Object of My Affection by Tracey H. Kitts Page B

perched on a limb. He was slightly higher up than I was, so I had to look up a bit to speak to him. There was very little distance separating that particular group of trees from the side of the house where my balcony was located. A werewolf would have no problem jumping that distance.
    “Hello, Red,” he purred.
    “What are you doing here?” I tried to sound stern, but I was glad to see him.
    “I heard you had a little rumble this evening at The Oasis.”
    At that point, it had been several hours since we’d left the club, so it was entirely possible he could have heard about it, but I still asked, “How could you possibly know that already?”
    “When someone has the balls to threaten a six foot ten werewolf, people tend to take notice.” He smiled. “The minute I heard about it, I knew it had to be you.”
    “So, Mark didn’t tell you personally then?”
    “No, the drummer from the band.”
    “If he told you the story then you knew I wasn’t hurt, so why did you come?”
    “You’re voice says you’re tired ... but your eyes say you’re glad to see me,” he said softly.
    The wind caressed my skin as it carried Marco’s deep sultry voice to my ears. I shivered as I recalled what he’d said about being able to hear my heartbeat. He stretched out over the branch on his belly, facing me. Marco moved with the grace of a big cat. It was both fascinating and unnerving to watch him.
    “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “And you didn’t deny you’re glad to see me.”
    The smile that I gave him was lazy and involuntary as I replied, “We have to stop meeting like this.”
    “Would you prefer to be meeting the cop?” He either couldn’t hide the bitterness in his voice, or didn’t bother to try.
    “I’m not dating him.”
    “Really? Well, according to the band, you were kissing him tonight.”
    My temper finally flared. “I am sick to death of people spying on me. Did they tell you I groped the bouncer, too?
    Yeah, that was fun.”
    I turned on my heel and walked back through the doors as he called, “Red, wait!”
    I slammed the balcony doors and locked them behind me.
    To hell with Marco, and to hell with everybody else. Couldn’t I just have a life anymore without everyone having to poke their nose in things?
    I was already naked and about to step in the shower when I heard a loud thump and a tap at the glass on the balcony doors. How dare Marco jump onto my balcony! As I stomped angrily back toward the door, I wrapped myself in a large black towel.
    I flipped the latch and threw the doors open as I growled, “Exactly what part of piss off did you not comprehend?” He looked really good. It was painful for me to be deliberately cruel to him. Talking to Marco like that brought me to tears.
    The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him, but that’s exactly what I had to do if I wanted him to leave. The problem was it hurt my feelings to say things like that to him. I ached to reach out to him, but knew that I had to turn him away. I was shaking. Hot tears slid down my cheeks as I continued, “How dare you spy on me?” my voice was a whisper.
    “I’m sorry, Red,” he reached for me and I backed away.
    “Not this time. You can’t show up here and apologize for this anymore. I’m not going to tolerate it. If I catch one more of your people spying on me, I’ll kill them. Do you understand me? I’ll kill them, Marco and it won’t be pretty.”
    “I had no idea it upset you so much....”
    “And it wouldn’t upset you?”
    When he didn’t have anything to say I took a step toward him.
    “Let me show you just how personally I take things, Marco.”
    My reflexes were as fast as his and I grabbed both his hands before he could stop me. Immediately, I plunged into the surge of my memories, like diving into an ocean. I found every hurtful rumor and threw them into Marco. I wanted him to know exactly how it felt to have been talked about and spied on like I had been, especially lately. I