For Toron's Pride (7 page)

A tremor seemed to pass over her before she stiffened her shoulders and raised her chin. “Well, like I said, we’re leaving in the morning. I’m not going to stop you from seeing Simeon, so you can come down to New York anytime. Just call first.”

“You’re mistaken.” He straightened his jacket and strolled across to his desk to sit down.

“Excuse me?”

Toron bent his head over the paperwork in front of him and picked up his pen. “You can leave whenever you like. My son stays here.”

Her small hands slammed down on his desk, forcing him to look at her. “Who the hell are you? You’re nobody as far as the law is concerned. You’re not even on the birth certificate.” She gasped when the words left her mouth and slapped a hand over her lips.

Toron took his time standing. “That can be rectified, but aside from that, tell me, what will you do the next time he shifts? What if it’s in front of humans?”

The guilt that passed over her face allerted him that was exactly what had happened.

“Do you know the danger you put us in? How about if all of us are hunted down and killed like simple animals?”

“I wouldn’t let anyone find out.”

“No, because you had so much control over this situation.” Sarcasm dripped from each word he spoke until she glared at him.

“I didn’t know it was going to happen, okay? Simi was born just like any other human, in a hospital, and they said nothing about him being different. I thought…”

Toron considered this new information. “As a side job when he’s bored, Hawke works as a private investigator.”

“What do you mean when he’s bored? Anyway, I already know about his job.”

“I mean Hawke doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want to, but my guess is he had something to do with Simeon’s blood appearing to be human.”

“You’re saying he switched the records somehow?”

“Possibly.”

Sienna glanced down at her hands, clasped together so tight he felt her tension. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“What will you do, Sienna?” He stood before her and raised her chin. Electricity pulsed through his being just touching her. Nothing had lessened over the five years since he’d seen her last. He craved her, and beyond that, she seeped into his being, a consummation that refused to be denied.

Sienna’s eyes widened. He saw her weakness toward him, but then she straightened her spine. She would fight him all the way, and that was good. Maybe he would keep his hands to himself. This problem involved his son and nothing else.

“I’ll stay,” she muttered.

He cut off a sigh of relief. They wouldn’t battle on that head. “Good. You can use your same room, and Simeon can—”

“Hold up.” She raised a hand. “I’m not staying in your house, number one. I can find a place in town, right? A small apartment to rent? And two, I have my own business that I have to figure out what to do with. All of that takes time.”

He frowned. “There’s no reason to rent an apartment. I have plenty of extra rooms, and I can arrange for your business to be—”

“No.” She spun on her heel and started toward the door.

“Sienna!”

She stopped. “I’m doing this for Simi, my baby. I’d do anything for him, so it’s not hard to choose him over business, but make no mistake, you are not controlling my life. Not now, not ever. I raise Simi, and I absolutely don’t want him to turn out like you.”

He narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “I own several businesses, and I am leader of one of the biggest shifter clans on the east coast. Just what is it that you find so disgusting about me?”

Probably against her will , her gaze swept him from head to toe, and he saw her linger at the front his pants. Toron’s cock twitched, and her stare skittered away in another direction. “I don’t have to point it out. I truly am sorry for keeping him from you. When I think about someone not letting me see or even know about Simi, I feel faint. I realize he’s not human, but I’m going to raise him as one as much as possible. I think he deserves a normal life.”

“He deserves to know his heritage.” Toron approached her with caution as if she were an edgy filly ready to bolt.

“From what you’re saying it sounds like you haven’t accepted what you are, so you can’t know how to help Simeon embrace what he is. Hold on. I’m not trying to insult you.”

She glared at him. He held up hands in surrender.

“I’m just saying there is a lot more to us—to me—than you learned over that weekend. I can show you if you like.”

“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea. You worry about Simi. I’ll take care of myself.” Before he could say another word, she disappeared through the door and shut it quietly behind her. Toron stood where he was listening to the click of her heels echo down the hall . Long after she was gone, her scent lingered in his nostrils.

Sienna kicked her heels off and flopped on the bed. She was exhausted. Over the last few weeks, she had been back and forth between New York to Vermont. Rather than move her boutique to Sutland, she had found a small storefront with a tiny apartment over it for less than the rent at her old place. Now she had the boutique in New York and a small venture here. Never in a million years had she imagined expanding so quickly. Of course, that didn’t mean she would sell well in Sutland. The ladies might hate her ideas, but she was will ing to give it a try.

Aside from turning down every conceivable offer of help from Toron, things were looking up. The man wasn’t happy unless he had full control of everything. She wouldn’t accept his help. Her mother had raised her alone after her father died when she was twelve, and she had drilled into Sienna’s head to never make excuses—forge her own way in the world. She had done just that with her boutique.

Keeping Toron out of her business was easier done than banning him from her head. When she had walked into his office, her worry had all been for her baby, but later, boy oh boy, did every touch, every word he’d spoken to her parade through her mind to torment her body and soul. The man was still sexy as hell . If anything, he’d grown more so. Her desire for him had grown, and whenever she was in his presence, she found it hard not to touch him or at the very least not to drink him in with her eyes.

What made it all worse was that Toron seemed to feel the same way. When she walked into a room where he was, he always knew and turned his head to watch her approach. He made up excuses to brush a hand over her skin, to stand close to her. The bastard knew what he was doing, and yet, she believed he could no more help himself than she could. She wouldn’t give in. That couldn’t happen if she wanted peace in this small town.

“Mommy?” Simeon pushed his head around the door. Sienna yawned and held her arms out. “Come here, baby. Mommy needs a hug.”

“Oh, Maaaa.” He ran across the room and jumped on the bed. She gathered him close and tickled him. He squealed in his little boy high-pitched voice. For some reason, she wondered if it would deepen and sound like his daddy’s when he hit puberty. Deciding she never wanted Toron on her mind, she shook her head to clear it.

“What are you up to, today? Do you like your new school?”

“Yes!” He bounded out of her arms and bounced on the bed. “My daddy says all the kids that go there are like me, a lion, but they can’t change. I changed though.”

She grimaced. Simeon had adapted fast to calling Toron daddy, even though he sometimes asked her about Hawke.

Not knowing what to tell him other than their friend had to go away for a while, she steered the conversation off Hawke.

What he did still hurt, and it pissed her off that Toron found it necessary to get someone to watch her like she was his property. “Yeah, you changed a little bit, baby.”

“Daddy says I’m going to change all the way before long.”

“Mmhmm.”

“And Daddy says the three of us are going out to dinner.”

“Whoa, let me stop you right there.” She held up a finger. “Daddy said what?”

Her son grinned and put a hand up to his mouth, giggling behind it. “Daddy said that’s a secret.”

Goodness, if he said, “Daddy said” one more time, she was going to lose it. She dismissed the idea of having dinner with Toron and decided to shower and find fresh clothes. Nothing had changed as far as she could see regarding all the women that hung around him. Stella lived at his house, so no, she would not encourage anything between her and the alpha. Toron had been good about taking her and Simeon to the elementary school to get her son enrolled, and from the amount of time they had already spent together and how attentive Toron was to Simeon, she thought he would be a decent father. That was enough.

The following morning, Sienna opened her boutique with a flutter in her stomach. She had posted a sign indicating a grand opening and placed a small display ad in the local paper, but few customers ventured in. She had begun to worry that this undertaking would be a failure. Today, she pulled out the big guns, a few dress designs she hadn’t risked showing, thinking they might be a bit risqué for the small town ladies.

When the bell jingled behind her as she set the last piece in place, she turned and gasped. “Stella.”

The woman’s shoulders were back, and she held her chin high. If Sienna didn’t notice the way her fingers bunched in the material of her dress, she would have bought the high and mighty act. Sienna raised an eyebrow to indicate she wasn’t fooled and approached Toron’s lover. Thinking of her that way helped keep Sienna from getting stupid ideas, but it always hurt a little, and she hated that most of all .

“How can I help you?”

Stella hesitated and then came forward. “I am going to a special event—with Toron—and I wanted to have something different to wear. I heard you have some okay dresses.”

“Okay?” Sienna got her back up, but she couldn’t help remembering how her son had said the two of them would be having dinner with Toron. Now she heard he was going out with Stella too. The man wanted his cake and to eat it too. Not with her he wasn’t. She forced a smile with a stiff jaw. Stella’s relationship with Toron made her influential in this town. “Let me show you a few items.”

Against her better judgment because she didn’t want to encourage anything between the two of them, she showed Stella her latest sexy pieces. I do not give a damn if he will be staring into her cleavage all night. Not at all!

“This might be a bit much for you, but the women in New York love to flaunt it when they have it. They, better than anyone else, know how to use what they’ve got, if you know what I mean.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “None of those humans have what I have.” She actually perked her boobs with a hand under each, and Sienna bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Let me try this on.”

Sienna sighed in relief and set her up in the makeshift dressing room. She’d scarcely turned away, when the bell rang again, and then again. Her little shop at once seemed to burst at the seams with women, all chattering in elevated voices and exclaiming over Sienna’s creations. “Oh would you look at this one, Lena? They have nothing like this at the department store,” one woman said. Sienna spun away, hiding the moisture gathering in her eyes.

When the bell jingled again, she pulled herself together to greet her next customer. Before she could say more than good morning, all the women paused in their conversation and greeted the woman in the doorway with quiet respect.

Sienna guessed she was someone of high standing in the community. She examined the woman, who was tall , at least six feet, a long, will owy figure but with full breasts.

Being in the business, Sienna knew expensive clothing when she saw it, and these were designer brands without a doubt.

Behind the woman with long, flowing blond hair, two sexy men stepped in. They couldn’t be above twenty-five, yet the woman appeared to be in her early sixties or late fifties.

Golden eyes scanned the small space of the shop and then settled on Sienna. “You’re her.”

Sienna tilted her head. “Ma’am?”

“You’re the mother of my grandbaby.”

Sienna gasped. This was Toron’s mother? Of course, how could she not see it? Toron looked just like her, and both had a powerful presence even without the alpha gifts.

“Walk with me,” the woman commanded. She peered past Sienna’s shoulder. “Stella, mind the store until we’re back.”

Sienna turned around as Stella was just coming out of the changing room. She nodded, but Sienna saw the annoyance. “Yes, ma’am.”

“But I—” Sienna began but found herself propelled out the door.

“You two go find something to do,” Toron’s mother ordered the two men, and Sienna’s eyes bugged when she slapped each on the ass. She turned a beaming smile to Sienna. “They’re hot and great in bed, but empty-headed.

Now, we can have some time to talk. Oh and call me Vivian.”

Sienna had trouble saying anything in response. At least now she knew why Toron turned out the way he did. His mother was apparently a slut. “It’s nice to meet you, Vivian. I’m Sienna.”

She held out a hand, but Vivian waved it away. “Pish, you don’t fool me, girlie. I’ve been around for a long time, and I can sense how disgusted you are with me. Not unlike my son, but why shouldn’t I do what I want? I’m a widow, and if I want to have a string of affairs—some at the same time— who cares? And he’s one to protest with all his women.”

Sienna tensed. She schooled her face to appear disinterested but felt Vivian’s gaze on her.

“You’re different though.”

“Excuse me?” Sienna hadn’t considered herself a prude until that moment. She bristled at the woman’s tone.

Vivian chuckled. “I don’t mean it like that. I mean you’re different to Toron.”

Sienna held up her hands. “Oh, please don’t get the wrong idea. Toron and I made a mistake a long time ago, and well …”

“So you consider Simeon a mistake?”

“No!”

“Come on. We’ll sit here.”

Vivian all but dragged her to a bench, and Sienna dropped onto it feeling worn out despite it being just after ten in the morning. The older woman faced her, a pleasant expression on her face, which didn’t fool Sienna in the least. Something told her this woman got off on being as blunt as possible just to see people’s reaction.