by Lola Gabriel
Her thoughts turned back to Fabian’s story that her mom wasn’t really her mom, but rather someone who had killed her actual mother and had taken her away as a baby. Now, there was a crazy story. And yet, Fabian’s story had a slight ring of truth to it. There was no denying the similarity between her and Fabian’s dead wife. And he had known her mom’s name.
She thought about calling her mom, but what would she even say if she did? “Oh, hi Mom, I met a man today who claimed to be my dead father. He said you killed his wife and stole me away from him. So, did you?” Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.
Laila decided to wait and see what the DNA test came back saying before she told her mom about any of this. It was most likely to come back negative, and if that was the case, she didn’t want her mom to know she had started to doubt her, not even for a second.
9
Cedric and Cassie were sitting in Cedric’s living room. Cedric kept thinking about Laila. He wanted to get to the bottom of what had gone on this evening, but it was hard to do that when every time he thought of Laila, all he could focus on was the sensuous smile on her lips, the curve of her hips, and the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at him, heat flooding her face and turning her pink.
He pushed the lust for her aside, concentrating instead on the practical reasons he needed to think about her. She had been lying about something tonight and Cedric couldn’t decide what it was. Maybe she had just decided to blow off the after-school club and her lies were just a tale she had spun to cover that, but it struck Cedric as odd that someone had reported seeing her getting dragged into a car. She had laughed it off, saying it was a friend, but who?
And what sort of friends had an inside joke that made a stranger think someone was being snatched off the street? Laila hadn’t been in the town long enough to make a good enough friend that would do that to her as a joke. Cedric thought it could have been someone from her hometown driving through to see her, and that it could be a joke between them—a bad one, granted, but people were strange, weren’t they? And maybe that’s why she had missed the after-school club and lied about it. But that just didn’t feel right. He was missing something here and he didn’t know what it was.
Although Gretel had done the right thing by giving the witness the memory potion, he kind of wished she hadn’t. He would have liked to have been able to go to Mavis and quiz her a little bit, find out for sure if the car Laila had been seen getting dragged into had been one of Fabian’s or just a similar-looking make.
There was another possibility. One Cedric didn’t like at all, a much darker possibility. Maybe it had been Fabian in the car, and Laila was friends with him. Maybe she was even working with him, infiltrating the town and reporting back to Fabian. He dismissed that idea almost as quickly as it had come. His instincts were telling him Laila was meant to be his mate, and that she was lying about what had happened tonight, but they weren’t sensing evil or darkness. And he knew Cassie would have sensed it too if it was there. Cassie was even more wary of strangers than he was and he knew how thoroughly she would have vetted Laila before she offered her the job at the school.
“What is it? You’ve got that serious look on your face again,” Cassie said.
“I don’t know. I just can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to tonight than we know about,” Cedric said. “You know as well as I do that Laila was lying back at the store.”
“I did get that impression, but maybe she was just uncomfortable because she really forgot about the after-school club. Or maybe she was having a good time with her friend and she lost track of the time and didn’t want to admit to that. Is that what this is about, Cedric? Are you jealous of Laila’s friend?”
Cassie put friend in air quotes and Cedric rolled his eyes.
“No. I can’t be jealous of her friend, because I don’t believe there was a friend involved. The townspeople like a bit of gossip, I know that much, but making up someone getting dragged into a car seems a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it? And I trust that if the witness had exaggerated the story a bit, Gretel would have gotten to the bottom of that and not bothered me with it,” Cedric said.
“So, what are you saying?” Cassie said with a frown. “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know,” Cedric admitted. “Something about this whole thing just feels off. And I can’t help but think Gretel was right and Fabian is involved in it all somehow.”
“Okay, but then explain to me why, if Laila had been dragged into a car by Fabian or one of his men, she would have lied about it afterwards,” Cassie said.
“Maybe she’s not lying as such. Maybe Fabian used a memory potion on her, just like we do when we need humans to forget something,” Cedric said.
“Okay, I could buy that,” Cassie conceded. “But why would he have let her go? Fabian doesn’t take women until he’s sure they have the Sanmere protein in their blood. And there’s no way he would let someone with Sanmere in their blood just walk away.”
“I honestly don’t know, Cass. But I intend to find out,” Cedric said.
He stood up and Cassie raised an eyebrow at him.
“Look, I agree something weird is happening here. And I also agree we need to deal with our Fabian problem,” Cassie said. “It’s past time we did that. But bulldozing your way into Fabian’s castle and confronting him with something like this isn’t the way to do it.”
“Thanks for that,” Cedric smiled. “But I’m not stupid, Cass. That’s not my plan. I think it’s time I introduced myself to Laila properly and asked her out for a drink.”
“Right,” Cassie said, grinning at him. “And it’s purely to find out what’s going on in the town, right? There’s no other reason you might want to take Laila out for a drink?”
“I didn’t say that, did I?” Cedric laughed. “I want to figure out this situation, but if Laila and I click and have a good time, well, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”
“Nothing at all. Just remember you like this girl. Maybe focus more on that than grilling her,” Cassie said.
As if I can forget that I like her, Cedric thought to himself. She’s all I can think about.
“Got it,” he said.
Cassie stood up and walked out of the house with him.
“I’d better get home. Stuart will be wondering where I’ve gotten to,” Cassie said.
She gave Cedric a quick hug and headed toward home.
“Good luck!” she called over her shoulder as she walked away.
Cedric gave her a thumbs-up, but he hoped he wouldn’t need luck. He hoped Laila would be happy at the thought of a date with him.
By the time Cedric reached Laila’s house, he was feeling a little bit nervous, but he knew it wouldn’t show. One of the first things he’d learned being the pack alpha, after trusting his instincts, had been how to project confidence, even if he wasn’t really feeling it.
He knocked on Laila’s door and waited. She pulled it open and smiled when she saw him. His cock instantly started to respond to the sight of her standing there. She was still in her work clothes, a black, knee-length dress that clung to her breasts a little and then flowed out at the waist, and she looked amazing in it. Cedric could see the outline of her breasts through the fabric, the curve of her hips, and he couldn’t help but imagine what she would look like out of the dress.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m Cedric. Cassie’s brother?”
“I remember,” Laila smiled, her cheeks pink once more.
“I know this is a bit forward, but I wondered if you’d like to grab a drink with me,” he said.
Laila paused for a moment, her face unreadable, and then she shook her head slowly.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tonight. I’ve just made dinner,” she said.
Cedric felt himself deflate. He couldn’t have felt worse if she had reached out and slapped him in the face.
“Okay, another time, then,” he said, trying to sound casual, but knowing he missed the mark ever so sl
ightly.
He flashed Laila a quick smile and turned away from her. Had he imagined that she felt this thing between them too? No, he knew he hadn’t. He had seen the lust in her eyes, in the way her face reddened when she looked at him. But still, she had rejected him and it stung like hell.
10
The second Laila said no to going for a drink with Cedric, she regretted it. He was gorgeous and what was the harm in a drink or two? Nothing had to happen between them, and it would just be nice to get to know him a bit. She didn’t really believe that nothing would happen between them, though. She could barely stop herself from throwing herself at him just because he was nearby and she was sure he felt the same way about her.
“Cedric, wait!” she called after him as he walked back down her path.
She had seen the hurt on his face that he had tried to cover when she had turned him down, and she couldn’t help but notice the slight slump in his shoulders as he walked away. And she felt bad about that, she really did. But that wasn’t why she called him back. She knew if she let him walk away in that moment, she would spend the rest of the night—hell, maybe the rest of her life—regretting it.
He turned back, a hopeful smile on his face. Laila returned his smile, feeling a little shy all of a sudden.
“I’ve made enough pasta to feed half of the town. If you haven’t eaten yet, you’re more than welcome to come in and have dinner with me,” she said.
Please say yes, please say yes, she thought to herself. God, why didn’t I just say yes to the drinks? This has gone from a drink with a maybe something will happen attached to it, to a come into my house and fuck me invitation. Because we both know that’s what this is.
Cedric smiled, a smile that made his whole face light up.
“Sure, that sounds great,” he said. “It’s got to be better than calling for a pizza and waiting the hour and a half it takes to get here.”
He smiled as he said it and Laila smiled back at him, feeling herself relaxing. She stood aside and let Cedric in, closing the door behind him and directing him through to the kitchen. She watched him walking, her eyes automatically checking out his ass. It looked damned good in his jeans and Laila had to take a moment to catch her breath.
She hurried into the kitchen once she had herself under control and put out two plates of the pasta and sauce and sat down opposite Cedric.
“Why Greer?” Cedric asked as he scooped up a forkful of pasta and put it into his mouth.
Laila felt a shiver go through her as she watched Cedric. How she wished she was that fork. She caught herself staring and forced herself to concentrate on her pasta.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, it’s hardly the life and soul of the party, is it? What made you decide to come here?” Cedric clarified.
“I’ve wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember,” Laila smiled. “And when Cassie offered me the job at the school, of course I said yes. I’ll be honest, though. At that point, I had no idea just how tiny Greer really is.”
“So you don’t like it here? Are you not planning on sticking around?” Cedric asked.
Laila thought she saw a flicker of disappointment on his face when he said it and she felt her clit tingling. She cleared her throat, trying to ignore the fact that her body was coming alive beneath Cedric’s gaze.
“It’s not what I was expecting and I think the quiet life might take some getting used to,” she smiled. “But I love the school and the kids in my class, and I have no intention of leaving.”
“That’s good,” Cedric smiled. “It’s nice to have someone new in the town. Someone so exotic.”
Laila laughed.
“I would hardly say I’m exotic,” she said.
“Compared to the townspeople, you sure are,” Cedric said.
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but I’m taking it as one,” Laila said with a soft laugh.
“Oh, it’s a compliment,” Cedric said. “I couldn’t help but notice you in this tiny town, but something tells me I’d have noticed you anywhere, Laila.”
She felt the color flooding her cheeks again and she looked down at her plate, thrilled by his comment. She looked back up and found herself gazing into those mesmerizing green eyes.
“I’m pretty sure that goes both ways,” she said, feeling her stomach fluttering with butterflies.
Cedric smiled at her, a smile that was part relief but mostly happiness. For a moment, neither of them spoke and Laila could feel the air around them becoming charged with desire. She cleared her throat, not wanting to let herself get carried away in the moment. Her little noise broke the tension between them.
“What about you? What made you come to Greer?” she asked.
“I’ve been here a long time,” he said. “I kind of enjoy the quiet life, to be honest. And I mostly work from home, so it’s not a big deal where I am.”
“What do you do?” Laila asked.
“Web design,” Cedric replied. “I’m sure that sounds terribly boring to you, but I enjoy being able to take someone’s vision and make it a reality.”
“It doesn’t sound boring when you put it like that,” Laila smiled. “And let’s be honest, as much as I love my job, being a primary school teacher is hardly glamorous or interesting, is it?”
“So we’ve established our jobs are boring,” Cedric said with a teasing smile. “So why don’t we talk about something more interesting? Tell me something interesting about yourself.”
Laila thought for a moment. What was she supposed to say to that? Should she tell him how she suddenly found herself in the middle of a paternity question that felt like something in a soap opera? Or how she could never have children despite the fact that she craved motherhood with every cell of her body?
“There’s not really anything to tell,” she said, obviously deciding against telling him about either of the things that popped into her mind. “I went to college, graduated, and moved here. I like reading and my guilty pleasure is watching reality TV shows, although I try not to do it as much as I’d actually like to.”
“You’re a clean slate,” he smiled. “And if the biggest skeleton in your closet is a love for terrible TV, then you’re winning at life.”
If only that was her biggest skeleton. She pushed the thought away.
“So, what skeletons lurk in your closet?” she asked.
“Ooh, let’s see,” Cedric said. “There was the time I killed a man with my bare hands just to watch him die, and then there was that time I wrestled with a bear. It wasn’t really a fair fight, though; the bear wasn’t very big.”
Laila laughed and shook her head.
“Seriously, spill something interesting about you. You know, something true,” she said.
“I’ve swum with sharks,” Cedric said. “And that one’s true, I swear. Although I’m not sure I would call it swimming. It’s more huddling in the back of a metal cage, terrified, and then afterwards, telling yourself you loved it.”
“That actually sounds really cool,” Laila said.
“Well, maybe one day I’ll take you to try it,” Cedric said.
“Oh God, no,” Laila exclaimed. “It sounds cool for other people.”
Cedric laughed.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t really know how I let Cassie talk me into it. She’s the wild one of the family, really. I’m the chilled-out one who would rather watch a movie than jump out of a plane.”
“Has Cassie jumped out of a plane?” Laila asked.
“Yeah,” Cedric nodded. “And bungee jumped and climbed Kilimanjaro. Pretty much anything dangerous or stupid, Cassie has done it. She’s a bit calmer now, but when she was younger, she was definitely an adrenaline junkie.”
“Those are all the kinds of things I want to be able to say I’ve done, but not actually have to do. Does that make sense?” Laila said.
“Like you want them over with and just have the memories of the experience rather than feeli
ng the moment,” Cedric grinned.
“Yeah, exactly that,” Laila said. “I felt like I had achieved something major riding Thunder Mountain.”
She looked down at their empty plates, and suddenly, all of the talk of adrenaline and daring stunts made her feel brave.
“Should we move to the living room?” she said.
Cedric nodded, flashing her a smile that made her stomach bounce with excitement. She stood up and took the plates over to the sink and then she led Cedric through to the living room. She sat down on the couch, her body tingling with lust when Cedric chose to sit next to her rather than take the bean bag.
“Would you like a drink or anything?” she asked.
“No drink, thank you,” Cedric smiled, turning slightly so he could look into her eyes. “But if you’re really offering anything…”
His words cut off as he leaned in and pressed his lips against Laila’s. She was taken aback for a moment, but her body took over for her, her lips responding to Cedric’s kiss even before her brain had fully registered that he was kissing her. He pulled his mouth away from hers, much too soon for her liking. He smiled at her, his eyes sparkling.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the moment I saw you in the pub,” he murmured.
“And I’ve wanted to let you do it since that moment,” Laila admitted. She cast her eyes down, a smile playing over her lips. “Although I have to say, I wanted it to go on for much longer.”
“Your wish is my command,” Cedric smiled, and then his lips were on hers again.
Fire coursed through Laila’s body as Cedric’s tongue moved into her mouth. She moaned loudly as her body responded to him, her pussy soaking her panties, her clit begging for Cedric’s touch. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Cedric, pushing one hand beneath his t-shirt, feeling the smooth skin and the taut muscles of his back.