She looked first shocked and then mortified. “Ew, yes. It is so an issue. If it weren’t for the fact I haven’t had a date in ages, let alone kissed someone, I’m sure I wouldn’t even have thought of the last one as nice.”
Duane’s interest rose at that first part and he latched onto it as a way to temporarily forget his own problems. “Why is that?”
“What?”
“That you haven’t had a date in so long? You’re an Anderson, which pretty well means good looking, charismatic and loaded. On top of that, you’re in a business college whose student body is made up of more than seventy percent men.” Something he’d hated when he’d been attending but, for a woman, it had to be a plus or at least a factor in her date book. “How the hell can you not have guys asking you out?”
Carrie pulled her attention away from his to concentrate on peeling the label off her beer bottle. “There have been a few.”
In the five years she’d been going to the university, he’d be willing to bet there had been a lot more than a few. She might routinely wear a ponytail and prefer baggy clothes to tight ones but, as he’d noted already, she was still an Anderson. Still had the tanned, blonde good looks they all shared. She wasn’t as sensually appealing as Candace but she was cute as hell. “I’m betting a lot more than a few.”
She huffed out a breath and shrugged. “Fine, there have been quite a few but I just haven’t felt the sparks.”
“Isn’t that the point of the date, to give the sparks a chance to happen?”
Carrie glanced up from the beer bottle and frowned. “I just… I’m picky. I have a certain type of man in mind and I won’t settle for less.”
Something about her tone, or maybe the way the emotion in her eyes didn’t match her frown, had Duane asking, “He have a name?”
“Who?”
“The man you have in mind.”
Her eyes went wide for an instant, then narrowed to accusing slits. “I didn’t say I had ‘a’ man, I said I have a ‘type’ of man.”
No, she had “a” man. He didn’t need to telepathy or even finely attuned senses to know that either. The emotion he’d witnessed before now came clear. It was one he himself experienced every time he was around Candy. Carrie was in love or, at least, deeply in lust. Perhaps that explained why she was doing so much to help him out with Candace. “Right.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
The snide tone and deadly glare were too much not to laugh over; they looked like Candy to a tee. “You know, you’re a lot more like your sister than I ever realized. Well aware of what you want, but afraid to make it known.”
“Shut up and kiss me already.”
He laughed again. “See what I mean. Bossy as hell. Gotta love that in a woman.”
“This woman is not free to love,” Carrie bit out.
“Right, because you already gave your heart to another.”
She hissed out a breath, then leaned toward him and brought her hand to the side of his face. “If you want my help, start playing your part. I have plenty of other things I could be doing right now than being on a date with your sorry butt.”
“Other men, too, by the sounds of things.”
She blew out another jagged breath and, chuckling, Duane brought his mouth to hers. He brushed over her lips with just enough pressure to make it look more intimate than what it was. Carrie angled the hand at his face, shielding their mouths while she twisted her head to the side to make it look as though she was taking the kiss deeper. Duane started to pull back when Candace’s thoughts slammed into his mind.
The big, fucking idiots. That is not real. They are just messing with me, so help me they are.
Yeah, they were and a part of him was still feeling guilty about it. A bigger part was thinking she was getting just what she deserved for not only dressing the way she had for her date but for all but launching herself into Andy’s arms from across the table. The fact she’d done both had him moving closer to Carrie yet and pretending to kiss her with a savage hunger he could never feel for any woman but Candace.
* * * * *
He shouldn’t have come back to this house. Duane hadn’t been able to stop himself. He’d dropped off Carrie shortly after midnight to find that Candace was still out with Andy. He’d gone home then, but hadn’t made it inside. He’d sat on the front porch in the moonlit darkness, letting the crisp air of early April infiltrate his senses while he wondered where Candy was and what she was doing. The possibilities that coursed through his mind had been endless and yet consistent, in that each one of them involved her naked, sweaty and moaning in the arms of another man.
That wouldn’t happen. He wanted to trust her judgment enough to believe she herself would stop it from happening. Only he couldn’t. Not when he knew how desperate she was to move past her feelings for him. So he’d done the one thing he’d promised himself just last night that he wouldn’t do again. He’d returned to Candace’s house in his wolf form and stood sentinel in the shadows outside her bedroom window. Not that his waiting here would help her should she need him somewhere else, but at least this way he would know if she made it home safely, or at all.
Twenty-some minutes had passed when Andy’s truck pulled up the drive. The air cruised from Duane’s lungs in thanksgiving, then quickly rushed back in when Andy and Candace stepped from the vehicle. Their voices carried to his perceptive ears as clearly as if they stood beside him and his tension built with each word.
Candace had made the right choice tonight in saying her goodnight to Andy at her front door—where the two currently stood talking—but, by the sounds of things, she didn’t plan to follow that course for long. She was telling Andy what a wonderful time she had, how she hoped they could go out again tomorrow. How she’d think of him every moment until then.
She was full of shit. She hadn’t had a good time, she didn’t want to go out again, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to spend her time thinking of him. Candace didn’t want Andy. Only, the sound of her throaty sighs as Andy pulled her close and kissed first her mouth and then her neck sounded a whole damned lot like want.
Andy’s hands slid down, cupping her buttocks through her long jacket and too-damned-tiny-skirt, and Duane’s frustration turned to hostility. Loathing tunneled up as a feral growl from deep within his throat.
No one but him touched his woman that way! And Candace was his. They all knew it. If Andy didn’t yet, then he was about to find out.
Heart hammering in his ears, Duane bounded from the shadows and straight for the couple on the front porch. He was halfway to them when Andy relinquished his hold on Candace’s ass, said a last goodnight and turned for his truck. Duane stopped short, blood singeing between his ears and through his limbs. Fuck, he couldn’t move in any closer and rip out the man’s tongue the way he burned to do. Unless he wanted Candy to both despise him and be frightened of him the rest of her life, he couldn’t do a damned thing but retreat to the shadows.
Bridling his temper, he slinked back to the side of the house and camouflaged himself amidst the row of shrubs that lined it. Andy got into his truck and, after Candy went inside the house, backed up the drive and pulled away.
Duane had no choice but to follow. If he made his claim on Candace to Andy when she was in listening distance, she would deny it with either repulsion or laughter, possibly both. For the sake of the man’s safety and what might happen to him should he continue to date Candace, Duane had to get him alone and make it clear that she was already taken. Make it even clearer that, if Andy chose to ignore that fact and pursue her anyway, the outcome was liable to be painful, if not deadly. It wouldn’t come to that though; somehow he would figure out a way around anyone getting hurt.
Winding the scent of exhaust, Duane started after Andy’s truck. He caught up with the glow of taillights after several minutes and continued to follow the vehicle to the narrow, winding road that ran the length of the Dorr National Forest and through the sprawling Eagleton Mountain
Range. The truck veered off the main road to head up one of the steeper, wooded paths and Duane stopped short.
Where the hell was he going and why? No one came into this stretch of the mountains in the middle of the night, no one outside of predatory animals and those humans who were close enough to predatory animals to not fear the creatures that lived here. Then again, Andy wasn’t from around here. He probably didn’t know any better.
Wasn’t that laughable? He’d followed the man to warn him away from his woman and what would happen if he didn’t stop seeing her. Instead, it looked as though he would be warning him from far worse dangers than himself.
The red glow of taillights disappeared from sight and Duane snarled. He couldn’t waste his time sitting around trying to figure out Andy’s reason for coming here. He had to catch up with him before he did something stupid, like get out of his truck for a moonlit stroll through the mountains.
Duane took off at a sprint, quickening his pace as he hurdled over fallen trees and through overgrown thickets and dense patches of swampy marshland. The foliage grew thicker the higher he climbed, then split away suddenly to reveal a rolling glen, engulfed in moonlight. He’d been to this place before, the few times he’d given in to the pack howls of other wolves—both were and natural—and joined in their monthly rituals. He’d believed this is where he would find Andy. Only Andy wasn’t around. Judging by the silence of the glen—only the occasional howl and the gentle stirring of the wind punctuated it—no one or nothing was.
Even as he thought it, the wind picked up, turned to a rushing whip that had his fur standing on end and his nostrils flaring with awareness. His senses went on full alert while his blood pumped through his veins in a violent crescendo. He’d been wrong before. Someone or something was here.
Branches snapped behind him. Duane spun in a circle, opening his mouth to reveal his fangs as he eyed the woods through night sensitive eyes. He couldn’t make out anything but forest. He could scent something though. Something that smelled dead.
From somewhere to his left, a feline hiss rent the night air. Releasing a warning howl, he turned toward the sound and connected with the glowing yellow eyes of a panther. There were no panthers in this area, they couldn’t live in this environment. Only, there was a panther. One that let out an ear-shattering caterwaul as it leapt at him.
Chapter Six
Candace woke from a nightmare to have her already pounding heart leap into her throat. Duane was in her bedroom, his eyes glowing an eerie yellowish-green from where he was haunched down in the corner in his wolf form. Her own eyes adjusted to the darkness and her mad heartbeat slowed as realization settled in. Duane wasn’t in her room. It was just that damned stuffed wolf. That wolf she’d moved out of her room this morning. Clearly, Carrie had moved it right back in.
That just went to show how accurate Candace had been tonight at dinner.
No matter how much Duane and Carrie had touched and kissed, it hadn’t meant a thing to either of them. It had all been for the sake of making Candy jealous.
It hadn’t worked. She hadn’t been jealous in the least. Truth be told, she’d forgotten all about them and their numerous displays of affection and focused solely on her date. Going into the evening, she might not have been attracted to Andy. But by the time the night was through, she’d been more than ready to give in to the invitation in his eyes. She’d been burning to bring him back to her bedroom and show him that, while her name might sound sweet, her bedside manner was anything but. She would have done just that too, if it weren’t for the fact Carrie had already been home and asleep. She didn’t want to wake her sister with her screams of ecstasy.
And if that wasn’t the biggest load of shit to ever cross her mind, nothing was.
Growling in the back of her throat, Candace laid back and stared at the darkened ceiling. It was so not fair. She’d wanted to want Andy. She’d tried everything short of crawling under the table, unzipping his jeans and taking his cock into her mouth to get herself hot for him. Nothing had worked.
She’d learned a lot about him tonight, enough to move past her old impressions of him as a carefree bad boy and respect him as a trustworthy friend. But that’s it, just a friend. Even that long, deep goodnight kiss he’d planted on her hadn’t gotten her a little wet. It was hopeless. Only it couldn’t be. She had to want Andy. Once she returned to work she wouldn’t have time to track down another man who could speak to her compassion enough to make her forget Duane. And she wouldn’t put off forgetting him another day.
Candy.
Candace shot up in bed and nearly screamed at the thought that darted through her mind. A thought that wasn’t her own but sounded a whole lot like one of Duane’s. She inhaled automatically and his odd scent filled her senses and had heat curling to life in her belly and her libido firing on high.
Wonderful. She’d spent over five hours with Andy and, as much as she’d tried, she couldn’t even work up a little wetness for him. All she had to do with Duane was think he might be in her room and her pussy was dripping wet and her nipples hard as rocks. Yeah, she’d been right the first time. It just wasn’t fair. Or sane, for that matter.
She reclined back in the bed and tugged the covers up around her, closing her eyes. “I know you aren’t real and I wouldn’t hear you, even if you were.”
A low wheezing sound somewhere between a yelp and a sigh drifted to her ears and brought her pulse thrumming to chaotic life. He wasn’t really here, she reminded herself. It was just like Friday night. She’d thought she smelled him then, too, but she hadn’t. Not really.
Candy, sweetie. I’m real. Turn on the light.
“No, you aren’t,” she snapped, aware how irrational it was to be yelling at a stuffed animal and still unable to stop herself. “I’m just…dreaming.”
She laughed at the irony in the words. The visions her mind had conjured up the last few nights were not dreams. They were nightmares that haunted her damned near every second. And it was all Duane’s fault. If he could have just left her alone after that first time she probably would’ve been able to move past it, past him. But he wouldn’t leave her alone. He just kept pushing his way into her life, her thoughts. Her bed.
Her blood pumped harder with the idea of him being in bed with her right now. Of feeling his cold, wet nose on her naked thigh the way she thought she had last night. That dream had morphed in to a nightmare but at first it hadn’t been one. At first, as his long, rough canine tongue suckled at her pussy and rasped over her clit, it had been like the most wicked kind of heaven.
And that was wrong on too many levels to count.
Candace lifted her head to glare at the corner of her room. The curtains fluttered inward from the windows she left cracked open every night and, just to the right of those curtains, were eerily glowing eyes that looked far too intense to be made of glass. “Why the hell can’t you just leave me alone?”
Need you.
“What’s the matter, Carrie didn’t live up to your expectations?” Nice. Now was she not only talking to a stuffed animal in her sleep but she was making it pretty damned clear she’d been jealous of Duane dating her sister.
Don’t need…Carrie. Need you. Turn on…the light.
“Sorry, but I don’t have a Clapper.” And there was no way in hell she was getting out of this bed and walking over to that light switch with that damned stuffed wolf ogling her naked ass. Then again, this was a dream. Perhaps if she clapped her hands, the lights would come on, even without the handy-dandy mechanism that made The Clapper work.
Candace drew up into a sitting position and brought her hands together in two short claps. Darkness loomed on, broken only by the sound of the wolf’s next thought.
What…you doing?
Acting like an idiot. “Nothing. Why aren’t you talking to me anyway? Every other time I’ve dreamt about you, you’ve talked to me.”
Can’t talk…when wolf. This…only way… Light…
He couldn’t talk w
hen he was a wolf and apparently he couldn’t think very well either, because his thoughts were coming across disjointed and hard to follow. Why she was even trying to comprehend them was beyond her. It was a dream. A stupid dream she needed to wake up from before her last few sanity cells decided to go the way of all the rest she’d lost this year, thanks to the big pain in her ass known as Duane Livery.
Huffing out a breath over his name and the stimulating effect just thinking it had on her body, she flung herself back in bed and growled, “I don’t want to turn on the light. I want to wake up. I’m going to pinch myself now and end this hellish dream, so goodbye.”
Not…dreaming. Light. Please.
Forcing the thought from her mind, Candace reached to her left forearm with her right hand and gave the skin a hard pinch. Pain shot up her arm and she squeaked out a gasp that turned to a snarl when the darkness waged on along with the suddenly intense sound of labored breathing that wasn’t hers.
Son of a bitch, this wasn’t real. It wasn’t. But it sounded real. The subtle movement of the wolf’s big body against the billowing curtains seemed real. The pleading glint in his eyes seemed so real it was frightening. “Damn it, I don’t want you here. Go away!”
Can’t. Hurt. Light.
Hurt? Candace’s fear of the situation at hand evaporated as a new kind of panic burst forth, bringing emotions barreling up her throat and into the backs of her eyes. She worked as an emergency room nurse, she should be immune to feeling alarm over injury. But she wasn’t immune to it, not when it was Duane who was the one in danger.
And he was in danger. She couldn’t deny it any longer. Couldn’t shut out his wheezing breaths and the way his eyes had dipped to half moons, as if he couldn’t keep them open any longer. She couldn’t dismiss his pleading quests to turn on the light. She could only face reality. Duane was in her bedroom in his wolf form and he was in pain.
Wild Hearts 2: Wild by Night Page 10
