Releasing the Hunter

Chapter 7

When they got back to the room, Ivy sat down on the edge of the bed and unfolded the paper that the demon had given them. Her hands shook a little, and she put them down at her sides so Ronan wouldn’t see them. She was a bit unnerved by the exchange between her and Daeva. When she’d shaken her hand, she got the overwhelming sense that the demoness didn’t mean her any harm and, in fact, had been pleased to meet her. It had been strange, to say the least.

“Fifty-five Fourth Street.”

“That’s what it says.”

“That’s downtown. Do you have a map?”

“Better.” Ronan reached into his pack and pulled out his iPhone.

She shook her head in disbelief.

“What? Don’t you have one? I can get all kinds of info on here. Maps and internet, voice dialing, even Facebook.” He grinned at that last one.

“Just look up the address, please.”

He tapped the screen what seemed like a hundred times. His face paled after a few minutes. He looked up at Ivy. “We might have a problem.”

“What?”

He handed her the phone. She looked down at the information displayed on the screen. She sighed. “You have got to be kidding. Is she serious with this info?”

Ronan leaned back in the worn chair at the table. “She’s never given me bad information before. I trust it.”

“It’s the Marriott Marquis, Ronan. How are we supposed to get in there and trap a demon without injuring thousands of people?”

“Carefully?”

“Not to mention having the cops involved. If we start a scene, and you know there will be one, they’ll be called in for sure.”

“I don’t know, but this is good intel. We can’t let it go to waste. We might not get another chance at this one.”

She sighed, then ran a hand over her face. He was right. They may never get another chance to find Sallos. She’d worked months to get the one tip on him for the club. The odds were if they didn’t act now, Sallos would kill again, maybe more than once, before she could catch him.

“Do you have a plan?” she asked Ronan between clenched teeth. She hated deferring to someone else for answers. She was used to relying on herself to have a good plan of action.

“The most logical thing to do is to check in and snoop around.”

“There are over a thousand rooms in the hotel. Even if we both dressed up as cleaning staff we’d never be able to search all those rooms.”

“We won’t have to. Sallos is all about the chase. He’ll be out and about on the prowl. There are a few bars in the hotel. He’ll be staking out one, if not more, for his next victim.”

She nodded, then handed the phone back to him. “You’re right.” She ran her hands over her pants, then stood. She glanced at her watch. “It’s four a.m. We can’t check in until what? Three in the afternoon?”

“Four.”

“That gives us some time to prepare.”

Ronan nodded. “Yeah, and find something else to wear. We can’t go into a posh hotel like the Marriott wearing stained denim and leather.”

“My place is likely destroyed, plus I imagine it’ll still be swarming with police.”

“Then I suggest shopping.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out four credit cards. He tossed them onto the bed.

Ivy reached down and plucked one. She read it. “Alex Irvine?”

He nodded. “Yup. I’m also Peter Jacobs, Brian Frost and my personal favorite, Harry Ennis.”

She groaned, but couldn’t stop her lips from twitching upwards. “If you tell me that the middle initial is P, I’m going to smack you really hard.”

“Nah, I didn’t go that far.” He laughed. “But they each have about a five grand limit, so I’m sure we can buy you something hot to wear.”

She glared at him. “I will not be wearing something hot, thank you very much.”

“Why not? You could definitely pull it off.”

She didn’t like that gleam in his eye again. It was the second time she’d seen it in the past few hours. The first time had been in the bathroom when he came across her showering. The cambion had another think coming if he thought there was going to be anything sexual between them.

They were working together. Work and sex didn’t mix.

And why was she even thinking about that anyway? It was more than just a work thing. It was a demon blood thing. Just because the man was devastatingly good-looking with wide, powerful shoulders and a smile that could disarm a nuclear weapon didn’t mean she was in any way thinking about having sex with him.

She cocked her hip and pinned him with a look she hoped came across angry and not sexually frustrated. “Do I seriously have to go over the rules of our limited partnership again?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Just messing with you, boss. I know that there couldn’t possibly be a sexual being under all that steel and ice.”

She gaped at him. But he never gave her a chance to respond before he was bouncing on the bed, stuffing the pillow behind his head and closing his eyes.

“Since we have some time to kill, I’m going to catch a few more hours of sleep.”

She glared down at him, but he was impervious to it. After another minute, he was snoring soundly.

Angry, she stared at him some more, willing him to wake up and fight with her. That way, maybe she wouldn’t be so aware of the muscle tick at his strong jawline and the urge she had to trace a fingertip over it to smooth it away.

She turned around on her heel and paced the room. She’d gone too long without a man in her life. Her libido was flaring up like a bad rash. She thought it ridiculous that just having this man stretched out on the bed in front of her, his long legs spread a little, with his deep breathing and his tantalizing male scent in her nostrils was enough to have her heart racing and her gut swirling.

Clenching her hand into a fist, she rubbed it down her leg. She had to get it together. There was no time for distractions. Especially tall, dark and extremely dangerous ones like Ronan. If she wanted to catch Sallos and send him back to hell she had to concentrate on doing just that. And not on fantasizing about the cambion in the bed in front of her.

She also needed more sleep. She was running on barely three hours and had to get some more if she was to be fully functional later when they would have to battle a Great Duke of Hell.

She turned and looked at the bed again. Ronan had the right idea. It irked her that he could turn it off just like that though. Close his eyes and be out instantaneously. Ivy’s brain just didn’t work like that. She was constantly thinking, constantly worrying. Constantly on the lookout for the next big thing to sneak up behind her and bite her on her ass.

She sat down on the bed, then lay back. She had to shove Ronan over a bit so she could fit comfortably. Her elbow did nothing to move him. Then he just mumbled and turned over onto his side. It made enough room for her to sleep.

She tucked a hand behind her head and closed her eyes. She willed herself to sleep. And not to think about two hundred pounds of pure masculinity lying next to her and how it would feel if he rolled right on over top of her and pinned her to the mattress with the sure power of his massive frame.

She imagined he would nudge her legs apart with his knee and settle in between her thighs. She would feel the hard length of him nestled against her groin. She’d be eager for him, open for him, wet for him....

Cursing, she sat up, got off the bed and went to sit in the chair. She slid down and put her feet up on the table. She’d slept in worse places.

Ronan opened his eyes. He stared at the hotel wall. He didn’t dare turn around to see if Ivy was sleeping or not. It had taken all he had not to grin when she’d glared down at him earlier. He’d faked falling asleep. He was sure his snores sounded authentic. But he’d been wide-awake the whole time. Awake and aware.

Especially when she’d plopped down beside him on the bed. He’d been vividly aware of her then.

Her scent had tickled his senses. His gut had clenched, as had his hands. They’d wanted to reach over and touch her. Especially now that he’d seen her in the shower. After seeing parts of her incredible body through the tears in the shower curtain, he could think of nothing else but touching her. To see if she was as strong and hard as she looked. If her soft parts were as silky as he imagined they would be.

He wanted to see if she would yield under his caresses or fight him all the way. Either one would’ve been fine with him. Just as long as he could have her hard and fast.

He’d been warned that she was difficult to work with, impossible to deal with and a massive pain in the ass. He’d experienced all that firsthand. Despite all of that, though, he wanted her. He wanted to melt that icy exterior of hers. To prove that there was an actual feeling woman underneath all that prickly armor and attitude.

He loved a challenge. He’d been dealt one right after another his whole life. He’d survived being infected with demon blood. He could survive and would even flourish under the reign of one Ivy Strom.

So he closed his eyes once more and calmed his mind. He’d need another good five hours of sleep before he could even fathom dealing with her again.