“Cut the crap, Tess. Why were you following me?”

“How do you know I was following you?” Oops. She meant to say, “What makes you think I was following you?”

He gave a knowing smile—that looked ridiculously sexy rather than irritating. “I know you don’t want to insult my intelligence so let’s just say for argument’s sake, if you were following me, why would that be?”

At least she’d gotten him to change his tone.

“Truthfully?” She leaned a little closer to him. She couldn’t help it.

“That would be nice.”

“I’m really not a very nice person,” she announced.

“Neither am I.” He reached out and moved a strand of hair behind her ear.

Was he trying to confuse her? Because it was working. She’d nearly fallen into his hand before he pulled it away. He was indeed a very bad man.

“That’s good. I hate nice guys. So where does that leave us?”

“I haven’t got all night, Tess.” He lowered his chin, indicating—she presumed—he was growing tired of their banter.

She lifted an eyebrow. “No? That’s too bad. I’m a night owl. I can—”

“Answer my question before I haul you to your car over my shoulder.” His tone sent a little zing of pleasure right to the tips of her breasts.

“As if you could—” She was over his shoulder in one second flat. He moved swiftly, quietly and with superhuman strength. Uh oh. “Hey, put me down!”

He started down the alley, seemingly unbothered by her spastic attempts to get him to let her go. “You ready to walk and talk now?”

“Fine,” she conceded, although the view of his backside was pretty damn good.

When both feet securely hit the ground, she tugged down her dress and shifted the V-neck into place. He watched her squirm to put the rest of the material back where it belonged and his roving eyes heated her from the inside out.

“I followed you because I wanted to help.”

He started walking. “Do I look like I need help?” A little gleam—and major interest?—flickered in his sideways glance.

“Well, no. But I’m very capable and I didn’t feel like going home, so I decided there was no harm in making myself available to you should you need me.” She took a deep breath. It was time to put the question out there. “Did you know Dane is a—”

“Wolfen? Yeah I know.”

“How do you—”

He stopped and turned toward her with confusion and passion in his deep blue eyes. For several seconds he stared at her, like he was trying to get inside her head. Guess what she was thinking. “I’m the leader of the Night Runners,” he finally said.

She imagined he’d told her something he’d never told another human being before.

What the hell was she going to do now?