“That very much depends,” he said, a wicked gleam in his eye as he glanced at me, “on the lady standing beside me.”

“Short-term,” I said, trying to keep a straight face but not really succeeding. “I’m not sure if he’s worth keeping just yet.”

He laughed. The sound echoed around the room, warm and inviting. “Oh trust me, I do intend to prove my worth.”

Harriet ordered a short-term pass, then said, “He’ll have to register his print with us, as per the rules.”

“No problem,” Lucian said, giving her a smile with enough wattage to short-circuit half the city. “Just show me where.”

Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink and the scent of arousal swirled—the first overtly sexual reaction I’d seen out of her in all the time I’d been coming here.

She pointed to the small screen to her right. “Just place your hand here please, Mr. Dupont.”

“My pleasure,” he murmured, voice low and seductive.

I rolled my eyes—an action he caught, because he rewarded me with another of those high-wattage smiles. Only this time, it was accompanied by a sparkle in his eyes that somehow suggested his pleasure would soon be mine.

The scent of arousal surged, and this time it was mine.

“Thank you, Mr. Dupont,” she said once his prints had been scanned and recorded, then waved an elegant hand to another door. “Now, if you’ll both just go through the next door, Katie will escort you upstairs.”

The door silently slid open as we approached and, beyond it, another blonde waited.

“Ms. Jones,” she said. “Lovely to see you back again. And Mr. Dupont, welcome. I hope you enjoy your time here.”

“Oh, I’m sure I will,” he said, glancing at me with a smile.

“If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you up to the main dance area.”

She turned and led the way up the long hallway that was all cream-and-gold elegance. It wasn’t trying to be sexy, just warm and sophisticated, and in that it succeeded. There were doors to the left and the right, and they all led into private dining rooms. I’d never used them myself, but I knew there was a mix of styles, from bohemian and medieval to ordinary, six-star dining.

“No cameras,” Lucian murmured. “Isn’t that a little unusual in an establishment that caters to a certain type of clientele?”

“Oh, the cameras are there,” Katie answered, before I could. “We have the latest systems installed, be it infrared, heat-activated, or motion, and everything that happens in this establishment is recorded.”

“Everything?” he said.

“Of course.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “It protects both our clients and ourselves. But the recordings are scrambled on multiple levels. Without the proper code, they would be useless to anyone.”

A gold-and-glass staircase came into view, sweeping up toward two heavily carved oak doors. A grand entrance to a discreet but beautiful dance floor.

We climbed the stairs. At the top, Katie swiped her pass through the slot, then leaned toward the iris scanner. Once that had been checked, one of the massive doors clicked open. She grabbed the handle and opened it wider.

“Have a good time, Ms. Jones and Mr. Dupont.”

We walked through the doors. The room was bright, lit by the sunshine filtering in through the glass-and-steel ceiling that soared high above us. Like the glass in our warehouse, the ceiling was electrochromic, so it could be darkened to cut much of the heat, and it was also one-way. The many buildings that looked down on us couldn’t actually see anything. The room itself was large, and had kept the industrial feel of its origins. The old brick walls were a feature, and industrial artwork and old bits of machinery decorated the walls. The dance floor dominated, but the old cobblestones were covered by a clear plastic mix that smoothed the stones and provided a nonslip surface. Private rooms lined the west wall, and a large bar dominated the rear of the room. The changing rooms were located on the right.

Music swirled around us, heavy and melodic, filling the room with its sensual and erotic beat. The dance floor was packed, the lunchtime crowd obviously staying late today. My nostrils flared, taking in the rich aroma of lust and sex as I allowed the ambience of the room to soak through my pores, into my very bones. An answering tremor of excitement coursed through me. I loved this place. It had always been something of a refuge for me—a safe retreat in a world that seemed intermittently to go mad.

“This is very civilized,” Lucian said, his green eyes holding an unearthly glitter in the brightness of the room. “And totally different in feel from the other clubs I’ve been to.”

“It feels the same once you’re on the dance floor,” I said, then pointed. “Your changing room is over there. I’ll meet you out on the dance floor.”

“Don’t start without me.”

I grinned. “If you’re not there on time, I most certainly will.”

He laughed and strolled casually toward the men’s changing room. I headed for the ladies’, storing my clothes, keys, and purse in a locker before scanning in my prints to lock it and then heading back out.

I paused on the steps heading down to the main floor, looking for any sign of Lucian. There was a sea of brown and black hair out there, interspersed with red, but no gold. He hadn’t come out of the changing rooms yet.

Grinning, I headed down. Closer to the dance floor, the sensual beat of the music was accompanied by grunts of pleasure and the slap of flesh against flesh. Desire quickened and my breath caught. I should have come here sooner. Zane might be a safe and passionate partner, but there were plenty of others here willing—and more than able—to fulfill my need.

I began making my way into the crowd. The press of flesh made my skin tingle with excitement, and my already erratic heart raced that much harder. I danced, I flirted, and I quickly caught the attention of a brown wolf—a big-shouldered, hard-bodied man a few inches taller than myself.

We danced, and while it was both playful and sensual, it was also very much an erotic foreplay. We teased each other, sharing caresses, kisses, pressing our bodies close and enjoying the slide of flesh against flesh.

I sensed Lucian before I saw him. The heat of him wrapped around me—a touch more electric than the caresses of the brown wolf. Then his hands slid around my waist and he cupped my br**sts, his touch teasing, playful. He pressed me back against him, his body like steel against my spine, his erection pressing teasingly between the cheeks of my rear. Little flash fires of desire skittered across my already overheated skin, and I half expected him to herd me away from the wolf. Instead, he pressed me closer, until I was the meat inside a sandwich of two sexy, hard-muscled men.

And oh, it was good.

We continued to dance, the wolf’s touch roaming across my h*ps and down between my legs, teasing my cl*t and sending waves of pleasure spiraling through my body. Lucian’s clever fingers teased and pinched my ni**les, his breath warm against my neck and ear, the kisses he dropped across my shoulders and neck as sensual as his touch. And his touch had me melting.

All around us people danced and made love, and the smell of sex was so fierce it was almost liquid. We danced some more, played some more, teasing and tasting, nipping and kissing one another, until the need that pulsed among the three of us became all-consuming.

Just when I thought I could stand no more, Lucian’s hands slid from my br**sts to my hips, forcing me to bend forward, then holding me steady as he entered from behind. It felt so damn good I groaned.

In this position, I took the wolf’s rigid shaft in my mouth, teasing his head with my tongue, then moving down his shaft, exploring his length before my lips touched him, drawing him deeper into my mouth. I timed my movements with Lucian’s, and savored the sensations flowing through me—the growing fierceness of hunger and need coming from the two men to either side of me. Waves of pleasure rippled my skin, their power increasing as our movements became fiercer, harder, until pleasure was a molten force that would not be denied. Then my orgasm ripped through me, temporarily stilling my movements as it spun me over the abyss and into that space of pure and utter bliss. A heartbeat later the two men came, Lucian inside me and the wolf in my mouth, until all three of us were replete and satisfied.

I rose, kissed the wolf, then stepped back into Lucian’s embrace.

“Not a bad opener,” he murmured, kissing my shoulder softly before adding, “Thanks, friend.”

The wolf nodded and spun away, pressing himself thicker into the throng of flesh and desire. Lucian’s fingers slid down to mine, then he tugged me forward, away from the press of flesh and toward one of the privacy rooms.

“Do they have private showers in this place?” He looked over his shoulder at me, the hunger in his expression making my pulse skip several beats.

“No showers—other than those in the changing rooms—but there’s a spa room down at the end.”

“That’ll do nicely.”

His pace quickened as if he couldn’t get there fast enough. I trotted along after him, anticipation swirling.

The room itself was on the small side, meaning the kidney-shaped spa dominated the space, filling the air with its aromatic scent. They didn’t chlorinate the water here, as the smell tended to be too strong for many wolves. Instead, they’d installed huge rainwater-collection tanks under the building, and the spa was fully flushed and the water replaced every time the room was vacated.

He locked the door behind us, and the spa automatically came on, bubbling away merrily.

“I have to say,” I said, rinsing my mouth out with the thoughtfully provided mouthwash before stepping into the spa, “I was a little surprised that you allowed that wolf to dance with us. I had you figured for the jealous type.”

“Hardly.” He slid into the spa, his skin a gleaming gold in the soft lighting. He swam over to me, grabbed my hands, and pulled me toward him. “You forget how old I am. Let’s just say that I’ve indulged in more than my fair share of threesomes and orgies. They can be quite an erotic experience.”

I smiled and wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling myself onto his lap as he sat down. The thick hardness of him settled between my legs but didn’t enter. I rocked back and forth, teasing him, teasing myself, as I placed gentle kisses on his chest and neck, then worked my way up to his lips and claimed them.

“It was hardly a threesome,” I said after a few minutes. “The poor fellow never actually f**ked me.”

“But your mouth can do amazing things. I know this for a fact.”

I said, “Do you want me to work magic with my mouth right at this moment? Because it’s a little hard in the water.”

He slid his hands down to my h*ps and lifted me slightly, shifting on the seat so that, when I came back down, his c*ck speared me. “It most certainly is,” he said, a devilish smile teasing his lips and crinkling the corners of his eyes. “But I’d much prefer you to work magic with your body.”

So I did. And then he returned the favor tenfold. It still didn’t match the power of his kiss, but it blew away every other lover I’d ever had, and that was more than enough for me.

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

“God,” I said, looking at the clock discreetly placed near the door. The one that said it was four forty-five. “I’m going to be horribly late if I don’t get moving.”

“Hmmmm,” he said, his concentration obviously more on the foot he was kneading than what I was actually saying.

Not that I was objecting, mind.

Although it was just as well we’d moved from the spa room to the jungle room an hour ago, because my foot—and the rest of me—would have resembled a prune by now.

But as much as I knew I had to go, I still had a reason to stay—a reason beyond the teasing, erotic sensations being caused by the light caress of his fingers.

“Do you know why a couple of Razan would be living in the city?”

He looked at me. “Are there Razan living in Melbourne?”

“Two of the men who attacked me wore the Razan tattoo, and one of them was apparently a half-Aedh.”

“Half-Aedh rarely become Razan.”

“Even if they don’t have Aedh powers?”

“Many half-breeds don’t get Aedh powers.” He began kneading my foot again. “And few of them ever have such depth of power that they feel fully Aedh, like you do.”

“Which doesn’t preclude the possibility that a half-breed could become Razan.”

“That is true.” His touch moved up my leg, his fingers light against my skin.

I licked my lips, the need to ask my questions warring with the need to just lie back and enjoy. “So, to repeat the question, why would there be Razan in the city?”

He shrugged. “Their master could be here. I have met no other full Aedh as yet, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

“So if these Razan are coming after me,” I said, my breath hitching a little as his fingers caressed the inside of my thigh, “then it’s because their master has ordered them to?”

“They never do anything without their master’s consent,” he agreed, his expression distracted as his fingers brushed the junction between my legs.

“Is there any way you could perhaps trace them back to their master?”

He shrugged. “It’s possible. As I said, I have met no other full Aedh as yet, but there are ways and means of finding them. If you give me their descriptions, I’ll try to find who owns them. No promises of success, though.”