ChangingPaths (8 page)

Then he caught her scent. Her feminine musk rising up as he
looked at her. The smell was his undoing. The heat of it mixed with her
honeysuckle scent made him lose control. He did what he had told himself he
couldn’t. He leaned over. When he realized she was leaning toward him he slid
his hands to her shoulders to pull her into him. Her mouth opened under his.

A moan from her as his tongue touched the softness of hers
nearly undid him. He palmed her breasts then slid both hands underneath the
sweater. The silky feel of her skin against his rougher hands made him murmur
her name. Pressing his lips to her neck, he pushed the fabric up and out of the
way. His lips captured her nipple through the thin material of her bra, making
her bow up into him. He laved first one nipple then the other, alternating with
his thumb and forefinger. Gently twisting one while he sucked the other had her
fists in his hair.

He slid his free hand down to her waistband but stopped when
he felt her hand close over his. When she unbuttoned her own pants he smiled
against her breast. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. Then her hands
moved to his jeans right over his stiff cock. It was at that point he stopped
thinking.

When her hand stroked warm and firm on him he was sure his
eyes rolled back in his head. Her thumb rubbed the head of his shaft through
his jeans with firm strokes as if she knew exactly what he liked. He responded
by using his thumb on her clit while his fingers stroked the soft velvet of her
pussy. He felt her shudder with an orgasm that seemed to surprise her but
delighted him.

As he cursed mentally at the space confinements, he tried to
figure out how to lay her out so he could fill her with his cock. He needed to
feel the wet heat of her squeezing his cock, milking his cum. The sound of an
engine turned that all to frustration. They jerked apart and upright as if they
were teenagers getting busted by the local police. As a car went past they
struggled to get their clothes back in place with equally shaking hands.

“Well, that was…” Harmony looked at him with eyes that made
him think of home fires. But there was something else there. Was that
hesitation?

“Harmony, I’m sorry.” He laid a hand on her then pulled it
back.

She reached for his hand to put it back on her leg. “I’m
not. I’m just sorry that we didn’t finish what we started. But we aren’t
teenagers and even if we were this certainly isn’t a secluded area.”

They both laughed as another car went by. He nodded. “Take
me to my place. I’ll get my tools. Um…maybe you’d like to go to dinner later?”

He couldn’t have surprised himself more with the dinner
invitation. He hadn’t asked a female out in…well, he couldn’t even think of how
long it had been. She swallowed hard then nodded.

“I’d like that.”

Harmony started the engine. The five-minute trip to his
place felt as though it took a lifetime. He laid a hand on his cock, pressing
down hard. Unfortunately his one-eyed friend wasn’t playing along. The pulse of
his own blood shuddered against his hand. He felt as if he were an adolescent
unable to control himself. As he gave serious consideration to begging her to
pull over again he had to point out his drive.

“It’s easy to miss. I like it that way.” The look she tossed
him made him revisit cavemen and hair pulling. Or throwing her over his
shoulder. Or just dragging them both out to the ground. The sight of a car with
Oregon plates parked in front of his house did what nothing else had done.

His erection shriveled as his blood ran cold. He didn’t want
Harmony anywhere near that car if it contained who he thought it might. He had
to get her to safety. Now.

Gareth gave her a quick, hard kiss before getting out of her
car. “Harmony. I want to finish what we started. I mean that. I’m going to be
over as soon as I deal with this.”

He jerked a thumb at the uninvited visitor in the other car
but didn’t give any other hint of what he meant. The shimmer of hurt in her
eyes clawed into his belly, leaving him feeling as though he’d just suffered a
gut wound. She just nodded then laid one arm out as she looked over her
shoulder to back out. He cursed as he approached the dull-green sedan.

“The fuck. The fuck!” He snarled as he glared into the
driver’s side. “What the fuck are you doing here, Rion?”

His own face stared back at him. Only this image lacked the
jagged rake of scars down one cheek and a patch over the sightless right eye.
This face had both eyes to look back at him. And that face looked shocked,
pained, maybe even guilty. It was too late for that. Too late for anything
where his brother was concerned.

“Gareth, Brother, we need to talk.” Rion put a hand on the
door handle but Gareth grabbed him by the throat.

“Stupid to leave your window down. You’re not my brother
anymore.” He barely held his temper in check but wondered if he might just
erupt into wolf. The anger sizzled in him. Eight years of rage bubbled up. “I’m
not interested in why you’re here. Just get off my land and out of my life.”

His brother didn’t rub at his throat when released but Gareth
knew from the red marks, he felt it. Rion coughed once then spoke. “I’m here as
a messenger. You’re needed at home. Our mother…” his voice broke. Gareth willed
himself not to show any emotion.

“Our mother is sick. She’s asking for you. You need to come
home, Gareth. Uncle Jan is Alpha in our birth Pack now. He wants you to come
home too.”

Fuck that. Fuck that noise. He didn’t even dignify the
message with a verbal response. Gareth shot out his middle finger in a sign
even the dumbest wolf would get then strode into his house. He’d cut himself
off from his family since the Challenge fight with Rion. Their mother had given
Rion shelter after the fight, ignoring the fact that Gareth was the more
seriously injured of the two. She’d as much as told him not to come home.

The memory of her words coming from the sick bastard who’d
served as Alpha made him growl. Grabbing his toolbox, he slammed it into his
brother’s ride one time. Hoped it was a rental too even though he knew it
likely wasn’t. His brother’s curse soothed him a bit.

“Get off my land, motherfucker. I’ll see you in hell before
I’ll go anywhere with you.”

Not listening to anything else that came out of his twin’s
mouth, though Rion continued to call out to him, Gareth shoved into his truck.
He angled it toward the sedan intentionally. He saw the twist of Rion’s snarl,
which burned him more than any slur might have. He floored it. But his brother
had already started his car. Gravel shot back up to ping off the porch as Rion
hotfooted it off his land.

Gareth’s hands shook as he drove. He resisted chasing his
twin down. The message had been all he’d been here for.

“Message delivered, now leave me alone.” Gareth spat the
words out as if Rion were there to hear them.

Replaying it in his head, he realized his brother had said
Jan not Lee. Lee had been Alpha when he and Rion had left their birth pack, the
Wallowa Mountain Pack in Oregon, two stupid young wolves out for adventure.
They’d traveled all over the West Coast and through the South, crossing down
into Mexico before eventually settling in New Orleans.

It had been in the New Orleans Pack where he had lost his
eye. Lost his eye to his own brother thanks to the machinations of a shifter
bitch and a crazy Alpha. Interesting to learn that Rion had gone back to their
birth pack. He pushed that aside. He didn’t give a fuck why his brother had
left the New Orleans Pack permanently. Or when.

It took a long while for him to calm down enough to make the
turn to the Fox cabin where Harmony was. He forced himself to take long, slow
breaths. Breathing wasn’t what he needed. He needed a long run. Or, he admitted
to himself, a long run and sex. Yeah, who was he kidding? Sex would take care
of it.

“Mother. Fucker.” He slammed the door of his truck harder
than necessary then stood perfectly still, breathing hard. He had to get this
anger under control before he went anywhere near Harmony or Rain. No way was he
going to bring up any bad memories for either of them. No fucking way. It was
bad enough that he’d think of his sister every time he talked to them now, but
there wasn’t any need for them to have to deal with his feelings toward his
brother too.

Harmony stood in the kitchen absently drying her hands. Her
mind was in a car having mindless sex with Gareth, so she jumped as though she’d
been shot when someone touched her.

“Wow, Mom. Where were you? You smell funny.” Rain reached
past her to snag an apple off the counter. Her nostrils flared as she looked at
her mother. “And are you blushing?”

“Manners, young lady. I smell funny? Rude!” She shot her
daughter a look but it didn’t hit the mark. So she went for the redirect
instead of acknowledging that her daughter apparently smelled Gareth on her. “How
does meatloaf sound for dinner?”

Hunger won over curiosity. “As long as it’s plain. I hate
when you try to make me eat vegetables by tossing tomatoes and corn in it.”

The grinning teen danced out of reach. “You brat! I’ll make
it the way you want it. Plain and boring.”

Since she added her own eye roll to the comment, Rain
giggled. The sound made Harmony almost hurt. It had been so long since she’d heard
that from her daughter.

“Hey. You like it here right? So far? I mean—”

Rain cut her off. “Yeah, Mom. So far so good. I mean it’s
weird and out in the sticks but Keme introduced me to his Pack. They all seem
really nice.”

“His what?” She bit back her temper.
Light. Go for light.
Don’t drive her back into that sullen pit she’s been hiding in.

Rain’s aggrieved sigh told Harmony she’d hit the right note.
“Pack, Mom. That’s what he calls his group. You know, his friends? What? Would
you rather they called themselves a gang? It’s just a bunch of res kids and it’s
not like they’re into violence or anything. They just hang out. You don’t like
him, do you?”

Talk about redirect! Harmony rolled her shoulders then put
down the dishtowel she’d been holding on to. She pulled Rain in for a hug as
she ruffled her daughter’s hair. “It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s just
that…he’s a boy.”

Rain staggered back with her hand to her mouth—eyes wide
with pretend shock. “What? No way! A boy? I had no clue.”

Harmony grabbed the dishtowel to take a snap at her laughing
kid. What a brat. Had she been that way as a girl? Smiling, she realized she
had. Now her child got to be in a safe place where she could like a boy and
hang out with his friends. Rain must have sensed the change.

“Um, Mom? So Keme and his, uh, Pack are going to the movies
this weekend. It’s that action flick I’ve been talking about. Can I go? Please?
I’ll clean my room.”

At her mother’s wry look Rain amended that to cleaning the
whole house. When her offer, bribe, was accepted the teen gave a commendable
war whoop. “Gotta jet. I’ve got homework. And someone just pulled in. Guess
that’s Gareth since the furnace still isn’t working right.”

She danced away from her mother’s second towel snap. “What?
You think I didn’t know that was Gareth I smelled on you? Come on, Mom. I’m not
an idiot. I know he fixes stuff. Besides, I heard his truck like three minutes
ago. It’s loud, I guess.”

With that offhand remark Rain darted out of the kitchen,
leaving her to stand in stunned silence. Did her daughter already know or sense
her difference? Before she could process, she heard Gareth on the porch.

He gave her a piercing look as she let him in. “You okay?
You don’t look good.”

Again with the redirection. She frowned at him. “Well that’s
nice to hear right off the bat.”

His sputtering regroup tugged a laugh out of her. She let
him wallow as she led him to the kitchen.

“Oh Gareth, stop. I know what you meant.” She patted his
shoulder lightly, ignoring the slight zing of arousal that gentle touch sent
through her. “Listen, in addition to taking a look at the furnace, would you
mind checking out the stove? It doesn’t seem to be heating up very fast. If you
can get it working right I’m making meatloaf for dinner. I’d love it if you
stayed.”

Her belly tightened as the words seemed to just tumble out.
What was she thinking? Her daughter had already smelled him on her. Just
because she didn’t know what the scent meant didn’t mean she couldn’t figure it
out. She turned away. Maybe he’d say no.

“I’d love to. And if I can’t fix it I’ll take you two out.
The café in town is pretty good. I eat there a lot.”

That single man’s admission made her want to start cooking
for him and never stop. He probably had no idea of the loneliness in the
statement but she heard it. And, she realized, she felt it. Eating out with her
daughter was great but it wasn’t the same as eating with a mate.

Mate?

“Excuse me. I’ll get out of your way. I, um, I have laundry
to fold.”

Without waiting for an answer she shot down the hallway,
praying she really did have laundry. At the moment she wasn’t even sure she had
a washer or a dryer. What the hell? Mate? She blessed the fact that not only
did she have a laundry room but she’d apparently thrown a load in the dryer.
Right this minute she couldn’t remember anything past looking at him and
thinking,
Mate.

“No, no, no and oh hell no, Harmony. You need to get your
mind off that path right now. That is so not happening.” She fiercely shook out
a towel to begin her triple fold. Working her way through the load, she might
have been just a bit more forceful than usual as she created neat piles of
things for Rain to put away.

“Uh, Mom?”

She yanked her head up from the last dishcloth to see her
daughter lounging against the doorjamb. “What?”

At Rain’s head jerk and instinctive straightening, she
sighed. “Sorry. You startled me. My head was somewhere else. What’s up, honey?”

“Gareth’s finished with the furnace and the stove. He asked
me to come find you.”

She followed her daughter back into the kitchen, which now
felt like her own hormonal battleground. There stood the enemy. Sexy as hell in
weathered jeans, wearing a gray t-shirt that had probably been bought a good
ten years ago. She scanned him, knowing he did the same.

His cautious nod came with a “ma’am” that made her want to
scream. She wasn’t that much older. Was she? Maybe that was his way of
distancing himself from the kisses. Yeah. That was it. He’d finally figured out
that she was very much not his type. Anger surged up in her.

“Thanks for fixing it. What was wrong with it and how much
do I owe you?” Her words sounded clipped even to her own ears. She drew in a
breath. “Sorry. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Thank you, Gareth.”

His posture relaxed when she softened her words. “It was
just the regulator. I suspected it. These models go out, so I’d already picked
one up at the parts store. I’ll take meatloaf as payment. Uh, if that’s still
on the table?”

Before she could answer Rain chimed in with, “Well geez,
G-man. She has to cook it first.”

The tension in the kitchen eased as they all laughed at Rain’s
very true answer.

“I’ll get it started. Rain, why don’t you see if Gareth can
fix that leaky faucet in the bathroom while he’s here? Do you mind?” She
flicked her gaze toward him. Grateful when he agreed, she didn’t breathe fully
until they left the room.

As she got the meat, eggs, breadcrumbs and other ingredients
out she wondered if she was losing her mind. Swinging from “do me now” kisses
in her car to searing anger that fast. Her hormones were in overdrive around
that man. Even now she felt a twinge of irritation that he was with her
daughter and not her. Tamping that down, she started mixing the meatloaf.

Down the hall, Gareth tried to figure out how to answer the
inquisitive young pup. It was surreal to be here talking like this with Rain
after the weird scene in the kitchen with Harmony and the even weirder
confrontation with his brother. He shook his head slowly as if to clear his
ears. “What did you just say?”

He pinned the young woman with his gaze, trying to tamp down
the almost instant anger her question had raised. He couldn’t really get mad at
her, she had no clue how sore a subject it was, especially after the run-in
with his brother’s unscarred face. A perfect reminder of just how he used to
look. Rain jutted out her jaw.

“I said, and I know you heard me, why do you try to hide
your scars? Are you ashamed of them or something? They’re not that bad.”

Her voice moved from sarcastic teen into a gentleness he
hadn’t expected. Self-consciously he reached up to make sure his hair was
pulled forward and his eye patch secured.

“See. You’re doing it again, G-man. Like it reminds you of
something bad.” Curiosity sparkled in her brown eyes. “Was it? Bad I mean? Most
of the other kids say it was from a motorcycle accident but a few said you were
in some kind of fight. I think they said a prize fight. But you can’t get hurt
that way from boxing can you?” Her voice trailed off. He figured it was in
response to the heat in his gaze.

“I really don’t want to talk about it, Rain.” He turned to
look at the faucet that slowly continued to drip. But she wasn’t going to be
redirected.

“Right. That’s what my mom says when I bring up my dad. I’m
not a baby. I mean I know I’m not supposed to pry and stuff but we all agree,”
she waved a hand as if encompassing the entire universe-worth of all curious
teens. “That it isn’t something you should hide.”

He watched her skin pink up. She blushed just like her
mother. That memory had him clenching a fist around a wrench to distract
himself. The teen took a breath then blurted the rest out.

“We all think it’s kinda sexy. Well, all the girls anyway.
Not the guys…well, Patrick too but you know about him.”

All he could manage was a nod. Sexy? They thought the
hideous scar, the white, sightless eye sexy? He didn’t know whether to be
flattered or appalled. He decided to go for amused, so he chuckled.

“Yeah, I know about P. He’s a good kid.” Trying for a change
of topic, he questioned her. “So the other kids don’t pick on P, right? I told
him to come tell me if they did.”

“Oh not at all. I mean some of the boys tease him but it’s
not mean or anything. He teases them right back. We don’t hang out with the few
who are jerks about it.” Rain seemed willing to let the matter of his scar drop
as she swung into a discourse on who was dating whom. He noticed how quickly
she had become part of the younger group of shifters and that she stumbled a
bit when she mentioned Keme’s name. He covered his smile by scooping up a
wrench.

“If you’re gonna sit in here and talk my ears off, you’re
going to help me, okay, pup?” The endearment slipped out. He wished he could
swallow it back.

“Okay, but what’s with all the dog references around here?
Keme has a ‘Pack’ and that not the first time someone’s called me a pup.” She
narrowed her eyes, looking so much like her mother that he smiled. “You aren’t
going to call my mom a b-word, are you? ‘Cause that’s not okay if you do.”

His immediate “hell no” made Rain laugh. He didn’t answer
her other question but stuck his head under the sink even though he knew it was
a washer in the faucet. It would take at least an hour before dinner was ready,
so he had to make this last. Or find something else to fix. Or break something
so he could fix it. What the hell was going on with him? He forced the
self-examination down, choosing instead to focus on the sink. Might as well
remove the U-joint and clean it while he was here, right?

“Hand me that wrench.” He was surprised when Rain actually
handed him the right item. “So you know your way around a toolbox, eh,
p—princess.”

Her snort told him what she thought of that. He grimaced at
the hair and debris in the U-joint. As he pushed it out onto an old cloth from
his toolbox with a screwdriver, Rain parked herself on the floor. Propping her
chin on her hands, she looked at him.

“So really. How did you get the scars?”

“Rain Softly Johnson!” The exasperation in her mother’s
voice made him wince. Instinctively Rain hunched her shoulders.

“I know but…” With soft brown eyes downcast, she murmured, “Sorry,
G-man.”

As the teen shouldered her way past her mother with a
mutinous glare, he watched Harmony’s own brown eyes. He wasn’t sure what he saw
there but he hoped it wasn’t pity. He couldn’t take that. Not from her. He didn’t
want her to see him as weak. Before she could speak he levered himself off the
floor. She gasped as he moved to her.

“I have to do this. I’m sorry.” He pressed his mouth down on
hers. Fire lit in his belly as her soft lips moved under his, parting just
enough to allow his tongue. He claimed her mouth as his cock hardened between
them. No way in hell she didn’t feel that. He didn’t care. “I need you,
Harmony. I want you. I…”

He changed paths before he went further. “I have to have
you. Please don’t tell me no. I ache for you.”

He gently guided her hand from his chest to his fly. Her
hips bucked once as her hand gripped him. His own pressed back into her. He
seemed to get hard around her no matter the circumstances. Not even seeing his
brother or avoiding her daughter’s questions deterred his body from reacting to
her. God, he felt like a teenager ready to dry hump in the bathroom.

Teenager. That had him moving back from her as if someone
had electrocuted him. What was he thinking? Her daughter was right down the
hall. Hell, she could have walked in on them at any minute. Dragging a hand
through his hair, he looked at the stunned woman leaning back against the
bathroom wall. Her eyes had that glazed, need-to-fuck look. His cock urged him
to just take her but his head won that battle.

“Rain.” They said it together in almost a whisper—two guilty
adults trying to figure out what to do next.

Harmony took over. “I came to tell you that dinner would be
about fifty-five minutes.” She laughed. “Well, I guess that would be closer to
forty-five minutes now. Gareth, this thing between us—I’m willing if you are
but…”