And she was aroused. That was his second thought. It slammed into him as the subtle, unmistakable scent of female heat reached his sensitive nostrils. He sat up straighter at the scent, narrowing his eyes in complete pleasure so he could relish it.
Who had aroused her, though? The prick to his male pride suddenly had him frowning at her. She lifted her brow, her expression mocking.
He restrained his chuckle, just as he restrained the need to meet her challenge. One thing was for sure: It wouldn't be long before he had those pants off her ass and his c**k seated snugly in that hot little pu**y.
"You wanted to see me?'Megan prompted her cousin with a mocking lift of her brow as she closed the door behind her.
Braden turned his gaze back to Lance, quirking his brow when he caught the other man's less than pleased expression. Lance hadn't been thrilled by the order that came from his superiors, nor by the information Braden had given him on the Coyote's interrogation the night before. Not that much had come of that.
"Take a seat, Megan," Lance sighed.
Slouched back in his chair, his ankle propped on his knee, Braden turned his head once again to watch her walk across the office. She moved like a spring rain, smooth and silky. And damn if the smell of her didn't have his mouth watering.
"Okay, so here I am." She stopped at the desk, eyeing the chair beside Braden with no small amount of suspicion and a glint of humor as a smile was quickly controlled. "I don't want to sit next to him. He bites."
She crossed her arms over her br**sts, nice, compact little br**sts with just enough fullness to tempt him. Her mock frown informed him that yesterday's little adventure hadn't really angered her. Those winged black brows lowered over ocean blue eyes that looked deep enough to drown a man, and challenged at the same time. He loved a challenge.
"She shoots." He restrained his smile as he turned back to Lance and nodded in her direction. "I needed some sort of defense."
Lance wasn't amused. He wiped his hand over his face and muttered something about "damn stubborn women."
Braden completely agreed with him.
"Why is he here? Don't we have enough problems to deal with?' she asked.
"Sit down, Megan," Lanced groused, obviously not in the mood for this little meeting. "Even if it means moving the chair."
She did just that. Braden smiled at her slowly, wickedly, as he watched a light flush color her bronzed flesh. The information he had on Megan had been as clear, concise and well put-together as Braden had come to expect from Jonas.
Her relationship with her cousin had been part of the report. It seemed she and Lance had been sniping at each other for months due to her insistence on taking the desert patrols rather than the safer assignments in town. But they were closer than most brothers and sisters, let alone cousins.
"I do have work to do today," she finally pointed out a bit impatiently when neither of them spoke.
"No, you don't." Lance sat forward then, bracing his arms on his desk as his frown darkened. "You're about to get exactly what you've been wanting for the past two years. Congratulations." He wasn't pleased, but Braden was already aware of that fact. Lance was madder than hell, not just at Braden and the Bureau of Breed Affairs. but also at Megan.
"Really?' she drawled in mocking amusement. "That's interesting. So, does this mysterious want of mine include a gun?" Evidently that was one argument she hadn't managed to win against her cousin. She hated the police-issue Wounder and had been harassing him to requisition a more powerful gun for her.
"Use one of your own," Lance harrumphed rudely. "You have enough of them, and since you're no longer on official duty, I can't stop you. Or use one of his. You seem to have done fine with it yesterday."
Megan cast Braden a look from the comer of her eye.
Braden gave her a smug, satisfied smile as her gaze moved fully to his. Finally, she turned back to her cousin rather than voicing the mocking retort he sensed lay on the tip of her very pretty tongue.
"Are you going to tell me what it is I'm getting? I have a lot of wants, you know. Or are you going to let Mr. Arness do your talking for you?"
Spicy. That's what she was. Just spicy as hell. He loved it.
He lifted his foot from his knee and set it slowly back on the floor before straightening in his chair. He never took his eyes off her, staring back at her intently, loving how she met his gaze and hid the nervousness he could feel growing inside her.
Sometimes the animal DNA he possessed came in damned handy. The natural empathic abilities easily picked up the emotions of those around him, filtered them and came across without the emotional impact on his own psyche that a normal person would experience. He knew what she was feeling, but he didn't feel it himself.
He growled, a deliberate, rough vibration that rumbled dangerously from his chest as he lowered his eyelids and let his gaze rake over her.
Heat flushed her face and he'd be damned if the soft, spicy-sweet smell of her sex didn't have him ready to jump her then and there. He wondered if she had glimpsed his hard-on. It would be damn hard to miss if her gaze slid down just an inch farther.
"Menace," she muttered, clearly not intimidated as she turned back to Lance. "Why is he here again?
You haven't explained that one yet, Lance."
"Making my life hell," Lance grumbled as he flicked him an irritated glare.
Braden tilted his head in mocking acknowledgment.