My tigress chuffed inside me, alerting me to Dilip’s presence. Two women were already with him, stroking his body, whispering in his ears, and running their hands through his hair.

Aric was in a slightly elevated booth behind Dilip, his arm draped over a beautiful Asian woman with long perfect hair. He laughed at something she said. She giggled, too, and hooked her finger to slide between the buttons of his white dress shirt.

He didn’t react to her tease. Not like he would have if those were my fingers, my touch. He was playing a role.

It was time for me to play mine, too.

Chapter 10

I strutted toward them. The seating was perfect. Aric was right there if I needed him, and I needed him then for what I planned to do. I couldn’t seduce a stranger. Who was I kidding? But I could entice the male who made me scream and beg for more every time we made love.

The edges of my mouth lifted and my tigress growled approvingly. She wanted to lure Aric’s wolf to her and encouraged me to make my steps more provocative. Those in my path parted, watching me closely. I wasn’t sure if it was my tigress’s surging presence that warned them to stand clear or if they realized that the almost naked woman before them was up to something. Whatever it was, they made sure I had plenty of space to work and great access to Dilip.

My bedroom eyes flashed at Aric. Dilip straightened, believing my inviting stare was meant solely for him. I swiveled my hips as the music alternated to a deep, thumping bass—a sexy and highly suggestive beat, and exactly what I needed.

Aric hadn’t recognized me right away, too many scents trickling into his nose and too much dry ice masking his mate directly in front of him. He continued to laugh at whatever the woman was whispering in his ear. I smiled impishly when his attention trailed my way. His little friend might have been having fun with him, but it was time she saw who this wolf belonged to.

Aric did a double take when he saw me. For someone playing a role, he totally forgot his lines then. His eyes widened, his muscular shoulders tensed, and, and— Oh shit. He was pissed!

Instead of panicking, I continued to rhythmically move to the heavy beat, focusing on him. He removed his arm from his date and leaned forward as if ready to pounce. Our eyes locked. That’s when I knew I had him, and that at least for the moment, he knew this dance was solely for him.

I turned and rocked my somewhat bare ass, earning me a low growl from Aric, and Koda’s presence suddenly beside me. Koda yanked a pretty girl from the crowd and pulled her against his chest. She was meant as a prop—something to use so he could get close to me and not lose his cover. She didn’t take it as that. She only saw a really big, frighteningly beautiful man giving her attention. She hooked her leg over his knee and ground against his supersized body.

Koda followed her, but his attention stayed trained on me. I could sense his unease with how Aric’s wolf would respond, but I couldn’t show fear or hesitate then. I had Dilip’s attention, despite more aggressive attempts from his dates to wrench his focus away from me. I caught him smacking their hands away and yelling something I couldn’t understand while I continued to play and tease.

My arms and body swayed in serpentine movements. I swung my hips, moving them as if my thighs were fastened to Aric’s waist. Down toward the floor and back up. I danced, envisioning the darkness of our bedroom and him wrenching me toward him to meet my mouth with his.

The scent of his arousal flooded my senses and incited me to purr. I lowered my eyelids, his desire for me fueling my movements. My body ached as his aroma surrounded me and begged me to climb on top of him. Oh God. The fact that we’d barely had sex lately did nothing to tame my actions. I couldn’t do this much longer if I was going to stay on task.

I needed Aric. So I opened my eyes and tossed an invitation to bed with my stare.

At Dilip.

I turned fast enough to toss my hair behind me, hoping he didn’t catch the look of repulsion spreading across my face. If I hadn’t been so turned on by imagining making love to Aric, no way could I have pulled this off.

“Well done,” Agnes’s husky voice rang in my ear. “Oh yes. Well done indeed.”

“Is he coming?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

Lord, help me. “Dilip. Is he following me?”

“Oh. Right. He’s…” She swore. “No, but your mongrel is.”

I glanced behind me in time to see Shayna dive on top of the girl Koda was dancing with. Koda grabbed her around the waist, trying to rip Shayna off. Shayna held tight to the girl’s hair. Shayna was angry, vicious, and wild. Except that without some sort of handheld weapon in her grasp, my sister couldn’t fight. Seriously. She sucked.

She and the other girl bitch-slapped each other like the end of world hunger depended on it. I continued forward toward the bar where Bren was mixing drinks and laughing his ass off. In the mirror lining the ceiling I watched Koda lug Shayna away.

The banging of metal had me veering in Taran’s direction. Three very limp and bleeding humans were stuffed inside the cage Taran had been shaking her assets in. I caught a glimpse of Taran’s body draped over Gemini’s shoulder as he stormed toward the exit. She was kicking, she was screaming, and there was not a damn thing she could do to get free.

Bren was still laughing when he poured me a martini and slid it down the length of the bar. He stopped laughing when Emme flopped onto the stool beside me. “I can’t do this. Seriously, I’m not meant for this type of work,” she said. “Some guy—Buster Hyman—keeps following me around, asking me what I charge for blow jobs. I didn’t even know what to say. I just sort of laughed and ran away.”

Buster Hyman? Oh God. “Emme, it’s okay. Just stay close.”

She peered over her shoulder and ducked, totally panicking. “Good grief. Here comes Buster. What do I tell Buster?”

“That if he gets anywhere near you, I’ll rip his fucking head off,” Bren growled.

I don’t know what shocked me more just then, the ferocity in Bren’s tone or his inability to tear his eyes from Emme. She lifted her chin, her lips parting slightly as she met his face. The intensity in her expression told me either something had happened between them or something was about to.

Oh shit.

I lifted the martini and turned around. Now was not the time to deal with this. I needed to focus if we were going to survive this night. I took a sip of my drink as Aric approached. He wasn’t happy, especially when I ignored him to smile at Dilip. For a human, Dilip’s stare was extremely predatory. He beamed back at me, much like a cougar upon finding a plump rabbit.