There's Something About Werewolves: Seven Brides for Seven Shifters, Book 1 (8 page)

Garrett glared.

“We both know you can. Do you really need to prove it at the risk of your friendship with Lennox?”

Ian scoffed loud enough to let them know he’d heard Cash’s words.

Too much had happened. Too much anger, too much confusion, too much…Garrett couldn’t say what else. It had all been too much. Garrett stalked over to one of the leather couches in the open living room and forced himself to sit. “Cash, find out if she’s up for company. If it’s a yes, you know what to do.”

Minutes later, Cash led a smug Ian to Lennox’s room. Garrett rose and stood at the mouth of the hall. Minutes after, Ian quietly closed Lennox’s door behind him and rested his forehead against it.

Mr. Chuckles reeked of rejection. Judging by his hangdog demeanor, there’d be a lot of forlorn howling at the moon tonight. Garrett almost felt guilty for enjoying Ian’s dejection so much. Almost. But it felt damn good to know Lennox had refused comfort from his rival. Chuckles shot him a curt nod before he signaled Dillon to follow and left.

Garrett walked down to Lennox’s room. He listened at the door for a minute. The bed linens rustled but no other sounds escaped the room. He made his way to his office and, calling out to Cash, said, “Let’s eat and get that work done.”

As expected, neither Gran nor Lennox joined them for dinner. Garrett and Cash had been working from the office for several hours. Good thing Hollywood never slept. A lot of moviemakers got late-night phone calls during that time.

Garrett couldn’t focus the way he wanted too. Thoughts of Lennox kept coming to him as he worked. The need to hold her or whisper nonsense to make her laugh splintered his attention.

Hell, he had no idea what he’d been saying all night or who he’d promised what. No doubt he’d negotiated some very bad deals. Even now, a prima-donna actress and her agent were going tag team on his patience. Sure, he wanted her to star in the arthouse film he’d been developing for his directorial debut. Sure, audiences held their breaths when she cried on screen. But right now she stood in the way of him going to Lennox.

“Here’s the thing,” he said, cutting the famous actress off mid-rant, “roses will grow out of your ass before I agree to a paycheck that big.”

Oddly enough the line went dead. Garrett looked at Cash who blinked at him. “Last week,” Cash began slowly, “you told me sunlight shines out of her ass. Can roses really be that far behind?”

Garrett laid the phone down. “Roses don’t grow in the desert.”

The laptop in front of Cash clicked closed. “You’re done for the night. Go check on Lennox.” He stood and stretched. “And get some sleep. We’re back on the clock in four hours.”

Cash left the door open when he left. The next thing Garrett knew he had his ear pressed to Lennox’s door. Quiet words drifted through the wooden barrier and out to him. He’d forgotten her habit of telling the universe what she wanted. It still made him smile.

“It’s just so hard. I don’t have anyone to lean on, nobody to run to when things go wrong for me,” she whispered. “And I’m so damn lonely. It’s crazy. And it hurts.” She choked on what sounded suspiciously like a sob. He knew better. Neither Lennox nor Nox ever cried. From time to time their eyes glistened with unshed tears but their pain never made it to the outside.

After a few ragged breaths she seemed to steady herself. “Don’t I deserve someone to love? Someone who chooses me at the same time I choose him? Not this one-sided stuff I’ve had to deal with my whole life but something real? Something really mine.”

Before now he’d always thought her talks with the universe were cute. Tonight her pleas became a lure, drawing him to her. He understood her better than anyone. They both needed comfort. Hell, he’d been dying to lie in Lennox’s lap and share his pain since his wife died. Lennox had probably needed loving longer. Why not give that to one another? Their trust ran deeper than most. He could hold her and be her shoulder for a while. He’d be there for Lennox—just until she found love with a man who’d mean everything to her the way Tina still meant everything to him.

Garrett opened the door quietly and stepped into the room. Moonlight filtered through the sheers covering the windows. Lennox sat up in bed. His keen night vision focused on the sheets falling to gather at her waist. As the linens rustled Garrett caught the blossoming scent of sexual desire in the air. He went still.

“Garrett?” Her voice wrapped itself around him and tugged. The soft hush of her breaths, the scent of her arousal, and his own loneliness seduced him. He moved soundlessly across the room. Pulling the sheets back, he slid into the bed beside her.

“Garrett?” she said again. He didn’t answer, but wrapped one arm around her waist, slid the other hand into the small curls at her nape, and drew her to him. She stopped breathing. Gently, as though in slow motion, he lay them both down. It felt right to hold her against his chest, to bury his face in her soft hair. The texture of her skin outdid the silken Egyptian cotton sheets they lay on.

He should have done this a long time ago. Now that he knew how incredible she felt he knew he’d do it again. Lennox allowed him to hold her for a few moments. On a long sigh, she turned away, pulling free from his embrace. “Stop it, Garrett.”

“Let me hold you.” He gathered her in again, crushing her lush backside into his front. Mistake number one. His body responded immediately, lengthening and hardening against her softness. Another delicate whiff of desire invited him to touch her. He didn’t refuse the call. His fingers drifted down her belly and stroked over her mound. Mistake number two.

She exhaled on an
ahh
. Garrett loved the sound. He nuzzled her neck, stretching the arm pinned under her side to unbutton the bottom of the men’s dress shirt she’d worn to bed. The fabric carried the faint scent of smoke. She’d been wearing it when he’d rescued her. Why had she put it on again? He shook his head. It didn’t matter. Her scent superseded all.

With the shirt unbuttoned, he had full access to her naked belly and the lacy fluff of her thong. He slipped his hand beneath the lace and slid one finger between her folds. Wet want coated his finger. His cock jumped in response, flattening tighter to his stomach. His need hurt so good. It made him feel alive.

Lennox gripped the back of his hand but didn’t stop him. Garrett continued to tease her clit to pleasure-swollen life until she became slick with desire, and her moans begged him for more. Squeezing her tighter, he played with her nipples through the fabric of the shirt with one hand while he plunged two fingers deep inside her with the other. The twin peaks of her breasts pebbled. He wanted to see them, to taste the sweetness of her skin. But he knew he couldn’t do that. If he went that far, there’d be no turning back.

Panting, Lennox rubbed her ass in circles against him. He gritted his teeth. It took everything he had not to free himself from his jeans and drive into her wet, waiting body. She smelled so damn good and felt better.

But he’d come to her for her pleasure. She needed the release and he wouldn’t complicate it any more than he already had.

Her body craved erotic touch so badly. She filled his nose, his sense of touch, and his mind so fully he couldn’t function beyond getting her off. It only took a few minutes before her inner walls convulsed around his fingers and she came, rocking against him, her hands clutching his. Garrett reveled in the power of bringing her to orgasm so quickly. She hadn’t allowed any other man to do this for her in a long time. He could tell by the tightness of her sheath. “That’s right, my Elle, take it all and ride it out,” he whispered.

A gentle tapping at the door jolted them as sure as an explosion. Lennox rolled away from him and pulled the covers over her delectable body. Garrett cursed at the loss of contact. The press of her ass to his body had felt like home. And he and his cock had been celebrating homecoming.

“Leni,” Gran called through the door. “I can’t hide it from you anymore. I’ve got terrible news and it’s completely my fault. We’re broke, honey. Every dime we had burned up in that fire.”

Chapter Eight

Four cups of Gran’s coffee later Lennox still had the shakes. “Explain it to me again, Gran. What happened to all our money?”

Gran clasped her hands together and rubbed them as though arthritis had set in. “Oh, Leni,” she said, looking up from across the table. “I got real scared when I thought another Great Depression was coming and the banks seemed more con men than trusted institutions. I decided our money would be safer at home.”

Lennox stared at her own shaking hands. She needed to do something with them so she twisted her curls up, and tucked the mass into a bun on top of her head. “But we have money in the bank. The household fund is right there along with the diner operating account. I saw it earlier this week.” Her voice started to rise with each word. The last came out as a squeak.

Garrett’s sudden touch made her go rigid. He massaged his thumbs into the knots of tension she usually called shoulder blades. The combination of his touch and her situation made her mind race. He’d just had those same fingers on her naked body, inside her. And, have mercy, it’d been so good. Those fingers sent soothing heat straight into her soul. She resisted but melted anyway.

Gran read Lennox’s sagging shoulders as defeat. She scooted her chair around the corner of the table and patted her knee. “I know. I deposit money into those accounts each month to cover the bills and accounts payable. But I sold off all our stock and took the savings out of the bank.”

Thunk
. Lennox’s forehead banged onto the table. Even with her neck healing as quickly as her body always did, the action still hurt. She’d welcomed the pain. She needed it to clear her head.

Garrett stepped in. “Gran, I know you. You’d take the precaution of putting the money in a fire-proof box.”

Gran jumped up, her voice sailing toward soprano. “I did. I did, Garrett. But, well.” She sat. Her head drooped to her chest. “I liked having all the money around. Sometimes I’d take it out and…and…”

“What?” Lennox asked.

What shade of crazy would make Gran play with their money?

Gran stood up and went to stand behind Garrett. Peeking around him, she whispered, “Sometimes I’d take it out, spread it on the floor and…” She went silent.

“Give me a break, Gran. What?”

Gran’s answer came out a whisper. “I’d spread it out and
moll mmm nit
.” Lennox didn’t quite hear the response but the look on Garrett’s face told her she wasn’t going to like it. “I can’t hear you, old woman.”

Her grandmother didn’t bother showing her face this time. She spoke from behind the big male body between them. The words came out in a rush. “I liked to roll around in the money. Not all the time, about once a month. Then I’d stack it up, count it and put it all back in the safe. Only yesterday I hadn’t finished counting it when the house burned down.”

Lennox downed her fifth mug in one gulp. Thankfully Cash had set it in front of her while Gran explained the absolute ridiculousness of the situation. The coffee burned. Why not? Her whole life had gone up bonfire style.

An odd feeling filled her chest as she set the mug down. Her emotions whirled as though a tornado stormed within her. The totality of everything she’d been through in the last few days—seeing Garrett again, the betrayal she thought she’d buried resurrected, she’d fallen for Nox, got a concussion, sprained her neck, her house burned down, and she’d lost all her money because her grandmother liked to roll in it. Oh dear and fluffy lord, she’d lost more than $441,082. 00 in that fire. The entire whirlwind of it all pushed its way into her throat and erupted.

Hysterical laughter boiled out of her. Lennox covered her mouth. She knew she sounded completely nuts but she couldn’t stop. Too much. It was all too much. She pounded on the table and laughed. Garrett and Gran exchanged startled looks. She kept giggling. It went on far longer than sanity allowed for until, exhausted, Lennox laid her head down on top of her arms and shook.

Gran threw herself over her bent back and hugged. “Call Dillon,” she said. “My baby girl needs a doctor.”

“She doesn’t need a doctor,” Garrett said. “She needs rest and peace of mind.”

She’d lost a good piece of her mind already. Lennox shrugged free of her grandmother, kissed the old girl on the cheek, and stood. “I’m going for a run.”

With that, she straightened her clothes and headed for her room. No. Not her room. The room Garrett had lent her. Inside her borrowed closet she found a full wardrobe of clothes with the tags still on, along with several beautiful vintage items. Every piece perfectly suited her style. Garrett knew her so well. He’d bought her nearly thirty pairs of shoes too. Many of them in the updated ’50s style she preferred. Hell, the man had even provided a ton of workout clothes. Odd how his generosity made her want to cry. Only Lennox didn’t do the crying thing. Her eyes might get wet from time to time but that was the limit.

She slipped into a black racer-back top, with lime-green panels on the side, and the matching spandex leggings. Topping it off with a pair of FiveFingers running shoes, she pulled the Velcro flaps tight over the arches of her feet.

A run would clear her mind. Lennox rolled her neck and marveled for a second time at how fast she healed. At most she kept a cold for half a day and her physical injuries healed three times faster than doctors expected. The same as with Gran.

Exiting the room, she made a right turn. To avoid the rest of the household she slipped out the side door and into the woods. Something nagged at her but she didn’t give herself time to think. She needed to sweat. She didn’t want to hear her own thoughts, only the wind rushing past her ears.

Leaping over a fallen log, she fell into an easy pace. She dodged in and out of the trees as she ran, loving every minute of it. Lennox hadn’t run in the woods in so long. As an adult she’d kept to the roads. But as a kid she’d run in here all the time. That nagging at the edge of her mind pushed forward. She ignored it, concentrating on the rhythm of her feet striking the soft moss.

As a tween she’d been free to run. She’d played catch with the trees and chased the shadows. She wanted to be there again. To never have to make the hard choices, be free of responsibility, free of fear.

Fear killed.

Her heart stuttered and she lost her footing. Memories were equally deadly. Picking up her pace, she steadied her body. Her mind still whispered of the danger. The things she feared stalked the woods. Red wolves, coyotes, and stray dogs ruled here.

She would have turned back but she heard a noise behind her. The crackle of leaves, a snapping twig…perhaps the rush of someone or something’s breathing. Lennox ran faster. No. No. Not this time. She wouldn’t let fear and memory beat her down. But she remembered despite herself. The dog, wolf, or coyote from that long-ago day pushed through the fog of the past and growled.

She had turned thirteen on the day the beast tracked her. She realized she’d been hunted then. The animal had paced her just beyond her field of vision. Stalking.

When it’d found the right moment it pounced. Cruel teeth seared deep into the flesh of her hip. She’d tasted coopery blood as she tumbled and struck the ground, face first. She’d flipped over to face it. The acid of terror burned her throat when the beast straddled her chest. Every second stretched into an eternity of terror. Amber eyes stared into her; hot breath sucked in all available air until she thought she would suffocate. Crouching low, its nose touching her face, it leaped over her head. As she’d scrambled in the opposite direction the beast turned for one final glance. Their gazes held. Then it disappeared into the trees.

Here and now her legs faltered again. Another twig snapped. Were those footsteps? She wanted to scream but she didn’t want the beast to know where she was. If it was searching for her again, she should be quiet, invisible. She looked for a tree to climb but the lowest branches surrounding her were out of reach. Panicked, she hid behind the widest trunk she could find and slid soundlessly to the ground.

The scar on her hip sizzled like a griddle burn. Bad memories became physical. They brought the injury to freshly wounded life and clawed at her throat. If a dog, or coyote, or, worst, a wolf chased her, she’d surrender completely to the fear. The beast had beaten her twenty years ago and she still hadn’t regained enough strength to fight it off. If it came for her again, she’d give in.

Footsteps, two sets, crushed leaves as they ran through the woods. Lennox curled into a ball, making herself as small as possible. Two animals chased her this time. Two beasts could cut off any path to escape she chose. Best to be quiet, to play dead, and hope to remain unseen.

She lost her faith in her invisibility as the footfalls grew louder, quickly closing the distance between her and them. She bit into her bottom lip and tasted a trace of blood. How many scars would the beasts leave her with this time around?

“You’re too loud,” the voice she adored said. “I’m more than twice your size and am making less noise than you.”

Garrett?

Her heart stopped but her lungs sucked in fresh air. Strange how that worked.

“I’m trying,” Nox said. “Why can’t I just change and do it?”

“Baby steps,” Garrett replied. “Ease into it first. I’m worried about your lack of control.”

Silence sat between them for a few moments. “Don’t give me that look. It’s my fault you don’t have control, okay. Better?”

Lennox guessed Nox must have nodded because they started running again. They’d pass her hiding place in a few seconds. She couldn’t let them see her curled up against a tree, shivering like a hairless baby monkey. Not hardly. So she blinked away the terror-induced moisture in her eyes and did the most sensible thing she could think of. She started tying her shoes. Only the FiveFingers had Velcro flaps. Dammit. She undid and redid the flaps a couple of times until the smaller, louder footsteps stopped to her right.

She looked up and smiled. “Hey, Nox. What are you doing out here?”

Nox inclined his head to one side and stared down at her. A full range of glee, puzzlement, and something she couldn’t name transformed his expression several times over. Finally he said, “You’ve been crying. I can smell the salt from tears.”

“The hell you say,” Lennox said a little too loudly. She wiped her face but her fingers came away dry. Could Nox really smell tears she hadn’t shed? If so, he’d inherited the trick. Garrett had an incredible sense of smell too.

“Look, nut bucket…” She reached out for Nox to help her up. He took hold and pulled her to her feet. “When I run I’m so quick the wind starts whipping past me…” She mimed running, doing a shimmy and pumping her arms. “The next thing I know tears start flowing.” She stopped to check whether or not her godson was buying her nonsense. He nodded. She had him fooled. To seal the deal she finished with, “I ain’t sad. I’m quick.”

Garrett scoffed from behind them. “You’re out of your mind,” he said.

“No I ain’t,” she replied, saucily sticking out her chin. “I’ll race you two to the lake and then we’ll see.” Two blurs of Westlake male whizzed past her before she finished. Holy hell. Go time.

Lennox beat Nox to the grassy shore of the lake by a few paces. Garrett pushed away from the tree trunk he’d been leaning on and crossed his arms. It’d taken her all of sixty seconds to make it to the lakeshore. How long had Garrett been waiting? “Nice to see you two again, Snail and Molasses,” he said. “How was the trip?”

On a quick glance at Nox, Lennox pointed. “He’s snail. I’m molasses.”

Nox made one of those indignant sounds teenage boys excel at. “I had my backpack on.”

She caught him in a hold somewhere between a headlock and hugging his neck. “Oh yeah. Sure, your iPad weighs a ton.”

Nox pretended to struggle. He flailed, begging for mercy before scooping her off the ground. Lennox yelped—she’d been doing a lot of that lately.

Holding her high, by her waist and the crook of her knees, Nox walked over to his father. “Here,” he said, trying to hand her off.

Garrett’s arms remained crossed. “What do you want me to do with her?”

“I don’t know.” Nox shrugged. “Look after her while I set us up to play.”

“You got any money?” Garrett asked.

“I’m supposed to inherit a ton,” Nox said, looking hopeful.

“Put me down, you nut,” Lennox interrupted their banter. “What am I? A puppy?”

Nox put her down and jogged over to the backpack he’d dropped during their wrestling. Garrett looked her over. “Well, you are pretty cute with those ponytails on either side of your head. Kinda like those little dogs. What are they called?” He pondered for a second. “Ah, Shih Tzus.”

“Bite me, big boy.”

“We tried that this morning.”

And now she needed to change the subject. Why did he have to bring up their early-morning rendezvous with her still so confused, and horny, and scared from the woods, and horny, and homeless. Oh yeah, and hornier than a horny toad riding a Texas longhorn while playing trumpet in the horn section of a jazz band. Damn she needed to get laid.

Instead of sharing that fact with Garrett, she stretched and pretended to watch boats glide by on the lake. She needed to get out there and go wake boarding sometime this summer. Sports relieved a lot of her stress. Maybe Nox would want to go too. Speaking of Nox. “Why is that kid so strong?” she asked Garrett. “I’m still freaked out from him picking me up.”

Garrett shrugged with the same easy grace as Nox. “He’s my son.”

“You should teach a class on clarity and how
not
to bring it to a situation.”

His brows lifted in response. She echoed his expression. When a slow smile curved his delectable lips butterflies with wings of liquid flame began to flutter in her belly. Lennox dropped to a bent knee in order to tie the nonexistent laces on her sneakers for a second time. Garrett took in a deep breath as if smelling the air. When she looked at him his amused expression turned positively wicked.

Lennox blanched. If Garrett got her naked again, he was going to eat her alive. Her nipples did the pebbling thing. She chewed the inside of her cheek. “You look like the big bad wolf,” she said.