Primal Heat(Wild Lake Wolves Book 3)(8)

Dale set his jaw on edge and narrowed his eyes. He leaned forward,  resting his crossed arms on the desk. He flicked a few of the marked  pages, sending them wafting to the floor.                       
       
           



       

"Well, your reservations are duly noted, Miss Winslow. As it happens, I  do have a rather sizeable project for you to start working on. Today in  fact." He pushed away more of the file and closed his fingers around a  small black flash drive. He lobbed it at me and I caught it one-handed.

"Eminent domain," he said. "I might have mentioned it before. There are  few unpublished cases and other materials on that drive. Why don't you  dive in? I'd like a memo from you by the end of the week. Think your  talents are sharp enough to handle that?"

"Of course. Is there any particular angle you want me to emphasize?"

Dale let out a laugh that sent an icy chill down my back. "Yeah. Federal takeovers of state-owned and private property."

My mouth went dry when he looked up at me; his eyes had gone black.  Foster's words to him rang in my ears. He and Dale hoped to take land  away from Bas and the Wild Lake packs. Now, it looked as though I'd been  indirectly enlisted to help them.





Chapter Six

"You look like shit."

I kept my head down, my forehead resting on my elbow, my fingers lying flat against the keyboard of my laptop.

"No, I mean it. Actual shit."

I raised my hand in a middle-fingered salute and opened one eye to face  my accuser. Said accuser, Kendra Fletcher, peered at me with her wide  brown eyes as she popped a Twinkie in her mouth.

"It's been a long day." When I lifted my head, paper stuck to it.

Kendra laughed and reached out to take it off. Popping the last bite of Twinkie in her mouth, she flipped the paper.

"Kelo v. City of New London. Hmm, sounds juicy. Any sex scenes?"

I snatched the paper back from her and added it to the ever-growing pile  next to me. "Oh yeah. I found my new book boyfriend to be sure."

"Please tell me this is work related, not class related. ‘Cause I know I didn't brief that one."

Darby Gaines plopped down in the chair next to Kendra. He put an arm  around her and gave her a big, slobbery kiss. Kendra squealed and  slapped at him.

"Ugh. Not enough coffee yet." I held up a hand to shield my eyes from  the escalation of their P.D.A. Kendra's giggles earned her a round of  shushing from deeper in the library.

Darby let her go and reached over to tousle my hair. "You're keeping vampire hours, Winslow. Not good for your complexion."

I hauled myself into a sitting position and closed my laptop. I'd spent  the last eight hours working on Dale's project, plus trying to prepare  for Con Law. I was just about to make a snide comment to Darby about his  own complexion when he slid a steaming, 20 ounce Styrofoam cup in front  of me.

"Bless you. You are a miracle man. I knew there was a reason I liked  you." I carefully lifted the lid and gulped down a scalding mouthful of  black coffee. Screw the roof of my mouth; I needed caffeine more than  skin.

"Don't let him take the credit. That was all my idea."

I believed her. Kendra and I had only met six months ago as two  wide-eyed first years on the morning of orientation. But, she, Darby,  and I had instantly clicked during Legal Research & Writing I. None  of us would have survived it without each other. Now, they kept me sane  and drove me crazy all at the same time. The romance between them was  only a week old. I just hoped it didn't go sour and ruin our friendship.  At the moment, they were all I had.

"This is work stuff," I answered after another steaming gulp of coffee. I  wouldn't have said no to one of Kendra's Twinkies either. If Iris knew  that's what I planned for dinner, she probably would have boxed my ears  as I got off the bus this morning. Or was that last night? I spent the  entire day in the law library between classes and had one left to go  before I could finally call it a day.

"Anything you care to share? You haven't said much about your fancy new  internship. You know how pissed Ross and Cal are that you got it?"

Ross and Cal were currently competing for the top spot in our class  after Lud Morris dropped out of school. They were a couple of  insufferable eggheads who fit the First Year Law Student stereotype to a  tee. They proved the old saying: If you don't know who the class  asshole is by week three, it's you. Let's just say Ross and Cal had no  clue who the class assholes were. Ross had taken an internship with a  bankruptcy judge downtown and was rumored to be knee-deep in unglamorous  Chapter 13 filings. Cal worked for his father, senior partner at one of  the oldest law firms in town.

"Nothing too exciting," I said. I bit my lip and Kendra noticed. Though  we may have only known each other for a short time, we'd gone through a  kind of academic trench warfare together. She already knew me quite  well.                       
       
           



       

"Come on. You need to give me some gossipy nugget about working with  Foster. You know, before Lud flew over the cuckoo's nest, he told Ross  one of his aides was, uh . . . you know. One of them." She whispered  "them" and looked around making sure no one overheard her.

I gave her a coy bat of my eyelashes and rested my chin back on my hand. "Whatever do you mean, Kendra?"

Darby reached over her and grabbed the other Twinkie from her pack, killing my breakfast plans. "She means werewolves."

"Thanks, Captain Subtle." Kendra whacked him on the top of the head.

I shrugged but kept my mouth shut. I wasn't sure whether disclosing  Dale's werewolf status violated confidentiality, but I wasn't in the  mood for a zillion questions. But, Kendra hadn't exaggerated about  Captain Subtle. Darby shoved the entire Twinkie in his mouth at once and  seemed to swallow it whole. I wondered if he might be a were-snake or  something.

"Fess up, Winslow. You're busted. My sister's a cashier at Wild Lake  Outfitters. She saw you chatting it up with Sebastian Lanier in the  lobby of the store the other day. She said he looked like he was into  you. And that you were there for work on account of fact you looked ‘all  worky.' Her words, not mine."

Another round of frantic shushing followed Kendra's gasp of surprise. So much for my plan to keep things under wraps.

"Don't get your shorts in a twist. I had to drop off some files for him.  And that's all you're getting from me on the subject. I can't talk  about work stuff. But, suffice it to say it was work stuff. Nothing more  interesting."

Kendra slapped my shoulder. "Bullshit! You're gonna spill. What's he  like? Is he nice? God. He's so tall. I just wanna, I don't know. Lick  him. Is he lickable? Could you tell? I mean the werewolf stuff. What's  he like up close."

I did my level best to keep my face neutral when answering her. A blush  would give me away, and I'd never hear the end of it. "He's, uh, a  little intense. I don't know if I'd use the word nice. He's very direct.  And I didn't spend more than five minutes alone with him."

The librarian started walking toward us as Kendra squealed. I nodded  with my chin, mouthed "sorry" and started gathering my papers and  laptop. "Come on," I said. "We're going to be late for class."

Darby grabbed Kendra's books and made a talking gesture with his cupped  hand as Kendra's words gushed forth. "You were alone with him? Oh my  God. I would die."

"Don't fangirl out on me," I said as we hit the elevator. "It wasn't a  big deal." God. I felt like the worst liar ever. I was never going to  hear the end of it from Kendra.

"Did he bite you?" Darby asked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

"He did not bite me. He did not touch me. I gave him papers. He wrote  notes on them. I left. Now, that's the end of the story. Hush. Put a  cork in it, Ken. Nothing to see here."

"Oh, you are going to do a better job of explaining yourself, Missy."  Kendra took her books from Darby as he leaned over me to press the down  button and the doors shut.

But, time was on my side. We had thirty seconds to make it to the other  end of the hall when the elevator stopped. Professor Cline locked the  doors on you if you weren't inside the room at the top of the hour. We  made it just in time, and Kendra was stifled by the alphabetical seating  chart. Fletcher was across the room from Winslow, and I got to be alone  with my thoughts. Lucky for me, the Commerce Clause turned out to be  just the thing I needed to douse the more wicked ones brewing at the  mention of Sebastian Lanier.

Cline's lecture ran long and when he finally let us go, I had about two  minutes to race across the quad and make the last bus. Iris was off  tonight, and there was no chance any of the other drivers would wait on  me if I was late. I had to face Kendra's indignant stare as I dashed out  of the lecture hall and pushed my way through the throng of dismissed  students.