Deceived By the Others (10 page)

I ignored the offered hand. He let it drop without comment, and without losing that ingratiating grin. “J.P. I assume you’re the one who was following us the night before last?”

“Why, yes. I hope I didn’t alarm you. Want to tell me what made you choose this establishment for your little outing?”

“That’s none of your damn business,” I snarled, though I toned it down and forced the tension out of my shoulders as everyone, including the kid with the paperback, dropped what he or she was doing to stare curiously at us. “I’m on vacation, okay? Aren’t there rules about leaving people on vacation alone? Go crawl back to the city and find someone else to harass.”

“I’m hardly harassing you, Ms. Waynest. Just looking for a story. Funny that I always find one when I spend enough time following you.”

“Jim, please don’t do this to me. I’m trying to have a relaxing getaway—this isn’t helping.”

That smile of his never wavered. It bugged the hell out of me. “I’ll be watching, but you won’t see much of me. I’m not staying here, just swinging by to see what the Sunstriker pack is up to so far from the city. You’re not the only story I followed up here. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it discreet. If you change your mind about giving a statement later, you know how to reach me.”

He afforded me a nod, waving the paper at me in what might have been mockery or threat as he breezed by. No doubt he’d find someplace to hole up and watch us, taking photos of whatever he thought might sell to the tabloids. I wasn’t happy about it, but it had become depressingly commonplace lately. Anything that connected me with Others was newsworthy these days; it was part of why I was on this vacation in the first place. Sara had been taking on more of the footwork that I normally did since too many people now recognized me on the street.

My good mood gone, I stalked out of the dining hall and headed outside, pausing on the trail to enjoy the cool breeze that rustled the grasses and herbs, letting the sensations wash over me and ease the edge off of my agitation. The heady scent of lemongrass was drowning out the more subtle smells. Someone had cut a swath through it recently, maybe for something Mrs. Cassidy was whipping up in the kitchen tonight.

Breathing in the sour-sweet smell, I turned off the main path and walked into the garden, following the less-packed dirt trail that led through the herbs and vegetables. There wasn’t much still growing this late in the year, and much of what was left had been harvested already, but a few of the hardier plants were still going strong. I brushed my fingers through the rosemary and basil, liking how their dusky scents clung to my skin. There was peppermint out here, too. I could smell it, but they must have had it hidden in pots away from the rest of the plants to keep it from taking over the garden.

There were no benches or gardening tools that I could see, and I wasn’t sure Mr. Cassidy would take too kindly to my digging around in his garden anyway. I used to love gardening growing up, but apartment living wasn’t exactly conducive to growing my own produce. After sampling the amazing food they served here, I was starting to regret that a little.

Wanting to sit down, forget about Jim Pradiz, and just enjoy the sun for a while, I ambled my way out of the garden and toward the creek. After the rain, it was swollen with runoff from the peaks around us. I found a good-sized rock a little way off the path to sit on, dipping my fingers in the icy cold water and turning my face up to the sun. It was pleasant, doing nothing, just enjoying the sounds of birds calling to each other in the trees and a couple of kids running around nearby. Probably Billy and one or two of the other Weres’ kids.

Out here relaxing in the sun and fresh air was nice, but at this rate I knew I’d be bouncing off the cabin walls to go home by Sunday at the latest. I sorely hoped Ethan wouldn’t keep everyone for too long, and that he hadn’t hurt himself or anybody else. It bugged me that nobody was around, that it was so quiet, and that there wasn’t much to do since I couldn’t go walking or hiking by myself.

Actually, it was really quiet.

Now that my attention was on it, I opened my eyes and looked around. There were no people walking around. The kids had stopped yelling and carrying on. Even the birds singing in the trees had quieted.

Uneasy, I rose to my feet, wiping my wet hands off on my jeans. I took a look around but didn’t see anyone hiding in the greenery. The woods grew thick near the bank of the creek not that far off the trail, and somebody could theoretically be hiding in the tree line. The sun was bright and high in the sky, but the bushes were dense and rife with deep shadows.

I carefully moved up the bank to the grass, rubbing some of the mud off my sneakers before taking the path over the creek and toward the cabins. I hoped I could find Kimberly, but I wasn’t sure where she was staying, and there was the added worry that she and Paula seemed to be good friends. Kimberly hadn’t been rude to me like Paula, but I wasn’t sure how she felt about me after hearing the news I’d been Royce’s little pet blood doll.

Chaz, followed closely by Simon and Dillon, was ambling up the path toward me. Whatever was in the brush hightailed it, making quite a lot of noise as it rushed off on their approach. Chaz frowned when he reached me, staring off into the bushes even as he gave me a quick hug.

“Hey, love. Hope you weren’t too bored without me.”

“Nah,” I replied, getting up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Heard the new guy was giving you trouble. Everything okay?”

Simon and Dillon exchanged a look I couldn’t read. Chaz’s brows arched in surprise, but his smile eased my worry I’d said something wrong.

“Ethan will be fine. He’s having a rough transition. I left a couple of the guys with him. As for you”—I squealed when he picked me up, laughing as he spun around to face the woods and cabins before setting me back down on my feet; the other two Weres were rolling their eyes, but I didn’t care—“I’m not letting anything get in the way of our afternoon together.”

Chapter 9

At my pleading look, Chaz dismissed Simon and Dillon. The two breathed very obvious sighs of relief and rushed off, not giving Chaz a chance to change his mind. Though I could tell he was annoyed, he quickly lost track of his irritation once I slid my arm around his waist and pressed up against his side.

“So, what did you have in mind for this afternoon?” I asked.

He soon replaced the irritation with playfulness, grinning down at me while his fingers toyed with the bra strap peeking out of my shirt collar. “It’s a surprise.”

My eyebrows arched at that, as I worked my hand under his shirt to rub against the smooth plane of hard muscle on his back. My smile grew wider when he flexed, responding so readily to my touch. He urged me to move, and it was with a mixture of disappointment and curiosity that I noted he wasn’t leading me to our cabin—we were headed somewhere into the woods.

“Where are we going?”

“No questions yet. You’ll see,” he said.

I kept my mouth shut, but both of us explored the bounds of our self-imposed chastity by letting our hands wander and pressing against each other as we walked. The trees were soon close around us, limbs lightly slapping against our arms and legs as we walked, giving us that much greater an excuse to hold each other close as we followed some half-formed path through the underbrush. I barely noticed. He laughed when I stumbled over a root in the mulch, tightening his grip on me in a way I didn’t mind at all.

I’m not sure how long we walked. I was too distracted to notice where we were going until Chaz halted, and the sound of running water drew my attention to my surroundings.

It looked like something out of a fairy tale. The path led to a stream fed by a small waterfall trickling down over mossy rocks. Birds occasionally darted out to snap up a bug and bullfrogs sang their rough songs from the pool at the base of the falls. Someone had long ago dragged a stone bench out here and set it in a grassy clearing looking over the water; the wilds no doubt would have reclaimed it save that someone had cut back the worst of the brush, leaving the bench barely visible in the field of waving green stalks. The trail curved to follow the stream, and I could see where it picked up on the other side, just beyond some large stepping stones cutting a path through the water.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, settling back against Chaz’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me.

We stayed like that for a while, him holding me while I drank in the beauty of the place. The heavy scent of pine wasn’t as thick here; instead, there was an odd smell, reminiscent of parsnips, which Chaz told me was the scent of the huge hemlock growing near the base of the waterfall.

Hand in hand, we waded through the thick grass to the edge of the water, avoiding the wavering hemlock clusters that would bloom with white or green flowers come springtime. I pulled a cattail that still had the brown, densely packed seeds on the top, using it to stir the water near the edge. We settled down in the grass, laughing and grabbing at each other for balance as the cold water soaked through our jeans.

He helped me take off my shoes and roll up my pants to my knees, then I set aside my cattail and did the same for him. We stuck our bare feet in the water, and he chuckled at my gasp of shock. We scooted closer on the shore, twining our legs together as we wiggled our toes against the chill. He held me against him, and we watched the frogs and salamanders and fish gradually build up the courage to return to this invaded slice of their haven.

“Shia?”

“Yes?”

“You’ve never talked to me about what happened while you were with Royce.”

Startled, I withdrew. “Chaz—”

“No, Shia,” he said, tightening his grip on me so I couldn’t pull away. I glanced up, afraid of what emotions I’d see reflected in his eyes, but he was staring across the water instead of at me. A muscle in his jaw was twitching; not a good sign. “I think I have a right to know. I brought you out here for a few reasons. One of them was to see if we have a future together. If we’re ever going to get past what happened, if we’re ever going to be like we were, then you need to talk to me.”

I didn’t answer right away, shocked beyond speech that he would bring this up now. His grip on me was too tight to pull away from, and the intimacy of the moment was completely shattered by sudden memories of being at the vampire’s beck and call. Panic at being imprisoned by Chaz’s hold subsided as I reached for his other hand to grasp it in both of my own. He didn’t return the squeeze of reassurance I gave him.

“I want a future with you, Chaz. I can’t imagine being without you. You’ve saved my life, more than once, and stood by me during some of the toughest trials I’ve ever endured.” I lifted a hand up to his cheek, making him look at me. The hurt so raw in his expression cut me deeper than I would have expected, made it hard to say my next words. “When I was bound to Royce, I loved him.”

Chaz started to pull away, withdrawing his arm from around me. My hand fell to his shoulder, holding him there while I straddled his waist, preventing him from rising. He glared up at me, brows furrowed and teeth suddenly bared in an angry sneer.

“Don’t,” he growled. “You’ve said enough.”

“Chaz, shut the fuck up and let me finish,” I snarled back. Startled, he leaned back, anger still glinting in his icy blue eyes, but some of the tension trickling out of him as he settled down beneath me. “I loved him because I
had
to. I had no choice. Do you understand? It wasn’t real. His blood made me want to be with him and do what he said. Hell, I couldn’t have said no if he’d really pushed me to let him touch me or drink my blood. He never asked, but I wouldn’t have been able to say no if he did. That’s
nothing
like what we have. I’m with you because I have a choice, and because I care about you. I won’t blindly do what you say—but if I did, is that how you’d want me?”

He stared up at me, anger and confusion and hurt warring with a sudden understanding. He knew now, knew what neither of us had had the courage to say since I ran on bloodied feet from the divided loyalties that waited for me in Royce’s shadow.

When he answered, his voice was low, hardly a whisper.

“No.”

Not satisfied, I bunched up his shirt in my fists, anger getting the better of me the more I thought about it. Chaz couldn’t possibly understand what it had been like for me. How hard it had been to stay sane, stay
me,
and walk away when it was over. Worse, wrong or not, he still felt jealous of the vampire for having some part of me he’d never touched.

“I craved his blood, Chaz. He could have kept me there, given me more when I begged for it, and made me his. He didn’t. He let me go. Don’t blame him for doing what he thought he had to do to keep me safe.”

“Why not, Shia?” Chaz grabbed me by the shoulders, startling me when he reversed our positions, his legs now on either side of my hips. Cold water from the pool bit at my toes and seeped into my shirt from the grass under my back. His weight on my legs was light, but I couldn’t sit up. “Why shouldn’t I blame him? Hell, we’ve slept together, but you two were more intimate than we’ve ever been. You’re bound to him by blood and by contract. Do you want the leech instead? Should I let you go?”

If not for the tears in his eyes, I would’ve been offended. I hadn’t realized the depth of his hurt until now. He was angry, so angry, but that anger was built upon something neither of us had any control over.