ARINA'S MATE (Shifters of the Bulgarian Bloodline Book 2)

by Dalia Wright

  Saige glanced over her shoulder at the gleaming Lexus sitting at the foot of the steps. “Yeah,” she said. “Looks like she’d never find it on her own. Thanks for your help.”

  She turned on her heel and left before any of them could speak again.

  “Imagine,” Savannah said. “Just coming in like she belonged here.”

  Victoria shook her head. “Honestly, like we don’t have more important things to talk about than the gardener.”

  Since Aiden had never had a meaningful conversation with her in the history of their relationship, he only nodded noncommittally as he walked her down the wide steps.

  Saige ducked around the side of the house, her heart pounding with anger. What kind of jerks were these people? Her father had worked for the wealthy before; he’d been gardening since before she was born. But he’d never worked for anyone who had treated her like she was beneath them.

  She was disgusted with herself for finding Aiden attractive even for a moment. “What a pompous jerk,” she muttered.

  “Hope you’re not talking about your old man.”

  She turned and saw her father standing over a garden bed, shovel in hand. “Daddy!”

  Saige flung herself into her father’s arms.

  “I’m filthy,” he protested.

  “I don’t care!” She tightened her grip and he returned the hug.

  “I’ve really missed you, doodlebug.”

  Her throat tightened at the familiar nickname. “I missed you too.”

  She hadn’t seen her father since she’d left for college at 18. She was 22 now. It hadn’t been easy, but it had been necessary. She’d needed to take summer classes to complete everything and it was much easier to work on campus to keep the student loan debt down.

  “I thought we were going to lunch,” she said briskly, changing the subject.

  He let her go and gestured to the garden. “I’ve got to get something in this bed before I can head out.”

  Saige sighed. “Then let me help you.”

  “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than--

  “I don’t have anything better to do than eat lunch with you and talk,” she said firmly. “Come on, we’ll do this so fast that woman won’t know what hit her.”

  Patrick smiled at his daughter. He never could tell her no. “Sounds good to me.”

  Chapter Three:

  Two days later, Aiden looked out the window at the side yard. It was gorgeous, even he could see that. His mother hadn’t stopped complaining about it, though. It wouldn’t matter if the garden won an award. It wasn’t what she’d wanted, so it wasn’t right in her eyes.

  He straightened his shirt reflexively. Savannah Cross had never balked at extending that same criticism his way. It might have been different if he hadn’t been an only child, but that was the way it had ended up. Patrick Gilmore walked into the side yard and Aiden drew back just enough so that he couldn’t be seen. He didn’t want the gardener to think he was spying on him.

  Without meaning to, he found himself thinking of Saige again. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d crossed his mind since he’d met her on the front porch. His mother had called her plain. Victoria had called her fat. Aiden thought she was the most attractive woman he’d ever seen. He liked that she looked healthy. There’d been a glow in her cheeks that only exercise could add and he’d liked her open smile.

  Victoria’s smile always looked fake, as if she was simply painting on whatever expression the occasion required. Saige had seemed genuinely pleased to meet him. He moved in a world where people never said what they meant. It had been like a cool breeze to see honesty in her green eyes.

  As if he’d summoned her by thinking about her, she rounded the corner and spoke to her father. She was holding up a picnic basket. Patrick gestured to the garden and then shrugged. She threw her hands up, then sat down and began unpacking the basket. Aiden was glad that his mother was out having lunch with some friends. His father was in his office, but he wasn’t likely to stir from it for a while.

  No one would know if he went down and talked to her. The thought made his heartbeat speed up and he turned from the window, walking quickly down the stairs and out into the yard. She’d probably be happy to see him again, to know that he wanted to speak with her once more. Women always were.

  Saige handed her father a wet wipe for his grimy hands and then bit into her tomato sandwich. “So, what’s her problem with it?” she asked, eyeing the immaculate garden.

  “The border isn’t in the right place,” Patrick answered, wiping his hands quickly. He was starving. Saige snorted and he grinned. “Well, we’ve all got our opinions,” he went on fairly as he scooped a handful of chips out of the bag and dropped them onto his paper plate. “This was a good idea, doodlebug.”

  “It’s a nice garden, Dad.”

  Patrick glanced around and nodded. “I like the place a lot.”

  “What about the people?” She hadn’t said anything about the way the family had talked about him, or the way they’d treated her. She hadn’t wanted to upset him. But now she really needed to know if they'd always acted like that.

  He shrugged good naturedly. “I don’t see much of them.”

  “You don’t have to be polite,” she said, seeing right through his attempt at a noncommittal answer. “I saw the woman leave earlier, so we’re alone, right?”

  “Mr. Cross works from home,” he informed her.

  “Really? What does he do?”

  “Plays around in the stock market,” Patrick answered. He’d personally only exchanged a few words with his employer, but the other people who worked at the house were more than willing to spread the gossip. “With varying success,” he added, crunching into a potato chip.

  “What about their son?” She hadn’t meant to ask and she quickly looked down at her food, pretending not to care about the answer.

  “I don’t see him very much either. He doesn’t seem like a bad kid.”

  “Kid?” Saige smiled. “He’s got to be in his twenties, Dad.”

  “Around your age, maybe a year or two older,” Patrick acknowledged. “Which still makes him a kid to me.”

  Saige wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out at him.

  He laughed and held his hands up in surrender. “So, tell me about this job application.”

  Saige felt her face redden slightly. “It’s not going to really happen,” she murmured. “It’s just...I mean, what does it hurt to apply?”

  “Not a thing,” her father agreed. “It’s pretty far away.”

  His voice was noncommittal and she knew that he’d support her even if she packed up and moved on again tomorrow. She also knew that he’d missed her. Even more than she’d missed him, probably.

  “Like I said,” she repeated. “It’s not really going to happen.”

  His eyes met hers and his crinkled at the corners as he smiled warmly at her. “Stop underestimating yourself.”

  “You really think I could--” she began, but was interrupted by a male voice near the corner of the house.

  “Hey there,” Aiden called, putting on his casual, careless drawl. “How’re you doing today, Patrick?” He always ignored the women at first. Make them work for your attention, his father’s voice said in his head.

  “Just fine,” Patrick said, his voice friendly. “How about yourself?”

  Aiden shrugged. “Could be better, but I guess I can’t complain.”

  Saige rolled her eyes. Aiden couldn’t see it; he was still standing. Looming over them like a statue. “American Rich Boy Deigns To Speak To Servants.” She felt her mouth tug into a smile and fought it. She didn’t want him to think that she was amused at whatever he was rambling on about.

  Aiden wasn’t even exactly sure what he was saying. She hadn’t even looked up at him. She was simply sitting there, looking like she was waiting for him to go away. He definitely wasn’t used to that.

  “So,” he said. “How do you like it here, Saige?”
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  She kept her voice polite but cool. “Just fine.” She took a sip of her drink, closing that avenue of conversation down.

  “Are you going to be staying long?”

  “I haven’t finalized my plans.”

  Aiden had no idea what to say next. Saige was tapping her fingers on her leg and glancing at her food. Then she checked her watch.

  “How long to have to eat, Dad?” she asked pointedly.

  “Usually half an hour,” he answered.

  “Go ahead and finish up,” Saige suggested. “Was there anything else you needed?” she asked, looking up at Aiden for the first time. It was worth it. He looked stunned.

  “Uh, no,” he said. “Just, uh, go ahead and eat.”

  “That was my plan,” she said. “Good bye.”

  “Yeah. Good bye.” He walked away, more confused than he’d ever been in his life. He’d sounded more like a teenager than he’d sounded even when he was one. Women had always been attracted to his confidence. She’d treated him like he was an inconvenience. He had no idea how to react to her.

  He felt like he should have been angry; he knew that his parents would never have let someone like her speak to them that way. But he was more intrigued than upset. Saige Gilmore had been more interesting in 5 minutes than Victoria Caine had been in 3 months. And Saige had been wearing another pair of shorts. He couldn’t quite get the image of those long legs out of his mind.

  Chapter Four:

  Saige looked around the store happily. Some women liked clothes. Some women lusted after boots and shoes. Some women were happiest with gorgeous homes. Saige could see the appeal of all of those things, but what she loved most were electronics stores. She trailed her fingers over the keyboards of the latest Macs, played with the touch screens of the latest generation desktops, and then got into her favorite section, everything a programmer needed to ply their craft.

  She was happily designing in her head when someone walking down the aisle stopped a few feet from her. She glanced up out of habit and was surprised to see Aiden Cross. It had been a few days since she’d seen him, but she couldn’t honestly say that she hadn’t thought about him.

  As a matter of fact, she thought about him too much. He had a disturbing tendency to be even better looking each time she saw him. Today he was dressed casually. His jeans fit like a million bucks, and his tee shirt was designer, but still. Had she realized how muscular he was under his nicer clothes? His chest was defined and his stomach was flat, and his shoulders strained the fabric of his shirt just slightly.

  Saige glanced down at the router box in her hands and pretended to be very absorbed in what it said. How long had she been staring at him? She felt her face turning red and cursed her tendency to blush. Aiden watched color fill her cheeks as she stared down at the router she was clutching. He was glad that she was looking away this time, because he hadn’t had time to gather his own composure. She was the last person he’d expected to see.

  She had lunch with her father on the grounds every day, but he hadn’t tried approaching her again. What had he been thinking, anyway? If things went south with Victoria because of the gardener's daughter his parents would never forgive him.

  But now, seeing her out of the blue...he felt a surge of pure, undeniable desire. He pushed his hand back through his hair and took a breath. Then he took a half step away, sighed and walked over to her.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hi.” She didn’t look up from the box.

  “I’m wondering if maybe we got off to a bad start.”

  Okay, that she could deal with. “You’re wondering if we got off to a bad start?” she repeated sarcastically. “Do you mean the part where your mother insulted my father’s work ethic or the part where you treated me like a door to door salesman?”

  “When did she insult him?” Aiden asked.

  Saige put the router back on the shelf and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She shouldn’t have said anything. If her outburst cost her father his job, she’d never forgive herself. Money had always been tight for them.

  “Never mind,” she said.

  “I didn’t treat you like a salesman,” he went on. “I can’t figure out why you’ve got such a big problem with me.”

  “I don’t have a problem with you,” she lied, clenching her teeth.

  “Then why’d you brush me off the other day?” he asked. It still bugged him. He’d been nice! Or at least he’d planned to be. She hadn’t really given him a chance.

  “Because I wasn’t there to see you!” Saige said, her voice getting louder in her frustration. “This may be hard for you to believe Mr. Cross, but I’m a little more interested in seeing the man who raised me, a man I haven’t seen in 4 years, I might add, than I am in fawning all over you.”

  “You don’t have to fawn,” Aiden said indignantly. “You could be civil, at least.”

  “I was civil,” she informed him. “You were the one who was rude, interpreting Dad’s measly half hour lunch just to blather on about nothing.”

  “You weren’t even listening!”

  Since that was true, she shrugged. “Okay, you’re right. But that’s because I was there to see my father.” She emphasized every word.

  “What’s the harm in seeing someone else?” Aiden demanded. “Maybe I was just trying to be nice!”

  “You weren’t,” Saige answered bluntly. “You were probably bored with all your expensive toys, so you thought you’d see what entertainment you could find. I’d imagine that wandering around that mausoleum all day gets a little boring.” She could see that she’d struck home with that accusation and she actually felt a pang of regret when his brows drew together over those stormy blue eyes.

  Then he straightened his shoulders and said, “Excuse me for trying to be hospitable. It won’t happen again.”

  “It didn’t happen the first time!” she exclaimed, following him as he walked out of the store. “Your family treats my father like a...like a servant and then you act like I should fall all over myself with gratitude just because you decide to speak with. This isn’t Victorian England! I don’t have to bow down to you just because you’re rich and I’m poor!”

  Aiden stopped short and looked down at her. Her hands were clenched in tight fists and her breath was coming in gasps. Her cheeks were flushed with anger and her eyes were shooting sparks. As much as he wanted to deny it, he had expected her to be grateful that he was speaking to her. He’d expected her to be breathless with interest about his life because it was so different from hers. God, he really was an ass.

  “I’m sorry,” he said when she drew breath to speak again.

  Saige felt the air in her lungs rush out at his words. No, not actually his words. The expression of absolute sincerity on his face as he spoke them. He didn’t wait for her to answer before he turned and walked away.

  Her fickle heart lurched and she had to suppress a strong urge to call him back. There was nothing else to say. He’d been a jerk, she’d called him on it, and he’d apologized. They were done. Except now, seeing what he looked like when he wasn’t putting on his rich guy persona...she didn’t want to be done. Saige groaned and rubbed her face with both hands. Why did she feel like she’d just gotten in too deep?

  Chapter Five:

  “Hi,” Victoria said, hardly looking away from the mirror in the hall where she was examining her lipstick. “I thought you might be late.”

  Aiden glanced at his Rolex. “It doesn’t start until 7.” It was only 6:30 and the McGarity house was only just down the road. “I thought you were a fashionably late kind of girl anyway.”

  “Usually, I am,” she said, gracing him with a smile. “But since I helped organize the event, I need to be there to greet everyone.” She turned and stood on tiptoe, wrapping her arms around his neck and giggling. “You should know all about it, Aiden. Your mother is the most well known hostess in the city!”

  That might be a small stretch, but only a small one. Savannah Cross was
very well known for her events. The only reason she hadn’t been involved in this one was because it had been organized by Victoria and her friends and Savannah knew better than to step on her future daughter in law’s toes in the social scene.

  “So what are we raising money for again?” Aiden asked, straightening his tie and then frowning when he realized that he was staring into the mirror the same way Victoria was.

  She sighed. “I told you! PETA!” She adjusted the front of her dress and said, “I’ve gone vegan for two weeks just to get ready for it. I think this dress really shows it off.”

  “Are you going to keep it up?” he asked, eyeing her figure in the deep purple dress. She did look nice, but he couldn’t help comparing her to Saige. He wasn’t sure why Victoria had thought she’d needed to lose weight. If anything, she was a little too thin now. Her collarbones and wrists looked brittle.

  “No,” she scoffed. “I just wanted to be able to talk about it to these people.” She smiled up at him. “All right, are you ready?”

  He held out his arm for her to slip hers through and put on his performance face. “To be seen with you in front of everyone? Always.”

  Victoria smiled complacently and they walked to her chauffeured car. The house was only about a block away, but even people who lived on the same street wouldn’t have thought of walking there. Maybe Victoria should have picked an environmental charity.

  When they got out of the car less than 10 minutes later, he was relieved to see that hardly anyone was there yet. Victoria, however, looked panicked.

  “Where is everyone?” she demanded when her friend Lynette McGarity opened the door.

  “Kaylee’s flight was late getting in and Mindy’s car broke down.”

  Aiden raised an eyebrow. Mindy Stanford’s father was a collector. The man had a fleet of vehicles.

  Victoria sighed. “I hope they fire the idiot who’s supposed to be maintaining those cars.”