Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (15 page)

His mouth hardened, and he shook his head. “’Fraid
not. No matter what you do, it’s going to bleed through.”

“And it’s that different?” she asked tightly, though
she forced a smile on her face for Jamie’s benefit.

He cleared his throat, his gaze shifting away as he
said, “Yeah. It’s pretty different, all right.”

Kellan sent her a sheepish grin from the other side of
the table. “Guess I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t mean to
embarrass you.”

“No harm done,” she murmured just as their server came
to the table, her baby blues zeroed in on Aiden as she asked if they were ready
to place their orders. Olivia fought to hold her smile in place as Kandy,
according to the name tag pinned just to the left of her cleavage, began to
flirt with Aiden. Not caring to witness his response, she muttered that she’d
take a coffee and croissant, then focused her full attention on the men sitting
across from them. Now that she was closer, little details caught her attention,
making it obvious that the guys were working hard to project a carefree image
for Jamie’s sake.

Kellan had an edgy alertness in his odd-colored eyes,
as if he was just waiting for something bad to happen.

Noah, on the other hand, looked exhausted. The dark,
bruise-colored shadows under his eyes only made the unusual blue seem brighter
beneath the ebony wisps of hair that fell over his brow. Though she couldn’t
explain it, there was something about him that Olivia couldn’t quite put her
finger on. He hadn’t healed as quickly as Kellan, his lip still mending from
their fight with the Casus, but she wasn’t buying Aiden’s claim that the guy
was human. There was something deeper to him. Some dark current that ran just
beneath his beautiful surface, and yet Olivia didn’t sense danger from Noah
Winston. Not for her, and certainly not for Jamie.

And Aiden had been right about Jamie having the two
warriors wrapped around her little finger. Not only had they obviously been
showering her with attention, but her pancakes had been cut into perfect little
triangles.

“She said that’s how she likes them,” Noah murmured, a
wry grin on his face as he gestured with his chin toward Jamie’s plate.

“They’re perfect,” she replied, watching as Jamie
grinned around a huge bite of pancake and syrup.

“I have a niece who likes them the same way,” he told
her, taking a drink of his coffee, “so I’ve had my share of practice.”

Looking from Noah to Kellan, she said, “Thank you for
bringing Jamie over.”

“We figured you could use a little time to yourself,”
Kellan rumbled, and from the corner of her eye she caught the look of warning
that Aiden shot the grinning Watchman.

Kandy returned with their coffees and her croissant,
her eyes focused on Aiden with almost worshipful attention as she told him
she’d have his order to him right away, then asked if there was anything else
she could get for him. Liv had the ridiculous impulse to defend her territory,
the white-hot burn of jealousy actually hurting as it rolled through her
system. She frowned with confusion, wondering what was wrong with her. After so
many careful years of control, she was letting this man get to her, allowing
her emotions to get the better of her. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself
that the dumbest thing she could do was get twisted up about a guy like Aiden.
It would be a disaster in the making, because she could see just how it would
pan out, with her falling hard…and him walking away without a backward glance.

That’s the last thing you need, Liv. No matter how
freaking gorgeous and sexy and protective he is.

“So what’s our plan for heading home?” Kellan asked as
soon as Kandy had swished her tiny little backside away again. Aiden began
talking, and as he explained about the alternative routes they could take and
how they could loop back on themselves to throw off the Casus, Olivia doctored
her coffee with cream and sugar. Sweeping her gaze over the restaurant, she
noticed that more than one pair of interested female eyes were zeroed in on
their table…and the devastatingly attractive shape-shifter sitting at her side,
his provocative air of danger serving only to draw them closer, like flies to
honey.

Her fingers tightened on her mug, her throat burning
from the possessive words she knew she couldn’t say. Let it go, she silently
muttered. If you don’t, you’re going to make a complete fool of yourself. Then
you’re really going to be embarrassed.

No sooner had she finished the thought than Kandy came
strolling back, this time with Aiden’s breakfast…and a perky brunette who
refilled his coffee, her smile as flirtatious as her friend’s. At least Aiden
had the sense to look annoyed with the attention, and Olivia could have sworn
he muttered something foul under his breath when they finally left the table.

“Aren’t you eating?” she asked Noah and Kellan, while
Aiden dug into his food.

Kellan laughed. “We already did. This is Jamie’s
second helping of pancakes.”

Jamie giggled and made a snorting sound like a pig,
which had them all laughing. “For such a little thing,” Noah drawled, “she can
really pack it away.”

Jamie smiled proudly, and while Aiden finished his
breakfast, Olivia talked to her niece about the trip they would be taking to
Colorado, answering her questions, along with help from Kellan and Noah. Aiden
had just taken his last bite of scrambled eggs when Kellan said, “So I got a
call from Kierland on our way over here.”

“Everything okay?” Aiden asked, wiping his mouth with
a napkin.

Kellan shrugged and pushed his empty coffee cup away.
“I don’t know. He sounded kinda weirded out, but said he couldn’t go into any
details. Just that we should be ‘ready for trouble.’ You know how he is. One of
those ‘expect the unexpected’ lectures he loves to give, but he didn’t back it
up with any meat. Said he had some research to do and was going to call back
this afternoon.”

Aiden leaned back in the booth, his right arm brushing
against Olivia’s side with a tingling rush of warmth that she did her best to
ignore. “Huh. Wonder what’s going down.”

“Me, too,” Kellan murmured. “Before he hung up, he did
say that he’d try to get an update on the search for Chloe.”

“Speaking of your sister,” Noah said, his pale blue
eyes snagging Olivia’s gaze, “does she look like you?”

Olivia shook her head. “We’re only stepsisters. Chloe
is…well, she’s beautiful. Here,” she told him, digging in her purse for her
wallet, “I have a picture.”

“Nice,” Noah murmured as she handed over the snapshot.
Kellan simply stared at the photograph, his gaze shadowed by his lowered
lashes, concealing his own reaction.

“How did they pick her up?” Aiden asked, leaning
forward so that he could see the photo, too.

Olivia fought to keep her voice even, not wanting to
upset Jamie, who was happily finishing off the last of her pancakes. “She’d
taken a trip down to Florida to visit some friends she went to college with.
When she left to come home, she went missing and never made it back to
Kentucky. That was a little more than five weeks ago.”

“You mind if I keep this?” Kellan asked in a low
voice, already reaching over and snagging the photo from Noah’s fingers.

“Uh, no, not at all,” she told him, though she had a
strange feeling the Watchman would have kept the photo regardless of what she’d
said. She had so many questions about the search for her sister, but before she
could say anything, Kandy came back to the table. As the flirty blonde slid
Aiden the bill, Olivia saw that she’d written her phone number on the bottom.
Rolling her eyes again, she was about to ask Kellan and Noah if this kind of
thing happened to Aiden all the time when a group of pretty, tanned,
long-legged coeds who had been staring at him from one of the nearby tables
walked over and started commenting on his “wicked tats.” Then they asked if he
was going to be in town long.

Across the booth, both guys snickered under their
breath, and Olivia locked her jaw, determined not to say anything—not to feel
anything. Honestly, it was like a bad joke, the way the women kept coming on to
him right in front of her, as if it was a given that they weren’t a couple.

Either that or they simply didn’t care that he was
there with another woman.

At least Aiden managed to get rid of the girls
quickly. The instant they walked away, he slid a suspicious look toward Kellan.
“Are you behind this?”

Kellan lifted his hands. “Hey, don’t blame me. I’m
innocent.”

Aiden made a snide, sarcastic sound of disbelief in
the back of his throat, looking as if he wanted to throttle the grinning
Watchman.

“Aw, don’t take it out on Kell. We can’t help it if
you’re already gathering another fan club,” Noah drawled with a low rumble of
laughter.

Ouch. Olivia really didn’t like the sound of that. But
she couldn’t say she was surprised. Using everything she had to control her wayward
emotions, she took a deep breath and wiped the croissant crumbs from her
fingers, aware of Aiden studying her profile. “Another fan club?” she asked as
she set down her napkin, pleased that the question sounded like nothing more
than casual interest.

Kellan leaned back in the booth and spread his arms
along the back, an easy grin on his mouth as he explained. “Not that Noah and I
are slouches, but Aiden here is like a babe magnet. I swear women go a little
gaga whenever the guy’s around. We barely even get noticed.”

“Enough of this sh—crap,” Aiden muttered, his rough
tone cut with anger and impatience. Taking Olivia’s hand in a strong hold, he
slid from the booth, pulling her along with him. If he hadn’t known better, he
would have sworn he was being punked by his friends, but he couldn’t say this
was the first time something like this had happened. It was, however, the first
time he’d ever been embarrassed, not to mention irritated as hell by the kind
of female attention he often received, knowing it was going to make things more
difficult with Olivia. “Jamie, I need to talk to your aunt for a second
outside. You okay with that, sweetheart?”

The little girl nodded, giving him a shy grin, and
Aiden headed for the nearest exit, tugging Olivia along behind him.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Aiden grunted in response, his jaw clenched as he
heard Kellan and Noah laughing back at the table. Taking hold of her elbow, he
guided her through a side door and toward the back parking lot, where Noah had
parked his truck. He felt antsy, on edge, a combustible combination of too many
irritating emotions itching beneath his skin. Her scent and nearness still had
his beast on the prowl and he put a mental lock on it, knowing he needed to
calm down. When they reached the truck, he pushed her against the passenger
door, his hands wrapped around her biceps, holding her in place. “I wouldn’t
have.” He ground out the words, his tone guttural and sharp with frustration.
“I mean, I didn’t even want to.”

She blinked up at him, looking completely confused.
“Didn’t want to what?”

“I didn’t want to take them up on their offers,” he
muttered. “Any of them.”

Her cheeks flushed with color, but she appeared
perfectly calm as she shrugged her shoulders. “You don’t owe me any
explanations, Aiden. It’s none of my business.”

Her offhand tone had him grinding his teeth. “Yeah,
well. I just wanted you to know.”

She shrugged again, turning her face to the side as
she stared into the woods that bordered the back of the parking lot. “Fine. If
it makes you feel better.”

“Damn it,” he growled, giving her a little shake. “I’m
trying to make you feel better.”

“Me?” Her brows nearly arched to her hairline, her
gaze whipping back to his with a wide-eyed look of incredulity, as if he wasn’t
making any sense. “What do I have to do with anything?”

Aiden opened his mouth, but what could he say? For all
intents and purposes, they were strangers. Twenty-four hours ago they hadn’t
even known each other. And yet, with each second he spent with her…watching the
way she was with Jamie, pulling in her intoxicating scent, listening to the
husky sound of her voice, she was slipping into him. Digging into him,
deeper…and deeper, until he knew it was going to sting like a bitch when he
walked away from her.

It shouldn’t have mattered what she thought. But it
did. And damn it, though it didn’t make any sense, considering he was after a
short-term score and nothing more, he wanted his actions and intentions to mean
something to her, as well. He’d been expecting at least a little jealousy on
her part, but she looked as if she couldn’t have cared less that those women
had been pouring themselves over him. “I don’t get it, Liv. Why are you acting
like it doesn’t bother you?”

“Like what doesn’t bother me?”

A thick sound of frustration vibrated in the back of
his throat. “The way those women were flirting with me.”

“Because it doesn’t,” she said flatly.

He stared down at her with his eyes at half-mast,
wishing he could get inside her head. There was something different about her,
as if someone had flipped a switch and shut her down, leaving nothing but a
pretty, decorative shell behind. Releasing his hold on her arms, he quietly
asked, “Where’d Olivia go?”