She held up her hand, shaking her head. “It was just that one time, and it won’t be happening again,” Adalyn quickly assured her.
“Are you serious? I thought she was better than that. That bastard,” she muttered and then glanced at her cell phone. “She’s no gentleman after all.”
“It’s really not her fault,” Adalyn said softly but inside her stomach twisted in bitter regret. She didn’t want it to be the last time, but she couldn’t date one of her bosses. It was a recipe for disaster.
“Oh, honey, I know we were gonna have lunch, but I have to go,” Leah said. “I’ll see you tonight. You want me to get this?”
“No. You can treat next time. Besides it was just coffee.” They hadn’t ordered yet.
“Tomorrow—” she pointed from her to Adalyn. “Same place, same time. My treat.”
“Rain check?” She’d be doing research tomorrow on her new identity. She had to get out of here as soon as she could, and she really wanted her new name in place before she left.
“Okay. We’ll talk about it later.” Leah waved and headed out the door.
Adalyn sighed and leaned back against the vinyl of the booth just as the waitress in hunter green and white approached her.
“Are you ready to order?” she asked.
“Yeah.” She grabbed the menu. She wouldn’t be eating again until this time tomorrow more than likely. So, she may as well grab a bite now and start her research while she waited for her meal.
“Okay. What would you like?”
Adalyn’s stomach fluttered and the back of her head felt as if it was being stroked. She stilled inside wondering what that meant. It had never happened before.
“Mind if I join you, Addy?”
Heat snaked through her and her mouth dried out as her head came up. That sexy voice tied her tongue in a knot as their eyes met. Cool copper washed over her and her nipples hardened so fast it stole her breath.
“Samarra,” she said breathlessly.
Samarra took Leah’s seat, brushing the half empty cup of coffee aside. “The lady’s waiting for your order, darlin’.”
“Oh.” She looked up at the waitress apologetically. “I’ll have the BLT with the vegetable soup and water.”
“And you?” She turned to Sam.
“Cream of broccoli and potato soup with a salad and sweet tea.”
She smiled and read their orders back to them. “I’ll be right back with your tea and water.” She stepped away from their table and Sam turned her gaze on Adalyn.
“What are you doing here?” Adalyn asked carefully.
“Grabbing some lunch,” Sam answered. “I did ask you to meet me here because I do come here on occasion and I know the food is good.”
“Oh. I was having lunch with Leah, but she had to run. Urgent phone call or something.”
“I saw her heading out,” Sam murmured. “You didn’t tell me where you were from last night.”
“You didn’t actually ask,” Adalyn said and scrambled. “It’s in my application file.”
“I didn’t read it, so I’m asking,” Sam said leaning toward her. “I want to know the you that you didn’t put on paper. The woman who likes dancing, and enjoys the power it gives her over the women watching. I want to know the woman I woke up with.”
Chapter Eleven
Her heart stopped and fear course through her. She rubbed her hands over the bracelet on her wrist on her lap.
Shrim. Shirm. She chanted the healing mantra that evoked a sense of inner peace among other things.
She had to stay calm. This was no time to lose it. She had to stick to her script. Last night she’d told Samarra way more than she’d ever told anyone about her past. As a rule she said her mother was dead and left it at that. People didn’t look into her past because there was nothing to know and nothing to find. Those that looked through her records as a ward of the state were sealed.
“I’m from Washington,” she heard herself saying and groaned inwardly. “Seattle for a while and then Rainer. I left when I turned seventeen. Haven’t been back since.” She never wanted to be anywhere near that state again, mentally or physically. Washington was where the scared and terrorized little girl she’d been had lived.
“Here you go.” The waitress set their drinks down. Your order will be up soon.” She gave them a nod and moved off to another table.
“Why come here?”
She hadn’t had enough money to get to Atlanta. She’d thought the south would be a good change of pace, but now she was considering leaving the country.
“I saw a picture and thought it was pretty here.”
Samarra’s brows lifted as she studied her and Adalyn looked away feeling as if she’d heard the lie in her voice. It didn’t matter really did it?
She’d spent over half her life lying or telling half-truths just to survive. And she’d never had anyone who really cared when all was said and done. People just wanted to be satisfied and she’d learned how to do that when she needed to. This wasn’t one of those moments. After all, she’d be gone by the end of next week.
“I’m from Oklahoma,” Samarra said. “I had an aunt here who took me in when my family was killed.”
“You decided to stay?” She sneaked a curious peek at Samarra. Her eyes gave nothing away and she wondered if that was a lie meant to draw the truth from her. Good luck with that. She’d said all she was going to about her past, and she still didn’t know how this woman had gotten her to reveal so much.
“I liked it here,” Sam told her. “It’s truly beautiful.”
“It is,” Adalyn agreed with a faint smile and then looked away again, her gaze on the cars passing on the street.
“It was lucky for me Leah asked you to meet her here,” Sam said softly. “I really wanted to see you again before tonight.”
Adalyn looked at her suspiciously. “Why?” she asked carefully. She couldn’t fathom what might be in Samarra’s mind. The woman was a mystery to her. Her energy was powerful with an edge of wildness that drew her rather than repulsed her like the energy of some of the patrons at the club.
She didn’t like wanting Samara, hungering to see her face, to feel her touch. She couldn’t wait to dance for her every night, and she’d missed it last night though she’d gotten something better.
“I told you, baby. I want to know you inside out.”
“For how long? You said you wanted a little of my time and just this morning you said you didn’t do ‘long-term’.” She threw Samarra’s words at her expecting her to at least glare at her before she amended or explained what she’d really meant.
Sam shrugged and leaned back against the back of the booth with the confident air of a woman at ease with the lie she was about to tell. She shouldn’t care. After all, the desire she felt for Samarra wasn’t the other woman’s fault. All she’d done was look good as she sauntered around the club.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t want our time together to be special.”
“Oh, I’m supposed to let you break my heart and be okay with knowing it’s going to happen? You arrogant ass,” she retorted.
“Sometimes,” Sam said blandly.
Why didn’t the woman get emotional? Adalyn supposed she didn’t do emotion either.
“Here’s the truth, highlight it so you’ll remember what it looks like next time someone asks for it. I’m lonely and need you to be the woman I assuage my needs with, but you don’t get to mess with my head or emotions,” Adalyn told her. “My body is for your consumption but you don’t get any other part of me.”
Samarra watched her again with those beautiful enigmatic eyes that made her heart beat faster. She wanted to hate her for her effect on her, but Samarra was about to give her memories to keep her warm in the coming winter nights when she was alone. And if she was very lucky, the truth wouldn’t crack the illusion when she told herself she’d had a girlfriend and had not just been a flavor of the moment.
They had lunch and Samarra paid for the
ir meal before suggesting they go have ice cream for dessert and take a stroll in the park. Adalyn didn’t think that was a good idea. Samarra probably had some ulterior motive, but she didn’t decline. This would go in her file marked as girlfriend unless Samarra really did something to mess the afternoon up.
****
“What are you talking about, Darden?”
“The feds are what I’m talking about,” he said. “Thanks to James’s due diligence, he was able to connect Logan to us and from that us to those murders in New York and here in Oregon.”
“Does he know who we are exactly? I mean he can’t have known every one of us,” the woman said. “Cargo?” He hadn’t seemed like the snitch type last night.
“No, I told you,” he snapped. “The detective is the one. His partner, Sang, is on his way there now. James thought Wolf had the files Joelle never recovered from her husband.”
“I thought you burned her house down. Wasn’t the information in there?”
“That is the problem,” he gritted out. “We never found a damn thing, and she identified two of us and Jo thinks she made the assistant district attorney the night she ran.”
“We’ll have to cut our losses,” she told him as she watched Adalyn and Samarra climb into Samarra’s car in the parking lot of the café.
“Jo’s taking care of the A.D.A. in a few days, but the detective is on his way there with a federal agent. They plan to take Wolf into custody along with that evidence.”
“I’ll get into her apartment and see what I can find. The way she’s running my guess is if she does have it, she doesn’t know it.”
“Just get it and take care of her by tomorrow afternoon.”
****
Adalyn laughed as Samarra finished her story. “You were such a rebel,” she exclaimed.
“That’s exactly what my mother used to call me,” Samarra said with a fond smile. “My father called me his little devil dominant. He was an ex-Navy Seal and taught me to fight.”
“How‘d your mom feel about that?” she looked up at Samara, finding her face aglow with the happiness of her youth.
“She said if I was going to be an ass-kicker I could damn well learn ballet and wear dresses once a week.”
Adalyn smiled. “Sounds like you were happy, so why do you hate long-term relationships?”
“That’s another story.” She tugged on a strand of Adalyn’s hair. “We both have our secrets.” She curled an arm around Adalyn’s waist and drew her close. Then, Sam bent to kiss the side of her head. “I say we just be good together and let those sleeping dogs lie.”
Adalyn smiled. “I agree.”
“Then, I want all of your afternoons, and mornings too,” Sam told her pulling her off the path into a copse of trees.
Adalyn looked up at her breathlessly. “Eight nights, seven days,” she said.
“That might not be enough,” Sam said as she stepped back and caught a tree branch.
Adalyn moved toward her. She couldn’t give her more. That would be a risk. “You don’t want me, just my company.” She looked at Samarra as she tentatively rested her hand on Sam’s waist.
“Which of us are you trying to convince?” Sam pulled Adalyn to her with her free hand.
“Me.” She brushed her lips against Sam’s. Her lush mouth was soft and warm. She didn’t open to her and Adalyn licked Sam’s bottom lip. A soft rumble of sound caught her ear, and she lifted her head to look around only to have her lips claimed roughly.
She groaned and glided her hand up to Sam’s side, fingers caressing the edge of her breast on the way to her shoulder.
“Mmm.” Adalyn leaned into her and Sam moved a step, her back going up against the tree behind her as her hand left the branch to cup Adalyn’s ass. “Samarra,” she murmured as Sam’s lips left hers and teased her neck and licked the mark she’d left last night.
Adalyn stroked the back of Sam’s neck, eyes fluttering closed as pleasure bounded through her. The soft groan tried to penetrate the fog of her mind, but couldn’t get through as Sam’s hands slid beneath the blouse she wore with her skirt and pushed beneath the camisole to touch skin.
“The scent of your skin makes me ravenous for you, Addy.” Teeth scraped her skin before tailing tiny bites over her collarbone to her throat.
Rationally, she knew this was unsafe to have teeth that close to her jugular even as Sam caught the beat of her pulse with them. She just couldn’t think, but she felt safe—no she felt as if she stood on a cliff’s edge about to fall over.
Adalyn rubbed against Samarra like a cat, savoring the strength and warmth of her body, craving it. “You’re stealing my power to think.” Adalyn ran her fingers through Sam’s hair.
“You don’t need to think, just feel me tasting you.”
Goddess, she had to think. Had to—do more than breathe. She was getting hot and wet.
“I don’t think you can put a time limit on this, Addy,” Sam whispered against her ear. “Why not just let it happen and last as long as it does?”
“Because I have a feeling it’s going to hurt either way,” she answered and Samarra held her gaze making her shiver. And she had to admit it was a good thing she’d be walking away first. She was already losing her heart.
Chapter Twelve
Sam stepped out of her office located on one side of the house she’d bought to double as an office and apartment. The setup had been ideal because it allowed her to see or entertain clients as well as have an apartment in town for when she was too tired to drive to the den. If she was needed in the den, she always cut her day short. The pack came first.
Sam had just climbed out of the shower when her phone rang. She went to retrieve her cell up from the bed with towel in hand as she dried herself along the way. A glance at the display, and she picked it up and put it on speaker so she could finish. She was eager to see Adalyn tonight. She might even watch her dance.
“Hey, Mal, what’s up?”
“Have you spoken to Syd tonight?”
“Not since this morning,” she said.
“The meeting with Oaklyn just confirmed some of my suspicions,” Mallory told her tightly. “Sorrento wants to buy him out and settle here.”
“And he thinks he’s going to get our club?” she demanded.
“Yeah, and I got the feeling from Oaklyn, Sorrento’s willing to use force on all of us if he has to.”
“Are we going on alert?” That would mean her time with Adalyn would be limited as she’d be in the den ninety percent of the time making plans to move their vulnerable.
“Not just yet, but I think we need a plan for the kids and the old of our pack,” she said. “We can use the underground tunnels to get them out, but we need safe houses for them to flee to along with accessible funds.”
“I’ll get on it with Syd and Mica first thing in the morning,” she said. “I want to check out some possible sites before we get down to business.”
“I want a plan locked down with every conceivable angle covered. I want capable omegas and betas in place to go with them, but the rest of us will be fighting. No one runs us out of our home.”
She tossed her towel aside. “I know.” The hyenas would test them so they’d need a few dominants to lead the betas. She wouldn’t be going. Her place was with her alpha, and she supposed she should be glad Adalyn wasn’t her mate.
They’d be discussing a possible separation tonight making their dinner a somber one.
“As for Adalyn, decide what you’re going to do about her,” Mallory told her.
“Yeah, okay.” Easier said than done. “I’ll see you at the club in a little bit.” She disconnected and smoothed on moisturizer before opening her lingerie drawer. Her relationship with Addy had moved a little bit closer to fling, but it still left them at a crossroads that it was a little early to think about choosing a path at.
Her heart had been impaled on love and left to bleed to death once. Sam was in no hurry to mate let alone get serious. Her head was cer
tain survival was key and must take precedence over love and mating, but she was no longer sure her heart agreed.
That was thanks to Adalyn’s smile and the way she looked at her. She was a breath of fresh air filling every part of Sam with the winds of change.
Sam grabbed a cornmeal shirt and jerked it on to go with the green pants and the white vest. She decided to leave the tie off tonight and left the top three buttons of her shirt open providing a peek-a-boo look at the green bra beneath. Her grandfather had said she was a curious creature when she visited him on the reservation. She was tough but she liked pretty things especially lingerie.
He was right she thought as she donned the necklace he’d given her. It was a simple gold S charm with citrine beads on either side.
She was the last of her family’s legacy so providing an heir was something she had to do to keep her bloodline alive. Having seen the markings on Adalyn’s back during her dances, she knew Adalyn could carry her. She possessed just the right genetics to make fertilization a foregone conclusion.
All Sam would have to do was find the right fertility specialist and the appropriate coyote or wolf male. Once invitro fertilization was accomplished some of Adalyn’s DNA would become a part of the child according to legend and the baby would be a mixture of them both.
She could always pay Adalyn to do this if she didn’t agree, but Sam didn’t think she would refuse. Adalyn was strong, but she had the qualities of a submissive and nurturing female. She’d want children eventually, so she’d have to bring her lover into the pack.
****
Adalyn arrived at the club a little giddy with anticipation. She enjoyed dancing for Samarra and was looking forward to it tonight even though Samarra was taking her home. She hadn’t agreed to dinner, but she had the feeling Samarra wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
She hoped she didn’t anyway. She wanted at least three dinners in her memory when she was long gone and feeling lonely. She would use them like a photo album to keep her company. She’d take one of her ties to as a memento. It would be like taking a piece of Samarra with her.
Grinding for the Coyote Page 6