Mating Rituals [Impulse 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

“It must mean you miss out on tourism,” the big-chested teacher said.

“You guys are here, aren’t you?”

“True, but we’re only here for an hour or two. Don’t you feel the lack of hotel reservations and stuff like that? All resorts need that sort of income to get by nowadays, but I notice you don’t have nearly as many hotels as they do farther down the beach.”

“We like to be exclusive.”

“You’re tourism officer for Impulse, Mr. Darwin,” the woman said. “You must have your work cut out getting visitors to stay for long, given the thin air.”

Tyrone treated her to a full-wattage smile. “On the contrary, our unique atmosphere makes people keen to check it out for themselves.”

“Why is everything named after cats?” asked some smartass kid.

“We like cats. Doesn’t everyone?”

“I have cats,” the busty teacher said, smiling at Tyrone like the connection had them joined at the hip.

I’ll just bet you do!
“No more questions?” When no hands shot up, Tyrone glanced at his watch and stood up. “Okay, you’ve collected your rock samples from the beach and have them safe, right?” All the kids nodded. “Be sure and let me know if you find out anything interesting from them.”

The teacher actually batted her lashes at him. “We’ll certainly do that.”

“Let’s head for the souvenir shops,” Tyrone said. “I expect you all want to buy something to take back with you. Then your bus will be here to whisk you away from our crappy air.”

“What do we say to Mr. Darwin, class?” the pretty teacher asked.

“Thank you, Mr. Darwin,” twenty voices chorused.

In spite of the fact that kids really did have an easier time of it with the thin air, they still didn’t handle it well and made a beeline for the air-conditioned mall. The souvenir shops would do well today, Tyrone thought with satisfaction. That in turn would help Impulse’s cooperative economy instigated by Pascal and Kai, their alpha pumas and finance gurus.

He saw the pretty teacher bearing down on him and quickly attached himself to the posse of kids, directing them to the shops he thought would interest them the most. The ones that sold fossils and lurid games that traded on Impulse’s unique atmosphere guaranteed to appeal to kids. Another child fell over, claiming the teacher’s reluctant attention, and Tyrone was able to escape, leaving one of his assistants to see the party safely onto their bus.

He wondered how Kane was getting on in Miami as he climbed the stairs to the apartment that he shared with his fellow alpha leopard above the tourist office. He missed his buddy, but he’d be home tomorrow and things would get back to normal. It had been crazy around Impulse recently, what with an attack by wolves and a load of other stuff going on. Kane and Tyrone had pressing problems of their own, too. Somehow or other they were going to have to find a human mate before time ran out, especially for Kane.

Tyrone was deep in thought about that as he let himself in to the empty apartment. Except that it wasn’t empty. Kane was draped over the back of a settee, all four limbs dangling over its edge. He appeared to be sound asleep, but his head jerked up when Tyrone closed the door.

“Hey, lover.” Tyrone’s face lit up. “I didn’t expect you back today.”

Kane dropped to the floor in one elegant movement, wrapped Tyrone in his arms, and kissed him long and deep.

“I missed you, man.”

“Likewise.”

“I saw you down on the beach with the school party. How did it go?”

“Like always. One of the teachers wanted to jump my bones.”

“Was she pretty?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Tyrone wobbled his hand in a gesture that said
not bad
. “Big tits and no bra. She was too pushy, though.”

Kane laughed, but it sounded contrived. “We all want what we can’t have,” he said. “And she can’t have you because she obviously wasn’t suitable mating material.”

“Yeah, she didn’t light my fire.” Tyrone flashed a smile. “What happened to you? You look like shit.”

“You should see the other guy.” Kane fell into a chair and scrubbed a hand down his face. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think I might have screwed up big time.”

Tyrone laughed. “What did you do? Sell Impulse as a dog-friendly community?”

Tyrone’s smile faded when he saw the desolation in his Kane’s eyes. When he noticed how bloodshot they were and sensed his deep despondency, he became really worried.

“Just tell me what happened.”

“That would be a hell of a lot easier if I knew myself. All I can do is tell you what I remember.”

The story came tumbling from Kane’s lips in fits and starts. At first Tyrone thought he was making something out of nothing. Busty brunettes were his buddy’s companion of choice, but he knew better than to cross the line.

Except this time he seemed to think that he had.

“I don’t get it,” Tyrone said, shaking his long hair out of his eyes. “You got wasted, took this Susanna woman to bed, and actually fucked her?”

“Apparently.” Kane seemed to fold in on himself. “I’m so sorry. I have absolutely no explanation for what I did.”

“If you did it, which I doubt.”

Kane rolled his eyes. “You weren’t there. You didn’t wake up with her next to you and see your sperm all over her.”

“All over her, not in her. There’s a big difference. You’re hardwired never to go the distance with any woman. It’s in your psyche. Doesn’t matter how drunk you were, you still wouldn’t do it.”

“But the dried semen on her thighs?”

“You don’t remember drinking too much?”

Kane shook his head emphatically. “No, that’s what’s so weird.”

“And this woman fixated on you from the get-go?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I guess I encouraged her.” Kane shrugged. “You know me. Anything to liven up a dull conference.”

“You didn’t get any sense that she’d been sent by our enemies?”

“No, she seemed to be exactly what she said she was.”

“Well, we’ll know soon enough. If you’re right about her, if she’s trying to trap you into mating permanently, she’ll be in touch.”

“Geez!”

“Perhaps she drugged you,” Tyrone said after a moment’s thought.

Kane let out a mirthless laugh. “A date-rape drug?”

“Why not?”

“Because it would have the opposite effect to the one she was hoping for. I never would have gotten it up for her.”

“If you were out of it with booze, you’d have had the same problem. So the question remains, how did that semen get on her thighs?”

“That’s what I’d give a lot to know, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. I don’t usually have a problem getting it up, as you well know, even when I have overindulged.”

“You never get as blitzed as you were last night, either.”

“True.”

Tyrone shook his head. “I don’t like the smell of this.”

“Me neither. I’ve fucked up my chances of mating, buddy, but don’t let it stop you carrying on with the search.”

Tyrone shot him a look. “You think I could live without you? Forget it. If you’ve blown it, that counts for us both.”

“No, I couldn’t live with that. If nothing else, we owe it to the colony to make sure at least one of its alpha leopards reproduces. Our numbers are way too low.”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. I still doubt whether you actually did the dirty deed with this woman. I’m guessing that you’re being exploited for reasons yet to be figured out. In the meantime, I think we should go and see Mikael. Then Rafe needs to know about this. If it was a setup, the whole colony could be at risk.”

“I agree Rafe needs to know, but why Mikael? What can he do?”

“If I’m right and some sort of drug was involved, it might still be in your system. He can do tests.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Kane flashed his first genuine smile. “What would I do without you?”

Tyrone leaned in and kissed him hard and deep. “Beats the hell out of me. Now, come on, move your ass. Let’s stop moping about and go get some answers.”

Aisha had her locks changed anyway. She’d just learned the hard way that no one was going to look out for her, so she’d just have to toughen up and take care of herself. She’d trusted Rick to guide her through the minefield that went by the name of live television, naively assuming that he had her best interests at heart.

Her judgment obviously needed some work.

Rick couldn’t afford to let her off his radar for too long. When it came to pillow talk he’d been less than discreet. He’d told her about some of the underhanded tactics he’d employed to get one over on his colleagues. She could use that against him at the station anytime she liked should she be in the market for revenge, and well he knew it.

Feeling like she had the upper hand helped to soothe Aisha’s wounded pride and made her feel a little less naïve for believing every word that had slipped past his lying lips. Rick was a control freak, but no way would he be claiming control of her or her personal space again anytime soon.

As soon as the locksmith left Aisha stepped out of her work clothes, took a long shower to wash off the scent of betrayal, and dressed casually in jeans and a sweatshirt. She wandered barefoot into her galley kitchen and switched on the kettle, trying to adjust to the feeling of being home in the middle of a working day. Trying to adjust to being home during daylight hours at all, come to that. She hadn’t realized how quiet it could be in a bustling city like New York when all the workers were…well, working.

With a steaming mug of coffee in hand, she sat down and fired up her laptop, ready to reinvent herself.

“Okay,” she said to the walls, “I am going to stop playing at being a TV weather girl and prove my scientific credentials instead.”

The walls didn’t fall in on her, laughing themselves silly, which she took to be an encouraging sign.

“Easier said than done,” she told herself two days later.

She’d surfed the net continuously in the interim, barely remembering to eat or sleep. She ignored her phone when it rang—which it did frequently. The caller display told her it was the office or sometimes Rick’s cell. She didn’t want to speak to anyone, especially not him. Someone hammered on the door at one point, but she ignored that, too. It had to be Rick. She never had other callers. She had no family and had been too busy with her career and with Rick to make time for friendships.

“Aisha, open up, babe. I know you’re in there. We need to talk.”

Aisha’s heart rate had increased, but she didn’t respond. Rick had tried his now-defunct key and swore when it wouldn’t turn. She’d held her breath until, eventually, she’d heard him stomping off down the corridor, muttering expletives.

Now that she’d had time to come to terms with Rick’s betrayal, Aisha was actually glad she’d discovered what he was really made of when there was still time for her to change direction. He was a desperate man in a rapidly changing environment, struggling to stay afloat. She wondered who he’d pick on next to keep his star in ascendency. Not that she cared, it was merely idle curiosity.

Aisha became increasingly desperate to find a project worthy of her talents. She had something to prove to a skeptical world, but more especially to herself, and not much time to do it in.

Aristotle was considered the founder of meteorology.

“So what?” She deleted that possibility. “It’s been done to death.”

Trade winds and monsoons were disregarded for the same reason. So, too, were hurricanes and the melting ice cap.

“Come on.” She scrolled impatiently through more and more topics. “There has to be something.”

Her fingers stopped dead when she came to a ton of stuff about a small place called Impulse in Florida. She’d rejected it originally as being too insignificant to matter, but nothing more compelling had come to light, so it was worth a more detailed look. She’d heard about the weird atmosphere on the tiny spit of land—what meteorologist hadn’t?—but didn’t know much more about it. She spent the rest of the day reading everything she could find. Her excitement increased when she realized that no one had come up with a plausible explanation for the weird atmospheric conditions on that isolated peninsular.

“This is it!”

Aisha stood and stretched the kinks out of her body, beaming to herself and punching the air. She’d found her project and was suddenly full of energy, bursting to get started. She threw a few clothes into a bag and packed up her laptop. Then she got on the phone and booked herself on the first flight she could get out of New York that would take her direct to Tampa International.

* * * *

“Don’t say a word.” Kane held up a hand to fend off the question he could sense Mikael formulating when he and Tyrone walked into Impulse’s medical Institute. “You really don’t wanna know.”

“Apparently the other guy looks even worse,” Tyrone quipped, although Kane could sense no humor behind the remark, just grim determination to get at the truth.

Succinctly Kane explained what he could remember of the last twenty-four hours to Mikael, head of the Institute, and his partner, Philo. Both alpha tigers were frowning by the time Kane got to the end of his account.