by Anne Marsh
I pull out. Thrust back in again. She moans, and then when I work her clit, she yells my name, coming hard and fast.
I wrap my arms around her, holding on, working for her. Coming with her. Oui. I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.
GIANNA
“You left me.” The words fly out of my mouth, sleepy and accusatory. Those words are both right and so very, very wrong.
Luc doesn’t have to ask what I mean. He knows. “That night in Vegas was somethin’ special, but it shouldn’t have been for keeps.”
Sprawled on his bare chest, my cheek pressed against his skin and close enough to hear the steady beat of his heart, I wonder. What if he had stayed? If I had taken a chance on my one-night crazy and seen where the passion could take us…
“You made decisions for me.”
He runs a hand down my hair, playing with the strands. “I kept you safe.”
“Because you were a werewolf.”
“You saw me shift. You think you were ready for that?”
Honestly? I’m not ready now. Both the bayou and the wolves are a foreign world. I prefer the predictable. Rules are good too. I’m on track to make partner at my firm, and sacrificing that—either then or now—isn’t my first choice.
“Now I got a question for you,” he says.
“Uh-huh.” Apparently boneless isn’t some kind of metaphor. I’m literally melting into the mattress. “What exactly did Cruz mean when he said he’d see you in a week? What did you tell him about you and me?”
I stiffen before I can catch myself. In the courtroom, fully dressed and upright, I’ve worked hard to overcome that particular tell. Shoot. While my deal with Cruz is no state secret, it’s also not something I want to discuss right now.
“I told him the truth.”
After I left home, I added lies and compromises to my off-limits list. I vowed never to play emotional games in my relationships. The trailer park drama was enough for a lifetime. Sure, relationship drama can and does happen everywhere. It’s just that, as a kid, the trailer park was a very, very small stage for that kind of explosive shit.
“Shug.” Luc’s lips brush the top of my head in a gesture that is—just maybe—tender. He has this need to be in control. In charge. I get that he has responsibilities to his family—his pack—but when does he get to focus on what he needs? What we need? For our impulsive mating to work, we have a whole lot of talking to do. We need to figure out who we are together without inviting the pack into our bedroom. And I need to be sure that he’s the only man for me, to work out this impossible attraction I feel for both him and Cruz.
There’s a long silence as Luc settles himself around me.
“You should jus’ tell me.” Steel lies beneath the soft drawl. More orders, which is equal parts sexy and frustrating.
“I told him you wanted a week to explore our possible mating and the directions in which we could take it.”
“And?” He asks his question with the wolf’s instinct for the kill. He knows there’s more.
I swallow. “And then he asked for the next week.”
My emotions are one big mess of confused. I’ve spent the past ten years more or less living on my own. I reached out to Luc because I was ready for closure, ready to move on. And yeah, meeting Cruz was a powerful motivator. I feel something for the other man, although it’s definitely early days. I don’t know how to put those feelings into words. Yet.
“Shug.” Luc’s pet name for me comes out part groan, part sigh. Yeah. He sees the problems too. He isn’t angry, which shouldn’t surprise me. He’s too self-controlled to go the angry route.
“I told him yes.”
Yes.
She told my rival yes.
I force myself to relax, to not tense up. I might be a relationship virgin, but I watched my brothers screw up. Banging on my chest caveman style and bellowing mine won’t help.
Think of something to say. Something romantic. Heartfelt. Fucking poetic will do. If I’d known this heart-to-heart was coming, I’d have raided the Hallmark aisle. Instead it’s just the two of us, and while I love the way she has her arms wrapped around me, I don’t know what it means. Not anymore.
“Luc?”
Oui. Waiting for me to say something. But I have nothing. God, I’d give anything to erase this conversation. To be enough for her. Enough of a lover, enough of a man. Hell, it can’t even be the werewolf strike, since Cruz is also a shifter. It might have been a shock, but she’s clearly adapted. While I’m thinking happily ever after, she’s thinking about another man. If I was a better person or any kind of a gentleman, I’d let her go.
I want her waking up by my side every morning, and lying down next to me each night. I want to roll her beneath me and drive into her until I come and she screams my name because I’m the one making her feel good. I want to talk with her, tell her about my day, the things that drive me crazy, and the things that make me smile. And I want her to share all of those same details with me, unloading when work is bad and celebrating when life rains down good things.
She’s my mate. Fate or no fate, she’s my other half. She’s the woman who can keep my wolf in check, and she means fucking everything to me. So if she’s my mate, how come I’m not hers?
“Maybe we should forget I said that,” she whispers nervously.
How? My instincts apparently don’t come with an off switch. Even now, I’m running my fingers over her skin, marking her with my scent.
“You can tell me anything,” I say gruffly.
Her mouth moves against my chest. Smiling. Maybe I hit on the right thing to say after all.
“It’s not you.” She flattens her palm against my chest, as if she’s measuring my heartbeat.
Don’t ask me to let you go. I’m a wolf. We hold onto our own. And you’re mine.
“What did I do wrong?” Tell me, and I’ll fix it. I can find a way to earn a do-over, and next time I’ll get it right.
She closes her eyes. “Forget I said anything.”
“You promised Cruz you’d spend a week with him.”
“To get to know him. That doesn’t have to mean sex.”
I tighten my arm around her when she tries to shift away. “Don’ go.”
She sighs, as if putting more space between us is the best idea she’s ever had. “You have to stop giving me orders.”
“Help me to understand,” I suggest. “Please.”
Funny how one little word can be harder to get out than all the rest. It isn’t the magic word that opens up her heart to me, but she stops moving. Maybe that’s the best I can hope for. God, I don’t want to give her up. Seven nights was our beginning. I damned sure don’t want it to be our ending.
Which means I have to find the words to tell her exactly that.
“I would give you anything,” I say fiercely. “You can take that to the bank. You wan’ it, you got it. I have these feelings for you and they’re good ones. What’s wrong with us explorin’ that, takin’ time to get to know each other?”
“Nothing.” Her fingers draw restless circles on my chest. “But—”
“But you want to try out Cruz before you make any decisions about us.”
“It’s not that,” she admits. “You talk about having feelings for me, and I think I might share some of those feelings.”
I reach for her fingers, lacing them through mine. A primitive part of me, the human part, wants to put a ring there, to mark her for all to see. “Then what’s the problem, shug?”
“I think I might have those same feelings for Cruz,” she says in a small voice. “I know it’s crazy,” she adds in a rush. “You want me to spell it out? I can do that. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want you both.”
Talk about a double whammy. I didn’t see that coming. She’s right. It’s crazy. I cup the back of her neck, threading my fingers through her hair. Both doesn’t mean instead of. It means I have a chance.
“You all never share?” The tone of her voice s
ays she has specific for examples running through her head. I’m on thin ice.
“Sometimes.” I angle my head so I can see her eyes. Yeah. Someone’s been telling tales.
She snorts. “Sometimes? I’ve been in Port Leon one day, and I’ve already heard stories about your brothers, Dre and Landry. They’re legendary.”
“Were. Were legendary. Now they’re mated to Mary Jane.” No way my brothers violated Mary Jane’s trust. She’s the only female for them, and none of them would change that.
“They share her,” Gianna says smugly. “I rest my case.”
Well, yeah. At least, I assume so. Some things I don’t need to know. As long as the three of them stay happy, the details are unnecessary.
“I’ll think about it, okay?” I tell her.
“Okay,” she echoes, sounding happy, and suddenly I can’t remember why I have so many objections to inviting Cruz into our bed.
CRUZ
Three days. Gianna disappeared into the bayou three days ago with Luc, and it’s driving me crazy. I stare at the bayou, but the calm waters have no answers. Deliberately going into another Alpha’s territory without an explicit invitation is all kinds of fucked up. I should forget about Gianna. Luc may be hard, but he’s also a decent man. He won’t hurt Gianna, and he won’t do anything she doesn’t ask for.
Which is part of the problem.
My imagination suggests a hundred different things she can ask my rival for, all of them sexual. Sensual. Things I want to be doing to and for her. And it’s not just the bedroom stuff that has me itching to shift and find her. She’s all kinds of special, and I have no problem imagining us living happily ever after at my place in Port Leon. My house isn’t much of a home yet, but Gianna can fix that.
I could find her. I might not have visited the Breaux compound before—the whole Alpha thing again—but I can find them. My brothers are excellent trackers, and I’m better than all of them. Wherever Gianna is in the bayou, I’ll find her. A quick nighttime B&E on the inn, and I have her pillowcase. Asking might be better behavior for the town’s sheriff and Alpha, but explaining is the last thing I want to do. I run a thumb over the pillowcase tucked inside my jacket pocket. It’s nothing kinky, although honestly I’d trade a kidney for a pair of her panties. I caught teasing glimpses of a lacy bra beneath her pink dress at the wedding, the pale shadow of a strap over her shoulder and the delicate hollow of her collarbone. That became my fantasy fodder, and that’s pathetic.
But what the hell can I do? As far as werewolf rules go, Luc is well within his rights to carry her off. His damned blue moon lit her up as his mate, and moon or no moon, he clearly feels the pull. I don’t put much stock in lunar phenomena myself, but Gianna agreed to go. Whatever chemistry she feels, whatever happened between them before, she wants to explore it further.
She said yes.
To Luc.
Which leaves me staring at the bayou like a hound dog, if I’m being honest with myself. Giving up isn’t in my vocabulary. Of course, neither is patience. Gianna offered me a week of my own. Yeah. I hug that thought to myself, knowing I’m grinning like I just won a cool twenty million in the state lottery. Luc may be first, but I plan on being last.
I could check up on her. I have updates on the Breed, and I managed to get a man into the pack. I bet she’d want that information sooner rather than later. Never mind that I could pick up a phone or mail a fucking postcard. Bringing her the news myself works too. A quick hello that will remind her I exist.
Boots crunch toward me. Eli. Eli may be my youngest brother, but he’s no pushover. Although Jace is my second, Eli is every bit as tough although he comes in a pretty package. He likes the females, my brother does, and they like him right back. Even our sister Riley has a soft spot for Eli and a disgusting inability to say no to him. Maybe it’s the honey-colored hair tangled around his shoulders or the brown eyes that like to laugh. Eli’s a fucking gorgeous male, but with an inner steel people often overlook. He likes his playtime, but he’s as much a fighter as I am. He can turn the fun off in a heartbeat.
Which probably means this isn’t a social call. Eli stares at the bayou for a moment, following my gaze. “I’m not seein’ it. Whatever’s got you goin’, color me clueless.”
Yeah, because the object of my fixation is a good twenty, thirty miles away doing things I have no desire to see. In no scenario can I imagine Luc keeping his hands off Gianna’s sweet body. Hell. I’ve only been hands-off myself because we’ve barely met and I wanted to respect her professional boundaries. Gianna’s job matters to her and she’s damned good at it. Kissing her in front of our colleagues would disrespect all that.
Out here in the bayou, though, away from Baton Rouge and her law firm… yeah. I should have made my move.
“Earth to Cruz,” my brother says wryly. “Who is she?”
I love my family. I’d take a bullet, trade my life for theirs any day of the week. What I don’t like, however, is the uncanny way they can read my fucking moods.
My brother digs an elbow into my side. “Give it up. The last female I spotted you with was that expensive lawyer from Baton Rouge. Riley really likes the candlesticks she gave for the wedding. Says they’re French. You have any idea what that means?”
Nope. I’m a clueless bastard, and not just about candlesticks.
I clear my throat. “Probably female for expensive or really, really fucking fragile.”
“Should have thought of that yourself,” my brother suggests, laughing. I know Eli picked out a gift himself. I heard Riley exclaiming over the dinner dishes made by a local potter. Eli put plenty of thought into the gift, even if he pretends otherwise.
“So who did you meet at the wedding that has you in knots? I didn’t think there were any unattached females there.”
And… there’s the problem. I wait patiently while my brother barrels toward the correct conclusion and shuts the fuck up. Briefly.
“Tell me you’re not wantin’ Gianna.”
“Too late.”
“You are aware, right, that Luc Breaux has claimed her as his mate? He says she’s his blue moon bride.”
“I know,” I say tightly.
“And you didn’t back the hell off? Does she know how you feel? Does Luc? Jesus. That’s the kind of thing that causes pack wars.”
“Only if I act on it,” I point out.
Eli shoots me a look. “You’re starin’ out into that bayou like it swallowed up something pretty damn special. You just admirin’ the scenery?”
“She promised Luc a week.”
My brother groans. “I’m hearin’ a but. Tell me you said okay and walked away.”
“Not a but. An and. And she promised me a week.”
“You’re spending a week with another Alpha’s mate?” Eli shakes his head. “You’ve got a death wish. Worse, Luc Breaux might come gunnin’ for us. Riley may have married into his pack, but I don’ think he’s goin’ to cut you any slack for that.”
Those words make me want to get up into my brother’s face, the urge for a fistfight paramount. Or I could go for wrestling. The kind of shit we used to do when we were pups, but that I stopped when I became the family’s leader. Since it’s not okay for my brothers to whale back on me, I won’t put them in the position. Now I’m rethinking.
“I don’ wan’ any favors from him, and Gianna isn’t a pass-around.”
“She’s his mate.”
“So he says.”
And that’s it, isn’t it? The million-dollar question. Luc may claim Gianna—but does she claim him? If she does, it’s game over. I won’t stand between mates. I’ll bow out, wish them well, and somehow figure out a way to fix my heart. If she’s still unsure, however… if I have a shot… I’ll take it.
Eli gets right to the heart of the matter. “You think she’s yours?”
“Dad always said that when you see the one, you know.”
“There are books about love at first sight. They have racks and racks of the stuff
at Walmart. Just because someone says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. None of us have bitten in the heart department, let alone after five minutes of looking. It’ll take more for me.”
Tension fills the air between us. My little brother isn’t one for settling down—or putting the pack at risk.
“This is between Luc, Gianna, and me,” I say. “It’s not pack business.”
“You are the pack. You’re our Alpha.”
It’s true—and the only reason I didn’t fight Luc for Gianna at the wedding. Okay, that and the fact that Gianna would have kicked both our asses. She stands on her own two feet, and I won’t disrespect her strength.
“Think it over,” Eli says quietly. “And be really sure, okay? If she’s the one for you, I got your back. You know that. But if you’ve got any doubts, shelve it for a while. Wait and see how things work out for her and Luc before you go rocking the marital boat. She’s a pretty woman. Smart. Maybe it’s nothing more than that and you don’ have to go gettin’ tangled up with her.”
“I’ve got some time off,” I say. “I’ve got gas in my boat and the truck.”
“Shit. You’re really goin’ after her.”
“I have to.”
And that’s the truth. I’ll likely get out there and discover her and Luc going at it like bunnies, and not the fluffy kind either. And I also mean what I thought before.
Her life. Her heart. Her choice.
I just need to be in the running.
GIANNA
I pad out onto the porch. The past three days and nights have passed in a sensual blur. I work the kinks out of my body, feeling the delicious sore spots deep inside and the whisker burn on my skin. Luc marked me inside and out. Part of me can’t wait to turn around and head back inside for round whatever we’re on. Ten? Forty? The man is insatiable.
I really should keep right on walking, borrow his boat, and gun the motor for Port Leon. Unfortunately I apparently tossed prudence out the window along with my panties and my restraint. Luc’s brand of loving is intense, the kind that makes my knees wobbly and standing difficult. Now that we’ve come up for air, a small part of me worries that he’ll consume me.