I had only read through a chapter when the restless feeling settled in my gut, complete with the steel-butterfly-monster feeling, again. I set my book aside and started peeling out of my shorts and tank down to my blue and white striped bikini. A couple guys drifting down the creek in their tubes wolf whistled as I stripped. I just smiled up at them and shook my head. The one thing I loved about being in this area was no one ever overstepped. Everyone was beyond polite. A little wolf whistle was nothing when the guys just continued to drift by without harassing me. It was a refreshing change from university life where the guys would have jumped out of their tubes and offered to help me finish the job and strip me of my bathing suit too.
Once I discarded my clothes, and waited for the two guys to drift far enough away, I took off for the creek. I had purposely placed myself near one of the deeper spots so I could wade out and actually be more than shin or knee deep. As I wandered out into the water’s depths, I huffed out a shocked breath each time the cool mountain creek found new skin to torment. By the time I dropped down to sit in the water, causing it to be almost shoulder deep on me, I let out a little yip only to hear someone chuckle behind me.
My head spun quickly in the direction of the sound. On the shore, near where I left all my stuff, a man with a body to die for stood there watching from the shade of a tree. At least he had been watching me until I turned around. Then, he lowered his eyes and his head as if he were searching for precious gems along the banks. He was leaned back casually against the tree, ankles crossed over one another in front of him. His head was tipped down now while the shaggy length of brown hair with what looked like bronze streaks running through it flopped forward a bit, helping to obscure his features. Who knows, he could have been talking on a blue tooth or something while he was gem hunting on the shore. People seemed to think gold and gems would just wash up on the banks for them here. I figured he was just a tourist or something and turned back around. At least, I tried to turn back around, but the man kept drawing my attention.
“I take it the water’s still pretty chilly?” A deep baritone called out one of the times I wasn’t ogling the man behind me. I turned to see him smiling up at me this time. Those emerald green eyes of his held my focus, seeming so familiar, and yet I couldn’t place them.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. It’s always chilly though.”
He really looked at me then. “Oh, are you from around here?”
I offered a small smile. “No, just visiting, but my parents are from here, so we come up once in a while. Stands to reason that a swiftly moving creek in the mountains never really warms up to comfortable levels.”
“I suppose that’s true.” He turned his focus back to the rocks along the shore where he stood before bending down and testing the water with his fingers. A shiver broke out over my skin as I watched him moving. His blue t-shirt pulled taught over his muscles, and I watched as they bunched and released with his movements.
“Hey man, I thought I saw you pull in here. What in the hell are you doing at Deep Creek? You want to grab the tubes and chill today?” Another man’s voice called out. The green-eyed guy on the shore stood quickly and turned around to face the newcomer.
“Nah, I just…” his voice trailed away as the other man, a hulking giant of a guy, finally made his way into my view. The second man looked out into the creek and spotted me there. An incredible dimpled grin spread across his stubble-laden face.
“Ah, sightseeing today?” He laughed as his friend blanched.
I just snickered as I turned away from them. I wasn’t dumb, they were talking about me, and now I was blushing furiously with my back turned in their direction. Here I was, alone, and wearing nothing more than a tiny little bikini and water shoes. I would probably end up with hypothermia waiting for them to leave so I could get out of the water without feeling like a piece of meat on a stick in front of the two gorgeous guys standing on the edge of the creek. A sigh escaped me as I thought about the wait I was going to have. I had just jumped in to try to calm the anxious feeling that had woven through my being earlier when I was reading from the shore. Now, it appeared I was stuck here for a bit longer.
“What are you up to today?” The green-eyed guy asked his friend.
“Well, I was going to see if you wanted to head out for a run, but I’m up for sightseeing instead.” I turned slightly to peek through the waterfall of my golden hair at the two men. Just as I did, the new guy winked in my direction. Damn, busted that quickly.
“Yeah, I was just going to chill by the creek for a bit.” The green-eyed man had yet to glance my way again.
“Have you been in yet?” The other man, the hulking giant, started stripping his shirt off over his head. My sister was going to kill me when I told her what she missed out on. He was utter perfection with his tight abs, broad shoulders, tapered waist, and the line of dark hair that dipped down into his low-slung shorts. Oddly enough, I appreciated the view, but I wasn’t interested. Liz would have been on him before the shirt came off though.
“Garrett…” the green-eyed man’s voice came out almost in a growled warning, which sent the hulk of a guy, Garrett, into a fit of laughter that could only be described as man-giggles.
“What?” Garrett asked the other man with a feigned innocent tone. “It’s hot out here today.”
The green-eyed man growled again. No words this time, just an audible, menacing growl. That was my cue to leave. I wasn’t sure what was happening here, but I’d be damned if I got myself caught in a pissing match between these two beasts of men. They were both huge in their own right with their rippling muscle and enough testosterone to blanket the entire area. Seriously, the display of power they exerted was an almost tangible thing.
As Garrett waded out into the creek I took that as my signal to go. I stood, the water now only reaching just above my knees to mid thigh, and I turned toward shore to go. “I hope I’m not running you off, sweetheart.” Garrett, who by now had reached the same spot in the creek as me, spoke in a sultry low tone.
“Nope. I just hopped in to cool off earlier.” I shifted further from him and walked two steps back toward the shore. The butterflies in my stomach changed to something far greater with each step, and it took my attention away from the loose creek rocks beneath my feet. One more step, and I was slipping on a rock that hadn’t been very stable. The rock turned, my foot slid, and I was about to plant myself on my ass when a strong arm reached around my hips and pulled me toward a very solid wall of muscle. This body was still covered in clothes, and I wondered how he possibly got to me that quickly. Slowly, my eyes rose to meet two emerald orbs staring right back at me. Only now that we were standing so close I noticed there was more to those green depths than it seemed from far away. There was a burst of gold toward the center of the color and the outside ring was a deep greenish gray. Those eyes were so captivating they stole my breath. “Thanks,” I whispered. My stomach summersaulted, heart rate picked up, and I wanted more than anything to just lean in and wrap myself further around this man. I’d never had such a visceral reaction to another person in my life. It frightened me almost as much as I felt the rightness of it.
“No problem,” he finally offered in a deep, husky voice, as he slowly removed his arms from where they had wrapped around me. I heard snickering from somewhere over my shoulder. His friend was laughing. Great, I was making an ass out of myself. I had seriously never reacted to a man like this before in my life and it was coloring my cheeks in embarrassment now.
“Sorry, um, these damn water shoes do nothing for the rocks that move.” I mumbled out my excuse for falling into this man’s arms amid the louder laughter of his buddy. It just heated my face with a worse blush. My shoulders slunk lower on my frame as I pulled away even quicker now, and all but ran to the shore. I didn’t even know if rocks rolled out from under my feet this time because I was moving too fast for their movement to effect me. I snatched my towel up off the ground, shook it out, and patted myself d
ry quickly. Then I angrily pulled my tank top over my head, and tossed the rest of my stuff messily into my bag.
I was embarrassed. It had nothing to do with almost falling, and more to do with the fact that I hadn’t been able to pull myself out of that man’s grasp quicker. His friend’s laughter just added insult to injury. I was already at the door of my Jeep when I felt a large hand grip onto my upper arm to halt my escape.
“Hey, I’m sorry. We’re intruding on your time. Please, don’t leave on our account. I’ll take my dumb ass friend and we’ll leave.” The green-eyed man was the one reaching out for me. I should have known since his touch sent shivers up and down my spine.
“It’s okay, I’m just going to go anyway. You weren’t the first people to intrude on my space today.” His hand dropped off my arm so quickly I might have thought I’d burned him. He took a step back and I watched as he visibly swallowed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” he shook his head, and cursed under his breath. By now his friend, Garret, joined us in the parking lot.
“I’m sorry, please, believe that. I wasn’t laughing at you.” He had a genuine smile on his face as he spoke directly to me. “I was teasing Mr. Grumpy here.” He slapped his friend’s still clothed chest. I didn’t miss the fact that Garrett was dripping wet and still hadn’t replaced his shirt. I just nodded at him and reached out for the handle of my Jeep again. “I’m taking off,” this was a message for his friend. “Give me a call later, and well, just give me a call.”
The man behind me still hadn’t replied when I noticed his friend continue on to a silver Chevy truck that was parked behind my Jeep. “Seriously, we’re both leaving now, so there’s no reason to ruin any more of your day.”
I turned then. “You didn’t ruin my day, seriously. It’s just, I’m here by myself, and I know how to take care of myself…” He quirked up an eyebrow in question at my half finished statement. “Not that I think you’re some weirdo serial killer or anything, but um, I don’t know you or him.” His smile was a genuine one until I added, “or the other two guys that came by earlier.” Immediately a deep frown replaced his smile before he caught himself and blanked out his expression.
He held out a hand to me, “allow me to introduce myself so you know me from here on out.” I shook his hand politely. “I’m Andre. I think you heard my buddy’s name was Garrett. He never met a situation he couldn’t laugh at. I apologize if that didn’t translate well to a stranger. He’s the good time guy in our group.”
“And you? You’re Mr. Grumpy, who growls at his friends?” I was trying to suppress the grin on my face as I remembered what Garrett had called him.
Andre laughed, “yeah, something like that.” He smiled wider then, “do you have a name, or are you still afraid I’m a weirdo serial killer?”
“Izzy,” I stated simply.
“Izzy, huh? That short for something?”
“Isabelle, but I’ve been Izzy so long that it sounds completely foreign to hear someone call me Isabelle.”
“I get that.” His smile told me he did indeed get it, but at the same time he had introduced himself as Andre which didn’t have too many nicknames associated with it.
“Oh no,” I whispered to myself, not even fully aware I’d spoken out loud until he spoke too.
“What’s oh no?”
I searched his face noting the things Lana had told me about the now infamous ex-boyfriend of hers. Bright green eyes, muscular build, height was about right, and the constant stubble gracing a strong jaw. I huffed out a loud sigh. “You have a nickname too, don’t you?”
The guilty look on his face told me all I needed to know. He already knew who I was somehow, and he’d tried to hide who he was. His small nod confirmed my fears. I said nothing more, and just slid into my Jeep, and took off without another glimpse in his direction. It would figure the one man I actually felt a strong attraction to was one I couldn’t even consider going out with, let alone getting to know in any capacity. “Damn,” I muttered to myself as I drove back toward Lana’s apartment. I had just met the infamous Dre, and he’d made my heart pitter-patter in strange, sadly untouchable, ways.
~*~ DRE ~*~
I watched as Izzy pulled away, and felt the ache deep in my chest at her loss. “Damn it,” I yelled. Freeing my phone from my pocket, I dialed Garrett.
“Since I’m getting a call this quickly, I’m guessing things didn’t go smoothly after I left either.”
“Oh, they were going smooth until she realized Andre had a very specific nickname.”
“Shit, I knew you’d be fucked with the Lana situation. Are you sure there’s nothing you can do to square that away?”
“Already tried. She won’t even look at me, and on the rare occasion I’ve gotten her to talk to me there were a lot of F-bombs and promises of violence to parts of my body I wasn’t comfortable with.”
Garrett’s laughter on the other end of the phone just pissed me off more. “Sorry, man, I don’t mean to laugh. I know this is serious. Izzy’s your mate, no matter what. She can’t deny that pull. I saw it when you caught her in the water. Hell, I was getting hot at the way she tugged so much closer to you.”
“Yeah, well, that blew all to hell the minute she realized who I was. Now, I don’t know what to do. She took off without another word when she put two and two together.”
“Well, I’m still sorry for scaring her off in the first place, man.”
“It wasn’t you. She mentioned some other guys had been by before us, and I guess they made her uncomfortable. Besides, we were getting along great until we exchanged names. This is one hundred percent my fuck up.”
“We’ll figure out how to fix it.”
“Yeah, but will we figure it out before she leaves? I don’t even know how long she plans to be here.” I huffed out a huge sigh then. “Where did you run off to anyway?”
“Chilling at Vukodlak with Hank.”
“I’ll be there in five. Tell Hank to have a cold one ready.”
Chapter Four
~*~ DRE~*~
“You do realize that as long as Lana is burning a torch for you, you’ll never be able to get close to Izzy, right?”
“Your keen powers of deduction blow my mind, Sherlock. Of course I know that. I just don’t know what to do about it. Hell, I never led her on. I told her straight from the beginning that it was just a hook up.”
“Yeah, but you know how that translates in girl language. You say hook up, as soon as it becomes a series of hook ups, that spells relationship.” Garrett shrugged his shoulders at me as I looked at him in confusion. “I don’t make girl rules, that’s just the way it is.”
“We all tried to warn you, man.” Garrett’s brother, Granger Davis, spouted out. “Women are crazy as fuck. There’s no reasoning with them either. Once they get shit in their heads, it’s done.” Yeah, he sounded a bit bitter about it. He hadn’t even met his mate yet. He’d just recently finally peeled the last stage five clinger chick from his hide, and he was trying to lie low until she found someone else to make her forget about him.
“Granger, you fucking genius!” I laughed out as I popped the top on my next beer.
“Huh?” Garrett questioned while looking back and forth between Granger and myself for the answers to my outburst that he missed in the middle.
“You have chick problems, and what are you doing about it?”
“I’m not doing shit, man. I’m just lying low, and letting that shit blow over.”
“Yeah, but when does it blow over?” I prodded.
“I don’t know, when Andy finds someone else to fill her time, I guess.” Granger shrugged.
“Exactly!” Granger, Garrett, and the ever-silent Hank were all three looking at me like I’d lost my head. “If Lana is distracted by some other dude, she forgets all about me and keeping her niece from me.”
“Well, yeah, that helps with Lana’s fury.” Garrett stated soundly. “What it doesn’t help with is the fact that you slept with
Lana repeatedly, and her niece knows about it. There’s not a damn thing you can do to change that history, man. I have a feeling that even if Lana graciously handed you to the niece on a silver platter, she still wouldn’t accept it. You’re like tainted meat at this point.”
“True, chicks don’t like to share, and if they do, they aren’t the one you want to bring home to the pack.” Granger’s insight didn’t help me this time.
“What if I just tell her the truth?”
All three men chuckled. “Yeah, because that won’t scare her away quicker than the fact that you slept with her aunt.” Hank sniffed out between pulls from his beer bottle.
The drum kit on the stage was suddenly under assault by some kid who had no clue what he was doing. “James, get your ass off that kit!” A shout sounded from somewhere behind the stage triggering laughter in the already growing audience. The kid, who was no more than nine or ten, had the good sense to look embarrassed and haul ass off the stage.
“Band tonight?” I asked, just to change the subject.
“Yeah, should be a good crowd in here tonight,” Hank replied.
“Are you supposed to be chugging beers before your shift?” I nodded to the fourth beer he’d sucked down in the past 45 minutes.
“Man, you know it takes a lot more than this to do anything for me. Damn wolf metabolism. ‘Bout the only time I curse that shit.” He winked at us as he reiterated that point.
I chuckled along with our friends. “That’s why I hit the hard shit,” Garrett offered.
“Hard shit’s too damn expensive,” Hank offered as he tipped his fifth beer up and nodded his head in the direction of the bar. “I’ll send Sally over with refills in just a bit. Duty calls.”
Entwined (Vukodlak Brew Book 1) Page 4
