“Why don’t you show her to one of the guest rooms? Make sure that it is close to mine.”
Jeff agreed, and Carmella tried not to respond to it. She wasn’t sure how this marriage was going to look, but she wasn’t ready for all of that, not yet. She’d thought that she would have some time, ten days, before she had to worry about that aspect. Carmella was going to hold out as long as she could. Sex with Jason wasn’t something that she was looking forward to.
Jeff, on the other hand…
Carmella didn’t let her mind go there. She was sure if it did, she was going to do something that she would regret later. Besides, it’s not like it would actually happen, so there was no point in even thinking about it.
Jeff pulled her away as his father was leaning down to kiss her. Thankfully, he didn’t get a chance, before she was led away. Jason said something to Jeff but he just waved him off and said that he was doing what he was supposed to do.
Carmella was left to follow behind Jeff, and once they were a few feet away, he took her hand off of his arm. She wanted to thank him for that, but she wasn’t sure if that was his intent. She also wanted to make sure he didn’t say something to his dad. She had to keep her opinions to herself.
She walked slowly up the stairs, still taking in the lavish surroundings, feeling the cool wood of the banister. It was unreal, all of it, and Carmella looked back once. Jason was staring at them as they walked up the stairs. She smiled his way, but it didn’t come from her eyes. Instead, it was only a bit of curving to her lips. When she turned away, the look was gone. What was she going to do?
“So, how do you like it here so far?”
Carmella had been stuck in her head and she forgot for a moment that she wasn’t alone. She was with the cute son that made her wonder if she had made the wrong decision. Did she really want to marry some old guy?
She shrugged. “Well, I mean, I just got here, so I am not quite sure how to answer that, I suppose. This is a really nice house.”
He chuckled. “So, you just met my dad today?”
Carmella agreed. “A couple of hours ago, actually.”
They were both quiet for a moment. Carmella wasn’t sure what to say, and she certainly didn’t know what to say to his son. It was weird, and she was doing her best to not say the wrong thing. Jason could have sent her with Jeff so he could get information on her.
“This is kind of weird. When Dad said he was going to get a bride, I didn’t think that she would be around my age.”
Carmella smiled but still didn’t say anything. She didn’t know if she could trust him or not. He had an honest face and she got nothing but good vibes from him, but at the same time, she just didn’t believe that he would go against his father.
Jason wasn’t horrible, and she had agreed to it all, but now she wanted to change her mind. He was looking at her as if her body was already his to possess.
“His age was a surprise, though I should have known better. I knew that it wasn’t going to be love at first sight.”
She looked to him for just a moment before Carmella looked down. It certainly wasn’t how she felt when she’d met Jeff.
“Why would you choose to marry an old man, a stranger?”
He was a bit more uncontrolled in his tone, and it made her look at him again. Why was she hearing emotions in his voice? He’d just met her, and it didn’t really make any sense. None of it did.
Carmella didn’t want to get into it. Not right then and not with a man she wasn’t sure about. It felt like Jeff was going to be her ally; she just wasn’t one hundred percent sure. She needed time, though from what she’d heard, she didn’t have much. Carmella had about ten days until she was going to be married.
“So, how do you like it here? I’ve never been to Virginia before. It is definitely different weather. We’re from further south, so it was quite warm when I left. Is this normal temperature for this time of year?”
He smiled and seemed relieved to get off of the pressing question that he’d just asked. It was hard for her to imagine how it would be for him. Strange, no doubt.
“It’s not too bad. I’ve traveled quite a bit, but I always come back home. This is warm for this time of year. Sometimes we’ll see a freeze even later in the season.”
Carmella shivered at the thought, and he mistook it for her being cold and he pulled off his suit jacket and gave it to her. It was too big and smelled like him.
“Thank you.”
They stopped in front of a door, and she was smiling at the back of him. He was such a nice man. She was sure then that she could trust him. Carmella didn’t have a plan, but it was going to involve him soon enough. She just knew it.
“So, this is where you are going to be staying.”
“Where does your father stay?”
He pointed a few doors down and then asked her if that was close enough. Carmella wanted to tell him that she wanted to be farther away, but she just nodded her head. She then checked the door handle, not wanting to be obvious but concerned if it had a lock of not. She tested it before she moved into the rest of the room.
“You seem really worried about locks. Are you afraid that you won’t be safe here? I assure you that you will be.”
Carmella smiled and then shrugged. “It’s good to know if it works well or not. I am new here, and it would be better to know that I am safe.”
“I am next door, so you won’t have to worry about it. I will be on the other side of that door. It locks, too, by the way, and you will be able to come to me for anything that you need.”
For a moment, she thought that he was saying it some kind of way. She looked up into his dark brown eyes and wondered what he meant by that. Her mind went to a naughty sort of thought, but Carmella was sure that it was just her that was thinking that way. Surely, he wasn’t thinking along the same lines that she was. They’d just met.
Carmella had to get it together. She was losing it and wasn’t sure why. Carmella was untouched, and maybe that was what made her think about it so much, but it was usually just a curiosity.
Then he got close and whispered something to her. Before she could ask him what it meant, Jeff was gone, and Carmella was alone in the luxurious room. Her heart was now beating harder, and she wasn’t sure how to feel.
“I dreamed about you.”
What did that mean?
Chapter Five
Jeff was now convinced that Carmella was really there for him. Carmella was the woman that he’d seen in his dreams—literally. She had been coming to his dreams for years now, and it was only there in the guest room that it had finally hit him, the familiarity of the immediate attraction that took him over.
Leaving her before he did something stupid, Jeff figured as long as he stayed away from her, it would be okay. He didn’t want to be in love with the woman his dad was going to marry.
“Son, there you are. I was just looking for you. I had some questions on that last shipment that was sent.”
“Yeah, what about it?”
His mind was so far away from all of that, it was laughable, but he knew that he was supposed to pretend like he cared.
“It didn’t get there. It’s only about half of what they paid for.”
Jeff stopped. He’d made the delivery, and for it to be short, or said to be short, was a big deal. There was a lot of money in the deal, so Jeff was going to have to take care of it whether he wanted to or not.
“I will go talk to him. There is something off, though, because I know it was all there.”
“Don’t let them take advantage of us, son. If it’s wrong, you make it right.”
Jeff knew what his father was referring to. His dad had gotten more violent in business in last couple of years. That didn’t mean Jeff shared his desire. He actually preferred to get along and figure something out. Jason didn’t want that. He wanted to dominate. It seemed like the older he got, the more he needed to prove to himself, and the world, that he was just as strong as he always was. It w
as a bluff that Jeff was supposed to carry out for him, and he resented the responsibility.
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions, Dad. I will go out there and see what’s going on. I am sure that it will be fine.”
Jason didn’t look so sure, but he let it go. That wasn’t like him at all, and Jeff had to think that it had something to do with that woman. She was messing with his mind already.
“So, what do you think of her?”
Jeff was walking away and he stopped, turning back around to look at him. “Who?”
“You know damn well who. What do you think of your new stepmom?”
He groaned inwardly because that was the last thing he wanted to think about: the girl from his dreams, the beautiful woman that was to marry his dad. He didn’t want to think of Carmella that way. It just made his stomach tilt and weave.
“She seems nice, Dad, but let’s not call her that, okay? She’s younger than me, and it would just seem weird.”
“I know she is young. Donna is going to freak out when she sees her.”
“Donna? You’re still planning on seeing Donna?”
Jason shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I? Donna is fun, and this girl is going to take some time. She is a virgin, you know. Doesn’t even know what the hell she's doing. There's no way that she's going to be able to satisfy me for a long time. I am sure that the novelty of it will be fun, but it'll get old very quickly.”
Jeff couldn't believe that they were talking about the same woman. There was no way he would ever get tired of being with Carmella. She was beautiful, perfect. If Jeff ever had a woman like that, he would never have a mistress.
His father had mistresses for as long as he could remember, even when he was with his mother. Jeff had always told himself that he didn't want that. He wanted one woman to fulfill all of his needs.
Jeff walked away from his father even more confused than before. It seemed like his dad was getting everything that any man would ever want, and he was just throwing it all away. He wasn't worried about Carmella in the way that Jeff was. Carmella was the prize, but Jason was acting like she was just something to shut the council up.
Shifter alphas were usually married. It was actually a requirement when they first took the title. Since shifters would mate for life, that meant that they would almost always have a wife until the end. The women usually outlived the men just like in humans. But everything changed when Jason's wife had been killed. Her murderer was never found, and Jason never got another wife.
No one really cared because they already had children out of the mating, but now it was a problem. So, Jason had gone to pick up his new bride. It was like he had ordered her from one of the big box stores and she'd arrived in the mail.
Jeff was filled with a lot of emotions, and the only way to get rid of all of the extra feelings was to run. He didn't know where he was going to go, but Jeff had to get away. He was going to say something or do something that he would regret later.
He ran until his lungs burned and his muscles were screaming at him to stop. Jeff turned his wolf head up to the moon and howled loudly. He remembered being a kid, listening to the sounds in the woods and loving it. Now, it just echoed an exasperated the loneliness that he felt. Why did his father get to have the perfect bride, mistresses, everything?
He was still thinking about her, so he kept running for a while longer before he turned around and went back to the house. Jeff knew that the sounds of summer would greet him, and that was for the best. He didn't want to have any more conversations that day. It had been full of enough of them and some of them, he couldn't take back.
While he was supposed to be taking care of business, Jeff decided that he would do it in the morning. It was always better to get the jump on somebody at six o'clock in the morning, especially when they go to bed at three or four.
He was about to switch back into his human form as he got closer to the house and civilization, but then something caught his eye that was streaking to the left of him. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought that it was another shifter out there in the woods. But there shouldn't have been, and he knew it, so he decided that it could very well be someone that was trying to do harm to his family.
They were rich, powerful, and that came with a lot of enemies. Whenever somebody was on top, there were always people underneath trying to pull them down.
Jeff was convinced that's what it was. There was no other reason for somebody to be stalking around in the middle of the night outside the house, but he picked up a vibe that he had felt before, and now he was even more intrigued. It wasn't somebody meant to do him harm; it was actually his father's soon-to-be wife. What she was doing out there, though, he had no idea and didn't even want to guess. It looked like she was running away, but surely not.
He followed her for a while, and though they were getting further and further away from the house, he was still waiting for her to turn around and come back. Maybe she just needed to clear her head like he had.
That wasn't the case, though. She didn't look back once, she just kept running, and once they were probably twenty or thirty miles away, he finally got ahead of her. She came up quick and looked shocked when he was standing there in her way.
“What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question, but it seems pretty clear you're running away.”
Chapter Six
Carmella came to a halt, and she was breathing hard. She really wasn't sure what she was doing, just that she couldn't lay there and stare at the ceiling any longer. She had been in that bed for too long, tossing and turning and waiting for someone to come to her. Even though they were supposed to be married in ten days, Carmella was afraid that her husband-to-be would want to get further acquainted with her.
The idea of it had got her out of her bed, and the next thing she knew, she was in the woods running. Carmella switched back into human form and Jeff did the same thing.
“Are you watching me? Did your father tell you to keep up with me?”
Even though she’d been caught red-handed, Carmella started to get angry. There was nothing to get angry about, of course. She was trying to run away, and even though she was acting indignant, she knew it was all bluster.
“No, I was just getting back and I saw someone out of the corner of my eye. I thought you were an enemy. Are you?”
“A what?”
“Are you an enemy?”
She just shook her head. He was obviously losing his mind, and even though she was guilty as hell, Carmella just waved him off like he was being silly.
“No, I’m not an enemy. I'm supposed to marry your father, remember?”
“Yes, you are supposed to be my stepmother. I definitely remember that, and I have to say that it doesn't seem possible to me. When I look at you…” His voice cut out midways.
“Because I’m so much younger than your father?”
“Not just younger than my dad; you're younger than me. Why in the hell would you want to marry an old guy like him?”
She pressed her lips together, and Carmella looked down and then away. “Oh, I get it. You don't want to be married to someone like him. Is that why you are out here running like the devil is chasing you?”
Carmella did not agree or disagree. She just shrugged her shoulders and let him think what he wanted. Carmella didn't want to make any more enemies, she didn't want Jeff to think that she was one, but at the same time, Carmella really didn't want to go back.
When she said as much to him, he asked her what she wanted.
“Where are you even going to go?”
Carmella shrugged. There was no way she could go back home and face humility that would come with being unacceptable for marriage. Then there was the fact that William would want the money back from her family. They couldn't afford it. That was the reason that she had done it in the first place, and Carmella knew that even though she was miles away from the house that she was supposed to be sleeping in, she had to go bac
k.
“I don't know. Stupid, right?”
He sighed. “It’s not stupid at all. But why don't you come back for just a little while? You have over a week before anything's going to happen. Nothing can happen until the wedding; that's the rules. My father will stick to the rules, so you will be safe from him. I will make sure nothing happens to you.”
Carmella wanted to believe it. She really did. She wanted to trust him so badly, but there was another side of her that wondered if he was just trying to make it easier on himself.
“I think you should stay, Carmella. You might actually like it here if you stay awhile.”
“Are you convinced that I will fall in love with your father?”
He looked down and then away. Carmella had thought as much.
“I’m not going to say that my father is the best person to marry you, but he surely isn't the worst. We have lots of money, and the name is honorable. You could do worse.”
As much as Carmella thought she would just walk right into it, no love, knowing what it was, it wasn't that way at all. Maybe it would have been if she wouldn't have met Jeff and he wouldn't have set her insides on fire. Now, what was she supposed to do?
“Come back with me, Carmella. If you still want to leave in another week, I will help you find a place and everything. Give you some money to get you started.”
Again, Carmella wanted to believe him, but she was unsure. The truth was she didn't really have a choice, though. There was no one else to trust, and Carmella knew that going it on her own did not sound good at all.
“You promise that you will let me leave if I want to?”
“I don't know how you came to be with my father, but I would never let that happen. You will never be forced to do anything you don't want to do. If you want to leave, you can go. I am just suggesting that you give it a chance.”
As much as she still had her nagging suspicions in the back of her mind, Carmella started to feel a little bit of relief. Maybe it was the idea that she just didn't have a choice that freaked her out so much. Carmella wanted control over her future, her destiny.
Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series) Page 13
