by Leela Ash
Jack grinned now at the woman leaning on his arm, deliberately forcing his thoughts back to her and away from that embarrassing memory, “You got a name?”
She cocked her head to the side as though listening to some inner voice. Perhaps it was that voice that warned all good girls about bad boys? He was bad for her, he knew it as surely as he knew his own name. He was a ladies’ man with a perpetual inability to commit to any woman and he was a shifter while she was human. If that wasn’t a classic definition of ‘bad’ he didn’t know what was.
But knowing he was bad for her made him want her all the more. She would be a moaner, he thought caressing her soft red lips with his eyes. She would be just the sort of woman who moaned and moaned and drove a man crazy until he emptied his very soul into her waiting body.
“Megan. Megan Delaney.”
He frowned, trying to place that name. He was certain he had heard that name a few times in conversation. But where?
As he searched his memory, it clicked. He had heard the name more than a few times, usually followed by curse words. She had to be Jeanine’s boss!
Megan threw back her head laughing.
“What?” Jack growled.
“I’ve never likened my name to a showstopper until now! You acted as though you had swallowed something really big,” she offered laughing at him. “Boy, that name must have been popular at dinner conversations back in the day.”
Jack shifted in slight discomfort. She was right on the money.
He couldn’t admit that he had heard Jeanine say unsavory things about her and he couldn’t deny it either.
He took the diplomatic route, “I’m Jack Sivan.”
She nodded in acknowledgement, “One of the five boys in a sort of foster get-up, with Joshua Cox as their foster father.”
He didn’t like the way she made it sound, like it was some shady deal. “Joshua is God’s gift to all five of us and the entire world.”
Megan nodded, “I’m sure he is. I’ve heard nothing but good about him.”
He threw her a suspicious look and was met with a look of bland innocence in return.
Maybe she genuinely meant that.
Why did he have a nagging feeling though as if she had just said something of great importance? Something he needed to pay special attention to?
She started speaking again and he lost his train of thought in a rush of unbridled lust as his gaze dropped to her luscious red lips once more.
Gawd, he needed to kiss her!
3.
“Yo, Jack! Come on in!” Bo yelled from the main doorway of the wedding hall.
Jack jerked to his feet as though he had been stung. “Uh, sorry Megan. I gotta go. Duty calls,” he said, inclining his head sharply in Bo’s direction.
Megan rose to her feet with regal ease. She did have this stamp of royal authority going for her, he noted. Even now, dressed simply in a peach colored strapless dress that stopped just above her knees with her legs encased in six-inch heels and a tiny purse clutched in one hand, she looked as though she had just come out from lunch with the Queen-of-freaking-England. No one seeing her now would believe she had just climbed out of an accident. She didn’t even have a single hair out of place!
Jack’s mountain lion growled impatiently inside of him, the predator spying a delectable morsel of prey. A small wind ruffled her dress a little, sending wafts of her perfume towards him. He took three quick steps back for self-preservation.
He had barely gotten past the first ‘hello’ with her and he was already flirting with either a hot slap or a sexual assault suit.
Come on Jack, you can do better than that, his inner voice sang. With a sigh, he started to turn away.
“Wait,” she burst out.
He froze, turning to look at her. Megan wrung her hands as though in an agony of uncertainty before letting them fall to her side.
“I’ll need your number, so I can send a check once you’ve gotten that bill,” she offered.
Jack grinned, and Megan forgot to breathe, as every feminine cell in her body clamored in instant lustiness.
“Forget about it. It was just an accident,” he told her, oblivious to her predicament.
“I insist,” she managed through a dry throat.
“Insist all you like. I don’t need your money,” he shot back. He threw her a casual salute before turning away again.
“Okay, can I buy you lunch to make up for your car?” she tried again.
He paused and turned around to look at her. His eyes were burning with a strange raw fire as he looked at her and she barely resisted the urge to look down at herself to see if she had been scorched with the heat from them.
He walked back to her. “Lunch?”
Megan licked her lips, her mouth going even drier. She had had nothing more in mind when she said lunch, but the way he was staring at her as though she were a tempting morsel of food he couldn’t wait to devour, made her realize he had read more into it than she had intended. Who would have guessed that lunch could actually be a dirty word?
She opened her mouth to set him straight, but all that came out was a whispered, “Lunch.”
The inferno in his eyes blazed with furious intensity and he smiled so brightly at her, it was a wonder she wasn’t blinded.
He lifted one callused hand and rubbed her chin in a feather-light caress. Her knees almost gave out. “I’ll see you after the wedding,” he said, his eyes full of wicked sensual promises.
Megan stared after him, feeling the wild galloping of her heart start to settle as he put physical distance between them. What was wrong with her? One flash of his dimples and she had almost melted into a puddle at his feet before she’d even known his name!
She wasn’t the sort of woman who went crazy over washboard abs and sexy dimples. She wasn’t the sort of woman who got bowled over by her attraction to any man. She was calm, sensible and detached; she’d never let herself drool over any man. She wasn’t a prude, she assured herself hastily. She was just…Megan.
She was Megan Delaney and she needed to get her act together, she told herself sternly.
They were almost half-way through the wedding when Megan joined the ceremony. Jeanine and Bo were standing at the altar in front of the officiating minister with Jack and some other beautiful redhead standing in as Best Man and Chief Bridesmaid.
Jack’s gaze focused on her again with the force of a laser beam, and she felt herself start to shake in reaction. He looked like a man who had seen something he had been searching a long time for.
Hastily, Megan averted her gaze and slid into a seat beside a tall man with grey eyes and an air of authority. He smiled at her, but she frowned up at him, trying to place his face. He seemed important, as though he was someone she should know.
“Megan Delaney,” she offered. “For the bride,” she added.
He grinned again and her poor heart noted with stupefaction how incredibly handsome he was. The place was crawling with gorgeous men!
“Derek Cavanaugh,” he said simply.
Hmm. One of the foster brothers then, she realized, as she faced forward, after a brief nod of acknowledgment. They all seemed to have different last names.
The redhead at the altar with Jeanine kept looking over at them and Megan realized that must be his wife. She couldn’t blame the woman. If she had a looker like this for a husband, she would probably be staring a lot too, especially if some random blonde sidled up to him. Jack was looking over at the pair of them frequently too, but Megan studiously avoided his gaze. Good thing she was wearing a foam bra, otherwise her nipples would have disgraced her, standing upright for all the world to see as though she were in freezing cold weather and all because a hot guy asked her to lunch— or rather she asked him.
Lunch, is it? Her subconscious whispered in an annoyingly arch tone.
“Shut up,” she hissed.
Derek shot her a surprised look and she colored under his gaze. The redhead’s eyes narrowed when she saw M
egan blush.
“So, is she jealous a lot around all women or is there something about me that makes me suspect?” Megan asked, with an impish grin as she indicated the redhead with a jerk of her head.
He followed her gaze and looked very amused as he responded, “Only when I’m sitting next to incredibly beautiful women and she’s stuck at the altar and can’t do anything about it.”
He gave his wife an insouciant wink and was met with a glare that could have pulverized rock. He didn’t seem fazed though, just flattered.
Megan decided that she liked him as they shared a conspiratorial laugh. She didn’t see Jack’s face darken with anger as he looked from her to Derek and back. But Derek noticed it, and all he offered his brother was a raised eyebrow that spoke volumes, while he looked at Megan with something approaching grave interest.
“I take it you know my brother?” he asked.
Megan licked her lips and let her gaze slide to Jack. Luckily, he wasn’t watching her, for once, because he was handing Bo the rings.
“We ran into each other outside,” she said.
Derek looked at the back of Jack’s head and then at Megan. He gave his earlobe a slight tug, in that way some men do when they were uncomfortable or trying to decide if they should impart some information.
Megan frowned at him, “Something wrong?”
He shrugged, “Nothing. You just seem like a nice girl.”
It didn’t sound like a compliment; he sounded worried. Megan frowned. It wasn’t about what he said, it was what he didn’t say. Why was he worried about her being a nice girl? Her gaze clashed with Jack’s again as she faced forward and she gasped as she beheld the raw fury and banked fire in his eyes as his angry gaze swung from Derek’s face to hers.
As soon as the couple were wed, Jack strode from the altar, making a beeline for Megan. He grabbed her arm with a decisively possessive grip and herded her as far from Derek as he could get.
Megan threw him a confused look, “Isn’t that your brother?”
“He was!” came the short reply.
Megan swallowed a burst of laughter. Jack was behaving almost like a jealous lover, which was absurd because she’d only just met him!
“Where are we going?” she demanded in protest.
“Lunch.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you Jack, but your car is the designated ride for the groom and bride,” Derek cut in, striding confidently to stand before them.
Jack muttered a curse beneath his breath as he turned to face Derek, “Listen man, my car was in an accident with Megan’s. I can’t ferry Bo and his new wife around in a crushed Lambo. Take over for me.”
Then without waiting for a response, he swept Megan from the room with almost indecent haste.
Megan bit her lip as they walked. She should feel flattered. Jack was attracted to her and he was making no effort to hide it. He was a charmer, but something about his behavior seemed a little too practiced, as though he had done this a lot of times. It also seemed as though Derek had been actively trying to disentangle her from the clutches of his own brother. But why would he do that? He had a wife of his own, a woman who was smoking hot, and they only had eyes for each other. She would bet her last penny Derek wasn’t attracted to her, so why was he working so hard to extricate her from Jack’s clutches?
Unless he thought he knew his brother well enough, and he didn’t think his brother was a good companion for her!
Megan’s gaze slid sideways to rove over the broad shoulders and the face, the face that was so indescribably handsome she would never have believed it if she hadn’t seen it for herself. And then it hit her. Of course! She was in the company of an accomplished flirt and a womanizer! That had to be exactly why Derek was trying to save her from his own brother!
Her steps slowed as she walked beside him towards their cars. What was she doing going off with a man she barely knew for lunch? If he wanted to share a meal with her, they were at a freaking wedding with a freaking reception about to commence. Why did they have to go off alone somewhere else?
She started to protest, to say she couldn’t have that lunch after all when he turned his head suddenly and stared right into her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat at that look. She felt as though the heat of his gaze had zinged her, she felt as though he had reached out and touched her; she felt… singed.
4.
He could feel her reluctance.
Jack couldn’t hear thoughts like Bo. He could, however, see through solid objects, he had terrific night vision —better even than witches —and he had the strength of ten shifters put together.
He couldn’t hear others’ thoughts and he had never bothered to try.
But somehow Megan’s thoughts and fears had been so stark and clear to him. He could almost hear her reluctance. He knew she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her, but he could see her soft-pedaling after whatever it was Derek had told her.
What gave Derek the damned right to think he could interfere? Suddenly he was a married man and all stuck-up and holier than the rest of them?
Jack rarely got angry with any of his brothers but on the rare occasion when he did, it had never been a fair fight. Being a shifter lion made him a sort of loner and while Drake was a dragon —and thus powerful— Jack had been blessed with unusual strength which meant he could trounce anyone of the men he had come to think of as brothers. Derek was a whole lot stronger and skilled but even he couldn’t hold out against Jack’s brute strength the last time they had tangled as teenagers. He had been sorely tempted to repeat the encounter today.
Derek and Bo were close, Luke and Drake were also close. While Jack was just… well, Jack. He was a bit of a loner and he liked it just fine. It didn’t mean he didn’t have a strong sense of family though, family was very important to him. He would give his very life to secure every one of them, but he also liked to be by himself.
The woman beside him swallowed now and touched his arm, her touch hesitant, “Jack?”
Reaction skid along his nerve endings and he balled his palm into a fist to keep from touching her. Something about Megan drove him wild. Her scent made him want to shut his eyes and inhale deeply, her smile made his blood boil with an overdose of testosterone, her hair made him want to bury his nose in it. Something about her utterly fascinated him and he wasn’t even entirely sure what that was.
The predator in him didn’t like to be fascinated for long, he wanted to discover what mysteries there were. He wanted to know what made her tick. He wanted…
He wanted to bury himself inside of her and fuck her, fuck her, and fuck her some more, until he was bored out of his mind and then he could lose interest!
The admission jolted him forcing him to really look at himself through new eyes. Had he become so jaded that all he wanted from a woman was sex and nothing more?
Megan looked fresh and innocent and unspoiled. And even though he had tried hard not to notice, there was a haunting sadness in the depths of her beautiful blue eyes that said she wasn’t a very happy woman.
What kind of man would he be if he only slaked his lust on her and left? What kind of man was he becoming if that was all he wanted to do with women? And why was he thinking these things? What was it about Megan forcing him to confront his past behavior?
Suddenly he wanted to be as far from her as it was possible to get. She was dangerous!
He shook his head and released his hold on her arm. He opened his mouth to tell her to go on back to the reception with others when a loud scream erupted around the hall followed by the sound of shattering glass.
Their heads both snapped in that direction at the exact same time fire broke out. He roared, the sound actually coming out like a lion’s roar and panic broke out. People began to run in every direction.
He turned to race back to the hall when he saw his entire family pour out the doors unhurt, and he relaxed a fraction. Derek’s eyes swung wildly to Jack and he hustled their father Joshua, Kelly, and their son T
om in Jack’s direction.
The meaning was clear: Derek would ferry Bo and Jeanine home, Jack would take Joshua, while Luke and Drake did what they could to save people. Jack thought he should be the one saving people from the fire though because being a firefighter was his day job. He started forward intending to explain to Derek, but Bo must have read his mind because he yelled, “Get them the hell out of here Jack! This isn’t an ordinary fire! Drake does fires too!”
Jack got it. This fire must have been set supernaturally which meant witches had to be behind it. If anyone could control fires like this, it was Drake. He was a dragon, a real-life honest-to-goodness fire-breathing dragon. Jack had once watched Drake swallow fire, effectively ending the fire engulfing a building.
Hastily, he opened the back door and Joshua, Kelly and Tom clambered in while Megan got in the front passenger seat of the car.
As Jack sank into the driver’s seat, he spotted the two witches standing just outside the wedding hall, staring hard at their car. He recognized the long red hair of one of the witches; that was Alcacia, Nabradia’s daughter. He turned the key in the ignition; it didn’t start.
Of course it didn’t. He was no fool. Megan’s car had only dented his bumper, that couldn’t prevent the powerful car from starting. He was willing to bet those witches were the reason the car wouldn’t start, probably on orders from their Queen witch.
Nabradia appeared in front of their car as though on cue, a wicked smile pasted onto her cold, pretty face as she stared at him through the glass.
“Kelly? Do something now! Don’t let that hag get her hands on Joshua,” he cried. Kelly was pristinely ungifted; she was immune to all forms of magic which in itself was a superpower.
He heard Megan yell, “What the hell is up with that lady?”
Kelly shut her eyes tight and began to exude her own energy at the exact same time Nabradia pointed a long finger straight at Joshua. A bright light emitted from Nabradia’s finger, collided with the waves pouring from Kelly and returned to slam powerfully into the witch. The momentum lifted her clear off her feet and slammed her down in a rumpled heap a small distance away.