Page 54 of Tempted By Blood

“Who the fuck are you? What are you doing here?”

“I’m here for Leni.”

“The fuck you are! Back away from the door. I won’t ask again.” I stepped back, raising my weapon.

“Put it down.” I whirled around to find a still towel-clad Leni, phone in hand, and a broad smile on her face.

“Leni, what are you—”

She charged by, unlocking and throwing open the door before jumping into his waiting arms in the next second.

Hot, murderous heat ignited in my chest as this man held her almost intimately, as if they were old friends…or lovers. They probably were, as far as I knew. I could feel my expression pinching into one of rage. I didn’t recognize the feeling that was suddenly hollowing out my insides.

Jealousy?

“You told me you wouldn’t be able to come.”

Why was her voice so chipper?

The bastard shrugged. “I was in the area and decided to drop by.”

She laughed, standing on the very tips of her toes, arms still behind the man’s neck.

“In the area, huh?” she laughed, squeezing him into another hug. I clenched my teeth when my eyes fell on the splayed hand he held against the small of her back, just above her ass.Myass.

How well would he be able to hug her if I cut it off?

“Come on,” she said, pulling him inside and twisting to face me, an arm still around his middle.

“Silas, this is Kai.”

Twenty-Three

LENI

Kai gave Silas a nod, but my brooding associate-slash-fuck-buddy didn’t acknowledge him apart from fleeting glances. His eyes were on me, boring a hole damn near into my soul, muscles so tight that he looked like he would combust at any second.

“Helena,” he said through his teeth as he reached for my arm and pulled me flush to his chest. “Thought I told you to get dressed.”

We engaged in a silent staring contest through three of his heavy breaths before I levered up to his ear.

“What you tell me to do and what I choose to do are two separate things.”

His jaw ticked. And the hand around my elbow tightened.

“Is there a problem?” I turned around at the sound of Kai’s voice. He leaned casually against an entryway table, his hardened gaze set on Silas. It was one of the qualities I loved most about him. He knew when to intervene and when I could take care of myself.

Kai was everything Derek wasn’t in all the best ways. He knew when to get shit done by any means necessary, but also how to function in a world with other humans and maintain an inconspicuous existence. Derek was just a dick whose humanity, loyalty, and love extended only to Eva—that poor soul—and Kai.

“Not at all,” I said, my hand on Silas’s cheek, pinning him with a cautionary glare. “You just caught us in the middle of…a discussion. I’ll go slip into something a little less naked and be right back.”

Telling Silas to play nice was pointless because I knew he’d follow the moment I started for the bedroom—and I was right.

“What do you think you’re doing? Who is that? And why are you so comfortable walking around like that in front of him?”

“Because he’s seen me naked, Silas. We’ve had sex,” I confessed, uninterested in keeping secrets.

Kai and I met eight years ago on a partnered assignment in New York City and immediately hit it off. Neither of us was the type to beat around the bush; we became partners with benefits.