Thank You For Not Shifting (Peculiar Mysteries Book 2) (6 page)

“Do you want to come over here?”

“No,” I told him.

“Do you want me to come over there?”

I remained silent and let him interpret my lack of response how he wanted. The water sloshed and a small sense of satisfaction slid through me. I lifted my head and peeked. Billy Bob was nearly waist deep in the creek and half way across. As the water level lowered, I got a really great shot of his package, and… “Wow.” Let’s just say that the cold water had very little effect on him.

He stopped just shy of the shore. “What?”

“What?” Crap, I’d said, “Wow,” out loud. He really was gorgeous. His skin was a perfect shade of heavily creamed coffee and completely unblemished. Unlike my own, which was scarred and knotted in multiple places. I suddenly wished he hadn’t crossed. Self-consciously, I hugged my knees harder to hide my ravaged skin.

“Chavvah,” he said.

I looked up at him, reluctantly meeting his gaze.

“Is it so difficult to look at me?” He held his hands out to his side. “Do you really dislike me so much?”

I didn’t want him to know how much I cared. How much my feelings had grown for him since my rescue. He was the only one who hadn’t made me feel all victim-y and TSTL, too stupid to live. But he’d always been strictly professional with me, and I knew how much he liked, maybe even loved, Sunny. I wouldn’t be second best, not for any man. I wanted someone who wanted me above all others.

“I don’t dislike you.”

“Then stop pushing me away.” He walked the rest of the way over and sat down on the rocks next to me. I tried really hard not to stare at his dangly parts. “Turn so I can see your back.”

I did. He grasped my shoulder with his left hand, and with his right, he plucked the larger shards of window glass from my flesh. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t even whimper at the pain. Instead, I rubbed the gnarled scar at my elbow and let my mind go elsewhere.

“Tell me about the intruder?”

I shivered. “He was large, larger than you even.” I shook my head. “His face was hidden in shadow, his whole body really. I could make out his shape, but not any features.”

“Did he say anything?”

I snorted. “Yeah. He was really chatty for a psychopath.”

“Like?” He pulled out another piece of glass lodged in my lower back. This one was deeper, and I jerked a tiny bit.

“He kept calling me sister and little wolf. I think he thought I was like you. A lycanthrope.”

Billy Bob stopped then. He took my shoulders with both his hands and gently turned me. “What else did he say?”

“Weird stuff, like he wasn’t my enemy and that I shouldn’t be afraid of him.” But I hadn’t needed several weeks of torture to know bullshit when I heard it. “I can’t remember it all.” I caught Billy Bob’s eyes flicker toward my naked breasts. He’d seen them before. He’d seen all of me before on his surgical table and during the many exams I’d had to endure. But I’d never seen him look at me, or them, like this—with heat.

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for his gaze to meet mine.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We should get you back to the house.”

“I don’t…”

“You will sleep in my room, and I will not leave you tonight.”

I tucked my chin, “In your room?”

“I will stay in the chair. I won’t be sleeping. Your safety is my only concern.”

“If it’s the killer, he knows where I am now.”

“If it’s the killer, he’ll have more than he bargained for if he tries to get to you again.” He wiped my cheek with his thumb. “Let’s shift, or it’s going to be a long trip back. You covered several miles.”

“Really?”

He chuckled. “Really.” In the next few moments, I watched Billy Bob transform with a fluid elegance I’d never seen in another therian. It dawned on me, as I gaped at his large wolf covered in thick silvery fur that I’d never seen him shift before. Frankly, I found him unsettlingly striking. He waited, his gray eyes expectant. I nodded, concentrated on my coyote, and changed again. I’d never shifted twice in the same night. Hell, most of the time I only changed on the full moon. It was surprisingly easier than before. I could have probably followed my scent trail back to the house, but I let Billy Bob take the lead.

I
woke on cue at five in the morning. My internal clock had adjusted to my work schedule. There was no such thing as a short day for a small business owner. I looked at the chair where Billy Bob slept. Irrationally, I was relieved and irritated. I’d told him I didn’t need a watch-dog, or in this case a watch-wolf. I didn’t want to admit, even to myself, that the only reason I could sleep was because he was in the room with me. I hated my treacherous emotions for making me feel safe when he was near.

He’d worn blue-striped pajama bottoms to sleep in and no shirt. His arms were crossed as if he was still on watch, but his eyes were closed. I studied the hard planes of his face, his wide cheekbones, his almond-shaped eyes, and his full, wide lips. Christ on a hot plate, why did he have to be so fucking handsome? His grandfather had been a shaman for their pack. He’d told me that once when I’d first moved to Peculiar. Now he was the shaman for a town full of therianthropes.

At the time, I’d been searching for Judah, and Billy Bob had been one of the few people who believed his disappearance might be foul play. I’d even told him about Sunny. About her psychic gifts. He hadn’t thought I was crazy. Though, like my brother, Babel, he’d tried to talk me out of bringing her here. I knew he didn’t feel that way now. They’d both fallen hard for Sunny, and why wouldn’t they, she was easy to love.

The throw blanket slid down Billy Bob’s chest, and I sighed. Happily.
Damn it, hormones!
Rodin might as well have sculpted his broad shoulders and wide chest. I knew he was at least fifty, maybe even older, but he looked like someone in the prime of their late twenties, early thirties. His silvery gray hair always made him seem older. I wondered if it had been that color his whole life or if it had turned that way over the years.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.
I will not stare. I will not stare
. I couldn’t stop myself, though. No amount of mantra was going to drag my gaze from his super yummy body. I needed to focus elsewhere, but the other stuff on my mind was just too grisly and awful.

I focused my thoughts on other tasks than the hunky werewolf in the room. Billy Bob had told me that he still needed the dental records from a dentist in Lake Ozarks to compare against the victim’s, but he’d been mostly certain that the man killed was my friend Ruth Thompson’s gentle and sweet husband Ed. When I had gone up to my apartment to change and shower, they’d removed the body. Underneath the corpse, the killer had left Ed’s driver’s license. The height and weight had been right. Billy Bob had typed the victim’s blood, and that had matched as well.

I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out the vision of murder. When I opened them, Billy Bob was staring at me. Turnabout, and all that.

“What is it?”

“What?”

“You’re crying.”

“No, I’m not.” I scrubbed at the wetness on my cheeks.

“Okay.” He rose from the chair. “You’re safe, Chavvah. I promise I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you.” I could hear the implied,
not again
.

I tried not to read too much into his declaration. He was a good man. Sunny had told me that more than once, along with Ruth. Just about everyone in town loved the doctor. It grated on my nerves. No one was that perfect. How a lycan had managed to ingratiate himself into a town full of therianthropes was completely beyond me.

“How did you end up in Peculiar?” I asked Billy Bob.

“Long story.”

“I have a few minutes.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His gorgeous gray gaze held a pain that made me ache to comfort him. Stop it, I told myself. The doc had women throwing themselves at him all the time, council member Bethany included. Damn it. I’d almost managed to forget about the snide little fox.

“Chav…”

“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.” I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and rolled over to face the opposite wall. I couldn’t look at him. I don’t know why his reluctance to share his past hurt, but it did. “I need a few minutes. I need to call Jo Jo and Sunny to let them know what happened. I don’t want them showing up this morning and stumbling on that awful bloody pool out back.”

“Especially not Sunny,” Billy Bob said.

The skin on my face tightened. “Yeah, especially Sunny.” Sunny’s gift had been out of whack since Jude’s birth so she might not get any visions, but there was no sense in taking a chance. Besides, she’d never been good with blood. It usually made her pass out.

“I’ll get coffee on.” Billy Bob didn’t bother to put on a shirt. He just walked to the closed door. “Do you want any breakfast?”

My brain chose that moment to flash an image of the skinned corpse splayed in the dirt. Nausea roiled. “No, thanks.” How on earth could I cook today with that memory replaying in my mind?

He nodded. “Come to the kitchen when you’re ready.”

“You got it, doc.”

After he had left, I called Sunny.

“Hello,” she said after two rings.

“Hi, sorry. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No worries, Chav. Baby Jude beat you to the punch.”

I could hear her glider squeaking now. “I…I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“Just say it, Chav. You know I don’t like tip-toeing around bad news.”

“Someone…died.” Damn it! The details stuck in my throat.

“Who?” she asked.

“Doc isn’t sure yet, but—”

“What do you mean, he isn’t sure yet? Is it one of the people in for the Jubilee?” My heart squeezed at the small hope in her voice.

I automatically shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “He thinks it’s a local.”

“Who?”

“It’s so bad, Sunny.”

“Not Jo Jo.” Her words were tense with fear.

“No, not him.”

“Take a deep breath, Chav, and tell me.”

How could I say Ed’s name? We didn’t know for sure that it was him. It could be someone else. A stranger. I felt heartsick knowing how relieved I’d feel if it was a stranger. “Billy Bob can’t be sure yet, and I don’t want to say something that might not be true.”

There was a muffled, “Wake up, Babe. Something’s happened in town.” Then a clearer, “Where are you now?”

“I’m at the doc’s place.”

There was a moment of silence. “All night?”

“The sheriff didn’t want me to stay in the apartment after—” My mouth watered as I tried to control the emotion in my voice. “Someone skinned him, Sunny. They skinned him like an animal and slit his throat at the back of our restaurant. I was in the kitchen when…” My voice went up an octave as my horror renewed. “I was right there, by the door, where the body was dumped.”

“I’m coming,” Sunny said. “Babe and I will pick you up in thirty minutes.”

* * * *

I took my time getting dressed. I didn’t want to face Billy Bob.

Be strong, little wolf
.

The voice startled me. I turned my head sharply left then right. I was alone in the room, but I’d heard it. I’d heard
him
, the intruder from the night before. Only, I hadn’t because I was alone.
It’s just the voice,
I told myself.
My stupid, stupid voice
. The master bathroom door was wide open, the shower had a see-through glass door, and the closet was closed. If the guy were hiding in the closet, he wouldn’t have sounded so clear or so close.

I shook my head. My brain was playing tricks on me. It was the only explanation. Even so, I suddenly wanted to be out of the bedroom and in the kitchen with Billy Bob. Well, really, anyone. I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts or my invisible friend.

“Good morning,” the doc said when I shuffled into his kitchen. He’d pulled on a sage green T-shirt that complimented his skin tone perfectly. I wondered if he’d look bad in any color.

“Morning,” I said, accepting the steaming mug of coffee. “Cream and sugar?”

“Sugar’s on the counter.” He pointed to a white spirally sculptured sugar dish. “I’ll get the cream for you.” He opened the large side-by-side refrigerator and pulled a quart container from the door shelf.

The coffee had a nice, pungent, but fresh aroma and after a couple of tablespoons of raw, unrefined sugar and real heavy cream, it was as if I could smell heaven. Or at least what I hoped it smelled like.

“This is really good.”

“I grind my own bean.”

“Of course you do.”

He let my snide comment go. “Did you get ahold of Sunny?”

“Yeah, she and Babe are on their way over to get me.”

He set his cup down, a hard thump on the center island. “Are you going to go stay with them?”

I hadn’t even thought about going to Sunny’s since I’d suggested it the night before. Did Billy Bob want me to leave? “I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Probably. No worries. I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

“You can be such an idiot,” he said.

I snapped my gaze to him and narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me.”

His whole body seemed to be vibrating as he met my stare with the same angry heat. Within two heartbeats, he closed the distance between us, his arms wrapping me up as his lips melded hot over my own. My loosey-goosy arms flopped at my sides as my skin ignited with the pleasure his kiss foisted upon me. My knees buckled, but he held me up as his tongue found its way between my lips, conquering me with every thrust. He tasted of coffee, of cinnamon, the pungent scent of bergamot and spice filled my nostrils as my lower, more sensitive area throbbed with an aching need born so deep in my soul.

The doorbell rang. We ignored it, feeding the growing passion. The loud banging on the front door along with Sunny shouting my name, however, brought us both to a gasping halt.

“I…” couldn’t formulate a coherent thought, let alone a complete sentence. “I…”

Billy Bob growled. “I’ll get it.” He let me go, and my shaking legs could barely carry me. Fuckity-fuck-fuck. What the hell had just happened? Before I could process, Sunny stormed into the room and embraced me.

“Oh, Chavvah. I’m so sorry. This is terrible. I’m so glad you’re okay. You’re safe.”