by M. L. Briers
~
~
Darby had to admit that if nothing else the view was good. Following Kent through the house and up the staircase had been an epic failure on her part to try to keep her eyes off his naked body.
She’d thought the view from the front was exceptional, but the view from the back was equally heart thumping, blood pressure raising, and giggle-like-a-teenage-schoolgirl inducing.
Darby had the desire to reach out and touch his skin as the muscles moved beneath the surface, kind of the same reaction she had when she saw chocolate icing on a cake, and the temptation was only growing.
Naked muscle man had never been her thing, but she guessed that they were now. Tastes change, and Darby had the urge to lick over his skin like he was her favorite flavor of ice cream. That was wrong — she was supposed to be keeping the man at arm’s length — not trying to eat him alive.
“I can feel your eyes on my backside,” Kent tossed back over one broad shoulder.
“Yes, they flew right out of my head and landed on your butt. Anything else would mean that I was up close and personal with you, and that’s the last place I want to be.” She lied.
Darby certainly had the urge to be up close and personal with him. Too personal. Too close. That feeling was growing within her, and she needed to put a stop to it as soon as possible.
“I think that’s right where you want to be,” Kent said, testing the waters to see if he could figure out just how warm they were.
“I think you’re delusional,” she said, trying to look anywhere but at his backside. It was not an easy task to achieve when she was following him up the staircase.
Darby was grateful when they reached the top. The area opened out into three different sections, and the section that they were walking down was more open and gave her room to look around.
That didn’t mean that her eyes weren’t still itching to get back to his naked body, they were. It the kind of itch that really wanted to be scratched, and it was taking everything that she had to keep from ogling him.
When Kent came to an abrupt halt, Darby almost ran straight into the back of him, cursing herself for not paying more attention to what he was doing, and she pulled back just a little as he turned toward her.
“After you,” Kent said motioning for her to go into the room ahead of him.
“Age before beauty.” She offered him a smug smile. Kent went to step into the room, but then he thought better of it.
“And the moment that I step through the doorway would you be fixing to use your magic to slam the door shut and lock it?” Kent asked as he folded his large arms, and those muscles were pushed out even further.
“Perish the thought,” she offered back, but Kent didn’t hear any real conviction in her voice.
“After you,” Kent said again.
That time she knew that it wasn’t an offer because it sounded more of an order. Darby caught that tone as well and bristled a little.
“When are you going to learn that ordering me to do something…?”
“Please,” Kent added, and with a small incline of his head, he lifted his hand and motioned for her to enter the room.
“That’s — better,” she begrudgingly offered back.
Of course, the thought of doing exactly what he’d accused her of had gone through her mind, along with a whole slew of X-rated thoughts as she’d climbed the stairs. But deep down she’d known that he would have been expecting it.
Darby took three steps that drew her practically up against his body as he stood angled toward her by the doorway. She could feel the heat that came from his skin, and her heart skipped a beat as that urge to reach out and touch him flooded back into her mind.
“Why are you hesitating?” Kent asked.
“Why are you half blocking the doorway?” She shot back.
“Maybe the up close and personal comment you made put ideas in my head,” Kent said, testing the waters again.
“I don’t think I needed to put any ideas in your head,” she snorted.
Darby went to take a step, but his arm came up and blocked the doorway in front of her. She had no choice but to hold in place.
Close. Too damn close.
“Don’t tell me; you have problems deciding which breakfast cereal to eat in the morning as well.” She grumbled. “Go inside, don’t go inside – which is it?”
“Why do you keep running from me?”
“Because it’s fun,” she lied, and he felt that deceit.
“That’s bull. Try again.”
“Because I can,” she lied again, and he could feel it.
“Try again…”
“How many ways do you need me to say it?” Darby asked, tipping her chin up in defiance, and going back on the defensive.
“Until we get the right answer.”
“The right answer — or the answer that you’re looking for?”
“The answer that isn’t a lie,” he shot back and watched the color fill her cheeks.
Kent’s beast tried to push forward when he was otherwise occupied. He was caught spellbound in her eyes with his little brain trying to dictate over his big brain, and the urge to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless was pounding inside his head like a painless headache.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
~
“What are you doing?” Darby demanded with a scowl on her brow that snapped him right out of the moment.
Kent slammed the cage door shut on his wolf, and pulled himself together.
“What was I doing?”
“Leaning and growling,” Darby shot back.
“And what’s wrong with that?” Kent hadn’t realized that he’d been doing either of those things.
“Are you ever going to put clothes on?” She huffed, back on the defensive again.
What was wrong with that indeed? She’d been caught up in that moment as well, and that was bad – not wrong, because it didn’t feel wrong, and why would it? He was her mate. But she couldn’t let her guard down.
“You seem to be enjoying the view.”
Busted again, and the heat in her cheeks was only going to confirm that to him.
“You really do like to flatter yourself…”
“You forget, I can hear the beating of your heart when it’s pounding for me,” Kent said, and noted the way that she didn’t rush to deny anything that time. She was speechless. “Why are you fighting this so hard, Darby?”
Darby swallowed the urge to give him a truthful answer. Maybe it was the mating pull, or maybe it was just the fact that the man oozed strength and gave her a sense of security that she hadn’t felt in a very long time, but that desire to tell him about Brogan was clawing at her.
There was a mini-me in the back of her mind waving at her and ringing alarm bells, warning her of the consequences of what would happen if she did spill her guts.
The fact that he was her mate only compounded the problem. What made her feel so safe and secure also meant that he would rush head first into a fight with the vampire to try to protect her, and that was what she was trying to avoid.
It wasn’t just the little matter of an independent streak that ran through her veins along with her lifeblood; it was the fact that she also felt a need to protect him, from himself, from that testosterone-fuelled hero persona that would feed his need to fight for her and blind him with anger, and it was her fight to be had.
If she could just find a way to leave, then she could make a stand against her tormentor.
Right then and there – she was screwed.
Fate had sent her mate at the wrong damn time.
“You’re just not getting it, are you? I’m not mate material.”
Kent knew that she was hiding something. He could feel the pull on her emotions in exactly the same way that her presence was tugging on his, but she was like a caged beast, and he knew that feeling well.
He dropped his arm and allowed her to continue inside the room. There was little point in pressing the matter when she
had a wall up.
He would find out what she was hiding. He would woo his mate or die trying. There was no middle ground.
~
~
~
“So the truth of the matter is, my heart belongs to another,” Harper said, as she strolled over to the sofa and plonked herself down in the middle of the three cushions. Alf followed her and perched his backside on the arm of the sofa.
“And this other would be?”
Alf didn’t believe her for a moment. The woman was now clutching at straws.
“My unicorn.”
“Unicorn?” Alf waited for the punchline.
“Fred.”
“Fred the unicorn.” He wasn’t going to bite at the hook that she’d thrown out for him.
“Yes.” Harper shrugged her shoulders and offered him an apologetic look.
“Okay.” He really was struggling with himself not to ask the question that was on his lips, but when she just sat there staring back at him, it started to fester within him. “You are a little bit crazy, aren’t you?”
“Probably. But that has nothing to do with Fred…”
“You think Fred is real?” He chuckled.
It would simply have been easier to walk over to the nearest wall and head-butt it, but then he’d be as crazy as she was. Well, almost.
“Fred is very real.”
“Well, I’m sure, being a unicorn, that Fred wouldn’t mind coming to live here with all this space outside for him to run around.”
“Are you insane?” Harper pulled back and offered him an old-fashioned look.
“At this point — I’m not sure,” Alf said.
He knew that witches could be a little bit out there, but she was circling a far distant planet. But that was okay, she was his mate, and he would do right by her.
“You know that unicorns don’t exist in the physical world, right?” Harper shot back.
She knew that the man was humoring her, and she kind of liked it. The fact that he thought she was somewhat insane, and yet he was sitting there with her instead of running for the hills, screaming, kind of endeared him to her.
“Oh, thank God,” Alf let out the breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
“You really are a strange kettle of fish.”
“You’re the one with the pretend unicorn.”
“Fred is a pet. I have him on a little app on my phone, and I take care of him daily. He’s a sweetie.” Harper informed him.
“Why didn’t you just get a cat; isn’t that what witches are supposed to do?”
“Well, yes.” She looked uncomfortable as she looked anywhere but at him.
“You don’t like cats?”
“I like cats. I like all animals…”
“Including Wolves?”
“But I don’t want to be chased by a hungry pack of them.” She offered him a mischievous, teasing grin that spread from ear to ear and lit her eyes with so much glee that he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that here…”
“I don’t know, the alpha of this pack seems like he relishes the chase…”
“Where you’re concerned; it’s catching my prey that appeals to me more…”
“I can imagine…”
“No, you really can’t,” Alf bit out on another chuckle. “So tell me why you have a fake Fred and not a real one.”
“Because unicorns don’t really exist, der,” she tossed back.
“Okay, I walked into that one. Why don’t you have a cat?”
“Deathly allergic to animal fur,” she said.
“What?” he almost shrieked like a female.
“Ha! Gotcha. Did you not think I would be dead already?”
“Tempting thought, but no.”
He folded his arms for want of something better to do with them. There was an urge within him to fill that empty space within his arms with her body, but he was trying to resist that urge.
Harper was momentarily distracted by the sight of his muscles on show once more, front and center, there were those forearms again, and she swallowed down the urge to lick her lips.
“If it weren’t for Joy then I probably would starve to death, or die under a pile of housework. I’m not very good at that whole keeping myself alive thing, and I wouldn’t want to bring another living thing into that world.”
“I’m going to say that doesn’t bode well for any offspring that we might have, but between the pack and me, you wouldn’t have to worry about that,” Alf chuckled.
“Assuming I wanted children,” she tossed back.
Alf’s heart hit his ribs. He’d always thought that one day he would be a father. He was even looking forward to it in some far off daydream kind of a way, a pup of his own.
Still, Harper was his mate, and if she really didn’t want children, then he would support her in that. He had brothers, and he was sure that he would make a great uncle to their pups.
“I would never assume. It’s your body, your life, and your choice. I was just throwing it out there…”
“Just in case?”
“Something to think about.”
“Isn’t it though?”
Harper had to admit that the moment he’d thrown the idea out there it had seemed appealing to her. That was crazy, she’d never thought of herself as a mother, until now.
“So, when do I get to meet Fred?” Alf chuckled at the look on her face.
“He’s shy — I’ll get back to you when I think he’ll feel more comfortable around you, considering your wolf side, and all” she offered back. “I should go and see what Joy is up to.”
She pushed up from the sofa, and as she started to walk away from him, her foot caught the edge of the rug. Alf was already on his feet, and it was lucky for her that his reflexes were so fast. As she pitched sideways, she ended up within the safety of his arms.
“I see what you mean — you don’t even have the walking thing down yet, do you?” Alf said with a small chuckle, but the fact that she was right where he’d needed for her to be wasn’t lost on him.
Alf’s wolf clawed within him, making itself known, and urging him to take the budding relationship one step further towards their goal of winning his mate. The beast wanted him to claim her, but all Alf wanted was to claim her lips.
There was a need within him that had nothing to do with his beast. His blood heated with a fever of desire for her that went far beyond lust.
Harper was momentarily stunned from her near miss of face planting the rug. The warmth of Alf’s body washed over her skin along with a heady dose of tingles that felt so damn good it was sinful.
The build of the man screamed security, safety within his arms, and masculinity that couldn’t be denied. But it was the hungry look that had taken over his face, filled his eyes as they darkened, and the deep rumble of a growl that vibrated through his chest, and against her fingertips that reached deep within her and offered her a level of excitement that she’d never felt before.
It wasn’t the kind of excitement that she got at seeing a freshly made chocolate cake; it was more of a full body experience that rushed at her like a bulldozer and brought every inch of her femininity to life.
Her body wasn’t just on hyper-alert; it was practically rolling over and begging for more.
Harper didn’t move an inch, though her fingers may have twitched against his chest as she resisted the urge to curl them against his hard muscles, but she told herself that was okay.
There was certainly an itch within her that needed scratching, and if she actually put her brain into gear instead of acting on instinct, she might not have pushed up on tiptoes — pressing her body against his — and shocked the hell out of him when her lips touched his.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
~
“What were you doing in that department store?” Kent asked as he gingerly eased the zip up on his jeans so as not to catch anything precious that he was going to need, sooner
rather than later, he hoped.
“Shopping,” Darby offered back in a tone that said she was talking to a child.
“How did you spot me so fast?”
“I was looking for…” she tripped over her own tongue. Darby had said too much, and he could see that on her face. “Something, and there you were, sniffing the air like a dog looking for breakfast.”
“Funny,” he berated her with his tone and a look.
“I thought so.”
“I wasn’t close enough to you for you to pick up on my presence with your magic, so what were you looking for?” Kent asked.
It made sense to him that the only reason she had managed to spot him as early as she had was that she was searching for someone else. Nobody went shopping and ignored the goodies on the shelves.
“I don’t know the layout of that store, and I was looking for…” She stumbled over her words again.
Darby had to wonder how it was that she couldn’t think of one single item in the shop that had so many things.
“For?”
“Stuff,” she bit out her response.
She’d had enough of being interrogated, especially when she couldn’t think of answers to give him.
“Who?” Kent asked as he reached for his shirt and paused as he waited for her answer.
“Fine,” she pushed out with a sigh. The odds were that her mate was going to find out anyway, and it might go a long way to easing the constant tension within her at being so guarded against him finding out her secret. “I have a slight problem with a stalker.”
She shot him a quick look from beneath her eyelashes. To say that he didn’t look please would have been an understatement of epic proportions.
There was a small rumble of a growl that reached her ears, and she noticed that his hands had fisted the shirt a little tighter. He also swayed toward her, as if he was about to take a step or two, but then he seemed to hold himself in place.
“Tell me more,” Kent’s voice was demanding, and he tried to hold on to the need within him to reach out and shake every last bit of information from her that he could get.
He’d known that she was hiding something from him. That rubbish about her having a vampire boyfriend, it wreaked of deceit. He guessed that what she had been telling him was part truth and part lie.