FUR FOR ALL, Book 5 in FIXED Read Free

someone’s trashcan. 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 just walking right up to him, introducing herself and taking care of business like a reasonable adult, but not stupid enough to change anything. She told herself she was just taking a few minutes to build up her courage before taking the plunge. She just wished she were naïve enough to believe it.
    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 wereleopard and leader of the Council of Others?” Nope. Too Bellevue escapee .
    “Mr. De Santos, I come bearing an urgent message from the High Priest of the Witches’ Council.” Ugh! Too sci-fi B movie .
    12

    Fixed 5: Fur For All
    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, “Hey!” —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 pressed 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 have absolutely no idea , she answered.
    He snarled again. Lower this time. More menacing. “I said, who the hell are you?”
    “I heard you.” She swallowed a knot of fear and lifted her chin. “I just didn’t think it was any of your business.”
    His expression, which she could see clearly given its current location about a nanometer away from hers—he had really great skin, she noticed, all smooth and even and bronze—turned incredulous.
    13

    Christine Warren
    “Pardon me? Unless I’m very much mistaken—and I know I’m not—you’ve been tailing me for three blocks. That makes your name, rank, serial number and intention very much my business.”
    She grinned and watched his golden eyes blaze. “My name’s Tess, my rank is absolutely nothing, I’m horrible with numbers and my intentions are a little too complicated to explain to you in a dark alley. Plus, I generally talk with my hands, and you’re currently making that a wee bit difficult.” He snarled. “I have no time for smart-aleck retorts. Why are you following me?”
    She blinked up at him with wide blue eyes that generally made men smile at her indulgently and tell her to let them handle things and not worry her pretty little head over it. “Well, I thought that would be obvious. I wanted to know where you’re going.”
    He ignored the eyes. How could he ignore the eyes ?
    “Not good enough. Explain. Now.”
    Tess blinked, her mouth curving into a backup-plan pout. “That’s the truth. I wanted to know where you were going. You know, for someone with such a reputation for being a ladies’ man, you could use a