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“Claire?”
Pushing away the thought, I fixed my expression, doing my best to hide my emotions. It was a weak attempt, but hopefully, he would let it go. Focusing on my heartbeat, I allowed myself to see nothing but Jack.
“I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want you, Claire,” Jack said as he continued to roam my body.
I smiled, hoping that the smile reached my eyes. I wanted his words to be enough. For right now, they would have to be, but I knew they would only hold me for so long.
* * *
“I’msurprised to see you here,” Rainbow said as she opened the door to her bungalow. Even though I hadn’t called before I’d arrived, she seemed to have been expecting me. “For as long as you’ve been waiting for Jack Beaumont, I would have expected you to have been missing for nearly a month.”
As tempting as it was to dump all of my emotional baggage on Rainbow right then, I held back. I wanted answers, not a commiseration partner. Everyone knew Rainbow was the town gossip. While I was certain that Rainbow wouldn’t divulge anything that she knew would hurt another, I was still leery about spilling all.
Leading me into her living room, she gestured for me to sit on the sofa as she flounced about the kitchen, making coffee and tea.
“So, what’s wrong in paradise?” she asked as she sat down a tray of tea and coffee atop the scarred coffee table.
“What makes you think something is wrong?”
“Well, first, you’re here instead of wrapped in the arms of that warlock of yours.”
She had me there.
“Second, you’ve got that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“That constipated look,” Rainbow answered with a smile.
Later, I knew I would be practicing my serious expressions in the mirror now that both Maggie and Rainbow seemed to think I looked constipated.
“Truth is,” I began, “I have a weird question to ask you.”
“Of course you do,” Rainbow said, taking a seat on the opposite end of the sofa from me. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
I opened my mouth to protest, feeling bad that I’d come to Rainbow when I needed her. She held up a hand.
“I’m not fishing for guilt,” Rainbow said. “We all know what part we play on the stage of this strange little town.”
I didn’t bother to tell her I was no longer sure of my place in Mystic Springs. Hell, I wasn’t sure of much of anything.
“It’s about Lana Rogers,” I admitted finally.
“Lana Rogers?” Rainbow repeated, surprised.
“Do you think that she and Jack ever had a thing together?” I was fidgeting, twisting my hands in my lap, nervous that Rainbow might reveal truths to me I might not be ready to handle.
What I hadn’t expected her to do was laugh.
“Is this because of what she said at the book club?” Rainbow asked once she had stopped laughing.
“Before I went into heat with Jack, I had to stop at his cabin one night,” I began, closing my eyes against the memory. Despite all that had happened since, that memory made me feel sick. The only thing I had seen him do that night was help the woman to her car, but it still filled me with intense jealousy. Mostly because I knew what he had been doing only a few moments before. What I’d felt him doing moments before.
“I doubt she was over there for anything other than to beg him to rut her,” Rainbow said with a shrug. “Besides, you’re his mate. It’s not as if she can compete with you now.”
If only I felt as secure in my relationship with Jack as most of the other people in Mystic Springs apparently did.
“I feel like I’m pressuring him into something he doesn’t want to do anytime I mention us securing the bond,” I admitted. There was no one else I wanted to talk through this with. I didn’t think my sister was old enough to understand, nor did I think she should be burdened with my problems. It was impossible to talk to Mom. The last thing I needed was for her to start applying magic to the problem.
