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  “Can you take this, please?” she asked, handing it to Marius.

  Interesting. She had been so self-assured last Friday, but when presented with a group of people in expensive clothes, her confidence seemed to waver.

  He took the jacket from her, resisting the urge to sniff it.

  The host, standing at a little table by the door, quickly stepped over to take Hayley’s jacket and Marius’s coat, as well, and he hung them up in a closet off to the side. “Do you have a reservation?”

  “Yes. Marius Nichols.”

  The host led them to a table by the window. The lighting was soft—candles on the tables and dim lights hanging from the exposed beams above.

  Seconds later, a server appeared at their table. She recited the menu, which was fixed, and then added, “Would you like something to drink?”

  “Do you drink wine?” Marius asked Hayley.

  She wrinkled her nose. “Not…usually? But when in Rome, I guess…”

  “If you hate it, we’ll get something else instead.” Turning to the server, he said, “A bottle of whichever red you recommend.”

  As soon as the server walked away, Marius leaned forward. “What’s going on? You seem uncomfortable.”

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  He gave her a smile. “That’s a lie.”

  “Ugh. All right. I’m just not used to dressing up, that’s all. Everyone here looks so…responsible. And I don’t fit in. So it’s weird.”

  “I wish you could see yourself like I see you,” he said. “You’re the most gorgeous woman in the room.”

  Hayley raised her eyebrows at him. “Thanks, Casanova.”

  He mentally kicked himself. This wasn’t a real date, and he should stop treating it like one. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, we’re here to get to know each other, and get ready for the big meeting. Right?”

  At that, Hayley seemed to relax. “Right.”

  “Two truths and a lie,” he said. “You go first.”

  She laughed. “We can’t play two truths and a lie—we’re shifters and we’ll always spot the lie.”

  “You’re right.” He stood up just enough to reach into his pocket, and found an old receipt in his wallet.

  Just then, the server returned with a bottle of wine. She opened it in front of them and poured a tiny bit into Marius’s glass. He made a funny face at Hayley while he sniffed the wine and said, “It’s good.”

  Hayley looked like she was holding back a smile as the server poured their glasses.

  Before the server could go, Marius asked her for a spare pen, which she gave him.

  “Okay,” Marius said, holding up the receipt and pen. “You’ll have to write small. Jot down your two truths and your lie, and I’ll guess which is which.”

  Hayley rolled her eyes, but she quickly scribbled on the receipt, then handed it to Marius.

  My favorite band is the Licorice Fiddles. My middle name is Jasmine. I once crashed Will’s truck.

  “Okay,” Marius said, considering her list. He looked up at her, and her eyes were shining in expectation. It should be a crime how beautiful she was. “Is the lie about your favorite band? I wouldn’t have pegged you for the local music scene or bluegrass.”

  “No, that’s the truth,” she said with a laugh, “but if you tell Jackson, I’ll kill you in your sleep. I’d never hear the end of it because I always give him such a hard time for working for them. But their music is really good.”

  “What do you usually listen to?”

  “Everything. I have a soft spot for nineties punk, though. My dad listened to it. NOFX, The Bouncing Souls, The Vandals, Lagwagon…we lost all his CDs after we left, but I bought everything I could remember.”

  “I’m sorry about what happened to your parents,” Marius said, trying to ward off the sick feeling that filled him. She’d been through so much, and for what? Territory?

  She waved it off. “It was a long time ago. We could’ve run, but my parents wanted to stand their ground, stand up to the Clausens. It was a mistake. Part of the life, right?”

  “It shouldn’t have to be. Didn’t an enforcer get involved, try to negotiate?”

  “You mean one of those tough guys with the might of a large pride or pack behind them? Or clan? Trying to bring order to the shifter world?” She shook her head bitterly. “There wasn’t anyone like that around. And I doubt they would’ve cared about our tiny pride.”

  That certainly answered some questions Marius had been carrying around. These days, enforcers were quick to get involved in disputes over territory. A lot of money could be made from helping the right group with a resolution.

  To cover up the guilty feeling in his gut, he returned to her list. “Okay, so the lie is either your middle name. Jasmine? Hayley Jasmine Jaynes. Has a nice ring to it.” He watched her eyes, hoping for a hint, but she wore a little smirk and her eyes gave away nothing. “Or, you crashed Will’s truck. Now, that I believe. So the lie is your middle name. What is it, really?”

  “You got me. Hayley Ann Jaynes. But I thought Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin was freaking awesome when I was little. Okay, your turn.”

  “Wait,” he said. “I want to hear about Will’s truck.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “That’s a story for another time.”

  Their first course came, a creamy carrot soup. He thought of pushing Hayley to tell him about crashing Will’s truck, but he was afraid that if he did, she’d close down on him. So he scribbled out his truths and lie.

  My middle name is Jeffrey. I’m an only child. I hated kissing you.

  He slid the receipt across the table and watched Hayley’s light blue eyes widen as she read it.

  “Well,” she said, straightening up in her chair. “I don’t think you’d lie about your middle name after I lied about mine. So that’s a truth.”

  He nodded.

  She seemed to wrestle with how she’d handle the next part. Either his lack of siblings was the lie, or that he’d hated kissing her. Would she pretend to believe for a second that he’d hated kissing her?

  “You’re an only child,” she whispered.

  “Truth.”

  She crumpled up the receipt. “Well, that was a fun game.”

  He looked down at his soup. Then back up at Hayley. She took a sip of the wine, but obviously, she didn’t enjoy it. He’d brought her here to get to know her, not to torture her.

  “You wanna get the rest of our meal to go?” he asked.

  She glanced up quickly, confusion on her face. “Why?”

  He could lie about it, but she’d know. “You don’t seem comfortable, and to be honest, I’m not, either. I never come to places like this. I just heard the food was really good. Let’s take it somewhere else. Somewhere outside, where we belong.”

  She was already standing up. “Yes.”

  He laughed at how quickly she’d agreed, and flagged down their server.

  Chapter Nine

  Marius grinned over at her from across the bench seat, his face illuminated by the dash lights. His teeth flashed. All the better to eat you with, my dear, she could hear in her head, but it didn’t sound scary, it sounded…dirty.

  Her attraction to him was just as strong as before, and she’d caught him sneaking looks at her boobs. She was hyper-conscious of the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra, and just because the cold didn’t bother her didn’t mean her nipples didn’t notice.

  Maybe it wasn’t the cold, though, that had her sensitive bits coming to attention. Maybe it was Marius.

  Fuckballs. Why was she pretending with herself? It was definitely Marius.

  When he slowed nearing the turn to the public picnic area by the lake, Hayley reached over to touch his arm. “We can go to my family’s property,” she said. “It’s on the other side of the lake, and I’d like to show it to you if you haven’t seen it before.”

  A conflicted look came over his face, but it disappeared quickly and he nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

 
She gave him directions. When they pulled into the long drive leading from the highway to the house, she said, “Where are you from, anyway? You didn’t live here when I was growing up.”

  “My dad’s in Idaho,” he said. “Owns a gas station in some tiny town. I traded one tiny town for another, I guess.”

  “I’ve always liked small towns,” she said. “Here we are.”

  Marius stopped the truck and grabbed the large paper bag filled with to-go boxes. “You wanna grab the blanket behind the seat?” he asked.

  She gave him a look. “You drive around with a blanket?”

  “Sometimes I sleep in my truck,” he said, shrugging.

  “Or you’re taking lots of women on moonlight picnics.” The very idea bothered her, but she reminded herself that she had absolutely no claim on this man, and she didn’t want a claim on him, either.

  “Hardly.” His answer was gruff.

  “How long ago did your last relationship end?” she asked as they walked toward the lake. Already the fresh, wet scent of the shore was filling her nose, and she breathed in deeply, relishing the fact that she was home.

  “A year or so. You?”

  “I’ve never really been in one,” she said. “We moved around too much. I enjoyed some casual hook-ups if I could get away from my brothers for long enough. They’re a couple of overprotective busybodies, so it wasn’t easy. They’d have fit right in as chaperones back in the Regency era.”

  He laughed. “So, nothing serious?”

  “Nope. You?”

  “Not really. My last girlfriend was intent on making it work, being committed, starting a family. But the feelings weren’t there, for either of us.”

  This was feeling awfully close to a real date in Hayley’s mind. She needed to steer this conversation back on track. “So you’re twenty-eight, your dad lives in Idaho. Are you guys close?”

  “Not at all.”

  “You drive an oldie but a goodie pick-up truck, and Jackson said something about you leading wilderness tours?”

  “Yeah. I work for Washington Mountain Adventures. The work’s seasonal, though. My last trip is this weekend. So I usually do odd jobs for locals just to keep money coming in for winter.”

  They’d reached the edge of the lake. Hayley carefully circled a small area, making sure she wasn’t about to put the blanket over a bunch of mud. Satisfied, she spread it on the ground. After the recent rain, the blanket would soak through pretty quickly, so she sat up quickly and slid her jacket underneath her.

  “I don’t think you believed me earlier,” he said, “when I told you that you were the most gorgeous woman in the room.”

  Hayley felt her face get hot, and hoped he couldn’t tell in the moonlight. “Well,” she said, trying to sound flippant, “I believe you that I’m the most gorgeous woman at the lake right now.”

  He shook his head, aggravated, and started unpacking their boxes. One of the boxes fell out of his hands and onto his thigh. “Oh, shit fuck!” he said.

  “What is it?” Hayley sat up on her knees.

  “The chicken sauce just leaked all over my pants. It’s still hot.”

  Hayley crawled over to the bag and searched inside. “What the hell? They didn’t give us any napkins?”

  “Ugh, this burns,” Marius said. He toed off his shoes and walked straight into the lake.

  Hayley watched him from the blanket. “You’re insane, you know that?”

  “You should come in—the water’s really warm.” He made a show of rolling his head like he was feeling comfortable.

  She burst out laughing. “You think I haven’t heard that one before? My brothers tried that on me all the time.”

  “How about, I feel like a fool standing in the lake by myself?”

  “I’m okay with that,” she said, leaning back on her elbows.

  He splashed her.

  “Hey, this is a borrowed dress!” she said, scooting away.

  A wicked grin appeared on his face, and he splashed her again.

  “I can kick your ass, you know,” she said.

  He raised his eyebrows in a challenge.

  Forget it. She had no problems with nudity. The only reason she’d changed in Summer’s bathroom was for Summer’s comfort, because humans weren’t always as cool with nakedness as shifters had to be. Standing up, she shimmied the dress over her head and draped it carefully on the blanket, far away from the leaky food boxes.

  When she looked over at Marius again, his expression had completely changed. The wicked smile was gone, and now his eyes were on her body. Dark with hunger.

  He hadn’t hated kissing her.

  Wearing only her panties, Hayley padded down to the edge of the water and reached down, her breasts dangling. She touched the water, which was frigid. Then she scooped her hand and flung the biggest splash possible, right in Marius’s direction.

  “Hey!” he said. “I still have my clothes on.”

  “Not my fault,” Hayley said, and splashed him again.

  He pulled off his sweater and undershirt, balled them up, and tossed them to the picnic blanket. Then he waded to Hayley. “You’re not in the water,” he said, his voice dark. “Yet.”

  An involuntary squeak left her throat. She was a tough predator, sure. But Marius looked even bigger and more intimidating, and he pinned her in place with that intent look in his eyes.

  Too late, she turned to run back to the blanket. Giant arms wrapped themselves around her middle, and she was lifted into the air.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

  “Um—”

  His voice was a warm rumble through her body as he said, “Take a breath.”

  “Wha—?”

  Suddenly, she was flying through the air. Her back smacked into something cold and hard and then she was under.

  She scrambled in the water until she found the lake floor and stood up. The frigid November air caused goosebumps to appear all over her skin.

  “You!” she shouted. But she was facing the center of the lake, and stupid butt-teeth Marius was behind her. Spinning around with as much dignity as she could muster, she faced him. “You…you…turd-burglar!”

  “Aw, I’m sorry,” he said, not looking remorseful. At all. “I thought you wanted to play.”

  Oh, she would play, all right. She marched forward as quickly as she could in waist-high water, until she was in the shallows. Then she launched herself at him from the side.

  He was expecting it, though, and didn’t topple into the water like she’d hoped. Instead, those muscular arms came around her again, slippery on her skin, and he turned her body so that she was wrapped around him—legs around his waist, arms around his shoulders.

  Just like that sexy dream she’d had.

  He was warm and solid, and he smelled like dried grass and the lake and male desire—musky and hot.

  He held her up, his hands on the backs of her thighs, dangerously close to her panty-clad ass. She stared directly into his face, waiting for what would come next, but he didn’t move.

  Now what? He had her here. He obviously wanted her, and he wanted her pretty bad, if the massive log pressing against her pussy was any indication. But he was frozen, his arms holding her securely like he could stand there all night.

  Hayley wasn’t that patient. Flexing her thighs, she squeezed his waist at the same time she pressed her lips to his.

  She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but this kiss was even hotter than the one she’d planted on him at the bar. He pressed his tongue against her lips, asking permission, and she opened her mouth and slid her tongue out against his. He moaned against her, the sound vibrating through her torso. Her nipples dragged against his chest as she levered herself up for a better kissing angle, and she squirmed her legs against him. More contact, more friction, more heat. She wanted it all.

  He palmed her ass, holding her up with one arm while his other came behind her head, directing her movements. Controlling asshole. Just to be co
ntrary, she pulled away slightly, trying to kiss him at a different angle, but his fist tightened against her hair and he turned her head again. She grinned against his mouth. She liked a challenge.

  She squirmed to slide down off of him, but his arms held her tight, and all her wriggling did was put her in closer contact with his boner. The heat of it felt like a brand on her inner thigh. Locking one arm around his shoulders, she reached down with the other to take his length in her hand, marveling at its hardness while it was encased in his pants.

  He growled, cursed, and said, “Hayley.”

  Her name on his lips sounded like a prayer, a curse, a blessing, a spark. Hayley bit his lower lip. He bit hers back, hard, and she yelped, but he was already swiping his tongue over the hurt, soothing. He let go of her hair to grip one of her breasts, his thumb and forefinger rolling the hardened nipple. Hayley forgot how to think. She forgot how to breathe. She forgot her own damn name. All she knew was Marius.

  This time when she tried to slide down, she whispered, “Pants. Off.”

  Marius let her go. The cold water was a shock to her ankles, but she quickly got used to it. She watched as he unfastened his pants.

  “Birth control?” he asked.

  “I’m on the pill.”

  He stepped out of his pants and boxers and tossed them onto the shore, and then he stood before Hayley, naked and glistening in the moonlight. His broad shoulders, bulging biceps, the dark nipples covering his massive pectorals. Here was a man who could hold her in one place, a man who could keep her accountable. A man who could pound into her while she writhed in ecstasy. His gaze was on her, and his cock stood tall. Waiting for her. He didn’t make a move toward her again, as if afraid she’d change her mind.

  Oh hell, no, she wasn’t changing her mind.

  As if sensing that she was about to throw herself at him again, he held up a single finger. “Panties,” he said, his eyes glinting. “Off.”

  She scrambled to pull the wet fabric down over her hips and off of her legs, and nearly fell into the water again. He laughed, and she splashed him. “Shut up, that was totally graceful.”