03 - You Only Live Nine Times by E A Price Read Free Book Online

didn’t say she wasn’t interested in getting to know him.  Mating was a big no-no.  But casual sex… that was a whole other kettle of fish.  She wasn’t into the whole biting and making a guy hers forever, but that didn’t preclude a little nibbling.
    If she played her cards right, the two of them could work very closely together on this case.  Just because she didn’t want to keep him, it was no reason why she couldn’t enjoy his company.  No reason at all.
     

Chapter Four
    “Damn, Raf, you look like shit.”
    “Thanks, Barnes,” snapped Raf.  Barnes looked like the cat who ate the fucking canary.  He really didn’t want to visualize what he might have been eating last night.  Dickwad .
    It had not been a good night for Raf.  Or rather, it had been a good night – too good – but it had been a sleepless night.  He had been plagued by visions of a fiery-haired tiger shifter doing unspeakably saucy things to his body all night.  He’d never known himself to get so hard so many times in one night.  But, by the gods, he’d never met a woman who turned him on half as much as Isis Martin.  Alternately flirty, scary, angry and pouty – she left him breathless and had his arousal hard enough to pound freaking nails.  It had to be her; she was doing something to him – did tigers give off pheromones?  Because the way he was feeling, the inability to think straight in her presence was not normal.
    Raf slumped into his chair and closed his eyes.  Lo and behold a vision of the redheaded temptress came to mind.  Her eyes sparkled with the yellow of her animal while her wicked, red lips curled upwards.  He gripped the edge of his desk as the memory of her curves under his touch made him shudder.  What he wouldn’t give to have that sinful mouth wrapped around his…
    “Raf, you okay?” asked a cool voice.  “You’re sweating.”
    He opened his eyes to peer at Detective Ethan Miller.  The interest in the other detective’s face told him that he was kind of hoping it might be a coronary or something else equally unpleasant. 
    “I’m fine.  Long night.”
    Ethan nodded.  “You know, not everyone’s cut out for this job.  The stress can cause all sorts of problems with marriages…”
    “I’m not married.”
    “And health problems…”
    “I’m in perfect health.”
    Ethan gave him a patronizing look that pretended to be concerned.  “I’m just saying that maybe you should take it easy.  It’s so easy to burn out.”
    Raf scowled.  “Jeez, the way you’re talking, you think I’ll be dead by Friday.”
    “Well, at least if you do die, the department will pay for your funeral.  At least that won’t be a burden on your family.”
    “Yes, I imagine that’s a load off his mind,” purred an achingly familiar voice.
    Awareness flooded Raf’s body seconds before the owner of the silken voice came into view.  She tossed her flaming red hair over her shoulder as her eyes scanned up and down Ethan’s slight frame.  Her upper lip curled into a sneer as she placed her hands on her shapely hips.  Raf clamped his mouth shut to stop himself from drooling.  She looked fantastic the night before when wet and cold.  But, now, she looked like she’d just stepped off the elevator from Mount Olympus.  She was tall and slim, yet she rocked an hourglass figure and her skin was starkly pale against the brightness of her lips and hair.  Her eyes though, the ever changing mixture of yellow and green were at turns dazzling and intense.  She was dressed simply in a pair of black pants, kitten heel boots and a red shirt.  But damn, did she shine brighter than a thousand suns compared to the shlubby guys in his precinct.
    He was too caught up in her to notice that everything was quiet – startlingly quiet .  Everyone – all the cops, all the witnesses and all the perps alike – had stopped what they were doing to look at this incredible exotic creature.  It was like a – well, a