by Abby Knox
“You win. You totally deserve the wedding contract.”
“I know.”
“Cocky much?”
“I worked hard to get here, and I’m not shy about claiming what’s mine. You should take a lesson. You’re a great chef and you should own that.”
“I do,” she said. “I’m a fucking awesome chef. Pastry and otherwise.”
“Good. Then I think we could be a good match.”
She looked in his eyes and she knew it was true. She also saw something else there, but it seemed so totally ridiculous. “I’m going out on a limb here, but…you look like somebody else I know.”
He smiled. “And so do you,” he said, sipping his wine.
“It’s weird, but you have the exact same eyes as this dog…well, technically it’s a wolf. It comes around every once in a while and I feed it in the alley at night.”
Vann set out a board of baked brie, sliced Anjou pears and nuts. “Huh, weird,” he said.
And then she got distracted by the aroma of the cheese. “Oh my god, I live for cheese,” she exclaimed, scooping up a pear with a hunk of gooey brie, drizzled with honey.
“I know, right? The only thing I love more than cheese and meat is cake. No, not cake. Just icing.. So what are you planning for the wedding cake?”
“Well,” she said, scanning the plate and spotting some interesting chutney she had to try next, “I have yet to meet with Rosie and Ash, but she tells me I can have free rein. However, I don’t know about Ash. I feel like he said something while he was drunk that he wanted some over-the-top Mardi Gras-style cake with a parade down Bourbon Street. So I might do something like that. With buildings and little musicians and a float with a bride and groom.”
She shook her head and silently chided herself for talking with her mouth full of chutney. Holy shit, this was good. “I don't know why anybody would want to live in the middle of all that noise,” she said.
Vann smiled. “That's our Ash. He’s just a wild man, I guess.”
GiGi looked at him concerned. “He’s marrying one of my best friends, so you’d better not be telling me he whores around.”
Oh no,” Vann said, getting up to check on something in the oven making a delicious aroma. “He just loves parties. Believe me, now that’s he’s settled, it’s for good. There’s no two ways about Ash. Once he picks you, you can’t get rid of him even if you try. Kind of like a stray dog. All of us are like that.”
She smiled, thinking of her Buster. “That’s good to know. I have to admit, I was a little worried that they haven’t known each other for very long. I guess I don’t share that innate sense about other people the way she does.”
Vann refilled her wine glass, then reached across the island, his hand closing in on her face. “May I?” he asked.
GiGi wasn't sure what he was going to do, but she decided to find out. All he did was tuck her lock of hair back behind her ear. It was the sweetest, most tender gesture she could recall from a gentleman on a date. “You’ll know when you find your mate,” he said.
She smiled at this choice of words. “‘Mate' seems like an odd, old-fashioned kind of word for modern party people like you and Ash. Does this have something to do with what Rosemary was hemming and hawing about? She acted like there was some big secret. Are you an alien?”
He smiled but looked a little bit sad, in a way that made her a little scared. Could it be he was sick? “We’ll get around to that subject sooner rather than later. Let’s just talk about you. What do you do for fun?”
“I spend almost every waking moment at the cafe.”
Vann pressed. “Let’s say by some miracle, you had two days entirely to yourself. What would be your perfect weekend?”
GiGi sighed and said, “I would love to just get away. Get out of the city, and I don’t know, be on a boat maybe? Go up the river or out to sea, where there are no people calling my phone and popping in front of me to ask questions, and just do nothing but watch the sun rise and then, I don’t know, read a book. I would love to just sit down and read a book.”
“Done,” he said.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means eat up, because I’m taking you on my boat.”
Chapter 7
Vann
He wasn’t sure if GiGi looked impressed or disappointed. He supposed that her uncle had many boats, most of them far bigger than this one.
She turned to him. “Nice yacht. Don’t you have anything bigger?”
Vann laughed and then hopped from the dock into the deck. Before she could reject his offer to help her aboard, he was lifting her up on to the deck as if she weighted nothing more than a feather.
Before he set her down he took a moment to gaze into her face as they were at eye level. She looked away. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
She breathed. “Feeling a little intimidated, I guess”
“No need to be. You should get used to this. I’m very interested in taking care of you.”
He set her down and she said, “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“No, just you.”
“You do know how to cook for me, I’m not gonna lie,” she said.
“I do other things besides cook, you know. And I’m very good at those other things.” He moved in closer to get a read on whether or not she would like a kiss. He was going to kiss her either way, he just wanted to gauge how soon.
“I don’t really have any other needs,” she said, with blood rushing to her lips and cheeks.
“Oh, but I think you do,” he said. “Your life is out of balance. You work hard, but nobody is feeding you.”
She looked a little bit scared. He hugged her small waist with his beefy arms.
“And you’re trying to feed my ears with words because you’re also really good at talking,” she said with a smirk.
“Nope,” he said. His fingertips grazed her cheek. He traced a thumb across her cheekbone and he detected the slightest of sighs and flutter of eyelashes. At this response he took it a step further and laced his fingers into her locks of dark, wavy hair. He tilted his head close and brought her temple to his nose. He breathed her in. Her scent was strong but homey, like browned butter and spice. Her closed his eyes and pressed his cheek against hers. The feel of her skin reminded him of bed, waking up underneath cozy flannel sheets on a frosty morning. How he would love to wake up just like that, and reach over under the covers and feel her there, lying on her side, the curve of hips calling to him…her rolling over to say good morning…her limbs reached out to pretzel around him. Allowing him to wake her up with his mouth, plunging into her hidden depths, still warm from sleep.
Suddenly she sucked in her breath. Weird. It was just at the moment when he was thinking about what it would be like to taste her sex in the morning. Had he somehow whispered his desire into her ear? Had she somehow felt his thoughts?
“What are you thinking, angel face?”
“I was just noticing how you seem very …happy.” He pulled back a bit to look at her face. Her eyes were open and she was glancing downward. Then he realized why she’d gasped, his cock was hard as a granite countertop and pressing against her.
“Oh, that. Well, I’d be lying if I denied you were the cause of that.”
“Nobody’s ever called me angel face.”
“That’s a shame, ’cause you are downright gorgeous. Did you know?”
She laughed. “Rosie tells me that all the time. And…I guess I can’t be all that bad to look at if Vann West is getting a boner.”
“Don’t do that,” he said, slightly letting go of her.
“Do what?”
“Don’t put me in this untouchable box where I’m only a celebrity. I’m a human man with needs. And I need you.”
She scoffed gently. “You need me.”
“I need you in all kinds of ways, most of them in my bed.”
Her face flushed deeper. “Too bad we’re on a boat and not in your bedroom. I’m safe.
”
“I guess I should take you on a tour, of the craft, then, ma’am.” he said.
She stiffened in his arms. “There’s a bed on this boat?”
“You know it.”
She pulled back out of his embrace then. “Vann, I have to tell you something. I’m a virgin. And I’ll understand if you want to take me home. I don’t have enough experience to impress you in bed.”
Vann reached out again and pulled her back toward him. “Doll, listen. I’m glad you’re a virgin. Because honestly, the idea of another dude getting it on with you makes me want to go back in time to kick their asses one at a time just so I could get to you and be your first and only.”
She was fighting the urges inside her, he could feel it. What was coming out of her mouth was not matching the scent she gave off, or the growing intensity of her pulse.
“That’s a little much for you, Vann. I always got the impression you’re much more chill than that,” she said.
He stared at her lips as she spoke. They were thick and luscious and aching to be kissed. “GiGi, I have zero chill when it comes to you.”
Chapter 8
GiGi
Below deck, GiGi could see that there was not actually one bed on the boat. There were three large bedrooms, each with a California king-size bed in them.
She teased him. “So that is what you can buy on a travel show salary.”
“Pretty much.”
Just then she got a little queasy at the gentle rocking of the boat. “Do you mind if we go back up on deck? I think my stomach is feeling a little unsettled and it might help if I can see the dock. I’m sorry, I guess I don’t have very good sea legs.”
She didn’t have to say another word. Before she even got the whole sentence out, she was in his arms and he was carrying her back up to the deck, rather dramatically. “It’s OK, you don’t have to carry me.”
But he had insisted, and in seconds she was wrapped up in a blanket, sitting in a lounge chair on the deck, facing the pier, a mug of hot ginger tea in her hand.
“This is a little over the top,” she said. “How did you get hot tea? Hey, where are you going?”
But he ignored her and went back below deck again.
Seconds later he was back at her side with a small vial. “Found the lavender oil. Here, smell this.” He unscrewed the top of the teensy delicate bottle of essential oil and held it under her nose.
She grinned at him and was touched at his frenzy of action around her at the mere mention of being slightly nauseated. “Between the ginger and the lavender, and watching you run around like a housemaid, I think I’m potently distracted from my silly little bout of seasickness.”
“On-board generator.” he said.
“What?”
“That’s how I made the tea. There’s a kitchenette down below.”
“I appreciate all this effort. Mainly just looking at the land is helpful. There is enough of a moon that I can see it.”
“I’m glad,” he said, inching himself down so he was sitting on the deck next to her chair. “So tell me. How did you and Rosemary end up becoming so close?”
It made her feel warm and protected with this hulk of a man this near, and this interested in her. “Well, as you know, she and I are cousins. My parents died young. Accidentally shot by deer hunters when they were … hiking … in the swamp. It was awful. Aunt Betsy and Uncle Lionel took me in. Rosie and I are like sisters, but free of the drama. So tell me about you. How did you and Ash and Bobby and Penny meet each other?”
Vann reached out and stroked her hair again. Was he aware that playing with her hair was the second quickest way to her heart? The first being cheese?
“We were all homeschooled together,” he said. “Well, it goes back further than that. We were in regular school as kids. But there was an incident. We don’t really like to talk about it much. Bobby might decide to tell you someday, but we’ve all agreed to respect his wish not to talk about it. After the incident, we were all pulled out and homeschooled by Ash’s mom, Charlene, may she rest in peace. And after she died, we finished our junior and senior years of high school at Jefferson. By that time, Charlene had prepared us to go back in to normal society without causing more incidents. We all more or less grew up at the old JB Chicken estate. It was the best. We were safe to be ourselves there. We’ve stuck together ever since.”
GiGi pressed. “So, can you at least tell me what led up to the incident? What’s so different about all of you?”
Vann sighed and looked down. He appeared to not be ready to talk about it just yet. “Let’s just say, we all come from a weird background and certain …mutations … happen when we all reach the same age, and some of us don’t handle it well the first time it occurs.”
GiGi stared at him. This was sounding weirder and weirder. And familiar.
“What kind of weird things? I mean, what happens to you?”
He hesitated but finally continued. “To put it mildly. Weird shit happens to us whenever there’s a full moon.”
GiGi froze. Could this be true? No, it was impossible. Was it? Did she really want to know?
“Say no more, Vann. I get it. In fact, I think I’ve seen it. Trust me, when there’s a full moon, weird shit happens at the restaurant, too. Staff goes missing. Patrons are extra hungry. Tips sometimes are outrageously high. The stove acts up. There are fights. Somebody gets thrown out. It’s never boring, I can tell you that.”
Vann looked at her. There was something strange, pleading in his eyes. He was trying to communicate something without actually saying it.
But all he said was, “I’m glad there’s somebody there who gets it. It’s almost, kind of like magic.”
Her stomach fluttered. “Kind of magic? I’d say full-blown in-your-face magic. Yeah. I believe it.”
The moon. Oh shit.
It was at this moment GiGi realized that the white sliver in the sky was a waning moon, not a waxing moon. Tomorrow night was hunting night for her. Of course it would be. Shit. She was about to be the deliverer of bad news, but how could she go about it? Most of the time, panthers did not have to worry about shifting into beast mode until the moon was fully waned and blackened in the sky. But if her emotions got out of control, as was likely to happen around this delicious specimen of manhood—there’s no telling what her hormones would do.
“Vann, I’m afraid we might need to cut this date short.”
But he didn’t hear a word she said because he was speaking at the same time. It sounded to her as if he had said, “I think I love you, angel face.”
They froze. And then before she could run away, he wiped the fight-or-flight expression off her face with a deep, forceful but slow kiss. Her blood flooded all her dormant nooks and crannies with urgent, dark desires, but also relief. She had been aching for his lips since he had helped her remove her coat and the strap of her dress had fallen.
Chapter 9
Vann
Thank god, she was not pushing him away.
His hands closed over hers and urged her to open up the blanket that was wrapped around her shoulders. She responded by folding it around him as they kissed. She was warm and welcoming, and the scent on her skin beckoned him to get even closer. “I want to smell and taste every inch of you,” he said.
Her breath was a little shaky as she responded. “I think I might want that too. But I’m a little worried…”
God, she was so sweet and innocent underneath the tough exterior.
“I don’t want to hurt you, so we’re going to go slow…I’m going to make sure you’re totally ready for me.”
“It’s not that…”
He quieted her with another kiss, then smiled. “I’ll talk you through it.”
She bit her lip.
He waited.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Would you might if we stayed out here on the deck?”
“Would I mind? Holy shit, woman, it’s only my ultimate fantasy to bone on board my own boat since I tu
rned 14. I’m all in favor of it.”
Vann leaned in close again and kissed her neck, and felt the intake of breath, her rush of blood, her pulse quickening. God, being a wolf was the fucking best when you found your match. The taste and smell of everything was a hundred times stronger than a basic human’s. With the blanket still around them, he slipped his fingers under the hem of her dress and stroked her thigh. She let out a small sigh as they kissed, her gooseflesh rising at the touch of his fingers. He ran his hands upward and over her bra, squeezed a little, and felt her breath catch. She pressed herself closer into his hands. GiGi seemed to like her tits to be squeezed, and he really, really liked squeezing them. His thumbs worked over her nipples and they became hard little buttons at his touch.
“God, you’re so damn sexy, did you know that?”
I didn’t,” she said, her ragged breath causing her breasts to heave closer to him.
“How do you want me to touch you?” she asked.
“I want you naked first.”
“I kind of like it when you tell me what to do.”
He smiled. “Alrighty then.” He scooped her up and tossed the blanket to the deck. “I want to see all of you in the moonlight.”
Moments later she was naked before him. The faint moon and stars and their reflection in the water casting a glow on her skin. He sighed. He regretted nothing in life until now. He regretted not knowing this woman years ago and taking her for himself. Looking at her bare was like studying a perfectly ripe grapevine and not knowing which juicy bits to take first. But he knew exactly where to start. He spread the blanket out and sat down on it, holding his hand up to her.
She put her hand in his and stepped in close. Vann closed his eyes and inhaled her scent. From this angle it was ten times as erotic. He rose to his knees, reached around and cupped her ass with one hand, and slowly stroked her sex with the other hand. First he felt her tidy little bush with the palm of his hand. He heard her gasp.
“Your body is perfection. You shouldn’t hide it the way you do.”
