Horrified and unable to deal with what she’d seen, she finally told her parents. They’d immediately sent her to a special doctor to get rid of her episodes. After three years of visits, he gave up on her, declaring her utterly hopeless. Well… even worse than that. To mollify her parents, he’d said in an appeasing, but not very sincere way that she’d probably grow out of it. The real reason he dropped her as a patient in such a hurry went deeper than that.

Waiting for her to respond, Ryan cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Sorry. You had a question for me?” She tapped her fingers on her folded arm, an insincere smile playing on her lips. He hadn’t asked her a question, but the way he spoke was definitely a ploy to get her to respond to his observations. And she wasn’t biting.

“Don’t you suppose you might have come by the information you did through some means other than a psychic connection?”

“Hmm, sure. That’s what happened.”

Ryan’s mouth curved up ever so slightly, but she could tell he wasn’t being taken in by her surrender.

Before she’d become caught up in the werewolf culture, she’d kept her abilities secret. Now that those in this pack knew about her, she really didn’t care if any were skeptical. As long as they didn’t try to tell her that she didn’t have a sixth sense because it wasn’t possible. She supposed that was all because of Dr. Metzger and the way his icy blue eyes would peer through his brass-rimmed glasses at her, while his big chin tilted down, condemning, judging.

If people didn’t believe her in private, fine. Yet, usually if people confronted her like this, she would smile disingenuously and tell them how right they were. She never felt the need to defend what she could see when others couldn’t, or what she could envision or perceive sometimes when she touched an object.

“But you truly believe otherwise,” Ryan finally said.

This time her smile was bright and true to her feelings. She couldn’t help liking Ryan, despite his denial of her abilities. He had an easy but determined manner about him, not brusque like Darien or teasing like Jake or afraid to make waves like Tom. His determination was matched only by her own.

She glanced at the men standing about, including both Tom and Jake. Which made the situation worse. Why couldn’t any of the alpha males show any real interest in her? She was not a beta kind of girl. She supposed that was because her father had become so downtrodden by her mother’s treatment of him. She couldn’t see being married, um, mated to someone like that.

“Carol?” Ryan said, his deep baritone voice again yanking her from her faraway thoughts.

She really needed to get more sleep. She turned her attention back to Ryan. He thought she wasn’t being honest with him about her abilities, when he wasn’t honest about why he had been lurking in the woods last night, watching her window. She didn’t have to be psychic to know something more was going on between them. Time to turn the tables. Throw him off balance.

Trying to look like this was a perfectly natural way for her to act, she smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck, and leaned into the soft sweater covering his hard body, which instantly reminded her just how hard his body was when he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothes. She only meant to give him a slow kiss on the mouth, just to prove to him that he had another agenda that he wouldn’t admit to. Or if not, then maybe Tom or Jake would finally show some interest in her. But more than anything, she wanted to get Ryan off the subject of her abilities before she said something in anger that she shouldn’t.

To her surprise, he eagerly captured her mouth with his. Not cautiously, building up the desire in slow careful increments, but judiciously, as if he had been starved for affection for a very long time. His hand cupped the back of her head, his free hand drifting lower on her back and holding her in place.

She hadn’t meant to respond so fully to the kiss either, but his unbridled need fed into hers. Forgetting they had an audience, she parted her lips to accept him, to open an intimate path between them, their tongues dancing, touching, exploring. Her hands fisted in his soft sweater at the back of his neck and held him even tighter. She pressed her body against his hard muscles, and shamelessly she wanted more.

But then he released her and unwrapped her arms from around his neck, his eyes smoky and dark, his expression otherwise unreadable, his hands still securely holding her wrists. Their breaths came quickly as their hearts thundered at a runner’s pace. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but she didn’t want to hear the apology she figured he would offer or another word about her abilities, if that’s what he had in mind.

She quickly spoke instead. “I accept. Come pick me up for a date at six o’clock. Promptly.”

She’d show him he wasn’t as much in control of the situation as he might think.

Then she winked, pulled free, and stalked off toward the house without a backward glance, her blood sizzling with arousal and irritation.

She harrumphed under her breath. All the idiotic romantic notions she had been harboring for Ryan McKinley… and all he really wanted was for her to confess she wasn’t psychic?

She doubted Ryan would take her on a date, and she doubted even more that Darien would allow it. But if the date did come to pass, she would get out of the gathering of bachelor males tonight, and she’d give Ryan McKinley a piece of her mind.

Ryan stared after Carol as she stalked toward the house, sparing Jake and Tom a smile before disappearing inside. What the hell had just happened?

Did she think that if she kissed him, he’d forget why he’d come here to see her? Hell, if she had, he hated to admit that for a moment, it had worked. Never had a woman taken him by surprise like that. Never had one heated his blood to volcanic proportions with the way her body had pressed against his, her tongue slipping into his mouth and dancing in an erotic way with his.

The spark of electricity between them couldn’t be denied. So what had gotten into him to kiss her back? Convention. If he was interested in a woman, he let her know it. But he sure as hell hadn’t planned to go down that path. Not that she wasn’t intriguing as hell, but she sure wouldn’t be interested in someone like him who didn’t believe in her special “abilities.”

Would she tell him the truth tonight on a date?

Or would they get themselves into even hotter water if he spent any more time alone with her? He hadn’t even been alone with her.

He breathed in the air and still smelled her sweet feminine scent, a mixture of jasmine and the fresh grass that she’d been lying in after Mervin knocked her flat on her back. He could still feel the way her body had pressed against him, her breasts and her thighs, soft and curvaceous and sensuous. If he didn’t keep his distance from her, he would forget what he’d come here for. Was that her ploy? Sidetrack him with a siren’s lure and keep her secrets to herself? The vixen.

All he wanted was to close the file on the murder case in Silver Town permanently. So why didn’t that thought appeal to him? He should have been satisfied to return home and get on with his own business.

Tom and Jake glowered at him and then headed into the house. Ryan was beginning to think that this case wouldn’t be cleared up easily, particularly if she employed her feminine wiles to tangle with him. Yet a deeper primal urge growled to be released, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep it leashed—even though Carol was newly turned and probably didn’t understand what she was getting herself into.

“What did Ryan McKinley want?” Lelandi asked Carol, as she fixed a double cheeseburger for herself in the kitchen, where the aroma of seasoned burgers and cheesecake and lemon meringue pie filled the air.

Everyone else had already taken their food outside or into the dining area or sunroom, and laughter and conversation drifted through the house like the cool breeze through the open kitchen window.

Carol dished a hamburger onto a bun and topped it with a slice of pickle and tomato. Although she was fuming inside, she smiled at Lelandi.

“He wanted a date. Isn’t that nice?”

Lelandi fumbled with her plate and nearly dropped it. “You can’t be serious. Darien will never allow it.”

Silva, who Carol swore overheard conversations better than any werewolf alive, sauntered into the kitchen. “My, my… sounds like McKinley is harboring a death wish—or he’s one determined wolf. I heard he kissed you like there was no tomorrow.”

Heard? Or had she seen something out one of the windows?

Silva chuckled. “Yep. The bachelors are ready for a showdown.”

Eyes wide, Lelandi asked, “He kissed you and then asked for a date?” She shook her head. “He’s got nerve.” But her tone of voice reflected a trace of approval, and Carol noted a shadow of a smile in Lelandi’s expression.

Carol almost laughed to think she had been the one to suggest the date, and that if she hadn’t pushed Ryan into proving something to the other guys, he would never have kissed her. How could he not believe her about her psychic abilities after all that had happened? Even Darien’s people believed her.

In fact, she thought a couple of his people were a little afraid of her because of it. What if someone did something that he or she shouldn’t, and then Carol envisioned it and shared their misdeeds with Darien? At least, that’s what she thought might bother some of them. Beyond that, she really didn’t think Ryan would come tonight.

Lelandi smiled and lifted her burger. “You know when Darien told Ryan he didn’t want him interfering in the investigation, Ryan stubbornly refused to take no for an answer.” She shrugged. “I doubt he will this time, either.”

Carol didn’t know that Ryan had been told he couldn’t help with the investigation, just that Darien hadn’t liked the idea. But she couldn’t believe this issue of whether or not she was psychic was such a big deal that he’d butt heads with Darien over it.

“So what’s the gathering all about?” she asked, figuring that was what she’d have to prepare herself for next. Forget Ryan and his agenda.