by Vivian Arend
And now? Trapped in a hallway with the leaders of the European werewolves? Way to stay undercover…
Mr. Fedora looked him up and down again, his gaze narrowing slightly. “Why haven’t I seen you in the dining hall? Not once during the entire voyage.”
Two pairs of eyes stared into him and Jared wiggled. He hoped he wouldn’t get asked a direct question that he didn’t want to answer. But then again, if he started down one route then changed tracks, that would be worse. In tough situations there was only one thing to do—tell the truth and hope like hell the dust landed in the right places.
“I slipped on board with nothing but the clothes on my back and I’ve been doing hard labour ever since because no one knows who I am and I really don’t want to tell anyone and I just met my mate and—”
A long, low squeal of delight escaped Mrs. Fedora as she snatched up his hands in her fingers. “Your mate! How simply delightful. You must introduce us.”
“Darling. Did you not catch the part where he’s traveling incognito? I doubt he wants to trounce down the hallways and have it generally blasted that he’s here. Although I do agree we should help celebrate.”
Jared yanked his mouth shut. The adrenaline rush that had started right around the time he’d scented Keri hadn’t slowed, and he vibrated like a kite in a high wind. “Right. Secret. Besides, I haven’t had a chance to inform my parents, and while I’m honoured, and Keri will be as well, I would appreciate a little longer to make all the announcements I need to take care of.”
“We can do secrets. I love secrets.”
Oh goodie. Mrs. Fedora was way too into this. “Maybe once the cruise is over—”
“I know!” She clapped her hands with delight. “We can invite you to dinner with us, only as a random seatmate. You know there have been empty seats at the table a few times. That lovely coordinator said we were always welcome to have guests. I’ll contact Tessa and you’ll get an invitation. I’ll tell her we met you during some…” She paused and frowned most adoringly. “What are you doing on board, again?”
Jared blinked in shock at how fast this train was moving on him. “I’m working as an…assistant. General maintenance duties.” Nondescript, that was the way to go. Although he was pretty sure that his idiosyncrasies and his parents were fairly well known by this point.
Mr. Fedora wasn’t buying it, he could tell. The long aristocratic brow had risen in the air, and Jared resorted to the last-case ammunition he could think of.
“I would love to join you for dinner, only it needs to be in disguise. Please? Because while shifters are usually not the media hounds humans are, I would hate to have your holiday ruined by someone getting the wrong idea and deciding that seeing all of us together is some kind of upcoming international coup.”
The most powerful Alpha wolf in England laughed softly. “Up to your old high jinks, are you, Jared? Causing trouble, capturing all the girls’ hearts like your father told us about?”
“Not anymore, sir, not now that I have a mate.” Even saying the words gave Jared a thrill that cut though the panic in his soul. “But if you issued the invitation to Mark Weaver, and said I was a crew member you’d just met, I would very much appreciate it.”
A little more teasing followed before Jared managed to escape with a promise that they would issue the invitation to the dining table in Mark’s name. He watched his family friends walk away, the security duo following them a discreet distance behind, but still visible.
He blew out a long breath. Great. The list of troubles got longer. Now he had an upset mate and royalty to deal with. Not to mention he had to get on the phone to his parents ASAP, because if the news arrived that he’d found his mate before he announced it to them, there would be hell to pay.
Jared raced down the hall toward Keri’s room and wondered when he was going to get a chance to stop running and start relaxing. He stood outside and waited, hand hovering over the door. Hesitating to face the music.
In spite of his lack of smell, he knew she was on the other side. And more than that, she was upset about something, and he was dying inside because of it. He changed his mind and thrust the door open, pulling another gasp from her as Keri twirled in surprise to face him.
“You’ve got to stop scaring me like that,” she complained.
In spite of or maybe because of the tension, Jared thought that was just about the funniest thing he’d heard all day. “How do you want me to scare you?”
She snorted, he laughed and some of the tension melted away.
She stepped into his arms and laid her head on his chest. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t smack me over the head sooner.” He stroked the damp strands of her hair into order over her shoulders. She’d pulled on a soft blouse that felt like brushed velvet under his fingers, but her hair and skin were softer still. “I’m glad we found each other.”
“Me too.”
Keri pressed her lips to his neck, and he grasped her wrists in his hands to stop himself from crowding closer. “We need to talk, and I already want to eat you alive. No touching or doing anything that could be construed as sexually enticing.”
It was a losing proposition. The way she nodded so earnestly at him, her lips pulling into a pout—God, he wanted to drop her to the floor and go all night.
Later later later, his mind reminded.
Soon soon soon, his body blasted back.
She let go and led him to the sitting area in the corner.
“You do have a lot more room than I do. Tell me what your job is on the ship again?” All his good intentions to keep this platonic and nonsexual were vanishing rapidly. He couldn’t stay away and linked their fingers together as she talked about Tessa and being friends. When her stream of information slowed to nothing, he braced himself. She batted her lashes. “And you? You had something you need to tell me?”
Just the way she said it made him shiver. As if she already knew those few things he’d neglected to mention, and she was only humouring him and letting him share. “Is this part of a freaky mate thing? Like, I’m never going to be able to have any secrets from you?”
The way she paused increased that eerie sense of other awareness. Then she lifted her gaze and stared into his eyes with this all-knowing look. “I think you can have secrets, but I’ll know you have them. Which means you may as well just give in and tell me everything. Because then? We’ll be together in whatever we’re doing.”
Jared sighed. Damn it. Great way to start a forever relationship, based on him being a fool. Excuses spilled out. “I didn’t mean anything bad by it.”
Her fingers tightened around his, eyes sympathetic. “Sometimes things happen we don’t intend.”
Relief edged up slightly as he considered he’d avoided the terrible possibility of her going ballistic at his deception. It looked as if she was going to understand. “They do. It’s like one thing leads to another, then another and before I knew it, poof, I was on the ship and I had no idea how to deal with the situation.”
Keri nodded slowly, but didn’t speak.
Blast. He wished she could actually read his mind. It would be easier than confessing. The upside of getting this over with now? He wouldn’t have to listen to her call him by the wrong name during sex again, because that had really given him the skeevies.
“I’m not Mark.”
The solid eye contact remained, but the understanding smile pasted on her face faded a little. Her lips twitched. “What?”
Okay, as a confession, let alone an explanation, that one really had sucked. Jared wrinkled his nose and tried again.
“When I came on this ship and said I was Mark? I lied. I was—” Oh man, good thing she was a shifter and should be cool about the sex thing, but still… Telling her he’d gone from someone else into her direction? Dangerous territory. He swallowed hard and spat out the rest in a rush. “I was running away from a lover’s family and the ship seemed a good place to hide. Th
en Chad cornered me and I said yes, I was Mark, and—”
“You’re telling me your big confession is that you’re not really one of the officially hired staff?” She wiggled back, the furrow between her brows deepening.
Silence echoed.
“Umm, yeah?”
“That’s it?”
Jared rocked for a moment. The unexpected disappointment in her voice was more than a little confusing. “That’s not enough? I’ve been impersonating one of my pack mates. I think he might have been drunk and…”
He stuttered to a stop. She had one brow raised so high he was worried she’d get a cramp. Jared slid his hands around her torso and tugged her into his lap. He buried his face against her neck and breathed deeply. Only the faintest of scents reached him, but with her taste still fresh in his mind, and this really cool sensation tickling the back of his spine—the sense of her—he was surrounded and content even though they had so much more to figure out.
He squeezed her until the tension eased, her shoulders softening, body easing against him. Her breathing picked up and his body reacted to every little nuance.
When he turned his head toward hers, their lips met. Slow, easy, then more and more needy. It was no use. The draw of their wolves was too much to ignore, and further discussions would have to be put aside for a while. He took her down the mattress and settled in for an extended lovemaking session.
Chapter Seven
Keri sprawled on her back, one foot hanging off the edge of the bed. She’d dragged a pillow over her face to stop the light sneaking in the small portside window from shining into her eyes.
Thoroughly satisfied. Boneless relaxation. She considered rolling over and looking around the room, but she didn’t have the energy to even do that.
Mark, no, Jared—her mate—had started with a slow seduction of her body that had gone on for hours. Speeding up, slowing down. They’d basically covered the entire room and the bath before the last time when she’d buried her teeth in his neck to stop from screaming during her orgasm.
There was no doubt about the physical connection between them. Maybe a couple of wolves farther up the hierarchy would have been able to hold off their animal sides to get to the bottom of the talking they had to do. For them, both firmly mired in the middle of the pack? Their wolves were stronger than the human side when they wanted something, and they’d both wanted their mates, badly.
She wiggled her fingers across the mattress in search of his warm body. Her inner beast stirred with more curiosity than lust, and Keri was both happy and sad. It wasn’t every day a girl got mated, but they really should do something other than burn up the sheets. It would be good if the animal side allowed them to take a short breather.
Her hand found nothing—not even a warm patch on the empty sheets—and she shoved the pillow away from her face as she rolled sideways and searched the room.
There was a note lying beside her and she grabbed it, collapsing back as her stomach muscles protested. Hmm, that bit of reverse cowboy had worn her out more than she thought.
She lifted both hands in the air and stared skyward at the writing. His letters were strong and bold and definitely masculine.
Hmm, masculine.
She beat down her inner husky to concentrate on the words.
Hi lover.
My phone went off while you were still sleeping like an angel, so I went to grab a few things. We’ve been invited to dinner. Kind of have to go—I’ll explain later, but in the meantime, rest up. We’ve got a lot to talk about.
You look delicious asleep, BTW.
Jared
Keri padded to the bathroom to soak her head and get fully awake. The clock over the dresser said it was five p.m. already, and the first dinner settings were at six.
A dinner invitation they had to meet? Her confusion returned fourfold. She really hoped this had nothing to do with the stolen jewelry. Oh God, she couldn’t stand to have just met him and have him taken away.
All kinds of scenarios raced through her mind. Him being blackmailed to steal. Him as the linchpin of a shifter mob who infiltrated shifter-only events and…
“Arghhhhh.” She rubbed her hair in an attempt to rid herself of the circular logic racing through her brain.
The towel covering her head must have masked the noise of the door because the next thing she knew there was a set of gentle hands assisting in drying her long hair. Jared slipped the towel away, and the light shone on his strong jaw and gorgeous brown eyes.
“Hey. You okay?”
Those eyes—those couldn’t be the eyes of a criminal. It would be such a rotten shame. Instinctively she stepped against his body and accepted his embrace. Not a word until the opportune moment. “Hey yourself. Light sleeper?”
“Only when there’s this really hot woman cuddled up to me so tight I’m unable to breathe she’s turning me on so hard.”
The tension in Keri’s belly wiggled off the cool setting onto the burner set to high, and she whimpered in pain. “Not fair. Your note said eating, not crawling all over each other for another four hours.”
His hand cupped her face, thumb gentle over her bottom lip. “It is rather bad timing, isn’t it? Can’t be helped. We’ll have to work together to convince our wolves to act politely for a couple hours while we dine, and then I promise we can come back here and continue until you can’t stand me bringing you to another climax.”
Another whimper escaped as she pictured returning to the room. “We need to change the topic. This isn’t helping.”
He brushed his lips over hers, stealing a kiss before stepping back and nodding solemnly. “Distraction needed. I agree.”
The cards he held forward caught her attention, all right. Official cruise seating-arrangement cards for the first-class dining hall. Shifters had hierarchies on top of hierarchies. The average pack might be very relaxed about some things, like sex, but you didn’t cross a line uninvited, and money and power often went hand in hand.
“Jared? Where did you get those?”
“I told you we had invites for dinner.” He looked away for a brief moment then returned to meet her gaze with a smile. “One of the upper-class families had room at their table, and I heard they’ve been inviting people to join them—kind of a be nice to the masses gesture, I guess.”
Keri opened the gold-gilded card with shaking fingers. There was her name written in fancy-schmancy script, seven o’clock seating time and the Fedoras’ official crest pressed into the wax seal.
Oh. Boy.
Sheer willpower kept her gaze connected with his. What she wanted to do was glance at the drawer where she’d tucked the brooch—the costs-some-ungodly-amount brooch she was pretty sure belonged to the Fedoras. But giving away the fact she knew something was up wouldn’t solve the problem.
Sudden raw anxiety wrapped around her like a miniature tornado.
It was annoying that the first thing that really caused her to panic had nothing to do with the thefts.
“I don’t have a thing—”
“—to wear?” His smile flashed instantly and he looked almost proud. “If you’ll allow me to solve that issue, I picked us up a couple things at the shop. They had your size on file from the staff list. Please, don’t say no. It’s my…mating gift to you.”
He’d pointed to the right, and for the first time she noticed the hangers hooked over the wall sconce. Something dark hung against the wall—a suit jacket, perhaps. But in front there was a shimmering red gown that made her gasp in surprise and dismay.
“Oh, Jared. How did you—?”
He caught her against him and kissed her protests away. It was a touch annoying, and yet how could she object when his mouth was doing such sinfully distracting things?
He drew away slowly, as if gauging to see if the complaints would pour out again. “I want you to feel comfortable tonight. I know it’s just a dress-up-to-dress-up thing. But you are so beautiful, I had to get you something that was nearly as pretty as you.”
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“Silver-tongued devil…” Keri smiled slowly. It wasn’t her jeans and ratty T-shirts, but she wasn’t into being a rebel for rebellion’s sake anymore—she’d gotten over that as a teenager. He placed a hand on her lower back, directing her toward the clothing. The heat of his palm lingered against her flesh.
Contradictions raged inside, an emotional and mental battleground. She slid the back of her fingers down the material, a shiver racing over her at the sheer decadence of the fabric. She loved being cared for—and wearing this dress would make some of her little-girl daydreams come true. She was a princess being cared for by her fairy godmother.
Said godmother pressed against her back, and the image switched from pumpkins and formal balls to Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, who was now nibbling on her neck and the sensitive place behind her ear.
Big Bad Wolf was a better image to keep in mind than some kind and helpless old matriarch.
But the invitation had been issued. Declining would be massively rude, i.e., rude enough to be mentioned, and suddenly Tessa’s reputation was on the line and Keri was ready to laugh out loud.
It was easy to justify what you wanted to do in the first place, wasn’t it? She let her other protests die away for a moment as she turned to face him. “It’s simply incredible. Thank you.”
The expression lighting his eyes made her incredibly happy right before a tiny corner of guilt snuck in. Had the gown been paid for with stolen funds?
Screw it. She couldn’t hide in the sand like an ostrich forever, but for the next three hours? She would take the pretense of the fairy tale and roll with it. Keep her eyes wide open and hope her heart wasn’t about to be broken into pieces.
Jared coaxed the smile back to Keri’s face, and finally his wolf stopped slapping him around. The beast hadn’t stopped poke, poke, poking since he’d hit the damn ship. He’d figured it was because of the mate thing, but now that he and Keri had gotten together—and wow, nothing had prepared him for how much better sex with a mate was—Jared had figured his wolf would take a chill pill.
