“I’m sorry. I should have called instead of dropping by. And I was wrong to be rude to your date.
My only excuse is that my emotions got the better of me.”
“She wasn’t my date. She was my dinner. There has not been another woman for me since you strolled back through my door begging favors.”
It sounded entirely too much like what I wanted to hear. Searching his face, I looked for some trace that it was a lie. For once, he let all his emotions show. He very nearly looked like a human as he stood there meeting me glare for glare.
“For God’s sake, why?” The question came out breathless and an octave higher than normal. It was shock. Honest. A smile softened his face and he shook his head ruefully.
“Because, dearest Destiny, what is the biggest obstacle in our path? You do not want to share me with others. Only the nuns at St. George’s could turn a lioness into a monogamous creature.” The amusement in his voice helped smooth the lingering edges of aggression sizzling between us.
“So you were trying it on for size?” I let all the doubt I could muster color the question. It had only been a couple of days, after all.
“Monogamy? Love will make even a man as old as I into a fool. I was attempting to find a way to feed without paying the more intimate coin you object to in the event you decided I wasn’t a lost cause.”
I started to ask why he hadn’t told me, but I knew the answer. It would have put undue stress and pressure on our little dance. I had nothing to say to that and he started gliding toward me with a sense of purpose and fluid grace that made my heart speed up. I was moving before I’d made a conscious decision to meet him in the middle.
We came together in a clash of opposing forces. Our mouths met in a kiss that poured out all the things we couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say. The faintly metallic taste of blood on his tongue only fueled a desperation I hadn’t acknowledged in myself. The pain of my tongue catching the sharp point of his canines brought me back to myself.
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I was somewhat embarrassed to realize my hands on the waistband of his pants were the only things keeping them up. His hadn’t been idle, either. My own pants were undone and his fingers slipped under the waistband of my panties as he pulled me closer.
When I pulled back, he froze, but didn’t put any distance between us. Leaning away from him, I raised my gaze to his and found an answering fire there. It took me a moment and several tries to break the silence punctuated by our heavy breathing.
“This isn’t a good idea. Not right now, at any rate.”
One side of his mouth turned up into a crooked smile that made my breath catch all over again. In all the years I’d known him, he’d never looked so young and carefree. Gone was the debonair playboy and in his place was a man looking at a woman he held some complex emotion toward.
Was it love? I had no idea, but it was something deeper than lust for both of us if that look was anything to judge by.
His hands eased back, sliding across my skin, leaving it feeling unreasonably cool in their wake. If Frank hadn’t been standing outside waiting for his introduction, I would have grabbed Marcus by the hand and taken him to the bed I remembered so well.
It was Marcus who took that step back. His hands brushed mine as he refastened his pants, reminding me that I needed to do the same. The open smile faded back into the more polished mask that hid so much.
“Later, then. There’s always time for privacy after business is done.”
Which brought me back to the reason I was here. Once again begging favors.
Frank and I had decided that simpler was better when dealing with the problem of Betsy Vincent.
But in order to make it work with the additional vampires I had observed, I needed to level the playing field by neutralizing the threat the muscle represented. The only way to do that was other vampires.
I ran through the plan, watching Marcus’s face all the while. He didn’t like it but was giving me the courtesy of hearing me out. When I finished, he waited a moment as if trying to think of the right way to say no. Looking at me, he delivered his verdict.
“You shouldn’t go in there at all. I never thought I’d agree with Mr. LeCroy, but I do. Let the authorities handle it.”
I let my face be my answer to that. He sighed and threw up his hands.
“Fine. It’s something you must do. But you will not do it alone. There’s no time to put it together today.”
“Which is why we’re doing it tomorrow. Tonight is the rehearsal dinner and I won’t be ready in time if I don’t get home and start primping.”
That earned me a smile, another kiss and a ride home with the promise that he would take care of the rental car and Frank LeCroy.
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Yasmine made a beautiful bride-to-be in the candlelight. She stood deep in conversation with her future mother-in-law with a champagne flute of sparkling cider in her hand. As her maid of honor, I stood in the shadows guarding the stash of chilled cider ensuring no one spiked it with anything stronger. Of course, I was drinking the real thing and had a bottle of very expensive, very good champagne in the chiller beside it. After the last few days, I thought I deserved a little bit of alcohol and Kale was just the one to foot the bill for it.
It was great to see Yasmine so happy. Kale hovered nearby accepting the congratulations offered by all the guests who had come to curry favor. The wedding party was appropriately dispersed throughout the room for crowd control. I wondered idly if the guests realized they were being managed. One step toward the wedding couple before it was time and a bridesmaid or groomsman, who happened to be crossing their path, instantly waylaid them.
I wasn’t a coward, but I was glad that the stalking lion across the room was keeping a wide distance from the werewolves in question. He looked stunning in his dark suit and had been relieved of crowd duty. Well, he was technically my date though we’d been separated by our positions in the wedding party throughout the rehearsal dinner. The way he kept glancing our way told me that he was getting tired of that excuse. The look he leveled at Yasmine could only be described as wary. It made me wonder if she had taken him to task for my stalking complaint. I could probably give her the credit for the fact he’d been scarce today.
The lion took a step toward us only to be called up short by a sharp look from Kale. Yep, they’d definitely had a few words, but he wasn’t held in check by it. In two days, he was leaving which made this his last shot to change my mind. With an answering speaking look at Kale, Luke gave the two female werewolves a wide berth to walk along the wall toward me. His eyes burned into mine.
If he thought I was the type of female to run, he so didn’t know me.
He didn’t speak, just reached into the chiller to pull the champagne bottle from its ice to top off both our glasses. He buried it back into the ice with a practiced ease I could only envy. The silence stretched awkwardly until I finally murmured my thanks with my gaze canvassing the room for signs of danger. Old habits die hard, especially when it kept me from confronting the irate lion at my side.
I wondered if he really had come over for a fresh drink to annoy me rather than go to the bartender. I didn’t jump when he finally spoke in a voice pitched low enough to be a challenge to canine eavesdroppers.
“I never took you for a faint-hearted woman, Destiny.”
I didn’t look at him as I sipped my drink and continued to survey the werewolves in the room.
Most of the females watched Yasmine with ill-concealed jealousy, but the males seemed oblivious to the undercurrents. They laughed and slapped Kale on the back as if he were the first pack leader to ever net his mate. I wanted to roll my eyes and beg Yasmine to sneak out the back with me. It wouldn’t have worked and she wouldn’t have appreciated the suggestion. Engagements could be called off, but the bonds Yasmine and Kale shared went far deeper. Even knowing that, it was hard to embrace the myriad of symbols around us.
“Luke, my best friend is seeing wedded bliss everywhere she looks to the point she’s importing questionable males from strange places in a vain attempt to set me up. I’m not faint-hearted. I just don’t like to be chased by uninvited men.”
“That’s a lie.”
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That brought my gaze around to him with the first stirrings of true anger.
“Need I remind you that you don’t know me well enough to know my preferences? In any case, any chance you might have had died when you took up stalking my apartment to see what time my guests leave. Being the same species doesn’t mean you have rights to my person or my territory.”
My whispered hiss made Yasmine glance over her shoulder and I tried to smile to reassure her.
She scowled at me before turning back to Kale’s mother.
“Well, that explains why Kale had a thousand things for me to do today. I pegged you for a woman who would confront problems head-on instead of running to the family dog to keep you safe.”
The bitterness in his tone made my ears perk. Considering it was his friend that he was calling the family dog, I was doubly intrigued. Turning my attention to him, I gave him a thorough look from toes to face.
He was handsome, accommodating, wealthy, and I found him attractive. Granted, that could be because he was also the only male of my species I’d ever been in close quarters with, but still.
Facts were facts. I shouldn’t have been able to resist him, but resisting I was. He might have the keys to my libido, but another held the keys to my heart.
“I didn’t ask him to keep me safe, I simply told Yas I didn’t appreciate you acting as if you had a claim to me. How he handled that was totally up to him. You came here to be a part of the wedding party so I guess he decided you needed to earn your keep.”
“I came here for you,” he said with a snarl, and I wanted to snap back but reined the instinct in.
“Kale doesn’t have the authority to make those arrangements for me despite what he thinks. He’s my sister’s mate, but not my alpha no matter how much he might want to be, and a wedding doesn’t change that.”
Luke took a long drink of his champagne and visibly composed himself. The long weeks without a run on four legs were beginning to wear. The lioness inside me wanted to take him out, fight with him, and put him through his paces to work off that frustration. Marcus might forgive me for giving in to the instinct, but I wouldn’t. A couple of days ago, I would have considered it. Might even have done it, but today’s revelations changed my outlook. It made the anger wash out of me.
“Why is it so hard to accept that you’re a part of something larger? Kale wants to be your alpha, not to tell you what to do, but to make sure you’re taken care of. Is that so bad?”
We weren’t talking about Kale, but for him to put a finer point on the issue would have meant presuming still further about us. He could be diplomatic when he chose. I appreciated the effort and softened what I was going to say.
“Yeah, it is. Because I don’t want to be around men who think I need a protector. I want to be around men who see and accept me for who and what I am. Someone who really wants to love me and not some idealized version.”
“Someone like Marcus.” Luke’s voice held sadness, as if he knew the battle for my affections was already over. Or perhaps it was resignation.
“Yes. Someone like Marcus.”
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Marcus and I were doomed to be together. Not destined. Doomed.
It was why I couldn’t seem to cut the ties he held to my heart even when I thought we were over.
He was comfortable with me despite my strong opinions and obstinate streaks, or maybe because of them. And I liked that I didn’t have to cater to his notions. Funny that it would take another man coming along, attempting to attract my attention, to make me realize it.
The silence grew awkward. Luke drained his glass and refilled it before I put a dent in mine, but he topped me off anyway.
“I’m sorry I came along too late. Be careful of the vampires, Destiny. They always do things with their own agenda.”
As if I didn’t know.
As I sipped my champagne, it occurred to me that he was taking the news rather well. I wished I could get a good solid scent of him beneath his cologne, but there wasn’t a chance with all the strong scents.
Motion from Yasmine caught my attention. It was time for the pack to go. I handed my champagne flute to Luke with a whisper.
“Hold that until we’re done here, please? I want to finish it.”
The pack had a private ceremony on the agenda before the moon fell. Of course, that left Luke and I to see that the rest of the guests were appropriately entertained as the party broke up.
Yasmine leaned down to hug me as she put in her own suggestion about how I could enjoy my hostess duties.
“Give the man a chance. We made him cool his jets, but I really think he’s worth a little housebreaking. You know how hard it was to make Kale reasonable.”
I caught Kale rolling his eyes over her shoulder and barely held back a laugh.
“We’ll have a nice evening. You two enjoy tomorrow because I’m going to drag you off when you get back. You’re not waking up on your wedding day with a grumpy werewolf.”
That earned me a laugh from both of them as they made their farewells. The majority of the guests went with them, so my job was simple. Taking my champagne flute back from Luke, I set about doing my best to be charming. I hoped I was doing a decent job of it, but was glad when they began to trickle out.
“I think we’ve been properly relieved of hosting duties.”
I jumped at Luke’s voice over my shoulder. I’d had entirely too much champagne if my senses were dulled to the point that he could sneak up on me. Turning to glance over the room, I realized he was right. The few guests still here were coupled up in corners. The staff would stay until the last of them were tucked away into cabs on the way back to their hotels. From the looks of things, none of them would appreciate the polite goodbye.