Taming the Moon. Sherrill Quinn

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СКАЧАТЬ had more stamina wasn’t an issue. “Yes, and I can run faster, see clearer, hear things from greater distances.” He gave a growl of frustration. “I also nearly killed a man today. If my DC hadn’t caught up to us when he did—”

      “But he obviously did, otherwise you’d be sittin’ in a jail cell and not talkin’ to me on the phone.” Declan heaved a sigh. “Look, call me when you have your travel itinerary, and we’ll pick you up at the airport, okay? Until then…buck up. It’ll be all right.”

      “Hmm. Maybe.” Sully said good-bye, not waiting for Declan to respond, and closed his phone, disconnecting the call. He loosened and then pulled off his tie, tossing it onto a decorative table in the narrow entry hallway. Then he went upstairs to pack and try to begin coming to terms with his new life.

      Chapter 2

      Olivia prowled around the back yard of the swanky town house, taking particular care to be quiet so the werewolf inside wouldn’t hear her. She tried to find a way in and cursed under her breath at being thwarted. Damn. Cops were the same world-over. This guy’s place was buttoned up tighter than the White House.

      Or, since she was in London, maybe Buckingham Palace was a more appropriate analogy.

      She’d already lost almost twenty-four hours of her seven-day reprieve getting from New York to London and waiting outside New Scotland Yard for a glimpse of DCI Sullivan and the chance to follow him home. He’d finally come out, looking as pissed as hell and, interestingly enough, flagged down a taxi instead of driving off in an unmarked police car as she’d thought he’d do.

      She’d grabbed a taxi of her own and followed him, having the driver pull over a few houses up from where Sully got out. Thankfully Sully was so preoccupied with his current…predicament that he hadn’t noticed he’d been followed.

      When she had first gotten out of the taxi she’d seen him glance her way. She’d quickly turned so he wouldn’t see her face, her heart beating fast. Her citrus-based perfume would mask her scent, so he wouldn’t be able to smell her as another werewolf.

      She had to act like she belonged in the neighborhood, so she’d walked down the short sidewalk to a nearby town house as if it was hers—thankful no one poked their head out asking what she was about, loitering around their front door.

      While they were both outside, her enhanced werewolf hearing had allowed her to listen in on his phone conversation, even from three doors down. As soon as she’d heard him making plans to leave the country, she knew she had to act.

      If she didn’t get him now, she’d lose at least another day or two waiting to get him once he got to Arizona. She paused, peering into a downstairs window.

      It looked like some sort of home office. A big mahogany desk took up one side of the room, a comfy sofa on the wall facing it, and book-lined shelves made of the same dark-hued wood. She didn’t know much about Rory Sullivan, but she recognized that he had money.

      Hell, the fact that he lived in one of those old town houses made her think he had oodles of money. Probably old money, but who knew? There were a lot of nouveaux riches in the world these days, even with the uncertainties in the stock markets in the last couple years.

      God, what would her life have been like had she had this kind of money? Instead of living in a modest apartment in the Bronx, she and Zoe might have been living large in the East Village or Gramercy. At the very least, she probably wouldn’t have been turned into a werewolf, so anything different would be an improvement.

      Now’s not the time, Liv. She pushed away the feeling of despair at her current situation, remorse at what she was being forced to do—and, yes, jealousy at Sully’s good fortune—and focused once again on a way to get to him.

      Thirty minutes later she heaved a sigh of defeat. She could break in, but he’d hear her and be prepared for a fight. Before, when he was human, she would have been twice as strong as him. If she hadn’t been interrupted by O’Connell, the job would have been finished in the Isles of Scilly. Without the element of surprise on her side, she had a slim-to-none chance of defeating him.

      Now that he was a werewolf he was stronger and faster than her, so it would be better if she could avoid a fight. She couldn’t afford to be wounded—or worse. Zoe’s life depended on her mother murdering this man.

      An innocent man. A good man.

      Someone Olivia might have liked to have called “friend.”

      A light flicked on inside the study. Sully walked in, head down, brow furrowed. She caught her breath and moved to one side of the window, slowly so as to not draw his attention.

      My God, but he’s handsome. She swallowed and tried to control the primeval reaction of her body to the superior specimen of male. Over six feet of lean muscle, symmetrical features, and glittering green eyes took her breath away.

      She’d never been introduced to him, but she’d observed him while he was staying at that little bed and breakfast on the island of St. Mary’s.

      And she’d tasted his blood. His flesh.

      So on some level she felt she knew him.

      He was more than just his looks. He was a staunch defender of the innocent, and a man who saw things in black and white.

      She bit her lip. Wasn’t he going to be surprised at just how gray things in his life had gotten? Looking at the expression on his face, at the dispirited look in his eyes, she thought perhaps not. It seemed as though he may have already had a lesson or two.

      She could only hope he hadn’t yet mastered control of the wolf, for it was on his lack of control she had to pin her hopes of destroying him.

      Olivia blinked back tears. God in heaven, how had she gotten to a point where she was willing to take someone’s life?

      The answer was simple. It was all about Zoe.

      Olivia would do anything—anything—to protect her little girl. Even if it meant going against everything she believed in.

      But she had to do it smart. That meant not attacking him where he was comfortable, where the advantage was his. That meant getting him off on his own someplace where the chances of being interrupted again were slim.

      That meant she had to keep her focus on the task at hand and not on his body. Or his face. Or those big hands that, at the moment, were clenched at his sides.

      Big hands that she wouldn’t mind feeling on her skin.

      Stop it! She tried to ignore the frisson of arousal that tightened her core, made her clit throb with insistent heat. There was no future for them, of any sort. Because in under six days’ time, one way or another, he’d be dead.

      Or she would be. But then what would happen to Zoe?

      No, she couldn’t fail. It had to be Sullivan.

      So, what was she going to do? Sit in his back yard like a dog, or hop a plane and beat him back to the States?

      There was only one thing she could do. Wherever Rory Sullivan went, she would go, too.

      She began plotting her next moves. She would do a search on the Internet for Declan O’Connell’s address СКАЧАТЬ