The Darkest Kiss by Keri Arthur Read Free Book Online Page B

the drawer and slammed it shut. “Don’t take it personally. I’m not going out with anyone at the moment.”
    “You’re a wolf. That’s a physical impossibility.”
    “Obviously, I’m not talking about the moon heat.” I stepped around him and walked to the closet. Opening the doors revealed that Denny’s neatness continued here. His clothes were all stacked via type and color.
    “And I’m not talking about sex,” Ben said. “Just coffee and a chat. Nothing more, nothing less.”
    I cast him a look over my shoulder, a smile twitching my lips. “I’m not believing that for a moment. You, wolf man, have loving on your mind.”
    “I can control my mind. And I don’t do sex on first dates.”
    I just about choked on my disbelief. “Yeah. Right. Must have made being a stripper hard, then.”
    He waved a hand. “Stripping is different. So is sex for the need of it. Outside of work and the moon heat—or maybe even because of them—I prefer to take things slower. Get to know the girl before I fuck her.”
    Then he was a rare man in wolf ranks. I shut the wardrobe door. “How about we do the coffee-and-chat thing while asking if this Jilli actually knows anything, and see what happens from there?”
    He studied me for a moment, then nodded. “Though I have to admit, I am curious about this sudden turn-about in your behavior. Last time we met, you were not so reluctant.”
    “Last time we met, I wouldn’t have acted on my impulses, either. No matter how fierce the desire.”
    He nodded. “I saw that. I can also see that the reason here is different. It is a puzzle I shall have to solve.”
    “Try too hard and there’s no coffee. I’m not in the mood to be psychoanalyzed right now.”
    I walked around to the hook. The vampire scent was strongest here, which did suggest he might have been involved in Denny’s death. “Why would someone want to kill Denny?”
    “I don’t know. He wasn’t the type to have enemies.”
    Everyone had enemies, even the nicest of people. My gaze went to the thick metal hook. I just couldn’t imagine someone willingly tying a rope around his neck and cutting off his oxygen almost to the point of death just to get his rocks off. But then, I couldn’t ever imagine finding joy in being beaten so badly the flesh on my back hung in raw strips. Yet I’d seen that done, and had felt the sheer and utter pleasure the women had gotten from it.
    To each his own, I suppose.
    But even here, the point where he had died, there was no feeling of energy. No sense of the dead coming back. Denny had obviously moved on to the next level in his life.
    I stepped around the dried bloodstain and checked the bedside table on this side, but there was nothing more enlightening than socks. I faced Ben again. “There’s really nothing more I can do here at the moment. I’ll need to read the police report and talk to his girlfriend before I can decide what to do next.”
    If there was anything that could be done next.
    Ben looked at his watch. “Jilli does the day shift, so I doubt we’ll catch her there now.”
    “Well, great, because I actually do have a job to do. Phone her, and make an appointment for tomorrow.” I reached into my purse and took out a business card and a pen. After scrawling my cell phone number onto the back of it, I handed it across. “Ring me when you get a meeting time.”
    He glanced at the number then shoved it into his back pocket. “Thanks for coming out, Riley. I really do appreciate it.”
    I waved his thanks away. “As I said, it may yet turn out that there’s nothing I can do.”
    “But you tried. More than the cops are doing, I fear.”
    There was no point in answering, simply because he was right. The cops wouldn’t be chasing a BDSM session gone wrong as hard as they would a straight-out murder. It was a simple fact of policing life that priorities had to be given.
    We left the apartment and rattled down the stairs. A couple of older men were near Ben’s