Loup Garou

by Mandy M. Roth

  I went to my knees, closed my eyes and thrust my head back and forth, careful to keep my elbows in a bit. The music ran through me and the deep voice that accompanied it pulled at me, seemingly drawing me to it. It was something that always happened when I heard anything by the group. The man’s voice seemed to command me, order me to submit and I, unable to resist, did. I gave it my all, moving, dancing, thumping my body. The beat consumed me. It was as thought he sang to me and no one else. Like he was sending a summons out over millions of people but meant it for me and me alone. It was a foolish thought but one I couldn’t shake. I didn’t even want to shake it. No. I loved my version of reality.

  Before moving quickly to my feet again, I pretended to strip my bikini top off and continued on with the routine. The belly dancing portion returned and I glanced up to find all the women moving along with me, some slower than others and some completely off beat but all having fun. Since that was all that mattered, I kept going.

  Grinning, I made my way through them, helping to straighten everyone out. Taking hold of Susan’s hips, I led her on the hip rotating portion she kept beating herself up over. “Mmmhmm, that’s it, push, push, swing, circle.”

  “I can’t get this.”

  Rubbing her shoulders, I shook her slightly. “This is easy. Come on horny lil’ bunny, move like you do while riding your hubby.” Taking hold of her hips again, I helped to guide her. “Are you a left, right or head on gal?”

  “Huh?”

  Moving up next to her, I smiled wide and winked. “Okay, picture him pinned under you. He’s there, ready, deep in you. What do you do?”

  “I don’t know. I never thought about it before. What do you do?”

  “I have a tendency to start most of what I do with my left side. That’s odd considering I’m right-handed. Still, it happens. Of course, I hop up there for a ride and depending on the guy, I may stay upright or lean down.”

  “Huh?” Dorothy asked.

  Susan grinned. “If she likes the guy, she’ll lean down to be closer to him. If she’s just taking the scenic route or screwing for something to do, she stays sitting up. It keeps it less personal. I bet Lindsay avoids kissing men like the plague. That’s something a commitment-phobic person tends to do.”

  My jaw dropped. “Mention riding a guy in front of a sex therapist and she instantly pegs you. That’ll teach me.”

  “So, are you a kisser, Lindsay?”

  I wagged my brows. “Come here, I’ll show you.”

  The room laughed.

  Snickering, Susan shook her upper body fast, in a teasing manner. “Show me the riding thing. Inquiring minds want to know.”

  Rolling my eyes, I shrugged. “Okay, but I’m not that exciting. Once I’m there, I make tiny figure eights, leading with my left side, like this,” moving my body, I did exactly that, “then if I’m bent down, I’ll thrust up and down on him a couple of times. I vary that up a bit, fine tune what’s working for the both of us and end up brushing my entire body over his while I’m on him.”

  I did the entire routine for them without stopping and grinned as Louise wiped her forehead. “Sweetie, I’m not sure who told you that you’re not that exciting but we’ve got a porn collection at home that would beg to differ.”

  “Umm, I’m not sure if I should feel honored or concerned. I’ve been known to allow a camera in the bedroom before,” I said with a wink.

  “Unless you’re one of those women who grabs a few guys and uses them until they drop, you should feel safe because those types of pornos make up the majority of our collection. My husband has a thing for one woman with multiple guys.. Let me just say that if he even thinks for a minute that I’ll do that he’ll be pulling my foot out of his ass.”

  Not wanting to answer Louise’s subtle question, I clapped my hands and smiled. “Are you guys good to run through it once on your own?”

  “Ohmygod, Lindsay has been in bed with more than one man at a time,” Dorothy screamed out.

  My eyes widened. “Dorothy?”

  “We have known you long enough to catch the change-of-subject-instead-of-answer routine, babes. Spill it.”

  “About that run through,” I said, trying desperately to get off the current subject. It could lead to nowhere good.

  Susan smiled. “You’re doing it again, Lindsay. Changing the topic.”

  Louise looked shocked. “Holy shit, you were linked with that rocker guy. That one who had a string of women in his life. What was his name?”

  I cringed. “And you all wonder why it is I refuse to date men in the music industry anymore. See, nothing is private with them. Nothing.” I smiled, doing my best to joke away the pain of it all. “Next thing you know you’ll be telling me you downloaded a taped session of us from the internet.”

  Susan touched my arm. My power flared, racing through her and showing her my memories. I jerked back, shaking my head, doing my best to lasso it and make her think it was something she’d read in a tabloid, not really a memory she’d picked up from me.

  She covered her mouth. “Oh, Lindsay. Sweetheart. Didn’t I read somewhere you’d lost someone close to you? Was he a boyfriend? Oh, my, wasn’t it that rocker guy?”

  “Umm.” I glanced down at the floor, not wanting to talk about it.. “I’ve lost a lot of people in my life. Some boyfriends, some not.” My gaze flickered to Exavier quickly and I had to force it away.

  Louise smiled. “Care to share more about your latest? He’s been staring at you like he can’t wait to get you home and get that private showing.” She motioned to Exavier.

  I snickered. “Uh, he’s not my anything.”

  “Oh, really?” Exavier asked, catching me off guard and making the women all sigh. “You sure about that?”

  I nodded. “Really.”

  Susan laughed. “Do you think he’ll be like all the others? Unable to keep up with you?”

  I snorted. “Yeah, that’s it. I haven’t been lucky enough to run across a supernatural, ever-lasting guy with a stamina that rivals my own. Jot that down. We could put that on my Christmas list. No blonds. Oh, and they have to be taller than me. I get sick of the Sonny and Cher jokes. And their butt needs to be wider than mine. That’s a given. What else sounds good? Great obliques. Always a plus.”

  “Supernatural?” Louise asked. “Great, this makes my husband right. He keeps spouting off that you’re a witch or at the very least a temptress.”

  I bit my lower lip and tried not to laugh. “That beats the rumor that I’m a vampire. At least I still get to eat ice cream if I’m a witch. That type O-neg diet would have really put a cramp in my junk food addiction. Speaking of which, am I the only one who is hungry for a cheeseburger?”

  Susan reached out and ran her finger over my arm. “Honey, you’re something all right. You haven’t broken a sweat and we’re all dying here.” She laughed. “You’re a nympho, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I am. Too bad I swore off men for awhile. I hope withdrawal doesn’t set in. I might end up tackling that Blair guy. I really love his abs.”

  “Brook,” they all said, laughing. Even Exavier shook his head, obviously getting in on the joke.

  “Yeah, him too.”

  Chapter Three

  I waited until the class had cleared out before smiling at Exavier. “Sorry about Dorothy pinching your ass.”

  He rubbed his left cheek and wagged his brows. “She’s got a hell of a grip.”

  I bent to shut the CD player off and winced as pain shot through my upper back. I’d thought I’d worked all the kinks out but my run-in the night before had done more damage than I thought. Closing my eyes, I leaned down to try it again only to find Exavier beating me to it.

  “You okay?”

  “No, I’m old. You don’t want to hire me. Go home now.”

  Chuckling, he held my elbow as I stood tall. “Nice try. What’s up? Sleeping wrong doesn’t leave someone this sore. I noticed you favoring your left shoulder earlier. What happened?”

 
; How the hell did he pick up on all of that? “Nothing, I’m fine. Just stiff.”

  “Lindsay?”

  Exhaling, I decided truth was the best policy. That and it would make him run away. “Okay then, on my way to my car last night, four big guys jumped out, partially shifted into panthers and managed to bounce me off six, no seven vehicles before I even knew what hit me. They then accused me of being some prince’s mate and tried to put me in a big van. Apparently, princes’ mates are in high demand and there is a market for them or something. Don’t know. Don’t care. I unloaded an assload of power on them.” I winked. “Because I’m magikal. Killed two, I think, and managed to injure the other two.” I grinned. “There ya go. Feel better knowing?”

  Something moved over his face that wasn’t friendly. “Lindsay?”

  “I’m crazy. Run while you can before I start talking about vampires too. Any minute now someone from the neighborhood is liable to show up and ask me to cleanse their house of evil spirits. I’m a regular spook fest.”

  Exavier moved in closer to me. “So, do things like that happen often or was it a one shot deal?”

  I would find the one man that was good at taking me in stride when I’d officially sworn men off.

  “Let’s see. Up until three years ago, things like that would happen every now and then. A vampire here, a lycan there, a whatever-the-hell-else-exists sprinkled in for effect. It was rare and they never demanded I give up some prince guy, they just attacked because they said they could sense my power.”

  “What happened three years ago?” he asked, his face never switching to an amused look. The fact he seemed to be buying the truth worried me.

  “I was on tour, with a client. We were in England and he’d taken sick. That was weird in itself.” I left out the part about Tim being a supernatural who shouldn’t have ever fallen ill. “Needless to say, the show didn’t go on. I didn’t think anything of it until I knocked on his tour bus door and he didn’t answer. We were friends to start with and I knew he’d never ignore me and I could sense him in there. I used my oh-so-spooky gifts and opened the door. I found his mutilated body spread all over the bus. After I pulled myself together, I ran to get help only to find the friendly gang of spookables on my heels.” I waited for Exavier to run the other way. He didn’t.

  The events surrounding the attack three years ago weren’t something I’d ever talked about outside my immediate circle of friends. My parents weren’t even aware of what had truly gone on. They knew I’d been attacked. They also knew Tim died. I didn’t offer any details beyond those. I’d already told Exavier more than I’d confessed to my father and I was a daddy’s girl.

  “They ruled Tim’s death an accident,” he said, his voice low.

  “Yeah,” I whispered, staring into his blue eyes, surprised he knew Tim. It did make sense. They were both in the entertainment industry. “It’s not like they could label it for what it was. Besides, other than you, humans don’t believe this shit when people start spouting it off.”

  “Humans, huh?”

  “Yeah, I’m not human. Run. Hurry up before I drop a house on you or something. Click your heels. Quick.”

  Exavier didn’t budge. “Tim was a good guy, Linds.”

  “No, he was a great guy. He was special too, like me—like others that hide among people.” I stared up at him. “Please know, I might be crazy but I don’t generally talk about our kind in front of yours. I don’t talk about the attack if I can help it. Myra and Gina know the details because they had a hand in making it all better.” I didn’t tell him my ex also had a major hand in saving me. It wasn’t Exavier’s business and even with my sharing mood, I didn’t want to discuss Eion with him.

  Exavier did a rather long blink. I continued, “They should have never been able to sneak up on Tim.. But they did. He should have sensed them. Certain things emit a negative energy. A sort of signal others like me can pick up on. The amount of evil they came packing and the numbers they arrived in should have warned him…pfft…all of us way before we even got to England. Somehow, they masked themselves from us. It’s damn hard to hide evil from me. Everyone I know who is different says I’m way more sensitive to evil than they’ve ever seen anyone be. The fact they got past says just how powerful they were.”

  Exavier leaned into me. “How did you manage to escape them that night?”

  “I didn’t.”

  He drew in a sharp breath. “What do you mean, you didn’t?”

  “I mean what I said, Mr. Kedmen. I did not get away from them that night. I was taken as leverage. A pawn in their game to play with some man I don’t know and don’t care to meet.” It was hard to hold my emotions in check. The attack had been brutal, well thought out and had forever changed my life. It robbed me of my happiness and left me to have to learn to live on despite my loss.

  “Did they hurt you?”

  I expected him to tell me I was crazy or not funny. I didn’t expect genuine concern.

  I nodded as I bit back tears. “Yes.”

  He hugged me and I welcomed it, feeling compelled to go on. “I spent four days in what can only be called hell at their mercy before two of my closest friends and a man I was closer than close to found me and got me out of there because I couldn’t walk to do it myself. This ends the discussion. Feel free to think I’m crazy. I’m used to it. It was nice to meet you. If you need those names or referrals, let me know. They’re normal so you don’t have to be concerned about ending up with nutcases.”

  I went to walk out of the room only to find Exavier moving to block it. “I want you, Lindsay. I already told you that. I haven’t changed my mind.”

  “I forgot to mention the aliens.”

  Folding his arms over his chest, he leaned back against the wall. He looked so smug, so cocksure that I wanted to smack him right before I begged him to fuck me. “There were aliens?”

  Blowing the raspberries, I rolled my eyes. “I almost wish there was. Would it have chased you off?”

  “No.”

  “Are you insane?” I asked, wanting desperately to throw myself into his strong arms but not daring to do so.

  A wry smile covered his handsome face. “Would it matter?”

  “Probably not. Would you like to discuss details of me possibly helping you out in my office?”

  Exavier chuckled and the deep sound moved over me, settling in the apex of my thighs, making moisture pool there. His smile widened as he shook his head, sending his unruly hair in every direction. “Yes, but I’d rather discuss it over lunch. Can you get time away today?”

  The door to the room opened fast, startling me. I jumped slightly and Exavier pulled me to the side, putting his body in front of mine before I could blink. He reached back and put his hand on my hip. It only made the horny state he’d put me in worsen. I pulled back enough to maintain contact with him and get a peek at his ass. I knew I could get lost in this man and I knew he’d be more than willing to let me. My head said run. My body said stay with him.

  “Lindsay, are you in…?”

  The sound of Stalker Stan’s voice made me cringe, as it always did. Instinctively, I went into Exavier’s body more, pressing myself to his back and resting my palms on his muscular body.

  “Who are you and why are you in Lindsay’s room?” Stan asked.

  “I could ask you the very same thing,” Exavier said, caressing my hip slightly and doing a remarkably fine job of making me feel safe—something I rarely felt.

  “I’m Lindsay’s boyfriend.”

  My jaw dropped when Stan’s words sank in. It took me a second to realize that I’d begun to claw lightly at Exavier’s back. I stopped and planted a tiny kiss on the spot I’d marred him.

  Oh shit, I kissed him.

  I wanted to back away then. It was too much, my need to touch him, to be touched by him. I didn’t kiss men I just met. Not even on the back.

  Exavier chuckled, sounding anything but amused. “Hmm, that’s funny because at last check, I was her
boyfriend. In fact, we’re a little bit closer than boyfriend, girlfriend but that’s between us, not you. Stop fucking showing up places you shouldn’t. Stop obsessing about a woman who doesn’t love you and doesn’t want you. And if you come near her again I will personally hunt you down. I can guarantee that you do not want me on your bad side.”

  What?

  Stan didn’t respond. The sound of the door closing told me he’d left. Exhaling, I did my best to calm my nerves. Exavier twisted around and I found my face dangerously close to his cheek and neck. “Sorry, if I was out of line, just tell me. I got the sense that you didn’t want to deal with him. I also overheard your friend Myra talking about him. I’ll hunt him down and apologize if you want me to.”

  The thick cords in his neck moved as he spoke, driving my body crazy, making me want to see them moving above me while he pumped the full length of himself into me. I stepped into him more. I wanted to kiss him and could only hope he wanted it too.

  “Linds?”

  Snapping out of my stupor, I stared up at him. “Thank you. Claiming the local witch is quite a move. People will no doubt arrive with medals to pin to your chest.”

  “You’re not mad?” Exavier smiled and my entire body reacted to the sight. My breath hitched as a shiver ran over me. He reached for me and I backed up quickly, scared that I’d beg him to take me if I let him too close. “Are you okay?”

  Nodding, I ran towards the center of the room and grabbed my clothes, grunting softly as I bent over. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

  Strong hands slid over my back. I froze and choked back a scream as I shook instantly.

  “It’s just me.” Exavier wrapped his arms around me and eased me up. “You’re shaking.”

  Letting out a nervous laugh, I tried my best to play off just how much he’d scared me. He was fast. Faster than he should have been. He didn’t seem like a supernatural to me. I couldn’t sense any sort of power in him. No. Exavier seemed all too human. Every ounce of me wished he wasn’t. I could easily see myself falling for him. The only problem was, a human would never last with me. “Guess I’m jumpy. Normally, when something gets that close, that fast, bad things happen.”