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As they reached the table, Liza made her next decision quickly without taking the time to consider the repercussions of it.
"I"m going home," she told them, feeling Stygian stiffen beside her.
Cullen, Steven, Reever and Klah all turned accusing stares on Stygian.
"Yeah, I think I"ll head back too." Chelsea rose to her feet and pulled her purse from the floor. "Are you riding with me?" She looked up at Stygian with a grin. "Or with him?"
"You." Jerking her light blazer from the back of her chair, she thanked G.o.d Chelsea had made her own quick decision.
"Then I guess I"m heading back too, be- cause I came with them." Claire joined them, moving from her chair and collecting her purse and light jacket. She too was dressed in the clothes she"d worn to work that morn- ing: a light cotton blouse and slim, sedate skirt.
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G.o.d was smiling on Liza.
"We"ll follow you home." Steven nodded and the four men rose as well.
Beside her, she swore Stygian chuckled.
She was certain of it as his head lowered.
"Very, very good," he murmured at her ear.
"You surprised me."
It sounded as though he was rarely surprised.
"Good night, Mr. Black," she said.
"Good night, Ms. Johnson." Nodding, he stepped back and seconds later disappeared into the press of bodies as he made his way to the exit.
"This isn"t good," Klah stated softly.
Liza glanced at the dark Navajo, seeing the nearly black eyes and the anger burning within.
Klah was their logistics and planning guru.
There were times when his instincts were so strong that the other members of the team swore he was psychic.
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"But perhaps not bad." She shrugged. "He can"t know anything either way. He"s just-"
She trailed off, shaking her head.
"Just h.o.r.n.y?" Chelsea suggested teasingly.
"Honey, that Breed is d.a.m.ned interested and d.a.m.ned certain you"re just as hot for him."
"She"s not," Klah snapped as he and the other men surrounded them as they began moving for the exit themselves.
"Reever, take first watch on the girls"
house," Cullen ordered, ignoring Klah"s ex- clamation. "Steven, you have second, and Klah will take third. I have duty the next three days, but I can pull members of the other teams in the area to cover them until this situation is resolved."
"That could be why someone seems to be stalking us," Liza suggested as they left the club. "Someone could be using the Breeds"
presence here to draw out as many members as possible and get information on the net- work rather than anything else."
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"That"s always possible," Cullen agreed.
"But I"d rather ensure your, Claire"s and Chelsea"s safety."
"Don"t pull from the network," Liza sug- gested. "We have enough friends who are members of the military or law enforcement who could fill in. I"d rather not risk the ident.i.ties of the teams involved in relocation.
We"re the only team not involved in that phase."
And team members rarely had the ident.i.t- ies of other team members. It was a safe- guard, a precaution in case one was caught.
Or in case a member became greedy and de- cided to sell information to the Genetics Council.
It had happened only once in all the dec- ades of the Navajo Underground Network.
But if it had happened once, it could happen again.
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"We"ll see what we can do," Cullen answered without giving an indication of whether he agreed or not.
It wasn"t that he didn"t trust her opinion, she told herself. She, Claire and Chelsea were junior members of the group, and in ways, still in training.
As they reached the car, Liza gave in to curiosity and glanced around the parking lot.
She couldn"t see Stygian, but she was certain he was there. He wasn"t a man-a Breed-who would give up easily.
"All these hot and handsome Breeds are going to make me start wishing one would go nuts on me now." Chelsea was laughing des- pite the declaration as she pulled her small sedan out onto the highway and headed back to Window Rock.
The night closed around them, and as Liza opened the pa.s.senger-side window, she couldn"t help but wish the wind was whip- ping around her as she rode behind Stygian 149/862.
on that motorcycle he had claimed to be riding.
And no doubt he had. He was big enough, strong enough, bold enough to risk life and limb on a hot desert night and a highway that could hold any number of surprises.
"Thank G.o.d it"s Friday." Claire sighed wearily. "This hasn"t been a week I"d want to repeat."
The planning and implementation of sev- eral a.s.signments designed to draw in at least one of the shadows watching them had been an exercise in futility.
Until the morning Liza had taken her run, they had been certain they wouldn"t have to deal with the Bureau of Breed Affairs"s enfor- cers. Liza, along with the others, had been certain that capturing one of the forces tracking her would be a piece of cake.
Only they had watched that prized cake squashed into nothingness as Liza became immersed in a sensual battle with one of the 150/862.
most powerful Breeds. And he didn"t appear to be the sort to give up easily.
Or to do anything easily.
He would take her as he lived, she thought.
Confidently, powerfully. He would hold her with those strong, broad hands, kiss her into senseless submission with lips that mesmer- ized her, and invade not just her body, but her heart as well.
"Did you hear me, Liza?" Chelsea com- plained as Liza fought to bring herself back from that place where Stygian"s arms enfol- ded her and his kiss heated her.
After all, she had been pretty cold lately, she thought wearily.
"No, I"m sorry, Chelsea, I was thinking of something else," she answered her friend as she pushed back the images of her and Stygi- an together.
"Or someone else," Chelsea smirked from the seat beside her. "That Breed, no doubt."
"He"s arrogant," Liza accused.
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"He"s f.u.c.king hot." Chelsea laughed.
"He"s too dominant," Liza tried again.
"Yeah well, he could tie me to the bed and spank my a.s.s any day he wants," Chelsea proclaimed. "d.a.m.n, Liza, I know you"re not going to turn down that chance to have the most incredible s.e.xual adventure of a life- time. You know, Wolf Breeds" c.o.c.ks are sup- posed to be twice as thick as any human man"s. And you know what we"ve heard they do."
"And Isabelle won"t say either way if her Coyote does that Coyote Breed thing when he comes," Claire piped in. "Do you think their c.o.c.ks really swell larger when they e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e, locking them inside a woman?"
"The fact that Isabelle refuses to say is a pretty good indication." Chelsea sighed as though in antic.i.p.ation. "No wonder they have such female groupies. I think I want to join the club."
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"Chelsea, you ignore the Breeds who do of- fer," Claire pointed out as Liza felt her mouth go dry at the thought of being so exquisitely stretched and pleasured at the height of release.
"So do you," Chelsea pointed out. "It"s not as though I"m the only one."
"Then why are we telling Liza to take her Breed up on it?" Claire asked, clearly becom- ing more amused by the moment.
"Well, just because it beats me having to deal with those bossy creatures." Chelsea laughed.
Grimacing, Liza watched the darkened scenery as they made their way to the out- skirts of Window Rock, following Cullen"s Super Cab pickup as he rode with Reever.
Klah and Steven rode behind them in Klah"s Land Rover.
Pulling into the driveway of the house, Liza restrained her sigh of relief before she and her housemates slid from the car. After 153/862.
Isabelle moved out to be with Malachi, their cousin Claire had decided to move in with them.
Of course, the men had to come in and check the house from one end to the other.
Liza wondered if they would do that for each other? She rather doubted it.
Actually, she knew they wouldn"t. h.e.l.l, someone had broken into Klah"s house the week the Breeds arrived and he hadn"t even called anyone until after he"d checked everything out himself.
But there was no telling them that she, Claire and Chelsea could take care of them- selves. They refused to hear it.
Did they actually believe she would lie?
When the search was completed and their good-byes were said, the four men finally left.
As the door closed behind them, Liza locked it with a snap then turned, crossed 154/862.
her arms beneath her b.r.e.a.s.t.s once again and faced her still-silent friends.
"Well?" she demanded when they said nothing.
Claire moved into the living room and turned on the television. She increased the volume enough that once they moved into the kitchen, nothing they said could be heard over the din of the television.
"I didn"t say anything about this in the car, but don"t you remember what Isabelle said about mating while she was in the hospital?"
Claire warned her somberly. "Did you let him kiss you while you two were on the dance floor?"
Liza"s gaze widened at the memory of what Isabelle had claimed a Breed"s kisses could do to a woman. "It had to be the drugs they had her on. Remember, she had a reaction to them?"
Isabelle had been half out of her mind from the pain after her near abduction by 155/862.
Holden Mayhew. Surely her warning that a Breed"s kiss was addictive and to watch out for mating had to be some far-fetched de- mentia caused by the drugs and amplified by her affection for her own Breed.
"Liza, she wasn"t joking," Claire a.s.sured her, her gaze searching as she moved nearer.
Chelsea moved in just as close, listening in rapt attention.
"You can"t be sure of that, Claire." Liza shook her head decisively. "There"s no proof."
Claire swallowed tightly and spoke before Chelsea could. "Not proof, exactly. But re- member when those Breed doctors arrived and took over her care?"
Liza nodded, as did Chelsea.
"I heard them talking when I slipped out- side for some air. One of the doctors told the other that they didn"t like her reaction to the drugs while she was in mating heat and that the mating hormone was reacting strangely."
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Liza stared back at the other woman in disbelief.