A Werewolf in Manhattan (19 page)

After paying for it, he handed it to Nadia. “A small thank-you for coming down here.”

“I was happy to. I’d heard you were in town, and I was hoping we’d get a chance to catch up.”

“Then let’s get some coffee and do that.”

Within minutes they were seated across from each other at a small bistro table, steaming lattes in front of them. From Aidan’s chair he could glance sideways and look between a row of bookshelves to the spot where Emma stood reading from her book. She’d chosen a forest green knit dress today, and he’d decided it was his favorite.

“She’s very pretty,” Nadia said.

“Who?” He faced Nadia and tried to look innocent.

“You know who.”

“I’ve been hired to keep an eye on her.”

“So you said.” Nadia looked amused.

“Anyway, thanks for showing up on short notice. I hope I didn’t screw up your work schedule.”

“Nah, I needed the break. I’m in the middle of designing my fall collection, and I was sick to death of hunching over the drawing board trying to think of a coat style that hasn’t been done to death. This is nice.” Nadia cupped both hands around her latte. “So, what’s going on between you and Emma Gavin?”

“Next question.”

“Oh, so you don’t want to talk about it.” She took a sip of her latte. “That’s not very sporting of you.”

Aidan blew out a breath. “I misjudged there. Too much heat between us. This morning I gave her the talk about my family’s expectations.”

Nadia’s gray eyes warmed with sympathy. “I know what that’s like. I’ve given that speech to a few guys. I suppose she thought you were nuts to go along with such a thing.”

“Yeah, she did. Let me ask you something.” Although no one was sitting close enough to hear the conversation, he lowered his voice out of habit. “Have you ever resented the idea that you’d eventually have to marry for the good of the pack?”

“Not yet.”

“Meaning?”

Nadia kept her voice low, too. “It means I’ve never found anyone, man or Were, who was worth the pain of challenging the system.” She took another drink of her latte. “Since you’re asking that, I’m wondering if you have.”

Aidan quickly shook his head. “Nope. Just an idle question.”

“You’ve never struck me as the kind of guy who asks idle questions. Coming on the heels of you giving Emma that speech this morning, I have to wonder if she means more than you’re willing to admit.”

“She can’t mean anything to me. She’s human.”

Nadia leaned closer to him. “It’s not as if Weres have never mated with humans, Aidan.”

“I don’t know any personally.”

She sat back. “I do. I guess you’ve never met my uncle Lenny.”

“No.”

“He fell hard for a Las Vegas showgirl, and now Aunt Trixi is part of the family. Last year she taught me and my cousin Judy how to twirl tassels with our nipples. In opposite directions.”

Aidan laughed. If he were the least bit interested in Nadia, that tassel-twirling comment would be a turn-on. Instead he just thought it was funny. “Now there’s a marketable skill if I ever heard one.”

“Yeah, it was fun.” She glanced at his latte. “You’re not drinking that.”

He’d completely forgotten it was there. He shoved it aside. “Did your aunt continue to dance in Vegas?”

“No, of course not. She moved here. She and Uncle Lenny have a house on the estate up in the Dells.”

He lowered his voice again. “Virtually under house arrest, I suppose.”

“I think she was at first, but now she’s allowed to visit her family in California and stuff like that.”

Aidan tried to imagine Emma voluntarily giving up her writing and allowing her existence to be monitored by the Were community. It would never happen, not in a million years.

“So much depends on the person involved and whether they’re adaptable,” Nadia said.

“Right.” He shook his head. “Let’s get off that depressing subject. There’s something else we need to talk about.”

She sighed. “My obnoxious little brother.”

“He’s fixated on Emma.”

“I know. He has all her books, and he boasts about how they’re friends.”

“They’re not.”

“Of course they’re not. Theo’s delusional. He moved into the city this summer, and he spends way too much time alone in his little apartment. I hate to say it, but I think he’s got some revolutionary ideas going on.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“He’s mentioned several times that Emma understands us and would want us to be free of what he calls ‘stupid restrictions.’ ”

Aidan groaned. “Oh, yeah. Let’s go back to the days of being hunted with torches. That would be lots of fun.”

“I’ve tried to tell my dad that we need to do something about Theo, but whenever I suggest that he could bring us down, my dad says all young alphas are high-spirited. Then he accuses me of being in competition with Theo because one of us will be in charge someday.” She shivered. “Having Theo in charge is one scary thought.”

“Obviously Theo needs an alpha male to set him straight. And soon, before he drags Emma into this and causes everybody a big problem.”

“My father should be the one to handle him, but I guarantee he’s not going to. I would if I could, but I can’t buck my dad on this.”

“Then it looks like it’ll have to be me.”

 

Emma looked up when she finished reading the passage from
Night Shift.
Aidan and Nadia still sat in the coffee shop, their heads close together as they carried on what was obviously an intense conversation.
Aidan and Nadia.
One name was the mirror image of the other. Their parents must have planned it that way.

She felt like a naive fool. From the beginning, she’d known Aidan was out of her league. He’d never pretended otherwise. She’d told him that some recreational sex would be just hunky-dory.

Except it wasn’t so hunky-dory now that she understood how fleeting that experience had been. No man had ever excited her as Aidan did. What if she never found another guy who triggered that kind of uninhibited response? Was she doomed to settle for second best?

“Miss Gavin?” A bookstore employee touched her on the elbow. “Are you ready to autograph books, now?”

“Oh!” A line had formed in front of the table, and because Emma also stood in front of the table, she was face-to-face with the first person in line, a grandmotherly woman dressed in purple sweats.

Emma smiled at her. “Hi, there.”

“Hi, yourself, sweetie. You looked so sad just now. I hope everything’s okay.”

“Everything’s wonderful. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just move around to the other side of the table so I can sit down and autograph your book for you.”

“Take your time. My name’s Sylvia. Say, I’m
so
excited about the party tonight. I didn’t make it last year, but I’ll be there this time. I’m coming in costume.”

“The party.” Emma had totally lost track of what she was supposed to be doing after the book event. Seeing Nadia had torpedoed her thoughts. Then she remembered. “Oh, the
party.
” She had one more radio interview this afternoon. Then from seven to ten tonight, she’d be the guest of honor at the monthly meeting of the Werewolves and Wine Club, which convened in a private room above a bar in downtown Chicago not far from the Palmer House. The members were all avid readers of anything werewolf related, and she was a popular author with the group.

She’d attended once before, and most everyone came in some sort of werewolf costume. Emma appreciated their enthusiasm, but she’d decided prior to her first visit to the club that she wouldn’t do the costume thing. Her decision had been the same this year, too.

“I’ll look forward to seeing you there, Sylvia.” She slid the autographed book back across the table.

“What are you wearing?”

“A black dress.”

Sylvia looked surprised. “No fur of any kind?”

“I want to make sure everyone knows who I am.”

“Oh, right. That makes perfect sense.” The woman reached over and patted Emma’s hand. “See you there. And for the record, I love the way you write sex scenes.”

“Thank you.” Emma hoped she’d remember Sylvia by the time the party rolled around. But then again, maybe she wouldn’t recognize her in a werewolf suit.

Nearly an hour later, all the books were gone and Emma had signed several bookplates for those who weren’t able to buy a book. She’d chatted with the bookstore manager and expressed her gratitude.
Time to wrap things up.
As she signed one last bookplate for a latecomer, she became aware of Aidan and Nadia standing off to one side of the autograph table.

Nadia held a book in her hand. Well, that was classy of her, to buy a book even if she hadn’t arrived specifically for that purpose. Emma knew full well Nadia had come to see Aidan.

The two of them walked over to the table after the last autograph seeker left.

Aidan spoke first. “Emma Gavin, I’d like you to meet Nadia Henderson.”

Emma blinked. Theo’s last name was Henderson, but surely that was a coincidence. She held out her hand. “I’m happy to meet you, Nadia.”

“Same here. I hope you don’t mind signing one more book.” She laid a copy of
Night Shift
on the table.

“Not at all. Thanks for buying it.” Emma was determined to be gracious to this woman who seemingly had everything—looks, money, and a future with Aidan Wallace. Jealousy was a terrible emotion, and Emma wanted to be rid of it. She wanted to be, but she wasn’t. She longed to leap across the table and close her hands around Nadia’s lovely throat.

Instead she wrote,
Enjoy the fantasy. Best wishes, Emma Gavin,
in this cursed woman’s book. She wondered whether Nadia had slept with Aidan. Oh, hell, who was she kidding? Of course they’d had sex. Two people who looked as though they had and were pledged to marry someday? They’d certainly taken a test-spin and kicked the tires of their future marital ride.

Smiling so much her cheeks ached, Emma closed the cover of the book and nudged it back toward Nadia. “Too bad we can’t go out for a drink or something, but I have a radio interview in thirty minutes.”

“Of course! I need to be going, anyway. Work calls.”

Despite herself, Emma was curious. “I don’t think Aidan mentioned what you do.”

“I design organic clothing.”

“Oh. That’s terrific!” Well, that was the topper. Besides looks, money, and access to the world’s most eligible bachelor, Nadia ran a green business. Emma was in favor of green businesses. In another life, she might have bought clothes from Nadia Henderson. But she would go stark naked before she’d buy a single stitch from the woman who would bear Aidan’s children.

Yes, she was being petty and unfair, but she’d had a lot of caffeine, not enough sleep, and rock-star sex with a man who would never touch her again. A girl couldn’t be blamed for being a little irritable under those circumstances.

“So”—Emma stood and gathered her things—“we need to take off, Aidan.”

He nodded and pulled out his BlackBerry. “Let’s go. I’ll make sure Barry’s waiting in front.”

“I’ll just walk out with you.” Nadia fell into step beside Emma. “The bus stops only about half a block from the front entrance.”

Emma glanced over at her in shock. “You took a bus here?”

“Sure. Why not?”

Because you’re loaded.
“I just thought you’d probably have a driver, like Aidan.”

“I can see the point of a driver for something like your book tour because you have to move quickly from place to place.”

“No, I mean Aidan always has a driver, even in New York.”

“Oh.” Nadia smiled. “I guess he hasn’t seen the light. Most of my family’s the same way, but I keep telling them that chauffeur thing is so last century. We need to make more conscious choices about our mode of transport.”

“Yes, we do.” Emma hated to find herself agreeing with Nadia about anything, but taking public transportation was one of her favorite causes. She glanced over at Nadia’s silver suit. “Is that suit organic?” She seriously doubted it.

“Yes. I realize that’s hard to believe with the metallic sheen of the fabric, but I’ve patented a special process to create that effect without using any toxic dyes. My mission is to make organic at least as stylish as haute couture.”

“Impressive.” Despite herself, Emma
was
impressed. It appeared that Aidan would end up with a wife who was intelligent and eco-conscious, in addition to being a knockout. No doubt they would be very happy together. Emma wanted to weep at the injustice of it all.

Barry had pulled up outside in a no-parking zone, but the Wallace flag flew from the rear bumper, so Emma knew the town car was golden. She turned to Nadia and held out her hand. “It’s been a pleasure. I wish you and Aidan all the luck in the world, although you won’t need it, I’m sure.”

“Thank you.” Nadia’s grip was firm. “Just so you know, he thinks you’re very special.”

A lump formed in Emma’s throat. “I think he’s special, too.”

Nadia held her hand for a moment longer. “Take care of yourself, Emma Gavin.”

“I will.” She turned and climbed into the car as Barry held the door open for her.

“Give me a second, Barry,” Aidan said. “I need to double-check a couple of things with Nadia. You can go ahead and start the car.

“You’ve got it.” Leaving the back door open for Aidan, Barry walked around and slid in behind the wheel of the town car.

“I still can’t get used to hanging out in illegal parking spaces, Barry,” Emma said.

“Me, either. But apparently the Wallaces have a connection with the Hendersons, and the Hendersons are big medicine in Chicago. That flag on the back is all we need for the royal treatment.”

“That woman Aidan’s talking to is Nadia Henderson.”

“Is it, really? I wondered. I’ve seen pictures of her and thought it might be her. Too bad about her brother, though.”