“Dad sent us to baby-sit,” Seamus said with a grin.
“And to keep you away from the phone,” Simon added.
“I should be irritated but I’m going stir-crazy,” she told them. “Get your asses in here.”
“We thought we’d head over to the Den. Get you drunk. Take advantage of you,” Seamus said as they stepped past her into the living room.
Simon smacked his brother on the back of the head. “Everything he said except for the taking advantage part. We’ll be on our best behavior.”
“Damn right, you will.” She headed into the office that housed her clothes closet. “Anna would geld you, sons or not.”
* * *
Thomas had spent the better part of an hour interrogating his staff about Juliana’s habits, what she did and who she did it with, but all of his questions had yielded little of any help. Whether it was an intentional unwillingness to share information about her or they really didn’t know, he had no idea. Mind reading was not one of his many abilities.
Of course, his bride should be the one exception, the one being he should be able to feel every nuance of emotion from and she continually denied him. Despite the wall she kept erected against his intrusion, he checked several times a day hoping she’d left a crack, an opening he could get through. He resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair in frustration. She pushed him to the edge of sanity, but he’d be banished to the bowels of the underworld before he’d let his underlings see it.
The door to the club opened and he looked up with a frown, knowing he’d locked it before he started talking to the employees. There she was, his irksome life mate. His fangs pressed against his gums as he took in the expanse of pale flesh not covered by her tight blue jeans and silver tank top. She’d always shattered his control, made him feel like a youngling just turned. Then his eyes went to her accessories. On each arm she had one of the matched set of troglodytes from the waiting room at the Agency.
He swallowed the growl that rose in his throat and clenched his teeth. He locked gazes with them, issuing a silent warning that the woman they were with was his. One of them understood, looked away with a slight nod. The other...well, the other was incredibly stupid or cared little for the longevity of his pathetic life. He not only didn’t drop his gaze, he smirked. Smirked as if he knew exactly how much Juliana touching his arm bothered Thomas and didn’t care. If Thomas didn’t know any better, he’d think he was being dared.
And there wasn’t a cursed thing he could do about it. Not now, not in front of her. She would never forgive him, and any progress he’d made since he returned would be lost. But she wouldn’t always be there. And with his resources Thomas could find anyone. It probably wouldn’t even be that hard. He gave into the smile that tugged his lips at the thought.
* * *
“Hello, everyone,” Juliana said to break the oppressive silence that descended when she stepped through the door of the Den, the twins in tow. She steered the boys across the floor, doing her best to ignore Thomas. He stood watching them, fury burning in his eyes. She squashed her initial impulse to drag her companions out the door and away from that fiery gaze. She’d tango with a troll before she let that man run her off. There was no way she’d give him the satisfaction.
Doing her best to ignore Thomas despite the weight of his gaze, she settled the twins at her favorite table and made her way to the DJ booth. Ricky grinned from ear to ear, his pointed teeth flashing. His aquamarine hair boasted purple tips this week. “Greetings, my favorite Walker.”
His normal greeting made her smile. She was the only Walker he knew. “How are you? It’s been a while,” she said.
“You haven’t been here in ages. I was starting to take it personal.”
She shrugged, but said nothing. He knew her absence on the weekends had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the crowds that swarmed to hear his set.
He eyed the group at the bar. “Don’t know that I like having the boss around. Other than that I can’t say you’ve missed much around here.” He studied her for a moment. “He made everyone come in early. All he’s done is interrogate us about you. I finally told him I had to get set up and ducked out.”
“And what exactly was it that Thomas Kendrick wanted to know about me?”
He pursed his lips. “You picked a good night to bring the twins, I’ll say that. He wanted a recitation of your habits, when you came in, what you drank. Who you drank it with.” His eyes watched her as he said the last.
Her jaw ached and she forced herself to unclench her teeth. So he asked about her. He’d been gone a long time, he was bound to be curious about her life. Of course, he could have asked her, but she supposed that would be too much trouble when he could pry the information out of his minions. “And what did everyone say?”
“The truth. That you came in when you felt like it, drank what you were in the mood for and drank it with whomever amused you most.”
Her laughter caught Thomas’s attention. Their eyes locked. After a moment she looked away and let her eyes run over him. She told herself it was anxiety that made her pulse race, her breath quicken. It was a lie. Thomas wore tight jeans with a black T-shirt. A sapphire-colored silk shirt hung open over the top of it. Amusement flashed through his eyes at her blatant appreciation. She shrugged and turned away. She never said he wasn’t pretty, she merely said she didn’t want him around.
Ricky’s lips twitched. “Maybe I should have told him you sit alone and pine for him every night over your scotch.”
“Very funny.” Pure panic shot through her at his words. If Thomas even suspected she missed him, she’d never get rid of him.
The bouncer unlocked the door to let in the crowd and Ricky smiled. “Showtime. Here, I’ll play the first one for you.”
“This is for our resident Walker,” he announced into the microphone. The familiar strains of a song about a wayward hunter blared from the system. She sashayed her way back to the table.
Seamus intercepted her when she went for a chair and pulled her into his lap. She giggled despite her efforts not to.
“The usual?” the waitress asked when she got to the table.
Juliana shook her head. “Simon here will have a rum and Coke, light on the rum. Seamus and I will have a very large pitcher of beer and a bottle of tequila. The good stuff. Salt and lime, please.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “I’ll put it on your tab.”
Normally, Juliana ordered scotch, rarely more than one glass and sometimes a beer. But tonight she was ready to forget. Forget about the arrogant vampire that broke her heart and watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking. And forget about her friend playing host to a demon. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to go after Nathaniel. The fact that she’d get herself killed if she went after him without being fully healed was the only thing that stopped her. Besides, she promised Jeremiah she wouldn’t go after him by herself and there was no one she was willing to put at that kind of risk. At least no one that was answering their cursed phone.
The waitress came back empty handed, her cheeks red. “I’m sorry, Jules. Mr. Kendrick says you’re going to have to come pick the order up yourself and sign for it if you want it on your tab.”
She was proud of herself for not snickering at the Mr. Kendrick bit. Please. “No worries, not your fault.” She patted Seamus’s leg. “Come on. You’re going to have to help. I can’t carry that on my own.” She’d left the sling at home, but her arm still wasn’t strong. It hadn’t been vanity that made her leave it behind, it was self-preservation. Wounded animals were easy prey.
Seamus lifted her off his lap and set her on the floor. They wove through the crowd to where the order waited at the end of the bar. She signed the slip next to it. Warm fingers wrapped around her wrist when she reached for the tray. She ran her gaze up the line of the long, lean arm and found herself looking into Thomas’s pale blue eyes. “Can I help you?”
“I want to talk to you
,” he said.
Of course he did. She thought about refusing. Thought about telling him where he could shove his conversation, but it wouldn’t do any good. He always got what he wanted in the end. She turned to Seamus. “Take this back to the table. I’ll be along in a minute.”
“You sure?” he asked, eyeing Thomas. When she nodded, he bent and kissed her lightly on the cheek before grabbing the tray and heading back to the table. She swore she heard him whistling as he walked away. She shook her head and turned back to Thomas to find him scowling.
“What is that?” He flicked a hand toward Seamus’s retreating form.
“That is a Seamus. But I gathered you already met.”
“If you could call it that.” His eyes narrowed. “He’s very protective of you.”
“Friends are like that. Besides, I think he was just offended by your arrogance. That tends to happen around you.”
“I am not arrogant.”
“You are exquisitely arrogant. Every movement of your body, every thought that crosses your mind screams that you will be obeyed by everyone below you. And that list includes the entire population of the planet and probably some of the outlying ones as well.”
He leaned toward her, his gaze intense. “You are mistaken, Joya. I never once thought you beneath me. Even when you were a child on the streets.”
He meant the words. She could tell and it made her uncomfortable, put her in a place where she wasn’t sure of her position. She handed him the slip for their order, leaned on the counter behind the bar and crossed her arms over her chest. He looked down. A muscle in his jaw twitched. She followed his gaze and saw Nathaniel’s claw marks a fresh, vivid pink against her pale skin. He stepped back and opened the little door behind him.
With a sigh, she walked into the storeroom. He followed and shut the door, locking it behind him before slipping the key in his pocket.
“That won’t work if you’re trying to keep me from leaving.”
He blinked at her. “It’s to keep them out, not you in.”
“What do you want, Thomas? My date is waiting.”
“Don’t call him that,” he snapped. He started pacing the floor. “A Walker, Juliana? Are you insane? What possibly could possess you to become a Walker?”
He wanted to talk about her profession? Fine. She could do that. She shrugged. “I’m good at it. Really good.” She might not have sought out her job, but the words were true. For the first time in her life, she’d found something she excelled at. Something that was hers.
He gestured to her arm with an upturned hand. “I can see that.”
He was so quick to tear her down. To assume she couldn’t do her job, that she wasn’t any good at it. He didn’t know anything about her and he was basing her ability on the one injury he could see. “I’d like to see how you fare against a demon-ridden werewolf.”
He turned to face her in slow motion. “A what?”
She stalked across the floor and stopped mere inches from him. “This is what I do, Thomas. Like it or not I don’t need your approval and I sure don’t need your permission.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in. “And setting your cursed Council on my ass won’t do anything except piss me off.”
Thomas grabbed her arms and pulled her against his chest, his mouth crushed into hers. His lips devoured her, demanding a response. Her body ignited, her will melting in the heat. As much as she hated herself for doing it, she leaned against him, opened her mouth, swept her tongue into his. He moaned, a guttural, primal sound and she couldn’t remember when she’d last heard anything so sweet. The kiss gentled as their tongues twined around each other in an intimate dance. One they still remembered all the steps to.
His hands slid from her arms and down her back, leaving a burning trail in their wake. With one swift motion, he grabbed her ass in both hands and pulled her against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Recalling how well they fit together, she rocked her hips against him. The pressure of his heavy heat against her core drew a gasp from her. Her face flamed but she was far from embarrassed.
At her sound of pleasure, the kiss became urgent once more. His long fingers dug into her backside, pressing her even tighter against him. The seam of her jeans rubbed against her, the pleasant pain making her want him that much more.
He released her lips to lay a trail of feather-light kisses from her mouth to her neck and played with the pulse point there. Teeth scraped skin and her heart skipped. He chuckled. “I’ve missed you so much, Joya. So very much.”
She started to tell him that she’d missed him too, to beg him never to leave her again. The thought reminded her why she was supposed to be resisting him. Why she didn’t want this no matter how much her body and her heart might argue with her. She twisted her head away, put her hands on his chest and pushed. He didn’t budge. “Let go.” She tried to sound firm, but didn’t know how convincing she could possibly be since she was still panting.
Her hands still lay flat against his chest, but she applied no pressure, waiting for him to do as she asked. After a moment, his hands fell away. She stepped back and turned from the confusion on his face. Her heart throbbed, begging her to return to her mate. Back to his arms where she belonged. Other parts of her were begging as well, but for reasons far less wholesome.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She shoved the churning emotions down, determined to ignore them. It wasn’t fair that she should feel guilty because of him. He was the one that left. “I can’t do this,” she said. “Not with you.”
* * *
“But you can with him?” Thomas hated the pain that threaded through his words. Never in his long life could he remember ever wishing he was anyone but himself. He’d wished it multiple times over the past few days. Every time she turned that smile on someone else, every time she laughed for them, every time he thought about her in someone else’s arms.
“Him?” she asked.
Were there so many she couldn’t narrow it down? “Yes, that giant whose lap you’ve been sitting on since you came in the door this evening.” And Michael. There was always the knowledge of Michael touching her, making her writhe with pleasure festering in the back of Thomas’s brain. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t hold it against them. That promise was becoming harder for him to keep the longer it took her to come back to him where she belonged.
She gripped the edge of a box, her back to him, her shoulders tight as she dropped her head. “You can’t just show up after seven years and step back into my life like you never left. It’s not fair.”
The fact she failed to answer the question didn’t escape his notice. “You have no idea how hard it was to walk away that day. To stay away.” Everything had been for her. So she could live the life she never could have tied to him. He may have hurt her when he left, but every day that went by without her reaching out to him had killed a little piece of him. He’d stayed away until he could bear it no longer and now that he’d returned she never ceased to remind him that she didn’t need him. Didn’t want him.
Finally she turned to face him and crossed her arms over her chest like a shield. “So why did you?”
“You wanted time. You asked for space. I gave it to you. I gave it to you in spades.” It had become a familiar refrain over the years and was far better than admitting the power she held over him. The power she could use against him.
“I was twenty years old. I hadn’t even had a day to adjust to the idea of us yet and you were talking about presenting me to the Council. About my new position in the coven. I was scared.”
Scared didn’t begin to cover it. She’d been terrified, the emotion so heavy in the air that day, it had been a palpable thing. That’s when he realized what he’d taken from her with his own selfish desire to have her tied to him for an eternity. When she asked for time, it gave him the opening he needed to give her a chance to live her life without him in it. Even if only temporarily.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath
then looked at him again. “You left me. You took everything from me.”
“I left everything for you. My money, my home, my coven. It’s all yours. It always has been.” He pushed both hands through his hair. “I gave you what you wanted. As much as it killed me to do it, I gave it to you. I only wanted you to be happy.”
“Yeah, my life’s been a regular carnival.” She sighed. “You just left me, Thomas. You left all of us. They assumed I was no longer under your protection. I assumed that. You left me alone under the authority of a vampire who resented my connection to you from the moment you brought me into the coven. There was no protection there for me. No home.”
“Always with the damn secrets,” he snapped. He took a moment to tamp down his temper before continuing. “What happened, Joya? What aren’t you telling me?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, Thomas. Not anymore. It’s done. And you weren’t there to stop it.”
Her words stabbed through his heart like a stake. He had failed her. He knew this now, but he didn’t know how to fix it. If he could fix it.
She stepped past him to the door and ran her fingers over the lock. “You abandoned me over some throwaway words. I can’t take the chance you’ll do it again.”
That wasn’t going to happen as he wasn’t ever leaving her again. “If I swore I wouldn’t?” When she didn’t respond, he placed his hand over hers on the knob. “Don’t answer me now. When you’re ready, we’ll talk. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ve got to get back to my friends,” she said. He hesitated then dropped his hand. She opened the door and walked out.
When the door shut behind her, he slumped against the box behind him and ran a hand over his face. His mind tried to make sense of just how everything in his life had gone to absolute crap. A few days ago he thought he had it all under control, that his actions had all been for the best. That his mate would see that and understand.
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