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I needed a release and nothing on the television was going to do it for me. I needed to go for a run, but I didn’t trust myself just yet. I had lain in bed for hours, waiting for sleep to take me, counting sheep and the whole works before finally giving up and flipping on the tube.

After tomorrow night, I told myself, if I could wait that long. It had only been four days since the killer struck. Tomorrow night would be five since my last Change, and then on the sixth I could go for a run out here. I’d call Tammy in the morning and tell her I needed some time off. She’d either fire me or understand. I just hoped she wouldn’t toss all my stuff before I got back to claim it. Some of those books had been expensive, not that they’d told me anything useful. I know a few of the titles would have raised a few eyebrows in the local Bible Belt, maybe even gotten me on someone’s black list. Maybe I should donate them or something instead of packing them up. I threw the remote on the bed.

“Damn it.” I hated giving in to it. Meant I had no self-control.

I got up and tugged on some sweats, to wander around outside. I needed something to take the edge off until I could Change. Anxiety always made it worse and I was worried about the killings. The air was crisp and clean up here. And thin. Sound carried better. I heard a couple in the next room over working out the kinks on the bed. I heard another guy watching what had to be a porno-on-demand. What did I expect from a hotel with this price range? I kept walking, away from the grunting and groaning.

It growled inside me. It wanted to be let loose in some form or another. The one it was hearing was as good as any. I felt hot and the restlessness had nothing to do with being bored. I found myself walking towards the hotel bar without thinking and started to steer myself away. I worked in one all day and here I was heading for another? God, I had to be crazy. But the voice growled again. I went back to my bike, thinking I’d take a ride, when I caught a whiff of Bulgari. Hmm, my favorite scent on a man. It seemed too familiar somehow, had an undercurrent of something… Ah ha! The guy Tammy had been laughing at, it was his. He’d followed me out here. I followed the trail while It rumbled around inside my head with anticipation. I bent over, getting lower, closer to the scent, tracking. “Prey,” I whispered to myself.

I stamped down hard and stood up abruptly, feeling totally schizophrenic. I counted to ten, breathing slowly. I started forward again, this time not doing my impression of a Navy SEAL. Walking past a dusty red pickup, I slammed my open palm into the hotel door the Bulgari trail ended at by way of knocking. I heard some hasty scrambling and rustling before the door opened as far as the chain would let it.

“What the—?” He was rubbing his jade eyes with the back of his hand, in a wife-beater and polka dot boxers. His hair was messed up and his lips were slightly parted. Nice full lips and broad, muscled shoulders. I shivered. My head filled with all sorts of things to do to lips like that, ways to make that muscle flex and bend the way I wanted. I shook it.

“Listen, lady, I think you got the…”

“You’re following me. Why?” I always ended up blunt when I couldn’t seem to think things through. I just wish I could blame it on the divergence in my career choices.

He looked at me like I was three kinds of crazy, shut the door and I thought that would be the end of things, but he took off the chain and came out to face me.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” Some of the other hotel patrons shouted their thoughts about that question, but I ignored them. I could only focus on the better part of what was in front of me. I was staring directly at his chest and the voice was insistent on getting some of something tonight. If not the woods then it would settle for sweat-soaked sheets and leaving teeth marks on those perfectly shaped shoulders that were so very close.

I turned and tried to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist and spun me around to face him. The look in his eyes said he was pissed. I loved it. She loved it. He drew breath to speak again but he never got to. My mouth was on his before he could utter another sound. This close, the smell of soap, sweat and his heat filled my nostrils. I let it fill me. I growled softly. I watched his eyes and let him have my hand, but ran the other up his chest, over his shoulder and pulled his head down so I wasn’t up on tip toe. He relaxed into the kiss. My tongue started to trace his lips and he released my arm to cup my face, his other hand sliding around to my back. Yes, hissed the voice in the back of my head. It was as if someone had splashed cold water on me. I pulled away sharply. He looked as dazed as I felt.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I thought you were following me. I’m gonna go.” I turned around and sprinted to my room. I made it to my door, leaning my forehead against it, drawing slow deep breaths. I couldn’t hear anything above the pounding of blood. God, how could I have been so stupid? Don’t let it get control, don’t name it, don’t listen to it, YOU are commanding what does and does not happen in your own body! It tickled the back of my nerves, and I could suddenly feel the very wind as if it were stroking my skin in caress. The smell of the woods was so close, even the exhaust fumes couldn’t hide it. Then it snatched that scent away and replaced it with the Bulgari and him. I shook my head again, straining against the door when he was right behind me and I saw his hands rest themselves along the door frame on either side of me.

“Lady, you are one strange character.” His breath hovered above my skin, making my spine bow. “I might just start following you.”

Control, control, control. This is not you, this is not you. “Tammy’s Bar,” I spat at him. If I couldn’t back this off, maybe I could re-focus it.

“Tammy’s Bar.” And he drew out the mm’s so he hummed by my ear. My breath came sharp and I curled towards him.

“You were there.” I turned to face him. My pulse was in my throat again. Back off, I thought, but he did the opposite and closed the distance so he just lingered, not quite touching, above my skin.

“I was there,” he said with the same tone. The look in his eyes said he knew exactly what he was doing to me, and he didn’t care, so long as he was there for the rest of the night.

“You followed me.”

“I’m going to Steamboat Springs. This is just about the last motel along the highway to stop if you want any sleep.” His gaze traveled over my forehead, examining my hair, going to my chin and finally back up to my eyes. I gave him points for not looking at my breasts. But his eyes had other things than sleep in them. “You being here is coincidence.” He closed the little distance to kiss me. It was just a quick brush, but my breathing stopped. “A very happy coincidence.” He smiled and my body trembled. “We’re both grown-ups. Not gonna hurt anyone if we just…”

I pulled myself up against him, my hands slid up to his shoulders, kneaded the breadth of them and he slid his palms over my back, pulled the keycard out of my back pocket and opened the door. I grasped his hand, turned around and was halfway to the bed when I felt the taser bite into my upper thigh.

She snarled and turned towards him in surprise. His eyes registered their own shock for a split second, then a second wave from the tazer hit me and I sunk like a rock in a lake. How did I miss this coming?