Free Bound by Moonlight by Nancy Gideon Page B

teeth could.
    “You mess with Charlotte, you’re history. You mess with me, you’re lunch. Now go away.” When Hammond was slow to react, Max roared, “Go!”
    He ran, slipping on the wet bricks as he pushed through the thick press of Savoie’s preternatural pack. He held back screams as he felt their teeth snapping at his neck, their claws ripping at his clothes. Once free of them he sprinted to his car, jumping in and racing away as if the hounds of hell were after him.
    Because he feared if he even glanced over his shoulder, they would be.
    “I F YOU’RE LOOKING for Detective Hammond, he’s gone.”
    Joey Boucher jumped at the quiet words spoken from the dark alley. “Gone, as in dead?” he ventured, swallowing hard at the sight of Max Savoie separating from the mists.
    “Gone, as in ran for his life. He forgot this.”
    Boucher took the service pistol, feeling comforted by its solid weight in his palm, even though its bullets couldn’t harm the figure before him. He tucked it in his coat. “He’s an asshole. I would have enjoyed watching him scramble.”
    Max chuckled softly. “You’re a good policeman, Boucher. Are you a smart one?”
    “Yes, sir. I like to think so. You put it on the line to rescue Babineau’s little boy. I won’t forget that. Detective Caissie has always been fair to me, and gave me a hand up when she didn’t have to. I won’t forget that, either.”
    Max smiled. “Watch her back for me, Joey. Can I trust you to do that?”
    “Yes, sir. What shall I tell her about Hammond?”
    A wide show of teeth. “Tell her he had an unexpected accident and had to run home to change his trousers.”
    Boucher laughed out loud and glanced toward the end of the alley. Hammond’s car was gone. “Damn, I would like to have seen that.”
    When he turned back, Savoie was gone.

Six
     
    M AX WAS SITTING on the front porch glider when Charlotte came wearily up the steps. She made a bee-line for him, straddled him with her knees, and buried her face against his shoulder. Her arms curled about his neck, almost desperately tight. “I’ve had a monumentally crappy day.”
    “I’m sorry. Want to tell me about it?”
    “I will. Not just yet.”
    He nuzzled her hair, his lips swiping her brow. “Then tell me what I can do for you to improve the hours left in it.”
    She didn’t have to consider. “I need you naked under me.”
    “Right here on the porch?”
    His amused but willing tone made her smile. “As quickly as you can get us behind a closed door would be fine.”
    “I can do that for you.”
    He rose, carrying her easily with her arms and legs wrapped around him into the darkened house and up the wide stairs. She slid down when he shut the door to his bedroom behind them, but she didn’t step away. He simply held her, waiting for her to set the pace and the mood.
    She started down the buttons to his shirt, touching, caressing, kissing his chest as she bared it, moving him back toward the bed. She palmed the hard swell of his shoulders and arms, exploring the familiar, tough terrain. She knew him intimately: all the intriguing strengths, the rough burr of his evening whiskers, the springy dark hair on his pectorals, thinning to a tease down his taut abdomen and thickening again where his zipper parted to release his already engorged sex. She stroked him there, her own arousal building at his eagerness for her.
    She pushed him down onto the mattress, his pants tangled about his ankles. She nipped at his chin, his shoulder, his chest, sharp little bites that had his breath quickening. When his hands came up for her, she pressed them back to the sheets. He kept them there, letting her have control while he watched her, glittering eyes heavy-lidded.
    She continued to taste him with her mouth, her teeth, her tongue, moving down over the quiver of his flat belly, skimming the jut of his hip bone, tormenting the sensitive flesh of his inner thighs. And all the while he waited, stiff as a