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  The thought of her, in his living room, sent another stab of desire straight to his dick. He reached down and gave himself a squeeze through his boxers. Hayley. Her kiss had done something to him. She’d crashed right into him and broken through.

  How could he be wrecked by one kiss?

  And how could she have sat there, so unaffected, for the next hour? She’d talked to Summer and Jackson, and even Marius, as if the kiss hadn’t happened.

  He had a raging hard-on. He gripped it again, reveling in the pressure of his fingers even while hating it. It was just wrong, how Friday had turned out.

  This morning, he’d put on the extended version of The Two Towers, thinking a bunch of orc-slaying violence might cheer him up or, at the very least, get his mind off of Hayley. But then fucking Eowyn had to show up in her medieval dresses and long wavy hair and it had all come, full circle, back to Hayley Jaynes.

  He let go of his cock to jab the remote and shut off the movie. Then he stood and padded over to the fridge, where he found one last bottle of beer. While cracking it open, he glanced at his phone. Four missed calls. All from an unknown number.

  He pulled up his voicemail and listened. “Um, Marius? This is Hayley. We met on Friday, um, I don’t know if you remember me.”

  Of course he remembered. He couldn’t seem to forget—that was the damn problem.

  The message continued, “I really need to speak with you. I—”

  He didn’t wait to hear the rest of the message, but went straight to selecting her number to call her back.

  “Oh thank jizznoodles,” Hayley said.

  “Huh?”

  “Okay, so can you do it?”

  He looked at his nearly full beer. Was he drunk and imagining this whole thing? But it was Hayley, so of course he’d do it. “Sure.”

  “I owe you so, so much. Thank you.”

  “Yeah, no problem.” This was the weirdest conversation ever. His fault, for not listening to the entire message or asking what she was talking about. “How’d you get my number?”

  “I told Jackson I needed to ask you about the Mount Rainier trails.”

  “Oh. That makes sense.”

  There was silence on her end. Had she hung up?

  “You there?” he asked.

  “Yeah. You’re just…being awfully cool about this. After I was kind of a dick to you on Friday.”

  “Look,” he said, scrambling for something to say without admitting he hadn’t listened to her message, “I want to be on friendly terms with your family. I like living in Huntwood, and if we’re on good terms, maybe your pride will let me stay. So if you need a favor, I’m up for it.”

  She exhaled loudly. “Thanks. Great. So, I guess I’ll see you on December first?”

  Almost four weeks away. Not like he had anything going on. “Sure thing.”

  “All right. Thanks. Bye.”

  He stared at his phone after she hung up. Took a long sip of beer. Then tapped on her voicemail again—this time, to listen all the way through.

  “Um, Marius? This is Hayley. We met on Friday, um, I don’t know if you remember me. I really need to speak with you. I know this is weird, but I’ve gotta convince the Spokane Pride that I’m…taken. That I have a mate, or whatever. There’s a meeting scheduled for December first. Do you think you could come with me? Hold my hand or whatever, just so they get off my back?” Her words were rushed, like she was nervous. “I mean, you’re the only single shifter I know, other than my brother Will, but ha, that’s not going to work, you know? I don’t know how to repay you, but I’d owe you big time. Anyway, call me back, please. Let me know. And, um, thanks. For even considering this.”

  He slammed the phone back down on the table.

  What the fuck had he just agreed to?

  He took a deep breath, guzzled the rest of his beer, and took the empty over to the recycling bin. Opening the fridge, he looked for another beer, hoping a buzz would help offer some clarity to this problem.

  No more beer. Swearing, he slammed the fridge door closed.

  He picked up the phone again, saved Hayley’s number to his contacts list, and jabbed at the screen to open a text message box.

  Marius: You wanna be convincing with this, we need to get to know each other.

  Hayley: Good idea. I can draft some questions for us to answer.

  He growled to himself. Questions on a form? No way.

  Marius: Fuck questionnaires. You wanna do this, we need to spend time together. Two dates. First one is tomorrow night at The Lodge. Send me your address and I’ll pick you up at eight.

  Then he waited. Would she go for it, or chicken out?

  Hayley: …

  Hayley: …

  He grinned. She must be freaking out over there. He typed, Don’t overthink it. I’m not trying to get into your pants. But if we’re going to meet them together, we’ve gotta sound like we’ve had more than two short conversations.

  Hayley: …Good point. I haven’t been to the lodge. What should I wear?

  Marius: It’s kind of a fancy place.

  Hayley: So, a dress?

  Marius: Yeah. Do your brothers know about the Spokane Pride and this meeting?

  Hayley: Not yet. I don’t want to tell them. They’ll just worry.

  Marius: You should probably tell them anyway.

  Hayley: I will.

  He could practically hear her sighing. She sent him her address and he wrote that he’d see her tomorrow. When it didn’t look like she was going to respond again, he set down his phone and returned to the couch to finish The Two Towers.

  Hayley Jaynes. Full of surprises.

  Chapter Seven

  When Hayley had messaged Summer early the next day, Summer had sent back several cry-laughing emoji, along with the message, You don’t own a dress?

  Hayley had stuck her tongue out at the phone. What would she need a stupid dress for? Dresses were hardly practical. And they usually required special shoes, and sometimes women got matching handbags, too. Hayley shuddered. What had she gotten herself into with this date?

  Not a date, she reminded herself as she pulled into Summer and Jackson’s driveway that evening. Not a date—a brief meeting. A way for her and Marius to get to know each other well enough to convince Boris Dickteeth Lockman to back the hell off.

  Summer was waiting on the porch. The rain had stopped, but Hayley had to dodge a few puddles on her way up the drive.

  “You’re sure you don’t mind loaning me a dress?” she asked.

  “Of course not!” Summer said. “I’ve already pulled them out of my closet. There’s this gray one…well, I’ll let you choose. But I have my eye on one in particular for you.”

  Hayley followed her inside. Jackson sat at Summer’s scrapbooking table, his laptop open in front of him. He smirked when Hayley came in. “You going on a date, sis?”

  “Shut up, wankmaster.”

  “Solid burn, Hayles. Seriously, though. Who are you going out with?”

  Summer was watching Hayley expectantly, too, obviously just as invested in the answer as Jackson. Best to get this over with. She turned to face them head-on.

  “I’m going out with Marius.”

  “I knew it!” Summer shouted, holding her hand out to Jackson.

  He shook his head, frowning good-naturedly as he reached for his wallet and pulled out a twenty. He handed it to Summer. “Guess that means you’re buying take-out tonight,” he said. Then he looked hard at Hayley. “I thought for sure you’d told him to get lost on Friday.”

  “I did. Listen, it’s not…” Hayley looked up to the ceiling, hoping an easy explanation would appear in the fan above her head. “I may as well tell you, but only if you promise not to freak out.”

  “Freak out?” Jackson said. “What, does he have some kind of weird hold over you? I kicked his ass once, and I can do it again.”

  Hayley laughed. “In that case, I could kick his ass, too, because we know I can kick yours.”

  Jac
kson pretended to lunge at Hayley, but Summer stepped forward, concern written in her face. “Hayley,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “The Lockmans.”

  It meant nothing to Summer, but Jackson swore. “How’d they even find out we were back?”

  Hayley shrugged. “Who knows? If any of them were traveling through town, they’d have seen us. We’re not exactly hiding. Who cares, anyway? The point is, Boris called and wants to meet to discuss our old agreement. I told him I was with someone. So Marius has agreed to pretend to be that ‘someone.’”

  “Fuck,” Jackson said. Then he turned to Summer and explained the situation—the Lockmans had agreed to help the Jaynes during the pride war…provided the Jaynes promised Hayley would marry their golden son, Alec.

  Summer’s eyes grew wider and wider, and she said, “This is awful.”

  “Yeah, it’s a pain,” Hayley said. “But Marius is game to pretend to be my mate, and we just need to get to know each other a little better so we can be convincing.”

  “What if they ask you outright?” Summer asked.

  “There are ways of getting the truth out while not being entirely truthful,” Hayley said. “I think we’ll manage it if Marius and I look like we’re mated.”

  “Hence the date tonight,” Summer said. “I guess we should get you dressed. What time is he picking you up?”

  “Eight.” Hayley looked at her phone. Just an hour left.

  “Then come along, Cinderella,” Summer said.

  Hayley could hear Jackson trying not to laugh as she followed Summer into the bedroom.

  “Shut up, Jax.” She lifted her hand behind her back and flipped him off.

  Summer’s queen-sized bed was covered in several extra layers of multi-colored fabric. Hayley eyed it like she’d watch a spider dangling from her ceiling. She wasn’t scared of anything else—snakes, sharks, horror films—but spiders freaked her the hell out.

  Dresses too, apparently.

  Summer picked up a shimmery gray thing and held it against Hayley, who winced.

  “Come on, it’s not that bad,” Summer said. “Didn’t you go to dances in high school?”

  “Nope.”

  “She scared all the boys away,” Jackson shouted from the other room.

  Summer frowned in his direction. “Stop eavesdropping you big…you big…”

  “Twatwaffle,” Hayley whispered.

  Summer snickered. “You big twatwaffle!”

  She and Hayley giggled while Jackson yelled, “Shut up, Hayley! I’m trying to work!”

  “I’ll take this one,” Hayley said to Summer, gripping the dress that was already in front of her.

  “You barely looked at it,” Summer said with a laugh. “Don’t you want to try a few on?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, you have to put it on at some point,” Summer said, pointing to the bathroom.

  Hayley held in the aggrieved sigh that was trying to force itself from her lungs and marched to the bathroom. She quickly stripped and tugged on the dress.

  “My bra shows,” she complained through the door.

  Summer said, “You’re not supposed to wear one with that dress.”

  Ugh. Really? She pulled the dress off again and removed her bra, feeling her nipples tighten in the cool air. Then she put the dress back on. Was girlie stuff always such a chore?

  Hayley turned to face herself in the mirror. The dark, shimmery gray looked all right. And the cut, straight across her chest, showed off her shoulder and arm muscles. She did a couple of squats, and the fabric moved with her. At least she could move in this thing. She’d seen dresses that had made her think the people wearing them would be the first to die in the event of any natural disaster requiring quick movement.

  “What do you think?” Summer said.

  Hayley opened the door and stepped out. “It’ll do.”

  Summer’s mouth fell open. “Hayley,” she whispered. “You look beautiful.”

  Hayley’s first reaction was to snort, but Summer looked so sincere, she couldn’t do it. “Thanks,” she said. “Thanks for lending me this dress. I would’ve hated to buy something that I’d only wear once.”

  “You should keep that,” Summer said.

  Hayley stared at her like she was crazy. “It would just take up space in my tiny closet.”

  “It looks like it was made for you.”

  “Nonsense. It’s your dress.” Hayley started putting the other dresses back on the hangers stacked at the foot of the bed.

  “Leave those, I got it,” Summer said.

  “Um, no, you didn’t empty your closet and make a big mess just so I can leave you with it,” Hayley said.

  “You can’t put off the date forever,” Summer said.

  “Good point. But let me get a few of these, first.”

  In a few minutes, the dresses were put away.

  “Shoes,” Summer said, passing a pair of ballet flats to Hayley. Good thing they weren’t heels, or Hayley wouldn’t have been able to walk in them.

  “Thanks,” Hayley said, slipping them on. They pinched just a touch in the toe, but if she could survive a couple of hours sitting across from Marius at dinner, then she could survive a couple of hours in these shoes.

  Hayley grabbed the clothes she’d worn here. She looked back to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Something black peeked out from under the bed. “Hey, I think you dropped your phone,” she said, picking it up.

  Her thumb inadvertently lit the screen. A message was up in prominent display, from Jackson.

  Summer, I love you. Always.

  “Thanks,” Summer said, taking the phone. Her eyes crinkled at the edges at the sight of Jackson’s message, even though he was only twenty feet away in the other room.

  Maybe Hayley’s brother was a twatwaffle, but he and Summer had something really special. With a pang, Hayley hoped that someday she’d be grown-up and responsible enough to have something like that.

  Chapter Eight

  Marius pulled up to the sidewalk in front of a large house. Hayley’s apartment was a mother-in-law unit above a garage. The main house was detached, so luckily Marius wouldn’t have to deal with anyone else. He was nervous enough without forced small talk with strangers.

  He strode up the driveway and climbed the outdoor stairs leading up to the second-story door. His chest felt tight, like it was encased in shrinking rubber bands. This night felt important, whether or not Hayley thought so.

  He wore dark slacks and a button-up shirt, with his North Face coat over that. He didn’t really need the coat, given his shifter metabolism, but people in the mountains tended to stare if he went out in the winter dressed like it was spring or summer. The well-used North Face coat wasn’t really great for dressing up, but it was the best he had.

  Tonight could be amazing, or it could be awful. Or perhaps both. Friday night with Hayley had been both.

  Without allowing himself to think about it anymore, he knocked.

  Hayley’s door opened, and she stood before him in a dark dress that came to just above her knees. Her hair was down in long, golden-brown waves and it looked like she even had some make-up on.

  “You look…you look incredible,” he said.

  “Thanks. Oh, shit, I forgot I needed a coat. Hang on just a sec.”

  He peered past her into the room while she rushed to a closet on the other side. It smelled like Hayley—Red Vines, strawberry. The scent made him lightheaded with want.

  Her studio looked like just enough space for one person or for two people in love, with a kitchenette on the far side, and a small couch and a bed on the other. The dark green bedspread reminded Marius of pine needles, and he approved.

  Hayley came back to the door, carrying a small black purse and wearing the leather jacket she’d had on Friday night. “I know the jacket doesn’t really go with the dress,” she said, “but it’s all I’ve got. This sucks. I’m not even that cold.”

  “It’s all right,
we can take them off as soon as we get into the restaurant.” He looked past her and pointed to a large print of the night sky over Mount Rainier. The stars were so detailed, Marius could see the Milky Way. “Who did the art?”

  “That’s one of Will’s,” she said. “He took it ages ago, when we lived here before. I had it blown up as soon as I got this place, so I could put it on the wall.”

  “It’s really nice.”

  “Yeah, he’s talented.” She closed the door and locked it, then walked ahead of Marius toward his car. “And hey, look at us. We’re already getting to know each other. Not bad, huh? Maybe we should skip dinner altogether and share family stats and call it good?”

  “Nice try,” he said, reaching for her elbow.

  She half-heartedly tried to get away.

  “You want to act like a couple, you have to be comfortable with a little touching, right?” he asked.

  She stopped fighting him, and he linked their arms together. It felt so right to him. Why did she keep trying to put distance between them?

  “Nice car,” she said, eyeing his old Ford.

  “I hope you aren’t being sarcastic,” he said.

  “Not at all. This is a classic.”

  He opened her door despite her, “I don’t need help with my own damn door,” and then slid into the driver’s seat.

  “So where is this place?” Hayley asked when he started the car.

  “A few miles out of town, close to Lake Michel.”

  She nodded and leaned back, her slender fingers fanning over the funky old weave covering the bench seat.

  For the first time, Marius resented his older truck. The engine was so loud, it was nearly impossible to have a conversation. After some shouted attempts at small talk, he and Hayley gave up and waited until they got to the restaurant.

  The Lodge was a recent development to the area. A wealthy New York chef had wanted to raise her family away from the city, but she didn’t want to sacrifice her passion for creating delicious food. The result was this tiny mountain restaurant. Two sides of the dining room were entirely made up of windows, and a bar took up the other side. The server station and kitchen were at the rear. Marius watched Hayley’s expression as she checked the place out. Her gaze lingered on a group of well-dressed women at a table nearby, and she shrugged off her jacket.