Jennifer Ashley: Pride Mates

She felt the three exchange another wordless communication, and it irritated her. It reminded her of being eight years old and watching her two best friends whispering and giving her gleeful looks, not letting her in on the secret.

A cell phone vibrated on Liam's belt. He looked at the readout, and without a word gently lowered Kim's feet to the floor. He stood and walked to the kitchen, closing the door, shutting them out.

Kim felt cold without his warmth beside her, even in the July heat. "Anything you can tell me might help," she said to Sean and Sandra. "Right now I can only win this case by tearing holes in the prosecution, and there aren't many holes. I need something that will stick a fork in the case and shred it."

Sandra drank her coffee, her gaze moving from Kim to the windows. Kim caught a glimpse of her sadness as she looked away, her near despair.

She's resigning herself to losing her son, Kim realized . Sandra thought there was no hope. She'd already started grieving for him.

Sean was watching Kim with an assessing look. She still wasn't sure about him, or where the haunted feeling she got from him came from.

"I don't like to lose, Sandra," Kim said briskly. "I want to see Brian walk free and the real person pay for his crime. I won't let you down."

Sandra didn't answer. Sean nodded at Kim. "I'm sure you won't."

Liam strode back into the room. Kim realized that the other two had said very little while Liam had been gone. Had he signaled them not to? And why?

Liam took up his coffee cup without sitting down and took a long swallow. He looked over the rim at Sean, who came alert.

"Everything all right?" Kim asked. "Did you get bad news?"

Liam clicked his mug to the tray. "No, an errand Sean and I need to run. I appreciate you coming all the way out to Shiftertown, Kim Fraser, but now it's time for you to go."

"What's going on?" Kim demanded as she strode down the driveway with Liam. "I just get you talking, and suddenly you're throwing me out."

Liam looked down at the fuming woman next to him. Sunlight danced on her black hair, the afternoon warmth making her smell good.

He was finding her enticing, even when she was mad as hell. When he'd announced the interview was over, she'd jammed her shoes on her feet, said a sweet good-bye to Sandra, and stalked out. Now as they walked back down the driveway, she glared at him.

"Sandra was uncomfortable," he offered. "She's not easy around humans."

"And you? Are you comfortable around us?"

"Not really. But more than she and Sean are."

"Is that why you work at a bar?"

Liam shrugged. "Humans like to see Shifters in bars. It brings in business." She didn't need to know the real reason he worked there.

They'd reached the sidewalk in front of 445A. Kim swung to face him with hands planted on hips. "I'm trying to help . Why does Sandra believe Brian has no chance? I'm on the case."

Liam hid a smile. She was like a fox terrier determined to bring down a lion. He admired her balls, first in believing Brian's innocence, and second, for coming down to meet big, dangerous Shifters like him and Sean. She didn't realize how dangerous her pilgrimage was, and Liam wasn't going to tell her.

"And you on the case should be good enough?"

"I'm good, Mr. Morrissey. Michelle and her family will only get closure if the right guy goes down."

Liam lifted his hands. "I agree with you, love. It's not me you have to convince."

"Then why won't you tell me anything?" She regarded him with suspicion. "Something's going on. You and Sean know it. Sandra knows it. Hell, Brian knows it. I'm the only one in the dark. Help me out here."

Liam put his hands on her shoulders, and her blue eyes flickered with discomfort. Why did humans worry so much about touching? "We're grateful to you. You're the first human we've met who cares about Shifters. But you have to let me handle it from here."

If she didn't, Kim could die. Liam had already broken Fergus's rules by not placating her and sending her away at once, but Fergus could stuff it.

He couldn't tell Kim that he didn't know all that was going on, either. Sandra was hiding something, even from Liam, and it annoyed Liam that he didn't know what.

"You don't get it, do you?" Kim asked him. "I shouldn't have even come to talk to you, but I'm desperate. I have to be very careful about every point I have, so whatever you come up with will have to be checked and double-checked. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I can't."

Liam circled his thumbs on her shoulders. "Well, you will have to trust me, sweetheart."

A shiver went through her body. She wanted to be touched; he could feel it. She needed it. But she fought it. Humans.

She glanced at his hands. "Has anyone ever told you that you're not PC?"

"Why, because I enjoy touching your soft skin and call you sweetheart? Or because I won't let you have it your own way?"

"What was the phone call you took about?"

"Oh, now you're prying into my business, are you? It was personal. Do you have a boyfriend?"

She blinked. "Talk about personal."

"Do you?" Liam repeated. "Someone special in your life?"

Kim pursed her lips as though she had to think about it. "Yes, a boyfriend. Sort of."

"Aren't you sure, then?"

"We don't go out much. We're busy."

"That's a tragedy."

She bristled. "Why?"

Liam leaned toward her. She smelled nice, this human. He liked her hair, all silky and curly, and he wanted to bury his nose in it.

"If I had someone like you, love, I'd be with her all the time. I wouldn't want her out of my sight. And I definitely wouldn't let her run around Shiftertown by herself. What is this man thinking about?"

Kim looked annoyed. "He doesn't know I'm here."

"He needs to take better care of you."

Indignation now. "He doesn't need to take care of me at all. I'm my own person."

"Maybe." Liam leaned closer, feeling his eyes change as he inhaled her scent. "But when you're in Shiftertown, I take care of you. No one will bother you here, I promise you that. They'll answer to me."

"I doubt I'll come to Shiftertown again."

"Even so."

Liam slid his arms around her and drew her close. She resisted. He traced patterns on her lower back and rested his cheek on her hair until she softened a little. He was right; her hair was silky and warm.

Kim started to relax against him, her body reacting to his. He needed to protect her. He'd made that decision the minute she'd walked into his office, to protect her from all other Shifters, most of all the leader of his own clan. "Everything will be all right now."

"Why do I want to believe you?" She sounded skeptical.

She had a nice voice, low and contralto. He imagined her whispering to him as she lay next to him in bed. Her hair would tangle on his pillow, and wouldn't she be pretty? He could understand keeping his human form for lovemaking if the human was Kim Fraser.

He straightened up and brushed a curl from her face. "Give me your cell phone."

"What for?"

"So I can admire the fine technology a human woman can afford to buy." He held out his hand. "I want to give you my phone number. What did you think?"

Kim pulled her cell phone out of a pocket of her briefcase and handed it to him. The phone was fancy, as he'd suspected, with all kinds of buttons and extras. Shifters were allowed to have only old models, recycled, most of the features disabled. Not that some Shifters didn't futz with them on the sly.

Liam started punching buttons. "I'm programming in my private number. For you only. If you need something, you call me. Any time of the day or night."