Free Half in Love [Willie Krenshaw] (Siren Publishing Classic) by Lea Barrymire

kicking off his shoes.
    Willie shut the door quietly and locked it. She felt bad locking him in, but it was safer for her and Nick if he was locked in. She stumbled up the stairs to her room and collapsed on the bed. She didn’t even take the time to get undressed before she allowed her body to sleep.

Chapter 4
     
    Willie came out of her rest quickly. One moment she was in a sort of stasis, suspended and resting, and the next moment she was fully awake. The night’s events played through her mind. She groaned when she remembered that Nick was locked in her basement. She glanced at the clock and was happy to see that it was still early afternoon. She had the night off, so she could get Nick settled in a hotel someplace.
    A slight pressure in her chest caused her to stop for a moment. Oh, shit. She didn’t want to dump him off at a hotel. She sighed. She wasn’t going through this again today. She wasn’t going to take him as a mate. Fate was a freaking bitch and couldn’t make her do something so asinine. She cringed as a small voice whispered in the back of her mind that she couldn’t fight fate, and the longer she waited to take him as a mate, the harder it would be for her to keep her animal under wraps. At least at the moment her cougar was quiet, leaving her mind to herself.
    She rose from the bed and quickly took a shower, scrubbing the scents and feelings of the night off her skin. She caught a whiff or two of Nick’s essence on her skin, and it made her warm and achy inside. She ignored the feelings, though, and just scrubbed harder. She dressed in clothing that would allow her to battle if needed. Black jeans and tank were her preferred clothes. Both allowed full range of motion, and if she ended up bloody, well, black covered in blood was just blacker. If nothing else, last night reminded her why she carried her blade.
    She ran down to the kitchen and threw frozen waffles in the toaster, started coffee perking, and headed down to the basement. It was still a few hours before sunset, but she wanted to have the door unlocked so Nick could move freely once he felt up to coming out of the lockroom. If he was older, he would be able to come out soon. She made a mental note to ask him some questions that she’d always had about her vamp side but never really had a way to get the information. She shook her head again at the way her evening had gone. If Robert was still alive, he would’ve laughed at her predicament. Pain crushed her as she thought about the man she thought of as her father, and the pain of his loss. She missed him so much, especially in situations like this when his counsel was so needed.
    She trotted down the stairs and flipped the lights on. She unlocked the metal door and fought the urge to open it and check on him. Not like he could’ve gone anywhere. The room was as secure as Fort Knox. She forced her feet to turn and slumped upstairs to eat her breakfast.
    She stood at her kitchen counter, munching on her waffles, not tasting them. She thought through all of the implications of yesterday’s happenings. Nick obviously had been drugged, which she thought was impossible. The question there was why him, or why any vamp. What was the purpose of drugging him? Did he escape and end up in the alley, or was he dumped there? Did those same people trash his house? And, if so, why? Was he hiding something? There were so many questions in her head. She almost pulled out a notebook to jot them all down but thought better of it. It wasn’t really any of her business, and she didn’t want to get dragged further into his life. She needed to walk away from him today. If they ended up kissing again, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop herself and she’d end up doing something really stupid like sleeping with a vampire.
    She was pulled from her musing when she heard the basement door open. She glanced at the clock, surprised that Nick was up and around so early. He was lucky that she didn’t have any