A misfit. Just like me. He belonged here as much as I did, and suddenly, I was dying to know why he was here tonight. Is he simply humoring his friend? Or is there something more?
“Holy shit,” Tamara murmured from behind me. “That guy is a hybrid.”
“What?” I turned back to look at Tamara, who was staring intently across the room. I glanced in the direction she was looking to see she was staring at the two men as well. “Which one?”
“That guy in the red T-shirt who looks like he wants to kick someone’s ass.”
“Huh?” I sniffed, and my eyes widened as I smelled what Tamara’s more sensitive nose had already picked up. “You’re right. He’s not a pure-blooded shifter. He’s definitely a hybrid shifter.”
Now, that’s new.
I’d met many different hybrid shifters before, usually jaguars with the occasional bear passing through, but never a hybrid wolf. The main difference between hybrids and pure-blooded shifters, like me, was that pure-blooded shifters were born with their full abilities, while hybrids were born human and then later turned. In addition, purebloods could change into their full beast and take advantage of all the many powers that came from the transformation. Hybrids could only transform into half-beast, half-man, and because of that, they weren’t usually accepted into shifter packs.
“Uh-huh.” Tamara leaned forward, her dark eyes alight as she smiled. “I think tonight’s going to get a lot more interesting. Now, back off, girlie.”
I felt a strange streak of possessiveness at the way Tamara was eyeing the newcomer, though I knew it was unwarranted.
“This one is mine,” Tamara declared. “You’re already taken, remember?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, really?” I asked, folding my arms. “I’m not mated to Carter just yet.” Nor do I want to be.
“Well, I saw him first.” She eyed me. “Though I’m tempted to let you have a crack at him since you haven’t had sex in so long. I bet if you popped your gorgeous legs open, I’d see cobwebs.”
I laughed. “So true.” I playfully fluttered my eyelashes. “So why can’t you just throw a dry-spell girl like me a bone?”
“I could . . . but I won’t,” Tamara replied with a smile.
“Seriously, Tamara, I don’t want him. I already have my hands full with trying to dodge Carter’s persistent attempts to get me into his bed. I don’t need the drama of another man I’m not remotely interested in having sex with. So, hard pass on the hybrid. You’re welcome to him.”
“Damn! Your I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-anything attitude is getting real tired. Why don’t you just take a vow of celibacy and become a damn nun?” Tamara’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s the fun Celine hiding? Shit. There was a time when you wouldn’t hesitate to walk right over to that guy and get his number.”
The truth of her words hurt, but I shrugged them off like a fur coat.
“That woman has withered and disintegrated into dust,” I snapped. “All that’s left is me. A woman who’s freaked out of her mind about a loveless, boring future with Carter.”
Shit. My life is so fucked right now, and there is no way out of the box I’ve committed myself to. I wish I could just go back to the woman I was before I met Carter . . . but I can’t.
“Celine, you could always tell Carter to go fuck himself and walk away from him,” Tamara countered.
“I could, but I won’t,” I whispered.
Despite the fact that I desperately wanted to break off my arrangement with Carter, I couldn’t, not without risking him ruining Dad.
I blinked back the tears.
Dad had been through enough shit after Mom died, and I refused to drive another stake into his damn heart. As much as I knew that he loved me dearly, I also knew that Dad’s business meant everything to him. It was his lifeline after his true mate, Mom, passed away.
“Celine, you know my opinion about this. Just tell your dad the truth—that Carter’s blackmailing you.”
I growled with frustration. If the answer were only that simple, I would have told Dad a long time ago. “Okay, Tamara, riddle me this. I tell my dad the truth, and then what?”
“He’ll deal with Carter.”
“Of course, my dad would, and he would do it by telling Carter to go fuck himself. And that would only piss Carter off, and he’d financially ruin Dad anyway.” I arched a brow. “This is a no-win situation. If I don’t marry Carter, he’ll destroy my dad. And, if I tell my dad the truth, he’ll forbid me to marry Carter, and Carter will annihilate my dad. It’s a damned-if-I-do and damned-if-I-don’t situation.”
“Okay, you’re fucked,” Tamara conceded. “But can you at least stop acting like a broken horse? The shit is depressing.”
“Bite me,” I mumbled.
Tamara grinned. “See? That’s the bestie I know and love. I need you to show me that kick-ass spirit that you let Carter steal from you. Go over to that guy in the red shirt and show him that he’s missing out on the best damn woman of his entire life.”
I blinked. “Oh, hell no. I’m not doing that shit.”
“Just like I thought,” Tamara crowed. “You don’t even remember how to flirt . . . convincingly with a man.”
“What?” I sputtered.
“Chicken,” Tamara taunted.
Damn the woman.
She knew I could never back away from a challenge.
“Want to settle this shit like real women?” I grinned and then raised my fist.
Tamara grinned. “Damn straight I do.”
CHAPTER 6
Gunner
“WELL, THAT’S GOT TO be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Jimmy muttered.
“What?” I asked while glancing around the club with its brick walls, wooden flooring, and elegant, gilded furniture. The colored lights that provided little illumination in the dark club made it hard to see what was going on in either the lounge area or on the dance floor.
“Those two chicks by the bar,” Jimmy declared, drawing my attention to the bar, which was the only place that had any real lighting in the club. “Is it just me, or are they playing Rock-Paper-Scissors?”
I turned to see what the hell Jimmy was talking about and spotted two women sitting beside each other at the bar who appeared to be doing just that. Both were dressed in black, though the one with short black hair and pale skin was baring much more skin than the long black-haired beauty with an umber skin tone alongside her. I watched as the woman with long hair scowled and then cursed as her scissors were crushed by her friend’s rock.
“Three out of five!” I heard her say to the other woman, my sensitive hearing now able to pick up on their conversation, even across the room.
“No way. Don’t be such a damn sore loser. Get your ass up and do it,” the woman with the shorter hair ordered.
The umber-complexioned woman turned her head, and her eyes widened as they caught my gaze from across the room.
My breath hitched as I gazed into them. I’d never seen such vivid eyes. They were a sparkling emerald green, and they seemed to be drawing me straight to her. Before I knew it, I’d taken a few steps in her direction.
“Hey.” Jimmy tapped me on the arm. “Already got your eye, has she? I thought you weren’t looking for a woman tonight.”
I knew Jimmy was just teasing me, but his words brought me back to my senses sharply, and I stopped. “No, I just thought . . .” I shook my head, not knowing how to explain the strange magnetism I’d felt when looking into her eyes. “Never mind. Let’s just get some drinks.”
“Now, that’s the spirit!” Jimmy boomed, grinning again.
I tried to make for the other end of the bar from where the two women were sitting, but Jimmy steered me directly into their path. Disgruntled, I stormed off to find seats, not willing to let Jimmy bully me into talking to the women. I found a low leather couch in the corner and sank into it with a sigh, wondering when this night was finally going to be over. Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes against the headache ca
used by the pounding blare of the music blasting from the band.
Why, why couldn’t I be reading a book at home?
“Hey, stranger.”
My eyes flew open at the sound of a sexy, melodic voice coming from my left. Sitting up, I saw the woman with long, black hair reclining on the other end of the couch, her arms resting atop the back. One of her booted feet was drawn up to rest on the cushions, while the other remained on the floor. It was a brazen, provocative position that drew my attention to the outline of her full breasts, hidden though they were by her jacket, and the length of her legs, which I could see were long and thick but toned under her tight black jeans.
“Um, hey,” I grunted. Wow, that was real fucking smooth.
I sat up straight, struggling to mask my confusion, and then stiffened as her scent hit me. She smelled like a complex mix of floral and fruity scents that was oddly seductive, but underneath it was something wild and feral and disturbingly similar to the scent of the hybrids that’d attacked me in the jungle. My lips curled back into a snarl before I could stop myself, my inner beast instantly perceiving her as a threat.
Her eyebrows rose at my reaction. She very slowly lowered a glass of beer to the table. “Whoa there, wolf. I’m not here to hurt you. Just bringing you the drink your friend ordered for you.” Her voice was deep and raspy. She tilted her head in the direction of the bar.
I followed her gaze to see that Jimmy was now sitting at the bar, watching what looked like a Mixed Martial Arts fight playing on a TV mounted on the wall, with a group of other men who seemed to know him.
What the hell? I hadn’t realized Jimmy was a regular here.
Turning back to the woman, I tried not to scowl at her. “Where did your friend go?”
“Who? Tamara?” She shrugged. “Probably off to find someone to dance with.”
She slid a little closer to me, placing a slender hand on my forearm. Tingles of awareness shot up my arm, surprising me.
“So, you got a name, wolf?”
“Why the hell do you keep calling me wolf?” I asked with narrowed eyes. And what the hell are you, lady?
She smiled. “Well, that’s what you are, isn’t it? A hybrid wolf-shifter.”
Her tantalizing scent teased my nostrils, and I found myself moving closer to her before I realized what I was doing.
“I have to admit, I’ve never met one of your kind around here.”
“Is that right?” I tilted my head to the side. So, my sense of smell was right; she wasn’t one of my kind.
She nodded. “Most hybrids passing through this area are jaguar or sometimes bear,” she explained. “Not many hybrid wolves around these parts.”
“So then, what does that make you?”
She arched a brow. “Ever heard of pure-blooded shifters? We’re humans who can change into animals.”
Her eyes changed color, her emerald green irises darkening to burnt amber, the whites of her eyes a dark gold color. I blinked, and her eyes returned to their normal color.
“Nice,” I hissed. “Are there many of you around here?”
“A few of us,” she admitted. “But I seem to be telling quite a lot to a man whose name I don’t even know yet.”
It was my turn to raise a brow. “I would have thought my friend had told you, seeing as how he sent you over here.”
She smirked. “Oh, your friend didn’t send me over. I asked him if I could deliver your drink, and he told me to take my time.”
I swallowed, painfully aware of the waves of heat rolling off her body, mingling with the sweet, heady scent that surrounded me. She was close enough for me to reach out and twine one of her long raven curls around my finger. I wondered whether her hair was as soft as it looked. Glancing over at Jimmy again, I saw my traitorous friend was looking our way, a self-satisfied smile on his face. He winked at me, clearly thinking he’d done me a huge damn favor by sending the woman my way, and then he turned back to the fight.
Thanks, asshole.
“You’re not gay, are you?” the woman asked.
I chuckled, my eyebrows cocked. “No.”
She shrugged. “Well, you look a little upset with your friend for pointing me in your direction, so I thought maybe you swung the other way. I didn’t peg you as gay when you walked in, but then, this is New York.”
My mind flicked back to when I’d first caught sight of her while she was playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with her friend. So, she saw me before that?
My mouth dropped open as the realization finally hit me. “You two were playing Rock-Paper-Scissors over me?”
She bit her plump lower lip, which made her seem a whole lot more approachable. “Like I said, wolf, it’s not every day you see a hybrid around these parts, so . . .”
“So?”
“Shit. This is really embarrassing.” She sighed heavily. “So, Tamara dared me to put on my big-girl panties and come over here and talk to the big, bad wolf.”
“Is that right?” I surprised her by moving closer to her, crowding her against the sofa, instinctively sensing I had a bit of an advantage for the first time since she’d sat down.
I might not have been looking for a woman tonight, but this beauty had clearly gone to a lot of trouble to meet me, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to her fearless spunk. Slowly, I reached up and brushed the back of my hand across her cheek, drawing away some of her curls. They were just as silky as I’d imagined them to be. The soft tendrils slid against my skin, and I wondered how they might look spread out across my pillows.
“Well, where I come from, usually, when people want to get to know someone, they introduce themselves. What’s your name, darling?”
She blinked and then swallowed hard. “Celine,” she replied, the surprise in her eyes fading as her lips curved into a slow smile. “Celine Cooper. And you?”
“Gunner Norcross.” I trailed my hand down the side of her neck, allowing my thumb to linger at the pulse point fluttering at the base of her throat. I caught the sharp spike in her scent and smelled her sweet arousal. My cock hardened. “And what did you come here looking for tonight, Celine?”
CHAPTER 7
Celine
THIS SHIT BETWEEN GUNNER and me was spiraling out of control.
Damn.
All I’d wanted to do was flirt a little, win the dare, and get the hell out of Dodge, leaving him in the dust, like ancient history. But here I was, staring into his eyes that were swirling silver pools of raw, unadulterated magnetism, like I was some lost damn puppy.
Shit. How in the hell did he turn the tables on me so fast?
Granted, he was fierce, powerful, and sexy. And, surprisingly, I was genuinely attracted to him. But whatever was brewing between us couldn’t—no, shouldn’t—go any further. I was going to marry Carter.
I shuddered at the thought of belonging to Carter like some object . . . because that was what he thought I was. Some bright, shiny trophy that he was salivating to claim and put on display on his mantel. And, if Carter found out that I had been flirting with another man, he would kill me—not that I would go down without a hell of a fight. But, nonetheless, I was to be his mate.
I was startled by my inner wolf’s snide remark. Mate? Don’t you mean, his property? Carter is not the wolf we want. Now, this one . . . Gunner is the wolf we need.
There’s no we. You want him, I hissed back. And, in case you forgot, I make the decisions around here.
My inner wolf snorted before saying, Then make the decision to live a little. If we can’t have this one as our mate, at least let’s have a little fun with him tonight.
I hated when my inner beast was right.
What would be the harm in enjoying my time with Gunner?
I could shed all my inhibitions for one night, letting my sensual side come out to play. And, when the night was over, I would slink back to my vanilla life with nothing to look forward to but the dread of a loveless relationship with a man I was marrying for the sake of my dad.
With
my mind made up, I purred, “I think I should be asking you that question.” Placing a hand on his chest, I continued, “What did you come here looking for tonight, Gunner?” The gesture was meant to put a bit of distance between us and give me some space to plan my next move, but electricity raced through my arm at the contact, and I fought the sudden accompanying urge to pull him closer instead. “New York might be a big place, but it doesn’t take much for me to be able to tell you’re not from around here.”
“I’m not.”
Gunner’s eyes flickered, cooling a little, and I immediately regretted changing the subject. I wanted him looking at me with that hot, molten gaze, as if he were a starving wolf and I was a delicious steak that had been served up to him on a silver platter.
“Just here for a few days, visiting a friend.” He jerked his head in the direction of his friend at the bar. “My home is Florida.”
“I see.”
His scent changed, telling me that he was lying, but I wasn’t sure which part of what he’d just said he was lying about. Deciding none of it was important right now, I filed that tidbit away to reexamine later.
“Well, how do you like New York City?” I asked, tilting my head up so that my mouth hovered just beneath his chin.
He had a strong, well-defined chin, perfect for me to lick and nip if I wanted to. I resisted the temptation but only just.
“It’s absolutely nothing like back home,” he answered, a note of real honesty in his voice. Something dark flickered in his eyes that spoke of sadness and pain, but he quickly masked it. “I haven’t decided whether or not I like it here yet.”
Operation Wolf: Gunner ~ Sedona Venez Page 3
