All in the Chemistry [The Royal Wolves 4] (Siren Publishing Allure) (5 page)

Applause for the band broke through the haze as he tasted her for real and he pulled back just enough to stare into her eyes. “I know you,” he murmured softly, that strange and bizarre sense of understanding buzzing around his head, just out of reach. “I know you on a level no other ever will and yet you won’t tell me your name,” he whispered as a soft and gentle tune began to play. Moving with her so that the other dancers soon lost interest, he stared at her. “Why won’t you tell me your name, little one? Are you hiding from someone?” he asked, concerned for her safety. “Or are you afraid that your name will make me run away?”

“It will make you run away, Kristof, and I’m not ready to lose you yet,” she admitted softly as they moved with the soft strains of the waltz. “You know me, Kristof, we have never met as I am now.” Mostly. “But you know who I am and all it would take would be my name and you would be angry at the fates for putting me into your path.” No doubt there. “Can we have just this time together? Just these moments?” She wanted more, her heart ached because he made her want so much more than just moments, but she knew that she couldn’t get more than that, no one would ever give her more than that.

“Shh,” he whispered placing her hand on his arm before cupping her cheek. “You can have tonight, but I really want a name to go with the body I’m having seriously inconvenient thoughts about. It feels wrong to lust after my mate and not know her name. Before the night ends you have to promise to tell me and not while you’re running out the door, honey. Also,” he added, frowning at her, which would have been much more effective if he hadn’t been wearing the mask. “Quit putting thoughts or words into my mouth, I can make up my own mind on things thank you very much.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head in close to him, her forehead pressing against his cheek. He was tall, she didn’t tower over him, even in the heels and she liked that, very much. She was just over six feet in the heels she wore but he still was more than half a head taller and he fit her perfectly.

She wet her lips and pulled back, about to speak when she heard, “Well if it isn’t Ms. Hoity Toity,” Bill Sweets said with a hiccup. “As I live and breathe the barracuda does know how to clean up doesn’t she?” He snickered and looked to Kris. “I would watch yourself,
Doctor
,” he said stressing the title. “Warsaw will have your nuts in a sling, won’t you
Doctor
Warsaw?”

Courtney’s fingers clenched on Kristof’s jacket lapels and she looked at Bill. “I think that it’s time that you had a cab called for you, Bill.” He always got smashed at these functions, the only reason he was still invited was that he was normally so asinine that he made the people laugh and now it seemed she was the target for humiliation.

“I’d listen to the lady, Bill,” Kris said softly, his tone icy as he spoke to the man. “And I’d learn to keep a civil tongue in your head as well in regards to her,” he added his lips curling in a cold smile of a predator as he let his eyes flash to those of the Wolf. Growling low, where nearly no sound could be heard and yet the human body reacted to the clearly implicated danger. Swinging her around and away he shook his head. “Jackass,” he muttered as he pulled her a little closer. “Relax, honey, I’m not going to run for the door,” he said softly. “But I do have a question,” he murmured. At her small start and the increased tension in her spine he nipped her ear. “Do I have to call you Doctor Warsaw or do I get the privilege of calling you Courtney?” he murmured kissing her cheek gently.

Courtney looked up at him and lifted her mask, eyes wide as she looked at him. “You aren’t leaving?” It was more than a shock and surprise, she was certain she was dreaming once more because there was no way that he would want to stay, not with her.

Shaking his head he nudged the mask back down. “Better not ruin the party, darling,” he said softly, stroking his fingers along the edge of it. “And no,” he told her as he moved to the edge of the dance floor with her. “I’m not going to run from you ever, honey.” Guiding her over to the bar he looked to her. “What would you like?” he asked softly running his fingers lightly over the skin of her upper back that was bare to the air.

“I would like an Amaretto Sour” she whispered, still in shocked awe. She leaned into him, her head on his shoulder, and breathed him in. He wasn’t leaving. How odd. How strange. When they got their drinks she held hers between gloved fingers, the sensation of his thumb sliding over her naked back was making her burn in need and delight. “Would you mind if we stepped out onto the terrace? It’s closed off from the winter, but it’s much cooler because there are no heaters and lights out there.”

“If you’d like,” he said softly as he slowly guided her toward the terrace doors. She seemed more nervous now than she had when he’d asked her to dance. Once outside he took her to a corner where he could watch the doors and ensure they had some privacy. “One question, Courtney,” he said using her name for the first time in reference to her. “Why is your scent hidden under that bolder, brassier aroma?” he asked as he backed her into the corner, his broad shoulders shielding them from all eyes.

She frowned and shook her head. “It’s the cream I use. When I use it I can smell the scent of my skin changing.” She wet her lips and looked up at him. “It was the first project I worked on for Aegis. I was creating a dermalogical lotion that would help with melanoma patients and protect their sensitive skin from the sun.” She couldn’t hold a secret back from him, not now, not now that she knew. “It changed the pheromones of a person. However, as soon as I realized what it did”—she shrugged her shoulder and then looked up—“I destroyed all of the research, all of the data and the samples I took home with me. It was my first massive ‘failure’ in the eyes of science but I couldn’t see allowing something that changed a person like that out into public.”

He understood where she was coming from on that but he didn’t understand her reasoning for using it. “Why are you using it, Courtney?” he asked his confusion clear. “If my sense of smell wasn’t as strong as it is we may not have ever found one another. A woman’s true scent is the one that pulls her Wolf mate to her, to hide it is to hide from the chance. So why did you do it?” he kept his voice quiet, gentle so that he didn’t seem like he was attacking her, he wasn’t, he just wanted to understand her thought process.

“You have seen how Bill views me, that is how everyone does. I came to Aegis straight from my double doctorate at MIT and I have been shunned since. I use it because I am able to go out and be myself, I am able to go out and at least pretend that I have friends even if I know I don’t.” Yep, it sounded more childish out loud than it had when she had initially thought of using it.

Staring at her he pushed up his mask, no one would see them out where they were. Gently he eased hers up to sit on the top of her hair, careful not to disturb the style at all. Cupping her cheek in his hand, he leaned in and kissed her softly. “I see you, Courtney, please don’t use it anymore,” he asked her softly, his lips brushing hers as he made the request.

“I won’t,” she promised, seemingly knowing she no longer had to hide herself, she could now finally be the true person that she was. “You see me don’t you, you really and truly see me, don’t you?” she asked quietly. “You see the woman that I really am, for the first time ever, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, honey,” he murmured softly against her cheek. “I’m your mate, Courtney, I will always see you, no matter what you try to hide or where.” Leaning back slightly he ran a finger over her skin. “Are you going to be okay with this?” he asked quietly. “I mean, with being mated to a Wolf,” he clarified when her expression went blank.

“Yes, especially if you will love me forever.” She looked like she hadn’t meant to say that, like it was something she had never thought she would ever get in her life. “I’m sorry, I don’t have the right to ask that of you.”

“I will love you for all time,” he told her as he stared into her bright green eyes. “I will care for you, I will be there for you and I will always love you.” Stroking his hand down her throat, he gently teased her pulse with his fingertips. “But you have to let me in fully, Courtney, there is no halfway in a mating relationship.”

She closed her eyes and nodded, leaning into him she wet her lips and breathed in and out deeply. “You should know that I am not just a bio-chemist.” When she looked up at him, she smiled. “That painting in our dream was real. I had just finished painting it that night.”

That shocked him. “Really?” he asked stunned even as she nodded. “It was wonderful, love, and I’m not just saying that because of who you are to me. It really was wonderful, you have a marvellous gift,” he told her softly, moving his arms to rest around her waist. “I want it to hang over our bed, to always be there if you’re all right with that, that is.”

“It’s the only one that I have done so far that I am not letting go.” Again she was blushing as she chewed the lipstick off her lips. “I sort of donate several paintings a year to the Juvenile Diabetes foundation. They are auctioned off for funds for them and sometimes make a pretty penny or two.” More than that, her last one had sold for three million, but that was beside the point.

“You’d better not let it go, I want it,” he said again with a grin, she was trying to avoid some of what he’d pointed out to her. Rubbing the backs of his fingers lightly over her cheek, he watched her. “It’s nice that you do that, honey, you have a true and wondrous gift, even I can see that and I’m not an expert.” The money went to a really good cause, too, speaking of which…“I normally don’t come to these, but this year I knew I had to come,” he told her softly sliding his fingers down her throat again and then back up. “Now I know why.”

“I come every year. I love being around people, I really do and each time I have come I have felt as if I were searching for someone.” And now she knew who. She loved to be around people because she was always looking for someone. “The painting is yours.” She loved the sound of where he wanted to hang it. “Over our bed?” she whispered making sure that he knew that she had heard him, all too clearly she had heard him. “I want that as well, Kristof.”

“Good,” he told her with a smile, kissing her lightly, the touch a mere brush of skin to skin. “We should go back inside, I don’t want you getting too chilled out here.” Shaking his head he stepped back and took off his tuxedo jacket before slipping it around her shoulders. “Never mind,” he said with a wink. “We’ll just stay here I think instead.”

She pulled one of the lapels close to her nose and inhaled. “It smells like you.” It was warm and the scent enveloped her. “Thank you.” It was the sweetest, kindest gesture that she had ever had given her way. “Tell me about yourself, Kristof?”

“You’re welcome,” he said as he tugged the sides closed around her front and then reached for his drink. Taking a sip he watched her. “What do you want to know?” he asked her as he set the glass back on the ledge again.

“Why did you say those things about me nine years ago, Kris?” Now that wasn’t what she had wanted to say at all. “Never mind, don’t answer that.” She didn’t know why she was asking that question of him, it was so long ago he likely didn’t recall the Scientific Monthly article, but she did. She recalled each word that was written. “Do you have brothers or sisters?” she countered instead.

“I didn’t say those things,” he told her softly. “The reporter doing the article misquoted me and used other quotations I did give about your Board instead, slipping your name in where appropriate to make the blame sit on your shoulders. Your Board was paying him to make them look rosy and you were the unfortunate fall girl of the day. I sued and had the guy by the balls until he mysteriously vanished.” That had been convenient. “I would never say something like that, especially for print. If I have a problem with someone I go face-to-face with them and hash it out.” Cupping her cheek he tipped her chin up slightly to look at him. “I would never, ever hurt someone I don’t know or do know like that, it’s not who I am.”

He hadn’t said those things? It was the Board who was doing it? It made sense, however. They always came out smelling like the proverbial rose while her career tanked heavy and hard. She sighed, her career was over with Aegis, she just hadn’t forced herself to see it yet.

Kissing her softly again he bit her lip and glared at her as she jolted back. “That’s for thinking I’d be that kind of asshole.” Licking at the wound he teased her lips until she let him in with a sigh and kissed her deeply before pulling back. Brushing his thumb back and forth over her mouth he watched her for a moment. “I have three older and one younger brother, no sisters.”

It was a surprise when he bit her lip, she jolted back and then when he kissed her she breathed out a sigh of relief and into him. Her hands held onto his shoulders and then pulled him closer by burying into the wealth of his hair. She was lost to the kiss until he pulled back, “I don’t have siblings, I had a cousin but I lost him several years ago.” He hadn’t died, he was simply…lost.

The sky lit up brightly and then the crash of thunder so loud she could feel it in her chest was all that heralded the storm she had predicted. The rain came suddenly, as if heaven’s pool had caught a leak and was crashing down on Earth. She simply grinned up at him. “I love to play in the rain.” She had never told another living soul that fact. She loved to go into the park near her apartment and run, laugh, and play in the storms when they came.

“I love the rain, as long as I’m in this form,” he commented, looking up at the glass roof protecting them from the deluge. “Not so much being all furry, the smell.” He made a face and shook his head. It was a move much like he would likely do to shake off water. “Not exactly something anyone should have to smell.”