Soren shook his head, chuckling lowly.
Convince her to come home with you. Soren had replied.
Because Aedan was not a full member of the Pride and because he needed protection for that reason, he had moved into Soren’s home. The closeness was a cause of both friction and muted intrigue between them. Both Alphas, they had had to work out a system to give each other the space each required. Their quarters would become much closer assuming she agreed to their proposition.
What’s her name, by the way?
That information hadn’t been included in her profile nor had his name been given to her, which made it easier to send Aedan in his stead. The less they lied to her, the better, Soren thought. She would be in for enough shocks soon enough. The more of the truth they kept from her, the harder it would be to convince her. The fact that Aedan had read something in her demeanor that suggested that she had gone to the site as a cure for romantic boredom was promising.
Nina. And she’s still skittish. I think she’s afraid I’m an axe murderer, in spite of my ample charms.
Soren groaned. He wanted to see her, wanted to scent her for himself. It would be so much easier if he could meet her in his own space, if he could be introduced as Aedan’s roommate instead of setting up a separate meeting and confusing the issue further.
Do what you can. I believe in your filthy Irish tongue.
Soren put his phone down, gritting his teeth. He felt a brief rush of jealousy. The woman he had marked—the woman he had selected—was, right now, being subjected to Aedan’s easygoing charm. The thought of it rankled the proud Alpha male but he had told himself firmly, over and over again, he would have to think differently. The expediency of sharing a woman with another Alpha, even if Aedan would not be the Alpha, would mean he would have to adjust the possessive nature he instinctively felt.
You don’t even know if you’re going to like her. Maybe you’ll hate her and poor Aedan will just have to find another girl to charm. Not that he’d find that hard, thought Soren. But Soren told himself firmly that if they had to move on to another candidate, he was going to damned well be the one to meet her first; he wasn’t going to allow Aedan to blow another girl away with his lilting Irish voice and rugged handsomeness and risk her being less impressed by him.
A few minutes later, Soren’s phone buzzed, vibrating against the coffee table imperiously.
She’s coming with me. Curious and wary. Someone ought to tell her to stop acting like prey. I’ll be lucky if I don’t make her crash, making a pass at her. She’s driving. Feels more comfortable that way, method of escape and all.
Soren shook his head, laughing in spite of his irritation. He could imagine it in his mind vividly: the sidling, wary behavior that Nina was doubtlessly showing, Aedan’s soothing behavior to counter it. She would be lucky indeed, Soren thought, if Aedan’s animal nature didn’t push him to take advantage of her before they ever reached the house.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nina wasn’t entirely sure why she felt apprehensive as she followed Aedan’s directions to his place. She also wasn’t sure why she was driving him in spite of the fact that the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. She had sent a text message to one of her friends, checking in and telling her she was going home with a guy, the standard procedure. If she didn’t check back in before midnight, Kelly would call her, and if she didn’t answer, Kelly would do the right thing and ask the cops to find her. Nina knew the police probably wouldn’t move on the case until it was too late, but it was the only recourse she had.
Should have had him give me the address before we left, she thought ruefully, glancing over at him. But he was gorgeous, and he had seemed so charming and interesting. And yet, the news was full of stories of seemingly-charming men who turned out to be rapists and murderers.
“You can relax, love,” Aedan said, smiling slightly. “I’m not going to get you alone and kill you.” He leaned in and Nina breathed in instinctively, catching the scent of something she couldn’t quite identify, some cologne or soap fragrance, but it somehow put her at ease, in spite of her suspicious thoughts.
“I’m not exactly sure I understand how I ended up driving us back to your place,” Nina said, looking around, trying to commit landmarks to memory just in case she needed to flee quickly.
Aedan only chuckled. “You don’t remember? You told me you weren’t scared of anything, and I dared you to come home with me to prove it.” Nina flashed him a sulky look.
“You know, that’s not exactly a fair or honest way to get a girl to come home with you.”
Aedan grinned and leaned in closer. Nina stopped at a red light, and he closed the distance between them completely, his lips brushing against hers. He barely kissed her at first—the contact was as light as a feather—but he quickly deepened it, making a noise that sounded oddly like a purr, but bigger, somewhere between a purr, a growl, and a moan.
The light changed to green just as Nina was beginning to relax into the kiss. Aedan wrenched himself away from her quickly, sitting back in the passenger seat. Nina felt the heat in her cheeks, and her heart beating, body tingling, and almost cursed with frustration. The man in the car with her was entirely too clever, entirely too attractive, and definitely too charming. She would need to be more careful; he could talk her into almost anything. Nina liked to believe that she had some kind of control.
Really, even if he turns out to be a sadist, imagine the look on your friends’ faces if you can convince him to show up with you at a party, she thought. Nina pressed her lips together, making a right turn at Aedan’s instruction. You’re not doing this just to show off a hot guy in front of your friends. If he’s an asshole, who wants to hurt you, you run the hell away.
They pulled onto a sparsely-populated residential road. Nina had to admit it was impressive. The houses were separated by a few acres of land each, all of them well-lit, all of them impressive feats of classic architecture. In the dark, she couldn’t see the extent of the landscaping but Nina thought to herself that it was probably just as incredible.
“Third house on the right,” Aedan told her.
Nina’s thoughts wavered between the observation that the house was fairly remote and the counterpoint that the house in question was very nice indeed. She pulled into the driveway and tried to calm her apprehensions. As she approached the house, a security light flicked on, bathing the front yard with yellow-white light.
“This is your house?”
Aedan shrugged, grinning indolently. “It’s where I live,” he corrected her.
Nina put the car in park and looked around for a long moment. She couldn’t see the edges of the property but the slice of lawn and garden visible in the security floodlight was promising.
Aedan took advantage of her pause to lean in and kiss her again, his hands dancing along the curves of her body. “Come on inside, I’ll make you some tea and we can talk about things a bit more privately.”
Nina suppressed her apprehension, maybe he really did want to talk. If his requirements were as specific as he’d suggested at the café, he would probably not want to discuss them publicly. She wondered just what character his ‘specific’ requirements bore that he couldn’t easily hope to fulfill in the course of meeting people the normal way. You’re the one who signed up for the matchmaker site, Nina. It’s not like you can judge someone else for doing the same thing.
Aedan took her hand in his as she stepped out of the car, leading her up a stone and gravel pathway to the front door. He took a set of keys out of his pocket and gave her another quick smile before he unlocked the door and turned the knob, pulling it open and gesturing for her to precede him into the house.
Nina blinked a few times, glancing around the living room and taking it in. The house wasn’t enormous but it was comfortably luxurious and furniture that seemed solid and cozy. Aedan closed the door behind them and Nina felt another frisson of fear as she heard the locks slide and thunk into place.
“Even in a neighborhood as good as this one,” he said with a little smile, “it’s a good idea to lock your doors.”
Nina nodded, licking her lips. “Didn’t you promise me a cup of tea?” She swallowed against the dry feeling in her throat.
Part of her wanted, almost needed, to see if Aedan really wanted to do more than just have tea and talk to her. She wanted to know what he looked like naked, if his body was as beautiful as the perfectly-fitted clothes had hinted at. She wanted him to kiss her again. She wanted to see if he was any good in bed. Her cheeks burned and she swallowed again, taking a deep breath as surreptitiously as she could.
Aedan smiled as if he knew exactly what was going on in her mind and pulled her into his arms, giving her a quick, hungry kiss as he crushed her against him. Nina could feel the heat of him, he was hotter to the touch than any other man she had ever been with, and the hardness of his muscles rippled slightly as his hands began to move over her body with obvious intent.
All at once, Aedan broke away from her lips and led her over to the couch, pushing her gently to sit down. “I’ll be right back with tea for you, love,” he said, his dark eyes flashing with a mixture of amusement and lust that Nina could read as easily as a large-print book.
He retreated in the direction of what Nina assumed must be the kitchen. She sat back against the cushions, taking a slow, deep breath to attempt to clear her head. He could be going into the kitchen only to come back with a knife to threaten her with, she thought bleakly. He could be putting some kind of drug into her tea. She shook her thoughts aside. Aedan hadn’t exactly lit up her internal “creep” alarms. Even if he had made her apprehensive, it wasn’t because she had registered any kind of bad intention from him. But more so that while they had talked for two hours, and Aedan had been candid as anyone she had ever met, she felt as though she hadn’t learned anything about him or what he wanted in a woman.
Nina was so lost in her thoughts that she barely paid attention to the faint sounds coming from the kitchen. When Aedan reappeared a few moments later, a cup of tea in his hands, Nina was almost startled.
“That felt really fast,” she said, licking her lips and sitting up straight.
“Thinking about how much you’d like me to pick you up and carry you into the bedroom and have my way with you?”
Nina’s eyes widened, and then she frowned. “I don’t put out on the first date,” she said primly, accepting the cup of tea from him.
Aedan laughed. “It’s not precisely a date, you know, it’s a bargaining session. Negotiation. Now, why don’t I tell you my terms and you can tell me whether they suit you.”
Nina sipped carefully at the tea. It was faintly minty with something she couldn’t quite identify the taste of underneath, sweetened perfectly and oddly refreshing for its heat.
“Go ahead,” she said, setting the hot drink down on the coffee table in front of her. Aedan sat down in a wingback chair, looking at her for a long moment.
“I suppose I should get the biggest part out of the way first,” he said seriously. Nina saw his gaze shift off to the side and Aedan licked his lips, taking a quick breath. “You wouldn’t only be my wife.”
Nina stared at him in shock, for a moment completely unable to process the words that had left his lips. As she sat there, silent and staring, she caught movement in her peripheral vision: a man had walked into the living room. Nina’s gaze fell on him numbly. He was not quite as tall or muscular as Aedan, but Nina’s first impression of him, filtering through her shock, was that if she hadn’t met Aedan, she never would have thought to compare the two men.
The second man was slim, with short hair in soft, messy spikes standing up around his head. His features were sharper, finer than Aedan’s, but between the big, bright blue eyes and the full lips, he was—in a different way—every bit as easy on the eyes as Aedan was. The man sat down in the second wingback chair across the coffee table from her. There was the same air of confidence, the same kind of commanding charisma Aedan had charmed her with.
“It’s good to meet you, Nina,” the second man said.
“Okay,” Nina said, finally processing the words Aedan had said moments before. “What’s this about not only being someone’s wife?” She glanced from one man to the other, her heart beating faster.
The second man glanced at Aedan for just a moment. “Nina, this is Soren, a good friend of mine. He was the one who actually got the account with the site. Sort of the brains and bankroll behind this operation.”
Nina shook her head, not quite able to understand what the man was explaining to her. “So you—” she pointed at Soren, “got the account, but you—” Nina gestured to Aedan, “were the one who actually came to meet me?”
Both men nodded. “Aedan and I both have…an issue, and some specific needs, that led to finding a mate this way.”
Nina took a deep breath and shook her head again. Of all of the scenarios she thought of, being the wife of two men at the same time had not made the list. “Isn’t it illegal to be married to two people at the same time?”
Aedan smiled slightly. “Well technically you wouldn’t be legally married to us, but the… order we belong to would recognize you as belonging to both of us.”
Nina felt a cold shiver work its way down her spine. “The order you belong to? This isn’t some kind of crazy religious cult, right? Oh, god, of course it is.” She started to stand. “Look, guys, I’m sure you’re both really nice and I can see you’re both really good looking, but… I am not interested in joining a cult.”
Soren laughed. “It’s not a cult. There’s nothing religious about it. It’s just a group we both belong to—well, Aedan provisionally. He can’t join unless he has a mate.”
Nina glanced at Aedan, remembering what he said during their conversation about not being able to stay in the area unless he found a spouse. She had assumed he meant his citizenship was in question.
“So Aedan needs a wife to stay in your—group.” Both men nodded. Nina licked her lips. “Where do you come into this?” she asked Soren pointedly.
Soren took a breath and it occurred to Nina that the two men were just as nervous as she was, though they were doing a slightly better job of covering it. “I also have to have a mate. I’m the leader of our group, and that can come into question if I’m not paired off with someone.”
Nina’s mouth opened and shut and re-opened again but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. She had no idea what to say. She sat back down heavily, pressing her cool hands to her hot forehead. “I feel like I’m going insane,” she said, not looking at either man. She licked her lips; she could taste the lingering flavor of the tea that Aedan brought her on her lips. Once more she opened her mouth to speak but found that she had no words.
“It’s a lot to take in,” Soren said. Nina looked up to meet his gaze. “I totally get that. It probably would’ve been easier for you if we’d been up front but I’m sure you can understand why we’d wait to make sure you at least liked one of us before you decided against it completely.”
Nina reached out and picked up the cup of tea she had nearly forgotten in the shock of what Aedan and Soren had said. She took a cautious sip, it was still ever so slightly too hot for her to really drink but she felt the need to do something with her hands, with her mouth.
Two gorgeous men were interested in her; they wanted to share her. On the one hand, it was incredibly flattering. On the other, it was completely and totally bizarre. Nina opened and closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly.
“Listen, love,” Aedan said. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “Think of it this way: with two men in your life, you’ll never get bored of us. Whatever sexual thrills you dream up, one of us is bound to be into it. Soren’s got a comfortable income, I’m not doing terribly, you could work or not, just as you please.”
Nina set the cup down again, her hands feeling numb, her face burning up with the depth of her blushing. “But—I mean—you… you want to sha
re me.” Nina glanced at Soren. “I haven’t even gotten to know you at all!”
Soren chuckled slightly. “Well it was me sending the messages, so you know me a little.”
Nina frowned. “I can’t believe you’re laughing at me! If two women came to you and wanted to share you—just—just out of the blue, no warning, just ‘hey, so you know how you were going to be my husband? Well I’m going to share you with this other woman.’ Wouldn’t you be shocked?”
“I’d be thrilled,” Aedan said, smiling impishly.
Nina stood up, her embarrassment and shock transforming in an instant to anger and fear. “I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but it’s fucking cruel and messed up,” she said. “I am not going to be part of some stupid cult that wants me to be married to two men at the same time. It’s sick. You could at least act like it’s not funny that I’m pissed off by this.” Nina could see the amusement on the two men’s faces, mingling with the arousal in their eyes. She let out an irritated squeal. “You know what? I knew this was a mistake. I knew it the minute I agreed to come here. You’re both assholes.” She turned on her heel and stormed to the front door, hurt and angry and confused, determined to not only leave immediately, but also report the two men, delete her profile, and have done with the site forever.
She gasped as Soren abruptly blocked her path to the door. How the hell did he move so fast? Nina checked, taking a staggering step backwards. Immediately, strong arms wound around her waist, holding her tightly against a muscular body. “I’m afraid I can’t let you leave until you calm down, love, neither of us can.”
Nina’s anger flared up, subsuming her sense of hurt and betrayal and confusion completely. She struggled in Aedan’s arms, kicking out with her feet, squirming, scratching wherever she could dig her nails in.
Instead of fighting her back or trying to force her, the tall, muscular man laughed. “Oh, Soren, we have to convince her,” he said, his voice full of desire and amusement.
The Lion's Shared Bride Page 3
