“Brave for a human,” Dylan said. He was the only one in the room who didn’t look amused.

“She’s brave, but she’s innocent. I scent-marked her so other Shifters will leave her the hell alone. They’ll know that if they bother her, they answer to me. That goes for Fergus’s thugs too.”

Dylan watched him closely, and Liam pretended not to hold his breath as he drank his beer. Whose side would Dylan take? The clan leader’s? Or Liam’s? It was never certain.

Dylan gave Liam a slow nod. “If Fergus asks, I’ll tell him I sanctioned it.”

Liam relaxed. He went to his father and clasped his shoulder in thanks, then returned to the refrigerator. “We might as well eat while we wait. How about old-fashioned burgers on the grill?”

“Grand idea.” Sean sauntered into the living room and threw himself on the couch. He crossed his feet and leaned his head back on his folded hands. “Make mine medium rare and put a slice of cheese on it, why don’t you?”

Connor sprawled on the floor and took the DVD off Pause. “Rare for me, Liam.”

“Gobshites,” Liam growled, but he pulled the meat out of the freezer and stuck it in the microwave to thaw.

As he started up the grill outside and formed the burgers, leaving out all the onions and salt and crap that humans littered their meat with, he thought about Kim. How she smelled, how she felt. How her blue eyes could open so wide that her lashes curled against her skin. Her dark hair had gleamed in the sunlight, revealing golden highlights.

He wondered what she was doing now. Back at her office, hunched over a desk? Talking to Brian at the jail? Reading thick law books to see what she could do for a Shifter?

She’d go home soon. Liam had easily found where she lived when her secretary had contacted him earlier this week. A simple computer search had sufficed, even on dial-up—no cable modems for Shifters. Why the human government thought not allowing Shifters cable or wireless or good cell phones would slow down their communications, he didn’t know. Humans had weird ideas.

What would Kim do when she got home? Peel off that severe gray suit, most likely. Would she wear sexy underwear beneath it? Did all-work-and-no-play Kim Fraser buy herself shimmering lingerie?

Liam pictured her in a silk camisole that barely contained her lush br**sts, maybe bikini panties baring most of her butt. Or not a camisole, but a tiny lace bra that pushed her br**sts up and barely covered her ni**les. Stockings, not panty hose. With a garter belt. She’d walk around her house in that, loosening up after work, pouring herself a glass of wine. Or maybe she was a down-home Texas girl who’d reach for a cold beer.

Liam imagined the beads of moisture on the beer bottle in the humid summer evening. Kim’s lips would skim the bottle’s mouth until she upended it and poured a cool stream of beer down her throat.

He imagined it so vividly that Sean’s and Connor’s burgers traveled way past rare to well done before Liam could rescue them.

Kim got out of her leisurely bath and went back to her bedroom with one towel around her torso and the other turbaned over her hair.

She’d gotten used to living by herself—unless Abel came over—no parents or siblings or anyone else. No dogs or cats, either, because she was gone most of the day, and she didn’t want to subject a pet to so much neglect. Or maybe she just didn’t want to mourn when it grew old, died, and left another hole in her life.

Tonight she felt the emptiness. She’d tried to fill it by e-mailing her friend Silas, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist doing research for a documentary on Shifters, and then taking a luxurious soak. She’d tried to lose herself in a delicious novel in the tub, but her thoughts kept drifting and she gave up.

She reached for an emery board and started sanding her nails. Maybe she felt the emptiness because in Shiftertown she’d noticed the fullness. The kids playing in the front yards, neighbors waving at Sean and Liam, the easy bond between the two brothers.

She thought about how she’d spilled her guts to Liam and let him massage her aching feet. The rubbing had felt good. She could still feel his touch, the warmth, the sensual firmness of his strong fingers.

Even better had been his lips on her neck. The man was hot. She had no idea whether Shifters did it like humans, but she knew that if she were a Shifter woman, she’d be working to get him into bed.

Strangest of all, Liam had listened to her. Kim had told him more in ten minutes than she’d told Abel in the year she’d been dating him.

Did that say something about Liam or something about Abel?

Kim set down the emery board and picked up her cell phone. She punched Abel’s number and listened to his phone ring.

“Yes?” he answered. He sounded rushed.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“Kim?” He sounded baffled. “What is it? Was I supposed to meet you tonight?”

“No. I just thought we could talk.”

“Oh.” Pause as he rustled something on the other end of the phone. “Can I call you back? I’m in the middle of about ten things.”

Kim waited for her anger to come. But she felt—nothing. “Sure.”

“Tomorrow. Sleep tight, honey.” Click.

“Yeah. Sweet dreams, babe.” Kim keyed off the phone and dropped it on the table. Abel was a workaholic trying to make a name for himself at the firm. Of course he was in the middle of ten things. He always was.

Maybe it’s time to cut that tie, a little voice in the back of her mind said. Maybe it’s beyond time.