ben’s gone back to Lillian?”

Jude didn’t want to lie. “He’s not in the game.” He’d better not be. The last thing he wanted to do was stumble on to the human while he was hunting.

And he’d be hunting again, very, very soon.

But first…

Erin rose and hurried toward him. “Jude, what is it? Why—”

He caught her hand, brought her fingers to his lips, and pressed a kiss to her palm.

Her nostrils flared, and he saw the dilation of her pupils.

“Don’t have much time,” he managed, his cock digging hard into his zipper. “I had to come and see you.” Jude swallowed. Hell, he sucked at this relationship shit.

A frown pulled her brows low. “I don’t understand.”

He tugged her over to the chair, fell back, then pulled her down on top of him.

She straddled him when she came down, the skirt of her dress fluttering over his thighs.

Convenient.

A startled laugh burst from her lips. “Okay, hard to misunderstand that.” She rubbed against his straining erection, pursing her lips. “But, seriously, I’ve got to be in court in half an hour. I can’t—”

“I don’t want you to walk away from me.” The words fell out, hard and flat. “Not like you did with Ben, with no looking back.”

Her hands rose to push against his chest. The laughter was gone now. “Who says I never looked back?”

His fingers dug into her hips. He hadn’t expected that. “I thought you said that you and the human were finished.”

“We are.” Her chin titled up and her hair brushed over her shoulders. “But I can still have regrets.”

Not what he wanted to hear. “A human wouldn’t be strong enough for you. He wouldn’t be able to handle things when they got…wild.” Not just talking about the shifter bastard out there.

“Doesn’t always have to be wild,” she told him softly, and her right index finger smoothed down the front of his shirt. “I’m wolf, but I’m human, too. Sometimes — sometimes a woman likes to go slow.”

Slow. Not really his thing.

“Can you handle that, Jude?” she asked him and he really, really didn’t like the look in her eyes. “Could you handle slow with me…and soft?” She tossed a look toward the shut door. A wooden door, but too thin. He could catch whispers and phone calls and about a hundred other sounds too easily.

He stared at Erin, at the elegant lines of her face. “I can handle anything you’ve got, sweetheart.” That was why he’d come to her. To tell her that he wasn’t the kind she could throw away when the danger was over.

He wasn’t just dicking around with her. With Erin, he wanted everything.

You gonna be able to handle things if she walks on you?

“Let’s just see.” Erin’s fingers fumbled with his belt. Eased open his zipper.

With a shifter, generally, the fewer clothes, the better, so he never bothered with underwear.

His cock sprang into her hands and he had to watch her. Had to watch the sight of those delicate hands pumping him, clenching and stroking.

Oh, but that felt good.

“You’re ready.” Her pink tongue swiped out.

Sweat trickled down his brow. Hadn’t counted on this.

“So am I.” With her left hand, she reached under the folds of her skirt. She twisted a bit, the movements clumsy but still sexy, then she had a scrap of lace dangling from her fingers.

Fuck.

“No sounds, Jude. Not fast. Not hard. Not this time.” Another swipe of that tongue.

His head jerked forward and he locked his mouth on hers.

She nipped his lower lip and his cock jerked. Oh, come on, that was just too—

“I said soft,” she whispered before her lips took his. She was soft. Her lips brushed across his mouth. Feathered over him, then broke away.

Not enough.

Her hips rose. Jude glanced down, desperate for a sight of that pink flesh, but her skirt covered her and he couldn’t see a damn thing.

But he could feel her as she slid down onto his throbbing erection. Warm, wet flesh. A straining entrance that took in the tip of his cock, squeezed.

He wrenched his hands away from her and locked them onto the arms of the chair. Can’t hurt her.

Leather tore as his claws dug deep.

She lifted herself higher, bracing against him, then pushed down, taking all of him in one long, slow glide.

His breath shuddered out. “Is…this…some kind of…fucking test?”

She rose, sank down, rose again. “Maybe…for both of us.”

Too slow. He wanted her creamy flesh. Wanted her breasts in his hands, her tongue in his mouth.

Her inner muscles clamped around him, her sex squeezing so tightly that he lost his breath.

Then she smiled that sexy smile. “So far, so good.”

Better than good.

“Let’s see how long we can last,” she murmured and lowered her face to his neck. She swiped her tongue over him, and Jude’s head tipped back against the chair.

The tiger jerked against his chains, desperate for more, faster, harder.

Jude’s hips arched against her when she tried to rise.

He couldn’t help it.

Her gasp said she liked it.

So did the sting of her claws.

Her cream coated the length of his arousal, and when she pushed up onto her knees and then drove down, he met her with a deep thrust.

So fucking good.

Another thrust. Deeper.

His cock slipped over her clit and Erin bit her lip, smothering a groan.

Slow and deep.

Her breath hitched, grew faster. Her lips found his. Their tongues met.

Just what he’d been wanting.

He took her mouth even as she kept taking him. Slow and deep.

His spine prickled.

Her cream thickened and her body stiffened. He held onto his control with all his strength. Held on until he felt the tremors caressing the length of his cock. Those slow, clenching spasms told him Erin was coming for him.

And now he could come for her.

His hands flew to her hips. He drove up and held her as tight as he could.

Jude thrust hard. Once, twice. He bared his teeth even as a roar rose in his throat.

Erin kissed him, muffling the cry, and he climaxed, exploding in her hot depths and plunging as deep into her as he could go.

Mate.

Zane glanced at the closed door. His senses weren’t as good as a shifter’s, but they were a whole lot better than a human’s.

And he’d heard that sound. A low groan.

His nostrils twitched.

Aw, hell.

No mistaking that particular scent in the air.

He shook his head. Lucky bastard.

The cute little redhead with the seriously cold shoulders marched toward him, a file in her hands.

Not really toward him so much as toward Erin’s office…

He stepped in front of her. “Now isn’t a good time.”

Her jaw tightened. “Erin’s due in court,” she gritted. “She needs this—”

He plucked the file from her fingers. “And she’ll get it. Thanks.”

After a hard glare, and another temperature drop, she spun away from him.

“Ah, man, you owe me.”

Erin stared at Jude, her heart rate slowing.

“Did I pass your test?”

Aftershocks had her sex squeezing around him.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

He could take it any way he wanted. She swallowed, trying to ease her dry throat. Okay, jumping him like that really hadn’t been her plan.

But she’d seen the heat in his eyes the minute he walked into her office.

She’d known what he wanted. She would have been an idiot not to know once he started sizing her up…and then glancing over at the chair like he’d been trying to figure out if they’d fit.

After a second’s thought, Erin had realized she didn’t want to wait on seduction.

And that she’d wanted to break some rules.

Sex in the office.

“Why?” he asked her and she could only stare back at him blankly.

Slow and soft—that’s what she told him, but it wasn’t what she’d wanted. Not really. She’d had slow and soft for too long. She’d wanted loud and wild. She hadn’t wanted to worry about the others outside or — or about anything but Jude.

She’d just wanted him.

The truth was that she would have taken him any way she could get him.

But, yeah, she’d wondered if the sex would be different if she held her primal nature back. If it would be as good.

The answer was…um, oh yeah. She felt freaking great. Sex with Jude wasn’t like being with other men. Never would be. Soft and slow — still wonderful. Wild and hard—amazing.

The guy was ruining her for everyone else. “Soft and slow with you,” she finally managed, “is one hell of a lot better than the sex I had with other—”

“Don’t go there.”

She blinked at the banked fury in his voice.

“I don’t want to hear about other men, and I sure don’t want to hear about them when I’m still in you.” The edges of his teeth had sharpened and he was eyeing her neck with a little too much attention.

Erin scrambled back, rising off him in a rush and then managing to stand with shaky knees.

She clenched her thighs, aware of the sticky residue from their—

Jude jerked his zipper back up. He straightened his clothes fast, then rose, coming right at her.

Her panties were in his left fist. How had they gotten there?

Hmm…she’d really need those soon. She couldn’t go to court without them. “Jude…”

“I’ll take you any way I can get you, but I’ll be damned if I share you with anyone.”

Her eyes widened. “I wouldn’t—”

His hand, the one without the panties, pressed against her chest. Right over her heart. “Talking about in here, sweetheart. When we’re together, there’s no room for anyone else.”

This moment was important. The air was thick. His hand was warm against her, and her heart galloped away with that touch. “No one else is there.” It was true.

She was in trouble.

He smiled at her and she thought about jumping him again. “Good,” he rumbled and pressed a hot, fast kiss to her lips. “And, yeah, for the record, there had damn well better not be anyone else taking that sweet body.”

She didn’t want anyone else the way she wanted him. Never had.

“This insanity with the stalker is going to be ending soon,” he told her. Can’t end soon enough. “You won’t need a hunter anymore.”

She’d always need him. Not for protection or for his strength. She’d just…need him.

Erin hadn’t needed anyone since her father died. No, she hadn’t let herself need anyone.

How had Jude gotten so close, so fast?

He saw past the surface. He saw things that others didn’t. Couldn’t.

He always looked at me as if he couldn’t wait to get me naked. Always looked at me like I was a woman.

Not a monster. Not the way Ben had looked at her hours before.

“I’m not gonna disappear from your life when he’s gone.” His hand was a warm, heavy weight. “And you’re not gonna disappear from mine.”

What the hell? The knot in her throat — what was that? Erin swallowed, shoving it down. “No, I’m not.” She was done running.

And, maybe, she was ready to take a risk on someone.

With someone.

Jude.

He can handle anything I throw at him.

Even soft and easy. The tiger had held perfectly still and let her ride him. What a ride it had been.

She shifted from one foot to the other and realized she’d kicked off her pumps somewhere. Maybe near the chair.

His hand lifted. Her heart slowed.

Jude kneeled before her. He caught one foot in his hand and began to slide her panties back on.

Strength and gentleness. Hell of a combination. How was a woman supposed to resist?

He turned his attention to the other foot, and he eased the soft material over her toes and up her calf.

He pressed a kiss to her knee and lifted the silk even higher.

Erin gulped. She lifted her skirt up for him, aware of a quiver in her belly.

And in her sex.

More, please.

He pulled the panties up. The bikini design rode low on her hips. His mouth brushed her belly, then pressed against the crotch of her panties.

She tried to suck in enough air for her starving lungs. “J-Jude—”

One more kiss, then he pulled away. “This case is ending,” he repeated and rose to his feet, “but we aren’t.”

Her skirt fell seamlessly back into place. The lust gnawed at her, burning and pumping through her.

She stared into his eyes, and there was only one answer to give. “No, we aren’t.” Because she wasn’t an idiot. No way would she walk away from a man who could—

A rap at the door. “Uh…the DA is looking for you, Erin.” Zane’s expressionless voice.

Hell.

Jude licked his lips. “Later, we’ll do things our way again.”

Wild. Sounded great. She held his stare a moment longer and gave a fierce nod. That freaking knot in her throat was back so the nod was pretty much all she could manage.

“I have some leads to follow, but I’ll pick you up tonight.”

He eased away, headed for the door.

Erin scrambled for her shoes. The DA. Court. She toed into her pumps just as he yanked open the door. “Wait! Jude!”

He glanced back at her, and her breath caught. The man was really something.

“Wh-what kind of leads?”

“The kind that I hope will take me right to the stalker.”

He’d told her the case would be ending soon. He’d meant those words, she realized. “Be careful.”

“Always.”

Zane was waiting for him. Jude bent toward the demon and she heard her shifter say, “I’m going to the den.”

Zane seemed to stiffen a bit at that.

Then Jude strode away. He didn’t look back, and Erin stared after him, feeling like she should say something, but having no idea what.

It’s not over.

No, it wasn’t.