by A. E. Grace
“I worked for a publishing company,” she told him, but she didn’t look at him. “Hated it.”
“Why?”
“We used to handle fairly low-key magazines. Things like real estate mags, or private mags for gated communities and clubhouses and things like that. But then we took on a gossip mag. Our owning company wanted to expand into more profitable areas, and of course, the gossip mags sell a lot of ads.”
“You didn’t like that?”
“No,” she said firmly. “Because it meant we had to lie. We had to take risks, get into murky legal area. Libel in Britain is a weird law, and you can actually get pinned to the wall really fucking easily. It’s not like how it is practically anywhere else in the world.”
“Did your editor want you to do something you weren’t comfortable with?”
“Yes,” she said, finally looking at him. “Good guess. I wasn’t comfortable with it, and it wasn’t just because I didn’t want to write dishonest things about famous people.”
“It’s because you’d take the fall.”
“Exactly,” Terry said. “He was a real asshole. It was about some MP – member of parliament – and it was the racy kind of lie. The company wouldn’t have backed me. If someone was going to take the fall, it would have been me. And they thought I was too stupid to see that!”
“Did you quit right away?”
“No,” she said, giving her head a firm shake. “I thought I could talk my way out of it, squeeze out from under it. But he was determined. All the other editors were men, part of his little boys club. They’d go down the pub for lunch time pints until four in the afternoon, and yet he’d bark at any of the women if they came in late.”
“Your ed-in-chief sounds like a dickhead,” Liam said.
“My ex-ed-in-chief, and he was. Old fashioned man, know what I mean? Liked to bully the women. It got to a point where I just said no. I wanted to leave – I wanted to leave Britain as well, get away from my family for a bit. So I quit.”
“That’s a brave move,” Liam said. “Most people wouldn’t.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. I wasn’t about to ask anybody else to leave with me, but some of those women working there just take shit constantly, and I can never figure out why they do it. It’s bullshit. They shouldn’t have to.”
“No,” Liam said. “You’re right about that.”
“After I quit, I started making my plans to come out here. And here I am.”
“Why did you want to get away from your family?”
Terry glanced at him. “Are we getting to know each other now?”
Liam smirked. “You don’t have to. Just making conversation.”
“Tell me something about you, first. What do you do?”
He paused. This was why he didn’t talk with people. This was why he didn’t open up. Because eventually there would be questions about him, and how was he going to explain that when you’re a shapeshifter, when you live for centuries, money takes on a different meaning. It’s easy to accumulate. Heck, buy the right stocks and all you have to do is wait…
“I’m retired,” he told her, deciding that the truth was probably the way to go.
“Retired?” she balked. “At your age? What, you win the lottery or something?”
“No, but I got lucky in the stock market.”
She looked puzzled for a moment. “Must have been a huge stroke of luck. So what do you do, now that you’re retired.”
“Travel,” he said truthfully.
“Settle old debts?”
“There’s a bit of that, too,” he said, grinning.
“Okay, fair enough, I guess. I wanted to get away from my family because, truth be told, they annoy me.”
“Don’t all family?”
“There’s truth to that. But my two older brothers still live at home, too, and with five of us in the same house, it just got to be too much.”
“What do your brothers do?”
“One of them is on the dole, and the other sells weed.”
Liam laughed. “That’s interesting.”
“No, it’s really not. Dad works hard, but he drinks a lot. Mum’s always got some new plan to make money, but it always ends up losing money. It’s just… argh, it’s a mess. It was getting to me. I gave them a chunk of my savings, my contribution to the household, and thought bugger it, I’m leaving for a while. A much needed holiday. What about your family?”
Liam stopped.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “If you don’t want to share, that’s fine.”
“I lost my family a long time ago,” he said through gritted teeth. He wanted to tell her it was to that fucking wolf that was hunting him.
“Sorry.”
“No,” he said, flashing a quick smile, walking again. “Here we are.” He nodded with his head up at the building in front of them. It was tucked away in a tiny alley, and lined up outside were a mixture of mopeds and bicycles.
Terry’s eyes traveled up the façade of the building until she saw the sign. She snorted. “Is that really what it’s called?”
“What, Lucky Phuc? Sure,” Liam said, grinning. He led her inside. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll get you a room and help you carry your bag up. It’s all steps here. No elevators.”
“Just don’t give away any of my stuff this time,” Terry warned.
*
The guest house room wasn’t bad at all. It was spacious, with a large double bed, a balcony, and a bathroom that was far bigger than she had expected it to be.
By the time they had checked in and she had showered and dried her hair, it was already after dark, and Terry was exhausted. Exploring the Hanoi nightlife on her first night in Vietnam seemed only a distant possibility. She settled for getting a plate of banh cuon, rice flour pancakes rolled around a savory filling of minced pork, spring onions, and mushrooms, called up to her room. It was scrumptious, and put her into a drowsy state by the end of it.
When they had walked into the Lucky Phuc guest house, they had seen a single woman sitting at the counter, pecking away at the keyboard of a very old computer. The keys had long since turned yellow. A cigarette hung from her mouth.
When she saw him, her sour face had brightened, and she gave him a stained-tooth smile that told Terry the two were familiar.
“You back in Vietnam?” she had asked in choppy English. “To pay respects?”
“Yes,” Liam had said.
Terry had no idea what that meant, but it sounded a little shady. It was the sort of thing she might expect to hear in an Asian gangster film. Perhaps ‘paying respects’ was code for something? It would at least fit with what he had said about ‘settling a debt’.
“I need two rooms, Mai. One for me, one for my friend.”
The woman had eyed Terry then, wiped her gaze up and down, before nodding. Apparently, Terry had passed the test.
“I give her top floor,” she said. “Better room. You, gentleman, take four floor, smaller room, single bed. All I got.”
“Fine by me,” Liam said. The two shared a look, but neither smiled.
“Who is she?” Terry had asked as he carried her backpack up narrow flights of stairs with ease. She felt a little like she should be carrying her own stuff, but the steps were steep, and the space narrow, and it had been a long day. Besides, he had offered.
“Just the owner,” he said.
“You two seem familiar.”
“I’ve stayed here before.”
Terry chewed on her lower lip. If he didn’t want to tell her more, then so be it.
They reached the fifth floor landing, He stuck out his arm, and Terry fumbled for her keys before placing them in his hand.
He unlocked the door, and together they had walked into her room. After setting her backpack down, leaning it against the small coffee table, he turned to her.
Terry met his eyes, and felt a current between them. He seemed to want to say something, but pulled back.
“I’m on the
floor below you.”
“Okay. I’ll try not to drop stuff at night time.”
“The building is L-shaped,” he said. “So I’m not in the room directly below you.”
“Thanks for helping me with the bag.” She offered him a smile, and again she saw that slight hitch, as though he wanted to do more than just smile back.
Terry’s stomach grumbled audibly, and she laughed, feeling her cheeks redden slightly. “I haven’t eaten all day.”
“Neither,” he said. “If you want to go out, I can take you to a nice place. We’re pretty much in the middle of Hanoi, and everything is close. But if you’re feeling tired, call down to Mai. There’ll be a menu somewhere and you can order up. She’s a great cook, and if you’re after something simple and authentic, it’s as good a choice as any.”
“I am really knackered,” Terry said. Her heart had jumped when he offered to take her out, but her feet were killing her, and… well, it had just been a really long day. “I think I’ll order in tonight and take to the town tomorrow.”
Liam smiled. “Sounds good.”
There was an undeniable tension between them. She felt pulled to Liam, but also sensed that he had a shield up, that there was something else going on that she didn’t know about.
He stepped toward her, and the static field between them became more charged. “Hanoi is a safe city, but if you’re going to go exploring at night, just keep your eyes open. Also, you’ll be offered pot and other things. If you do get some pot, make sure the deal is done on a moped while moving. They are very strict with drugs here.”
Terry blinked, and then laughed. “Thanks, but I don’t do drugs.”
“Alright,” he said.
“Hey,” she said as he was about to turn around. “How long are you here for?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “At least a few days. Maybe a week.”
“I’m thinking the same.”
“Well, maybe when I’ve sorted out what I need to, I can show you around town. I know all the secret spots in Hanoi.”
Terry grinned, felt her cheeks blush, felt a swell of nerves in her belly. “Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
He nodded, smiling back. Their eyes were locked. It was like they were beaming energy into one another.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay,” she whispered.
They stood for a few tension-filled moments before he turned and left her room, shutting the door behind her.
Terry had unpacked, cleaned up, and did it all with a huge smile on her face.
Now she was sitting on her balcony, feet in a bucket of warm water which really soothed the pain. She was sipping on a glass of white wine from the mini-fridge that surprisingly wasn’t bad at all.
Before her were the rooftops of low-rise buildings, and she could see the snaking sprawl of Hanoi. The street the Lucky Phuc was on was quiet, but she could hear the hubbub of busy night markets and nightlife not far away. Behind all of that was the sound of insects chirping, a constant noise like static.
She stood up, went to the railing, and there peered down into a guest house room she could see, on the short end of the L-shaped building.
That was when she saw Liam doing pull-ups. Her view was partially blocked by the angle that she looked through his window, but each time he dipped, his glistening topless body came into view.
*
He was feeling the urge to shift. It was like an addiction, a scratch he had to itch, but there was more to it than that. The shift released tension, calmed the mind. The animal domain was one where only instincts came into play. A meandering mind was of no use to an animal.
He went out to the balcony of his guest house and found his eyes drawn upward to Terry’s floor. He could see the lights on in her window, and her shadow was moving around the room as she unpacked.
When he thought of her, his heart quickened. He was drawn to this woman, and it was more than just physical attraction. Getting his hands on her was, of course, something he desired, but he sensed that there might be more than simply the pull of physical attraction that magnetized him to her.
But he couldn’t shift. There was no way to know if the wolf was in the city. All he knew was that it was tracking him, hunting him. Shifting would be careless. The lupine beast would surely smell his brown bear’s scent on the wind many miles away. After all, it would be a completely unique smell in this part of the world.
His mind stayed on Terry. He envisioned running his hands over her thick thighs, caressing her curves, loving her body. He thought of the touch of her soft lips against his, the smell of her breath against his face, so close, so intimate.
Liam growled. He was frustrated. He was caught between wanting to protect her, keep her at arm’s length, and wanting to indulge in his desires.
And hers.
He knew she felt the pull, too. That they had been brought together was something he was certain now could not be attributed to mere chance.
He wondered if the old legends about shifters were true… if they really were destined to find their one true mate.
Liam had been just a boy when he lost everything, a young man going through the trials of a shifter’s adolescence. He had never thought to ask his father about shifter tradition… about the ways of shapeshifters. Even though they knew they were rapidly going extinct, he thought he would have been a part of his clan for life.
And now he was faced with the question of why he was so drawn to Terry. He couldn’t keep his thoughts from her. He felt a swelling anticipation in his gut, a surge of desire in his loins, and he knew that he had to abate the tension.
Rummaging through his bag, he brought out two pull-up hooks and attached them to the door frame. He removed his shirt, kicked off his shoes, and began to do pull-ups.
If he could not shift, then he would tire his body out.
*
Back inside her guest house room, Terry could not keep her thoughts from drifting to Liam. It was a strange sensation, one that she couldn’t place. There was something beneath her consciousness that she could not reach. It was more than just the giddiness of new attraction and a crush. There was something almost mystical about it.
Her eyes flicked to her balcony, and she went outside again. In the sub-tropical climate, even the nights were very warm, and so she brought her folding paper fan out with her and fanned herself while she peeked into Liam’s window.
He was still doing his work out, now performing push-ups. His wide and strong back shone with sweat, and he moved so fast, each dip almost aggressive, it looked like he was trying to exhaust himself.
She counted idly, but lost count once she got to one hundred. Finally he stopped, and got to his feet, sweat dripping off his stubbled chin. With his hands on his hips, he stood and just breathed for a while, his muscular chest and defined abdominal muscles heaving up and down.
Then he started to unbuckle his belt. Terry tried to snap her eyes away, but found that she couldn’t. Instead, she watched as he unbuttoned his jeans, feeling distinctly appalled with herself for invading his privacy like this.
But her eyes remained fixed on him, and her heart quickened, and she felt a flush in her cheeks and a shiver run down her spine.
When he pulled his jeans down, she was surprised to see that he was hard inside his boxer briefs. She swallowed audibly, but still did not look away.
He pulled them down his legs, stepped out of them, and pulled off his socks. Terry let her eyes devour his body. He was sexy, toned, and had a lot of natural strength. This was no vain gym meathead.
“Stop looking,” she said to herself through gritted teeth. She felt terrible. She knew she was doing something she absolutely shouldn’t be.
Liam stepped forward so that half of his face was visible through the window. He fell into a chair, and his hand went to his cock and began to pump.
Terry sucked her lip. He was a gifted man, and with his body shimmering with sweat, it was a sexy sight.
More and more she screamed at herself internally to just go back into her room, to not watch. But the more she watched, the more she wanted to.
Liam began to jerk himself faster, harder. He leaned forward, face bunched up, body tense. Terry could feel her own temperature rising, a stirring of yearning in her belly.
His pumping grew more intense, and she watched as he tightened up, grew stiff, rigid, a snapshot of pleasure. And then he broke, and his mouth dropped, and his body twitched, and he fired off his seed onto his chest and stomach.
And then it was over, and he lay there, panting, a calm washing over his features.
Terry backed away from the balcony, went back into her room. She realized she was panting.
*
Relief and weariness darkened the edges of his vision like a frame. He lay in the chair, sucked in air. Though he was not spent - far from it - he was at least calmed, having burned off the turbulent energy of his conflicting thoughts.
Liam had thought of Terry, her beautiful eyes and her silken lips, the curves of her body and the swell of her breasts. She turned him on, made his mouth water, roused a part of his life that he had all but excised.
Pleasures of the flesh, indulgence in attraction, was something he had been careful to stay away from, and had done so successfully for a long time. With a wolf forever on his tail, he could not ever allow himself to become attached, to settle down.
His hunter was a dark cloud that followed him, and now, with confirmation from that beast in Borneo that the wolf was close, he knew it was more dangerous than ever to allow into his life a distraction, even if it was a welcome one.
He could not make a target of someone else.
Tomorrow he might learn for sure if the wolf had made it to Vietnam. Tomorrow he would go to the place where the wolf had stolen everything from him.
Tomorrow would be a hard day. He set his alarm for four in the morning, and then began to run the shower. Before climbing in he went to the balcony one last time and looked up at Terry’s room. The lights were off, and the sliding glass door shut, and curtains drawn.