With Caution

on things.” Frowning, Jake glanced at the diner then back to Remi. “Everything okay?”
    Hell no, everything wasn’t okay. He no longer had the surge of adrenaline his anger had spurred, but now he was fighting off arousal. Remi groaned, dropping his head into his hands. Fuckin’ Chay. Turning him into a werewolf and making his life even more difficult.
    Remi lifted his head. “Everything is fine.”
    “You always get mad then terrified in a span of seconds for no reason? Yeah, okay, pull the other leg. What’s the matter, Remi?”
    That wasn’t what he wanted to be pulling on Jake at the moment. And where the hell had that come from?

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    Remi sighed, and for a second he thought of telling Jake everything, but he didn’t.
    He’d never talked about Dirk. Not even to his friends. No way was he going to risk anyone else, especially a friend, by dragging them into it. He looked right into Jake’s dark eyes and hoped Jake would let it go. “That’s my baby brother in there.”
    Jake turned his head, peeking back at the diner. “I kinda assumed. Cute kid. He looks like you.”
    Following Jake’s attention, Remi saw Sterling duck out of sight of the window and scurry back to their table. He grinned. Yeah, Sterling did look just like him, well except for the eyes. Sterling had Dirk’s brown eyes. No, he had the asshole’s eye color . Sterling didn’t have mean, dead eyes like the son of a bitch.
    “That isn’t what I asked though.”
    Remi sighed. That figures. Jake wasn’t going to let it go. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He had to get a grip and go back inside. Telling Jake what a wuss he was about his father was out of the question. He had to live with his own failures. This was his problem and he had to fix it. And to do that, he needed to talk to Sterling. Color. Concentrate.
    “Blue.”
    “Huh?”
    “You’re wearing a blue shirt.” A tight dark blue shirt which showed off Jake’s pecs and—fuck, Remi was seeing black and white again. He had to focus on something other than Jake.
    Jake chuckled, a low, sexy rumbling sound. The man could make a fortune in radio.
    “They changed back, didn’t they?”
    “My scent change again?”
    “Yeah.”
    Could werewolves smell attraction? God, he hoped not. He couldn’t. No, that wasn’t true, he could smell all sorts of scents coming from people, but he didn’t know what they meant. He was still trying to learn to scent prey and the different scents of nature when he hunted. Keaton promised to help him with people next. Until then, he was going to have 14
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    With Caution
    to be careful. How embarrassing would it be to be caught lusting after a guy? He wasn’t gay, damn it.
    Remi gazed past the big man to the car parked next to the SUV. What color was it?
    “Let me help you, Remi.” Jake’s deep voice softened into a caress. “I want to help you.”
    The sincerity was Remi’s undoing. He closed his eyes, dipping his head. Un-fucking-believable. The slightest show of concern from someone and he was breaking down. No, that wasn’t true, it was Jake. Remi had never had a problem putting on a good face when his friends tried to help. He’d always known their help would make it worse for not only him, but everyone involved. But with Jake…there was something about the man that made Remi feel he would always be there for him.
    Jake’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Deep breath. Relax. Getting worked up again isn’t going to get your eyes back to normal.”
    Nodding, he focused his attention past Jake again and took a deep breath.
    Something brushed past his cheek, startling him.
    Remi sat up straight, trying to figure out what had happened.
    Jake stared at him, wide-eyed, and stepped away.
    Oh fuck. He’d leaned into Jake’s hand, rubbing his cheek against it. What the fuck was he thinking? He glanced down, trying to act cool. “I’m sorry, I uh, I—”
    “No big deal. You just surprised me. Tell me about your family. What happened to Sterling?”
    My family? Remi’s head jerked up. How does he know it has something to do with Sterling? How had he forgotten Jake was a PI? Maybe Jake could help. “Can you follow someone for me and gather info on them?” He knew damn well his father was a dirty cop—which was what made him dangerous—maybe if Remi could prove it he could get the information to the right people and no one would have to know he or Jake were