by Elsa Jade
Then she remembered and became angry. Why did her mother have to bring it up all the time? It was like being reminded that you’d had a crazy episode long after you’d recovered. That was how her mother made her feel about it. Like she was crazy for having the dream.
When she was almost twenty, Jax had finally gone to see a psychic. A fact her father didn’t have to bring up—thank you very much. She shouldn’t have told them anything about it, really. When would she ever learn?
The psychic had told her that her life would be tied to a tiger. A white tiger. That was all the psychic would say.
Maybe I’ll meet someone with a white tiger tattoo.
She felt a warmth on the back of her neck, and touched the spot where she had a tattoo. Nothing there.
Oh well.
She shrugged and looked at the time on the laptop’s monitor.
There was drool on the table. And on the side of her face. Ew. It was cooling, and left her with a nasty feeling on her cheek. She wiped it off with a beverage napkin.
Five thirty? She glanced out the full-length windows. Dawn was definitely on the way.
Oh, God. How had she fallen asleep sitting up? She glanced at the document on her computer, determined that it was as ready as it was going to get, and sent the assignment to her professor. Now she had a few hours before she had to meet her parents. She needed a nap. In a bed.
Ugh.
Scotty was probably still playing. Oh, well, she could close the door to the bedroom, and hopefully that would muffle enough of his noise.
She could smell herself. Oh, yeah, not just a nap, but a shower too. For sure.
Jax checked her sent folder to make sure the document had made its way out. She verified that it was there, closed the laptop, locked up, and began her trek home.
She unlocked the door with one thing on her mind, and only one thing. Her bed.
The first thing she noticed was the quiet. Completely silent. Scotty must have passed out early. She looked over the back of the couch and found it empty.
She went to the bedroom. Empty. The whole place was empty.
Then she saw it: his gaming system was gone. After that she noticed the still-open drawers in the dresser. They were all empty.
He’d moved out?
She was too tired and too over it—over everything—to feel anything but numb. She set the alarm clock on her bedside table and plopped onto the bed.
*
Jax ran into the hotel. She was a huffing, puffing mess, but at least she’d gotten a couple of hours of sleep and a shower. It was ten o’clock, right on the money.
Why do I still care so much if I’m a moment late? How can that bother me so much?
She wasn’t going to psychoanalyze her flaws and how she’d always failed her parents.
Her grades were Bs instead of As.
Her boyfriends were never the right kind.
Her hair was always the wrong color when she put highlights in it.
Her nails were too red, her laugh too loud, and her tattoos too plentiful. All she had was three. You’d have thought her entire body was covered in ink.
Her mother gave her a peck on the cheek. “Where’s Rafael?” was the first thing she asked.
Not “How are you?” or “Did you finish your paper?” Not anything else.
“Not here.” Jax fought to keep the hostility from her voice.
I will not compete with a stranger.
The wierdest question came to her mind. Maybe one day she would ask it. Do you love me? Or do you love me for what I can be that’s a reflection of you?
“Your dad’s nervous about getting to the ship on time.” Jax’s mother laughed, seeming a bit on edge. “We’re going to get a quick breakfast and then go that way.”
Her parents turned toward the front desk, talking to the attendant.
Jax felt him before she saw him. She felt him as a tingle that made its way over her skin the way a balmy breeze would. It was a warm sensation, comforting, but at the same time it had an electric charge that felt as if she’d put a vibrating dildo straight on her clit.
Shit. I did not just think that.
She felt the heat rising to her cheeks. What the hell? She was standing with her parents. She couldn’t think sexual thoughts around them.
Rafe.
A surge of adrenaline followed the tingle and drove through her like a locomotive. The adrenaline was more powerful than the time she’d gone swimming in the Gulf. She’d jumped off of the charter boat and was enjoying the warm water. And then…
Hell broke loose.
She saw two fins in the water. Big fins. Scary fins.
She couldn’t move fast enough, but at the same time in the back of her mind she kept thinking that somewhere she’d heard that splashing attracted sharks.
She remembered the way the adrenaline had made her feel.
That sensation had nothing on what she felt right now, seeing this man in the daylight. His hair coal black, as black as her own. His eyes a brilliant, mysterious dark blue.
A face that still belonged on a Greek god, even in the morning’s revealing light.
Ugh.
The morning’s revealing light.
She thought of her own face. The dark circles she’d seen there this morning when she’d stepped out of the shower.
“Sorry about the delay.” Rafe put his hand on the nape of her neck and pulled her close.
It felt like a stun gun had touched her when he put his fingers there.
He felt it too. She knew because his hand left her skin for just a moment. He jerked it back and looked at her.
Her parents were signing papers at the front desk and didn’t notice a thing.
Rafe pushed the hair on her neck aside. As much as Jax wanted to jerk away from him, she couldn’t.
Chapter Eleven
‡
Rafe stared. What else could he do? She had the head of a snarling white tiger tattooed on the back of her neck, hidden by her hair. The tiger’s eyes were a dark blue. And as eerie as it felt to admit it, the tiger resembled Rafe’s own.
Rafe’s tiger roared in his head, seeking affirmation from Rafe, chastising Rafe for questioning him. His tiger’s roar was like a physical blow; it sent him reeling, so strong and loud it reverberated in his head and made his bones feel like they were being strummed.
He thought of her mother and father and what they’d said about tattoos, tigers, and psychics the night before. He needed to talk to her. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Her parents would be gone anytime now. He wanted alone time with her. He needed some answers for him and for his tiger.
And stronger still was the need to feel her body against him. He wanted her flesh next to his body. He wanted her…
He wanted her. All of her.
She looked at him, her eyes mysterious depths.
“Oh, Rafael.” Beth put her hand on his arm. “Will you join us for breakfast?”
“Elizabeth, I don’t want to miss the cruise ship.” Major tapped his highly polished, probably spit-shined shoe.
Jax had a strained smile on her face.
“Major’s right.” Rafe agreed with her father, just to get them on the road. “You never know. It’s best to play it safe.” He looked at the bellhop. “A cab, please?”
“Certainly, Mr. Tiero.”
Rafe turned back to her parents. “I’d offer you a ride, but my car’s a two-seater.”
“Would you like to accompany us?” Beth looked hopeful.
Major frowned.
Jax looked like she was going to empty the contents of her stomach.
Rafe wasn’t about to inflict that on her. And he wasn’t particularly interested in it himself. “I have a meeting I can’t miss. Why don’t we make sure we spend some time together after you return to Rome?”
“Or never.” Jax’s murmur was so low that there was no way her parents would have heard it, but Rafe and his tiger did.
“Lovely.” Beth was practically sq
uealing.
Rafe took Jax’s hand—for show, he told himself, for her parents, for show—and the two of them accompanied her parents to the curb and saw them off.
As soon as her parents were gone, he turned to Jax. He wondered if the dark circles under her eyes were only due to the almost-all-nighter she’d pulled working on her assignment or if it had anything to do with her boyfriend leaving. He brushed the thought aside; that kind of thinking wasn’t going to resolve anything. She turned away from the departing cab, her hand dropping slowly, and looked at him with haunted eyes.
“Thank you.” She paused. “I think.”
“I thought I did pretty well.”
“Maybe too good.”
“How’s that?” He cocked his head, studying her.
“They’ll expect you to be here when they get back.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He gave her a sideways nod. “Let’s go somewhere else.”
“I don’t know. I need to get to my apartment. My boyfriend…”
*
Jax paused. Was she seriously going to say anything about Scotty? He had moved out. He had left her a note that said he had to go. That was it.
She hadn’t even had time to grieve, but truthfully, she wasn’t sure she wanted to grieve.
She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to celebrate.
He added no value to her life.
She looked at the drop-dead gorgeous stranger in front of her. It wasn’t like she was agreeing to marry him. Not that she would. She didn’t want anyone her parents liked.
Seems like you liked him just fine until you found out your parents do too.
She shut that inner voice up.
She did. She more than liked him. There was an inexplicable chemistry between them that whether she was tired, angry, or confused, she couldn’t deny.
He was watching her. Mouth set in a straight line, stunning smile gone. Clearly he was waiting for her answer.
“What do you want to talk about? Where do you want to go?”
“The debt you owe me. We could go to my place.”
His place? Is he serious? “What debt?”
“It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet and you’ve already forgotten that you agreed to give me anything I want?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You said you owed me. It’s implied.”
“You know I didn’t mean that.”
She felt that current go through her again at the mention of that. Because that didn’t sound so bad at all. Not with this guy. This guy with the broad shoulders, the flat stomach, rippling arms and a chest that needed to be licked in the worst way. That didn’t sound bad at all. That sounded like a damned fine way to forget Scotty. Not that she was having much of a problem, it seemed.
He was studying her, his lips curled into an amused smile. He was reading her emotions, and she knew she’d never been good at hiding them. Poker was not a game she’d ever win at.
“If you didn’t mean that”—he flashed her a sexy little smile—“then what is it that you meant when you said you owed me?”
“You’re picking on me.” She pushed his chest. Damn, he’s as solid as he looks.
“You hope I am.” He started walking down the sidewalk, away from the hotel.
She had no idea where he was going. And those long legs of his were out-striding her big time. She struggled to catch up. Reaching him, she said, “No. seriously. I’m not that kind of girl.”
I’d be that kind of girl with you, though. She couldn’t say that. The kiss of a blush began to rise to her cheeks. She knew that warmth only too well. She tried to think of something else, anything else to keep from turning redder.
“I’ll do the same thing for you that you did for me,” she conceded.
“What?” He stopped and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Sure. I’ll pretend to be your girlfriend to help you out.”
“Who said I need that kind of help?” He started walking again.
Damn. Again he was outpacing her. She kicked it into gear, following him closely, ready to sidestep and come up alongside him.
He stopped suddenly.
With an “Ooomph,” she slammed into his back.
Rafe turned around, caught her as she was losing her balance, and pulled her close to his body. She couldn’t have gotten a sheet of paper between them.
“Maybe that’s not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. Twenty-four hours, you’re my pretend girlfriend. Deal?”
“Deal,” she said, and wondered what the hell she was getting herself into.
Chapter Twelve
‡
Rafe pulled his Porsche up into a driveway and waited for an iron gate to open. The black asphalt-covered private road, with its perfectly manicured lawn and impeccable topiaries, was a dead giveaway. Jax fought the urge to shake her head. She really should have known.
Rafe’s family had money. Lots of it.
Her first instinct was to reject both him and it. She’d spent so many years trying to push away anything that resembled a social status that it was second nature. She didn’t want to chase that stuff. Those things mattered to her mother, and she didn’t want to be her mother.
She clenched her hand into a fist, keeping it low, between her body and the door, so he wouldn’t notice. This was frustrating. If she pushed his wealth and money away, then she’d be pushing him away too.
She didn’t want to push him away.
Rafe slowed the powerful Porsche and nosed it around a curve.
Jax gasped. It was a villa, straight out of an architectural magazine. Centuries-old pine trees surrounded the magnificent building painted in a sunny ochre color.
“This is your home?” She looked at Rafe, piercing him with an accusing glare.
“My family’s home.” He nodded. “Problem?”
Pursing her lips, she made a little face before she could catch herself. “No.”
He parked the car. “Ready?”
“So I’m supposed to go in there and pretend I’m your girlfriend. That’s it?”
“For the weekend.”
“Bullshit. Hold on a minute. We said twenty-four hours.”
“It’s renegotiation time. You want me to be there when your parents return, right?”
She thought about it. He was a nice buffer that kept her mother off her back. “Maybe.”
He did lend credibility to her life choices, at least as far as her parents were concerned. “Possibly.”
She did want her mother off her back. That settled it. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“I want…” She stopped herself and rephrased. “I’d like you to be there when my parents return.”
He lanced her with a gaze that crashed through her defenses. His eyes were drinking her in as if he was burning on the inside.
“Then you’re mine for the weekend.”
The way he said it made a shiver run through her.
How’d he hijack my weekend like this?
The hell with hijacking her weekend. He’d hijacked her life.
And her heart.
*
Rafe escorted her from the car and took her up the stairs. He knew their villa was opulent and tried to see his home—his life—from her perspective, but it wasn’t easy. He’d never known a different lifestyle.
He opened the front door and held it for her.
“Why don’t you have security?” she asked.
No one could guard us better than we can guard ourselves. The only thing they were vulnerable to was other shifter attacks. No one had ever dared take on the Tiero family on their own turf, and Rome was a Tiero stronghold.
Rafe heard voices long before Jax would have. He recognized Vax’s and Callie’s.
At that moment it struck him.
This was the first time Rafe had thought of or heard Callie’s voice and he had no reaction to it at all.
His tiger snarled. He’d always insisted that Rafe was w
rong to pine for her, that she wasn’t the one who was fated for them.
Yeah, yeah.
Rafe didn’t feel like dealing with his tiger’s condescending attitude today. He was ready to admit he’d been wrong.
He reached for Jax’s hand as they approached the threshold to the living area. She didn’t react to him, though she did give him a look that seemed to ask if they really had to take it to this extreme.
She might have given him that look, but he could feel her pulse. It sped up. And that wasn’t out of fear or anger. He could scent her desire.
Where her fingers touched his, it felt like his flesh was on fire. His mind went back to that tattoo on her neck and how similar the tiger was to his own tiger, deep within him.
Rafe rounded the corner, braced for whatever might happen. Jax was a wild card. Who knew what the fiery little pistol might say? He also had no idea how his father would deal with his pretend girlfriend.
Pretend, hell. He wished it was more than pretend.
Vax’s and Callie’s open-mouthed expressions greeted him the moment they laid eyes on Jax. He tried to imagine what they saw when they saw her.
Black hair, crimson fingernails, sandaled feet with toes of the same crimson, though every other toe was painted in a shiny black.
Silver toe rings on her toes.
Remnants of red lipstick.
She was in another pair of equally tight black pants. Her top was a peasant blouse that hung low off her shoulders, displaying their creamy roundness and highlighting the equally creamy flesh that made up a set of plentiful breasts.
Jax was the image of I don’t care what you think of me, I love life. She was rebelliousness personified. Her image practically screamed a joie de vivre that was far from prevalent in Rafe’s life.
Damn. I had no idea what I was missing.
Vax rose to his feet; Callie, too. Their eyes traveled up and down Jax’s body.
Rafe bristled. The idea that they might judge her didn’t sit well with him. There was no way he’d allow that.
“Hi,” Callie said.
Vax smiled. “I’m Vax, Rafe’s older brother. This is Callie.” He put his hand on Callie’s belly. “And this is little Vax.”
