by Maddy Barone
Ms. Mary reached out her frail hand and took Rose’s in a comforting grip. “There’s no need to be nervous. Our guests are all well behaved, but if one does give you a hard time just call Jason or White Horse. They are the bouncers on duty tonight and they won’t let any of the men bother you. But really, I don’t expect any kind of trouble. Our guests are gentlemen. All you need to do is offer them the tray and allow them to choose what they would like to eat.”
White Horse was a steady man, not given to emotional displays, but if he saw a stranger talk to her he would come at a run. If a strange man were to touch her, White Horse would rip his hand off. This evening could be anything from entertaining to tragic. Rose decided it would be best if she carried the tray around without looking at or speaking to anyone.
The guests began arriving at six o’clock. Rose picked up one of the large rectangular trays from the kitchen counter, pinned a smile on her face, and followed Jes and Tracy out to the reception rooms.
She’d never seen them in the evening. The room on the right was mostly empty. It was the room meant for dancing. Jocelyn sat at the piano, playing something quiet and elegant. Her floor length evening gown was cream silk trimmed with warm brown velvet. Her explosion of brown curls was barely controlled by a band of the same velvet that trimmed her gown. Tanya and Zoe leaned against the piano talking and adjusting their minuscule dancing dresses. They glanced at Rose, clapped hands over their mouths, and laughed, eyebrows arched in a way that told Rose they were laughing at her. She looked back at them, wondering how they’d like a tray of hors d’oeuvres tipped down those indecent necklines. Not that there was room for a cubic centimeter of air in those bodices, much less any hors d’oeuvres. Still, Rose liked a challenge.
She passed on to the other reception room. Tracy was already at the bar on the far end of the room. Dana, the bartender, set up glasses with rapid, deft hands. Two men were sitting at one of the small tables, with Sophie between them. Rose didn’t know Sophie well. She was one of the dancers, like Tanya and Zoe, but her dancing dress was a bit more modest. Rose headed their way and offered the tray with a vague smile directed at one man’s shoulder.
At the outer edge of her vision, Rose saw White Horse standing in front of one of the lush crimson draperies. She knew the exact moment he saw her because he stiffened and the arms he had folded over his chest dropped to his sides. The two men at the table each selected a snack, murmuring polite thank yous. Rose took her tray over to White Horse.
“Hello, White Horse,” she said with a bright smile. “I get to be a waitress tonight.”
White Horse’s hair was dark brown rather than black, but his eyes were as black as ink. His eyebrows were pulled down in a thick straight line over glaring eyes. “What are you doing here dressed in that little skirt?” he demanded.
Rose turned to stand at his side, looking out over the reception room. Half a dozen more men had come in, and Zoe was attached to one like a leech. “I guess no one told you that Sheila was sick tonight?”
“No.” The bouncer’s teeth ground together audibly. “Can’t they get along one night without her?”
“I guess not. Ms. Mary asked me to fill in. I don’t mind. It’s not like I have anything else to do.” Rose shifted the tray in her hands, trying to balance the weight more easily. Carrying a tray took more strength than she’d expected. “I might be busy if Sky were actually courting me. You know, taking me out to eat, or something like that. Maybe something really romantic like taking an hour to talk to me?” She forced an impersonal smile on her face. “I better get out there and do my job. See you later.”
Being a waitress wasn’t all that hard, but after a couple of hours Rose’s feet ached and her arms trembled with the strain of holding loaded trays. She had a twenty minute break coming up at nine o’clock, but until then she had to grit her teeth and carry on. The guests were polite. A couple of times men tried to be overly friendly, but not so much that White Horse felt he had to come over and protect her. As soon as she mentioned that she was Sky Wolfe’s wife, the men promptly went from flirtatious to excruciatingly polite.
By eight o’clock the reception rooms were packed. Rose had trouble navigating her tray through the crowd, but she did it, pausing here and there to offer hors d’oeuvres to the guests who lingered along the walls and at the small tables. Tanya and Zoe glided by in the arms of their dance partners and never failed to smirk at her. Rose smiled brilliantly back, mentally throwing her tray under their feet to trip them. Tracy and Jes made up for it by praising her for doing the job well and making her sit at the bar for a few minutes now and then to have a drink. Rose’s drinks were not alcoholic. After all, she was working. Her shift was done at eleven o’clock. She figured by then she would have earned something very strong to drink.
It was during one of these breaks that the trouble started. Rose sat sideways at the very end of the bar, a glass of water in her hand, her empty tray leaning against her knee when a tall man came her way. Even though the room was crowded, she noticed him because he looked a little younger than most of the other guests, and much more handsome. Dana, filling a glass with a dark brown beer, noticed him too.
“Damn,” the bartender muttered.
Before Rose could ask what was wrong, Dana moved off to fill customer orders. The man came right to the bar, which wasn’t surprising since Tracy couldn’t get all the drink orders herself. But instead of trying to flag the bartender down he came and stood much too close to Rose. She lifted her tray to hold like a shield in front of her and gave him one of the vague smiles she had perfected over the evening.
“Excuse me, sir,” she said, trying to wiggle her way along the wall to get away from him. There was no room for her to go anywhere because the crowd was so thick. “Pardon me.” She made her voice cold and firm. “Let me pass, please.”
“Sure,” he said. “It will only cost you a kiss, honey cakes.”
Honey cakes? Rose managed not to gape at him. “That’s not my job. I’m a waitress. Excuse me so I can go get my tray refilled.”
The man smiled at her and she had to admit it was a very attractive smile. His hair was dark blond, about shoulder length with a hint of a wave to it. Against it, the dark tan of his handsome face and the pale blue of his eyes were almost startling. Really, he was a very handsome man, and probably not more than twenty-five years old. Rose wondered how many other waitresses would have been happy to give him a kiss. But she was a married woman and she was not interested. Well, she wasn’t really married, and if she had met him in Kearney she might have liked to get to know him better.
“Excuse me,” she said with a little more force. When he spread his arms out to keep her from moving, she rotated the tray into a horizontal position. If she shoved the sharp edge into his throat he would move in a big hurry. But there was no need for such extreme actions. She gazed directly up into eyes rimmed with long, dark lashes. “My name is Rose Wolfe. My husband is Sky Wolfe.”
She waited for that to sink in, sure he would step aside as soon as he realized who she was. He moved, but not away. One step brought him close, and he pushed the tray down so it was vertical between them. He was so close that using the tray as a weapon would be impractical. If she jerked it straight up she might be able to slam it into his chin. That might do more damage than he deserved. He put both his hands on her shoulders, leaning in so she could feel his breath on her forehead. Her gaze flicked to his crotch. She could jam the corner of the tray there. That would cause severe pain and humiliation, but he would still be alive. If White Horse took action, there was no guarantee he would live to walk out the door.
Where was White Horse? Rose thought he would be here by now. Of course, there were so many people maybe he hadn’t noticed that this man had corralled her. A low growl sounded behind the man. Nope, Rose thought with an inner smile, White Horse is on the job.
It wasn’t White Horse. She looked over the man’s shoulder and saw Sky, and for the first time since they came to O
maha he looked like a wolf warrior. In spite of his short hair and perfectly fitted business suit, at this moment, Sky looked as feral and scary as Taye in his worst protective rage. His voice rumbled low in his throat as if he were speaking around gravel.
“Take your hands off my wife.”
The man lifted his hands off Rose’s shoulders and jerked around to face Sky. Rose pushed her back hard against the wall to put as much space as possible between her and the two men. Sky’s lips peeled away from his teeth in a snarl. His eyes, so bright and blue against the smooth gold of his face, practically glowed.
“Tony Askup. You had one warning. I guess it didn’t get through, did it?”
The other man raised his hands and gave a small laugh. Rose thought it sounded slightly forced. “Sky,” he said jovially. “I haven’t seen you in two months. How have you been?”
Sky’s stare remained on him, steady and cold, the kind of cold that meant something was burning right below the surface. “I’ve been married. You put your hands on my wife.”
“And a sweet little thing she is. Congratulations on putting on the old ball and chain.”
Rose wasn’t sure if Sky was furious or disbelieving. Or pleased? Why would he be pleased?
Sky curled a fist in Askup’s shirt and gave him a fierce smile. “You had one warning. That’s all I ever give anyone. Get out. Get out of my house.”
“Sky…” Askup opened his hands as if to show he was unarmed and helpless. “You don’t really mean that. My uncle wouldn’t like it.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what your uncle would or would not like.” Sky’s voice had dropped to a purr. It promised violence. “Are you going to walk out of here, or would you rather be carried? Personally, I’d like to see you carried out.”
“Uncle Terry—” the man began, but Sky’s fist jerked on his shirt. It tore with a tiny sound.
Rose realized the only reason she could hear that sound was because all the people around them had gone silent and were staring at them. She shifted her weight and glanced around at the circle of gaping faces. She saw White Horse push his way through them, and huffed out a breath of relief. Thank God.
“You want me to take him out, Sky?”
After a long moment, Sky opened his fist and let the crumpled cotton go. “Yes,” he said crisply. “Please escort Mr. Askup out the front door. Pass the word along that he is no longer welcome at The Limit.”
Rose watched White Horse seize Askup’s arm and pulled him away. Her shoulders slumped as tension fled. “Sky, you didn’t have to do that. He wasn’t really bothering me.”
“He was touching you.”
“I had it under control,” she retorted. She glanced around and saw that a few people had gone back to chatting or whatever, but most were still staring at them. “I better get back to work.”
Her so-called husband took a step that put him in the exact spot Tony Askup had occupied a moment ago. “Work? You don’t work here.”
It shouldn’t have hurt. So why did her chest feel like he had just stabbed her? She lowered her voice to the barest whisper. “No, I don’t do anything here. I’m just baggage to you, right? A waste of time and a waste of space.” She lifted her chin. “I never should have come to Omaha.”
A shadow of something terrible crossed his face, but it disappeared, leaving his features smooth. “Go upstairs, Rose. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Will we? You keep saying we’ll talk, but we never do. We hardly even see each other.” Tears, weak and weary, burned her eyes. Anger forced them back. “You were right all along. I should’ve stayed at the den.”
A glare from Sky sent the avidly watching guests scurrying to pretend they hadn’t been listening. “Go upstairs, Rose. I’ll be right behind you. We’ll talk this out now, since you insist.”
Rose stood straight and stiff for a minute, staring at his cold mask of a face. Then, head held high, she walked through the reception room to the kitchen. She set the empty tray down on the counter and met Katelyn’s wide eyes for a moment before going out to the mudroom to the narrow staircase that led up to their rooms. She lifted the lamp and lit the wick to show the way. She hadn’t thanked him for it yet. As she climbed the stairs, the weariness morphed into homesickness. She wanted to be at the den, where she knew everyone and was valued by them. There she had her friends, and her garden, and her knitting and spinning. It wasn’t the career in law she’d planned before the plane crash, but it was her life. Maybe the Pack didn’t have cars or electric light, but they loved her. How was Carla doing with Little Feather? She should be there to help with the children. The den was her home, not Omaha.
Rose stopped in the hallway and turned to face Sky. The rage that had fired his eyes a few minutes ago was gone now. She stared at him in the light of the lamp, not recognizing the impetuous boy whose wolf had claimed her in this slick, handsome stranger dressed in a city business suit. “I don’t know you,” she whispered. Loss and bewilderment made her eyes smart with fresh tears. “You dragged me away from home and brought me here so we could get to know each other, but it’s been days and I’ve barely seen you, much less talked to you. I want to go home.”
He smoothed the lapel of his silk suit with that condescending expression she loathed. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, princess. I’m in the middle of some very delicate negotiations right now, and having to go and fetch you has put me out of the loop. By next weekend I should have some time free for you.”
“Really.” Her lips felt stiff. “Next weekend? So generous of you to squeeze me into your schedule. You know what? Don’t bother. I’m going home. I repudiate your claim.”
“I reject your repudiation.” Now those cool, cobalt eyes sparked with honest emotion. “You want to see more of me? Fine. The only free time I have is at night. Let’s move your things to my room.”
He pushed past her to open her door. She stayed where she was, glaring at his back. “No,” she flung at him. “I repudiate you. You can’t reject that. Tomorrow I’m buying a ticket for the next train and I’m going home.”
He snapped the electric light on and stood in its glare like a sophisticated dark angel lit by the fires of hell. “No. You’re staying with me for a month. You promised. And you’re staying in my room from now on.”
She took a wobbly step back. “I promised a month for you to court me, not touchy-feely extracurricular activities. You can’t make me stay in your room.”
“Yes, I can. Come on, let’s get your stuff moved.”
She folded her arms over her chest and stuck out her chin. “No. And you can’t make me.”
“No?” He walked back to her in long, smooth steps, and she found herself backed up against the hallway wall. He raised his hands and put one on either side of her head against the wall. “No?” he asked again. “I think you’re forgetting whose house this is.”
She shouldn’t be thinking about his scent now, but with him standing close enough for their chests to brush, his scent couldn’t be ignored. If only he didn’t smell so good. “I’m not forgetting anything. You are forgetting that I am your mate, not your employee—”
The press of his mouth against hers shocked her. The back of her head slammed into the wall in an effort to escape the kiss, but it took only a split second for her to melt against him. Kissing Sky was overwhelming, and tremor-inducing, and amazingly delightful. His lips were warm until they went hot, and his tongue was magic. It was like throwing herself off a cliff and being caught in a thick warm cloud. She lost herself in the sensation of his tongue moving ardently with hers. Her hands itched to caress him but she pressed them flat against the wall at her sides. It took everything she had to turn her head aside and free her lips to speak.
“Sky,” she panted. “You can’t—I mean, we shouldn’t kiss. I haven’t accepted your mate claim.”
“Yet.” He took a step back and she was pleased to see that his eyes were glazed and his face was flushed. “You haven’t accepted my mate claim
yet. But I’ll do everything in my power to convince you to accept me.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “I know you think I’ve been an ass, and maybe you’re right. I haven’t spoken with you about anything of any importance since we’ve come to Omaha, but I haven’t been avoiding you on purpose. You know how important the vote is. We’ve talked about that, at least. I’ve been spending every minute talking to the council members to influence them to vote to change the laws. The only time I have alone is when I’m in bed.”
Rose knew where this was going and she clenched her teeth. “Then before you go to bed, come into my room and we can talk for a while.”
He shook his head. “That’s not good enough. I want you with me. The way the Lupa was with the Chief before she accepted him. Just sleeping in the same bed. God, I dream of having you beside me.”
The passion in his voice made her blink. “You do?”
“I’ve dreamed of you from time to time since I came to Omaha, but these last few days I never stop dreaming of you. It’s not easy, having you so close and not being able to spend time with you.”
“I don’t know.” She studied him, still feeling his kiss on her mouth. She couldn’t be sure, since she had nothing to compare him to, but he seemed to be an expert kisser. Maybe he practiced with someone like Zoe or Tanya. That thought narrowed her eyes.
Sky spread his hands. “I won’t push you to give me anything that you don’t want to, but this way we can start to feel comfortable with each other. I want to court you, Rose. I know there’s lots we still don’t know about each other. I want to spend hours with you, but I just don’t have the time right now. But if we have a little time each night to talk, we can get to know each other. I want to hear you breathing beside me in the dark. Please, Rose, come stay in my room.”
“No more kissing?” Rose swallowed and pushed away from the wall. “You can’t keep kissing me without my permission. You did it that night in the mayor’s car and you did it again tonight. It makes me nervous, like I can’t trust you.” She privately admitted she didn’t trust herself either. “It reminds me of the way you scared me back at the den all those years ago.”