Chapter 12
Byron tamped down his impatience. The day had dragged on as if he were a six-year-old waiting for Santa Claus or a kid in the back seat of a car, asking for the umpteenth time: Are we there yet?
Dinner had been torture. All of Jude’s men had been fussing over Charlotte, and it was evident that she was well-liked by them.
Everybody had hugged her—far too tightly for his liking— and she’d joked with them as if she’d known them all her life.
And maybe she had. Why else would she behave in such a familiar way with them, allowing them to touch her?
By the looks of it, all of Jude’s men were interested in what she had to say.
They listened to her funny stories, recalling embarrassing incidents she’d witnessed growing up among the members of the Werewolf Alliance in Montana.
Why she wasn’t mated at her age when so many men were clearly interested in her was anybody’s guess.
Why the hell had she even slept with him when it was glaringly obvious that none of the men assembled tonight—except for Jude and Austin, and possibly her cousin Mason—would have said no to such an offer?
That thought only emphasized his belief that she had an ulterior motive to sleep with him.
The more he watched her interact with the men from the Werewolf Alliance, the more he was convinced that everything she’d told him the previous night was made up.
He could barely eat anything and just pushed the food around on his plate, while he downed more wine than he should.
Luckily, as a werewolf, he had a high threshold not just for pain, but also for alcohol.
He was still stone-cold sober by the time the dinner finally ended.
As everybody got up to leave, he grabbed a few plates to look like he was helping with the cleanup so he could walk by Charlotte’s chair.
While pretending to reach for her dirty plate, he managed to whisper into her ear without anybody noticing.
“Midnight, in the basement.”
“Oh, thanks,” she said cheerfully and handed him her plate, playing along.
He took a few more plates and headed toward the door.
Priscilla stopped him. “Byron, you don’t need to do that. Heath and I will clean up.”
“I don’t mind,” he said, and it was actually the truth, because if he kept busy, the time until midnight wouldn’t feel as long. “I can help.”
Without waiting for her reply, he carried the dishes into the kitchen, where he set them down, then took a large serving tray and headed back into the dining room.
When Flora looked at him as if he’d lost his marbles, he held his head high and didn’t give her a chance to comment.
It didn’t matter what Flora was thinking about his willingness to help with household chores.
He was glad when everyone moved to the living room for after-dinner drinks, leaving him, Priscilla, and her brother Heath to clean up.
It gave him a convenient excuse not to have to make small talk with the rest of the family and the Werewolf Alliance members.
It was safer this way, because he wasn’t sure how long he could hide the fact that he knew Charlotte intimately.
What if he looked at her for too long and too intensely, drawing suspicion onto him?
What if he couldn’t hide that, despite the fact that she was Jude’s sister and their meeting hadn’t been a coincidence, he was still drawn to her like a moth to the light?
He couldn’t risk anybody in the house finding out about him and Charlotte.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, Byron descended to the basement dressed in jogging pants and a T-shirt.
If anybody saw him, he could pretend that he was on his way to go running in his wolf form.
The house was quiet now. He waited in the room with the cage with thick iron rods, where rogue werewolves could be chained up if they presented a danger to the pack.
He didn’t have to wait long. The sound of faint footfalls became louder, and when they reached the basement corridor, he smelled her.
Her delicious scent invaded his nostrils and caused an erection that he didn’t need right now.
He wasn’t here to have sex with Charlotte but to find out why she’d really slept with him the previous night.
When Charlotte entered the room, he didn’t say anything and simply looked at her.
She wore a bathrobe that was several sizes too big for her.
It probably belonged to Austin. She looked vulnerable in it, but he wouldn’t let that influence him.
She had probably dressed like this for a reason.
But this time, he was prepared. It didn’t matter that her dark hair framed her face, emphasizing her high cheekbones, her green eyes, and her red lips.
Her graceful neck looked as if it were made of alabaster.
In the silence between them, he could hear her heartbeat drumming against her chest, while every breath sent more of her intoxicating scent to wrap around him and ensnare him like a well-set trap. A honey trap.
Trying to ignore the effect Charlotte had on him, he made the first move.
“Last night, did you know who I was?”
“Did you?” she shot back.
“I’m not the one who gave a wrong name… Charlie.”
“What are you accusing me of?” she spat, narrowing her eyes.
“You know exactly what I’m saying.”
“Please, do explain yourself,” she said with a voice dripping with sarcasm.
“You seduced me because Jude asked you to.” So they could coerce him into doing God-knows-what.
“Jude? You really think that my brother would send me to sleep with you? If he knew that I had sex with you, he would have already sent me back home and put me under house arrest until my mating.” She huffed indignantly. “You have a much better motive to seduce me.”
“Oh, yeah? May I remind you that you were the one to proposition me after I helped you with those guys?”
“For all I know, you sent them to cause trouble so you could show up and play the knight in shining armor!”
Her accusation was infuriating.
“How would I even have known that you were in town? You said yourself that not even Jude knew about you coming for a visit.”
She grunted rather unladylike and pressed her lips together in clear annoyance.
“See? Your theory doesn’t pan out. Whereas mine is way more likely. So what was the Werewolf Alliance promising you for putting me in a compromising position?”
“A compromising position? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly what I said: you now have something to hold over me that the Alliance can use to blackmail me.”
“Blackmail?” She shook her head. “You’re out of your mind! I have far more to lose than you if this comes out.”
“Not your virginity; that’s for sure,” he bit back and instantly regretted the words. He had no idea why Charlotte made him so mad that he forgot his manners.
Charlotte glared at him. “Oh, now you’re holding it against me that I’m experienced in bed? That’s rich coming from you. You’re no virgin either. At least I’m not holding it against you that you’re good in bed and know how to satisfy a woman. Jerk!”
For a second, they both breathed raggedly.
Byron cursed. “Fuck! Are we really accusing each other of being good in bed?”
“You started it!” she snapped. “So, don’t blame me.”
Somehow her words made him relax a little.
“I’m sorry, Charlotte.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to find the right words. “I didn’t mean to accuse you. It’s just… these past few months with your brother as the alpha were no cake walk. And then I met you… And I thought that finally, things were looking up…”
He shook his head and dropped his gaze to his feet.
“And then I find out that you’re his sister…”
He gave a slow shake of his head, then looked back at her. She stood motionless, meeting his gaze. Some of the anger seemed to seep from her, vanishing into thin air.
“It’s hard to believe that it was a coincidence that we met,” he said.
Her voice was calmer and softer when she said, “What if it was fate?”
“Fate?”
Would fate do this to him? Would fate conspire for their paths to cross as strangers, giving them the opportunity to get to know each other unencumbered by their families’ beliefs and prejudices? To what end?
“Don’t you believe in fate?” she asked gently, taking a step toward him.
“Fate doesn’t always equal happiness,” he hedged. “What if fate is cruel?”
“We won’t know unless we give this a chance.”
He wanted to do just that, but could he trust her? “Tell me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Why did you sleep with me?”
All tension seemed to visibly leave her body, replaced by something altogether different.
He suddenly found himself face-to-face with the temptress from last night, who moistened her lower lip with her pink tongue.
A tongue whose taste he was only too familiar with.
A soft smile played around her luscious lips.
It spread all the way to her eyes before she gave him an answer.
“Because I find you utterly sexy.”
He couldn’t help but grin. “That’s something I can work with.” He bridged the remaining distance between them with two steps.
“Then maybe you can answer me something too.”
“Which is?”
“Are you gonna make love to me, or were you planning on talking all night?”
Byron’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. It was all the answer she needed. He wrapped his arms around her, and she molded herself to him, leaving no space between their bodies.
“I reserve the right to utter a few important words,” he murmured as his lips hovered over hers.
“What words?” she echoed.
His breath ghosted over her face. “Words like yes, oh God, and others that you might remember from last night.”
“I can handle that.”