Beauty Dates the Beast by Jessica Sims Page B

rather than my five-foot-ten self. It was pretty close to heaven.
    “The intruder?” I asked. “No one who knows Sara wants to kill her.”
    It was all those wolves that
didn’t
know her that were the problem.
    I could feel his warm breath against my ear and neck. “Any ex-boyfriends or angry lovers?”
    I was silent. The only ex-boyfriend she had was a dead one.
    I knew he was dead because I’d shot him.
    “No angry lovers,” I said. “Sara’s not seeing anyone. Do you think she was the target?”
    I could feel his chest moving with every breath. His hand slid off my arm and down my waist, then across the cradle of my hips in a very intimate embrace. “Would someone be after you, then?”
    He was making it damn hard to concentrate. I struggled to gather my thoughts and shook my head. “Not unless I’ve pissed off the bookkeeping mafia. We’re dangerous people, you know.”
    “Shhh. Keep your voice down,” he said, then bit my earlobe gently.
    That playful caress made my entire body flare, and I flexed my hips back against his instinctively. A small whimper rose in my throat.
    I heard his groan in my ear, and his spread hand flexed across my belly. “Did you like that?” he murmured, and repeated the action. His teeth scored against the edge of my earlobe, and I felt his tongue flick against my earring. “Shall I tell you how sexy you look wearing nothing but my pajamas?” Nip, nip.
    Dear God, this was the best thing I’d ever felt. Why in the world was I still a virgin? My hand covered his, my fingers pulsing in time with his, kneading the flesh of my stomach as well. I felt his cock against my backside, hard and obvious, and began to entertain some very naughty thoughts.
    But I couldn’t. I removed his hand from my belly and could have wept. “I’m not going to sleep with you, Beau.”
    He chuckled as I tried to move my head. He was lying on my still-damp hair. “Who says we have to sleep?”
    I jerked on my hair and he moved, leaning over me instead of next to me. His breath fanned across my neck. Though I was free now, I made no attempt to move, excited and quivering. What would he do?
    To my surprise, Beau leaned over me and bitmy collarbone. Too low to be a vampire bite at the carotid, but I felt the definite scrape of teeth at the base of my neck, and then the sensual slide of his tongue over my flesh.
    It felt so good that I wasn’t able to contain my moan of pleasure, and when his tongue stroked over the sensitive spot again, my hand twined in his hair to hold him in place, encouraging him to do it again. With every stroke of his tongue, a whimper of enjoyment slid from my throat.
    “Shhh,” he whispered against my ear before nibbling at it again. “You’re going to wake up the neighbors.”
    Through the wall, I could hear Sara fake-snore loudly.
    I froze.
    What was I
doing
? I wanted to thank Sara for the obvious reminder, and smack her on the head for interrupting. As smoking-hot as Beau was, he was a shifter, and off-limits in more ways than he could imagine. He also just wanted someone to slake his needs while he was in heat.
    My sister was probably scarred for life, listening to me make out with Beau. My hand went to his face and I pushed him away. I felt Beau’s snort of amusement against my fingers, but he took the hint and backed off, returning to his side of the bed.
    There, he grabbed my hand, then pressed a kiss to my palm. “We’ll talk in the morning, Bathsheba. Get some sleep.”
    “Good night,” I whispered back. I lay there, awake and breathing hard for long minutes. My body still thrummed and my legs felt curiously liquid. Just from a nip or two at the neck and ear.
    I fell asleep picturing myself and Beau in some naughty situations, hoping I wouldn’t say his name in my sleep.

Chapter Four
     
    W hen I awoke and squinted at the sunlight streaming in through the window, Beau’s side of the bed was cold and he was gone. A note sat on a nearby stack of clothing,