by JoAnna Grace
“Y-yeah, babe. I was on my way.” His eyes met hers and lit with recognition. He exhaled with visible relief. “You remember Kelsey, don’t you, honey?”
Ami turned her gaze on Kelsey and purposefully looked her up and down. The girl went pale. Clearly, Amilynn had made an impression. Good, thought her leopard. She plastered a huge smile on her face and stuck out her hand. “I do. Did you need something? Wait, were you in that group that wanted extra practice? I could fit you in for some one-on-one time?” Sugary sweetness dripped from her voice. “You’ll have to wait until I take care of my crash test dummy, though.” Ami laughed and ran her hands through Ezekiel’s hair and touched his cheek affectionately. “Poor baby, I think I really hurt you today. I don’t know my own strength sometimes.”
“You’ll take good care of me later.” Ezekiel winked at her, playing his part well. He dipped his head and gave Ami a quick peck on the lips. Then he turned his eyes to their audience. “What was it you needed, Kelsey?”
The girl shook her head and took a step backwards. “Nothing, nothing at all. Enjoy your lunch.” Her eyes stayed glued on Amilynn.
“You can join us,” Ami said.
“No!” Kelsey said, then laughed nervously. “No, I couldn’t intrude. I’ll see you around.” She practically ran off the back patio, not turning her back to Amilynn until the last second.
Ami held on to Ezekiel as they went inside and closed the door behind them. After a moment of eye contact, they both started laughing.
“I can’t believe you did that.” Ezekiel chuckled. “Kelsey nearly peed herself.”
“Persistent little thing, isn’t she?”
“Leeches.” He shook his head and rubbed his temple. “Thanks for bailing me out. They don’t understand subtle.”
“No problem.”
Cue the awkward silence and nervous foot twisting.
“Is there really food or was that just a ploy? I’m starving. Someone kicked my ass this morning.” Ezekiel rubbed the back of his neck and couldn’t quite meet her gaze.
“Lucky for you, my wonderful sister-in-law made sandwiches.” Ami went back to the kitchen where Mel set another plate at the bar for Ezekiel.
The two of them started talking while Ami ate her sandwich. She tried to follow along, but all she could think about was the way Ezekiel’s lips felt on hers, even if was only for a split second. She’d molded herself around him and, even though it was for Kelsey’s benefit, it felt good, natural. He was the perfect height for her. Not so tall that she would stare at his pecs when they danced, but not so short that she would look him in the eyes.
When we dance, not if? her leopard asked with a glimmer of hope. Ami groaned. Yeah, she was already giving in, little by little. But this dominant female wasn’t going down without a fight. If Ezekiel wanted to be a part of her life, if he wanted her to submit any part of her heart to him, he had to earn it.
“Ami?” Mel said, pulling her from her internal debate. “I asked what you were doing tonight?”
Mel and Ezekiel both looked at her quizzical expressions.
“Oh, sorry. I thought I would . . . go dancing.” Here was his chance. If Ezekiel was looking for an excuse to get up close and personal with her, here it was.
“Alone?” Melissa’s eyes darted to Ezekiel and back.
“Yeah, why not?”
“How about because you thought you saw Brian earlier this week? What if that wasn’t your imagination?” Mel’s fear was real, but Ezekiel stayed silent, his face pointed down towards his plate.
“I’ll be fine, Mel. I’ll go to one of the Pack’s clubs. Perfectly safe.” Ami shrugged her off. “I haven’t been to that Latin club in a while.”
“Ezekiel, tell her she can’t go out alone, not right now.” Melissa huffed and turned the full force of her glacier-blue eyes on him.
He opened his mouth twice before he shook his head. “It’s probably not the best idea for any Pride member to be outside the Packlands alone. But if anyone can take care of herself, it’s Ami. If she goes to a Pack-owned club, it should be fine.” His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared, a sign he was agitated. Ami had picked up on his nuances.
Man, what did it cost him to say that? To push aside that alpha personality and give Amilynn the room she needed to do her own thing. He was trying hard.
“But what about when she’s not in the club? Go with her, Z.”
“What?” Ami and Ezekiel said in unison.
“Take her and drive her home. You don’t have to go in the club, just make sure she gets to and from safely.”
“That’s not my call.” Ezekiel shook his head.
“Amilynn? Don’t make me get Ty involved.”
“Fine.” Ami threw up her hands. “I’d like to leave around eight.”
Ezekiel nodded, not looking at her. He thanked Melissa for lunch and placed his plate in the sink. Without a word to Ami, he left the kitchen.
Melissa smiled broadly and wiggled her brows. “Tell me I’m not sneaky.”
Ami laughed. Leave it to Melissa to finagle Ami and Z into a date.
Oh God. She was going on a date with Ezekiel. Her stomach instantly cramped up. “I think I’m going to go . . . I don’t know, run or something.”
“I happen to know that it’s very peaceful on the stage with the curtain closed. No one ever goes in there except for us.” Melissa winked at her. “There’s a radio by the piano.”
“You know me so well.” Amilynn hugged her sister-in-law and headed downstairs to the theatre. As soon as she stepped onto the glossy hardwood floors and into the cocoon of the red curtains along the front and back of the stage, she took a deep breath. She shifted to leopard and then quickly back to human, crafting ballet slippers on her feet. Ami plugged in her music player and turned it to her power ballads playlist. Then she closed her eyes and got lost in the music, letting all her stress and worries float away.
Ezekiel made it all the way back to his apartment and through his shower before he realized he had no clue what to wear to a Latin dance club. Usually, he didn’t care. But this was for Amilynn and if he had to dress up a bit, she was well worth the effort.
He found Melissa still in the kitchen, talking to Vivian. The two of them were laughing when he came in. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey yourself.” Vivian smiled at him, her hazel eyes full of mischief. “You and Ami put on quite a show today. Have fun?”
“Yeah, actually. I think your compadre broke my ribs, but what the hell.” The ladies both chuckled at him. “And thanks to Melissa, here, I have to accompany said warrior princess to a dance club.”
Vivian gave Melissa a grin.
Ezekiel continued. “And now you have to tell me if I’m supposed to dress fancy for this shit.”
Melissa hugged him around the waist. “Jeans and a nice shirt should be fine, sweetheart. No heavy boots.”
“Thanks. Anything else I should know? Like don’t step on her toes or she’ll gut me?”
“That’s a given,” Vivian said with a one-shouldered shrug. It was all in good fun, but he felt like there might be a hint of truth behind the joke.
“Great.” He rolled his eyes and headed downstairs to his apartment with Vivian and Melissa giggling behind him. At least someone was amused by his suffering.
He passed by the closed doors to the theatre and heard music. If his little brothers left the sound system on again, he was going to kill them. The music came from behind the closed curtain and he went around to the side of the stage.
The woman behind the curtain made his breath hitch. He slid into the shadows where he could watch. The song changed and a lovely smile crossed her face. She closed her eyes and slowly lifted her arms into the air, going up on the points of her toes.
Amilynn was a woman of many talents, as he discovered. Being more of the athletic type, Ezekiel hadn’t had too much exposure to ballet, but he recognized it for what it was. He never would’ve thought to mix ballet with a rock ballad. She did it effo
rtlessly. “When You Love Someone” played and Amilynn’s smooth movements and soft lines were the most elegant thing he’d ever seen. She cast a spell with each step, entrancing him and holding him in place. He was afraid to breathe, afraid it would break the magic.
This was a whole new side to his chosen mate. He’d seen the warrior, the seductress, the teacher, the stubborn ass. This? This was the angel, a part he assumed not too many had the pleasure of knowing. Observing her now, no one would believe her to be anything more than a genteel lady. She leapt, her legs extending in opposite directions, her arms over her head, and her back perfectly straight. It made his heart skip. She was amazing. The lyrics to the song were perfection. They told everything he wanted for them and more.
The melody of the song heightened, bringing the listener to that point of emotional precipice. Each drumbeat raised his pulse. Ami turned, her body fluidly spinning round and round, propelled by one powerful leg until he lost count of the rotations. She ended, just as the song did, in a graceful split, her hand slowly rising above her head, her face full of rapture so deep it brought him to his knees.
Ezekiel let out the breath he’d held and blinked rapidly to clear his eyes.
If he ever looked back on their courtship, retelling their story to their children or grandchildren, Ezekiel would say this was the moment he fell madly, hopelessly in love with Amilynn. He would tell of how he stood paralyzed by her beauty and talent and untamed spirit while she danced her way into every corner of his heart.
AT 7:58 THAT evening, Ezekiel waited in the living room for Ami to get dressed. When her bedroom door opened, he jumped to his feet, only to be knocked back down on the couch.
She was stunning beyond any words that the English language could describe. Her soft pink satin dress off set her bronzed skin. The halter top showed off just enough of her breasts to be sexy, but not enough to be scandalous. The dress flowed over her hips, the hemline ending high on one side, then swooping down to her ankles on the other. Silver heels adorned her feet, and he nearly choked as he followed the sleek lines of her legs back upward.
Something was different. Her hair wasn’t as light as it had been earlier and the hot pink streak was lighter to match her dress. The brown and red tones mixed in with blonde reminded him of her leopard. Bountiful waves fell about her shoulders and begged to be touched.
“You, ah, wow.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, hoping she wouldn’t notice how aroused he was. Over and over, he reminded himself that tonight wasn’t about sex. He had something to prove.
“You clean up nice.” Although her tone held little warmth, her heated eyes raked over him and he felt underdressed in comparison. His pressed red button-up and black slacks didn’t seem like enough. “I didn’t figure you would dress up since you’re just chauffeuring me around.”
“Yeah, well, even the help needs to dress appropriately.” He rocked backwards on his heels.
Her lips thinned into a suppressed smile. “Well, driver. Let’s go.”
Ezekiel wanted to bite those lips, nibble them, and taste them until he had his fill. Everything about her pleased him, even the way she fought tooth and nail in resistance.
His sports car sat in the driveway, shined and polished. He opened the door and helped her slide into the leather seats. Damn, she looked sexy in his car.
“For someone who was reluctant to come tonight,” she said as they drove away from the alpha house, “you put forth a lot of effort.”
“I think you would be surprised at how dedicated I can be once I set my mind to something.”
Ami’s laughter was low and held a twinge of bitterness. “I don’t doubt your abilities. Only your motives.”
He shifted gears and took a deep breath. “Let’s do something crazy tonight, shall we? Let’s call a truce. For tonight, let’s just try to be friends out on the town looking for trouble. Nothing more.”
From the corner of his eye, he could see her study him. After a moment, she answered, “Fine. Truce.” Her fingers drummed nervously against her thigh. “So where were the boys today? I didn’t see them after school or at dinner.”
“Study group at a friend’s house. They should be back about nine.”
Ami nodded. “Is Nate holding up the bet?”
Ezekiel scoffed. “Yeah, and he keeps moving the litter box to different bathrooms so I can’t find it, thank you very much. That’s the last damn time I’m betting against you.”
Her laughter called out his wolf, sang to him of her joy. “Never wager if you can’t win; that’s what I was taught.”
“I learned my lesson. Maybe he has too.” Ezekiel turned onto the interstate and headed into the city.
“No way; that little shit is trying to get a kiss out of me. If I ever lose to him, I’m so screwed. He’ll tell all his buddies and I’ll never hear the end of it.”
They shared a chuckle over Nate’s antics. Ezekiel’s brother was entertaining, if nothing else. At least they had the Mirrors to talk about. He wanted more, though; he wanted to get to know things about her.
“Is pink your favorite color or do you just like to wear it?”
“Both.”
“Any particular reason?”
Her brows dipped and she turned her face to the window. “My trainers back in Nevada didn’t let us wear bright colors. Only black, brown, and camo. I started wearing colorful undergarments as my own type of rebellion.” She smiled and looked over at him. “Pink, especially, because it’s so feminine and frilly. My trainer hated it. But it stuck.”
His first thought was to question how her trainer saw her undergarments, since he knew she’d worked with males. The answer was obvious and it burned in his belly. He assumed Ami had been promiscuous back then as well. He shook the thought and pushed away the jealousy. Tonight was their fresh start and he wasn’t about to ruin it. The past was gone and he had to keep it that way.
“This one time,” she said, again looking out the window, “I painted the guns of my entire unit hot green.” She laughed. “I had one trainer, the only female in the higher ranks, who thought it was funny. She commended me on getting past her since she was on guard that night. No one else appreciated it except a few of my friends. It was epic, though.”
“Did that begin your spree of pranks?”
“Yeah.” She smiled and glanced at him. “The punishment was always worth it.”
So much was buried beneath that statement. He could feel her memories floating between them. His leopardess had scars that he would never comprehend. It saddened him to think how different they were as people.
Ezekiel was raised in a stable home with parents who loved him and taught him how to be a moral and strong person. Uncle Kasey was a vital part of his development. He had taken Ezekiel under his wing at a young age, as soon as the family realized he might be alpha-born. Life was a breeze compared to the events Amilynn had lived through.
“You’re thinking too hard. Smoke is coming out of your ears,” Ami teased him. “What’s on your mind? Or will it breach the truce?”
“I was actually thinking how different we are.”
“Oh.” She turned her face to the window and he recognized it as her way to put distance between them. “Yeah.”
He spoke too soon, not thinking about how pointing out their differences might hurt her. Time to recover. “I mean, my favorite color is black. Black and pink look good together, though, I guess.”
Amilynn’s lips thinned into a tight smile. “Throw in some zebra print and you’ve got magic.”
“This is the real problem: I know you have a raging addiction to chocolate and I don’t like sweets.”
“What?” Ami’s mouth hung open and her eyes bugged out. “Are you even human?”
He openly laughed at her shock. Nate and Tom had informed him of Amilynn’s terrible sweet tooth. “I don’t. I understand if that’s a deal breaker, but if it helps, I like sour candies.”
“No Oreos? No brownies? No pudding? None of those lit
tle cakes with the frosting in the middle that are shaped like trees at Christmas?”
Her incredulous expression and high-pitched voice caused him to laugh harder. He shook his head.
“I work out simply so I can eat sweets. I knew there was something off about you. That’s a sign of mental illness, I’ll have you know. You’re one sick puppy.”
By the time he parked the car, Ezekiel was wiping tears from his eyes. Ami drilled him on every kind of candy and confectionary she could think of. He didn’t hate them, he just didn’t go out of his way to eat them.
“It makes sense,” she said as he held out a hand to help her out of the car. She stood and looked him in the eyes. “That’s why you’re so sour all the time. You need to get cake-laid.”
“Cake-laid?” he said. His face felt like it would split in half as widely as he was grinning.
“Yeah, you know how if a buddy gets grouchy, you tell him to go get laid? You need to get cake-laid. Every person should have cake at least once a week.”
“Once a week? Holy crap.” They walked arm in arm into the club. He wondered if she realized how easily they’d latched on to each other.
A line formed at the door, but Ezekiel walked right in, much to the aggravation of those waiting. Ah, the joys of being the owner’s nephew. The club pulsed with music. Unlike some of the other clubs in town, the focus of this place was the dancing. Women in tight, beaded dresses twirled around on the dance floor, guided by men shamelessly wearing far too much spandex and sequins.
“Amilynn!” A guy in a skintight suit waved them down. “I’m so glad to see you.” He kissed her cheeks and looked her up and down. “Incredible. We dance tonight, yes?”
Amilynn smiled and turned her attention to Ezekiel. “Jean, this is my, uh, friend, Ezekiel.”
“Oh, hello!” Jean shook Ezekiel’s hand with enthusiasm. “Lucky man, lucky man. You’ll be the envy of every man here.” Jean waved his arm in the air with enough flamboyance to set Ezekiel at ease. He was only interested in Ami for dancing.
