Chase, Zara - Tigers' Temptation [Impulse 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

“Okay,” he said, forestalling her. “That’s about all there is to see. Philo and I are needed in the clinic. But if you wanna go back upstairs and settle in, we’ll see you in an hour and take you over to the Cat’s Whiskers.”

Chapter Four

“I thought you’d like some tea.”

“Oh, thank you. That was kind.” Layla recovered quickly from the shock of hearing the girl’s voice. She’d thought she was alone here in the guys’ apartment and hadn’t heard Melanie, the receptionist, walk up the stairs with a tray of tea and cookies. “Just what I could do with.”

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“Won’t you share it with me?”

“I’d like to, but I’ve left the front desk unattended.” She shrugged an apology. “I’d best get back to it.”

“Oh, must you? I was hoping you could tell me a bit more about this place.”

Melanie smiled. “I’m sure Mikael and Philo will answer any questions you have. They’re much better qualified to explain things than I am.”

“Yes, but you must know a lot about the Institute, too. How long have you worked here?”

“Two years.”

Layla wanted to scream with frustration. This was like pulling teeth. The tour Mikael and Philo had just given her appeared to include the entire facility, with the notable exception of the clinic, but she’d learned precisely nothing from it. Now she was being stonewalled by this well-meaning and obviously very loyal receptionist. Something was definitely going on here that they didn’t want her to know about.

“Mikael and Philo and very dedicated to their work,” Melanie said, the first information she’d volunteered since appearing with the tea tray. “They might seem a bit distant, especially Mikael, but it’s nothing personal.”

And with that Melanie left as silently as she’d arrived. Layla threw herself into a chair, wondering how a woman who weighed a good bit more than Layla did could move so softly. Mikael and Philo were the same. They must each have had at least fifty pounds on her but moved with lithe muscle and graceful coordination, almost as though their feet didn’t touch the ground.

“Must be this weird atmosphere,” she said aloud.

Layla poured herself a cup of tea, defiantly eating three cookies in quick succession. She’d skipped lunch so that made it okay, didn’t it? She closed her eyes as the creamy, buttery snack exploded on her taste buds. They were heavenly and tasted as though they were fresh from the oven. Someone around these parts knew a thing or two about baking.

Layla tucked her legs beneath her in the commodious armchair she’d fallen into, balanced her cup on its arm, and thought about her roller coaster of a day. Mikael and Philo were the answer to every girl’s wildest fantasy, and she was still blown away by the sight of the two of them together. No wonder they engendered such loyalty in their employees. Philo with that creamy hair which so fascinated her, his piercing blue eyes, and laid-back attitude. What a hunk!

Same went for Mikael. He, too, had the weirdest hair she’d ever seen—what looked like a combination of brown, blond, black, and orange strips tied back in a ponytail. It probably cleared his shoulders when loose. When walking behind him as they toured the facility, she’d been filled with an irrational desire to pull the band from it and run her hands through its thickness. She had far graver matters to concern herself with than a handsome guy’s hair, but the urge to sink her fingers into his crowning glory didn’t seem to be going anywhere, even now when they were no longer in the same room.

Unfortunately, she was unlikely to live out her fantasy since Mikael didn’t like her. That much was obvious from his near-perpetual scowl and reluctance to answer her questions in anything other than the most general terms. Was it her, or did he just resent the intrusion? It was hard to tell. He gave little of himself away and she was having trouble getting a handle on him.

As she recalled the cute cleft in his chin, her thoughts spun off on yet another wild tangent. This time she was running her tongue down that cleft, tasting his salty skin, breathing in his musky scent, getting an up-close and personal feel for the man behind the polite facade. Layla figured she must be more tired and overwrought than she’d realized. She met a lot of good-looking men in her line of work but had never gotten sidetracked into fantasizing about them before now.

Still, since she was on a roll, she visualized the way his eyes had crinkled at the corners on the rare occasions when he cracked a smile. That was something else that was unusual about him. His eyes were a deep shade of amber with circular pupils and yellow irises. Layla had never seen anything quite like it before, and she was fascinated by them. When he focused them on her face, it was as though he could see inside her head and read her thoughts. That prospect ought to have freaked her out, given the jamboree of issues rattling about inside her brain right now. Strangely, it was almost comforting. Mikael might not like her—he certainly didn’t trust her motives—but she felt a weird sense of belonging right here in this odd little town with these two Adonises.

Layla gave herself a mental shake. She must be more concerned about Amy than she’d realized. Her daughter was sick, living on borrowed time, and the temptation to phone and see how she was doing was compelling, but she resisted it. Besides, the kids would be out for the day, enjoying the park, and she’d have heard by now if anything had gone wrong.

She drained her cup and stood up. It was time to stop acting like a lovesick teenager and find a few answers. There was more to Doctor Chatrier than just a pretty face, a hell of a lot he wasn’t telling her, and Layla liked nothing better than a tough challenge. She extracted her laptop from her bag and fired it up.

“He went to school at Yale, did he? Hmm.”

Layla pulled up the appropriate site and trawled back twenty years. Mikael couldn’t be more than thirty-five and yet there was no mention of his graduating Yale Medical School in the last twenty years. Even if he was a child genius, he couldn’t have graduated before that. She sat back, tapped her pen against her teeth, and thought it through. Mikael had lied to her about his medical qualifications.

So what else had he lied about?

* * * *

“I’ve called a few of the guys over,” Mikael told Philo as they headed for the conference room at the back of the clinic. “We need to talk about this.”

“I guess we do. Who’s coming?”

“Rafe and Vilas. As leaders of the colony, they need to be aware that Layla’s turned up asking questions. And Vadim and Zayd. Security’s their responsibility.”

They reached the conference room. Philo closed the door behind them and pulled Mikael into his arms. He kissed him with passion and Mikael responded with enthusiasm, just like he always did. He groaned when Philo’s hands found his ass and dug themselves into the fleshy mounds of his butt, pulling him even closer and causing his erection to clash with Philo’s.

“I know how you feel about journalists, lover,” Philo said when he broke the kiss, “but they’re not all bad.”

Mikael shook his head, wondering how Philo could be so naïve. “Are you really telling me that any journalist who finds out what we actually do here would be content to sit on that information?”

“She might, because she’s the mate we’ve been waiting for. You know it as well as I do. You’re just not ready to admit it yet.”

“We don’t know anything about her.”

Philo grinned. “We know what we need to know.”

“You’re thinking with your penis again.”

Philo blew him a kiss. “You don’t usually mind.”

“Grow up, Philo. This could hurt Impulse as a whole, not just our work.”

“We won’t have our work for much longer if we don’t find a human mate. We both know that our powers are at an all-time low.”

“True, but you’re rushing ahead here.”

“No I’m not,” Philo countered, sounding serious for once. “And you know it.”

Rafe and Vilas joined them, bringing the disagreement to a premature end. Vadim and Zayd were close on their heels.

“Thanks for coming, guys,” Mikael said. “We have a problem.”

“A very attractive problem,” Philo added, earning a scowl from Mikael.

Mikael explained what had happened.

“Philo thinks she’s destined to be our mate,” Mikael said.

“What do you think?” Rafe asked.

“That she’s a journalist, so she can’t be trusted.”

“I don’t know how that kid left with the snow globe,” Vadim said, frowning. “Sorry about that.”

“You four are getting weak,” Rafe said. “Slipups are bound to happen. We’ve always known that.”

“No need to look so smug,” Philo complained. “Just ’cause you and Vilas are mated and have your powers back.”

Vilas grinned. “Trust me, brothers, when you find the right mate, you’ll know it.”

“Weakened powers equate to mistakes being made,” Rafe said, extending a claw and scratching the back of his neck with it. “There’s no getting around that.”

“You think I brought you over here to tell me something I know only too well?” Mikael growled. “I’m not gonna risk telling a journalist what we do here in the hope that she might be
the one
, no matter how depleted my powers are.”

“What do we know about her?” Vilas asked.

“I did an Internet search,” Philo replied. “She was taken on by a leading Boston paper straight out of college, worked her way through all the menial jobs, and eventually got her own column. Then she quit that paper about six years ago and went freelance."

“Why?”

“No idea.” Philo frowned. “Can’t find anything about her personal life. I figure her name must be a professional one. All I could find was an interview with her old paper just before she left it. She wasn’t married then, and doesn’t wear a ring now. Her mother was still alive six years ago, but she claimed that was the only family she had.”

“Hmm.” Rafe looked concerned.

“Are you thinking our enemies sent her here?” Zayd asked.

“No.” Mikael shook his head. “If they sent someone to distract Philo and me, it wouldn’t be a journalist. They wouldn’t need to delve too far inside my head to discover how I feel about that profession.”

“Even so,” Rafe said, arching his back and draping one leg negligently over the side of his chair, “we’re overdue another attack.”

“It won’t be the lions,” Vadim said. “They’re still regrouping after our last scrap with them. Haven’t heard that they’ve even gotten a new alpha yet.”

“The bears have been quiet for a while,” Zayd pointed out.

“Whatever. We’ll increase security, Rafe, just in case.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t hurt. See if you can pick up anything on the thought waves, as well. If another attack is imminent, someone somewhere will know about it.”

“We still haven’t decided what to do with the lovely Layla,” Philo said. “I know what I’d like to do with her, but my buddy here has issues with that approach.”

“Asshole!” Mikael muttered.

“I’d suggest you let Layla hang about for a bit longer,” Rafe said. “Bring her across to the Cat’s Whiskers
tonight and let her meet some of the others. I’ll send out a pheromone so everyone knows to toe the line.”

“I couldn’t send her away if I wanted to,” Mikael complained. “Not yet, at least. She’d only poke around on her own if I did. Besides, Philo would probably never speak to me again.”

“Wouldn’t fuck you either,” Philo said, blowing Mikael a kiss.

Everyone laughed.

Zayd nodded like he understood. “That threat always works for me when Vadim gets out of line.”