Liam took his feet down and leaned forward, arms on the desk. “I haven’t said I won’t help you, lass.” His gaze flicked to her blouse, whose buttons had slipped out of their top holes during her journey through Austin traffic and July heat. “Is Brian happy with you defending him? You like Shifters that much?”
Kim resisted reaching for the buttons. She could almost feel his fingers on them, undoing each one, and her heart beat faster.
“It’s nothing to do with who I like. I was assigned to him, but I happen to think Brian’s innocent. He shouldn’t go down for something he didn’t do.” Kim liked her anger, because it covered up how edgy this man made her. “Besides, Brian’s the only Shifter I’ve ever met, so I don’t know whether I like them, do I?”
Liam smiled again. His eyes returned to normal, and now he looked like any other gorgeous, hard-bodied, blue-eyed Irishman. “You, love, are—”
“Feisty. Yeah, I’ve heard that one. Also spitfire, little go-getter, and a host of other condescending terms. But let me tell you, Mr. Morrissey, I’m a damn good lawyer. Brian’s not guilty, and I’m going to save his ass.”
“I was going to say unusual. For a human.”
“Because I’m willing to believe he’s innocent?”
“Because you came here, to the outskirts of Shiftertown, to see me. Alone.”
The predator was back.
Why was it that when Brian looked at her like this, it didn’t worry her? Brian was in jail, angry, accused of heinous crimes. A killer, according to the police. But Brian’s stare didn’t send shivers down her spine like Liam Morrissey’s did.
“Any reason I shouldn’t have come alone?” she asked, keeping her voice light. “I’m trying to prove that Shifters in general, and my client in particular, can’t harm humans. I’d do a poor job of it if I was afraid to come and talk to his friends.”
Liam wanted to laugh at the little—spitfire—but he kept his stare cool. She had no idea what she was walking into; Fergus, the clan leader, expected Liam to make sure it stayed that way.
Damn it all, Liam wasn’t supposed to like her. He’d expected the usual human woman, sticks-up-their-asses, all of them, but there was something different about Kim Fraser. It wasn’t just that she was small and compact, while Shifter women were tall and willowy. He liked the way her dark blue eyes regarded him without fear, liked the riot of black curls that beckoned his fingers. She’d had the sense to leave her hair alone, not force it into some unnatural shape.
On the other hand, she tried to hide her sweetly curvaceous body under a stiff gray business suit, although her body had other ideas. Her br**sts wanted to burst out of the button-up blouse, and the stiletto heels only enhanced wickedly sexy legs.
No Shifter woman would dress as she did. Shifter women wore loose clothes they could quickly shed if they needed to change forms. Shorts and T-shirts were popular. So were gypsy skirts and sarongs in the summer.
Liam imagined this lady in a sarong. Her melon-firm br**sts would fill out the top, and the skirt would bare her smooth thighs.
She’d be even prettier in a bikini, lolling around some rich man’s pool, sipping a complicated drink. She was a lawyer—there was probably a boss in her firm who had already made her his. Or perhaps she was using said boss to climb the success ladder. Humans did that all the time. Either the bastard would break her heart, or she’d walk away happy with what she’d got out of it.
That’s why we stay the hell away from humans. Brian Smith had taken up with a human woman, and look where he was now.
So why did this female raise Liam’s protective instincts? Why did she make him want to move closer, inside the radius of her body heat? She wouldn’t like that; humans tried to stay a few feet apart from each other unless they couldn’t help it. Even lovers might do nothing more than hold hands in public.
Liam had no business thinking about passion and this woman in the same heartbeat. Fergus’s instructions had been to listen to Kim, sway her, then send her home. Not that Liam was in the habit of blindly obeying Fergus.
“So why do you want to help him, love?” he asked. “You’re only defending him because you drew the short straw, am I right?”
“I’m the junior in the firm, so it was handed to me, yes. But the prosecutor’s office and the police have done a shitty job with this case. Rights violations all over the place, but the courts won’t dismiss it, no matter how much I argue. Everyone wants a Shifter to go down, innocent or guilty.”
“And why do you believe Brian didn’t do it?”
“Why do you think?” Kim tapped her throat. “Because of these.”
Liam resisted touching the strand of black and silver metal fused to his own neck, a small Celtic knot at the base of his throat. The Collars contained tiny programmed chips enhanced by powerful Fae magic to keep Shifters in check, though the humans didn’t want to acknowledge the magic part. The Collar shot an electric charge into a Shifter when his violent tendencies rose to the surface. If the Shifter persisted, the next dose was one of debilitating pain. A Shifter couldn’t attack anyone if he was rolling around on the ground, writhing in agony.
Liam wasn’t sure entirely how the Collars worked; he only knew that each became bonded to its wearer’s skin and adapted to their animal form when they shifted. All Shifters living in human communities were required to wear Collars, which were irremovable once put on. Refusing the Collar meant execution. If the Shifter tried to escape, he or she was hunted down and killed.
“You know Brian couldn’t have committed a violent crime,” Kim was saying. “His Collar would have stopped him.”
“Let me guess. Your police claim the Collar malfunctioned?”
“Yep. When I suggest having it tested, I’m greeted with all kinds of reasons it can’t be. The Collar can’t be removed, and anyway it would be too dangerous to have Brian Collarless if he could be. Also too dangerous to provoke him to violence and see if the Collar stops him. Brian’s been calm since he was brought in. Like he’s given up.” She looked glum. “I hate to see someone give up like that.”
“You like the underdog?”
She grinned at him with red lips. “You could say that, Mr. Morrissey. Me and the underdog go back a long way.”
Liam liked her mouth. He liked imagining it on his body, on certain parts of his anatomy in particular. He had no business thinking that, but the thoughts triggered a physical reaction below the belt.