But for some reason, watching her friends, the women she knew and loved...watching them in committed relationships, fawning over their men...no. She wasn't going there.
“We were thinking a beach ceremony. Four weeks from now,” Izzy told them.
“We haven't booked anything yet. Izzy and I wanted to make sure you and the others could make it.”
“Of course,” Ceara said without hesitation.
“We wouldn't miss it,” Avery added. She didn't even have to consult her calendar and couldn’t decide if that was good or pathetic. Two years ago, she would have said it was perfect, exactly what she wanted out of life. But now her life and barren calendar seemed…empty. Lonely.
Dammit, there was that word again. She wasn’t lonely.
“So...” Avery said, grasping at any topic of conversation that would get her mind off her tension. “Have you found a dress yet?” She glanced at Izzy over the top of her wine glass.
Hopefully the waiter would return soon so she could order another cocktail.
And just like that, Izzy was off. Chattering about the simple, short creamy silk dress she'd purchased and the diamond ankle bracelet Valencia had given her to complete the outfit. Avery wanted to tune her out because each detail reminded her of those plans so long ago. The dress she'd chosen. The earrings her grandmother had given her for her special day.
But tuning out the conversation left her alone with her thoughts and that was even worse somehow. Alone in her mind she could torture herself with memories of Hunter's lips against hers, trailing down her jaw. His hot breath heating her skin, his tender words making her melt.
She ran her fingers through her hair, straightening the strands as she took a slow, deep steadying breath.
“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I need to go take a shower and get an ounce of shuteye before my next lesson with the princess.”
Hunter pushed back his empty plate, wiped his mouth on a napkin and stood. “I’ll walk you.”
Izzy, Shade and Hunter scooted out of the bench seat. Avery could have flashed, but sometimes it was nice to do things the old fashioned way. She reached for her yoga bag and Hunter held out a hand to help her up. She slid her palm into his and a tingle of awareness hit her.
“See you tomorrow?” Ceara asked as Avery stood.
“Sure.” She smiled. “Night.”
Silence reined as she walked side-by-side with Hunter. He glanced at the silver watch on his left wrist as they made their way through the lobby.
“Sun’s down,” he murmured.
She’d known that; a vampire was hyper aware of the sun’s position in the sky. But it was sweet that he’d checked before stepping outside with her.
From the courtyard they took the sandy path toward the cottages. She got a sense of déjà vu.
“Let’s walk down by the water.” It was more of a command than a question. The hand at the small of her back radiated warmth and she fought the urge to lean into him. It was getting too easy to give into those urges…
“So Izzy and Shade are getting married?” he said.
“That’s the plan.”
“You girls will have fun planning the wedding, I’m sure.” He reached up and pushed a low hanging palm frond out of their way.
She was used to the little gestures but this, like all the other times, she wanted to close her eyes and soak in the feel of him. To memorize what it felt like to be touched, not sexually but with care. To be taken care of.
“We’ll see,” she said, pulling herself out of that rabbit hole.
“Don’t tell me you guys won’t be shopping for a new dress. I wouldn’t believe you,” he said as they passed another couple going the opposite direction.
“Yeah,” she admitted with a grin that lifted her spirits. “I wouldn’t deny that. New shoes too.”
She wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to go shopping. A wedding gave her the perfect excuse to buy a new outfit.
There were several beats of silence, comfortable silence.
“You know what I love about being in my human form?” he asked, pausing.
She stopped and turned back to see him watching the couple walking away from them.
“What?”
“Holding hands.” Slowly, he returned his gaze to hers and she felt something inside melt. “That’s not something we do in our true form.”
His true form being his wolfy self.
All joking aside, he was completely sincere and she could understand his desire. There’d been a time in her life when she’d longed to hold hands. The simple, innocent gesture had held so much meaning and comfort.
She realized then that the time hadn’t passed. The desire was still there inside her, dormant. Or perhaps, not so dormant.
She held out her hand to him.
He stared down at her palm for a long moment before he reached out and laced their fingers. The tingling came back with a vengeance. Traveling up her forearm, through her bicep, across her shoulder and then radiating along her nervous system from there. There was a peacefulness, a rightness to the moment that she couldn’t deny and didn’t want to end.
They walked the rest of the way, hand in hand. When they stopped in front of the cottage door she thought about inviting him in.
“I think we should renegotiate,” she blurted.
“Renegotiate?”
She stepped back. “Never mind.” What in the heck had she been thinking?
He still had ahold of her hand and tugged her forward. “No never mind. Tell me what you’re thinking. What should we renegotiate?”
Being so close to him, staring up at his lips, feeling his skin against hers…it short circuited her brain. “Us. On the island. You don’t share.”
“So we’d be renegotiating sex.”
Had the word sex ever looked sexier on anyone’s lips? She didn’t think so.
Avery nodded.
He tipped his head back and sighed. “Avery, Avery, Avery…what am I going to do with you?”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand. It’s obvious you’ve wanted more since the moment we met. I’m telling you I want more.”
“You want to be friends with benefits. You want sex.”
“You’re saying you don’t?”
He dropped her hand, cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
“See you in class,” he whispered and then he was gone. She stared after him feeling a sudden and sharp sense of loss.
CHAPTER NINE
The sun would be up in an hour. Even after one hundred and sixty-seven years’ worth of sunrises, this was still Valencia Fabelle’s favorite time of day. Quiet. Dark. Peaceful. Alive with hope of a fresh day.
Her keen ears picked up the sound of gentle footfalls in the sand long before she saw the person. Years of looking over her shoulder, protecting her secrets, had honed her skill at picking up anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, it was tough to turn off those instincts when she came to Mystic Isle. Compared to the rest of the world, this was a safe place. A happy place filled with fun and pheromones. A place where she could relax.
Avery jogged beneath a crop of palm trees. Valencia’s vampire sight let her take in each detail as if it was early morning. Short, snug shorts and a white sports bra hugged Avery’s athletic frame. Her long black pony tail swished back and forth with each step.
The lovely American slowed to a walk and paced a few large circles in front of the water’s edge, holding her hands up over her head. Eventually she stopped pacing and stared out at the ocean. Several minutes passed before she dropped her hands to her hips. Another minute ticked by and then she turned toward the cottage.
What was it that made the young vamp so unsettled?
A man to be sure. It was always a man with Avery.
Valencia poured a second glass of O negative as Avery approached the wrap around deck. Despite her run, Valencia heard Avery’s heart beating steadily, barely accelerated from its normal cadence. There
were few things in life Valencia could set her watch by; Avery’s jogging schedule was one of them.
“You look like you could use this.” She offered the goblet, noting the distracted expression on the younger vamp’s face.
Avery’s deep blue eyes narrowed on the glass. “Merci.”
Valencia stepped to the rail and studied the waves. Her life was like that. A constant. Always moving and yet…
Taking a deep breath she pushed away her worries and focused on her coven mate. Avery twirled the stem of her goblet between her fingers, hip propped against the railing as she stared into the dark cottage.
“You’re thinking about him again,” Valencia guessed. Avery always got quiet and sullen when she thought about the batard who’d crushed her heart. He didn’t deserve Avery’s thoughts. Or her love.
“Yeah.” Avery pushed away from the railing and settled onto a lounge chair, tucking her legs beneath her.
“Because of Izzy’s wedding,” she guessed.
Avery simply nodded and then took a long sip.
“I know the feeling.” Valencia perched on the edge of the chair next to Avery’s and stared down into her goblet. “I was a June bride before it was fashionable.”
That got Avery’s attention. “You were married?”
Valencia didn’t talk much about her past. There was nothing she could do to change it. Only learn from it. She tried to use the lessons she’d learned to help the women who shared her home. Most of the ladies that became part of her coven were overcoming something, running from something, needing something or someone.
Avery was an odd combination of perfectly healed and heartbreakingly broken.
“Almost,” she said, amazed that she could even remember what her almost bride-groom had looked like. Even more amazing was that she still felt the sting of his betrayal even after all these years. Time had certainly healed the wound, but there was still an ugly scar over her heart. After all the years, she remembered the exact date and time that her universe had come crashing down around her.
“How close did you get?”
“The night before the wedding.”
Avery’s soft gasp seemed loud in the quiet morning. “Why didn’t you— When I came to you thirty years ago crying over—”
Valencia saw Avery swallow back the words. She’d never been the touchy feely sort, but something made her reach for Avery’s hand now.
“You were in pain. I knew what you’d been through chérie. The best thing I could let you do was the one thing I’d never been allowed to. Grieve.”
Avery sat back against the chair and looked up at the sky for a long time.
“Do you ever think of him?” she asked.
There was no point in denying the truth. “Every single day.”
And every day she tried to ignore the pull, the voice in her head begging her to take back what was rightfully hers. To find him. But what good would it do? She’d walked this earth for over three hundred years. And she’d lived with his betrayal for two hundred and eighty nine of them.
“I was really good at forgetting Robert,” Avery said and drained her glass.
Valencia got up and offered Avery a refill.
“Too good, I’d say.”
“Thank you,” Avery said, accepting the goblet. “You think so?”
“I think you were so good at forgetting him that you never really got over it. And now it’s all coming back to bite you. With Izzy’s wedding and with Hunter.”
Valencia trailed a fingertip around the rim of her glass.
“I wish I understood him.”
“Hunter?”
Avery nodded.
“What’s to understand?” The wolf had it bad for the young vamp. Valencia would think that it was obvious.
“Him.” Avery pushed off of the chaise and strode to the rail. “He’s hot. Then he’s cold. Charming then aloof. Why can’t he be like any other man who only wants a good time? Isn’t that the way men are these days? Hopping from partner to partner?”
“I thought you agreed you weren’t going to be involved after—”
“We did.”
“Did you have sex with him?”
“What? No. Not since that solstice.”
Valencia would never forget those “three fabulous days and nights.” Not that she’d been present, but Avery hadn’t been stingy with the details of the escapade.
She could tell by the way Avery’s heartbeat accelerated, the other woman would never forget those days either. In fact, Valencia would be willing to bet that the young vamp was tortured by the memories.
And perhaps more.
Avery had always taken the position that sex was a practical release. A calling from nature. It didn’t need to be romantic. It didn’t need to end with procreation.
So why, believing all that, did she seem so hung up on a man? Why wasn’t she out finding a new partner?
“So what’s the problem? Want to sleep with him again? You can you know. There’s no law against that.”
“He’s obviously not interested.”
“Why do you think that? Every time I see him, his eyes are following you around the room. He hangs on your every word. He caters to you and protects you.”
“I told him last night that we should renegotiate. Enjoy each other while we’re here. He turned me down.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Hunter I know.”
“He said I just wanted friends with benefits and then he left.”
“So he didn’t exactly turn you down.”
“He didn’t exactly take me up on my offer either.”
The poor young vampiress. She was too close to see what was really going on.
“What is it, exactly, that you worry about with Hunter?”
He’ll expect things.”
“Such as?”
There was a long pause before Avery turned her attention to the ocean. “A relationship.”
“And you’re worried it’d ruin your friendship.”
“Yeah. No. I don’t want to ruin our friendship. Not that I have any idea how we became friends in the first place. But I can’t risk it. You know that.”
“Have you explained that to him?”
Another pause. “No.”
“Perhaps you should.”
“What would it matter? It’s not like hearing my horrible past would change anything.”
“I think it could change a great deal. I know you don’t like talking about it, chérie. I know you like to be fun and effervescent and devil-may-care. But we both know that’s just a cover up. And if you value Hunter’s friendship half as much as I think you do, you’ll explain to him about your past. About why you cannot risk your heart. Friends shouldn’t keep secrets.”
It was a long time before Avery said “what about coven mates?”
Valencia shook her head. “Coven mates should not keep secrets either.”
Valencia refilled their goblets and they sat back in the lounge chairs, listening to the waves. The companionable silence was nice. Different somehow.
“Can I ask you a question?” Avery asked after a long while.
“Of course.”
“Are you happy?”
“I am content.” Which wasn’t the same thing. “But no. I haven’t been truly happy in a long time.”
“Me either,” Avery whispered.
“It is a sad thing to admit. For me. I have so much. Wealth. Property. Jewels…”
“You can go out in the daylight.”
Valencia nodded. Yes, she could. It was the single most yearned for event in the life of a turned vampire.
She had plenty to keep her busy. And not much worthy of complaint, which made the emptiness she felt even greater. Nine days out of ten, she managed to ignore the feeling. Today, she wasn’t that lucky.
“It’s hard to trust again, believe me, I know. But you’re not so old yet.” Valencia offered her a smile. “You can have a second chance…if you want one.”
“You kno
w what I want a second chance at? Life. Childhood. Creating memories. I feel like I spent so much of my life training that I never got to really live it. I don’t remember slumber parties. I didn’t go to prom.”
Valencia had always admired Avery’s spunk. When life got her down, she perked right back up again like a sunflower in Provence.
“So have a slumber party.”
Avery’s brows drew together. “You think?”
“Why not? The cottage is at your disposal.” Valencia swept her hand through the air at the building behind them.
“Okay. Awesome. Yes. But only if you come.”
The suggestion took Valencia by surprise. While she enjoyed the time she spent with the women in her coven, such an event wasn’t her style. She opened her mouth to politely decline but the look of excitement in Avery’s eyes, the high arch of her thin black brows, made her ask “what does one do at a slumber party?”
She had a general idea and it didn’t sound like fun.
“Talk. Play games. Paint our nails. Play dress up. Watch movies. Prank phone calls. Read magazines and stay up till dawn. It’ll be a blast.”
And Avery was off; chattering on about doing their own nails and quality girl time.
“Sounds positively wretched,” Valencia said with a smile. She didn’t deny that the younger woman’s enthusiasm was catching.
“But you have to come. We’ll drink cocktails and loosen up. It’ll be great!”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Which isn’t a no, so I’ll take it.”
It was good to see Avery excited about something again. Valencia had enough melancholy in her life without anyone else adding to it.
“Well, I should get ready for my lesson with the princess.”
Avery hopped off the lounge chair with her usual exuberance but Valencia felt her pause at the french doors.
“V?”
How she’d gotten stuck with a single letter for a nickname she didn’t know. But she’d never bothered to utter a complaint about it. As much as she disliked being boiled down to a consonant, she secretly cherished having a nickname.
“Oui?”
“Thanks for being such a great friend. I hope you know…if you ever want to talk about anything, I’m here.”
Pursued by a Werewolf (Mystic Isle, Book 4) Page 8