The Mating (31 page)

She’d hoped for more, but knew from past experience that Bryan wasn’t easily swayed. He’d need to mull the situation over on his own and come to his own conclusions. Hopefully, they would be the right ones. With a nod, Elise stood up and Bryan walked her to her car.

“I hope I get to see you again, some day.” He took her hands in his.

“You will, Bryan. This isn’t goodbye. Our paths will cross again, I know.” Elise desperately hoped she was telling the truth. Bryan had been a big part of her life and she was going to miss him.

Bryan gave her hands another squeeze, but Elise wasn’t really aware of the pressure. A strange feeling was washing over her, as if someone was watching. Slowly she turned to look across the road towards the Grey Goose. Standing on the steps talking to Mr. Mancini was Kane.

Even from this distance, Elise could feel the anger radiating from him. It felt as if his eyes were boring holes right through her and she gave a shudder of fear. Never had she thought she’d be on the receiving end of such wrath.

Sensing her distraction, Bryan turned to see what had caught her attention. A low whistle escaped his lips. “Hey, Elise, isn’t that your mate?” She was only capable of giving a short nod. “He seems majorly pissed off.”

“He is. You’d better leave.” Not even looking at Bryan, she shoved him away.

“Will you be all right? Maybe I should stay.”

“No!” Elise forced her gaze away from Kane and looked at Bryan’s worried face. “Leave. Please. I’ll be okay.” She remembered how territorial Kane had been last time, he’d met Bryan. Now, with her being in heat, he’d be even more so and she didn’t want the two of them ending up having a fight in the middle of town.

Reluctantly, Bryan left and Elise kept half an eye on him to ensure he kept going, while watching Kane. Mr. Mancini was talking to him, but Kane wasn’t really listening. Briefly, Elise considered leaving, but knew she’d have to face Kane and explain at some point in time. She might as well get it over with now.

She didn’t have long to wait. Either the conversation ended abruptly or Kane just walked away for suddenly he was crossing the street towards her. Vaguely she was aware of Mr. Mancini shaking his head as he watched Kane leave and then giving a melodramatic shrug before going back inside, but mostly she was focussed on Kane’s approach. His nostrils were flaring, no doubt picking up the scent of her pheromones that were wafting towards him on the gentle breeze that was meandering down the street. Oh great! That was just going to set him off even more.

Her mouth felt dry and she was sure her knees were knocking. Licking her lips, she started to speak as soon as he reached her side. “Kane, I can explain everything.”

“Explain? How can you begin to explain meeting with an unattached male when you’re in heat?” His voice was so low and filled with anger that she could scarcely get her next words out.

“Bryan’s not another male, he’s my friend.”

“Oh right. I remember the kind of ‘friendship’ the two of you have.”

“No! It’s not like that anymore.”

“No? Then tell me, why have you been secretly contacting him?”

“I—I haven’t been
secretly
contacting him!”

“Of course, forgive me.
He’s
been contacting
you
.” Elise opened her mouth to protest, but Kane continued speaking, his voice increasing in volume. “Don’t try and deny it. I heard him on the answering machine—three times he’s called you!”

“What?” Elise hadn’t meant to shout, but she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Next time you remind me to change the tape in the answering machine, make sure you’ve erased all the old messages first. I suppose you never thought I’d listen to it before throwing it out.”

Elise stared at him open mouthed as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. Bryan had only called once and Marla had taken the call… Wait! Hadn’t Marla said that someone had phoned for her several times and she’d let the answering machine take the calls before finally deciding to pick up? It had completely slipped her mind until this very moment. That must be what Kane was talking about. “But I can—“

“Explain? I’d like to see how.” Kane looked around, as if suddenly realizing that they were standing in the street and their raised voices were attracting attention. He grabbed her arm, opened her car door, and pushed her inside. “We’ll finish this at home and don’t try to run off with your friend. I’ll be following right behind.”

It took Elise a few tries to get the key in the ignition; she was so upset, her hand was shaking. Kane was really mad and she could see his point, in a way. On the other hand, he should have some faith in her; she’d done nothing previous to this to warrant such suspicion.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw that Kane was driving about two car lengths behind her. Hopefully, he’d cool down on the way home and be willing to listen to reason. His background while growing up would make him more sensitive to the idea of infidelity. Marla had dropped him for Ryne, so possibly he was expecting the worst, based on past experiences. He’d just watched her with Bryan and those phone messages were pretty incriminating, but at least there was nothing else. Unless of course, he’d heard Rose’s rumour. Surely if he had, he would have mentioned it though.

Unsure of what to think, Elise felt herself becoming more and more tense, the closer she got to home. By the time she pulled into the driveway, she was a mess. Would Kane be reasonable or angry? Had he heard the rumour or not? Would he listen to her explanation or just continue to jump to conclusions based on his own past?

The more she thought, the more her agitation increased. Suddenly, she realised she was sweating. God, it was too hot in the car! It felt claustrophobic; the air was stale. She unzipped her coat, while pushing the door open, welcoming the rush of cool air over her skin. As she went to get out, something jerked her back inside. Damn! She’d forgotten to take off her seatbelt. Fumbling, she worked the clasp, wanting to scream in frustration as the lock resisted her initial efforts. Finally free of the restraint mechanism, she slammed the car door shut and stomped towards the front porch.

The sound of Kane pulling in behind her had her turning to look his way. Through the windshield, their eyes met and she could easily tell by the set of his face that he was still upset. Suddenly and inexplicably, she was angry at the whole lousy predicament she’d landed in, and glared at him before spinning around with a flip of her ponytail and briskly walking inside. It was a distinct snub, but at this moment, she really didn’t care.

Elise stormed up the stairs towards the bedroom. The front door slammed behind her as Kane entered, but she didn’t look back. Her emotions were vacillating rapidly; at the moment anger was foremost. How dare Kane accuse her of infidelity? She’d done absolutely nothing wrong!

Once in their room, she headed for the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Running cold water, she splashed some on her face, trying desperately to cool down. She was so hot, her nerves were on edge, her skin was crawling… Leaning against the vanity, she looked into the mirror. Oh great! It was last night all over again: eyes dilated, cheeks flushed, rapid breathing. At least this time Kane was here, but he was too mad at her to do anything to ease her discomfort. Somehow she doubted that jumping her bones was his main priority right now, and quite frankly, she was too put out with him to find the idea very appealing either.

The sound of the door handle rattling caused her to jump. “Elise, come out of there this instant!”

“Keep your shirt on!” She shouted back. The sound of Kane huffing and stomping away followed her comment.

Briefly, she considered staying in the bathroom and taking another cold shower, but the argument still needed to be resolved and hiding wouldn’t solve anything. She sighed deeply then rubbed her arms with her hands, torn between the primal urge to mate, the need to make Kane understand what had really happened, and wanting to avoid his wrath as long as possible by staying right where she was. The longer she hesitated, the more the intoxicating male scent of him drifted under the door and into the small room, teasing her nostrils and elevating her hormones. He was aroused too—she could smell it—and even if it was mostly due to anger, her body yearned for his. Almost of its own volition, her hand reached for the handle and turned the knob.

As the door swung open, she saw Kane standing by the dresser, a book clutched in his hand. Why would he be reading a book at a time like this? Confused, she squinted at the leather cover—it looked just like her diary! She hadn’t seen it for a few days and had been wondering how she could have misplaced it.  But how had it ended up on the dresser? Temporarily distracted from all the other issues, she stepped out of the bathroom. “Is that my diary?”
“Well, it certainly isn’t mine.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice.
“That’s personal! You shouldn’t be reading it!” She walked towards him, intent on retrieving her book.
“Then don’t leave it lying open on the dresser, especially not to the parts where you’re swooning over that pup.” Kane fairly snarled at her, throwing the book down in obvious disgust.
“Don’t call Bryan a pup! And I’m not swooning over him!”
“Oh no?” Kane snatched up the diary from the floor and read it in a mocking tone. “Bryan’s so good looking. I love watching him move and seeing his muscles ripple. When he touches me, I can hardly think straight and his kisses drive me insane.”
Shocked, Elise felt her mouth drop open. “I never wrote that!”
“Are you saying this isn’t your writing?” Kane shoved the book at her and she took it, studying the entry. It looked like her 
handwriting,
but she would have never written that. Flipping back a few pages, she discovered that someone had forged several entries after the last one in which she’d said she was meeting Bryan. Dismayed, Elise looked up at Kane, shaking her head in denial.
“Kane, I swear I didn’t write that. I don’t know who…” Her mind racing, Elise recalled the day that she’d found Marla leaving their room, claiming to have been looking for a book to read. Well, obviously the she-wolf had certainly found something to read—her diary! Pursing her lips, she fumed about how nasty Marla’s actions were. “Kane, I think Marla wrote that. My diary went missing the same day I found her in our room—”

“Oh come on, Elise. Quit blaming Marla for your own mistakes. You got careless and left this out.”

“No, it’s true! She’s jealous of our relationship and wants to break us up.”

“Then why has she been encouraging us to spend time together? Even staying back to do the dishes, so we could go running together. Explain that.”

“Well…I don’t know why.” Elise nervously dug her nails into the book in her hands, unsure of Marla’s motives at that time.

“Because there
is
no reason. Face it, Elise. I caught you red handed—the messages, the diary—I even saw you with him.”

“But none of this is what it seems! Before today, we only met once just to talk, because he happened to be in town.”

“Right and I’m supposed to believe that?” Kane sneered at her.

“It’s the truth,” she insisted, feeling herself growing more frustrated by the mounting circumstantial evidence.

“Then why are there at least three messages from him on the answering machine tape?”

“We were out for a run. He must have called a few times in one night.” Light suddenly dawned. “That’s it! That’s the night Marla told us to go out. She’d heard me on the phone earlier, talking to Sarah, and knew that Bryan would call to confirm a time. Then she made sure we were out and let the machine pick up his calls so there’d be a record of it. Marla was planning to use the tape all along!”

“That’s just a lot of wild supposition.” Kane turned away and stalked across the room, breathing heavily. He ran his hands through his hair, before turning to face her again. “You know what I can’t figure out, why didn’t I smell him on you?”

“Because of Marla and her stupid perfume.” Elise answered bitterly. “That’s what caused this mess to begin with. If I hadn’t let her—“

“How the hell does Marla’s perfume work into this?”

“When I met Bryan for the first time—for a platonic meeting, I might add—Marla scented him on me and said you’d be angry—just like you are right now. She put some perfume on me that masks scents.”

“Oh, so it’s all Marla’s fault that you decided to hide something from me?”

“Well, I never intended not to tell you. Things just kept getting in the way. But I planned on telling you. Really I did! That’s why I left you that note…” She gestured towards the mirror and then blinked in surprise. What? There was no note stuck to the glass! Rushing over, she checked the surface of the dresser and even peered onto the floor, but nothing was there. It only took her a moment to realise what had happened. Marla must have entered the bedroom, planning to leave the diary open on the dresser and, when she saw the note, took it with her. Possibly, she’d even rewound the answering machine tape to ensure that when Kane played his messages, Bryan’s would be the ones heard. Growling in frustration, Elise turned to look at Kane.

“Well? Where’s this supposed note?”

“It’s gone. Marla probably took it when she left the diary here.”

Kane snorted and rolled his eyes.

Elise felt her temper begin to override her sense of guilt. “Kane, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable? I think I’m being damned reasonable. After discovering those messages, I came into town to find you, but you weren’t even at work. You were across the street, fawning over Bryan. It was amazingly reasonable of me not to go after him and rip him to shreds today, especially after Edward explained to me how he’d overheard you arranging to meet a ‘friend’ across the street.”

“Edward?”

“My friend, Edward Mancini. Your boss.”

“Mr. Mancini is your friend?”

“Of course!” Kane snorted derisively. “How do you think you got the job? You had no qualifications. I pulled a few strings to get you hired so you’d be happy.”

Elise’s pride was hurt. “How dare you interfere with me getting a job! I wanted to do that on my own!”