Betting on Julia (A Melville Sisters Novel) (Entangled Covet) (7 page)

It was weird; while he came across as some mild-mannered accountant, there was something wrong with that description. She knew he was made of sterner stuff than he was letting on.

But why was that?

It really was none of her concern. Sebastian Crane was no longer a contender for position of provider of sex as a means of calming the beast.

Thing
wagged her tail.

“You can shut up—this is your fault anyway.”

Christ, she was talking to
Thing
now.

But what if he kept coming around? What if lunch with her sisters didn’t scare him off? What were her other options?

He claimed he wasn’t ready for a relationship. Just wanted to be friends. Would he have kissed her tonight if she hadn’t dragged him down that alley and forcibly kissed him first?

Perhaps she could frighten him off? Come on really strong and desperate.

And what about kinky?

Hadn’t he said his old girlfriend had wanted stuff he wasn’t willing to do? What if she suddenly decided she wanted weird stuff as well? She’d honestly never thought about it. Now she imagined Sebastian chained to the railings on her bed. His long body stretched out taut. He’d be naked and his…

Thing
was growling now, swiping at her with sharp claws.

“Okay, okay, I’ll only go kinky as a last resort.” Not only because
Thing
wasn’t on board with the idea but because she was a little bit scared she might enjoy it and she wasn’t ready to face yet another gargantuan character flaw.

So first, she’d try the I’m-a–nice-girl-and-I-want-to-get-married-right-now approach. Though it might be a little difficult to pull off the nice girl after letting him rip her panties off in an alley with God knew who looking on.

So she needed a plan B
:
buy herself a whip and a set of handcuffs and terrify the life out of the poor man.

A girl had to do what a girl had to do.

She could manage this. Only problem was she didn’t want to scare him off, she wanted to have sex with him.

Life wasn’t fair.

Chapter Seven

You know you could be fucking her right now?

Bastian gritted his teeth. “The plan isn’t to fuck her, it’s to make her fall in love with me.”

Yeah, but the way to a woman’s heart is through her—

“Butt out of it, Dante.”

But you need all the help you can get.

“Yeah, maybe, but what I fail to understand is why the hell you would help me anyway? I win, and it follows that you lose.”

What can I say—I’m a generous guy.

“Of course you are.”

He poured himself a scotch, swallowed it, and then a second, but he still felt on edge.

Maybe you should call Melanie?

“Fuck off,” he snarled. He craved the release of sex but not with Melanie. What he desired was sweet, blond, and wholesome. And he couldn’t risk taking her right now with the darkness so close.

No, he would have to find another form of release. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and punched in a number.

“Colin? It’s Sebastian. Any chance of a fight?”

“When.”

“Now.”

“Come on over. We’ve got some wolves in the house tonight.”

“Perfect.”

“I’ll save one for you.”

“Make it two,” he said and ended the call.

Ballsy.

He crashed into the back of the cage and the crowd roared. For a moment, he rested, regaining his breath while the two men watched him warily. Though they weren’t men. They were werewolves.

He hated werewolves.

The fights took place in a huge cavernous basement beneath a factory in the east end of London. The crowd was a mix of humans and Supes, though it was hard to tell the difference.

There was big money attached to the illegal fights. Sebastian had made quite a name for himself but even so, the odds would have been good because he was taking on two at once and that had never been done.

But he’d craved the extra level of violence, was aware it was the only thing that would allow him to banish Dante and give himself some peace.

Spoilsport.

There were very few rules to the fights. Any moves were allowed, and Sebastian’s style was a combination of various martial arts he’d picked up in his long life, mixed in with a straightforward-attack approach. Of course, the weres weren’t allowed to shift. That would give the game away to the humans in the audience. But even in their human forms, they were far stronger and faster than normal men. They also tended to have an aggressive streak, which made them ferocious fighters.

And these two were good.

He pushed himself away from the cage wall, stepped to the center of the ring, and stood relaxed, hands hanging by his side. His knuckles were already swollen and bleeding—it felt good. But he didn’t want the fight to end too soon.

They circled him slowly and the crowd started to whistle and shout for more action. One of them lunged at him, and Bastian whirled around and kicked out, slamming the man into the sidebars. The second landed a punch on his shoulder hard enough to swing him around and then they were grappling.

Sebastian ignored the pain as he threw punch after punch at the man’s rock-hard abdomen. The other man was back on his feet and grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms at his side, holding him with inhuman strength while the first took advantage of his temporary incarceration. His nose crunched and his lips split. The crowd was baying now.

Sebastian blinked the sweat from his eyes and shook his head as a fist landed on his cheekbone. Through the bars of the cage, his gaze locked with another man. Tall, with short, dark blond hair and a pale gray business suit. He raised an eyebrow, and Sebastian grinned.

This wasn’t over yet. He took a punch to the other side, which would have knocked him to the floor if he hadn’t been held in place. He cleared his mind of everything, centering his strength. Bracing himself, he breathed in, then thrust out with his arms and the man holding him was thrown across the ring to slam into the bars. Bastian spun around and kicked out at the second one. He was stronger and stood his ground. Bastian followed up with a series of punches. He was in the zone now.

There was a purity to violence that left his mind clear of doubts.

In this ring there were three men who all wanted to win.

Simple.

But he wanted it the most. His body took over, whirling and kicking, slamming his fists onto flesh until the stench of blood and sweat filled his nostrils.

Finally, he knocked the last one down and he didn’t get up. The guy blinked.

At least he wasn’t dead.

Bastian had won.

The fights had started out as a wager with Dante. The demon did like to bet and he liked to fight or rather he liked his host to do all the work. The first time he had wagered a week’s peace if Bastian won and it had become an ongoing wager.

Bastian always won.

Now he heard Dante’s long-suffering sigh. But the demon wouldn’t renege on a bet—apparently there was some sort of demon code—that just wasn’t done. Then he was as good as gone, banished to the deep recesses of Bastian’s mind, and a sense of peace washed over him.

A week. A whole week in which to make Julia fall in love with him.

Colin who ran the club opened the cage door and tossed him a towel. Sebastian winced as he wiped the blood and sweat from his face. Though he healed quicker than normal, he was still going to have to do a glamor spell to hide the damage from Julia on Sunday.

“Good fight,” Colin said.

Bastian grinned. “I enjoyed it.”

“I could tell. Look, I’ve got a job for you if you want it.”

“What is it?”

“Missing person.” He handed Bastian an envelope. “There’s a hair sample in there.”

“Usual terms?”

“Yes.”

Colin was a go-between. A little like Bastian, he lived on the fringes of the supernatural world and the club enabled him to meet a lot of interesting people. He’d often put work Sebastian’s way, taking a cut of the extremely lucrative fees. Bastian had an excellent reputation as a seeker, his powers enabling him to find things, including people.

“I’ll see to it tomorrow.” He’d go back to his place tonight, get some peaceful sleep, and do the spell in the morning. If he stayed away from Julia for a while, then the absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder thing might have a chance to work.

On Sunday, he’d meet her family and make a good impression. He reckoned family was important to a girl like Julia. As he headed for the cage door, he glanced out at the crowd, his gaze snagging on the man he had seen earlier. He was half turned away talking to a second man at his side. And this one Bastian did recognize.

“Who’s that?” he asked Colin, nodding his head toward the blond man.

“That, my friend, is the new pack leader.”

“Ethan Stone is dead?”

“Yup.”

Sebastian studied the other man. Tall, around Sebastian’s six three or four, he had dark blond hair cut short and cool gray eyes. His suit looked expensive and gave him the appearance of a successful businessman rather than an Alpha werewolf. At his side was a smaller man, the one Sebastian did recognize—Joe, Ethan’s old pack Beta. So he’d kept his position. Often a new Alpha would purge all the old leader’s people and start afresh, but these two appeared on good terms.

He glanced around for the other pack Beta. Sophia had often come to the fights; she liked the violence. “Is Sophia here?”

“She’s not been seen since the change of leadership.”

Which meant she was probably dead. Sebastian couldn’t be sorry—the woman had been a sadistic bitch. Dante had liked her—he’d tried to force Sebastian to sleep with her, but no way in hell was he sleeping with a fucking werewolf.

He hated them.

All of them.

After all, it was werewolves that had got him into this mess.

…

Julia rubbed the back of her neck. It was stiff from spending most of yesterday peering around the curtains waiting for a glimpse of Bastian either coming or going from his house.

But there had been no sign of him.

He’d eventually called in the evening to confirm he would pick her up at twelve thirty the following day but ended the call before she had a chance to put her plan in motion.

It was now twelve twenty-nine and still no sign of movement from his house. Finally, at last, his front door opened and he emerged. For a second, her heart stopped beating and then started again at twice the usual rate.

He headed up her drive, and she flung open the door before he could knock. In faded jeans that clung to his long legs and a black sweater beneath a battered leather jacket, he was utterly gorgeous. He wasn’t wearing glasses, and his dark hair was ruffled as though he’d run his hands through it.

He gave her a slightly lopsided smile that made her insides melt and handed her a package,

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Take a look.”

She turned and headed back the way she had come. The package was about a foot square, gold paper and tied with a pink ribbon. She resisted the urge to shake it, see if it rattled. She loved presents.

She untied the ribbon and tore open the paper. A beautiful pink sweater was inside. She held it up; it looked a perfect fit. There was also a smaller package. She had an inkling what would be inside and wasn’t disappointed when she opened it. Not only panties to replace the ones he had torn, but a whole set of underwear in pale pink and cream lace. A half-cup bra, a thong, and a suspender belt. The sizes were perfect. There was also a pair of black silk stockings.

Bastian leaned against the doorframe, his hands tucked into his pockets. “I wanted to say sorry. I told you I needed a friend, and then I attacked you like an animal.”

“Actually, I kissed you first.”

He grinned. “So you did.”

She crossed to where he stood, reached up on tiptoes, and kissed him lightly on the lips. It was as much in the way of an experiment as anything else. Or so she tried to tell herself. There would be time enough for the plan later. She stepped back and held her breath while she waited for
Thing
to make her presence known. But nothing. No reaction and some of the tension inside her relaxed. Maybe she’d been wrong and it had nothing to do with Bastian.

She was quite tempted to kiss him once more, maybe add a bit of tongue, and feel him up, just to check. But he was straightening and stepping back.

“You look beautiful,” he said.

“So do you.”

He grinned again. He had a stunning smile. “Friends?”

“Do friends buy each other underwear?”

“I don’t know. I’m a little out of practice, but I owed you.”

Today, she was wearing a sapphire-blue knitted sweater dress that hugged her curves and matched her eyes. His gaze wandered over her, and she was pretty sure he liked what he saw. She could feel herself warming up, her pulse slowing, her heart thudding.

Maybe it was time to get out of there, before she got sidetracked and decided to keep him to herself for the afternoon and not subject him to torture by sisters.

But no. She had to go. This was Lissa’s celebration and, however hard Julia found it, she had to celebrate and not let her best friend see how much she was hurting. Because she was.

When she hadn’t been thinking about Sebastian, she’d been dwelling on the whole baby thing. Or rather lack of babies. She’d been pushing that part of the change to the back of her mind. It hadn’t seemed relevant. After all, there was no man in her life, and unlikely to be one. How could she carry on a relationship with anyone normal?

So what had changed?

She peered at Bastian.

A relationship with him was impossible. Wasn’t it?

“Let’s go,” she said.

He had offered to drive them to Lissa and Daniel’s London town house, where Lissa was holding her little get-together.

After giving him the address, she sat back to enjoy the ride. His car was as impressive as the rest of him. A sleek black Lamborghini that positively purred as they cruised along. He must be a successful accountant.

The roads were busy, and he concentrated on driving. Julia admired his hands resting lightly on the wheel, his fingers long and tanned. She had a flashback to the feel of those fingers pushing inside her, while his mouth sucked on her nipples and… A spasm shot through her, and she shifted in the seat.

“Are you okay?” He cast her a sideways glance, and she pasted on a smile.

“Fine,” she said brightly.

“You thinking about the baby thing?”

“No, yes…maybe.” That was safer than saying she was thinking about his fingers inside her.

“Are the doctors sure you can’t have any.”

Doctors? For a second she was unsure what he was talking about, then she realized. “Yes, pretty much so.”

“You can always adopt.”

“I’m not even in a relationship. I think it’s a bit early to think about adopting.”

“Maybe. Is this the place?”

He’d slowed to a crawl, and she glanced out the side window. They’d arrived. The town house was in a crescent-shaped row. “There’s parking underground if you drive to the back.”

A steel grating closed off the parking area, but Julia leaned out the window and pressed in the security code and the ramp lifted.

“Nice place,” Sebastian said as he parked the car beside a Ferrari.

An elevator took them up the one floor to the ground level. Lissa was waiting in the hallway with Debs and Marcy as the elevator doors slid open. They were alone. No men in sight.

They were also staring avidly at Sebastian. He stepped forward and held out his hand to Debs.

“Hi, I’m Sebastian, Julia’s friend.”

“Debs,” she said. “Julia’s sister.”

Marcy thrust her hand out next. “Marcy, Julia’s other sister.”

Like her, Debs and Marcy were small and blond. Debs was dressed in designer sleekness. She was beautiful but too thin and had a brittle air. Marcy by contrast was scruffy but way more relaxed in khaki combats, Doc Martens, and a black T-shirt.

Sebastian moved on to Lissa, but instead of shaking hands, he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

“Hello again. Thank you for inviting me.”