Eric kissed the line of her hair, then let her go. “Yes, I do.”

He was about to turn around again, walk out the back door, fade into the night. Iona caught his hand, for some reason not wanting him to go. “I was sent a set of the blueprints from the architect late this afternoon. I was going to call you.”

Eric stepped closer to her again. “I’ll come to your office tomorrow and show you what I need you to do.”

“No, you won’t. I’ll be at a wedding all day.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll go to your office and look at them. Leave them out where I can find them.”

“Right, a Shifter will go into our locked office the day the company’s closed for Nicole’s wedding and help himself to blueprints. Security will be all over your butt, and you’ll be in jail trying to explain yourself.”

He shook his head, the light from the living room glinting on his short, dark hair. “Security will never see me. Give me a key if you want to make it easier, but I’ll get in anyway.”

“Eric, I see you all the time. You’re not that stealthy.”

His laughter rumbled as he put his face close to hers. “You see me, because you have a connection to me.” Eric traced her cheek. “You’re the only one who does.”

He laughed again as she stared at him, then he kissed her parted lips and walked out of her house.

The shower was a sweet bite on Eric’s sensitive skin. He lifted his face to the water, enjoying its warmth, letting his hands rest on the cool tiled wall.

Sweeter was the memory of Iona’s teeth in his neck and her hand stroking his cock. It was already erect for her again.

His life would be so much better if Iona were here in the shower with him, helping him soap off, her hands gliding all over his naked body. He’d return the favor and wash her, and then they could slide against each other, Eric lifting her to make love to her against the tiled wall he and Jace had put in.

Eric needed to mate-claim Iona soon, bring her in, install her in this house, and make her part of himself. No stepping aside so younger males could have their chance with her. Iona was his.

He remembered looking into the living room from the back hall and seeing Iona dancing with the stripper. Eric had taken in the smile on her face, her arms raised above her head as she gyrated and slid against the man.

Something primal had ripped through him. Instinct wanted him to grab the stripper away from her and tear his head off. Eric wanted to feel the blood of his rival running down his arms and dripping from his teeth. His brain had switched back to the days when Shifters were wild and untamable, when they’d turned on their Fae masters and left bloody bodies in their wake.

She’s mine.

Sudden pain sliced through his stomach, robbing him of breath.

Shit, not again. Eric folded his arm over his abdomen, trying to find air. What the hell?

The pain faded, and Eric relaxed. Weird. He hadn’t been fighting today, no Collar going off, no practicing the technique to suppress it. He’d gone to DX Security to ask Xavier Escobar to, on the QT, search for Iona Duncan’s birth certificate. Xavier had agreed, promising not to mention the search to any Shifter, though he was obviously curious about the order for silence. But Xavier would keep his mouth shut. Eric had learned that he could trust him.

Eric had spent the rest of the day watching Iona. He hadn’t meant for her to find him in her house during the party. But when she’d hurried, mussed and sweating, eyes wild, into the back hall, he couldn’t resist the opportunity to touch her.

The pain blinked out like a forgotten dream as Eric relived her clawing at his shirt, licking his chest when he bared it for her. She’d tongued his ni**les in delight, as though she hadn’t realized men were as sensitive as women. Another bite of triumph filled him with the knowledge that Eric was her first.

She hadn’t known quite how to stroke him, but he hadn’t minded letting her learn on him. Eric’s body relaxed even more as he thought of how she’d touched him in wonder, then the erotic pulse of his coming, his basic need to mark her with his seed.

His c**k rose with delighted memory, and Eric gave it a calming stroke.

At the same time he tried to cool down. He couldn’t walk out of here with an erection, not with Cassidy and his son in the living room. The house was too small. They’d scent his arousal even if he hid it well with his towel. And they’d find it hilarious.

Eric’s thoughts drifted back to Iona dancing. Goddess, she was beautiful, taller and fuller figured than her friends and half sister who’d surrounded her, her body graceful as she moved in sinuous rhythm. Eric had wanted to be that stripper, with his thigh planted firmly between Iona’s legs…

Out of nowhere, pain smacked Eric’s entire body, as though something were trying to twist him in half. A cry escaped his lips as he fell, his knees banging the shower’s tile floor.

He clenched his teeth, arms folded over his stomach, every muscle hurting, every nerve burning. His heart pounded with the agony and also with fear.

What the hell was wrong with him? Shifters didn’t get the same diseases humans did, their metabolisms not allowing what killed humans to manifest inside them. But Shifters had been living among humans for a while now, breeding with them, eating their food, drinking their water—who knew what had developed?

Or maybe this was the residual effects of suppressing his Collar three days ago. Eric wasn’t as good at overriding the Collar as Jace was. Jace had been mastering the technique, traveling to Austin every month or so to get instruction from the Shifters there who knew how. Jace was good at it, better than Eric or Cassidy.

Whatever was going on with Eric, it hurt like holy hell. Eric curled up around himself and moaned.

Iona, I need you.

He craved her touch, the sound of her voice. But he was on his ass in the shower, the water beating on him, and he couldn’t move to crawl out and find help.

“Dad?” Jace’s voice was right next to him. Eric peeled open his eyes to find his son crouched next to the shower stall, staring through the glass at Eric in concern. “Shit, Dad, are you all right?”

“No,” Eric croaked.

Jace stood up, opened the shower door, and turned off the water before he grabbed a towel and draped it around Eric’s body. “We heard you moaning in here. Cass made me come in and see if you were all right.”

Eric shivered under the towel. “I will be.”