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“What do you want?” she asked flatly as he grinned down at her.
“What do Iwant?Now is that any way to greet an old friend, darlin’?” Luke grinned at her appealingly—that gleaming white toothpaste commercial grin that all the girls used to swoon over.
“An oldfriend?”She nearly choked on the words.
“Sure!” Luke said easily. “You know, I looked for you at the ten-year reunion—I was surprised you didn’t come.”
“You’rethe reasonI didn’t come,” Mattie snapped. She wasn’t going to play along with him and pretend like nothing had ever happened. Fuck that, as Grath would have said. Speaking of which, where was he? She could really use a seven-foot-tall Kindred warrior at her back right now.
Unfortunately, the big Hybrid was nowhere in sight.
Her words seemed to have had no effect on Luke Hartsford, who was still giving her that easy, charming grin.
“Come on now, Mattie—it’s not nice to hold grudges,” he said and held out his hand. “Why don’t we just shake hands and make up? I just hate it when people are mad at me for no reason.”
“No reason?” Mattie exclaimed, ignoring his offered hand. How stupid could he be? “Noreason?”
“Sure. Let bygones be bygones, darlin’,” Luke said, nodding, as though she was agreeing with him.
Suddenly he had her by the hand, even though Mattie hadn’t seen him move. She tried to pull away but his grip was too powerful.
Trapped! Can’t get away!yammered a little voice in her head—a horriblyfamiliarvoice.
“You know, I think about youa lot,”Luke murmured, pulling her closer, so that she could smell the minty freshness of his breath.
Wintergreen—his breath always smells like wintergreen. I could never stand that smell afterwards. After he tried to…it makes me sick!
“Let me go.” She wanted to shout the words but they came out as a weak, helpless whisper. “Don’t…don’t touch me.”
“I’d like to domorethan touch you, darlin’” Luke murmured, his grin turning ugly now…hungry.
Predatory—that was the word, Mattie thought faintly.
“Leave me alone.” The words were stronger this time but they still sounded too weak, too vulnerable.
“I think about youall the time,”he said again. “Little Mattie Porter…the one that got away…”
Suddenly a big hand landed on Luke’s shoulder and he was yanked forcibly backwards. He wound up sprawled on his back in the snow at the edge of the path, a look of shock on his handsome face.
“What the—” he began.
“What thefuckdo you think you’re doing to my female?” Grath’s voice was a low, menacing growl as he glared down at the other man.
“I…I don’t know what you mean.” Luke blinked, looking convincingly confused. “Mattie and I went to school together—we were just catching up.” He looked up at Mattie, as though he actually expected her to back up his story! “Isn’t that right, Mattie?”
Mattie felt sick. She hated the bitter cold of the New England winter and she hated Christmasville—the shiny, glittery, little tourist-trap that it was. But she hadn’t expected to encounter this particular specter from the past. It was too much.
She shook her head and muttered to Grath,
“Let’s go.”
Without waiting for an answer and offering no other explanation, she walked swiftly down the path, trying to push the past away, back into the corner of her mind where it usually lived.
She wished she had never come home for the holidays.
NINE
GRATH
