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Fire began licking across my own nerve endings the longer Shea silently perused me. It became just about impossible to control my hormones with him looking at me like that. Hell, I wanted to drag his tuxedo-clad body up to my king-sized bed, rip off every shred ofbothour clothing, and jump his wolfie bones in the absolute worst—or possibly best—way imaginable.
And I had averygood imagination.
Get your damned head in the game!I admonished myself.Your baby sister could be attacked by assassins any minute. You donothave time for this.
I gritted my teeth and glanced away from the ridiculously tall shifter, visually devouring me like he reallywasthe Big Bad Wolf, to focus on a nearby bookcase. Reading had been one of the few passions Kayleigh and I shared, and this particular bookcase overflowed with our favorite childhood fairy tale anthologies and young adult fantasy novels. Aunt Bridget had spent countless hours reading us fairy tales once she realized how much we loved them. It had been she who started our individual collections. Something for the three of us to bond over during the times our Grandmother had custody of us for magical training.
The ornately-scripted spine marking my favorite anthology of Cinderella versions caught my attention briefly, likely because Kayleigh had referenced that tale twice today. Once out loud and once in her Radiant Order. Intuition began to stir, but Shea’s deep voice quickly distracted me from the book my fingers had just caressed without conscious intent.
“Do you have your own personal fairy godmother on hand up there or something?”
My brows furrowed. “Say what now?”
He chuckled, gesturing from the bookcase of fairy tales I’d used to gain some semblance of self-control to my body standing between the book lover’s wet dream and the man who had featured in far too many of my own fantasies…
“Most of the women I’ve dated would take at leasttwiceas long to clean uphalfas good as you look right now.”
I couldn’t help the surge of satisfaction inspired by hearing he thought I looked good. Better than good, judging by his long, heated glance upon entering the room. And then annoyance that his praise meant anything to me when I very much wanted itnot tostruck.
“No fairy godmother necessary,” I replied with a lighthearted tone. Or so I hoped. “Just my favorite little black dress from Versace and a whole lot of help from Sephora.”
“Well, my compliments to Versace and Sephora then,” he drawled, giving me an equally appreciative but much quicker once-over before his expression became more matter-of-fact. “You still have that cherry red Corvette, I assume?”
I nodded, grateful for a new distraction, and the reminder that we had much more important fish to fry than my raging hormones.
“All right, then. Finn and Connor will meet us there once they get the girls settled and the two Beacons relieve them. Meaning we’d best get to this little shindig and keep our eyes peeled for trouble.”
And, let’s be honest, trouble seemed to follow both the Donnelly clan and me more closely than our shadows…
* * *
Finn
The blasted woman barely spared me a glance the whole ride from the airport to her fancy-ass downtown apartment building. Looking at the sky-high sardine tin had a scowl flash across my face. Who the hell wanted to live packed so tightly together? Somewhere there was barely any room to run when the call of the moon thundered so strongly through your veins you could no longer deny your inner wolf?
Then again, few shifters had as hard a time resisting that siren call during the full moon as me. A weakness I fucking hated.
And the answer to my question was: the same person I’d lashed out at like a wounded animal when I realized I could actually come tocareabout another woman, even after the original faithless one had ripped my heart to shreds. I’d never meant to hurt Ava. That goddamnedlookshe’d given me. As if I reallyhadclawed out her heart and shredded it to pieces.
Sweat drenched my shaking palms as the words I’d thrown at her echoed across my brain more loudly than the heavy metal I listened to when lifting weights. “Just admit it: You’re a conniving, manipulative spy for your even more conniving, manipulative grandmother!”
Like she hadn’t proven herself completely loyal to the St. Louis Pack every time the shit hit the fan—which it had repeatedly—over the past five years. Sometimes it felt like even more than I ever had.
Which was one of the reasons it royally pissed me off that she had pressed that mouth-watering body of hers so close to Shea’s and spent the entire ride talking tohim. Never once really looking atme.
It wasn’t jealousy of Shea—we had successfully shared love affairs with women before and likely would again. The nature of our magic and beasts. No, I was infuriated with my stupid self. I’d hurt Ava Sheridan so fucking much there were no guarantees I’d ever convince her to forgive me. And after the last several months of relentless self-reflection, I realized that tore me up a hundred times worse than Danielle’s betrayal ever had.
Shit. I’d never even let either brother know how much catching her cheating had hurt. With Ava? They both somehowknewhow I felt, and it annoyed the piss out of me.
Connor paused his current activity of entertaining our cute but way too chatty nieces to do what he did best. Annoy the fuck out of me.
“Brooding over her yet again, I see.”
My mouth opened to curse him out the way he deserved, but when Sorsha batted her lashes and asked, “What’sbroodingmean?” at the same time her more bookish sister Rory (who’d learned to read at the age ofthree, for shadows’ sake) chimed in with, “Brooding overwho, Uncle Connor?” I forced myself to bite back the obscenities. Barely. Something that had a smirk flashing across Connor’s smarmy-ass face.
Thank the Moon Mother we weren’t identical triplets or I’d have to punchmyselfin the face.
Connor’s smirk morphed into an outright chuckle after he gave me a sidelong glance.
