Tall Dark Handsome Lycan (16 page)

“Do you like it?” Sam asked gently.

“It’s…it’s beautiful,” Elena breathed softly.
“Is that me?”

Sam nodded.
“Yes. Minus the spiky hair and black make up. You’re very pretty, Elena.”

“Let me see it,” Alek repeated.

“Here,” Elena said.

Alek reacted the same way Elena did and Sam hid a smile.

Sam had drawn the real Elena, the one without the scary mask.  Her short hair framed her elfin face and feathered her high cheekbones. Her dark eyes, almond-shaped and luminous, projected a young girl ready to bloom into womanhood.  Her lips, all sweetness and soft, curved upward into a tiny, secretive smile, as though she said ‘look what I’ve been hiding’.

Elena laughed softly.
“It’s great, huh?” She asked the still silent Alek.

He
peered up at her, squinted, glanced back at the picture, and then back up to her, his brow getting knottier.

“
It’s a pretty picture, isn’t it, Alek?” Sam asked innocently.

H
is gaze darted back to Elena. “Why do you wear so much black makeup? Are you into vampires, or something?”

Elena
stiffened for a brief moment.  “Something.”  Ignoring him, she looked at Sam. “Do you really think this is me?”

Sam was still trying to figure out what Elena meant by
something
.  She shrugged it off, realising she was never going to understand teenager lingo.  “This is absolutely you.”

Elena gave Alek a guarded
look. “So do…do you like it?”

“What a difference,” he murmured,
staring at the picture. He shot an interested look Sam’s way. “Can you draw anyone else?”

“Sure.”
Sam grinned and thought about those endless nights before bedtime with the kids back home at Somerset’s orphanage and how she entertained them. “We can play a game. I’ll draw someone we all know and you two have to guess who it is.”

“Cool,” Elena said, smiling.

Sam turned to a fresh page and started scribbling quickly along the sheet. She drew Maria, with rosy cheeks, wings, and a halo.

Elena giggled.
  “Maria!”

Alek frowned.  “No fair.  I don’t know who Maria is.”

Sam smiled at him.  “That’s Leo’s housekeeper.  You met her when you arrived, remember?”

Alek’s eyes lit with recognition.  “Oh, yeah.”

Sam chuckled. “I drew her as an angel.”

“Draw someone else,” Alek said.

“Do Leo,” Elena said, grinning.

Alek grinned.
“Yeah. Draw Leo. I haven’t met him yet.”

“But do it like Maria’s,” Elena added excitedly.
“Make it funny.”

Sam chewed her lower lip as she
stared at another blank page. Should she? She was afraid what her hand might do. When she drew, her creative instincts took over and there was no stopping her flow.

“Please,” Alek begged.

“Okay,” she relented after catching his earnest expression.

Feel
ing a bit warm around her cheeks, she put her pencil on the paper and drew the first image that came to mind, the one from her dream where he had transformed into a beast. When she was done, she held up the pad and the two teenagers squealed with laughter.

“And what do you kids find so amusing?”

Startled, Sam turned to see Leo standing a few feet away from her. She hardly noticed that Alek had immediately stopped laughing and was staring up in awe at the imposing figure of Leo. Elena, however, was still giggling into her hand.

Look
ing at him, all Sam could do was think about the kiss they had shared a few hours ago and her face flamed. Their gazes locked and she detected something behind his dark gaze she’d never seen before.  Oddly, that word
one
popped into her mind and her breath caught.  His look deepened, sending a shiver of delight up her spine and a warmth spreading throughout her body.   

“We’re playing a game,” Alek offered shyly.

Leo directed his attention to the young boy. A glimmer of a smile hovered above his mouth. “You must be Alek. It is nice to meet you, young man.” Leo took a few strides forward, extending his hand.

Alek cleared his throat and jumped up, offering his hand awkwardly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Leo. Thank you for the gift.”

“Think nothing of it, young man
.  It was my pleasure.  Sam told me you are quite the artist.” He turned to Elena. “Your parents are wondering where you went off to.”

Elena
rolled her eyes. “Thank God Sam was here. Otherwise I would have died of boredom.”

Leo’s
gaze locked with Sam’s. “You don’t say. So, what is this game you are playing and what had you all rolling in laughter?”

Sam hugged the sketch pad to her chest and shrugged.
“It was nothing. I drew a…a picture for the kids.”

“
May I see it?”

She shook her head quickly.
“It’s not very good.”

“I
f it had Elena and Alek laughing that hard, it must be good,” he replied in his deep, sultry voice.

Sam
’s stomach flip-flopped. “No, really.”

“Sam, I could really use a laugh myself today,” he said.

She felt silly. What harm would it be showing him the picture?  If it was a laugh he needed, who was she to deny him the pleasure? She looked up into his face as she handed him the pad and noticed for the first time how tired and tense he seemed. Her heart constricted in her chest and she silently hoped he had a good sense of humour.

Wordlessly, he flipped slowly through her pages and paused at Maria’s picture.
He chuckled softly and then he paused at Elena’s picture and smiled appreciatively. It was when he turned to his picture, Sam saw him tense. She had drawn him as a Man-Beast. His handsome face was transformed with jowls and fangs and his body was massive, with bulging muscles and talons. 

She watched as surprise lit his features.  Oddly, she thought she detected a hint of fear as well, but it disappeared so quickly she decided she must have imagined it.

“Interesting, you see me as a beast,” he said.

Sam took the pad from Leo’s hands, unable to
look at him. “It was all in fun,” she murmured.

Leo
’s expression was unreadable except for a muscle clicking furiously along his jaw.  He cleared his throat abruptly. “I came here to tell you all that dinner will be served in twenty minutes.”

Sam nodded up at him, barely able to
look him in the eye. “We’ll be inside in a bit.”

“Good,” he said
.  “I will see you all in a little while.”

“Okay,” she said quietly, and watched him stride away.

“Phew,” Alek said. “He’s a scary, proud sort of man.”

Elena giggled, giving Sam a sly
look . “And
interested
… er…I mean, interesting, too.”

Sam grabbed all of her things, not bothering to remark on Elena’s obvious comment.
Did Elena really believe Leo was interested in her?  Sam wasn’t even certain he remembered their kiss. He strode away all cool and collected as though unravelling her life a few hours ago was all in a day’s work.

“Come on, kids.
Let’s get back to the house,” she said glumly.

                                             
* * * *

Once they arrived at the house,
Sam watched Elena disappear into one of the guest bedrooms.  She turned to Alek.

“You can
wait for me in the library while I get ready for dinner.  I’ll show you where it is.”

He followed her into the spacious room and his
face lit up one thousand watts when he saw all the books on Art at his disposal. Sam smiled thinking how much she had in common with the young boy.

Back in her room, she put on a pair of white silk dress pants, a pretty floral blouse, and slipped on her black and gold sandals.
Sam was touching up her lips with a bit of gloss when she heard a knock at her door.

“Come in.”

It was Elena, her face completely scrubbed clean of all the black make up.

Sam smiled.
“I love what you did with your hair.”

The young girl blushed.
“I washed it to get rid of the gel.”

“It’s perfect.”

“Thanks.” Her gaze darted from Sam’s outfit to the few clothes strewn on her bed. “I…I was wondering if I could borrow something to wear,” she added, her hand touching one of her oversized safety pins on her thigh.

Sam was elated.
“Sure. We look about the same size. Here. I have the perfect dress for you.” She picked up the white dress she had worn when Leo’s parents had come for dinner a couple of nights ago. “Do you like it?”

Elena’s
gaze went to the pretty embroidered roses along the hem and smiled.  “It’s pretty. You don’t mind?”

“Not at all.
It’s my pleasure.”

Elena took the dress and made her way out the door, when Sam
realised something.  “Wait a minute. You can’t wear those boots. I have these pretty red sandals you can wear. You’re a seven, right?”

Elena
nodded, looking relieved.  “Thanks, Sam.”

“I’ll see you downstairs.”

“Okay.”

Sam smiled
as she watched the young girl leave.  Elena and Alek were so much alike. Both needed attention. Both needed love. One needed confidence with his talent, and the other needed confidence with herself.

                                                   
* * * *

After all the introductions were made, everyone took their seats at the table and
Elena made her entrance. Her parents were the first to react as they looked up and gasped.

Her mother, Eftihia Spanakis, a formidable
looking woman with gold jewellery, impeccable make up, and a salon-styled chignon, smiled at her daughter. “You look beautiful. Where did you get that pretty dress?”

Elena smiled shyly.
“Sam let me borrow it.”

Costa Spanakis, Elena’s father, grinned at his daughter.
“You look very pretty, my girl.”

Sam shared a private
look with Elena and her heart lifted with pleasure. The young girl glanced at Alek who regarded her silently. Slowly, a small smile formed on his mouth and he said, “You look like the picture.”

Elena shrugged, but Sam could tell the young girl was pleased.
“I’m just trying this out.”

Leo’s mother smiled approvingly at the young girl.  “I hope you stay with this look, Elena.  A beautiful young girl should not have to wear so much black make up and wear army boots.  Don’t you agree, Leo?”  She looked at her son.

Sam glanced at Leo and was surprised to see he wasn’t looking at Elena or his mother.  He was staring at her. Their gazes held and his eyes softened.  Quickly, she lowered her attention to the meal Maria placed before her and willed herself to calm down.

“Anything would be an improvement from that awful style you had, sis,” Katina’s cold voice said, prompting Sam to
look at her.

Elena took her seat across from Alek and ignored her older sister.
Sam felt compassion for the young girl.  Katina needed a lesson on sisterly love.

The
delicious meal of stuffed tomatoes progressed from there, with the men discussing business and Leo’s and Katina’s mother discussing the upkeep of their homes.  Every once in a while Alek and Elena would toss each other a shy grin, and Sam remained silent, feeling more and more uncomfortable with Katina’s baleful glares.

Sam
glanced at Leo from time to time and caught him staring at her with a mixture of interest and admiration. Quickly, she took another sip of her wine and willed her head to stop spinning. She had to slow down on the drinking if she didn’t want to make a fool of herself tonight.

“When are you returning to
America, Sam?” Katina asked once there was a lull in the conversation around the table.

All
eyes turned to her. “Next Wednesday.”

Alek frowned.
“That soon?”

Elena grimaced.
“That sucks.”

“
Elena!” Her mother admonished her.

Katina laughed coldly.
“You can take the cook out of the kitchen, but you can’t take the kitchen out of the cook.”

Elena shot her a dark
look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Katina reached for her wine.
“Your outside transformation doesn’t change anything.  You can’t hide
what
you are no matter how hard you try.”