Page 42 of Blind Date with a Werewolf
Her wrist had been burning but it eased enough that she could rub it. His question wrapped around her somehow, but she couldn’t quite remember what he’d asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said…she lied—though she hadn’t meant it to be a lie. She rocked a little on her feet, like a child waiting to be called in for punishment.
Asil watched her, his brown-and-gold eyes mesmerizing. Her wrist still hurt, but she was able to stop swaying.
“There are people in this city who are good with magic,” he suggested, and she had the feeling he was being careful. “Angus uses a witch named Moira, I believe.”
Her throat tightened and the tattoo around her wrist flared. “I can’t do that,” she whispered in a voice she hardly recognized as her own. “I have to stay away from powerful creatures. They will hurt me.”
“Yes,” Asil agreed, and for some reason that agreement made the pressure that had wrapped around her head without her noticing ease just a little. His voice was very soft when he asked, “Why did you agree to meet with me today? Alan knows what I am.”
She blinked at him. “But you’re a werewolf. You aren’t an Alpha.”
He narrowed his eyes—briefly displeased, she thought. But then he tilted his head. “Who have you been told not to approach? What geas was put upon you, Ruby Kowalczyk?”
There was a thread of invitation in his voice—not like that shove of power on the porch. This was only an invitation, a rope thrown over a steep embankment, something to grab as she overcame an imposed inability to discuss certain things.
She clung to his gold-washed eyes for the resolution she needed to give him her list. “I need to stay away from powerful magic users who are witches, vampires, fae, and werewolf Alphas,” she told him. Sometimes she woke up whispering that list to herself.
“I see,” he said, as if he did. “I imagine you want to talk about something else.”
“Oh yes,” she agreed wholeheartedly, feeling a rush of relief. “Please.”
“Were we going to meet your team?” he asked.
She blinked at him, having lost track of their conversation somewhere. “I’m sorry,” she said, not quite sure why she was apologizing.
“There is nothing to be sorry for, surely,” he murmured.
His eyes were very luminous, and they seemed to hold safety in their depths.
And she wasn’t supposed to stare into his eyes—he was a dominant werewolf. They viewed such things as a challenge.
She dropped his gaze and swallowed. “Um. The team. Right.”
The grand staircase was less elaborate as it rose from the second to the third floor, where servant bedrooms had been remodeled into a kitchenette and two bathrooms marked withLadiesandGentlemensigns. Most of this level was a grand ballroom that the owners had been renting out for events for years.
Her team was gathered there.
Alan looked up and waved from where he sat on the polished hardwood flooring before turning his attention back to untangling The Beast, a carrying bag with eight different one-hundred-foot electrical cords that liked to turn into one large Cthulhu-like monster. That they hadn’t even managed to get the cords untangled meant they were experiencing greater than usual technical difficulties.
The others were huddled around the newest of their cameras, its innards spread out across one of the folding tables. They’d bought it used, and when it decided to run, it took really terrific video. But it was huge and cranky. Miranda was the only one who didn’t have trouble with it, but she was working today.
“Hey,” Ruby called, and they all looked up, their faces reflecting various states of frustration. “Everyone, this is Asil, my date today. Asil, the grumpy old guy in the Seahawks shirt is Terry.”
Terry glanced down at his shirt and frowned at it as if he’d forgotten he was wearing it. He was a retired engineer, and the frustration of not being able to coax the twenty-year-old camera to life did not leave his craggy face, reducing the welcome expressed when he held out his long-fingered hand.
Asil shook it. “Good to meet you. Sorry to interrupt.”
Terry grunted. “Glad to meet you, too. Pretty. ’Bout time Ruby caught some luck. Probably good to have an interruption before someone tossed that old thing into the nearest wall.”
Ruby didn’t roll her eyes in despair. Terry said whateverTerry thought. Beside him, looking like a too-young, short, merry Santa Claus, complete with white beard, Max laughed.
“And Max,” said Ruby.
Max grinned. “Hey, welcome to the dark side.”
Asil shook his hand, too.
