Free The Patient Wolf (Wicked Urban Fantasy #1) by Karen Hodges Miller Page B

good look at it? The dog?” Ana asked.
    “Not really. It was large and dark. Other than that, I was too busy trying to keep it from biting one of us, and then wiping mace out of my eyes,” Chris teased.
    “Oh, you had to bring that up again,” Ana said, laughing.
    “The cop, Detective Sawyer, asked me if I could describe the dog. It had bright blue eyes. Did you notice that, Ana?” Chris looked at her intently as he asked the question.
    “I guess I wasn’t really worrying about its eye color at the time,” she replied, then wondered why she didn’t just tell him that she, too, had noticed the unusual color of the animal’s eyes. Her ingrained instinct for secrecy, she supposed.
    “Bright blue. It didn’t really look like a dog to me. It looked like a really large wolf. Did the police mention that to you? That it might have been a wolf? What do you think?”
    Chris was looking at her very intently as if her answer was somehow important to him.
    “A wolf,” she replied, keeping her expression neutral.
    “You don’t sound surprised.”
    “Well, not really. Like you said, the detective did mention something about a wolf to me, too. Did he get the idea from you?”
    “Yes, he probably did.”
    “Actually, I had the impression he was wondering if you owned the wolf—the dog—whatever it was.” She found herself stumbling over words, trying to ensure that she chose the right one in this suddenly dangerous conversation.
    “Really? Well, I guess they might wonder if somehow I was involved.”
    “Why in the world would they think that? What would you have to do with a stray dog—or wolf—or whatever?”
    “You don’t know, then. I thought the detective might have mentioned it. That’s why my sister moved to Rivelou from the Chicago area. Last year her husband, Jason—he was also a police officer—was killed on duty.”
    “That’s terrible. But what does that have to do with a dog killing a man here in Rivelou?”
    “Well, that’s just it. That’s how Jason was killed. By a dog. A large, black dog that some witnesses said looked just like a wolf.”
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 12
     
    After dinner Chris proposed a stroll on the river, but somehow his revelation about the death of his brother-in-law had put a damper on the evening. A moonlight stroll no longer sounded romantic. She suggested he just take her home. Chris walked her to door and kissed her tenderly goodnight.
    “Would you like to come in?”
    “Very much.”
    She was nervous. It had been a very long time since she’d had a man in her house without Sophie there also acting as unofficial chaperone.
    Chris sat down on the living room sofa. Funny, Jonathan had sat in just that spot this morning.
    “Would you like some coffee?” she asked, a little nervously.
    “I don’t think so. Come here,” he said, pointing to the spot next to him. “You’re nervous. Don’t be. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
    “I’m not sure what I want,” she said as she sat down next to him.
    “Then let’s try a few things and find out.”
    Where was the kind, a little bit nerdy man she thought she knew? This Chris was much more sure of himself. He took her gently by the shoulders and moved her closer to him, then slowly leaned in to kiss her. She wasn’t expecting sky rockets. She was much too old for sky rockets, but what she got certainly came close.
    How could her body melt and tingle all over at the same time? It had never felt like this before; certainly not with Jonathan.
    She banished he ex-husband from her mind. She wouldn’t think about him now. She couldn’t think about anything right now. She just felt.
    She wanted more; somehow he knew that—maybe it was the little moaning noises she was making—and he pressed ever closer, kissing her harder, deeper, as his hand crept under the back of her blouse. Everywhere he touched her skin seemed to come alive. He reached higher,