Besides, now she knew, didn't she? It wasn't much different from being with an ordinary man.
Heartened, telling herself she wouldn't really be missing out on anything if they parted ways now, she followed his lead and eased away from more intimate talk.
"I don't think police are going to find anything. I guess my best hope is the asshole does something again and makes a mistake of some kind." While he dealt with the condom, she pulled his shirt over her head and tried not to moan her appreciation of soft cotton and his scent.
Jude's knowing grin told her she failed at total silence. "Is the bathroom locked?"
"Yeah, but you have my keys." She climbed to her feet, wobbly on the four-inch heels after a day of standing in them followed by a powerful orgasm. Too bad Jude didn't keep ballet flats in his car along with spare t-shirts.
While he cleaned up, she tidied the storefront and sprayed each sofa with a good layer of air freshener. Just in case. She might be the boss, but being in charge didn't mean nobody raised eyebrows at professional-or unprofessional-behavior. When she turned to close the Venetian blinds in the front window, her heart jumped into her throat and she choked on her own breath.
The empty parking lot wasn't empty.
A man, his features indistinct in the gloom, stood beside her car. She couldn't see his eyes but she didn't need to in order to know he was looking right at her. She could feel his stare, something slimy and invasive. Her skin crawled as though plagued by spiders.
They stood like that for what felt like an eternity and somehow she knew he'd been out there for quite some time.
For the entire time.
The man couldn't possibly have known her thoughts, but as she realized what he'd seen, he flashed a white-toothed grin, just like he was inside her head. The sight of his bared teeth roused the deep, ingrained instinct to flee and her muscles thawed with jolting suddenness.
She jerked away from the window and plastered herself to a tall sectional filled with unbleached wool ready to be dyed.
In the bathroom at the back of the store, the toilet flushed. Jude. Safety. She wasn't alone. He'd locked the door. He had the keys. Breathing hard, she slid along the bank of display shelves and positioned herself to look out the window without being seen.
He wasn't beside her car anymore. A gray blur of limbs half-ran across the field between her shopping strip and the community center across the way. Empty tennis courts stood in his path. As he hit the courts, the outdoor lights flared bright, finally activated by their timer. She lost him in the seconds she spent blinking to readjust her vision.
"Dinner," Jude said, stepping out of the bathroom. "Will you say yes this-what happened?"
Lily swallowed hard and snapped the blinds into place. "He was outside. Maybe the whole time we were … ."
She trailed off, unable to stomach the thought. "He ran. I couldn't get any details because the damn timers on the parking lot lights aren't reliable."
Jude was in motion before she finished speaking. In a blink, he stood at the front door, her key already in the lock. "Ran which way?"
"Toward the community center. You're not going out there, are you?"
"Lock it behind me and head for the back exit, but don't go outside unless you think you're in immediate danger." He turned to face her and the fierce, predatory light in his eyes made her suck in a breath. "Don't call the police yet. I need some time."
Before she could ask what he planned to do, he was gone. She didn't really need to ask, though, did she? He would do what he'd been born to do.
Hunt.
Hands shaking, she locked the door and threw the dead bolt, but she didn't immediately retreat to the back of the store. This was the part of him she wanted to see. The part he hadn't shared. Against her better judgement, she parted the blind's slats with two fingers and peered through the slit, searching the dark for him.
Either she'd been too slow to act or being a lion shifter imparted some sort of power of invisibility because the lot outside and the field across the way were both utterly vacant. She was disappointed and relieved at once but both emotions quickly melted, leaving her with the harshness of reality.
Someone was hunting her and now, her lover was hunting a dangerous, off-kilter unknown.
Her lover.
Swallowing, she headed for the back and the delivery door, where she threw good judgement to the wind and dug her phone from her purse.
Paul answered on the second ring. "You can talk to my lawyer," he said by way of a greeting.
It was the first time she'd heard his voice in close to a year. She held her breath a beat, fearing that despite physical distance and the passage of time, his dark, silky tones would affect her in unwanted ways. Would make her body act independently of her mind.