Chapter Five #2
“Are you saying you would have been so unladylike in public? In a place like this?” He cast his eyes around the opulent restaurant. He was grinning though.
“You tease me about my manners?” She sniffed. “Although I must say you may have the right to. Your manners have been flawless all evening toward your escort, even though it’s a guise. And you dance very well.”
“Now,” he confided meaningfully.
“Are you saying you weren’t the best of dance students?” she teased.
“Up until I realized dancing meant I could have a legitimate reason for holding beautiful, unattainable women close,” he admitted.
She laughed aloud and Liam watched over her shoulder as heads turned to look at her. She was oblivious to her effect on the room. “What do you mean ‘unattainable’? There isn’t a woman on earth who would deny a man who looks this sexy in a tuxedo.”
“I’ve had my share of rejections, I assure you.”
“Then again, women can be foolish, capricious creatures,” she said dismissively, smiling when he chuckled.
She tilted her head and studied him for a moment as he turned her into the light steps of the dance.
“I must say, I’m amazed by your lack of awareness about how much sexual magnetism you have. ”
Said the pot to the kettle, Liam thought. “Perhaps it’s just a matter of my haying discarded that awareness because I’m on duty,” he suggested.
She watched him smile a bit slyly and she knew he was full of it. “I think it’s more a matter of it making you uncomfortable, so you discard it as unimportant and unworthy of your attention unless it can be used as a tool. A means to an end.”
“Ouch.” Liam winced. “That sounds terribly cold.”
“I suppose so,” she agreed unexpectedly, making him laugh.
“But bear with me a moment. You are, at heart, a soldier. Your dedication is proven by the fact that you plan to live at the manor 24/7 in order to supervise your staff for the length of my contract. That’s six months, Liam.
It’s bordering on obsessive.” She lifted a soft finger to his lips when he parted them to protest. “Taking your dedication into consideration, it’s smart to conclude that you are used to perpetually plotting your every move, and how to most effectively control the actions of others around you in order to obtain your goals.
In this instance, seeing to my safety. Now, if in the course of your 24/7 work you might need to use your sex appeal to gain an advantage, you will.
It’s an asset and you’re aware of it, from what you claim, so why not use it as a tool?
” She dropped her hand from his mouth and patted her fingers against his biceps.
“It’s no different from muscle or a gun.
And I mean no insult. I use the tactic myself. ”
“Is that what you’ve been doing tonight? Because I might point out it has gotten you in trouble already,” he said, frowning slightly.
“Would you like the truth?”
Liam felt a strange twist in his belly. It was clearly a warning, as if he might not like what he heard.
Liam didn’t relish hearing she was actually attracted to that asshole at the table, because, frankly, he thought her smarter than that.
He didn’t want to learn otherwise. Then again, maybe a little truth was exactly what he needed to distance himself from this unadvisable connection he kept succumbing to.
“Of course. I prefer honesty and bluntness at all opportunities,” he said. “As you pointed out, I’m a soldier. My needs are uncomplicated and I prefer it that way.”
“I didn’t mean for the observation to be used as either an insult or a limitation,” she told him with a frown. “You are, I imagine, far more complicated an individual than either of us realizes.”
He dodged that bullet smoothly. “So tell me the truth about your date tonight.”
Devon knew she couldn’t tell him everything, but that fell under omission, not lying.
She drew a breath. “I was highly aroused before I even arrived here. I merely borrowed on that tension within myself to try to warm an otherwise uncomfortable evening. I don’t like Kienan very much, but I do need him. ”
Through Kienan she hoped to manipulate one of the two largest factions that had withdrawn from the Alpha council.
He was not an Alpha himself, but he was second in command to one and she needed to use him in order to obtain the ear of the one who mattered.
He’d been after her for some time, and she’d borrowed on that to get her foot in the door.
Otherwise he would never have taken her meeting.
Liam stopped still at her declaration, suddenly unable to make his feet move as he stared down into her jade eyes. Her implication rang through him like a crystal bell, bringing his nerves to attention.
She had been already aroused.
He couldn’t miss her reference to that brief moment when he’d held her earlier.
Especially not while holding her just as closely now.
Her heat burned his hand at the small of her back; her scent rose all around him and there was a slight increase in the tempo of her breathing.
The same as earlier, only this time they were in public, her date and his co-worker watching them.
It was enough of a reminder to force him back into the rhythm of the dance.
“You’re definitely blunt,” he said gruffly. “I’m going to have to get used to that. Women usually have an art to their speech that makes conversation with them like trying to find your way through a maze.”
“I prefer to make myself undeniably clear,” she said. “I don’t like—”
She stopped so suddenly to whip her head around that Liam was instantly on guard. He swung her behind himself, placing her nearest the least occupied corner of the room, tracking the direction she’d been looking in.
“Explain,” he demanded shortly, quickly scanning eyes around the room for trouble.
“I … I heard something,” she lied awkwardly. “I thought someone said my name and …”
“Got it,” he said grimly. He glanced at Inez, who swiftly rose to her feet and joined his visual scan. He touched that little pink spot beneath his ear again. “Let’s get her out of here,” he instructed Inez. She nodded, moving quickly to them.
“I’ve given your regrets to your companion,” she told Devon gently.
They each took one of her arms and led her to the back of the restaurant.
“Colin’s meeting us in back.”
Liam didn’t draw his weapon until they were in the kitchen.
Devon was relieved that he did because she knew there was another Morphate in the area.
She could smell whoever it was, unfamiliar and feminine.
She found herself in the awkward position of having information she couldn’t share with her protectors without giving herself away, and she simply couldn’t risk disclosure.
Would he suspect a woman as quickly as he would a man?
The Morphate was close. Very close. Devon’s heart pounded, adrenaline and defensive instincts roaring to the surface.
She pressed her lips together as her fangs began to lengthen in reflex, and curled her hands to hide the growth of her nails.
Liam felt tension and resistance in his principal. It wasn’t good. If she didn’t cooperate, it could make things difficult. He pushed open the outside door, checking all corners quickly and looking for Colin. He ducked back inside.
“It’s clear,” he told Inez. Inez knew he wouldn’t expose Devon to the exterior until he heard Colin pulling up.
Liam looked down at Devon and her wide eyes, realizing he could see the pounding of her heart against the silk covering her chest. “You’ll be safe in a minute,” he assured her softly against her ear.
“No,” she breathed, panting in quick bursts. “No.”
He thought she was having an anxiety attack for about two seconds.
Then he realized that she just didn’t seem the type.
His hackles rose instantly and he turned his back to her and scanned the kitchen.
He felt her hands grip his jacket for just a moment, but she let go quickly before he could warn her not to entangle him.
He could’ve kissed her for being so bright even though they’d had no time to train her on the rules.
Liam heard the limo pull up and he moved to the door again, checking all directions quickly along the sight of his automatic pistol.
Then all three of them, Colin, Liam, and Inez, surrounded Devon and drew her, huddled, down to the rear of the car.
Suddenly Devon snapped upright and spun around, shouting, “Liam!”
The female came at them like living darkness, starting nowhere, ending nowhere, but everywhere at once.
Inez was struck with blinding speed, her body thrown back into the side of the limousine.
As she whiplashed from the force of it, her impact sending fractures through the tinted glass, Devon could see the front of her gown had been torn away, revealing her armor and four distinctive furrows in the outer fabric of the protection.
Liam took the opportunity to grab Devon.
He caught mostly fabric, but it was enough to propel her back into the rear of the limousine, where she would be safe.
He ignored the tearing of the silk, his eyes hunting for his enemy.
Colin had time to arm himself even as he reached to lay a hand over Inez’s chest to steady her and keep her from falling.
“Nez! You okay?”
It shook Inez out of her shock and she shrugged him off viciously as she grabbed for the weapon strapped underneath her skirt.
“Fucking puta!” Inez spat, whirling around to find her target.
“A woman?”
“Brunette, my size, strong as hell,” Inez barked. Liam wanted to smile that Inez had caught sight of something that fast. Then again, she’d gotten quite a close-up.