"This is important, Riley. Us. Not work." He raised a hand to my cheek, cupping it lightly. "And if it was a matter of true urgency, Rhoan can contact me, He knows where we'll be. He has my number."

I raised my eyebrows, curious despite myself. "So we're not going back to your place?"

"Given your propensity in the past to run off on guardian business, no, we are not. I intend for our night of pleasure to be far away from the madding crowd. And any form of transport."

I wriggled on his lap, feeling his growing readiness, loving the heat of him pressed against me. "I should be very angry with you. And Jack certainly will be."

"Jack doesn't scare me. And you, my love, will enjoy every moment I have planned."

"Is that an order?" I murmured, my lips so deliciously close to his that I could taste every breath, every move of his lips.

"It most certainly is," he said, and kissed me.

Our night of pleasure was spent in the Macedon hills, on a property belonging to one of Kellen's friends.

There was just the two of us, a tent, and a huge picnic basket of food on five acres of manicured lawns and lush gardens. We laughed, we played, and we made love—sometimes in full view of the neighbors—and it was absolutely divine. Even the notoriously fickle Melbourne weather dealt us a nice night for a change.

Dawn had barely begun to creep her fiery fingers across the blackness of night when Kellen's phone finally rang. He unwrapped himself from around me and fished out the phone from the tangle of our clothes.

"It's Rhoan," he said, and handed the vid-phone tome.

"So," my brother said, expression wry, "Had a good time?"

"Absolutely wonderful," I said, stretching like a contented cat languishing in the sun.

"I certainly hope so, because Jack isn't happy."

"Jack's never happy." I paused, barely resisting the urge to giggle as Kellen began tickling the underside of my foot. "What docs he want me to do?"

"I'll let him tell you himself."

"Rhoan, wait—" He didn't. A second later, Jack's bald head appeared on the vid-screen. And as Rhoan had already noted, he did not look happy.

"I'm not officially on duty for another day," I said, quickly, "so this had better be an emergency."

Which was a pretty dumb thing to say. Just about all the Directorate cases could be classed as urgent, simply because they involved murdering psychos. We very rarely dealt with anything else.

"There is no such thing as vacation for guardians when emergencies happen," he said, voice dark and full of the anger so evident in his expression. "Next time I damn well ring you, answer the phone. Or else."

I didn't ask what he meant by that. I had a feeling I wouldn't want to know. "So what's the problem?"

"Dead people."

"Dead people are a regular occurrence in our line of work, Jack." And if was just dead people, he wouldn't be ringing me. Or be so mad.

Jack grimaced, his bald head gleaming under the brightness of the overhead lighting. He had to be upstairs in the main offices—the area the public could enter—not in the underground guardian area. There, the lighting was kept at "dusk" level for the sake of the newer vamps. Not that artificial lighting could hurt them. It was just that some of them tended to get jumpy in bright light. And jumpy guardians were never a good thing.

"This is a nasty one," Jack said, "and I need your talents involved."

Meaning he wanted me there to see if I could pick up anything along psychic lines. Like a soul hanging around with ready information to impart.

I scrubbed a hand across my eyes. While I hoped like hell Kade, Iktar, and the other non-vamps Jack had employed to fill out the daytime division got through training soon, the reality was, their presence in the unit wouldn't have saved me from a situation like this. I was the only one with this particular talent.

And yet, as much as I hated the thought of leaving Kellen and heading off to some gruesome murder scene, I couldn't deny the buzz of excitement that was humming through my system. I was going hunting, and the wolf within couldn't wait.

As Jack had once said, all werewolves were addicted to the thrill of the chase. It was just society that had, to some extent, tamed them. Certainly it was something I'd denied for a long, long time.

"Send me the address, then," I said, "But you'll owe me big time, Jack."

Amusement flickered briefly through his green eyes. "I'll give you an extra week of vacation next year."

"Yeah, right." We both knew the likelihood of me taking that was slim. "Just send the details to this number."

"Will do."

I hesitated, then asked, "So, what did you ring me about earlier?"

"Rogue Vamp," he said, voice all annoyed again, my bad for reminding him. "I took care of it myself." If Jack was taking care of business, then business was bad.

I hung up, but kept hold of the phone. "Seeing you smashed my phone, I'll need to keep this."

He touched a hand to my face, gently trailing his fingers down my check to my lips. I kissed his fingertips as they brushed my mouth, saw the flare of desire deep in his bright eyes.

"I figured you might have to leave early, so I arranged for a cab to come back at six."

I glanced at my watch. It was almost that now. I rolled free from his touch and sat up. "I need to go for a quick swim to freshen up."

He caught my hand, stopping me from moving. "I need you to think about something while you're gone."

I raised my eyebrows at the sudden seriousness in his tone. "Sure. What?"

"I want to go solo with you."

I blinked. "What? Now? It's too soon." The reply was almost automatic. As much as I cared for Kellen, as much as I was beginning to think he could be the one, I wasn't ready to go solo with him. Not after the events of the last few months. Not after Quinn. This time, I wasn't rushing into anything, free will or not.

"It's not too soon when it feels so right," he said, and paused, studying me for a moment. "Or are you still playing games with me? Still waiting, just in case something better comes along?"

I sucked in a breath and stared at him. "You really think I'm not serious about us?"

"Honestly? Sometimes I just don't know."

He couldn't have hurt me any more if he'd hit me. How could he honestly think I was playing games? I wasn't Rhoan—I had no hunger to fight the restrictions of a relationship and play the field. I wanted a home and a family and one man to call my own—and Kellen knew that. "That's a horrible thing to say."

"Perhaps, but it's also the truth. For most of our relationship, I've felt like a third wheel. There was always Quinn, or work, ahead of whatever you and I were doing. I'm not built to stand around and wait, Riley. I never will be."

"But Quinn's gone—"

"Work isn't."

"Dammit, you know I can't abandon work. Not when there's so few people in the day division." Hell, we'd discussed my being a guardian—and just what it entailed—up on Monitor Island. We'd even talked about the whole fertility thing, and me being a half-breed. None of it had seemed to be a problem to him.

But maybe he'd had the time to dwell on it since then. If so, I guess I had to be glad my work seemed more of a. problem for him than my mixed heritage and inability to carry a child.

He continued, "All I'm asking for is a decision on us going solo. It's not like I'm asking for forever."

No, but if I went solo, it would be because I was sure it would end up with forever. Right now, what I wanted most was time. Time to grow into us. Time to be really sure. I didn't want to go solo only to have it all fall apart. "It's too early—"

"It's not" He grasped my shoulders and shook me lightly. "You keep saying you want the white picket fence ideal, and yet you seem totally unwilling to step Into the arena and take a chance."