His fire-gold gaze bored into hers. “Maybe
I
should act on it. Maybe I should yank you onto my lap and have at it right now.”
Sienna interjected, “Her fantasy was doggie-style in my bed. And I’d be more than glad to participate, to lie beneath her and fondle her clit.”
“I’m not sharing her with you,” he snapped.
The vampire hissed, and the cat/man growled again. With equal intensity, they jumped out of their chairs, preparing to battle over Jenny as if she were a morsel of fresh meat.
“Stop!” A cluster of voices came out of the air simultaneously. But that wasn’t the only jarring occurrence. An invisible force slammed Noah and Sienna back in their seats, treating them like bickering children on a time-out.
Their stunned expressions would have been comical if Jenny hadn’t been just as startled.
Sienna recovered first. “It’s the
sapiya
,” she announced, returning to her pretty self.
Noah shifted into a calm exterior, too, and the little stones manifested into physical form. Jenny stared at them. They looked like typical pebbles you would find on the ground, only they were jumping around on the table. Some were even hopping over the candle, playing tag with the flame.
Sienna reached out to touch one, but it moved so fast, she couldn’t get anywhere near it, proving how difficult they were to catch.
“We don’t belong to you,” their collective voices said to her.
“Who do you belong to?” she asked.
“No one.”
Like a medium with a prized ghost, the psychic conducted the interview. “Tell me about the woman in Mexico who turned Noah into what he is.”
“Her name is Lareina. It means ‘the queen’ in Spanish.”
Sienna quickly proceeded. “
Is
she a queen of some sort?”
While the question hovered, Jenny scooted to the edge of her seat, anxious to know everything about Lareina. She glanced at Noah. He was fixed on the conversation, too.
But the
sapiya
didn’t respond.
Sienna frowned, but forged ahead. “How did Lareina become a shapeshifter?”
Jenny waited, praying the little stones would cooperate. But they didn’t. Once again, they chose not to answer.
Sienna prompted them. “Why aren’t you giving us the information we’re looking for?”
“We told you her name.”
“Yes, but we want to know more.”
“Then find Lareina and ask her.”
“How?”
Yes, how? Jenny thought, as her heart pounded in anticipation.
The question was ignored.
Sienna worked a different angle. “Why did you come to Noah in a dream and why did you tell him to reveal the truth about himself to Jenny?”
Another looming question. Everyone waited.
The
sapiya
danced in little circles. Then they said, “Because she has blood ties to the magic.”
Jenny heard Noah’s sharp intake of air. She sucked in a breath, too.
“What magic?” Sienna asked.
The twirling stones didn’t reply. They jumped up, one by one, and vanished as abruptly as they’d appeared, extinguishing the cherry-blossom candle in their wake.
In the wax-dripping silence, Sienna looked at Jenny. Noah did, too.
“Read her,” he said to the psychic. “Tap into the blood tie.”
“I’m trying, but I can’t feel her energy anymore. The
sapiya
must have blocked it from me.”
“Fuck.” He stood up and pushed away from the table. “So now what? We’re supposed to theorize?”
“Or figure out how to find Lareina,” Jenny said.
Noah got angrier. “I don’t give a flying crap about Lareina or the magic you’re tied to. All I wanted was a goddamn affair with you.”
Sienna came to Jenny’s defense. “Don’t take this out on her. I think we should all just play nice and let off some steam in bed.”
He rounded on the redhead. “We’re not having a fucking threesome. I already told you that my prey isn’t up for grabs.”
“Your prey?” she taunted him. “Are you sure she doesn’t mean more to you than that? For a man who only wanted an affair, you’re awfully territorial about her.”
“Because I don’t want you feeding on her clit? For all I know, you’ll turn her into a vampire behind my back.”
Sienna rolled her eyes. “Go,” she said to Jenny. “Take him out of here, and use your magic blood tie against him if you can. It would serve him right.”
Jenny didn’t want to use anything against anyone. Her feelings for Noah hadn’t changed. She loved him, and based on his asinine behavior and Sienna’s observant remark, she suspected that he was falling in love with her, too.
Twelve
N
oah got behind the wheel and slammed his door shut. Jenny was already buckled into the passenger seat. He should’ve shared her with Sienna. He should’ve proved that he didn’t give a damn if the vampire played with his prey.
The woman with blood ties to the magic.
Annoyed and confused, he started the engine. The Jaguar roared to life. It was the vehicle he’d offered to let Jenny drive. He remembered mentioning it to her when she’d first given him a tour of the rescue. That was when he’d been in control, or when he’d
thought
he’d been in control. If he knew then what he knew now, he wouldn’t have embarked on this affair.
Yeah, well, so much for hindsight. He peeled away from the curb and into traffic.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I’m taking you home.”
“Are you going to stay the night with me?”
Was she serious? “No.”
“This isn’t my fault.”
“Yes, it is. You and your notions about saving me.” But what did he expect? She rescued wildcats for a living. So why wouldn’t she become hell-bent on rescuing a shapeshifter, too?
She set her chin. “I don’t care if you’re mad. I’m still going to pursue this. I’m going to find Lareina.”
He entered the freeway on-ramp. “How? By Googling her? Maybe she has a Facebook profile. That would be handy, wouldn’t it? You could send her a friend request.”
She ignored his sarcasm. “My blood tie could be to her. She could be the magic the
sapiya
were referring to.”
His annoyance worsened. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Being connected to the bitch who tore me up.”
“What an awful thing to say.”
She was right. It was. Instead of apologizing, he punched the gas pedal, whipping through the night.
She shot him a warning. “You’re going to get a ticket if you keep that up.”
That triggered an urge to go faster, but the last thing he needed on this aggravating evening was a confrontation with the law.
He reduced his speed and reined in his anger. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have said what I did. But what if you really are supposed to break a curse and make me mortal? How would I adapt?”
She gentled her tone. “You could move in with me and help me run Big Cat Canyon.”
Cripes. The happily-ever-after thing. “And how long would that last? How long before we got tired of each other?”
“I’d never get tired of you.”
“You’d think differently when I’m old and gray.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I’d be old and gray, too.” Her voice remained soft. “The truth of the matter is, I love you, Noah. I tried to fight it. But I can’t help how I feel.”
If his hands hadn’t been firmly planted on the wheel, he would’ve run into the side rail. “I’m already freaked-out, Jenny. I didn’t need to hear that.”
“Then should I wait to tell you the second part of it?”
“Is it worse than the first part?”
“It will be to you.”
“Then yeah, you should wait.” His gut was already coiling into a knot, and the taillights in front of him threatened to blur beneath his stony gaze.
She stayed quiet and let him drive.
Once they arrived at her house, he killed the engine, and they sat in the car. He unbuckled his seat belt, freeing himself from its tight hold. She undid hers, as well.
“Go ahead. Tell me the rest of it.”
“You’re going to say that I’m wrong. But I think that you’re falling in love with me, too. Sienna probably thinks so, too.”
He didn’t like this, not for one heart-slamming minute. He narrowed his eyes at her. “So now you’re an authority on what a psychic vampire is thinking?”
“She isn’t the issue, Noah.”
“No. I am.” And he wasn’t the fall-in-love type. Was he? At this stage, he didn’t know what the hell was happening. But whatever it was, he should hightail his ass back home and try to decompress.
But then she said, “Come inside,” beckoning him to stay. And damn if he wasn’t swayed.
They exited the car, and although her porch was only a few feet away, he could’ve been walking along the edge of an enormous cliff. One misstep and he was screwed.
“Maybe I should just kiss you good night at the door.”
“No, you should come in. And when did you get so proper?” She grabbed his hand, tugging him forward. “You sound like you’re from another century.”
He didn’t appreciate her wisecrack, cute as it was. “Would you prefer a good-bye fuck at the door? I could do that just as easily.”
“Don’t be that way.” She unlocked the door in question and flipped on a light switch, bringing her simple ranch furnishings into view.
Noah refused to imagine himself living here and running the rescue with her. She turned to face him, and he contemplated the blood tie.
He said, “You don’t look anything like Lareina, but I suppose she could be an ancestor of yours.”
“Maybe I should Google her. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.”
“How is that going to help? All you have is her name.”
“It’s a start. If she is or was a queen of some sort, maybe something will turn up.”
She sat at the computer, and he stood behind her. The last time they were here together, he’d been Googling castles, and now she was searching for the possibility of royal bloodlines.
How ironic was that?
She looked and looked, but nothing surfaced. In spite of what the name meant, she couldn’t find a queen called Lareina. Not a real one. Not a mythical one.
Nada
.
Leaving the computer behind, they moved over to the sofa. “There has to be a way to locate her,” Jenny said. “Or else why would the
sapiya
have said to talk to her?”
“Who knows? But have you considered what type of dialogue that would be? Or how it would take place? Somehow I don’t see her chatting with you over afternoon tea. You should just leave this alone. Let it go.”
“I can’t. You even said it yourself earlier: What if I’m meant to break a curse and make you mortal?”
He dropped his head back against the sofa. He didn’t know what to think. Or what to feel. Other than flustered.
She said, “Maybe I should start working on a family tree. It might be a way to uncover if I have any blood ties to Lareina. Or if any of my other ancestors were involved in magic.”
“That sounds like a major undertaking. It could take months. Or years. This could go on and on.” He sat forward, tensing his muscles. “I’ll give you a week.”
“For the family tree?”
“For everything.”
“You mean to find Lareina and break the curse, if there is one? You can’t put that type of pressure on me.”
“What about the pressure you’re putting on me? Telling me that you love me, putting ideas in my head that I feel the same way about you. Get it done, Jenny. Either make me mortal by next week or stop this quest of yours.”
Her gaze locked with his. “I’m not following an ultimatum like that.”
“Then maybe I should end our affair right now.”
“You’d do that?”
Confused about what to do, he went silent.
“Answer me, Noah. Please.”
Her pleading tone made him think of how she’d begged him in bed, of how hot and beautiful and thrilling she was. He breathed in her sweet scent, pulling it through his nostrils and into his lungs.
Cursing the need to be near her, he said, “I’m not going to end it.” Before he painted himself into corner, he added, “But I will when I’m good and ready.”
“What if I
could
make you mortal by next week? Would you quit acting like a jerk and accept our life together?”
One minute she was worried about losing him and the next she was calling him a jerk? “You just blew it, Jenny. The week deal is off. I’m not accepting it under any circumstances.”
She got up and went back to the computer. “I don’t care what you say. I’m making you mortal with or without your permission.”
“By spending all of your free time on genealogy sites? Who cares who your tenth cousin, fifteen times removed, is? Unless it’s someone magical, of course. Really, truly, good luck with that. I’m sure you’re going to need it.”
“You’re just mad because you don’t want to admit that you have feelings for me. And stop hovering. I need to focus.”
“Does it look like I’m hovering?” He headed for the kitchen to see what she had in the fridge.
Pasting a sandwich together, he slapped roast beef and cheese between two slices of rye bread. He grabbed an apple and poured a glass of ice water, too. Falling in love wasn’t an option and he wasn’t going to let her convince him otherwise.
Upon his return, he set the snack on the coffee table and reached for the remote.
She spun around in her chair. “Don’t you dare turn on the TV. The noise will distract me.”
“Jesus, woman. Could you sound any more like a nagging wife?”
“Is that your he-man way of proposing to me? Sorry, but you’re going to have to do better than that.”
As if. “Get over yourself, Beauty.”
“Be prepared to grow old, Beast.”
Verbal fencing. He took the final jab. “You wish.” He glanced in the direction of the hallway. “I’m going to help myself to the TV in your room.”