Craved (19 page)

While we were waiting for our food, I
stared out the window but turned to face Micah when I felt his eyes
watching me.

“Remember that little diner we stopped
at in Illinois?” he asked. I released a heavy sigh and nodded, not
wanting to comment further. Micah, Wyatt and I had gone up to
Chicago to see a Cubs game. We’d stopped at a small diner along the
way where Micah and I had done the deed in the women’s restroom. We
had an ongoing game to see how many public places we could have sex
in without getting caught. If I remembere correctly, we’d made it
up to ten. I didn’t appreciate him bringing up that specific piece
of history.

“We shouldn’t talk about these sorts
of things,” I said, giving him a glare. Maybe he didn’t realize how
hard our breakup had been on me but that was no excuse to talk
about our intimate moments now that we were both with other people.
If he thought this hole in the wall was going to be number eleven,
then he was about to be disappointed.

“Have you thought about what I told
you last night?”

“Not really,” I lied. “You know, I
don’t get you, Micah. You could have been with me for as long as
you wanted but because daddy says you need to have were babies, you
dump me and shack up with a woman you don’t even love. Then, as if
that’s not bad enough, you tell me you still love me and bring up
our sexual history.” My voice had risen along with my temper and
right as I finished my rant, the waitress delivered Micah’s food.
She looked between the two of us nervously, like she’d just
interrupted a lover’s quarrel.

“Thank you,” I told her when she set
my iced tea in front of me. She gave me a tight-lipped smile and
walked away. I spared a glance at Micah but quickly looked away. I
didn’t care for a man who didn’t know what he wanted. Or one who
knew what he wanted and didn’t go after it. Aiden had always showed
interest in me and hadn’t given up on pursuing me until I was his,
something Micah needed to learn.

“You don’t understand my world, Gwen,”
Micah said through a mouthful of hamburger. I took a sip of my tea
and hoped it’d wash the bad taste out of my mouth.

“Maybe not, but you don’t understand
love. What exactly do you expect from me?” I was positive that once
the case on brew distribution was done I wouldn’t talk to Micah
again. If the occasion arose again and the FPD wanted my help, I
would only work with Wyatt. Micah didn’t seem to know what he
wanted and I didn’t like the confusion it caused me. I instantly
wanted to see Aiden; where the hell was he and why wasn’t he
answering my texts?

I could see the wheels turning in
Micah’s head as he thought about my question, no doubt trying to
come up with an answer that wouldn’t set me off. At the moment, I
wasn’t sure anything he said wouldn’t piss me off.

“I didn’t realize it’d be this hard,”
he began, pausing to think. “I knew I’d miss you but I thought I’d
done the right thing. Most were men mate with were women while
they’re still dating their other girlfriends. I didn’t want to do
that to you. Still I wonder if I should have, because at least then
I wouldn’t have to see you with Aiden.”

I was quiet as I considered his words.
If he had gotten a were woman pregnant while he was still with me,
well, there was no doubt that that would have been the end of us. I
wouldn’t have been able to stay with him knowing he had a baby with
another woman. The breakup had sucked, but it could have been
worse, I realized. I shook my head in frustration because Micah
wasn’t getting the overall concept of our problem.

“Thank you for not doing that,” I
said. “but the problem isn’t whether you could have cheated or not.
The problem is that you chose breeding new weres over our
relationship. That’s not love, Micah. If you had truly loved me,
you wouldn’t have given me up so easily. As for Aiden, he’s been
there for me since I first met him. He’s gone to the extreme to
protect me from harm. What we had is history; let’s just leave it
at that and try to be civil for the sake of closing this
case.”

Aiden had killed two women at Rush to
protect my identity, and, at the time, I had been sickened at how
easily he killed. However, after seeing the lowlifes that filled
orders for witches’ blood, I wanted all of them turned to
ash.

Micah was quiet for the rest of his
lunch and soon we were back in the car and driving again. He had
taken a bunch of side roads and we ended up in a town that looked
desolate. A few closed-down shops lined a cracked blacktop road,
making it look like a ghost town. I wasn’t sure why, but the place
looked vaguely familiar. My eyes inspected the scenery and
buildings as I tried to make the connection. The proverbial light
bulb went off. Bridget hadn’t been the one to show me this place;
it had been Amy Harper’s memories. It looked different during the
daytime, but I was sure it was the city where Amy Harper had been
kidnapped.

“This is the place,” I told Micah
without a doubt. Micah pulled the Jeep to the side of the road and
I hopped out and ran to the corner. There was an alley about ten
feet up the sidewalk so I ran to it and, standing in the entrance,
looked back at Micah to see if he was following. I stared down the
long alley and closed my eyes as memories flashed through my mind.
Amy Harper, scared and alone, had stood in this exact spot. She
searched overhead but didn’t see anything, then ran down the alley
in hopes of losing her pursuer. I opened my eyes and followed the
same path Amy had. When I reached the end of the alley, I was
standing on what looked like the edge of town; cornfields and
barbed wired fences lined one side of the street and, alongside the
corn, was the warehouse.

“What’s going on?” Micah said from
behind me.

“This is what Amy Harper showed me,” I
told him. “I think that’s the warehouse.” I pointed to the building
in question and started across the street. I was so anxious with
the discovery of the warehouse that I stumbled over a stump. I
would have fallen into the barbed wire had it not been for Micah’s
arms catching me. He wrapped a muscular limb around my waist and
stopped my tumble. But, without thinking, my hand flew out to grab
at anything and ended up on the wrong end of a barb. I pulled my
palm away quickly and shook it as the stinging sensation shot
through my palm. When I turned my hand over to see what the damage
was, my palm was holding a pool of blood.

“Son of a bitch!” I said through
gritted teeth. I was used to getting hurt, being born with two left
feet and all, but it still hurt like hell. Micah pulled off his
t-shirt and ripped it in two, using one half to soak up the blood
and the other half to tie snugly around my wounded palm.

“I can’t take you anywhere,” he said
with a small smile.

“It’s kind of par for the course,” I
agreed. My head was down as I watched Micah’s white t-shirt turn
red with my blood, but the realization that he was standing in
front of me shirtless helped distract me. I looked up through my
lashes and absorbed the broadness of his shoulders and the depth of
the valleys that formed his impeccable muscular form. His brown
hair brushed his shoulders as the wind played with it. His face had
just enough stubble to be considered ruggedly sexy. He met my eyes
with a longing I didn’t want to see from those familiar
eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked in a soft
tone, full of concern. I nodded my head because I was afraid my
voice would crack. I quickly looked away and focused on the
warehouse so that I wasn’t staring into Micah’s honey-colored eyes.
I’d been a fool to think that being around him wouldn’t affect me.
It had been almost a year since we’d broken up, but being around
him and hearing that he still loved me was hell on my heart,
especially since I had a very sexy vampire who wanted to claim me
as his. I still wasn’t sure what Aiden and I were. In my terms, if
I said I wouldn’t date anyone else and only be with one guy, then
we were dating. In vampire terms, claiming someone as theirs could
mean I was his property, under his protection and forbidden to be
touched by any other vampire. I had known Aiden for two years and
that didn’t fit with his personality. I knew he liked me as more
than a piece of property, but the last couple of days he’d been
scarce.

“Gwen?” Micah said. I looked back at
him and arched my eyebrows in a sort of “Hmm?” response. My head
was a cloudy, foggy mess, thanks to Micah and Aiden. Now was not
the time to figure out my love life.

Micah leaned down slowly so that his
lips were right in front of mine and I froze with surprise. When he
pressed his lips to mine, I melted right where I stood. His tongue
darted into my mouth and claimed my own as it swirled around and
sent fire to erupt within me. He wrapped his arms around my waist
and pulled me against his body, his warmth soaking all the way to
my core.

“Stop…we have to stop,” I said,
pulling away from him. The nausea that floated through my stomach
was enough to make me want to vomit. I pushed away from him and
walked a couple feet before bending over and sucking in deep gulps
of fresh air. I was ashamed and pissed at myself for ever letting
something like that happen. I cared about Aiden, possibly loved him
and had just betrayed him with a man he hated.

“Gwen, I know you want to be with me.
I can see it when you look at me. Are two people not supposed to be
together because of the other people in their lives? I’ve never
stopped wanting you.” Micah spoke against my back but I couldn’t
turn around to look at him or speak to him. If he wanted me so much
then why had it taken him a year to mention it, did his phone stop
working within that time? Was seeing me again igniting old feelings
that were causing him confusion also? Working with him again had
been a mistake.

“I don’t want you, Micah,” I said
quietly, like I was testing how the words tasted on my tongue.
“That was a mistake I won’t ever repeat.” I turned to face him and
searched within myself for the courage not to cry. The realization
suddenly dawned on me that what had been between me and Micah had
been false. Werewolves were primitive in their thinking and I had
fallen for what I thought was love, when the only thing between us
was attraction. I couldn’t deny that the sexual tension between us
went through the roof, but looking at him now, I knew it hadn’t
been full blown love. It wasn’t what Aiden made me feel. With
Aiden, I was smitten with the anticipation of his glance, or the
sensation of his skin on mine whenever his fingertips brushed
against my hand accidentally, the light in his eyes when he watched
me or the sporadic beating of my heart whenever he was close. All
of the little things that give you hints of internal emotions that
can’t be expressed through physical contact. Micah was comfortable
to me, familiar, but he wasn’t what my heart wanted. And, even if
he didn’t realize it yet, I wasn’t what his heart was looking for
either.

“You love the vampire.” He said
matter-of-factly. I grinned at the blatancy of the statement and
nodded my head.

“I’m sorry,” I told him.

“I do love you,” he said softly. “I
almost gave it all up.”

“If you did love me, you would
have.”

I didn’t think Micah completely
grasped the difference between “almost” and “doing”. It was a big
step for him to even consider giving up expansion of the pack for
me; no werewolf would do that. The bond that through a were pack is
stronger than anything I’d ever seen and, if he had given it up for
me, he wouldn’t have been happy.

In the end, I could finally see that
the hurt I had gone through had been the best thing for the both of
us. Micah would go on to have little were babies with Jamie and
possibly fall in love with her, while I would give myself
wholeheartedly to the man I had loved for two years. And although
Micah isn’t a frog by any means, the kiss between us had made me
realize who the real prince was. Aiden.

**********

After our nice little chat and my
revelation, we finally made our way to the warehouse. I magically
unlocked the door and waited just outside as Micah checked the
inside. A lot of witches had learned to fight with their magic but
I wasn’t one of them. I could conjure a bat and hit someone upside
the head, but I doubt I’d be quick enough against a vampire. Seeing
how the vampires had become our number one enemy, maybe the NAWC
should require magical fighting techniques as part of our public
education.

“All clear,” Micah said, peeking his
head out the door. I stepped inside the warehouse, already knowing
what it looked like. The broken down refrigerators I’d seen the
night before sat in the far corner. Two cots occupied the middle of
the floor and off to the left was the office area. I walked toward
the office, like I’d been here a millions times and knew what I was
doing. Micah followed and looked over my shoulder as I picked up
the clipboard I’d seen previously. I scanned the list of names and
my breath caught as my eyes found Aiden’s name. I had been hoping
that I imagined that part of my night.

“Clients?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” I told him and
magically made Aiden’s name disappear from the list. I didn’t need
the FPD knowing my vampire beau was on a suspicious list of brew
users. Out of curiosity, I searched for Ian Despereaux’s name but
it wasn’t on the list. I handed the clipboard to Micah and searched
the area for any other information. There was a computer sitting on
the desk but it was password protected. Finding nothing else
useful, I left the office and walked around the corner where I had
seen the men sitting at the table. The table was right where I
expected it to be but there weren’t any supplies atop it. There
were a few built-in cabinets along the wall but nothing of interest
inside them.