Blue Moon Brides: The Complete Series (67 page)

Sprawled on his bare chest, her cheek pressed against his skin, close enough to hear the steady beat of his heart, she wondered. What if he had stayed? If she had taken a chance on her one-night crazy. Seen where the passion could take them…

“You made decisions for me.”

He ran a hand down her hair, playing with the strands. “I kept you safe.”

“Because you were a werewolf.”

“You saw me shift. You think you were ready for that?”

Honestly? She hadn’t been ready now. Both the bayou and the wolves were a foreign world. She’d always preferred the predictable. Rules were good too. She’d been on track to make partner at her firm and sacrificing that—either then or now—wouldn’t have been her choice.

“Now I got a question for you,” he said.

“Uh-huh.” Apparently,
boneless
wasn’t some kind of metaphor. She was literally melting into the mattress. “What exactly did Cruz mean, when he said he’d see you in a week? What did you tell him about you and me?”

She knew she stiffened up. In the courtroom, fully dressed and upright, she’d worked hard to overcome that particular tell. Shoot. While her deal with Cruz was no state secret, it also wasn’t something she wanted to discuss right now.

“I told him the truth.”

After she’d left home, she’d added lies and compromises to her off-limits list. She’d vowed never to play emotional games in her relationships. The trailer park drama had been enough for a lifetime. Sure, relationship drama could and did happen everywhere. It was just that, as a kid, the trailer park had been a very, very small stage for that kind of explosive shit.

“
Shug
.” Luc’s lips brushed the top of her head in a gesture that was—just maybe—tender. He had this need to be in control. In charge. She got that he had responsibilities to his family—his Pack—but when did he get to focus on what he needed? What
they
needed? For their impulsive mating to work, they had a whole lot of talking to do. They needed to figure out who they were together, without inviting the Pack into their bedroom. And she needed to be sure that he was the only man for her, to work out this impossible attraction she felt for both him
and
Cruz.

There was a long silence as Luc settled himself around her.

“You should jus’ tell me.” She heard the steel beneath the soft drawl. More orders, which was sexy as hell in some ways—and also frustrating.

“I told him you wanted a week to explore our possible mating and the directions in which we could take it.”

“And?” He asked his question with the wolf’s instinct for the kill. He knew there was more.

She swallowed. “And then he asked for the next week.”

Her emotions were one big mess of confused. She’d spent the last ten years more or less living on her own. She’d reached out to Luc because she’d been ready for closure, ready to move on. And, yeah, meeting Cruz had been a powerful motivator. She felt something for the other man, although it was definitely early days and she didn’t know how to put those feelings into words.
Yet
.

“
Shug
.” Luc’s pet name for her was part groan, part sigh. Yeah. He saw the problems too. He wasn’t angry, which shouldn’t have surprised her. He was too self-controlled to go the angry route.

“I told him
yes
.”

~*~

Yes.

She’d told his rival
yes
.

He forced himself to relax, to not tense up. He might be a relationship virgin, but he’d watched his brothers screw up. Banging on his chest caveman style and bellowing
mine
wouldn’t help.

Think of something to say. Something romantic. Heartfelt. Fucking poetic would do. If he’d known this heart-to-heart was coming, he’d have raided the Hallmark aisle. Instead it was just the two of them and, while he loved the way she had her arms wrapped around him, he didn’t know what it meant. Not anymore.

“Luc?”

Oui
. Waiting for him to say something. But he had nothing. God, he’d give anything to erase this conversation. To be enough for her. Enough of a lover, enough of a man. Hell, it couldn’t even be the werewolf strike, since Cruz was also a shifter. It might have been a shock, but she’d clearly adapted. While he’d been thinking happily-ever-after, she’d been thinking about another man. If he were a better person or any kind of a gentleman, he’d let her go.

He wanted her waking up by his side every morning, and lying down next to him each night. He wanted to roll her beneath him and drive into her until he came and she screamed his name because he made her feel good. He wanted to talk with her, tell her about his day, the things that drove him crazy and the things that made him smile. And he wanted her to share all of her details with him, unloading when work was bad and celebrating when life rained down good things.

She was his mate.

He’d been kidding himself to think he wasn’t on-board with the idea ten years ago. Fate or no fate, she was his other half. She was the woman who could keep his wolf in check and she meant fucking everything to him. So if she were his mate, how come he wasn’t hers?

“Maybe we should forget I said that,” she whispered nervously.

Like what? His instincts apparently didn’t come with an off switch. Even now, he was running his fingers over her skin, marking her with his scent.

“You can tell me anything,” he said gruffly.

Her mouth moved against his chest. Smiling. Maybe he’d figured out the right thing to say after all.

“It’s not you.” She flattened her palm against his chest, like she was measuring his heartbeat.

Don’t ask me to let you go. I’m a wolf. We hold onto our own. And you’re
mine
.

“What did I do wrong?” If he knew, he’d fix it. He’d find a way to earn a do-over and, next time, he’d get it right.

She closed her eyes. “Forget I said anything.”

“You promised Cruz you’d spend a week with him.”

“To get to know him. That doesn’t have to mean sex.”

He tightened his arm around her when she tried to shift away. “Don’ go.”

She sighed, like putting more space between them was the best idea she’d ever had. “You have to stop giving me orders.”

“Help me to understand,” he suggested. “Please.”

Funny how one little word could be harder to get out than all the rest. It wasn’t the magic word that opened up her heart to him, but she stopped moving. Maybe that was the best he could hope. God, he didn’t want to give her up. Seven nights had been their beginning. He damned sure didn’t want it to be their ending.

Which meant he had to find the words to tell her that.

“I would give you anything,” he said fiercely. “You can take that to the bank. You wan’ it, you got it. I have these feelings for you and they’re good ones. What’s wrong with us explorin’ that, takin’ time to get to know each other?”

“Nothing.” She stopped, her fingers drawing restless circles on his chest. “But—”

“But you want to try out Cruz before you make any decisions about us.”

“It’s not that,” she said. “You talk about having feelings for me and I think I might share some of those feelings.”

He reached for her fingers, lacing them through his. A primitive part of him, the human part, wanted to put a ring there, to mark her for all to see. “Then what’s the problem,
shug
?”

“I think I might have those same feelings for Cruz,” she said in a small voice. “I know it’s crazy,” she added in a rush. “You want me to spell it out? I can do that. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want you both.”

Talk about a double whammy. He definitely hadn’t seen that one coming. She was right. It was crazy. He cupped the back of her neck, threading his fingers through her hair.
Both
didn’t mean
instead of
. It meant he had a chance.

“You all never share?” The tone of her voice said she had specific
for examples
running through her head. He was on thin ice.

“Sometimes.” He angled his head so he could see her eyes. Yeah. Someone had been telling tales.

She snorted. “Sometimes? I’ve been in Port Leon one day and I’ve already heard stories about your brothers, Dre and Landry. They’re legendary.”

“Were. Were legendary. Now they’re mated to Mary Jane.” No way his brothers violated Mary Jane’s trust. She was the only female for them and none of them would have changed that.

“They share her,” Gianna said smugly. “I rest my case.”

Well, yeah. At least, he assumed so. There were some things he simply didn’t know. As long as the three of them were happy, he didn’t need the details.

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

“Okay,” she echoed, sounding happy, and suddenly he couldn’t remember why he’d had so many objections to inviting Cruz into their bed.

Chapter Five

Three days. Gianna had disappeared into the bayou three days ago with Luc and it was driving him crazy. Cruz stared at the bayou. Deliberately going into another Alpha’s territory without an explicit invitation was all kinds of fucked up. He told himself to forget about Gianna. Luc might be a hard man, but he was also a decent man. He wouldn’t hurt Gianna and he wouldn’t do anything she didn’t ask for.

Which was part of the problem, wasn’t it?

His imagination suggested a hundred different things she could be asking his rival for, all of them sexual. Sensual. Things Cruz wanted to be doing to and for her. And it wasn’t just the bedroom stuff that had him itching to shift and find her. She was all kinds of special and he had no problem imagining them doing a little happily-ever-after living at his place in Port Leon. His house wasn’t much of a home yet, but Gianna could fix that.

He could find her. He might not have visited the Breaux compound before—the whole Alpha thing again—but he could find them. His brothers were excellent trackers and he was better than all of them. If Gianna was in there, he’d find her. A quick nighttime B&E on the inn and he had her pillowcase.  Asking might have been better behavior for the town’s sheriff and Alpha, but explaining was the last thing he wanted to do. He ran a thumb over the pillowcase tucked inside his jacket pocket. It was nothing kinky, although honestly he’d probably trade a kidney for a pair of her panties. He’d caught teasing glimpses of a lacy bra beneath her pink dress at the wedding, the pale shadow of a strap over her shoulder and the delicate hollow of her collarbone. That had been his fantasy fodder right there and he knew just how pathetic that was.

But what the hell could he do? As far as the werewolves went, Luc was well within his rights to carry her off. His damned blue moon had lit her up as his mate and, moon or no moon, he clearly felt the pull. Cruz wouldn’t have put much stock in lunar phenomena, but Gianna herself had agreed to go. Whatever chemistry she felt, whatever had happened between that pair before, she wanted to explore it.

She’d said
yes
.

To
Luc
.

Which left him staring at the bayou like a hound dog, if he was being honest with himself. Giving up wasn’t in his vocabulary. Of course, neither was patience. Gianna had offered him a week of his own. Yeah. He hugged that thought to himself, knowing he was grinning like he’d just won a cool twenty million in the state lottery. Luc might be first, but Cruz planned on being last.

He could check up on her. He had updates on The Breed and had managed to get a man into the pack. He bet she’d want that information sooner rather than later. Never mind that he could pick up a phone or mail a fucking postcard. Bringing her the news himself could also work. A quick hello that would also remind her he existed.

Boots crunched toward him. Eli. Eli might be the youngest brother, but he was no pushover. Although Jace was Cruz’s second, Eli was every bit as tough although he came in a pretty package. He liked the females, his brother did, and they liked him right back. Even their sister Riley had a soft spot for Eli and a disgusting inability to say
no
to him. Maybe it was the honey-colored hair tangled around his shoulders or the brown eyes that liked to laugh. Eli was a fucking pretty male, but with an inner steel people often overlooked. He liked his playtime, but he was every bit as much a fighter as Cruz. He could turn the fun off in a heartbeat.

Which probably meant this wasn’t a social call. Eli stared at the bayou for a moment.  “I’m not seein’ it. Whatever’s got you goin’, color me clueless.”

Yeah, because the object of his fixation was a good twenty, thirty miles away doing things Cruz had no desire to see. In no scenario could he imagine Luc keeping his hands off Gianna’s sweet body. Hell. He’d only been hands-off himself because they’d barely met and he’d wanted to respect her professional boundaries. Gianna’s job mattered to her and she was damned good at it. Kissing her in front of their colleagues would have disrespected all that.

Out here in the bayou, though, away from Baton Rouge and her law firm…yeah. He’d played that one. He should have made his move.

“Earth to Cruz,” his brother said wryly. “Who is she?”

He loved his family. He’d take a bullet, trade his life for theirs any day of the week. What he didn’t like, however, was the uncanny way they could read his fucking moods.

His brother dug an elbow into his side. “Give it up. The last female I spotted you with was that expensive lawyer from Baton Rouge. Riley really liked the candlesticks she gave Riley for the wedding. Said they were French. You have any idea what that means?”

Nope. He was a clueless bastard, and not just about candlesticks.

He cleared his throat. “Probably female for
expensive
or
really, really fucking fragile
.”

“
Should have thought of that yourself
,” his brother suggested, laughing. Cruz knew Eli had picked out a gift himself. He’d heard Riley exclaiming over the dinner dishes made by a local potter. Eli had put plenty of thought into the gift, even if he pretended otherwise.

“So who did you meet at the wedding that has you in knots? I didn’t think there were any unattached females there.”

And…there was the problem. He waited patiently while his brother barreled towards the correct conclusion and shut the fuck up. Briefly.

“Tell me you’re not jonesing for Gianna.”

“Too late.”

“You
are
aware, right, that Luc Breaux has claimed her as his mate? He says she’s his blue moon bride.”

“I know,” he said tightly.

“And you didn’t back the hell off? Does she know how you feel? Does
Luc
? Jesus. That’s the kind of thing that causes pack wars.”

“Only if I act on it,” he pointed out.

Eli shot him a look. “You’re starin’ out into that bayou like it swallowed up something pretty damn special. You just admirin’ the scenery?”

“She promised Luc a week.”

His brother groaned. “I’m hearin’ a
but
. Tell me you said
okay
and walked away.”

“Not a but. An
and
.
And
she promised me a week.”

“You’re spending a week with another Alpha’s mate?” Eli shook his head.

“You’ve got a death wish. Worse, Luc Breaux might come gunnin’ for us. Riley may have married into his pack, but I don’ think he’s goin’ to cut you any slack for that.”

Those words had Cruz getting into his brother’s face, the urge for a fistfight paramount. Or he could go for wrestling. The kind of shit they used to do when they were pups, but that he’d stopped doing when he’d become the family’s leader. Not okay for his brothers to whale back on him, so he wouldn’t put them in the position. Now he was rethinking.

“I don’ wan’ any favors from him and Gianna isn’t a pass-around.”

“She’s his mate.”

“So he says.”

And that was it, wasn’t it? The million dollar question. Luc might have claimed Gianna—but had
she
claimed
him
? If she had, it was game over. Cruz wouldn’t stand between mates. He’d bow out, wish them well, and somehow figure out a way to fix his heart. If she was still unsure, however…if he had a shot…he’d take it.

Eli got right to the heart of the matter. “You think she’s yours?”

“Dad always said that when you see the one, you know.”

“There are books about love at first sight. They have racks and racks of the stuff at Wal-Mart. Just because someone says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. None of us have bitten in the heart department, let alone after five minutes of looking. It’ll take more for me.”

Tension filled the air between them. His little brother wasn’t one for settling down—or putting the pack at risk.

“This is between Luc, Gianna and me,” he said finally. “It’s not pack business.”

“You are the pack. You’re our Alpha.”

It was true—and the only reason he hadn’t fought Luc for Gianna at the wedding. Okay, that and the fact that Gianna would have kicked both their asses. She stood on her own two feet and he wouldn’t disrespect her strength.

“Think it over,” Eli said quietly. “And be really sure, okay? If she’s
the one
for you, I got your back. You know that. But if you’ve got any doubts, shelve it for a while. Wait and see how things work out for her and Luc before you go rocking the marital boat. She’s a pretty woman. Smart. Maybe it’s nothing more than that and you don’ have to go gettin’ tangled up with her.”

“I’ve got some time off,” he said finally. “I’ve got gas in my boat and the truck.”

“Shit. You’re really goin’ after her.”

“I have to.”

And wasn’t that the truth? He’d likely get out there and discover her and Luc going at it like bunnies, and not the fluffy kind either. And he meant what he’d said.

Her life. Her heart. Her choice.

He just needed to be in the running.
 

~*~

Gianna padded out onto the porch. The last three days and nights had passed in a sensual blur. She worked the kinks out of her body, feeling the delicious sore spots deep inside and the whisker burn on her skin. Luc had marked her inside and out. Part of her couldn’t wait to turn around and head back inside for round-whatever-they-were-on. Ten? Forty? The man was insatiable.

She really should keep right on walking, get into his boat, and gun the motor for Port Leon. Unfortunately, she’d apparently tossed prudence out the window along with her panties and her restraint. Luc’s brand of loving was intense, the kind that made her knees wobbly and standing difficult. Now that they’d come up for air, a small part of her worried that he’d consume her.

He’d called her his mate.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She wasn’t averse to settling down, although she certainly hadn’t planned on doing it with a werewolf. Plus, being ready to pack in her celibacy and her single state were two of the reasons she’d gone searching for Luc. If he was offering what she wanted, why not take him up on it?

Right on cue, since they’d now been parted approximately five minutes, Luc followed her out onto the porch and handed her a cup of coffee. She told herself the coffee was the only reason she didn’t head for the dock. That, and her promise. Technically, she owed the man four more nights. She leaned back against him, wrapping her hands around the mug. Simple things had to count too.

He stiffened, pulling away from her. “Go back inside.”

Um. No. It was daylight, so she definitely wasn’t in the taking orders business. She picked up her mug and took a long sip. Funny how he made better coffee than she did. The rich notes of chicory exploded on her taste buds.

“Sun’s up,” she said briefly, more to needle him than anything. “Sorry, but you’re out of the order giving business for at least another eight hours.”

A wolf streaked past them from one of the houseboats, moving in a deadly blur. She still hadn’t quite wrapped her head around the reality of shape-shifters. It was easier to accept out here in the bayou, where everything was already so different from her life in Baton Rouge, but how did she come to terms with the fact that her lover’s brothers turned furry and four-legged whenever they felt like it? Plus, the Breauxs apparently lived at DEFCON two.

The reason for the hostility stepped out of the low-hanging brush. An enormous brindle wolf took a step into the clear space and stopped. The animal was even larger than the ones that had attacked her earlier in the week. It had to be pushing two hundred pounds.

Luc cursed. “I’m goin’ to kill him.”

“You know him?”
You sure about that
? She wanted to ask. How did he tell one wolf from another?

“That’s Cruz,” Luc growled. The Breaux wolf placed itself between the intruder and the camp, growling. “He knows better than to come on out here without an invitation. I don’ piss all over his territory and he returns the favor.”

God, she did
not
want to know if Luc meant that literally or not.

“You can’t kill him,” she said instead, although she was pretty certain Luc could. Aggression radiated off him.

“Maybe, if you don’ wan’ me killin’ him, you should trade me that week of his. I’ll take it. He can live.” Savage satisfaction filled his voice.

“No can do.”

“Then I’ll keep your request in mind and see what
I
can do.” Luc vaulted over the porch, bare feet slamming into the bank at a run.

And…that was a conversation killer. She wasn’t dressed for giving chase. When she’d finally rolled out of bed—and Luc had let her go, laughing—she’d pulled on the first things she found in her suitcase. That left her standing on Luc’s porch sporting a fringed kimono, a tank top and cotton shorts. So she’d planned on a weekend at a B&B—and not a backwater bayou retreat.