by Reina Torres
Xavier latched onto her hand and tugged her along as he walked around the bar and out the front door.
Xavier knew that she had work to do. His panther had promised to give him a world of hurt if he didn’t leave True alone long enough to get it done. Sure, his panther wanted more time to let their bond with her mature, but part of that bond was gaining her trust and becoming a part of her heart. To do that, he needed to make sure she was happy.
Well, he’d do anything to make her happy.
He put her in his truck and drove her around to her cottage. Even though she told him she could walk, he wanted speed.
The faster he got her there, the faster they could finish up what she had to do. Then he’d see about making sure she got some rest.
In his arms.
As he pulled into the spot beside her car, it didn’t escape his notice that there was another vehicle parked in the row. This one a high-end European model that was more show than power. He didn’t like the looks of it on sight, but once he heard True’s gasp of dismay he knew he liked it even less.
Xavier had a hundred questions in his head, but his first priority was True. He rounded the front of the cab fast enough to turn the head of the woman standing on the porch of True’s cottage.
He only saw enough to know that he’d shocked the woman, but most of his attention was on his woman reaching for the handle on the door.
He didn’t like the look on her face. Hated the pallor of her skin tone.
Something about the woman standing up there was upsetting True and he wasn’t going to stand for it.
Holding the door open, he took True’s hand and helped her from the car.
Before he could ask her about the woman, he saw movement on the porch. The woman who was up there leaned on the railing and looked at him with hunger in her eyes.
“Well, well, cuz. When daddy said you were hiding from us, I told him you weren’t smart enough to do that. And I was right because all it took was a tiny little internet search to figure out where you’d run off to.”
Xavier felt True tense beside him. He reached out his hand and took her hand in his to give it a reassuring squeeze.
“Look at you, little cuz,” the woman’s voice dripped with insincerity. “Only here for a little bit of time and you’ve got a handsome man of your own. I bet he’s the runt of the litter.”
“Stop it, Lorna. Don’t be rude.”
“Rude?” She laughed and brought her hand up to her chest. She splayed her fingers open, and Xavier saw the blood red nails in stark contrast with her light-colored blouse. “I’m always perfectly sweet… when I want to be.”
Xavier growled, deep in his throat, and it only softened when he felt True’s hand touch his back, slowly stroking just alongside his spine in a calming gesture.
“Then just tell me what you want so you can go be perfectly sweet somewhere else.”
“Meow.” Lorna curled her fingers at True. “Kitten’s got claws now. Maybe you finally got a man to… scratch that itch you’ve had forever. Has my little cuz finally let a man fu-”
“Lorna!” True tried to step away from Xavier, but instead of holding her back, he stepped up beside her. “Get to the point.”
When her cold stare didn’t move Xavier in the least, the willowy woman shrugged. “Daddy says you better come home. He’s not going to let you stay here.”
Something clutched at Xavier’s heart at the thought of True leaving, but he felt her hand in his and managed to push it away.
“You know,” Lorna just kept talking, “Mystic is off limits to our family.”
“Says your father, Lorna.”
“Uh,” her nails clicked along the railing, “he’s the head of the family.”
“None of you have ever treated me like family, Lorna.”
“Oh yes we have,” she scoffed. “You’re like the red-headed stepchild, True. You’re the whipping boy and scapegoat all in one. And I would have thought you’d learned your place by now. So, come on,” she stepped down the stairs, her heels clunking down to the ground, “get in my car. Let’s go.”
“She’s staying.” Xavier looked at True, hoping she wouldn’t contradict him, or be mad that he was speaking for her.
“Yes,” True agreed with him. “I’m not leaving Xavier. You can go back and tell your father-”
“If you’re that much in need of sex, True, sweetheart. I’ll order you up something from a website. Lots of speed settings and moveable parts.
As she came up alongside True, Lorna leaned in and took a long indrawn breath before recoiling from her with her nose scrunched up in disgust. “You smell just like him, don’t you?” She narrowed a look at him over True’s shoulder. “Just like a dog.” She walked down to her car and unlocked the doors with her key. “Come on, True. Don’t waste my time.”
“I think you have it backwards, Lorna. You’re wasting mine.” True tightened her hold on his hand, and he matched her need for comfort by returning it. “Now you can leave and go home and tell your father that I’m done. He doesn’t control me. He has no authority over me, and I never want to see him again.”
Xavier watched as Lorna considered doing just that. He also saw when she made the decision to leave, but while he hadn’t grown up with someone like Lorna, he had a feeling that she wasn’t going to make it all that simple. The look in her eyes was spite, pure and simple.
As she pulled out of the parking spot, she came close enough to them to lift the ends of True’s hair with the wind.
Xavier let out the breath he’d been holding and turned True to look up at him.
Smiling she made a helpless gesture in the direction that the car had gone. “See?”
When she laughed, he did too. “Yeah, I saw that.”
“So now you know why I’m so grateful to be here with folks like Aaron and Celeste?”
He cradled her closer and lifted her high against his body so that he could place a kiss under her jaw. “Let’s go inside, get your work done, and then…”
He knew that she saw the flicker of desire in his eyes by the way her breath caught in her throat.
“I’m going to see if you’d like to show me your claws.”
She laughed out loud and squirmed until he let her down. “Sounds good to me.”
Thirteen
Xavier found himself staring out at the mountain from the back porch of the main resort building. His panther was pacing inside of him, a relentless back and forth movement that made it harder for him to focus.
He didn’t even notice when Locke came out on the porch.
By the time the lion clamped his hand down on Xavier’s shoulder, it took every ounce of focus not to throw his friend like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
Xavier shrugged off his friend’s hand. “Nothing.”
Locke stepped up beside him and stared out toward the mountain. And stared.
And then he leaned closer and asked. “What are we looking at?”
Xavier remained quiet, but not entirely stoic. He was on edge and desperately trying to hide his mood from True. She had enough on her mind.
“Because I was wondering if you were staring out into the woods because you’re looking for a place to bury True’s cousin.”
The way Locke said the word, it was clear that he didn’t like True’s cousin either.
“I don’t know how True ended up being as awesome as she did with people in her family that act like that.”
Xavier whole-heartedly agreed with the observation. “Some families have a bad apple…”
Locke laughed, “True’s the flower in the thorn bush.”
Aaron cleared his throat from behind them. “Don’t you two have something you should be doing?”
Locke’s easy manner made up for Xavier’s frustration, answering for them both. “Actually no, the women kicked us out. Apparently being as good looking as we are, it’s a distraction.”
Aaron’s sardonic look spo
ke volumes. “All the liquor is on the shelves and in the storeroom?”
Xavier nodded. “And the food is in the storeroom, pantry and kitchen.”
Locke continued on. “Signs are up. Floors are swept. You… you want me to go and test out any of the beds upstairs?”
Xavier shoved his friend and nearly sent him sprawling down the steps. The lion ended up on his back, laughing so hard he couldn’t see.
The other two left him there and made their way back inside.
Aaron walked beside him, quiet and thoughtful until they reached the center of the lobby. When the polar bear shifter stopped, Xavier stopped beside him.
“You know, I don’t usually talk about your past.”
Xavier nodded. Aaron was the one who kept silent about those things. Oh, his long-time friend knew when he had his gut twisted up about something, but Aaron didn’t expect Xavier to talk it out like Georgia and Henry and he certainly didn’t expect him to go for a healing with Wren. No, Aaron was always there with something that needed to be done. Work that needed to be taken care of. Even if it was just busting up a tree for wood, Aaron would just tell him what to do and Xavier would do it.
When he was younger, Xavier didn’t understand it. He grumbled about it enough. Sometimes getting the urge to defy Aaron even though the man was paying him for his work around his own place.
And it had been many years, too many to count, later when Xavier realized that what Aaron was giving him was a way to work through the anger and frustration that always seemed to spontaneously combust inside of him.
For all of those years where Aaron had taken care of him and given him the ability to rage without feeling less of a man or shifter for the need, Xavier was going to give the man leave to say his piece. He more than deserved it.
“I guess I always thought you just needed time to work through the losses you suffered. Too many losses, too close together. And maybe I should… I should have talked to you sooner. At least ask you about it to make sure that you understood what was going on, but I didn’t.”
Xavier really wasn’t sure if he was ready for this conversation.
“I had no idea that Landon twisted you up inside. That he’d made you fear finding your mate.”
Xavier tensed up. “I didn’t fear finding her.”
Aaron waited silently beside him, giving him the room to continue.
“I couldn’t imagine losing her.” He felt his own panther rise up against his skin, rubbing against their link, trying to soothe the riot of emotions that came rushing back at the thought. “If my mother or my father had survived beyond the other, I don’t think they would have lasted long. Even with me around to care for. And my uncle. I don’t remember Elizabeth. I mean I don’t remember what she looked like or sounded like, but I remember how much my uncle loved her. How much he lived for her.
“And yet, when she died, he managed to live for me.”
“He didn’t make it easy for you.” Aaron’s own heart was plain in his voice. “I should have seen it and helped.”
“He held on for as long as he did to take care of me, and I’ll always be grateful. I can’t imagine what it would be like to think that Elizabeth… that Elizabeth had been unhappy enough to take her own life.” Xavier fought down the helpless tears of his younger self, remembering the ache of losing his uncle and the feeling of being the very last of his family. “I can’t imagine how painful it would have been for my uncle. I know he’d want her to be happy. I know,” he turned to look at Aaron, “if True wasn’t happy here. If she wasn’t happy with me. Mark or no mark, I’d give her the freedom to leave.”
“How do you know,” Aaron’s tone was soft, but pained as well, “that Elizabeth wasn’t happy?”
“That’s what my uncle thought.” Xavier looked at Aaron with confusion in his voice. “When he was grieving, he said someone had blamed him for her death as if he’d pushed her to it because she was unhappy with him.”
“That seems out of character for Landon. They were a good match, everything seemed right between them.”
Xavier didn’t want to think about it anymore. “I know, but I think after he lost her, he lost more than just their future. I think he lost his soul.”
“Aaron?” The two men turned and saw Georgia waving at them. “Aaron, Celeste wants to go and change for the opening, but I was thinking you wouldn’t want her to overdo it.”
Aaron puffed up like a proud peacock. “Of course not. I’ll come and take her back to the house. If I’m lucky when we get there the kids will have arrived, and I know Julia can get her to take a few moments to relax.”
He walked away toward the bar and Xavier waited for Georgia to come to his side.
“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” She flushed, and he saw the color of her cheeks turn nearly as read as her lips. The silk dress she wore was embroidered with flowers and birds and fit her perfectly. “Is it time for you to go and change as well?”
He looked down at his clothes and back up into her glittering gaze. “This doesn’t work for the party tonight?”
She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. “Men.”
Xavier reached out and held her arm for a moment before leaning forward to touch her cheek with a gentle kiss. “I’m taking True back to my place. Going to get her to soak in the tub if it kills me. She’s going to need some time to relax before the rush tonight.”
Georgia gave his cheek a pat and laughed. “I agree. Henry was grumping that the bar won’t be open for lunch, but I think it’s best for people to see it in its full evening glory. The lanterns will make the atmosphere perfection.”
“He’s always about the food.”
She laughed. “Yes, and I love a room lit with fire. It makes me feel… at home.”
A soft noise at the doorway lifted Xavier’s head. True stood there smiling at them both. She turned toward Georgia first. “Thank you, Mrs. Huang. With your help we got everything done ahead of time.”
“Please, dear, call me Georgia. Now, you should go with your young man and have that bath he’s promised you.”
Xavier couldn’t ignore the color that rose in True’s cheeks, and even at this distance, he could scent her arousal as her eyes darkened. An image of her stepping into the tub was instantly in his head, but again, it seemed as though it wasn’t his.”
True mumbled something and turned away, letting her hair fall over her face as she stepped outside into the sunlight.
He’d only taken a step forward when Georgia’s voice reached his ears.
“Xavier?”
“Hmm? Yeah?” He turned and saw her curious expression. “Something wrong?”
Her expression became a thoughtful one. “Not wrong… but curious.” Her words were soft, but clear and measured as she continued. “You see more than you should. And you should trust what you see. For what you see is true.”
Georgia always reminded him of a poet. The way she phrased things always seemed like the lyrics of a song, but he knew she had never lied to him, or tried to confuse him. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t confused every so often.
His soul wasn’t that of a poet.
Still, he had a feeling that she wasn’t telling him… everything.
He looked down at the marble under his feet trying to form his thoughts into words. When he looked back up again, she was gone.
“Great, just great.”
As he headed for the front entrance of the resort, he mumbled to himself. “For what you see is true. Or what you see is True?” He growled deep in his throat. “And women say that they say what they mean, but what they need to say is what men can understand.”
True wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of taking a long soak, no matter how restful Xavier said it would be. She had things to do. Lists to check. And she told him so a half dozen times.
And she knew she was testing his patience.
Still, Xavier had plugged the stopper into the bottom of the tub and started the water.
She tried to glare at him for not listening to her, but just the sound of the water rushing into the oversized tub, and the curling heat rising from its depths, went a long way to changing her mind.
“Why are you so insistent that I relax?”
It was his answering smile that made the room flash over with heat instead of the water.
His tone made the room hotter.
“Maybe I just want to see you naked?”
She couldn’t even be angry, but maybe she could get even. “Maybe I think you should get naked first.”
When his hands grabbed hold of his shirt, she could only blame herself for putting out the challenge. When his pants followed his shirt onto the cool rock floor of the bathroom, all she could do was stare.
And when he stepped into the tub and turned off the water, she was faced with the realization that she had lost the argument all on her own.
She fumbled with the buttons down the front of her blouse, but her skirt and panties came off easy enough. Adding her bra to the pile, she climbed into the tub one leg at a time. A soft hiss of sound passed her lips. “It feels like the hot spring, how-” True shook her head. “It’s fed from the same spring.”
Xavier didn’t answer her. He moved closer and turned her around so that her back was to him. His lips touched the mark that he’d left on her. “Aaron and Celeste have a private pool of their own.”
Another kiss and his fingers drew one strap down off her shoulder. “It allows them to use it for… private reasons.” The other strap of her bra slid down her arm, but she didn’t know if the shivers that followed it were from its touch, or her anticipation.
“So, this is… ours?”
Her bra fell into the water, but neither of them reached for it. True didn’t want to move away from the heat of his skin, and a moment later she was rewarded as he filled his hands with her breasts. How he could manage to arouse her and comfort her at the same time was a complete mystery, but she wasn’t going to question it.
Not when his fingers plucked at her nipples, tightening them into peaks as his body curled up against her, sliding his erection between her cheeks. He pulled her closer, and she felt the thick weight of his cock lay against her lower back, a place where he’d put his hand over and over as a gentleman. Now, he was laying claim to her in another way.
