“Aiden, are you okay?” She sounded concerned, and for some illogical reason the idea made him even harder, the fire in his gums growing hotter. Molten. And yet there was panic there as well, flavoring the sharp, visceral burn of lust. He didn’t want this raging desire to mark her, damn it. Didn’t want to be filled with savage thoughts of possession—of keeping her and owning her forever. Of having the right to break any asshole who tried to put their filthy hands on her. That was a bad, bad road, because in the back of his mind burned the ugly truth that once she really clued in to what he was, to the things he’d want from her, to the fact that he was a hell of a lot more animal than man, she wasn’t going to be able to run fast enough.
Not to mention what her reaction would be like if she ever learned about his past. Learned where he’d come from. What he’d done to survive. If that didn’t have her looking at him with revulsion, nothing would.
“Seriously, say something. Please. You’re starting to freak me out.”
Worrying his hand over his mouth, he managed to scrape out a husky “We need to get out of here.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“You don’t want to know,” he muttered, pushing away from the wall.
“Yes, I—”
“Just get dressed.” He threw the words over his shoulder, sweating, shaking, knowing he had only seconds before the tiger was out of its cage. Literally. And for the first time in years, Aiden honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to control it. Not when her very proximity tempted him to do the unthinkable, binding himself to a woman who would end up cutting his goddamn heart out.
“I’ll be waiting outside,” he growled, and without looking back, he headed for the door.
CONFUSED BY the Watchman’s strange, turbulent mood swings, Olivia rushed through her morning routine, then threw on some jeans and a sweater. When she left the room, she found Aiden smoking a cigarette, his body all but vibrating with a hard, restless energy as he leaned against the outer wall of the hotel. “I didn’t know you smoked.”
“I usually don’t,” he muttered, glaring down at the filter pinched between his thumb and forefinger, as if he was almost surprised to find it there in his hand. Dropping the cigarette, he ground it out with his boot. “Come on. They’re waiting for us.”
The instant they stepped into the brightly lit restaurant they spotted Kellan and Noah at a booth in the back corner, both men a good half a foot taller than any of the other customers, with Jamie’s little body wedged protectively between them. Noah sat on her right, carefully cutting up a fluffy stack of pancakes. He was beautiful, in a dark, fallen angel kind of way, a menacing aura of danger and violence flowing around him. But the gentle smile on his face as he talked with Jamie assured Olivia that he wasn’t a threat to her niece. Clearly, Jamie was already working her charm on the guys, her face glowing as they gave her their full attention. Then Olivia realized what Jamie was wearing, and she couldn’t hold back a choked laugh of surprise. Looking at the gorgeous male standing at her side, she said, “I thought you helped her pick her clothes out.”
“I did,” Aiden said defensively, sliding her a sideways glance. “She looks adorable.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “She looks like a pink nightmare in that outfit.”
His eyes crinkled sexily at the corners as he looked toward Jamie. “What’s wrong with it? Everything’s pink.”
Everything was pink, all right. Her niece was wearing a hot-pink polka-dotted jumper with a magenta-and-periwinkle-striped shirt underneath, topped off by a strawberry-pink hair band. “Never mind.” She sighed, knowing he would think she was crazy if she tried to explain that just because something was a “shade” of pink didn’t mean that it matched.
Though he was still vibing that hot, strange burn of energy that had come over him in the hotel room, his touch was gentle as he took her elbow and guided her across the crowded restaurant. As they neared the booth, Kellan’s head suddenly shot up…and he lifted his nose a little higher in the air, like an animal searching for a scent. A wicked smile slowly curled its way across his mouth, his eyes glittering with humor as he looked at Aiden. “Man, Ade. She really does smell tasty, doesn’t she?”
Frowning and feeling acutely self-conscious, Olivia slid into the empty side of the booth. “Isn’t there something I can do about…the scent?” she asked Aiden as he slid in beside her.
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 li
ttle 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 m
outh, 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?”
A little groove formed between her brows. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you were different before we went into the restaurant. Now it’s like you’re all closed down.”
“There’s no great mystery, Aiden. I’m just…back to my usual self.”
She might have sounded sincere, but he wasn’t buying it. “Bullshit. This isn’t you.”
Touch of Seduction Page 11