Drive Me Wild Read Free

out, not unless he worked in Hollywood and regularly appeared on the covers of national magazines.
    But now here Tess was, finding them to be absolute fact. If not shameful understatements.
    The only evidence she saw of this man’s bestial side was the animal magnetism she could feel rolling off him, even from fifty feet away. It made her fingers itch, her mouth dry out, and her—
    Well, she really didn’t want to think about what her other parts were doing.
    Focus, Tess. Focus.
    Dragging her eyes off the werecat’s butt—conveniently positioned toward her as he spoke with the figure in the doorway—Tess ordered her heart to slow down and her thighs to unclench so she could get back to the task at hand. She’d need all her faculties operational for this one. She could just feel it.
    Why does he have to be so gorgeous?
    She eased herself to her feet and hugged the side of the stairway, completely engulfed in the shadows. She would be a lot more relaxed about taking a message to the leader of the Council of Others if he were a short, ugly were-gopher instead of a take-me-now jungle beast of a heartthrob.
    Where’s the justice in the universe? she silently cried.
    No one answered.
    Great. Now even my own subconscious is ignoring me.
    She waited for him to wave farewell to the doorman and start off down the deserted street before easing from her hiding place and trailing after him in the shadows. She made it approximately three steps before she tripped over her own feet and went stumbling sideways into a trash can. Thankfully, it was plastic and not the old-fashioned metal kind. With that much noise, she might as well just have shouted his name.
    She felt kind of stupid following him like this—instead of walking right up to him, introducing herself, and taking care of business like a reasonable adult—but not stupid enough to change her approach. She told herself she was taking a few minutes to build up her courage before taking the plunge. She just wished she were naive enough to believe it.
    She would have to speak to him eventually, of course. It would be difficult to deliver the message otherwise. What she needed was an appropriate ice breaker.
    Okay, so how about, Excuse me, Mr. De Santos? I have some information you might be interested in.
    No. Too Jehovah’s Witness.
    Um … Hey, are you Rafael De Santos, the famous werejaguar and leader of the Council of Others?
    Nope. Too Bellevue escapee.
    Mr. De Santos, I come bearing an urgent message from the High Authority of the Witches’ Council.
    Ugh! Too sci-fi B movie.
    Hm, maybe, Mr. De Santos, my name is Tess Menzies, and I’m—oof!
    The “oof!” was never intended to be part of the speech, but it’s what burst out of her mouth when two hundred and some-odd pounds of male muscle barreled into her from the side and drove her deep into a service alley halfway down the street.
    Before she had time to yell Fire! —and she called herself a native New Yorker—she was pressed flat against the brick wall of one of the adjacent buildings with her hands yanked over her head and six feet of man pinning her in place.
    “Who are you, and why the hell have you been following me?”
    His growl rumbled through her with a menace she could feel down in her bones, and she knew instinctively that if he’d given her a full-fledged roar, she’d be fighting for control of her bladder right about now. Even so, his efforts would probably have made a normal person cry. The man had intimidation down to an art. He projected pure rage and menace, and the snarl he rumbled out right up against her face did manage to make her take a hearty gulp, but she rallied quickly and dealt with the situation the way she always did: She brazened through it.
    “Sheesh.” She managed to get it out without squeaking and congratulated herself. “If you usually come on to women this strongly, I have to wonder that you ever get a date.”
    What the hell are you doing? a voice inside her demanded.
    I