Page 43 of Taken by Moonlight
All three exchanged glances, and it seemed, satisfied smiles. I read their auras. Contented blue flickering with red and an odd orange laced with fierce green that I’d never seenbefore.
What was goingon?
They settled back and watched me, helping themselves to some of the fresh fruit. Dante bit into an apple, lying back against the lounge, staring at thesky.
I ate more steak and fruit, my suspicions growing. After wiping my mouth with a linen napkin, I aimed a scowl at allthree.
“What gives with feeding me? Is it some shifterritual?”
Dante didn’t answer, only licked his apple. His tongue traced a long line around the fruit, and I shivered. Alex gave me a mysterioussmile.
“I sometimes feed my lovers while they’re tied up,” Gabrieloffered.
Alex fetched me more champagne. I shook my head and sipped the water instead they’d brought with thefood.
I’d had enough spirits for the night and it was growinglate.
Toolate.
“I guess there are shifter secrets you can’t share like you can yourlovers?”
My tone was casual, but the words bitter. Their little secrets was yet another reminder that I wasn’t likethem.
Thesewolves.
Dante exchanged glances with the others. Then he set down the apple, craned his neck to study thesky.
“Dawn will be here in two hours. Our night is drawing to anend.”
Well, the fantasy had to end at some point. And even though the money was much-needed, part of me wondered if I would have done itanyway.
Did that make me a sex-starved slut? I didn’t want to examine my conscience, see that winking back at me like the glowing neon sign outside the club. Always I had distanced myself from the club with the knowledge I was there to work and serve drinks andfood.
Not service thepatrons.
Alex leaned forward. “Peyton, what’s wrong? You’reupset.”
I gave a light shrug. “It’s been real, guys, and thanks for the night and thanks for bailing me out with the money. But everything has toend.”
“Not everything,” Gabriel said lightly. “Not if you don’t want it toend.”
“Peyton, will you come with us to the ranch for the weekend? I assume you don’t have to return to your job until Tuesday, since it is a holiday weekend. I will take you back to CheyenneMonday.”
If Dante asked me to go jogging stark nude on the freeway, I couldn’t have been more surprised. “I have to workhere.”
“I talked with Norm, and you’re free for the weekend. I’ll make up the difference in your lostrevenue.”
Dante had planned this, I realized. I set down my glass of water. “What’s at your ranch and why do you want methere?”
Alex warmed, his expression soft in the flickering candlelight. “The Bar B Q is a wonderful place, Peyton. More than three thousand acres, with rolling hills and trees, it’s a perfect place to run wild andfree.”
“Except during round-ups,” Dante offered. “But my family purchased the ranch years ago when they saw the advantages it offered an alpha with a pack. Plenty of space to roam, room to host a few head of cattle, and land for growingfamilies.”
The ranch, Dante explained, was about sixty miles northwest of Cheyenne, near Laramie. The closest friendly neighbors were a pack of shifters who sometimes helped out with branding and roundups. And the annualbarbecue.
It was one thing to sell my body to shifters, albeit cute, sexy shifters who had made my first time having sex more than memorable andpassionate.
It was totally another to risk going with them to their home. They would have the advantage. Have me at their mercy, although considering what Gabriel had done when I was tied up, maybe that wasn’t such a badthing.
