by Cara Adams
“Monty?” she asked.
He leaned over her shoulder looking at the brochure. “What about the jewelry display? Old crowns and tiaras and jeweled daggers and swords. That sounds interesting.”
“Right.” Zoe put the blue pen away and took out a green one.
“How many of those pens do you have in your purse? An entire rainbow’s worth of them?” Vallen asked.
She looked a bit embarrassed. “Oh, we use them on the craft afternoons at the women’s shelter. I have scissors and glue as well if you need them. And Band-Aids.”
She bent over the brochure again, and without uncapping the pen, she ran it over the various rooms and then nodded decisively. Only then did she draw a route for them to follow in green. There was one small section where they had to backtrack to see something they’d missed, but she managed to loop around and include everything very well. Vallen’s only worry was that it’d take them all day, and lunch was an important part of his plans. Well, too bad. They’d break off and return to wherever they were up to at one, if not before.
For much of the morning, Vallen found himself following behind Zoe and to one side. It was a position he tended to occupy when he and his brothers were on a job following someone or robbing a place. It meant he could see ahead without his brother blocking his view, but still protect him if need be. In this case, he wasn’t anticipating bullets or a fight, but the position allowed Zoe to set the pace and the direction of their travel while he could still see her face.
He loved watching her. She was very alert and attentive to her surroundings, almost as if she was on a job with them. Not that he’d ever permit her to endanger herself in that way. But her gaze was everywhere, and she noticed everything. She’d stop and look at the name plates under paintings or patterns on the tiled floor, as well as the displays themselves. When they got to No-Hoper Artist’s exhibition, Vallen was relieved to see the man was genuinely talented. His pictures were beautifully painted, but also they were slightly quirky. Vallen really appreciated the artist’s unique approach to his subject matter, and it was clear Zoe did as well. She stood in front of some of the paintings for a very long time. And when she commented, her words were both perceptive and intelligent.
They completed looking at everything in the Thomson Galleria and since it was ten to one, he said, “Let’s go and have lunch now.”
Immediately Zoe lifted her brochure to find the way to the restaurant, but Vallen took her elbow. “I’ve got this,” he said, leading the way.
One advantage panthers had over many humans was their ability to remember where they’d been and follow that pathway back the way they’d come. Only without all the side trips into the various displays, he hoped. He’d been deliberately paying attention because he knew getting her to the restaurant was a priority.
Monty chose a table and pulled out a chair for Zoe facing the serving counter so she could read the menu board. Diego hastened to sit beside her, so Vallen sat opposite with Monty.
“What would you like to eat and drink?” he asked.
He had to hide his grin as she scanned the menu items. He could almost picture her getting out one of her pens to circle the ones she considered potential options. Her hands were clasped in front of her, but her fingers were moving up and down. Yes, she was numbering her choices. That was something he’d learned about her today. The way she liked to prioritize everything before she made a decision. She was a thoughtful person and wouldn’t be rushed.
“The pumpkin ravioli and salad, thank you.”
“And to drink?” asked Monty, jumping to his feet.
“Juice please.”
Vallen remained sitting opposite her as Diego went up to the counter with Monty to order.
“Aren’t you eating?” she asked him, concern on her face.
“Monty and Diego will choose something I’ll like. I wouldn’t want to leave you here alone.”
She shook her head. “I’m not two years old. I’ve been able to look after myself adequately for a very long time.”
“I know that, but I’d like the opportunity to take care of you. We all would.”
He’d hoped she might open up to him a little when he said that, but instead, she returned to his earlier comment. “Do you three often know the other’s likes and dislikes? Is it a triplet thing?”
He was glad she hadn’t mentioned shape-shifters. Even her soft voice might be overheard, and the shape-shifter community worked hard to remain inconspicuous. There were people who were terrified of anyone and anything a little different. Shape-shifters were most definitely different, and in the past, some packs had been persecuted, harassed, and even hunted down and killed.
His pack was known to be panthers by the people who they worked for, but only those at the very highest levels. To everyone else, they were just a company doing a job, and Vallen wanted to keep it like that.
“I suppose to some extent it might be a triplet thing, but I think it’s just being a family. I expect you know what foods your sisters prefer, simply because you care for each other. Why did you choose the pumpkin ravioli? I’m not querying your choice. I’m sure it’ll be delicious. Well, that is I certainly hope it will be. I’m just wondering how you made your decision. I could tell you were weighing everything up there first.”
Zoe smiled, and her dark brown eyes sparkled in her lovely face. In many ways she looked like her sisters. They all had brown hair and brown eyes, but her eyes were the darkest of them all. Her nose was small and straight, her lips were round and full, her temple was smooth, and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, a hairstyle she often wore.
Now that he thought about it, apart from at Leah’s wedding, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her wear her hair down. That was something he needed to experience. When she was alone with himself and his brothers, he’d untie her hair and run his fingers through it. Maybe give her a scalp massage as well.
“I like pumpkin. It’s a wonderful, sweet vegetable, but we almost never get given any. Only sometimes after Halloween, and those pumpkins tend to be much tougher, so we make them into soup.”
“Do you only eat the food that gets donated?” He’d never stopped to think about that before.
“Dad is committed to the ministry, and Mom is committed to Dad. That means everything we have and most of our time is invested in it.”
He noticed she hadn’t actually answered his question. Well, he supposed she had. By not denying it, she’d confirmed that most, if not all, of her meals revolved around the food they were cooking for the free lunches.
“What do you like for breakfast?”
“Breakfast is usually bread in some format, left over from the day before that wasn’t used for the previous day’s lunch and toasted. Or if we have way too much, maybe even that day’s bread fresh with just butter on it. I like fresh bread with butter.”
Except that it wasn’t fresh. It was one day old when she got it. He wondered if she’d ever tasted genuinely fresh bread, hot from the oven. Probably she had, just not often he suspected.
Monty and Diego returned and placed a pile of paper napkins and cutlery on the table.
“The ravioli looked so good we got it for everyone,” said Diego.
“We ordered coffee for everyone as well,” added Monty, dropping some packets of sugar on the table beside the cutlery.
Now that they were all here, it was time to find out about her properly. Even though some days they spent hours together in the kitchen of the church house, mostly they weren’t all there together. Even if they were, they usually had to concentrate on their tasks. Although Vallen had to admit it’d been a crash cookery course for them all, he’d learned a hell of a lot about food preparation.
“You’ve traveled a lot with your father’s work. Where are some of the places you’ve lived?” he asked.
Zoe laughed. “Pretty much everywhere. We went to a lot of different schools when we were growing up. There was a period of time when Dad was moved almost every year
. He was working as an itinerant preacher then, and he’d complete one set of tasks and then move on. It was in Texas where we met your…um…relatives. I might have been six or seven then. I was in elementary school, but I think Maia was only in kindergarten.”
When the food arrived, Vallen leaned back in his seat, picked up his fork, and ate contemplatively as his brothers encouraged Zoe to talk to them. She was entrancing, and he wanted her more than ever.
* * * *
Diego was damn hungry, and he ate his meal fast. Likely too fast for good manners. But that was fine by him. Now he could lean back in his chair and watch every movement of Zoe’s face. Every time the corners of her eyes crinkled up in the hint of a smile. Every little twitch of her lips as she wrangled that smile into a more solemn expression. The way her fingers moved, even though her hands were clasped. Every tiny thing about Zoe just screamed at him that he wanted her more than ever. If she didn’t let him hold her hand or, even better, kiss her goodbye at the end of today, likely he’d explode from unrequited love.
Yes, love. He’d known her for weeks and weeks, and even though this was their first official date, nothing changed the fact they’d spent entire days in each other’s company for over a month now.
Dammit, he wanted Zoe. She was their mate. He knew it.
At least lunch seemed to have loosened her tongue. They talked more in the afternoon as they finished looking at the rooms they’d chosen. She even giggled at some of his jokes about mighty warriors with long swords in the room with jeweled daggers and tiaras from the past.
As they walked out of the museum and into the parking lot, he was scouring his brain for a way to mention taking her back to the panther warehouse. But the truth of the matter was that he had no idea how to bring them closer together, as in intimately closer. It just didn’t seem to work on a first date. And no matter how often he told himself it wasn’t really a first date, the facts were that, yes, it was.
Monty settled her in the front passenger seat, and Diego went around to drive while Vallen climbed in the backseat. Vallen sometimes made a big deal about being the eldest, so maybe he’d think of a way to ask her. Meanwhile, Diego planned to head toward the warehouse unless directed otherwise.
“Have Leah and Maia told you about the dungeon at our warehouse home?” asked Vallen.
Diego was so surprised by Vallen’s unsubtle words that he almost stomped on the accelerator instead of the brake at the traffic light.
“They’ve mentioned that you have a dungeon, yes.” Zoe’s voice didn’t give him much of a clue as to her feelings about such things. Evidently Vallen was watching her though because when Diego flicked a glance at her Vallen was leaning forward, where he had a good view of Zoe’s face.
“And how do you feel about that?” asked Monty. From the proximity of his voice right behind Diego’s neck, Diego knew Monty was leaning forward now, too.
Zoe turned slightly to face them all more fully. “I find the idea of a dungeon intriguing.” Her voice was calm and measured, but she was moving her fingers again, so Diego hoped that was a sign of excitement. Or at least interest.
“What do you know about dungeons, Zoe?” he asked, almost holding his breath for her answer. Had she experienced BDSM before? Had her sisters talked to her about the dungeons at the warehouse? Had she been to the BDSM club in town?
“One of the women at church gave me her old iPad when she bought an iPad Air 2 recently.”
“Huh?” Diego had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Didn’t most people have iPads these days?
“I’ve always loved reading.”
Diego kept his mouth shut. Saying “huh?” twice in a row would likely make him look every bit as stupid as he felt. What did having an iPad and liking to read have to do with dungeons? And then his brain finally made the connection. “You’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey? That isn’t real BDSM, you know? It’s not at all true to the real lifestyle.”
“I know that, but Tymber Dalton’s books are genuine. As are those from quite a large number of other erotic romance authors.”
Fortunately Vallen took over the conversation just then because Diego’s brain was about to explode at the thought that Zoe knew all about BDSM from reading books by authors he hadn’t heard of, yet likely needed to read in a hurry so he would know how much she knew. How long were these books? How fast could he read them? All his spare time lately seemed to be spent washing dishes in her mother’s kitchen, and sooner or later, his Alpha would demand he and his brothers get back to their real job.
In fact, it was almost a miracle their Alpha had let them, as well as the Reillys and the Stewarts, spend so much time at the church lately. Luckily the Alpha approved of them finding their mates, but the company had to perform its tasks or the money would run out, which would affect everyone. So their free time was probably going to come to an end sooner rather than later.
“Would you like to see inside a real dungeon, Zoe? Maybe climb on the spanking bench and learn what it feels like to have someone whip your ass?” asked Vallen.
Monty continued, his voice so deep and smooth that Diego was almost surprised at his own brother. “Or perhaps you’d like to try out the St Andrew’s Cross or one of the other pieces of furniture. We’d be more than happy to accommodate your interests.”
When Monty said interests, Diego almost swallowed his tongue. Fuck yes. Her interests in a dungeon were absolutely what he wanted to accommodate, as long as she accommodated him. Preferably inside her hot, wet body.
“Just what, exactly, would this visit to the dungeon involve?” asked Zoe.
“Nothing you don’t want it to,” Diego answered, taking the exit off the freeway and heading toward the warehouse. He hoped like hell Vallen had remembered to make a booking for the damn dungeon. Arriving and finding someone else using it would be a real turnoff for them all.
* * * *
The moment they’d started talking about the panthers’ dungeon Monty had pulled out his cell phone and gotten into the panther booking calendar. There were quite a few common use rooms in the warehouse. Most families had a small apartment in the huge building, and a lot of areas were shared use. A panther who wanted to use the area put their name in the calendar and received a text message with a code to enter into the security pad by the doorway.
Monty was almost holding his breath as he checked the calendar for the dungeon. When he saw their names already listed there and was able to download the code to use onto his cell phone, he heaved an enormous sigh of relief.
Of course, he’d been so intent on what he was doing he’d missed the last few minutes of conversation, but he gave a thumbs-up in success to his brothers. So far so good.
He jumped out of the car when they reached the warehouse and unlocked the high, wire security gate, locking it immediately behind them. The parking lot was large and only half full, but that was mostly because many families, like theirs, shared a single vehicle. The pack as a whole had several cars securely parked inside the basement of the building, out of sight, and these vehicles were used for covert jobs. Cars so nondescript and ordinary that bystanders could rarely identify them. The rest of the time each family used its own vehicle.
Instead of going back to the car, he let his brothers escort Zoe and hurried across to the entry to the warehouse. Each panther had a pass code to punch in to enter the building. Their family number was 75429. Vallen’s number was 754291, his was 754292, and Diego’s was 754293. When the entire family entered together they used the code 754290, which is what he typed in now. It functioned as a way of knowing who was at home and who wasn’t, which helped their Alpha when he needed one of his pack urgently.
Monty wanted to be inside the dungeon watching Zoe as she entered. That meant he couldn’t be the perfect gentleman and wait outside until she’d entered, but he used the excuse of turning the light on instead of holding the door open for her. He wasn’t certain why, but it was imperative he watch her face and see all her expressions as she
looked around at her very first dungeon.
She slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder, crossed her arms, and then stepped into the dungeon. He tried to see it through her eyes. It’d been made to look as genuine as possible, even though it was inside a concrete block building. The warehouse itself was a huge structure with four stories of solid concrete. The basement held secure parking, the laundry, maintenance, air conditioning and furnace rooms, and the dungeon. The first floor held the offices, small breakout rooms, a cafe that served simple meals, and a large community area, and that level was all most visitors ever saw. There were more community areas and small meeting rooms on the second floor, and the third and fourth floor were family apartments.
In the dungeon itself, the walls were concrete, painted black, and the floor was gray tiles while the ceiling was black blending with the walls. Monty watched Zoe carefully. Her body posture hadn’t changed. He was getting no clues at all about her thoughts from her body language. Her face was blank, he thought, but her eyes seemed to be brighter than usual. Yes. That was his clue. Her dark eyes were full of intelligence and, he thought, interest and acceptance for what she was seeing.
Since this area was available to any of the adult panthers, most of the toys were locked away in half a dozen drawers underneath the counter against the back wall. But the spanking bench, St Andrew’s Cross, and the sets of ropes and chains hanging from the ceiling were all unmistakable. Against the right hand wall was a rack holding canes, whips, floggers, paddles, and ropes.
He wondered how carefully she’d scanned the walls. The left side had a door into a bedroom. It was painted to blend in with the wall, but she was smart enough to discern it if she looked closely.
“Would you like to touch something? Would you like to try something out?” asked Vallen.
Monty flicked a quick glance to his brother but didn’t want to stop watching Zoe for longer than a nanosecond.
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Diego stepped much closer to her. “I agree that you’re fine. We all think you’re mighty fine indeed. But we could help you feel much finer.”