Kalinda swallowed, afraid to speak but unable to stop herself.
“I don’t know.”
His large hand, warm and familiar, cupped her chin, his thumb caressing her bottom lip. “You don’t always have to have the answer. It’s okay to be lost.”
She couldn’t respond. Not when his mouth claimed hers. Not when he set her ablaze with silken lips and a skillful tongue that traced the seam of her closed mouth and demanded entrance. She let him in on a sigh, and he devoured her.
Nothing with him came easily. He filled her, tasting every crevice of her mouth, laying claim in a way she hadn’t thought possible. The only place they were connected were by their mouths and his hand on her chin, but she felt his weight pressing in on her. He may as well have fully rested his weight down on her.
She let him lead, following his tongue and letting go. Her nipples hardened in her bra, and she felt achy in a new way. She was tempted to curl her fingers into his shirt, to rip it from his body and take what she knew he would offer, but she knew she’d regret it. That she’d hate that she was so weak. The longer he kissed her, though, the more that thought faded until she was all molten heat and need. Kalinda trembled with it and needed more.
When their lips parted, she was willing to say yes to his next question.
“Get some rest, Kalinda. I’ll be here to watch over you. I promise.”
Instead, Romano gave her what she needed when she hadn’t even known it herself. Security.
Chapter Five
Okay, so she was woman enough to admit she was running. Three days of being cooped up in the house with the ever-present panty annihilator who touched her all the time but never went beyond that—which she didn’t want, of course … right—had stretched her nerves thin. She needed to run, to get some fresh air, and return to her business. She knew the Viscount Pride probably still had beef with her, but after three days, no summons from them or the Council had come forth. Zahara may have never been wrong before, but there was always a first time. Kalinda hadn’t had any flare-ups since that first day either.
Zoey had spilled the beans, to the complete embarrassment of Kalinda, that she’d somehow magicked a blowjob but hadn’t exactly finished the job when Romano called for help. How was she to know what was brewing between them was real and not the magic she’d used? Sure, she’d been attracted to him before the flare-ups got bad, but she’d only met him around the time her magic started changing, and it seemed she unconsciously used the power.
For now, there was too much to think about and too much time to think about it. She’d had to allow Silva to run the business the last few days, and thank God she had the Fae, but that didn’t mean Kalinda could afford to be away from her business indefinitely. Silva told her orders were coming in from The Daily Grind, and Kalinda had to keep up with that engagement. It was too important.
So Kalinda had a plan: find Lorenzo and see if he could help get her out of there.
Lorenzo was a low-level fire mage teenager who’d been taken under the protection of the pack. He also had a super protective mother, and as a result, he’d developed mad skills at sneaking, evading, and escaping supervision when he wanted to.
Romano had been called to handle something in the main house, and it gave Kalinda enough time to make her move. It was now or never. She’d put on jogging clothes and her tennis shoes and tucked her phone and keys into her bra. Not the most comfortable, but it kept her hands free and looked a lot less like she was planning an escape. She took a lap around the edge of the compound. It was much larger than she’d expected. The pack lands were comprised of a subdivision with Dominic’s home and his Enforcers living around his location. After working up a pretty good sweat, she figured she’d been seen by enough wolves to disappear.
After a short distance, she veered off her path in search of one of the teens Dominic’s pack had taken in and built a community center for. When they weren’t in the apartments he’d had built for them, they spent a lot of their time working on pack lands and had gained a sense of family. Cin’s jewelry was highly sought after around town, and if she kept going the way she was, her growth would be very good for her nationally too.
Lorenzo would be ideal. His best friend Heath would do in a pinch. Years of living on the street had made him good at dodging just about anyone: cops, store owners he’d just boosted merchandise from, or security guards. And sure, Lorenzo, Cin, and Heath were grateful to the wolves for helping them out, but they were still kids. And they still loved the chance make a little mischief sometimes.
She spotted Cin and Lorenzo a few hundred feet away, standing in a clearing sharing the headphones from Lorenzo’s spell phone. Heath sat on the ground with his knees drawn up under his chin and watched them with an odd expression on his face. Kalinda felt bad for him. He was kind of a third wheel these days.
Well, maybe helping her escape would take his mind off things for a minute. She started to head their way.
“Out for a stroll?”
Kalinda nearly tripped and fell flat on her face when Giuliana paced next to her, barely breathing hard. The wolf, she was sure, could run for miles without tiring. The benefit of her genetics.
“Yes, for now.”
Giuliana’s brow arched at that. “Oh? Do tell.”
“Depends. Are you still a master of escaping?”
She wasn’t Lorenzo, but Giuliana had dealt with her oppressive uncle, Arturo, tracking her wherever she went and keeping her from having much of a life. Now that she had joined Dominic’s pack, she had a lot more freedom. She’d been able to open a vintage clothing shop, and she no longer had her uncle tracking her movements every moment of every day. She was still pack, however, and Kalinda couldn’t be sure she would help, wild streak or not.
Giuliana shrugged. “Depends on who you’re running from.”
Kalinda bit her lip. She wasn’t exactly sure she was ready for that conversation. Yet.
“Ah, Romano.” Giuliana nodded in understanding. “He’s not a bad guy, not really. His parents messed him up pretty badly, you know?”
Kalinda hadn’t heard about that. All she’d ever gotten from him were jokes and double entendre. Oh, and hot-as-fuck need pouring off of him. But the parents thing intrigued her. “How?”
