Chapter 4 Carys
FOUR
CARYS
Carys sat in her Jeep trying to psych herself into going inside the restaurant. She wanted this date almost more than she wanted to breathe, and that’s what bothered her.
What if the reason she wanted him was biologically driven instead of what she really wanted? Her mother had always told her that even without a wolf, she had the blood and would have the drive if she met the one for her.
Carys and her mom had fled their pack when she was very young.
However, one of her memories was of her dad insisting that Carys had zero shifter instincts, including a mate drive.
Her mother had always been adamant that she did, which is why she’d kept Carys away from shifters.
She didn’t want her getting irrevocably bound to anyone in the Domino pack, because according to her mother, they were all monsters.
From what she was learning about her father, she wasn’t wrong.
Now she found herself stuck. Stuck with her father. Stuck with his plans for Kansas, and stuck in her car, unable to move forward.
If she did, she knew Monster would get caught up in her father’s twisted plan. Then he’d never forgive her nor believe that she hadn’t set him up.
If it wasn’t for her mother dying, she’d come clean to Monster and turn the tables on her father.
All she could do was try to come up with a plan to … hell, she didn’t even know. Maybe sabotage her father’s attempts without him realizing she’s doing it?
“Piece of cake, Carys,” she spoke aloud to herself. She couldn’t do it. It was best if she just left and blocked his number. With her hand on the gearshift, ready to toss it in reverse and burn rubber before Monster showed up, there was a rap on her window.
“Shit.” She screamed and threw up her hands to cover her eyes. Carys didn’t run or fight back when she was scared. Nope, she covered her face and froze in place.
“Not thinking of standing me up, are you?” When she looked up toward Monster’s face looming outside, she saw his gaze trained on her gear shifter in the reverse position.
“Oh,” she put it in park and turned off the ignition before he opened her door.
“Um, no, of course not.” She grabbed her purse.
“I was just, uh …” She trailed off, unable to come up with a single plausible reason for her trying to back out of the lot.
Not to mention, she decided not to add a stupid lie to the pile of deception she had already shoveled.
“Actually, yes. I talked myself out of going through with the date and was going to bolt.”
Monster looked at her with a mixture of confusion and a little hurt.
“If you don’t want to be here—”
“No. I do, and that’s why I was about to run.” She took a deep breath and went for as much truth as she could. “You’ve got heartbreak written all over you and, well, I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime.”
Her answer seemed to thaw his icy gaze and brighten his devastatingly handsome face. The smile made him even hotter, way out of her league, but damn it, she deserved a night with a sexy biker, even if it would break her. That was a worry for tomorrow.
Monster reached for her hand and looped it around his arm to usher her into the restaurant. Leaning down, he purred in her ear. “I don’t plan to break your heart, Pixie, I plan to feed you, fuck you, and then tie you to my bed.”
His breath was warm on her ear, causing goosebumps to erupt on her skin as a shiver coursed through her.
After nipping her ear, he whispered, “You like the sound of that, don’t you?”
He didn’t give her a chance to confirm or deny before he stood up straight and pulled the door open.
Carys wasn’t sure if it was the warm air from the restaurant or the heat radiating off Monster that had her overheating, but either way it was overwhelming.
“Right this way.”
The hostess led them to a table. While she barely glanced at Carys, she’d bet dollars to doughnuts that the young girl who looked barely out of high school could describe Monster in detail.
It wasn’t like she was surprised; the man had that effect on people.
“So, um, what do you do for work?” she asked nervously. It sounded lame, but she didn’t know how to get the ball rolling.
“I work at a few of the club businesses. Um, mostly security.” She was sure that wasn’t the whole story, but it wasn’t like he’d come out and talk about the casino they ran illegally. Yeah, she knew because her dad knew and couldn’t stop his monologue about them like a supervillain in a movie.
The thought made her laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, just makes sense that you’d be the uh, muscle. Look at you. Do you blend anywhere you go?”
As if to make her point, a bubbly waitress with fake boobs practically bounced over to their table. Never taking her lustful gaze from Monster. Hell, Carys could’ve had two heads and one of them gnawing on a human femur, and Rachel—as she’d introduced herself to Monster—wouldn’t have noticed.
As if to say, point made with her body language, she leaned back with her arms crossed over her chest. One eyebrow raised and a smug smile on her lips.
“What would you like, handsome, besides my number?” She asked while touching his arm.
Monster grasped the wrist of her questing hand as if it were dirty and removed it from his person before clearing his throat.
“I’d like you to take my woman’s order first.” He practically growled the words, and Carys tried really hard not to read too much into him calling her his woman or how he seemed completely disgusted by Rachel’s touch.
Carys also noticed he didn’t seem pleased, and not just with the waitress, but with himself for some reason.
Rachel turned to Carys with a glare. “What do you want?” She asked none too friendly.
“How about another waitress?” Monster groused.
“It’s fine, sweetie pie,” Carys oozed with a sugar-sweet tone. “You can’t blame her, can you? You’re a fine man.”
She turned to Rachel. “Right? He is fine.” She broke eye contact and studied the menu, but continued to speak in that sweet but conversational tone.
“And since I’m absolutely famished, I’ll let whatever little display that was pass.
I mean, I wouldn’t want to be accused of having a hangry outburst.”
Carys laughed as if it were all a joke to her, but inside, she was secretly fuming. She was tired of being treated as anything from an afterthought to someone contemptible by everyone, including waitstaff. Everyone but Monster, that hopeful voice inside her added.
“However, after the appetizer, if you touch him again, well, it won’t be my stomach’s fault when I react poorly and, oh, I don’t know, scoop an eye out with a spoon.
Then they’ll start throwing around words like premeditated and unhinged.
” She added a silly giggle and quickly pivoted to add to the unhinged part.
“Oh, I’ll have a tea and the hummus plate to start. What about you, sweetie pie?”
She closed her menu and sat smiling and staring at Monster, whose mouth was slightly agape and a look of lust flooding into his blue eyes.
Not looking directly at Rachel, she could feel the anger coming from her at being talked to that way.
“I’ll have tea too.”
“Anything else?” Rachel asked stiffly.
“What do you think?” Carys asked Monster. “I want that supreme vegan pizza, but I can’t eat the whole thing. Want to split it?”
Carys loved her cheese. It was the one reason she wasn’t vegan—however, it didn’t love her. She didn’t like vegan cheese, but she also didn’t want a bad stomach tonight.
Monster nodded, then spoke to Rachel. “We’ll take that, but can you do half with no cheese? I don’t like the vegan cheese.”
“Leave it off the whole thing, please, Rachel. I’m not a huge fan either.”
Rachel nodded, gathered the menus, and left.
“So, I wouldn’t have pegged you for the type to have tried vegan cheese.” Carys said, her curiosity piqued. She’d never met a wolf who had a very extensive palate.
“Prez’s daughter is vegan and his ol’ lady is like a part-time vegetarian, I think. But the kid makes food for us all the time. The cheese has a weird texture.”
“Agreed. There are a few that are pretty good, but by and large, it has a long way to go before it converts any of us die-hard cheese lovers.”
“Yeah, well, when you meet Cass, don’t mention that. She’ll show you videos of dairy cows and sad calves until you swear off dairy.”
Her heart skipped a beat at his words just as Rachel returned with their drinks and the appetizer.
He said, when you meet her, not if. She knew it was probably just a word choice and not to read anything into it, but she couldn’t help herself. She was already thinking of ways to keep Monster in her life.
They stopped talking for a few moments to enjoy the appetizer.
Carys found she didn’t hate the silence.
Normally, she had a need to talk and talk and talk, never letting the silence just exist. She hadn’t understood until then …
she’d never been comfortable enough with someone before, so the silence felt wrong, but it didn’t with him.
That thought should’ve brought some measure of comfort since it was a first, but it had the opposite impact. She felt scared and unsure. If she already felt that comfortable with him, she was already invested more than she should be. She was setting herself up for heartbreak.
Her blood had hummed when he’d kissed her in the bar, but she forced herself to ignore it. His body obviously didn’t react the same way, so her blood had to be wrong. Maybe she just wanted it to be, so she imagined it.
Before she knew it, the hummus was all gone, and Monster was licking his fingers before wiping them on his napkin.
Damn, the man must exude an aphrodisiac from his pores because she had never been so turned on just by another’s presence as she was with Monster.
Monster reached across the table, grabbing her hand and interlacing her fingers. “Tell me about your family?”