Unleashed by Shadows (By Moonlight Book 10) (43 page)
Read Unleashed by Shadows (By Moonlight Book 10) Online
Authors: Nancy Gideon
Colin popped his shirt buttons open and straddled Brigit for a frisky lap dance as she pretended to drum out the back beat on his abs, Giles making sure none of the undulating Terriot prince came in contact with his bride. Rico caught a blushing Tina Babineau up in his arms to dance her about, her shoes swinging a good foot off the ground. Even Kip found himself claimed by the mysterious girl of his dreams. He’d invited her, never expecting to have his hopes fulfilled as sweetly as she filled his arms, enticing him with some inviting moves of her own.
As Nica delivered drinks, she found Cale’s knees tucked in behind hers, his hands guided her slim hips through a grinding rock and roll. When she glared over her shoulder, he grinned wide in spite of the likelihood that she carried something in that slinky dress that could fillet him out like a trout. She surprised him by leaning back to tease him with a sexy shimmy. Scowling, Silas yanking her down to sit on his knee within the tight curl of his arms.
And then nothing existed for the Terriot king except the female he’d made his queen. He pulled her off her chair, into his arms. Palming her hips, moving her to mirror the pump and sway of his, he let her draw him down to the part of her lips, where they indulged in some lashing tongue action until Oscar slapped the back of his head, warning, “Children present.”
The sultry Mia joined them on the floor to slip and slide against both Colin and Rico, working them up into a dangerous lather of lust and rivalry until the rowdy music wound down to a heart-tugging pop tune. Somehow, she ended up cheek pressed to Colin’s chest as he moved them cautiously about the floor.
Kip pulled his attractively flushed young lady over to his brother’s table where Kendra was now wearing Cale’s suit jacket and sitting on his lap.
“Phe, my brother Cale and his . . . better half, Kendra. This is Ophelia Brady. We met on the Square the other night.”
Cale apologized for not getting up, his smile failing to reach his eyes as he took her hand. “A familiar name. Brady, as in the football player?”
“Not quite so famous,” she confessed with a laugh. “As in the police commissioner.”
“Nice to meet you, Ophelia. Why don’t you join us?”
“We were just heading for the bar to get something cold,” Kip cut in a bit possessively.
She fanned her hand in front of her face, giving the youngest prince a once over. “To cool me down.” She winked.
Watching them walk away, arm in arm, Brigit remarked, “Not the Victoria Secret model one associates with a Terriot prince.”
“Bree,” Kendra scolded. “I think she’s adorable.”
Silas and Cale exchanged looks, thinking the same thing. Warren Brady’s daughter. A way inside his tight security.
*
Rico retreated sullenly to the bar, away from the sight of the sexy and unsatisfiable Mia toying with his brother. True, he was the one who’d stolen her out from under a smitten Colin, a fact he wasn’t proud of, but hell, all was fair in love and hot, hot chicks. She’d driven him half mad with desire, only to flick him aside. All because Colin was now handling his family’s business in New Orleans.
Why hadn’t Cale picked him? Why hadn’t the luscious Mia remained in his bed? He’d had one too many to find an answer to either question and that added to his ill-humor.
The busty bartender smiled at him. She had nice eyes, he decided once he’d dragged his gaze away from the way the white shirt struggled to restrain her breasts as she leaned across the bar top to pour him another Scotch.
“She’s a fool for walking away from a dish like you.” She laid out that complement with the same crisp efficiency she did the drink napkin.
“Who says I didn’t dump her?”
“Experience.” She chuckled. “I could run the Church of Broken Hearts across this counter, and you could testify. Do I hear an Amen?”
He surrendered a wry smile. “Amen.”
“Amber.” She wiped her hand on her bar towel and extended it. He took it, admiring her firm grip.
“Rico.”
She cocked her head, studying him with a vivacious purse of her lips. “That’s not your name. What is it?”
“Frederick.”
“Well, Frederick, I get out of work in an hour. If you’re still here, standing upright, and feel the need for a little laying on of the hands, I’ll let you escort me home.”
Rico blinked. Then a slow grin woke the dimples in his cheeks. “An hour, you say?”
She flipped the towel over her shoulder and moved with a provocative stride down the bar to the register, making him lean forward to watch the way it rock and rolled her tight black skirt. Sitting back, he reached for his drink, paused then took a sip instead of a swallow. Pacing himself for a long night.
Amber smiled to herself as she rang up the sale. Did she have time to request her neighbor’s assistance for just a bit longer just in case the Oh, please, please, please let it happen happened? She was reaching for her phone when a customer laid a twenty on the bar.
“Could I get some change?”
“Sure,” she replied automatically. “Ten, five and ones?”
“Yeah.”
She plucked the bills and looked up. Into a pair of unforgettably blue blue eyes. Her heart stopped then plunged as his brow puckered.
“Do I know you?”
“I don’t think so. We don’t get many Uprights in here.” She counted back the bills, careful not to brush against his hand. “I have one of those faces after you have a drink or two.”
He gave a dazzling smile and pocketed the cash. “That must be it. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
She waited until he walked away to release a shaky breath. Turning her back to the room, she made the call. “Hey, kiddo. Is Marcy there?”
“Hi, Mama. I’ll get her.”
While she waited, Amber stared at the contact profile on her phone, at the precious face captured in the small picture. The tousled blonde hair and wide, sweet smile.
And those unforgettably blue blue eyes.
Just like her daddy’s.
*
“Rico?”
A quiet voice brought startled eyes about. “Yes, my queen?”
“I need a favor, one you can’t share with anyone else.”
“Not even Cale?”
“Especially not Cale.”
Intrigued, he leaned elbows back on the bar. “Name it.”
“I need you to stay here in New Orleans.”
“Why? Your mate’s already given the city to Colin.” His tone chafed with injury. Kendra wasn’t unsympathetic. She touched his big hand gently.
“I need you to watch Colin for me.”
“What?” His jaw dropped. “What are you afraid he’ll do? Double park? Cale doesn’t seem to think screwing that Guedry bitch will tarnish his sainthood.” He turned away from her compassionate gaze, embarrassed by the outburst.
“I want to make sure more than his sainthood isn’t tarnished in dealings with James.”
That brought him back around, eyes wide. “You think Colin would betray us by working with Jamie?”
“No. But I’ve heard some disturbing things. I can’t afford to ignore them. Will you do this for me? For your king?”
His features sobered. “Yes. Of course.”
“Speak of it only to me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my queen.”
He understood everything. Colin’s star was about to fall and his, to rise.
*
“Let’s go, baby.”
Kendra turned from where she stood on the edge of the festivities watching her friends and family to find Cale at her side. She blinked back ready tears. “Now?”
“It’ll only get worse if we stay. We have to go home, Katy. No sense dragging it out.”
She sighed. He was right. “I’ll get Giles and Bree.”
“No. We’re not going back with them. We leave from here.”
She nodded and took his hand. “I packed a bag just in case you wanted to spend a nostalgic night at The Saint.”
He grinned, thinking about it, then shook his head. “Tempting, but I’d just as soon get on the road.”
She blinked in surprise. “We’re driving? Silas was going to charter us a plane in the morning.”
“That would get us from here to there without any time in between. That’s what I want, what I need. That time in between. To spend with you. Just the two of us, not as king and queen of anything. Just us.” He cuddled her in close, nuzzling her ear, turning the diamond with his tongue until she was practically limp with longing. Her hand fit to his cheek, tracing it gently as he continued. “Kip rode my bike in. We can double back. Unless you think in your condition it would be too hard on you.”
Distracted when he used the words “hard on” in the same conversation as time alone together, she quickly stammered, “Yes. I mean, no. I mean, that sounds wonderful.”
“I need to get out of the city, away from what these last weeks have put us through. We’ll find someplace along the way, put up for the night, get on the road whenever the hell we feel like it. All the way back. No pressure. No rush.”
“That sounds even better.”
“Thought we’d stop in to see my momma so we can tell her our news in person. Take her out on the town.”
“I’d like that.”
“I love you, Kendra.” His hand settled on her belly. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you and this new little person. And all those who follow.”
She kissed him softly. “Hold that thought.”
Cale watched her cross the room to lean in over Brigit’s shoulder. Bree spoke briefly to Giles who handed her the keys to the SUV. Cale started to frown when Silas followed Kendra back to where he waited.
“No good-bye?" MacCreedy’s tone wasn’t accusing. “Mind if I walk you out? I’ll take the keys back in with me.”
“Okay.” Once he said that, Cale found the prospect of actually leaving choking him like a hand about the heart. Surveying the room, that tightness intensifying. Savoie and Cee Cee, Pearl LaRoche and her spooky visions, the Babineaus with their simple dreams. The brothers who’d stood behind him, beside him, and in front of him. This place, these people. They’d become the friends he’d never had, the family he’d always desired, and he feared once they returned to the Lake Tahoe compound, he’d lose that sense of connection and closeness when absorbed into the rigors his title demanded. Here, at least for a while, he’d been Mick Terry who worked with his hands, not his heritage, an everyman instead of a prince in the House of Terriot plenty. And he’d liked it. He hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said that to Philo Tibideaux.
“Cale?” Kendra touched his arm, her gaze lifted to his.
He smiled and nodded toward the door. “Let’s go.”
The street was lined with vehicles, many he recognized. He stood with his arm about Kendra’s waist, waiting for Silas to get their bag out of the SUV and relock it.
“Bree’s going to go ballistic when she finds out you snuck off,” Silas warned.
“It’s better this way,” Kendra told him, echoing Cale’s sentiment.
“Less messy, that’s for sure,” was her cousin’s dry retort. “Come here.” She stepped into his embrace, tilting her head to receive his light kiss. He nodded toward Cale. “If he does anything that requires an ass kicking, you call me.”
Cale huffed. “Why? She’s getting pretty damned good at doing it herself.”
Silas laughed and set her aside before toeing off with him. “You take care of her. Of both of them.”
“With my life.”
Silas palmed the back of his head, pulling Cale tight into his shoulder, surprising the shit out of him. Especially when he asked in a low voice, “Are you sure you don’t remember what we talked about in the car?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cale murmured, his palms awkwardly patting Silas’s back before pushing away.
“If you need me, for anything, you know where I am.”
Cale nodded, his arm going about Kendra as he hoisted the bag. “Say good-bye to the missus for us. And take care of them.”
“I will.”
Cale took a few steps then looked back over his shoulder, saying so low Silas almost didn’t hear, “It wasn’t my father I wanted to become.” He smiled and herded his mate down the sidewalk.
“What was that about?” she wanted to know.
“Nothing, baby.” He jiggled the bag, brows rising when he heard it rattle. “What have you got in here?”
“Just necessities.” Her gaze slanted to his. “And a few accessories.”
He took a misstep, stumbling slightly, before asking, “Naughty accessories?”
“Maybe.”
Cale grinned wide. “Something tells me we’re not going to make it to the city limits tonight.”
Kendra studied the face she’d adored since childhood, features formed by heartache and harsh times into a breathtaking landscape worth a lifetime of appreciation. “That’s fine with me, my king.”
My prince.
My love.
Nancy Gideon is the award-winning author of over 58 romances ranging from historical, regency and series contemporary suspense to paranormal, with a horror novelization and a couple of screenplays tossed into the mix. She’s also published under the pen names Dana Ransom, Rosalyn West and Lauren Giddings. Working full time as a legal assistant in Southwestern Michigan, when not at the keyboard, she feeds a Netflix addiction along with all things fur, fin and fowl. In addition to her dark paranormal “By Moonlight” shape-shifter series, look for her “Touched by Midnight” vampire romance series with ImaJinn Books. For more information on the author or the “By Moonlight” series, visit Nancy at:
http://nancygideon.com
or
http://nancygideon.blogspot.com
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