Page 14 of Loup Garou

What?

Stan didn’t respond. The sound of the door closing told me he’d left. Exhaling, I did my best to calm my nerves. Exavier twisted around and I found my face dangerously close to his cheek and neck. “Sorry, if I was out of line, just tell me. I got the sense that you didn’t want to deal with him. I also overheard your friend Myra talking about him. I’ll hunt him down and apologize if you want me to.”

The thick cords in his neck moved as he spoke, driving my body crazy, making me want to see them moving above me while he pumped the full length of himself into me. I stepped into him more. I wanted to kiss him and could only hope he wanted it too.

“Linds?”

Snapping out of my stupor, I stared up at him. “Thank you. Claiming the local witch is quite a move. People will no doubt arrive with medals to pin to your chest.”

“You’re not mad?” Exavier smiled and my entire body reacted to the sight. My breath hitched as a shiver ran over me. He reached for me and I backed up quickly, scared that I’d beg him to take me if I let him too close. “Are you okay?”

Nodding, I ran towards the center of the room and grabbed my clothes, grunting softly as I bent over. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

Strong hands slid over my back. I froze and choked back a scream as I shook instantly.

“It’s just me.” Exavier wrapped his arms around me and eased me up. “You’re shaking.”

Letting out a nervous laugh, I tried my best to play off just how much he’d scared me. He was fast. Faster than he should have been. He didn’t seem like a supernatural to me. I couldn’t sense any sort of power in him. No. Exavier seemed all too human. Every ounce of me wished he wasn’t. I could easily see myself falling for him. The only problem was, a human would never last with me. “Guess I’m jumpy. Normally, when something gets that close, that fast, bad things happen.”

He gave me a comforting hug and I closed my eyes, letting myself relax for the first time in a long time. “I’m sorry, Lindsay.”

Unsure what Exavier was sorry about, I glanced up and looked into the mirror before us. His gaze met mine and my hands moved over his as he rocked me gently. It was something lovers did, not strangers. Why were we doing it?

“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here, Linds. I would have come sooner but I thought you had someone in your life. I thought you’d push me away.”

I went to question him about his comment when the door burst open. Gina poked her head in, spilling waves of auburn hair all about her shoulders. Her large green eyes locked on me and her jaw dropped. “Right then.” She went to leave.

“Gina, wait! What’s up?”

“Myra wanted me to tell you that you were right about the Ferris family and that you have no doubt paved a wonderful path to hell for yourself.” Gina smiled wide. “She also wanted to know when you were going to just leap head first into the pits of hell and begin dating the devil to save time. She’s still convinced you were made to be his mate. No one but you could tame him.”

Laughing softly, I shrugged, doing my best to ignore the fact Exavier was hearing all of this. “I can hardly be blamed for the reaper showing up for Great-Grandpa Ferris. Like it was a surprise to anyone. Hell, the reaper has been nipping at my heels for over a decade. I’m close to seeing if he wants to start hanging out for drinks on Friday nights.”

“Be careful,” Gina offered, licking her lower lip. “The reaper is exactly the kind of man you attract.”

“Well, I do like to screen men to weed out the nice sane ones. It’s only fun if you’re running for your life with them, from them, in the vicinity of them.” I watched Gina’s face fall as anger took her over. She was never one to enjoy me joking about the attempts on my life.

“That’s not funny, Lindsay. Not in the least. If the man holding you now steps out of line one bit I will personally kill him. Understood?”

I laughed nervously and patted Exavier’s arm. “We’re all eccentric here. Pay no attention to Gina. She clearly missed her meds and coffee this morning.”

Gina entered the room and stood tall. At five-foot-six, she was shorter than Myra and me, but that didn’t stop her from verbally coming at us whenever possible. Her temper seemed symbolic of her hair—flaming—if allowed to go unchecked. She had an iron will and the ability to kick almost anything’s ass. The slayer in her tended to rule her temper as well.

“Like hell. I don’t care if the man thinks we’re all nuts. If he steps out of line with you I will chop his head off and feed it to a pack of wolves. You’ve got enough of them trying to kill you that it shouldn’t be hard to find a group of them.”

“Gina, stop.”

Gina gave me a hard look. “They’re coming faster, harder and in bigger numbers than ever before, Lindsay. It’s never been this bad. Call your dad and ask him flat out what he knows about the man currently known as Prince.”

A soft laugh tore free from me.

She didn’t share my amused state. “Let this prince guy deal with them, Lindsay. There have been too many close calls lately. You weren’t born a slayer and you aren’t like Myra. You don’t get nine lives. You get one. One that they are more than willing to end.”

“Gina, darling, you’re going to scare people away because of your need to feed into my delusions. I’m fine.Really.”

With no outside interference, I knew it was about to get ugly. “Lindsay, I don’t care if the man behind you runs to every tabloid in the country blabbing about shit he can’t possibly understand. You will listen to me. We’ve been friends way too long for you to think I’ll back down on this. You find out who this fucking prince guy is or I will. Trust me, honey, with as many times as I’ve seen you go through hell on account of him, I will not be kind to him when I do find him.”

Giving in just to get her to go away, I nodded. “I’m going to dinner with my parents tomorrow night. I’ll ask then. And for the record, I’m fine.”

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