The Alpha's Temporary Mate (Fated Match) (7 page)

Or because she wasn’t a wolf?

“Couples should be supportive of each other, shouldn’t they, Darrel?” she asked.

“I’m sure your presence will make for…an interesting mating moon,” he replied. “Are you two going to be participating?”

Kieran tensed behind her. “Darrel,” he said. “That is an incredibly personal question.”

The older wolf met Kieran’s gaze without flinching. “You know what the pack is hoping to see.”

“And I know it’s still my decision,” he replied.

“We haven’t discussed things like that yet,” Chloe said to ease the tension. “Witches have a far different view of mating than wolves.”

“Yes,” Darrel said. “A wolf would understand.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you implying?”

“Nothing,” Julie cut in, elbowing her mate pointedly. “It will be lovely to have you there, Chloe. I’ll spread the word that we will be expecting a special guest this year.”

“Thank you, Julie. I’m looking forward to the experience. As you can see, Kieran’s been very close lipped about his family. I look forward to meeting them all.”

“Excellent. We’ll see you there, then. For now, I’m going to drag Darrel over to the artist in the corner and see if we can haggle for that rosy watercolor.”

“Good luck,” she said as the older couple strode away.

Chloe let out a long sigh, conscious of the arms around her.

“Don’t worry, Chloe,” Niall said. “As long as Kieran is by your side no one will snipe at you openly.”

She pinned the large wolf with an icy stare. “Do I look like a woman who appreciates having a man fight my battles?”

A slow smile curved Niall’s lips. “I’m beginning to see why Kieran didn’t want to let you get away.”

“Thanks, I think.”

He finished off the last of his champagne and set the glass on a passing waiter’s tray. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it and see if I can find my own company for the night.”

Chloe snorted. “If you ever get tired of the single life feel free to drop by Fated Match. If we could meet Kieran’s expectations, I’m sure we could do wonders with you.”

Niall tossed her a wink before moving off toward a laughing harpy.

Alone, she cautiously turned in Kieran’s arms.

“Not here,” he bit off when she went to open her mouth.

“Fine,” she replied. “But you know I did good.” She kept her voice low, conscious she was in a room with creatures that could hear far better than she could.

A soft rumble vibrated through his chest, but he didn’t protest her words.

“How long do we have to stay?” she murmured.

“Not long,” he replied, bending so his lips grazed her ear. “But make no mistake. All three of them are still watching us.”

“Then I suppose that kiss you were planning will have to be an angry, make up kiss.”

His eyes darkened as he drew back. “Looks like.”

“Think you can make it convincing?”

The curve to his lips was slight but present nonetheless. “Sweetheart, enraged or blissfully happy, I don’t think I’ll ever have an issue kissing you convincingly.”

Her breath caught as her mind spiraled back to their first attempt in his kitchen. “I might not want to kiss you,” she pointed out. “After all, you hid me away for months.”

“And you made me pay for it tonight,” he replied, waltzing her back against the wall. “Tomorrow my entire pack will know I have a girlfriend calling the shots.”

“Poor alpha,” she purred. “Can’t handle little old me?”

“You might be feeling brave because of our audience, but keep in mind, Chloe, it’s only you and me at home.” His hands molded over her hips as he stepped closer. “I would love to prove just how thoroughly I can handle you.”

“In your dreams, wolf,” she whispered as her hands twined around his neck.

“Every damn night.”

His mouth came down on hers, silencing the retort on her lips. Chloe had worried about engaging in PDA with him, but the second he touched her, their audience fell away. It didn’t matter that curious eyes were on them. All that mattered was the electric desire burning through her.

His lips slanted over hers as his tongue demanded entrance. Chloe didn’t hesitate to allow him the access he sought. With the pounding music filling her ears she was glad for the first time for the unusual environment of the gallery. If she was going to make out with her date with the enthusiasm of a teenager, at least the dim lighting would help hide their activities somewhat.

Her arms tightened around his neck as she pulled him closer, returning the kiss with a fervor she didn’t have to fake. His tongue tangled with hers as he deepened this kiss.
A girl could get addicted to a man like this,
her wayward mind whispered.

It was true. Already she felt drunk on the sensations he inspired, and it had nothing to do with the champagne she’d barely touched.

Something about this man turned her libido up to eleven with just a touch.

Wishing they didn’t have to stop, she still forced herself to push him back with a hand.

“You are making a scene,” she said, as if that hadn’t been his intention from the start.

His eyes glowed wolf gold as he looked down at her. “Then let’s get out of here.”

Were the words for her or the fake girlfriend he’d hired? Shaking herself, she allowed a coy smile to curve her lips as her fingers tangled with his. Stepping away from the wall, she pulled him toward the door.

They wove through the throngs of people between them and the exit. Niall caught her eye before they left and sent her a knowing smile that brought the heat of a blush to her cheeks.

Her heels hit the sidewalk, and she sighed with welcome relief. The normal noise of the New York street was far preferable to the pounding club racket they’d left behind.

But her body refused to relax with the predator at her back.

“Car,” he breathed in her ear.

Nodding, she allowed him to steer her toward the town car awaiting them.

He held open the back door for her before following inside.

“Home,” he told the driver before snapping up the divider.

Chloe scooted as far from him as she could get, crowding up against the opposite door. “Let’s talk through this like rational adults,” she tried.

His golden eyes glowed in the dim light. “No.”

She swallowed. “Kieran.”

“You were bad tonight, Chloe.”

The words unleashed a flood of heat that pooled low in her abdomen. “I thought wolves liked bad girls?” As soon as the words left her, she couldn’t believe they’d come from her mouth.

Kieran, on the other hand, grinned widely. “Oh sweetheart, they definitely do.”

Chapter Seven

T
he passing streetlamps cast brief blazes of light through the car as they sped down the New York streets. With his wolf’s vision, Kieran didn’t need the extra illumination to help him see Chloe’s wide, worried eyes. The damned minx was right to be nervous.

She’d squeezed herself against the door, angling her body to keep him in her sights.

“Kieran,” she warned.

Ignoring her, he crawled closer until one hand rested by her hip, the other braced against the headrest for balance.

“If you’d think for a moment, you’d see I saved us by acting the way I did.” Her voice had taken on a breathless quality he very much enjoyed.

“We had a plan,” he purred, his eyes fixed on her face. “One I spent time crafting.”

His wolf prowled close to the surface, urging him to touch her. He didn’t need her swift inhale to know his eyes were transforming from their usual brown to a bright gold.

“It never would have worked,” she squeaked.

“And you based this on your depth of knowledge of my kind?”

“No.” She stared up at him as if afraid to blink. “Based on my knowledge of me.”

His head tilted as he studied her.

“You said I was a bad actor,” she continued. “Niall would have seen through me.”

He hated that she had a point. “So instead you turned yourself into a lover who wouldn’t follow her alpha’s orders?”

She swallowed. “You’re not my alpha.”

A growl broke from his throat, proving to them both that the words she’d uttered were dangerous ones. His wolf bared its teeth, taking the words as a rejection of their claim on her. Not that they had a claim, his human side was quick to point out. But logic did nothing to comfort the animalistic urge to prove to her exactly which one of them was in charge.

His eyes raked down her body and he imagined tearing the bright dress off. Oh, how he’d like to show her just what he could do if given the chance. How she’d beg him to take her. Beg him to dominate her. To be her alpha in a way both the wolf and man craved.

Chloe swallowed twice under his burning gaze. “If you were in a relationship with me—the real me and not the girlfriend you invented—this is exactly what would have gone down. This charade can still work. We just need to…tweak things.”

He stifled the urge to rip through her clothing, in order to focus on what she was saying. “I paid for that perfect girlfriend.”

Pain slid through those damnable green eyes, slicing him like claws. Though he’d only spoken the truth, he wished he could call the words back.

“I might not be your ideal lover,” she agreed, her voice soft, “but I can be a convincing one.” When she lifted her chin he could almost see her building up her defenses against him. “A girlfriend your pack will believe you could love.”

“Will they?” He leaned closer. How could she be so damnably infuriating and heartbreakingly vulnerable all at once? He was torn between the need to chastise her, putting her in her place, and to hold her close, soothing away that cursed hurt in her expression.

“Didn’t tonight work well?”

“Yes.” Better than he’d dared hope for all day, which grated like nothing else. He should have anticipated this. Should have crafted a story that fit the woman he’d cast to play this role, rather than those from his past. He might have been able to hide away one of his women who asked little of him, but he’d never have been able to do it with Chloe. If she were his lover in truth, she’d eventually have demanded to be taken out of the shadows. To be treated as an equal.

There was a reason he avoided dating women like her.

“There, you see?” Her hopeful voice brought him back to the present. “No need for anger.”

How little she knew of his kind. He adjusted his hand to align with the curve of her hip. “You expect a werewolf’s anger to evaporate just like that?”

She tensed. Clearly, she hadn’t been paying attention to her lessons on how to handle weres.

“How did Niall advise you to calm me?”

Her eyes grew impossibly wide as she realized his sensitive hearing had picked up her conversation.

“Peanut butter cups,” she said, her voice high.

A grin touched his lips. “Liar.”

“Sugary confections are all you’re getting from me, wolf.”

He leaned down until his lips brushed her cheek as he moved toward her ear. “Challenging an alpha?”

She exhaled slowly, the breath caressing his skin.

“It’s not in me to be anything but a partner with the men I’m with,” she finally said. “Even if the rest is pretend, that’s not going to change.”

He smiled against her neck, his inner wolf prowling ever closer to the surface. It was more than pleased with her answer. After all, an alpha wolf needed a partner who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with him every now and then.

Not that he was looking for a partner to keep.

“You, little witch, are far more trouble than you’re worth.”

She pushed him back with a hand on his chest. “And you don’t do trouble,” she said, her voice dull. “I told you I was the wrong choice.”

The idea of having Aoife in his arms, or any of the other candidates she’d paraded before him, was inconceivable.

“Wrong choice,” he mused, the words leaving him before he’d even thought them through. “That is getting less and less true with every hour I spend in your company.”

Her jaw dropped at the unexpected praise, and Kieran was ready to take full advantage of her surprise.

H
is lips crashed down on hers. One hand glided up to her waist, the thin silk a weak barrier at best.

Chloe made no protest as he threaded one leg between hers, angling her until she lay spread across the seat under him.

Another man would have found their positioning too awkward to work smoothly. Not so Kieran. Not once did he release her lips as he pulled her into the exact position he wanted—open and willing beneath him.

Her skirt rode up, caught beneath her so it pulled high on her thighs. Her first thought was she wasn’t wearing any hose to smooth out her curves. But when his mouth slanted over hers, the thoughts were jettisoned from her mind. Kieran didn’t strike her as a man who’d care about such things with an eager partner lying beneath him.

A gasp escaped her as his fingers brushed the naked skin of her upper thigh. This was too much. Too revealing. Too close to being something she’d never be able to forget.

His tongue lapped against hers as he rocked his hard body against her far softer one.

Bad idea,
her inner voice yelled.

But it was hard to remember why with his fingers tracing over her leg, creeping steadily higher.

Chloe kept her eyes tightly closed. She wanted to concentrate on the feelings he inspired, not the logic that demanded she push him away. After all, she had no illusions. This was nothing but a wolf releasing some tension. She’d challenged him, and he wanted a little payback. It was his nature. Really, any other girl could have been here with him and he wouldn’t have objected. No doubt he’d had his dates in this exact position more times than she could count.

She wasn’t special to him.

When he touched her, it became harder and harder to remember that fact. Because no man had ever inspired such need. She hadn’t even known she was capable of the mind numbing lust roiling through her. Certainly none of her past lovers had come close to igniting such a blaze, and they hadn’t been slouches in the bedroom.

There was simply something about Kieran. Something that made him different from any other man.

Something that made him special to her.

“Dammit,” she swore, pushing him back with both hands. The thought was too real to allow the fantasy to continue. What was she doing? Though she enjoyed sex as much as the next woman, she also had her self-respect. She knew exactly what she was to him and it wasn’t much. A body. A willing woman to add one more notch to his bedposts.

He hung over her, allowing her to stop his touch but not giving an inch more. “Did that brain of yours start overanalyzing again?”

She glared up at him. “Move back.”

“Make me.”

Chloe bared her teeth in a very wolf-like expression and snapped her fingers.

Magic lifted Kieran and folded him back into his own seat. She pushed herself up, smoothing her skirt over her legs and ignoring the crick in her neck. She wanted to repair the barriers he’d tried to tear down, go back into her professional shell. Dammit, she was better than this. She wanted more than a hasty tumble in the backseat of a car. What had gotten into her?

“I keep forgetting the magic.” He sighed.

“Dangerous mistake.”

“Apparently.” But there was humor in his words, not anger.

Looked like Niall had been right about the best ways to calm an irate wolf. Not that the information did anything too cool her own irritation. It didn’t help that she only had herself to blame for falling for his no doubt well-practiced seduction.

“That cannot happen again,” she said.

Kieran watched her with amused eyes. “I promise I’ll do my best to ensure it will.”

She swallowed, her body applauding his statement. “We had a deal.”

“Yes. But if you are allowed to change the rules so am I.”

“That’s not fair.”

He shrugged. “When you play with wolves, Chloe, there are no guarantees we’ll behave.”

“There had better be this time.” She wasn’t at all sure she could push him away again. Her body was protesting her decision. It urged her to forget about her commitments and ethics and give in to the pleasure she hadn’t know she was missing.

Kieran merely smiled. “And what will you use to ensure my compliance? We both know you’re not walking away from this.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “But we also know I’m not the woman for you.” Truer words had never been spoken, and they both knew it.

A frown touched his brow.

“I don’t do casual,” she continued, ignoring the fact that he sometimes made her wish she did, “and you wouldn’t know monogamy if it hit you in the face. You go down this road with me and it will lead to complications you don’t want.” She swallowed, wishing she could be like Jessica and just leap at opportunities that presented themselves, without worrying about the future.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” she said, knowing he couldn’t. Though she might long to hear he was as desperate for her as she’d been for him, she knew it wasn’t even close to the truth. This man had a dozen women on speed dial. She was entirely replaceable.

A depressing thought if ever there was one.

Kieran dragged his fingers through his hair as he finally turned away from her. “I’ll go insane before this is through.”

She hadn’t wanted him to argue she meant more to him. Really she hadn’t. “Better than getting caught up with a woman who won’t disappear with the dawn, right?” She turned her gaze to the window, staring blindly at the streets whizzing by. “Any physical contact we have needs to be restricted to when we have an audience. When we’re alone, you keep your hands to yourself.”

“It wasn’t just me doing the touching.”

She closed her eyes. No, it wasn’t. Despite her reason and logic, she’d wanted him with a need she didn’t want to admit. She could not want a man who was so clearly wrong for her. Not when she knew exactly what would happen if she gave in. She’d get a few nights of mind- blowing sex, and then he’d be gone. On to the next conquest. He wasn’t a man who stayed around, and she wasn’t a woman who’d settle for less.

“It won’t happen again.”

His huffed laughter grated over her nerves. “I wish I had your confidence.”

“Just focus on the bigger picture. The only reason you’re interested in me is because you can’t have anyone else. Once this is over, you can go back to your gorgeous models who won’t ask anything from you that your wallet doesn’t want to give.”

He grabbed her arms and dragged her around to face him. Kieran’s eyes glowed gold once more but this time she doubted the small shift was due to lust.

“Is that what you think of me?”

She blinked, surprised by the sudden turn. “Of course,” she replied, not giving in to the urge to retreat. “You’re a playboy through and through. One woman would never be enough for you.”

He uttered a curse that burned her ears. “You know nothing about me,” he snapped. “Nothing about what I’m capable of.”

“So you’ve tried commitment?” she mocked. He might be old as the hills, but she’d bet her last dollar he was still a wolf who’d never grown up. At least not in this arena.

“Yes.”

Shock rolled through her. “What?”

“And you know what I learned, little witch? That it is far easier to indulge and move on than to fight for a fantasy that can never come true.”

The car slowed to a halt before the apartment building, and Kieran was out of the door in a flash.

She followed far less gracefully, her mind still reeling that the man she’d pinned as an eternal bachelor had once been faithful. Who had she been? What kind of woman would have been able to pin Kieran down for longer than a brief fling? Curiosity ate at her.

Her partner stalked into the building without waiting for her. Tripping over her high heels, Chloe did her best to jog after him. Obviously she’d touched a nerve with her questions.

Kieran waited by the open elevator, his expression anything but pleased. Not knowing what to say, she slipped past him into the small space. The wolf followed her in, punching the button for the top floor.

“Who was—”

“I don’t want to talk about this with you.”

She swallowed, watching the floor numbers climb above the door. “You don’t think this information will come up when I’m around your pack? Niall already assumed I knew about…her.”

Kieran said nothing. He didn’t so much as look at her.

“How long were you together?”

“Forty two years, three months, and ten days.” The doors parted and he strode out, keys in hand.

Forty-two years?
Shock snaked through her. He’d had a relationship that had lasted practically half her life. Keiran, a man who eschewed any kind of commitment to the point of hiring a lover rather than risk letting one in for real.