WereCat Fever (8 page)

“So are we good for later?”

“Hell, no.” Lacey giggled.

“No? I’m devastated.”

“Not gonna happen. Ever! I’m fine with tomorrow.” She hesitated. “I’ll handle it.”

The parade would be fun and the jubilee wasn’t bothering her. Seeing the out-of-towners back after so long would be a treat. Honestly, she was okay with everything except for one thing—Bryan.

She had to unclench her teeth thinking about the way he announced he was alive and well. Truth be told, what really riled her was the way he’d done it. An email. Did the bastard think he could email her out of the blue and make everything better with a few mundane words?

The concept made Lacey fume every time she thought about it.

“A penny for your thoughts.”

“Trust me. You don’t want to know.” Lacey picked up the thread of their conversation and blew him an air kiss. “And…I don’t think you’ll need my help getting lucky in this crowd.”

Thomas gave her that notorious sexy smile, complete with his teasing wink, and tugged a little on her tassels. “Okay, I have to admit you’re right, but I still really want to pull your strings.”

Five minutes before Lacey walked in and sat down at the bar with Thomas, Bryan made Hunter move quietly to the back of the room. They kept their hats on, concealing a part of their faces. Everyone would still recognize him, and Bryan didn’t want to draw attention to himself before tomorrow.

“You know”—Hunter faced Bryan and warned him—“one day she’s going to ask why you didn’t come for her sooner.”

“I know, dammit. If I knew about her father I would have. Thomas should have told me about that and her symptoms sooner. Why would he keep that from me?”

Hunter shrugged. “No need to start second-guessing his motives now, for God’s sake. We just have to find a way to convince her you didn’t know what happened.”

Bryan released a sardonic laugh. “Yeah, and that I didn’t have anything to do with her father’s death. I can’t help thinking she suspects it may have been me. Hell, she knew about my blackouts back then.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll find out what happened to her father and clear you.”

They remained in the shadows, watching as Thomas teased Lacey. Every second Bryan spent watching the man touch her was pure torture. Being in the same room with her scent and being this close was different from watching her at a distance.

When the skirt whipped around her tan thighs, tight from riding her horses daily, he knew every man in the bar wished he could be the one she rode home. Bryan’s chest rumbled with the lion’s low growl. The skirt fanned her scent out through the room, making his cock press hard against his zipper. She always was unaware of the effect she had on men, but Bryan knew Thomas wasn’t. He wanted to rip out his friend’s heart and claw out every man’s eyes who watched her dance.

“What the hell is wrong with him? Flaunting her like that?”

“You know that guy?”

“Yeah, I know him. That’s Thomas. Our contact. My friend. But friend or not, he needs to take his hands off her.”

If she’d been in his arms, Bryan would have kept her wrapped up close, tight against his body, in the shadows, protected from the other men’s gazes. He’d have made a statement, a claim.

But Thomas couldn’t do that—no one else could. Lacey belonged to him. Bryan smiled then frowned. He had already staked that claim. She would never be free from their bond, whether she wanted to be or not.

“Strange. It almost looks like he’s playing her to an audience.” Hunter sounded reasonable and calm.

“He needs to cover her up.”

“Calm down, Bryan. He saw us standing in the corner earlier. Gave me a pretty thorough going over. If you get what I mean?”

“Thomas was checking you out?”

“Yeah, I thought he was. Then she walked in and now he’s all over her.”

“There’s something different about him.” Bryan rubbed a hand over his chin. “Guy couldn’t keep the chicks off him. Dated around, never any particular girl for long. He’s always been into the kinky stuff.”

“Well, he wants her. That’s obvious.”

“Always did. But he never acted on it with her. He and Lacey have been friends since they were in diapers. He’d do anything for her, or she for him, but she was never interested in him…that way.”

“He eyeballed me, and recognized us, so he knows we’re here, and he’s flirting with her. What does that tell you?”

“He has a death wish.”

“No. Guess again.”

“Before Lacey and I were an item, he wanted me to do a girl from Amarillo with him. The date never panned out, and then I started dating Lacey. He never brought it up again. He was a friend, a good friend to both of us. Helped us out, got her home safely when I couldn’t risk us getting caught together. I didn’t want my son-of-a-bitch father to take it out on her dad.”

Just then something Thomas said made Lacey laugh. A few minutes later, she blushed and giggled. Bryan’s throat constricted. He used to be able to make her react that way. It saddened him that someone else was the one making her smile now and he was the one causing her pain.

“He’s still her friend—still doing whatever it takes to make her happy,” Bryan said.

“Can’t fault him for that.”

“Friend or not, part of him wants her. I can taste it in the air.” Bryan growled beneath his breath.

“Yeah, so can I. But you need to stay in control, bro.”

“He’s making me jealous.”

“Yeah, he is.” It didn’t take much for Hunter to fill in the blanks.

“Damn him. I guess I wasn’t specific enough when I called him and asked for his help.” Bryan wanted to break Thomas’s fingers and wipe the smile off his too-perfect face. He cursed again. “I know what he’s doing.”

“Bro, think about it. He’s doing this on purpose. Teasing you. He’s forcing your hand.”

“Maybe I’ll thank him for it, someday.” A frown furrowed Bryan’s brow, and he spoke softly, almost to himself. “Right now, if he doesn’t back off and take his hands off her, my lion is urging me to rip his throat out.”

“There’s only one way to get his hands off her without violence.”

“How?”

“Dance with her.”

Hunter had a point. Bryan took off his hat and put it down on the table as he stood. His throat tightened when he stepped out of the shadows into the light. Lacey’s eyes flickered in his direction and held him in place. Heads turned. Pool balls stopped hitting each other, and several shocked gasps filled the silence in the room. The fast music segued from one song to the next. An appropriate somebody-done-somebody-wrong song started just as Bryan’s gaze locked with Lacey’s.

He moved cautiously toward her. Everyone quieted as he reached a hand out to her and she absently lifted hers in response.

The same spark she felt the first time she saw him sizzled across the room, mesmerizing her now as it had then. When their eyes met that first moment after she was bound to him, her essence locked with his, shackled by a mere glance.

She wondered if she’d ever seen anything more beautiful than those eyes. They’d once sparkled with life and laughter, energy and joy—hope and love. Now they were fixed on her, almost beseeching her. Her stomach flipped.

He stood in front of her with his hand extended and a look on his face that said his heart was in his hand—take it or reject it.

Lacey swore the world narrowed to a corridor linking the two of them when he stepped closer to take her hand in his. She involuntarily lifted it. Their fingertips touched, but no more.

“Dance with me, Lacey.” His voice was a little deeper than she remembered. It sounded thick with emotion and need. His eyes searched her face with guarded interest, looking for something she wouldn’t show him.

His simple plea asked too much.

The choice was hers. She didn’t react.

The blood running through her veins turned warmer than it had been in years. All this time she swore her heart pumped pure ice water after he left. Ice was hard, impenetrable. It would take more than Bryan showing up for a dance to melt her frozen heart.

Then he stepped closer. The scent he carried was the same. Bryan. Sweet, fresh air and woods. She inhaled to savor the moment, and then he whispered the silly rhyme he’d made up that first time.

“Won’t you dance with me, Lacey? Take a chance with me?” His hand slid into hers lightly.

He remembered.

Something inside her shifted. The ice around her heart cracked at his touch. The trickle she felt was the warm blood seeping from her shattered heart. Pain sliced through her. The same pain as when a limb falls asleep and wakes up. You know the pins and needles are coming and dread it, but it’s inevitable. There was no alternative. She had to experience the bleeding heart like a stab wound.

Damn him.

He was in her personal space and hurting her with memories, killing her with his words and his scent. She did the only thing she could think of to protect herself and to prevent him from following when she ran.

She attacked.

* * * *

Bryan tried to breathe without throwing up as he unrolled from the fetal position. He still had one hand cupped to his groin and the other to his jaw.

“Man. she’s really mad at you,” Thomas said, glancing back as Lacey disappeared through the front door.

“Hey bro, I’m sorry,” Hunter said, as he helped his brother up off the floor.

There was a glint of humor in his voice. Bryan didn’t think he sounded very sorry, at all. Though, he couldn’t speak to make that observation, so he scowled as his brother chuckled. His jaw was still locked from the roundhouse blow he’d taken from Lacey after she kneed him in the groin.

“How was I to know she’d go for your balls and then punch you in the face?”

Bryan gagged a couple of times on the way up off the floor, clutching Hunter on one side and Thomas on the other.

“Shit, she’s quick. I didn’t see that coming,” Bryan wheezed.

“Hey, sorry about your…” Thomas cleared his throat. “Uhm, your balls okay?”

Bryan groaned, standing hunched over. “Got ice?”

“You going to ice your balls here?” Thomas asked.

“No, you dumb fuck, it’s for my jaw.” Bryan cursed at his friend with his hands still on his knees. He tried to take a deep breath.

“Right. Here, let me help.”

Hunter helped him back to their table. “Your balls okay, bro?”

“I’m not sure.”

A few minutes later, Thomas handed him the ice-filled bar towel. With one hand holding the ice to his jaw, Bryan extended his hand to Thomas. “Sorry I snapped at you.”

“No problem. It’s good to see you, Bryan. You should probably go somewhere you can ice those balls, too.”

“Suddenly everyone’s interested in my balls. She shoves them halfway up my throat, and the two of you can’t stop askin’ after ’em.”

Thomas smiled. “I figured she’d be inclined to take better care with them.”

“Where is she?”

“She ran.”

Hunter put Bryan’s hat on his head and said, “By the way she flashed out of here, like someone set her on fire, I gather she’s not quite ready to deal with you.”

“Ready or not, she’s going to have to deal with me.”

“She’s been feeling poorly, lately.” Thomas put a restraining hand on Bryan’s arm, but dropped it when Bryan snarled. “Hey, just give her some time.”

“She’s had five years. Time’s up.”

Bryan left her because he wanted to save her from what he was. Walking away… No, running away without a word had almost killed him. Now he was back because he had infected her. She was running out of time, and time was something they didn’t have. Her change was imminent. After touching her, he was more certain than ever. Her body temperature was rising. The change was on her already.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get her to listen. If looks could kill, she would’ve done me in when I walked up to her. Hell, I only asked her to dance. What’s she going to do when I tell her she has to marry me?”

“Marry you?” Thomas laughed and gave Bryan a wry smile. “That may take some fast talkin’. Let me give you some advice. I’d suggest when the time comes, you ‘ask’ her—don’t think to ‘tell’ her anything.”

“She doesn’t know what’s good for her.”

“Well, I’d say she made her feelings pretty damn clear about what she doesn’t think is good for her.”

“Right. Anything to do with me.”

Hunter slapped Bryan on the shoulder while he and Thomas laughed it up at his expense.

“She is still Lacey, and she has a million reasons to be angry, Bryan. Your dad was an ass to her when you disappeared. If not that, then she certainly has cause about her father’s killing. I guess you showin’ up took her off guard. She’s hurtin’.”

“I’ll find out what happened to her father, I swear.”

“We better do some checking. Early tomorrow we’ll start with old man Cauldwell.” Hunter added, low enough so Thomas couldn’t hear, “Full moon’s coming soon, Bryan. There’s not much time left to convince her.”