by Paige Tyler
“Usually they are,” Kendra agreed. “It’s probably just a matter of time until they catch him.”
Eden considered that. “If it’s gambling, do you think you can find out who his bookie is?”
“Yeah, I can probably find that out,” Kendra said. “But if it’s Tim and not Brandon, why do you care?”
“Because Brandon and Tim are best friends and crap like this has a way of seeping into the lives of everyone around the person with the actual problem. I want to make sure none of this gets within ten miles of my sister.”
Kendra hung up a little while later, promising to find out who Tim’s bookie was—assuming they were right and he had one—then get back to them as quickly as she could.
“Since it looks like we’re on hold until Kendra comes through with some more info for us, do you want to go grab dinner?” Eden asked.
“Dinner sounds good,” he said. “But I’m fine if you want to stay here and order room service.”
Travis didn’t mind going out, but he’d much prefer to hang out with Eden alone.
She smiled. “I’ve eaten off the room service menu a couple times already. It’s not very good.”
He didn’t really care what they ate—or if they ate at all. He grinned. “That’s okay. The company will make up for it.”
Travis expected her to laugh at what probably sounded like a really cheesy come-on line, but instead she regarded him seriously. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
He wondered where this was going but nodded nonetheless.
“Why aren’t you bothered by knowing what I am?” she asked quietly.
Of all the things he’d expected her to come out with, this hadn’t been one of them. “What do you mean, knowing what you are? You’re a beautiful, fearless woman who knows how to kick ass. Why would any of that bother me? Is there some other aspect to your shifter nature you haven’t told me about yet? Do you get all furry during a full moon and shed all over the couch?”
Eden laughed and shook her head. “No, I don’t get furry, thank God. And as far as other aspects of my shifter nature, you’ve seen the obvious stuff. I can run fast and jump from heights regular humans can’t. And as you probably figured out when I was fighting that other shifter, I’m pretty strong for my size.”
Yeah, he’d definitely figured that out. “What about the not-so-obvious stuff?”
“Well, I heal from wounds quickly. I can see in the dark. And I can hear a person’s heart beating from across the room. But none of those things really matter that much. For most people who learn my secret, it’s all about the claws and fangs.” She gave him a sad smile. “Those are the things that tend to freak them out.”
Damn. He couldn’t believe Eden was insecure about her unique gifts, especially since she was so amazing. Although, now he thought about it, he supposed it wasn’t so difficult to believe. It had to suck not being able to tell anyone about a secret like the one she was carrying around. Hell, she hadn’t even told her family. And while society as a whole liked to think they were accepting of those who were different, there were people in the world who’d treat Eden like shit. The thought alone was enough to piss the hell out of him.
“You know what?” he said. “If your claws and fangs freak people out, screw ’em. They’re stupid and you don’t need them.”
She eyed him skeptically. “So, you’re telling me that my claws and fangs don’t bother you even a little?”
Travis took Eden’s hand and pulled her out of her seat then tugged her forward until she was sitting astride his thighs. “Your claws and fangs don’t bother me even a little. Is that so hard to believe?”
She wiggled until she got comfortable in his lap then draped her arms around his neck. Her gyrating went a long way toward making him uncomfortable, but he’d survive.
“Actually, it is a little hard to believe,” she admitted softly. “You’re the first man who has ever kissed me after knowing what I look like when I shift. The only other people who even know what I am are the people I work with and most of them never look at me the same after the fact.”
He grasped her hips and tugged her higher up on his lap until she was pressing against his hard-on. “I’m looking at you the same.” He slid his hand in her long, dark hair. “And if you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m interested in doing a lot more than kissing you.”
Eden’s lips curved into a sexy smile. “I noticed. Kind of hard not to.” She rotated her hips, grinding against him and doing crazy things to his cock. “Is all of that for me?”
“And then some.”
Tightening his hand in her hair, Travis tugged her forward for a kiss. He wasn’t sure if it was her shifter nature or because he’d simply never kissed a woman this beautiful before, but either way, Eden’s tongue was sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted. And if she was worried earlier about whether he was seriously into her, she must have figured out just how into her he was because now she didn’t hold back. She grabbed a handful of his hair, letting out what sure sounded like a purr as she kissed him.
The hand he had on her hip took it upon itself to reach around to grab her ass. Her curves flexed teasingly beneath his fingers as she did her little wiggle dance on his lap. She had one tight ass, that was for sure, and he couldn’t wait to see it without all these damn clothes getting in the way.
Travis groaned and yanked her against him even harder, but Eden didn’t seem to mind. She simply moaned softly and lifted her feet from the floor to hook them around the back of the chair, pressing every ounce of her weight completely down on him.
Suddenly, she lifted her head to look at him, her breathing ragged, a hungry expression on her face, her eyes glowing a clear, vivid green that shone bright even in the well-lit room. His gaze traveled down to her lips, and he saw that her fangs were peeking out. They must do that when she got aroused. And they were damn sexy, just like the rest of her.
Eden leaned closer until her forehead was pressed to his, her beautiful green eyes mere inches away from his.
“Are you completely sure you’re okay with this?” she whispered.
She was testing him, he realized, trying to see if he’d get squeamish at the last second. He slipped the hand he had in her hair along her jaw to cup her chin, pulling her down to kiss her softly and carefully. He might think her fangs were sexy, but he was also smart enough to recognize they were sharp. A little danger added spice to the bedroom. A trip to the emergency room, not so much.
He gently ran his tongue over the tips of her fangs, feeling a little quiver of excitement pass through her as he did. He groaned in appreciation, wanting to make sure Eden knew how much he was enjoying it, too.
Travis pushed up the bottom of her T-shirt and was moving up her perfectly toned stomach when Eden’s cell phone rang.
She pulled her mouth away from his with a growl of frustration. “I’d better get that. It could be Kendra.”
She twisted around on his lap—practically killing him in the process—and snatched the phone off the table. “Hey, Emily. Everything okay?”
Travis stopped toying with the buttons on Eden’s jeans when he felt her tense. A moment later, she frowned.
“Emily, calm down,” she said. “I’ll be over there in a few minutes. Just don’t do anything crazy until I get to your place, okay?”
Travis tensed, too. He’d only heard Eden’s end of the conversation, but it didn’t sound good.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when she hung up.
She ran her hand through her hair. “I’m not sure. I’m hoping this is pre-wedding jitters, but Emily is in full-on freak-out mode about marrying Brandon. I’m sorry to put this,” she pointed down between their bodies, “on hold, but I need to go talk to her.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as Eden climbed off. “Something tells me this” —he pointed down at the bulge in his jeans— “isn’t going anywhere for a while.”
She smiled and leaned over to pick up her phone, giving him a
quick kiss at the same time. “Good. A girl likes to know she’s wanted.”
Oh, he definitely wanted her.
Eden darted for her car the moment they got to the parking lot, giving him a wave and saying she’d call as soon as she could. Then she jumped in her car and sped away like a whirlwind.
It was a pretty apt description, he supposed. She certainly had blown into his life out of nowhere and tossed him around like nothing he’d ever felt. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be leaving him lying on the ground afterward with a mouth full of dirt for his troubles.
CHAPTER FIVE
“ALL YOU HAVE is vanilla and chocolate?” Eden asked as she opened Emily’s freezer and perused the boring selection of ice cream inside. With all the flavors available in the world, why would anyone bother to buy those two? Chocolate was what you gave to five-year-olds, and vanilla was like a give-up flavor. It wasn’t even a flavor. It was the absence of flavor.
When Emily didn’t answer, Eden turned around. Her sister was sitting at the small table in her kitchen, poking at her bowl of chocolate ice cream with a spoon like she was trying to torture it.
Okay, maybe this was more serious than Eden thought.
When Emily called saying she wanted to call off the wedding, Eden had been sure it was some kind of crazy pre-wedding jitters. Eden didn’t have any personal experience with the subject. She’d never had to deal with a relationship longer than a few months, much less one serious enough for marriage to become a topic of conversation, but she understood the concept. More importantly, she understood her sister.
Sighing, she grabbed the vanilla ice cream and a bowl from the cabinet, scooped out enough to fill half of it, then stuck the container in the freezer and plunked down in the chair across from her sister.
“Okay, what’s wrong?” Eden asked.
When Emily still didn’t say anything, Eden started to think she might have to pry the information out of her sister with a crowbar.
Emily was two years younger than her, but they’d been close since they were kids. While a lot of Eden’s friends had hated their younger siblings hanging around, she’d never felt like that. They were and always had been friends as well as sisters. True, it was harder to stay in touch now that Eden worked for the DCO and Emily had a job working in the finance department at the Naval Operation Center in Norfolk, but Eden still liked to think they could talk to each other about anything. Well, not the whole shifter thing, of course, or what Eden did for a living, but everything else. She hated seeing Emily so withdrawn. It wasn’t like her.
“Emily?” she prompted softly.
Emily looked at her, her blue eyes glistening with tears. “What if I’m making a mistake?”
Eden pushed both bowls of ice cream aside then reached out to take Emily’s hands in hers. “About marrying Brandon? Why would you think that?”
Did her sister’s sudden doubts about her future husband have anything to do with what happened outside the restaurant the other night? Had Emily learned something to make her think her fiancé was involved in something bad enough to get him targeted by the kind of people who’d been in that alley? Kendra had been so sure Brandon was clean and that the whole fight had been about Tim’s gambling debt. Hell, Eden had figured that was probably the deal, too. Maybe they were both wrong.
“How do you know if the person you’re with is the right one?” Emily looked down at their clasped hands then back up at Eden. The look of panic in her sister’s eyes nearly tore out her heart. “How can I be sure Brandon is the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with?”
“Emily, why are you even asking something like that? Did he say or do something to make you doubt him?”
Emily shook her head, the tears that had been gathering in her eyes running over and spilling down her cheeks. “No. Yes. I don’t know.”
“Honey, what do you mean?” Eden asked.
Emily had been completely in love with Brandon since she’d met him. If something had changed that, it had to be serious. Eden didn’t know if this had anything to do with the wolf shifter and his pals, but if Brandon had done something to hurt Emily, Eden would go straight to his apartment and claw his balls off.
Emily pulled her hands free and tried to wipe the tears away, but more took their place. After a bit, she gave up. “It’s nothing, really. Stupid even. But after the thing that happened at the rehearsal dinner…”
Eden’s stomach dropped. “What about it?”
“Brandon said it wasn’t a big deal, but I can tell it’s bothering him. He’s been unusually quiet since it happened, and today at the country club, it was like he was a million miles away. Whenever I ask him what’s wrong, he shuts me out and tells me it’s nothing.”
Eden started breathing again. Okay, maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. Brandon’s reluctance to open up and share would be a problem if he were a woman. But Eden worked with enough alpha males to know few of them loved to sit around and talk about their feelings. Most of them would rather scrape off their skin with a rusty spoon than share anything deep and meaningful with their significant other. Brandon had gotten his ass handed to him out there behind the restaurant, and Eden doubted he was thrilled a random stranger and his fiancée’s sister had to rush to his rescue. His silence might be nothing more than wounded pride.
“Maybe he’s simply being a guy?” Eden suggested. “You know they don’t like to talk about stuff like that.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I don’t know him nearly as well as I thought I did.” Emily let out a frustrated sigh. “We’ve been seeing each other for over a year and a half, but do you know how much time we’ve really been together? With all his temporary duty trips, plus that four-month float he and Tim went out on to certify that new ship, we’ve really only been together about nine months. Can you honestly get to know a man well enough in nine months to decide if you want to marry him?”
Eden almost laughed with relief. This was sounding less about Brandon being involved with something shady and more about her sister having too much time to think right before the wedding. She shouldn’t be surprised. Emily had always been the analytical thinker of the family. When she encountered a problem, she dissected the heck out of it and tried to analyze her way to the perfect solution. Now, she was actually counting the number of days she and Brandon had spent together, as if that meant anything. Emily was getting nervous and had fallen back on her old ways, trying to use her head instead of her heart to make sure she was doing the right thing.
While Eden was never going to be a poster child for Match.com, she was smart enough about romance to realize you had to go with your instincts when it came to love. And instincts were one thing she definitely knew.
“Emily, what’s Brandon’s favorite color?”
Her sister looked confused. “Blue, but why does that matter?”
Eden ignored the question. “And what’s his favorite food?”
“Pizza.”
“Favorite Beer?”
“Miller Genuine Draft.”
Eden hit her with about a dozen more questions, everything from Brandon’s favorite pro sports team to the names of his parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, even his childhood pets. Emily never had to hesitate before answering any of them.
“Okay, last one,” she said, holding up a finger when Emily would have interrupted again. “This one is simple. If Brandon could retire right now, what would he want to do with his life?”
The corners of Emily’s mouth curved into a smile. “He’d want to buy a boat so the two of us could sail around the world together. He has a picture of his dream boat framed and up on the wall in the bedroom.”
Eden lifted a brow. “Seems to me you know your future husband pretty damn well. Better than some people who have been married for years.”
Emily regarded her in silence for a long time then nodded slowly. “I guess so. But if this isn’t about how well I know Brandon, why the hell am I feeling so freaked out all of a sudden?”
>
Eden took her hand again, giving it a squeeze. “Maybe it’s because your whole life is about to change. Even if it’s a change for the better, it’s still a big change. That’s enough to rattle anyone.”
Emily considered that. “Do you think I’ll be able to pull it off as well as Mom did?”
“Pull what off?” Eden asked, wondering if she’d missed a turn somewhere along the path of their conversation.
“Being able to keep a family going when Brandon is gone on fleet duty? Like Mom was able to do with us.”
Eden smiled. Something told her they’d accidentally stumbled over the real crux of her sister’s anxiety. Dad had been gone a lot when Eden and Emily had been growing up. Schooling, temporary travel assignments, ship deployments, you name it. There were times when she and her sister had felt like they didn’t even have a father, that their mother was raising them all on her own.
And Mom had been amazing. Even as a kid, Eden had recognized Mom was like a force of nature as she dealt with all the problems that came along with being married to a man in the military. Mom had handled their moves back and forth across the country, gotten her daughters in and out of schools, kept her husband’s military career on track, and somehow found time and energy to always be there, not just for them but also for the families of friends and relatives. Eden didn’t think she could ever handle that kind of responsibility.
Apparently, Emily was having those same doubts. Eden could understand why. Her sister wasn’t simply marrying a guy in the military. She was marrying into a way of life that put a lot of burdens on a newly married couple.
“Of course, you’re going to be able to do it,” Eden told her. “It’s going to be hard, and you’re probably going to be scared to death you’re going to screw everything up. You’ll do some things differently than Mom did. You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from them. But ultimately, you’ll raise your own family just as well as Mom did. And you know why?”
“Why?” Emily asked, looking almost amused now.
“Because you and Brandon love each other.”
