Animal Instinct

by Kate Davidson

  “So what time are you showing, Jackie?” Izzy asked, coming up to stand next to her friend. Liam casually put an arm around Jackie’s waist and rested his hand on her hip. Jackie didn’t think anything of it at first. She even covered his hand with hers, linking their fingers.

  “As long as everything goes according to schedule, I’ll be in the ring at about 2 o’clock,” she said, glancing over at the younger woman whose eyes had widened with surprise. Jackie frowned slightly. What? she mouthed. Izzy just shook her head, staring where the vampire’s hand was linked with a human’s.

  “You’ve got a long day ahead of you,” Liam noted.

  “Such is the nature of a show. Sarah, head up!” she instructed. Several other trainers were calling out instructions to their riders but Jackie was in the habit of making herself heard. Sarah did as she was told but then she slowed to a walk in front of Jackie.

  “Jackie, I forgot all my clothes in the bathroom,” she said, clearly embarrassed to say that in front of Liam and Izzy.

  Jackie felt like smacking her forehead. She’d been so focused on getting Sarah on the horse she’d forgotten them. “I’ll get them, honey. You just keep trotting for another five minutes then work on his free walk.” Sarah nodded. Jackie released Liam’s hand and turned. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “I’ll come with you!” Izzy said. “I needed to ask your opinion on something.”

  Jackie hesitated. She didn’t want to leave Sarah alone without any support.

  “Jacquelyn,” Liam said. “Go ahead. I’m staying.” She fought not to let the surprise show on her face but she probably failed.

  “Thanks,” she told him before hurrying up to the barn. They were halfway there when Izzy finally couldn’t keep it in anymore.

  “Okay, what is going on with you and Liam?”

  Jackie blinked. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re kidding. You must have noticed it. The hand thing, for one,” Izzy said.

  She lifted a quizzical brow. “The hand thing?”

  “And not just that but the way he looked at you! Oh, and he hasn’t slept with any of his donors these past two weeks. I mean, he hasn’t slept with me for way longer than that but Eve told me all the other girls are starting to notice he’s not paying anyone extra attention.”

  Jackie nearly tripped over her own shoes. She remembered Eve was the honest sort and so the chances of her lying were very low. “He’s… he’s not sleeping with anyone else?” What in the hell was that supposed to mean? Did he think their relationship was serious?

  Was it serious?

  “I don’t think so. If he is, he’s hiding it pretty well and he’s not the type to hide that kind of thing.” No, Liam was shameless. He wouldn’t care who knew he was sexually active. Jackie hadn’t minded too much since she’d known what she was getting into from the start and she knew better than to hope a guy would ever change his ways. But the impossible may have happened. Liam might have changed.

  It was terrifying.

  “Nothing’s going on. We’re just dating and doing a little business together. That’s all.” Jackie checked her watch. “Izzy, could you run over to the trailer and tell Sofie she can bring Ultrano over so she can watch Sarah ride? You remember what our trailer looks like?”

  “I remember, I remember. And don’t think this conversation is over because it isn’t!” Izzy warned her before leaving to find Sofie. Jackie frowned as she got Sarah’s things out of the luckily unoccupied bathroom. She’d gotten comfortable with Liam’s presence in her life. She liked him a lot but what Izzy was insinuating meant that the relationship might be moving past like and into something more intense - and more devastating. Jackie couldn’t do that again. She could share her secrets and incorporate Liam into her life but that was all. She couldn’t give away her heart again.

  As she stepped out of the bathroom, one of the horses let out an excited whinny. It only took a moment for Jackie to spot the horse that was sticking his head out of his stall and whinnying at her. She smiled.

  “You’re a social boy, aren’t you?” she murmured. He, at least she assumed it was a he, was about sixteen hands high with a short neck and a pretty head. He was jet black and from where she was standing she couldn’t see a speck of white on him. That tugged at her memory. She shifted the clothes and hangers so she could reach out and stroke his shiny black nose. “You remind me of someone.” Jackie lifted his top lip to take a look at his teeth. No horse handled that with joy and he snorted at her. Still, she got a good view of his teeth and the information made her frown. He looked like he was close to twenty years old. Who did he remind her of?

  The horse nudged her shoulder and whickered, upset that she’d stopped petting him. She smiled and reached up to tussle his forelock. Just beneath that tuft of hair was a small white oval. Jackie froze. The memory clicked into place. Nineteen years ago she’d been there when this horse had been born. And he remembered her. This horse, Giacomo, remembered her. Her father’s horse. “Oh, God.” Had Giac been sold? Or was her father here to sell him?

  Was her father here?

  “I hope Giacomo isn’t bothering you. He’s got a fondness for pretty women,” a voice with only a hint of a Scottish accent said over her shoulder. Jackie gulped then slowly turned around. If they had met on the street, she would not have recognized him as her father. His face had aged dramatically since she’d last seen it. The lines had deepened and none of them were laugh lines. The high cheekbones and ruler straight nose he’d passed to her were still evident. His wide, thin mouth was gaping at her appearance. He was thinner, less muscled than she remembered although still broad-shouldered and precisely one inch taller than she. It was worrying to see his already slim body slowly caving in on itself as though it had given up hope. His hair had gone white. He looked so much older than his sixty-four years. His whiskey eyes were fixed on her, the color just as vibrant as they’d always been. “Jane?”

  Jackie bit her lip to keep it from trembling. “Hey, daddy.”

  It had been nineteen years since she’d spoken to him. It was one of her biggest regrets. She never got the chance to know him, to understand what made him tick. She never knew why he gave her five hundred dollars when he caught her trying to run away. And now that she was seeing him again all she could feel was shock. No anger or love or fear. Just numbing shock.

  “Jane,” he murmured. He lifted his hand but he didn’t touch her. He almost seemed afraid. “You’ve grown up.”

  “That happens.” She tentatively slipped her hand in his and squeezed the calloused fingers. Her hand didn’t pass through his so he had to be real. She wasn’t hallucinating after all. This impossible thing was real. “I’m not Jane anymore. I changed it.”

  He nodded. “I thought you might have. When you left, your mother… Well, no one ever found a trace of Jane MacDougal. How did you manage that?”

  “The woman I worked for had some connections,” Jackie said. It was one of the reasons why she hadn’t thrown a fit when the ranch had been given to her in such a state of financial ruin. She didn’t want to make an enemy of someone who could very easily hurt her. Feeling a little of the shock ease, she found another reaction to indulge. Curiousity. “Dad, why are you down here? Are you selling Giac?”

  Charles MacDougal cleared his throat. “Ah. That. It’s something of a long story.”

  His accent thickened a bit as it always did when he was agitated. Jackie couldn’t help but smile at the old habit. It was so unreal. All of this was like one of her dreams where she finally reached some kind of resolution with her father. Any minute she would most likely wake up. “Let me guess, it involves the soul-sucking harpy you married.”

  He offered a weak smile in response. “Her and your bastard brother. I’m ashamed to say I fathered that prick of misery.” Jackie’s eyes widened. Never once had her father been that open and honest. He had always been a man of few words and those few words were consistently vag
ue. Apparently things had changed since she left. “Don’t look so shocked, lass. Did you think I held much love for the boy after he hurt you? The only reason I’m still married to that cold-hearted bitch is that I don’t want her tearing my business apart in the divorce.”

  Sarah’s clothes began to slip down her arm and she had to readjust her load. Then Jackie blinked. “Oh, dammit! Dad, I’ve got to go. My daughter’s about to show for the first time.” She started backing up fast, knowing she had to go but wanting to stay. There were things she needed to know.

  Her father’s eyes had gone wide again. “Your… your daughter?”

  “Adopted,” she explained. “Come watch, okay? Don’t leave! I… I want to talk to you.” She turned and ran for the arena. Thankfully she had the test memorized because she didn’t have time to grab the booklet to read from.

  “Thank God, Jackie. We were starting to worry,” Izzy said, taking the clothes from Jackie’s arms. “She’s just about to go in!” Jackie nodded, hustling over to the show ring and only glancing once at the concerned look on Liam’s face.

  She had a daughter to take care of, she still didn’t know who shot her three weeks ago, a vampire may or may not be wanting a serious relationship with her and now her father was back. Why did she have the distinct feeling that soon she would miss the days when her life was that simple?

  Chapter Nineteen

  LIAM HAD HAD MORE than his fair share of relationships. Immortality was known for its loneliness and he was not ashamed that his partners numbered in the hundreds. Sex had never meant more than a few pleasant hours to him but love had been an entirely different matter. About a hundred years ago when he was amusing himself with the stock market in New York City he’d had the great misfortune to fall in love with a fledgling vampire. Fledglings were notorious for their erratic behavior. The change from human to vampire was not an easy thing and was especially traumatic if the fledgling in question hadn’t known vampires existed. Learning and adjusting to a new life was difficult enough without having to deal with the fact that monsters existed after all.

  Ruth had been a good Catholic girl before a reckless vampire had fallen headfirst into Fascination with her. She’d been doomed from the start with a sire more concerned with satisfying his constant hunger for her than teaching her how to live in their world.

  Liam should have known better than to get involved. Putting even a toe between a vampire and their Fascination was the easiest way to incite violence in their community. But there had been something about those wide blue eyes, helpless and desperate to learn what she’d become. He fell very, very hard for her. It was the first time he could ever remember being in love and he would never admit just how humiliating an experience it had been. At eighteen, Ruth had been too young for the change. Her senses were overstimulated; she had no control. Before they’d known each other a week she had slammed into a Fascinated state with him and he’d been pulled dangerously close to the brink. He had begun to feel himself orient entirely around her, thoughts tugging insistently to Ruth with every passing moment.

  Eventually he’d been forced to seek aid from the head of New York in order to separate. For Ruth’s sake he’d been willing to break his heart and get them both the help they needed. Any longer and they would have become a codependent nightmare of a couple.

  That was why he was leery of his feelings for Jacquelyn. Too many times already he’d thought he might be approaching the line between wanting to be with her and needing to consume her. He wasn’t certain exactly where falling in love with her fell on that line. Whatever it meant for his control, his heart was already compromised. But Jacquelyn was very unlike Ruth and he knew that she wouldn’t find a declaration of love flattering. It was far more likely she’d go into shock. She was more practical than most of the women he spent his time with and more independent. She’d fought hard for the home and security she had. It was one of the ways they were most alike.

  Despite the tricky situation, Liam had a plan. He would gradually ease into Jacquelyn’s life and get her used to the idea of his loving her. He’d share more of his life story with her, although he would probably leave out most of his funny stories about the plague. He was also hoping that somewhere along the way she would admit to being in love with him as well. Of course, with this particular woman nothing was simple. He wasn’t sure if she loved him. He suspected she might. Liam also suspected she didn’t know it yet. Either way, there was no point in forcing it. He had been alive two years and a decade short of six hundred years. He could be patient when he needed to be.

  It was easy enough to think he could be patient but the application of that particular virtue wasn’t nearly as simple as he would have liked. For example, when Jacquelyn had nearly been late to read Sarah’s test and looked as though she’d just seen a ghost, it had been extraordinarily difficult for Liam to patiently wait for an explanation. The short test seemed to stretch into infinity. Despite his personal musings, he noticed that at least Sarah was doing well. His sharp eyes caught the smile on her face and she no longer reeked of fear. Finally she halted and saluted the judge to excited applause from her fans.

  “I did it, Jackie! I really did it!” Sarah said when she met her trainer outside the arena.

  Jackie smiled up at her. She stuffed the millions of questions she had for her father in one corner of her mind, giving Sarah the attention she deserved. “That wasn’t so horrible, was it?”

  “I think I did really well. Sampson did what I told him to and I didn’t screw up my circles. You thought they were good, didn’t you?” she asked Jackie, suddenly concerned that perhaps they weren’t as good as she thought they were.

  Jackie reached up and patted her hand. “They were exactly right, honey. You rocked in there.” She held the horse still while Sarah dismounted. “Now go get your clothes from Izzy, change and then take a nap in the truck. I don’t want you falling asleep when it’s my turn to ride.”

  Sarah wasn’t in the least inclined to argue. She’d had to get up at the crack of dawn that morning and now she just wanted to sleep. But first she had adoring fans to meet. She raced over to where she’d last seen Izzy and Sofie, hoping also for an approving nod from Liam.

  Jackie shook her head with a fond smile and led Sampson back toward the trailer. It was too cold to hose him down so she’d probably just brush him after she got the saddle off. Besides, he wasn’t that sweaty. She tried to focus on the little things, like keeping the horse from getting loose as she went to find her dad again. She had responsibilities; time to focus on those and not on whatever brought her father to southern California. Sampson walked faster when he saw the pile of alfalfa waiting for him. At least he had something to distract him.

  “Jacquelyn.”

  She nearly leaped out of her skin as Liam whispered her name into her ear. “Jesus fucking Christ, Liam, I swear to God I will sew bells onto every shirt you own if you don’t make some noise when you walk!” Jackie swore, pressing a hand to her heart. Sampson pranced slightly. He wasn’t thrilled about the scent of vampire but one impatient jerk from Jackie calmed him down.

  Liam looked momentarily amused before his mouth set in a frown. “Where did you disappear to before Sarah’s test?”

  Jackie cleared her throat and kept walking, only looking at Liam again once she had Sampson tied to the trailer. “It’s sort of complicated.” No one really knew about her relationship with her father, not even her. Izzy and Sofie had expressed the opinion that he was a cowardly bastard that should have been there for his daughter. Maybe they were right. In any case, they hadn’t lived with him. They didn’t know that he’d been twenty in a foreign country when he’d married and that her mother had done everything in her power to drag him to the altar. Her dream job was to be a married woman with children. She’d taken it very seriously and didn’t care if people got hurt along the way. Jackie was willing to give her father the benefit of the doubt if only because he had never been as conniving and evi
l as her mother.

  “It only happened in about ten minutes so how complicated could it be?” he asked. Jackie unhooked the girth then pulled the saddle off Sampson’s back, carrying it around the trailer to set it on the collapsible rack they’d brought with them.

  “I ran into my dad.” She was making eye contact when she said that and she immediately caught the cold edge in his expression. It appeared that Liam was of the same opinion as her friends. He wasn’t a fan. Well, he wouldn’t be a huge fan of hers in a few minutes, either. Nor would Izzy or Sofie. She’d neglected to tell any of them that she wasn’t born Jacquelyn Chase. It wasn’t something she’d wanted to ever share. She didn’t feel any connection to Jane and if someone shouted it out on the street, she wouldn’t turn around. She was Jackie, plain and simple. However, her friends might see it differently.

  “Where is he?”

  “I know what you’re thinking and you’d better stop thinking it immediately,” she said. Jackie turned on her heel and went back to Sampson. There was a very tense minute of silence where the only sound was that of Sampson’s coat being brushed.