Jeff waved him off. “No, I think that the two of you might be perfect for each other. Why don't I set up a meeting between the two of you and you can see if you would like to go further. It needs to happen rather quickly though because I will soon be married, and Vanessa has made it clear that she does not want Carmella there any longer than she has to be.”
Dennis seemed surprised by that. “Why would she have a problem with it?”
Jeff shrugged. He didn't want to get into it.
“So, do you want to set up a meeting with her this evening or not?”
Dennis didn’t look too sure. Jeff wanted to tell him that he was being crazy and he should just nod his head and thank him for the opportunity. He was giving him one of the greatest women in the world as far as he was concerned, and now the man was looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to take the gift.
The man finally agreed, and Jeff was on his way. He handed the baby back and told him that it was cute. Jeff had not thought about children too much, nor marriage for that matter. Was he really willing to share a life with Vanessa just because his father wanted him to? Why was it becoming more and more of a burden the more he thought about it? Forever seemed like a really long time all of a sudden.
When Jeff got back, he was quick to find Carmella and let her know that he had set up a meeting with Dennis. She seemed a bit shocked that it was happening so quickly. She looked overwhelmed, and he asked her again if that was truly what she wanted. After a moment, she squared her shoulders and agreed that it was.
“I know that it has to be done, so it might as well get done quickly. The next full moon is coming, and I want to make sure that I am out of here by then.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Carmella was full of mixed emotions when she heard about the meeting with Dennis. Of course, that was what she had asked for, exactly what she had asked for, and he had done it in prime time.
Then why was she so upset about it? The ease in which he did it, bothered her to the very core. It was like he didn't even care. If he did, how could he have managed it all so quickly? Jeff even had a smile on his face when he told her so.
Now she had a couple of hours before another important meeting that was going to dictate the path that her life took. Carmella was getting rather sick of having those critical encounters in her life. The last time it hadn’t worked out so well, and it was hard for Carmella to believe that it would do so this time.
Vanessa was now prowling through the house most of the day, and she found herself confined to her room just to escape the snarky comments that were always pointed her way. Carmella had tried to like her, she really had. She knew that being nice to Vanessa would secure her place there a little bit longer, but there was nothing to like about her. She was just mean and cruel, as far as Carmella was concerned. She was beautiful, no one would contest that, but there must have been a blackness inside of her that made her act the way she did.
When it was almost time for her to meet Dennis, Carmella went to Jeff’s door, knocking lightly. She had not heard much from his side of the wall in a while, but he opened the door rather quickly.
“You're going to come with, right?”
“Yeah, if you want me to. I didn’t know if you would want company or not.”
Carmella insisted that she did, just because she didn’t want to be alone to meet Dennis for the first time. There was maybe another side of her that wanted Jeff to see what he was doing. Really see it. Would he feel the same way, so calculating and cool about it, when he got to see the man that she was going to be with?
It took him a minute to get ready, and the whole time, she was thinking that she wished it were him that was going out to dinner with her. They had not even been able to have a proper date before the relationship ended. Carmella could not help but feel like it was a shame. She would always wonder what would have happened if they’d had a real chance.
Her nerves were getting the best of her, and once they walked a few houses over, Carmella was surprised that they were there.
“I didn’t know he was so close. Are you guys related?”
Carmella did not like the idea of that at all. She did not want to have to be reminded of the two of them every time there was a holiday. She knew that they would be in the same clan and would see each other once and a while, but all the time?
“No, but he is one of the members of the council. He is trusted by my father and by me, so I would imagine that he will work directly underneath me. Dennis needs to be close so he can do so, but he has a baby that was left to him when his wife died recently. It’s a lot to throw at you, but it’s all just to say that he’s a good guy and well trusted.”
Carmella’s mind spun. “How did his wife die?”
“She was in an accident.”
“Car?”
“No, she was in new terrain and went off a cliff before she could slow down. We are not really sure if she was being chased or chasing something. It happens, but it was rather unusual.”
Carmella did not know how she felt about it. She pushed it back for the second question.
“So, he has a baby too?”
Jeff agreed. “I don’t know how you feel about babies. We never got to that conversation.”
Carmella thought that it was probably because they didn’t talk all that much. Her face turned red when she thought about what they had done instead.
“Yes, well, okay. Boy or girl?”
“A little girl. She’s adorable. I saw her earlier.”
Carmella was quiet for a moment. It seemed like everything had been thought of, and while she should have been happy, she wasn’t. She didn’t want to marry anyone else. She wanted Jeff to be the first and last person that she was ever with. Carmella only wanted it to be the two of them.
“Okay, well, I guess that doesn't change anything. I like them well enough. I haven't been around too many kids, but I always wanted them in the future.”
Jeff made a sound and then looked away. Carmella didn't understand him at all. One minute, nothing bothered him, and in the next, he seemed to choke up.
“Are you ready?”
She shrugged. It didn't matter at that point.
“Lead the way.”
Dennis was not at all what Carmella had expected. He was tall, of course; most shifter men were. He also had the nice long and lean muscles of the shifter youth. He was a bit older than her, maybe five or six years or so, but he had a youthful attitude. Dennis was optimistic and had a great smile. There were curiously a lot of freckles on his face and arms, which made her wonder if they were on other places as well.
She was a lot less nervous than she thought she would be. Carmella thought that it would be completely nerve-wracking, and in a way, it was, but the feeling was gone pretty quickly. Dennis was an easygoing kind of guy and seemed to quickly get into the groove of things. Carmella wished that she could so easily adapt. He must have learned about it not more than a day or two ago. Now, they were talking like they've known each other forever.
Carmella didn't feel the same attraction to Dennis that she did to Jeff. It was a shame, too because Dennis had a great personality. By the end of it, she was considering how important real chemistry was. It wasn't like she was completely obsessed with sex, or not with him anyway. What she had experienced with Jeff was probably not going to be matched by anyone else. Maybe she needed to let go of that part of marriage. Sometimes it didn't have to be some great explosion of feelings. Maybe it could be a softer, gentler sort of emotional. Carmella believed that she was done with the raw and unfettered emotions. Nothing good came of it before, and maybe a little restraint was exactly what she needed.
Once they left and Dennis was gone for the night, Jeff seemed overly interested in how she liked meeting Dennis. Carmella wasn't even sure if she had processed everything. She was trying to imagine getting married to someone else, but she still needed time, and she specifically needed that time without Jeff watching every expression on her face.
“I don't know. I guess he is a pretty nice guy. That's all that matters, right?”
He frowned and told her that she should want more out of marriage.
“What exactly are you expecting out of yours? I mean, you're getting married because your father left it in his will that you were supposed to do so, but do you think that it is going to make you happy? Letting someone else decide your fate for you?”
Jeff smiled and said that he wasn't going to take the bait. “We're talking about you, not me. I have accepted my plight in this situation, but it doesn't mean that you have to. It doesn't mean that you can't find happiness.”
She smiled at him sadly. “You really don't get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“I can't have the one I want, so it doesn’t matter. I guess if I can't have what my heart desires, then what does it matter about the runner-up? In love, there is no second place, is there?”
“Sometimes, I have no idea what you're talking about.”
Carmella smiled. “Me either. It's probably for the best.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jeff was left in the hallway, Carmella in the room next door, and he didn’t want to enter. Jeff knew that there wasn’t much that could be done. The way she had accepted it all killed him. He didn’t want her to accept it. Though her words, the ones that he was sure talked about their love for each other, he couldn’t have said better himself. If he couldn’t have Carmella, none of it mattered.
The idea of her getting married was quickly becoming a reality. Dennis was coming over almost every day to visit with Carmella, and she had even gotten close to the baby. Jeff couldn’t describe how he felt when he saw her holding her. He knew instantly that he wanted her to have his child, to look the same way as she stared down at the sweet baby’s face. Jeff would never have believed it, but somehow, it became worse watching her start to fall for Dennis.
One night, the idea of it all was too much for him and he wanted to talk to her about it. Jeff was convinced that all he had to do was remind Carmella about how good they were together, remind himself maybe, and then he would finally have the courage to do what was needed. What was needed was for him to call off the marriage with Vanessa. It was a sham to begin with. And then he needed to figure out how to break up Carmella and Dennis.
The first part was to get Carmella on his side again. He knocked on the door softly, like she had done so long ago, and waited for her to respond. When she didn't, he started to get worried and opened the door. She wasn't in her bed, and after looking around the room, it would appear that she had taken off. His first thought was that she had run away again like she was trying to do before. It was only a few weeks ago, but to Jeff, it might as well have been years ago. So much had happened between then and now.
He shifted into his wolf form as soon as he got out of the house. It instantly made it easier for him to pick up the smells around him. His senses were heightened enough for him to pick up Carmella out of all of the rest. She had shifted into her true form and was running around in the woods. He didn't know if she was running away or if she was just running like he found himself doing from time to time. Either way, he wanted to speak to her, convince her that they had both been wrong and he was ready to do what was right instead of what was expected of him.
Catching up with her was a different subject, though. Carmella was fast, and she had a bit of a head start from what he could tell. When he did finally get to her, he was already worn out, and it took everything in him to get the last surge of energy to catch up with her.
She looked right at him and kept going. His chest was heaving, and he felt like he was out of shape. Maybe he was thinking too much and not breathing right. All he knew for certain was she was right next to him. He needed her to stop, and he finally bumped into her.
She came out angry and attacked. Carmella was smaller than him, but she seemed far more vicious. He had also not seen it coming and was not looking to fight her. He wanted to talk to her, make love to her. When she had him pinned down and he felt her teeth start to graze his neck, he immediately fought back. It didn't take much to reverse the situation, and he held her down for several moments before shifting into his human form, with her following.
Maybe reading the situation wrong, he leaned down and gave her a kiss square on her mouth. The kiss was feverish, and he wanted to put all of the emotions he felt into it. It had taken over every part of him, and Jeff wanted to take over every part of her as well. When she relented, her lips opening up to him, that was all that was needed. The next thing he knew, he was pulling himself free. All he was focused on was getting back inside of her.
Then he was pushing in suddenly and hearing the cry of pleasure that came from her lips. It echoed throughout the woods, and he thrust inside of her quickly. He just kept pushing in over and over again, disappearing inside of her before pulling back out and doing it repeatedly. Carmella was clinging to him, making it hard even to move because she wouldn't let him out. Jeff decided then and there that he could have spent the rest of his life inside of her, never moving, just wrapped in her embrace.
She was calling out loudly and screaming as she exploded over and over again. Each time she pushed herself over the edge, he was finding it harder and harder to pay attention. He was shaking inside, and the more intense everything became, the harder it was for him to hold back his own pleasure. He never wanted it to end; at the same time, Jeff didn't want to slow down either. He buried himself inside of her one last time before filling her to the hilt with his hot seed.
He was still trying to recover from the moment as reality set in and he realized that she was pushing back on his chest. Of course, he wanted more, never tiring of her or the way she felt. After a few seconds, she wanted him off of her altogether, and he reluctantly pulled free from her tight cave. It was devastating to be outside of her, knowing that he was truly meant to be deep.
Carmella pulled away, and they were both still panting.
“We really shouldn’t have done that, Jeff.”
He didn’t agree. That was the first thing he’d done in weeks that he knew was right. He could never see it any other way, and he didn’t want to.
“You can say whatever you want to, Carmella, but we both know that's exactly what we both needed.”
She scoffed at him and got up, switched back into her animal form, and started back towards the house. He watched her go for a moment. He still needed to catch his breath before he could catch her. Jeff didn't know if he had done what he had set out to do, coming to his own conclusions about his life. He would not be marrying Vanessa.
“I can't believe you're doing this right now! Do you have any idea what I have done to get ready for this? All the planning, the dress, all of it. All of my family is coming in, and now you are going to shame me in such a way?” Vanessa was furious.
Jeff knew it was going to be complicated when he told Vanessa that they were not going to be together. She took it about as well as he thought she would, and even though he did feel a slight amount of guilt for hurting her feelings or shaming her in any way, it would not last that long. She would find somebody else to take her on. Vanessa was a good woman, beautiful, and she came from a good family. The last two reasons, in general, would find her a mate rather quickly if that was what she wanted. Jeff knew that the only reason she wanted to get married was so she could rule beside him.
He didn’t think he would rule now, though. Jeff was willing to give up the chance at being alpha, if only he could have Carmella. It would kill him to give up something that had been in his family for so long, but it was worth it if he got her in the end. Not only was his marriage supposed to happen in the next couple of days, but hers as well.
Knowing that the hard part was done, breaking up with Vanessa and listening to her rail at him for a whole hour, Jeff had to figure out the next part of his plan. He had to convince Carmella that they were meant to be together. It sounded easy, but nothing with Carmella was
that simple.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The day had finally arrived, and Carmella was wearing the same dress that had been picked up for her when she was going to marry Jason. She still had guilt over what she had done with Jeff in the woods, but she tried her best to forget about it. It was just a moment of weakness, and it would never happen again.
Even as she told herself that, though, Carmella couldn't help but feel a little saddened by it. When she was married, that would be it. There would be no other options, and the life she had dreamed about with Jeff would be gone forever. She wasn’t ready for that. At the moment, it felt like the end of the world.
Someone knocked, and she figured that it was Dennis. They had spent almost every day together since they met, and that day probably wouldn't be any different. She wasn’t head over heels in love with him and attracted to him like she was with Jeff, but she could see their relationship growing into something good. It would just be a less intense version of what she had with Jeff, and that might be exactly what she needed.
Although with Jeff, there were tense emotions and stolen moments and excitement. It didn't mean anything. She kept telling herself that. A reminder that was quickly turning into a mantra in her mind.
She answered the door and saw Jeff standing there.
“I have to get married in about an hour. I really don't think this is a good time.”
He pushed his way through the door and said that they had to talk.
“I think we have talked enough, Jeff. This is what has to happen. I'm getting married; you're getting married. That is the end of it so let's not make it any more complicated than it has to be.”
“I'm not getting married. I broke up with her.”
She felt a flutter in her heart, and of course, it was exactly what she wanted to hear. Carmella had been waiting for him to say that for so long, but she didn't jump into his arms like she wanted to. Carmella was still thinking about how long he waited to say it. How long he had let it all go before he finally realized what she had known all along. Carmella was upset that he had not been as intuitive as she was. If he had been, there would have been no way that he would have tried to set her up with another man.
Alpha Shifter Bride Service: (A Paranormal Romance Series) Page 20
