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“Famous?”
“Jasper told us all about his visit with you last week,” the man said.He reached out to shake my hand.I responded automatically to the gesture by putting my hand in his just as I registered Jasper’s annoyed snort.
The man’s warm, hard hand closed on mine and held.I saw something flash in his eyes—a searching, a yearning.Then he smiled, gave my hand a squeeze, and let it go.“Micah Moreau.It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Christ, Micah, you’re so fucking shameless,” another man said, coming through the open front door.He was also clearly related to Jasper, but his features were rough where Micah’s were fine.He was wearing work pants, a stained T-shirt, and an equally stained ball cap over close-cropped hair.His eyes were the same blue as his brothers, but in his face they were sharp and assessing.A thick beard covered the lower half of his face.“You just can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
“It’s none of your business what I do with my hands,” Micah said with a tight smile.
Flint snorted.“I hate to break it to you, bro, but the reason why it hasn’t happened is because it isn’t real.”
“Flint,” Jasper said like a warning.
The man—Flint—glowered, then turned to look me over.“I don’t understand what there is to talk over.She’s gotta go.”
“Let’s wait for Mom,” Micah said.
“Mom doesn’t need to be bothered by shit like this,” Flint said, throwing out an exasperated arm.“It’ll just upset her.”
Jasper’s jaw set.“I have a plan.”
“Does it involve carting her right back to her car and sending her back where she came from?Because I don’t see how there’s any other plan.”
“If you’d just let me lay out my strategy--”
“Jesus, Jasper, this isn’t one of your quarterly meetings.Did you bring your white board?”Flint asked mockingly.
“You have a white board?”I interjected.I was tired of being talked about like I wasn’t there.“If you’re not using it for anything at the moment, I’d love to borrow it while I’m here.I thought about bringing one, but it wouldn’t fit in the car.”
Both men stared at me.Jasper looked like he was trying to hold back laughter, but Flint’s scowl was tight in his beard.“You’re not welcome here,” he said, enunciating each word.
I cocked my head.“You do realize that this reaction is proof in and of itself?You’d never be this overwrought if there wasn’t some truth to the shifter rumors.”
“I’m reacting to someone spreading lies about my family,” he growled.
“Flint, stop threatening the guests,” Melinda said, slightly breathless and leaning on her cane as she came through the door.
Immediately, the balance of the room changed.Micah stepped close to his mother, whispering something in her ear that made her smile as he helped her to an armchair.Flint spun away to pace.Another person came in, a Black man around Melinda’s age.He scanned the room, noted Melinda settling into a chair, gave me a curious once-over, then headed into the kitchen.
“Who’s that?”I said as Jasper nudged me into a conspiratorial corner.
“Who?Oh, that’s Dominic.He’s my mother’s…assistant.”
“Her Beta?”I said, to prove I knew the term.
He narrowed his eyes at me instead of answering.“Look, I have to ask you something.How badly do you want to know the truth?”
I stared up at him.He and Flint and Micah all shared the same looks.Why was it his serious, angular face that made my heart skip a beat?“Bad enough to sign an NDA promising that I’ll never tell anyone what I find out.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s a good idea,” he said, taking a deep breath.“If you really want to go down this road, you have to know that your life will change forever.You’ll never be the same.”
The last week flashed through my mind.Everything that had happened since I got the call about my father’s death, I’d felt as if I had jumped dimensions into another version of my life.The woman I had been in Baltimore had been content to follow the track laid out for her.“I’m already changed,” I said.“I already know too much.”
“Be sure,” he said, his blue flame eyes burning into mine.
I’d never been more sure than I was in that moment.“I want to know the truth.”
He closed his eyes as if the answer had pained him.Then, to my surprise, he reached up and laid a hand on my face.
Everything stopped.My heart, my breath, the turning of the earth.Every nerve in my body was devoted to the sensation of his palm against my cheek and his fingertips rasping against my neck.The world narrowed down to the light flaring in his eyes.
Then he kissed me, and the world exploded.
