“What—” My voice caught in my throat as Paul pulled his turtleneck over his head, revealing a simple white undershirt underneath. I would like to say I wasn’t staring, but that would be a lie, and I was already doing enough of that, wasn’t I?
It wasn’t like the dude was a hulking MCU star like Thor or Captain America. He lacked all that extra bulk bodybuilders fought for. Instead, it was more like he was deliberately carved from stone, each muscle and tendon etched with artistic skill that took a lifetime to hone.
“How are you so in shape?” I asked, trying to play it off casually. I was also trying not to swallow hard. Look, I’d seen and interacted with plenty of extremely attractive people in my life, but there was just something about the wolf shifter that seemed so… so…
Compelling.
“I know it’s not just because you’re a wolf shifter. You guys have high caloric needs, but I’ve met a bear-wolf or two in my life.”
“Bear-wolf?” he asked. “Sounds like a contradiction, if you ask me.”
“Bear is gay slang, it means—” I cut myself off yet again. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”
He let out the driest chuckle I’d ever heard. “Potentially.”
“How do you know about bears?”
“The internet exists, Cherry.” Fuck, Ilikedthe way he said my name. This was only my second time hanging out with the guy, and we were on a murder case, but he was just so… so…so!He pinged my mind in all the right ways.
Don’t worry, eventually the other shoe will drop, and he won’t be so shiny.
True. That always happened eventually. Either I would get on his nerves with all mypeculiarities,or eventually I would see through things he didn’t want me to see through, and he’d drop me like a sack of stones.
Or he’s your customer and your contract with him will be over.That’s the goal of this, isn’t it?
Oh…right.
“Besides, I didn’t really hit my full growth spurt until I was halfway through college, and chasing my brother across every night club along the East Coast to try to get him back to his boarding school before he was suspended had a lot of people mistaking me for a twink. You’d be amazed what you learn when people make that assumption.”
The laugh I let out was loud enough to be antithetical to how stealthy we were trying to be. I slapped a hand over my mouth. “That’s wild,” I whispered once I had a handle on myself. “I can’t imagine you being a late bloomer.”
“Well, I was. Hit my first growth spurt around sixteen and shot up half a foot. I was a beanpole. At twenty, I grew another nine inches and put on weight.”
“Huh. But you never answered my question.”
“Hmm?”
“How you’re so fit.”
“Ah, that.” It was dark enough that I might have had trouble seeing the color that bloomed on his cheeks. Luckily, the bright, lilac mist that rose from the ground around him allowed me to see his abashment. “I use exercise as a form of meditation. I have a standing desk, a walking pad, and a home gym. Whenever everything starts to feel too helter-skelter, I either go for a wolf-run or work out.”
There was the slightest tinge of falsehood to his lilac glow, and I figured it was something subconscious, like he’d been spending more time working out than being a wolf. Although I didn’t really have any deep, personal relationships with shifters, I got the impression they were all proud of their inner animal and that it was shameful to neglect it.
Or maybe I was full of shit. Either way, I grinned, honored that he would share that with me.
“I know what you mean. Anytime I get too wound up, I usually try to create something.”
“Yeah,” he said with another nod. “That tracks.”
I really would have loved to just stay there and keep talking to him, but we had a mission. We stepped through the exit door, pulling it closed behind us.
For a split second, we were in a stereotypical hallway, one that would have been ubiquitous in any school or office. But then, after a few steps, the air in front of us rippled like a vertical pool of water.
I knew a portal when I saw one.
I stepped through it, and sure enough, we were transported to a space that was the complete opposite of where we had just been. There was no doorman demanding passwords. There wasn’t anyone at all. Just lots of stone and sconces casting blue light along the walls.
“Charming,” I remarked before striding forward.