RICHIE: New Orleans Wolf Shifters with plus sized BBW for mates (Le Beau Series Book 6) (2 page)

He squared his shoulders and dispelled his covetous feelings. This wasn’t the place or the time. His friend was getting married in twenty-one hours. He would display nothing but joy and happiness while he was in St. Louis for her wedding.

Bag in hand, Richie went in search of his rental car. A quick check on the time, and he walked a bit faster. He only had twenty-five minutes to get his rear end to the dinner. If he hustled and broke a speed limit or two he would make it.

Thirty minutes later, he cursed and slammed the car into park, then ran for the reception hall, which was doing double duty as the rehearsal dinner location. He skidded to a halt outside the reserved space, straightened his tie and plastered a smile on his face.

As quietly as possible he slipped in and searched for an open seat. A hasty scan of the room showed only one vacant chair. Great, obviously he was the last person to arrive. Without causing to much disturbance, he walked to the front of the room and took his seat between Billie and Karen.

Piper’s gaze had swung to the double doors the instant it cracked open. She scrutinized the man slipping in. A relieved breath escaped the instant she got a good look at him, and verified it wasn’t Qball crashing the dinner. But for some reason, the stranger raised a flock of birds in her stomach. She never reacted to strangers so strongly.

She didn’t dare look too closely. The last thing she needed was this guy catching her gawking at him. Her aunt always said she started flirting the instant she left the womb.
Flirting, my ass,
she thought, shaking her head to herself. Her aunt never could tell the difference between profiling and flirting. She’d been profiling people her entire life. That was one of the reasons she’d gone into her chosen profession.

Experience taught her the best way to guard her heart was to thoroughly study the enemy and be prepared. And that was what she intended to do.

Too many of the opposite sex came armed with charm and playful banter. The problem was, most of the time the guy was faking it to get into the girl’s pants. But this guy looked like no one she’d ever seen. For some reason he didn’t fit her normal profile.

She glanced his way out of the corner of her eye, as he took the empty chair at her table. His manicured five o’clock shadowed jaw was well defined and he had perfectly sculpted lips. But it was his eyes that captured her attention, a warm brown color with flecks of gold. To complete her assessment, she forced her gaze from his face.

Nice, he had a head of gorgeous dark brown hair. It wasn’t long by any means, just long enough to sink her fingers into.
Where the hell did that come from?

Richie was relieved to see Helen, Karen and Billie were seated at his table. Thank Goddess, he had someone to talk to. He smiled brightly and was nodding his hellos when a delectable scent tickled his nose. He smelled the most mouthwatering crawfish boil - ever. He glanced at the woman across the round table, his breath hitched, and his heart constricted. Holding her gaze, his nostrils flared as he breathed her in.

MATE!

Her eyes widened and she quickly looked around. She must have heard him telepathically and was searching for someone near who may have spoken. Odds were she didn’t understand what she’d experienced and was suspicious.

Frowning, she turned her attention back to the table. Then she caught herself and carefully straightened her napkin in her lap while she fixed a pleasant smile on her face. Satisfied she managed to appear outwardly calm, she glanced up and froze.

For the first time, she took in his entire face, where before she’d been analyzing each feature separately. The man who joined the table right before she swore she heard a voice in her head was gorgeous. Not just hot, but please God, let me strip him naked and lick him, gorgeous.

He must be an actor or a model. She racked her brain, but she couldn’t remember her cousin, Bob, ever saying he knew someone famous.

Try as she might to not ogle the man, she failed. Epically.
Maybe if I identify who he is, I won’t embarrass him to badly. Ah hell, admit it, I’m the one who won’t be embarrassed.
She told herself. Yeah, right. She wasn’t trying to remember his name. She was to busy gaping at him.

He had broad, nicely muscled shoulders and a trim waist that she imagined led to an incredible ass. His suit, though slightly wrinkled was custom tailored and must have cost a mint. It fit him like a glove and showed off his incredible body. Oh yeah, she wanted to get him naked, horizontal, and take him for a test drive.

Piper was so busy drooling and sizing him up, she didn’t immediately realize the table had gone silent, and now stared at the two of them panting over one another.

Quickly she looked away as a scarlet stain crept up her neck. Then she heard a soft chuckle rumble from across the table and blushed hotter.

Helen craned her neck and looked around the room to see what had amused him. “What’s so funny, Richie?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Piper snorted.
Richie, huh?
She couldn’t think of anyone famous named Richie. Without glancing at the problematic man, she sipped her water. The best course of action was to pretend he didn’t exist.

Piper was content to allow the other members of their table to carry the conversation. Steadfastly, she ignored him, but the irritating man didn’t make it easy. She could feel his stare and it was making her antsy.

Richie remained calm on the exterior, though he danced like a child inside. His wolf stared at their mate, panting and licking his chops. Both he and his wolf wanted to howl with joy, but that wouldn’t be a good idea in the middle of a crowd of humans.

There was no mistaking what he'd seen. Her stare and interest had been evident for everyone to see. Secretly, and apparently at times not so secretly, he’d kept an equally interested eye on her. Her gray-blue eyes had a translucence he found fascinating. And the edges of her irises shimmered with an intriguing silver hue.
Goddess, her wolf’s eyes will be heart stopping.

He was enjoying the view when she bowed her head and her soft chestnut hair suddenly swirled over her shoulders and fell forward to hide her face.

A frown creased his brow. He didn’t care for anything obscuring his view. His fingers itched to push it aside so he could see her again.

Unable to gaze into her eyes, his perusal continued over what little of her body he could see. Even with the table blocking much of her figure he could tell she possessed a womanly body. Softly rounded, lush, full curves. The kind that would fit perfectly cupped in his hands.

“Richie?  Hey. Earth to Richie.” He heard Karen’s voice calling from his left.

He broke his scrutiny of the beauty across the table and looked at his friend. “Pardon me. I didn’t hear what you said.”

Karen grinned and glanced back and forth between him and the woman. “You were a million miles away. I asked if you had met Bob’s cousin, Piper.”

Shit. Karen must have caught him staring. He forced a pleasant, friendly, but not overly interested expression. He didn’t want to scare his mate away before he had a chance to get to know her.

Smiling warmly at Karen, he shook his head. “No. I haven’t had the pleasure.” Then he turned his attention back to his mate.
Piper. What an interesting name.

Karen took it upon herself to make the introductions. “Richie, this is Piper Sinclair. Piper, this is our friend from New Orleans, Richie Majors.”

The ladies beamed at him as he reached to shake her hand.

Electricity zapped him the instant their palms touched. His wolf yelped and eyed her warily. Disregarding the strange electrical charge, he held her hand reverently, dying to place a kiss to each of her knuckles. Instant peace. It felt like he’d come home and the missing piece to his heart and soul clicked into place.

He saw her eyes widen and she sucked in a breath. She’d felt that odd zap as much as he had.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Piper.” Richie’s voice was suddenly husky and an octave deeper.

“Likewise.”

He wondered if she’d met anyone at the table before tonight when Helen solved the mystery of her lack of conversation. “Piper lives in Portland. We all just met her before you walked in.”

“I’ve never been to Portland. Did you grow up there?” The question was asked casually while allowing him to learn something about his mate.

“No. I moved there a few years ago.”

Short and sweet. This lady held her cards close to her chest. She was proving to be a challenge and he only had two days to win her over. Richie could see he was going to have to work hard to get her to open up. His experience chatting up the customers at the bar was about to get a workout.

Piper stared into Richie’s eyes. Absently rubbing at her chest with her free hand. An inexplicable surge of happiness had overtaken her. The sensation was disturbing. There was no reason to suddenly feel like the nerdy girl who’d just been asked to the prom by the football quarterback.

Unable to stop herself, she stared into his smiling, twinkling brown eyes. Deep laugh lines fanned from their corners, which spoke volumes. Richie was a genuinely friendly person. She rarely felt comfortable around strangers, but his impish grin and amused expression set her at ease.

Damn.

This guy was trouble with a capital T. The last thing she needed right now was a hot guy distracting her. Distractions were deadly in her profession.

When against her better judgment she’d finally agreed to come to the wedding, she fully intended to do her part as the personal attendant and keep a low profile until she could politely leave. She loved her cousin, and nothing or no one was going to endanger him.

She hung her head in defeat. Oh, who was she kidding, Aunt Margery and Uncle Harry would be crushed if she left early. Especially, with Roger deployed oversea’s and unable to attend. Heck, they’d even tried to get her to sit at the head table. She nixed that faster than… well, really fast. To them she was their daughter even if she didn’t call them Mom and Dad. Absently she rubbed her chest again. No one, not even them, would ever take her mother and father’s place in her heart. There just wasn’t enough room for that.

Now what the hell should she do? She couldn’t leave. Stay and avoid him? No, it would be better to be polite and control her hormones. Shit, if not for Qball, she’d let her libido run wild all over his hot body. Just her luck, meet a sexy man when she couldn’t do anything about it. Polite conversation and nothing else would have to do.

Richie grinned hearing her thoughts. Piper thought he was sexy. He could work with that. Only, what was she afraid of? What kind of profession puts her in such danger? And who was Qball?

Piper set down her fork and wiped the corner of her mouth. “How did you all meet?”

“I was mugged,” Billie blurted out and shrugged.

Piper’s gaze fastened on Billie. “What?”

“Yeah, Billie could find trouble in a convent.” Helen nudged her friend good-naturedly. “Our first night in the French Quarter and she finds a mugger.”

Billie stuck her tongue out at Helen then turned to Piper. “Don’t listen to the peanut gallery. I was walking along minding my own business when a douche bag tried to steal my favorite purse.”

Karen nodded and shivered. “It was really scary. The guy had a knife and everything. But Richie saved us.”

Richie chuckled and shook his head. Here we go, the stories are about to fly.

“Yep,” Billie leaned into Richie and batted her eyes. “My hero.”

“So what happened?” Piper sat forward, intrigued.

“Like I said, I was just walking along, when I felt someone watching me. Then suddenly I’m yanked off my feet when this guy attacks me and tries to pull my purse off my shoulder. That was my favorite purse and there was no way he was getting it, so I hung on. The bastard hit me, too,” Billie said with an angry scowl.

Karen touched Billie’s arm to get her attention. “He also threatened to cut you with his knife, but I jumped on his back and stopped him.”

Piper’s eyes got bigger and bigger as they told the story.

“So how did you get involved?” she asked Richie.

He modestly shrugged his shoulders like he hadn’t done much to speak of. “I was tending bar at Crescent City Brewhouse, when I heard a woman struggling with someone on the sidewalk. So I helped out.”

“Helped out!” Billie squawked “You jerked him off me, and beat him up. And when he pulled his knife, you twisted his wrist until he dropped it and almost put him through the brick wall. And then Karen cleaned me up and we all hung out at Richie’s bar for the rest of the night.”

“Wow, you really were a hero.” She smiled, not just to be polite, but with interest, he thought. “

“Naw, I just did what any guy would do if a woman was being mugged. Then I made sure they knew how to be safe in the French Quarter so it wouldn’t happen again.”

Billie set her drink on the table and winked at Piper. “Yep. He taught us all the rules and they really worked, too.”

Richie was blushing a light shade of pink from all their praise. He knew what they were doing. They’d seen Piper’s interest in him so they were talking him up.

The dinner had dragged on and the need to touch his mate skin to skin was killing him. He breathed a sigh of relief when dessert was served. It wouldn’t be long now and he could get her someplace quiet to talk.

Piper held her fork aloft over her cake ready to take her first bite. “Bob told me Theresa just graduated from college. Did you all graduate with her?”

“Yes, we did. But I’m staying on to get my master’s degree,” Billie said around a bite of cake.

Helen’s fork stopped midway to her open mouth. “For gosh sake, Billie, swallow before you talk. You’re going to scare Piper away before we can become friends.”

Billie waved her fork at Helen. “Whatever. Piper isn’t easily scared, are you?”

Piper chuckled at their antics. “Not generally.”

Karen cleared her throat and quickly directed the conversation into safer waters. “So anyway, back to the subject of graduating. On our last night in New Orleans, we all went out and celebrated our graduation and had a bachelorette party for Theresa, at the same time. That way Richie could join in.”

“That was a lot of fun. I can’t believe four years went by so quickly. I’m really going to miss you ladies.” He smiled, but it felt weak and he couldn’t hide the tinge of melancholy in his voice.

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Billie blustered.

Richie’s eyebrows rose as a smile crinkled the corners of his eyes and he pulled her into a rib-cracking hug. “Not even close. You have no idea how grateful I am that you’re sticking around, cher.”

She smiled broadly and hugged him back. “Well, all right then. You’re forgiven.”

“So what did you do to celebrate?” Piper asked.

Ready to fork another bite of cake, Billie’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “We had dinner at Irene’s, an awesome Italian restaurant in the Quarter and then took a vampire tour.”

Helen made a sound that was a cross between a snort and a laugh. “Yeah, and good thing for Karen there weren’t any vampires on the tour. She was afraid one was going to jump out and bite her neck.”

Karen glowered at Helen. “Vampires are scary.”

“It was great, the entire tour Karen kept looking around like one was going to jump out from behind a bush,” Helen said still laughing.

“There wasn’t much chance of that happening. There weren’t even vampires mentioned on the tour, it was just a boring history lesson.”

Richie leaned back enjoying the conversation, sipping his coffee. “I told you guys those tour guides didn’t know shit.”

“Yeah, but those plastic fangs Theresa bought were fun. I had a blast flashing them at drunk people and freaking them out.” Billie’s face was alight with devilish delight.

Richie raised his cup in salute to her. “It was nice to meet the new posse, too. They’re going to be a lot of fun. Thanks again for that, cher.”

“New posse?” Piper asked.

“The new crew of ladies from college. Pam Altman, Amy Holcomb, Jessie Clinton, and Jackie Allison. We hang out with Richie and keep him company so he doesn’t get lonely. They’re sitting over there.” Billie pointed out a table in the second row.

Piper laughed and shook her head. “I can see you ladies are a lot of fun.”

Richie rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.”

Karen ignored his comment and continued the stories of their last night of partying. “Oh, it gets better. After we finished the non-vampire tour, we went to the Cat’s Meow to sing Karaoke. Richie’s Y.M.C.A. was a riot.”

Piper’s eyebrows rose. “You sang?”

Richie hung his head in defeat. It was no use trying to shut his friends up when they were on a roll. “Yes.”

“He did all the arm gestures, too,” Helen quickly added.

Then all three girls broke out in the Y.M.C. A. song earning their table strange looks. By the end of the song they were laughing hysterically. Even Theresa joined in from the head table.