Natural Consequences by Elliott Kay Read Free Book Online

safe bet that you would laugh once the truth came out. We’ve both had our fun.”
    “Wow,” he huffed, shaking his head. “You plan to do this to me often? Pretend to be other women to seduce me?”
    “ You seduced ‘Cindy,’ love, not the other way around,” Lorelei reminded him with a soft smile, “much to my delight. You’ve held back on other opportunities these last few weeks. I enjoyed creating at least one exception. And I’ll only continue such games if you continue to enjoy them. But maintaining the façade seemed trite compared to the cares on your face,” she finished, touching his cheek with her fingertips. “What troubles you? What happened?”
    Shifting topics required a little effort, but Alex pushed the issue of “Cindy” out of his mind. “I got jumped by a werewolf today while leaving work. After I got fired.”
    Lorelei’s expression turned grave. She led him from the bar stool over to the living room couch. “Was it the same woman from our abduction?”
    “Yeah,” Alex sighed. “Diana. S he showed up in the parking lot and said she’d been looking for me, that we’re meant to be together. Building security had a dude there to give me the boot, and I wound up having to protect him from her. Between her attacking the guard and us smashing up a couple cars, I’ll be lucky if I don’t hear from the cops.”
    “Was she alone?”
    “Far as I know. I just bought time for the guard to bail and then I took off.”
    “Did you come directly home?”
    “No. She said she doesn’t know where I live. I rode across the lake and back.”
    “Good,” Lorelei nodded. “Why didn’t you call me right away?”
    “Pain in the ass finding a pay phone in this town to begin with, but I didn’t know the number at the conservatory, anyway. I went by, but the lady at the desk said your meeting had broken up for drinks or something.”
    “You could have called my cell.”
    “Your which?”
    “My cell phone?”
    “What’s a—?” Alex blinked. Then he remembered. Oh God , he thought. How can I be remembering what a cell phone is? It’s right in my jacket pocket. He looked over to the countertop and the newspaper want ads. Why didn’t I just go online to look for jobs?
    Lorelei caught it, too. Her expression changed. Alex saw her concern. “What’s wrong with me?” he asked.
    Her hand came to his cheek again. “I have my suspicions. Put it aside, love ,” she said, allaying his rush of concern with a measure of supernatural suggestion. “Focus on the matter at hand for now.”
    Alex shook his head. “She said she went looking for me at my old address, Lorelei. Mom’s in New York right now, but what if Diana finds her new place?”
    “Do not worry about others,” Lorelei said with a shake of her head. “She is fixated on you. Proxies would only be in danger once she has you in her control. The werewolves are quite dangerous. Only a fool would face one alone. Flight was the wisest course of action.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Is she attractive?”
    “ She’s pretty, yeah,“ he shrugged.
    “Alex, as encouraging as I am of whatever trysts you might wish, this one—”
    “Hey, no. She’s pretty, but I’m not attracted to her. I do not want to go there. The whole thing freaked me out.”
    “Ah. I felt whatever moment of sensuality and pleasure you had earlier. It did not seem familiar to me. I thought it might be her.”
    “No,” Alex sighed. “That was Olivia trying to play sexual harassment training video with me. I didn’t play along, so she fired me on the spot. She fired Stephanie while I was at lunch, too, because Susan didn’t like us flirting. Someone else who couldn’t keep her hands off me,” he added sourly.
    His words elicited only the tiniest flinch. He saw it in her eyes and in the tension in her jaw. Beyond that, everything about her remained placid. Were they not so close, he doubted he would’ve noticed. “You blame me for this,” she