To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (123 page)

Never force a guy to do something he doesn’t want to do.  It was the most painful lesson I had to learn and probably the same for anyone else who preferred to ignore inconvenient truths.  If you forced a guy to do something he didn’t want or wasn’t ready to do, the outcome would always be unpleasant, no matter how much he cared for you.

“Just for an hour, please.”  I batted my eyelashes but the usually fail-proof technique was ineffective.  Maybe my pretty fluttering eyes were only potent against humans?

We were in the living room on a warm cloudy Saturday, the Nevada weather cooperating nicely with the country fair scheduled to open tonight.  Audrey and I had made plans to go, and I was hoping Lucian would let go of his privacy issues enough to accompany us.

“Stop it, Deli,” he ordered, irritation making his voice just a tiny bit less doctor-like.  He might even pass for a normal human being with normal human emotions if I pestered him further.

“But, Lucian, it’s just a harmless fair—”

“I mean it, Deli.  Stop it.  You’re starting to look like a goldfish and it’s creeping me out.”  And then he was snapping his Financial Times open, which ended the discussion as far as he was concerned.

Dyvian frowned and shook his head.  “I don’t agree.  I think you looked more like Nemo when you were doing that.”  He fluttered his lashes, which were ridiculously long like his brother’s.

“Do me a favor, will you?”  I didn’t wait for him to answer.  “Mind your own business.  Please?”  I fluttered my lashes.  “Pretty, pretty, please?”

“You should just ask me instead,” he advised.  “I’ll be more than happy to go with you and Audrey to the fair.”

“You’re not my boyfriend.”

“Is that so?  Well, the last thing I’ve heard, Lucian here still hasn’t officially—”

Lucian lowered his newspaper just enough to give his brother a warning glance.  “Enough.”  He turned to me, saw me still fluttering my lashes hopefully, and just…grunted before hiding himself again behind his beloved newspaper.

Dyvian smirked and returned his attention to the latest gossip Ryan Seacrest was sharing on television.

I jumped off the settee and perched my hip on Lucian’s armrest.  “Please, Lucian, please, pretty, pretty, please—”

He sighed and folded his paper back.  “Let’s make a deal.  I heard you failed your quiz in History—”

I scowled at Dyvian.  “It’s
his
fault.  He lived through the Civil War and when I asked for help—”

Lucian’s raised eyebrow was enough to silence me.  “Do you want this or not?”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“What’s the name of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin?  Give me the right answer and I’ll go.”

“Mark—”

Dyvian hooted.  “That’s John Lennon’s assassin, Deli.”

“I rest my case.”  Lucian lifted his newspaper back to eye level, and this time it stayed there.

~~~

I tried one last time a few hours later.  Deciding to ambush him in his study, I skipped to his table and asked casually, “How do I look?”

Lucian put down his pen and pushed his checkbook aside, giving me his full attention.

I espied the organizations he was donating money to and was flattered to note that he was giving me preference over Brangelina’s foundation.  If I worked hard enough at being his perfect girlfriend, maybe he’d even place me above world peace on his priority list one day.

His eyes traveled all over me from head to toe.  I had curled my hair and worn a pink, lacy headband to accessorize my fuchsia mini-dress and chunky three-inch-heeled leather boots.

“Well?” I demanded when he continued to observe in silence.

He said finally, “You look nice,” and returned his attention to writing out checks.

It was difficult to extract pleasure from his words when he had spoken them like a medical diagnosis.  I decided to think he was just
shy
and what he really meant was I was too beautiful for him to look at.

Lucian coughed but didn’t look up.  There was an absent-minded air about him now.  He was doing his all-time favorite activity—thinking.  And though it also meant he was close to forgetting I was even present, the frown of concentration on his face only made him more gorgeous in my eyes.

Why did I love this guy so much?

He rarely had time for me, and yet, I still didn’t mind if I had to wait the whole day just to have a minute alone in his arms.

He should have been too silent for comfort, but instead, I found his one-word-per-minute style cute.

Unless he was making me breathless with his kisses, he treated me like a bratty younger sister he was inclined to ignore.

He wasn’t the perfect boyfriend but…he made me feel safe.  He never made me feel ashamed I was occasionally the opposite of a brainiac, and he did lots of little things for me just to make me smile or feel better.

I sighed loudly and sat across him.

“The puppy eyes and the sad face won’t work, Deli.”

“I just want to be with you.”

“The pouting won’t work either,” he informed me without looking up or pausing from his writing.

“Lucian.”  When he didn’t answer, I raised my voice.  “
Lucian
.”

“What?”

I was intent on asking him to go with me one last time, but my lips seemed to have another idea.  “I love you.”

If I had expected Lucian to be overcome with passion at the words, I would have been vastly disappointed.  But I didn’t and I giggled when the words only made Lucian still as a statue.  And then he was raking his hand self-consciously through his hair, asking briskly, “Do you have enough money for tonight?”  He took out his wallet and began counting out notes.

I planted my hands on my hips.  “I know you have a hard time trusting people, especially women, but I shan’t be defeated.  I know you love me, Lucian.  I just know.”

“Deli,
please
.”  He handed me a couple of bills and pointed to the door.  “Now, go.”

Walking backward to the door, I encouraged him, “Come on, Lucian, it’s not that hard to say.  Follow me.  I.  Love—”

“Out now, Deli.”  But there was a smile in his voice.

Laughingly running back, I threw my arms around his neck and placed the sloppiest kiss on his cheek.  “I still feel bad you’re not coming with me, but it’s okay, I forgive you.”  I nodded with self-righteous generosity against his shoulder.

He pulled back and, for one moment, everything I had ever hoped for from Lucian was shining in his forest green eyes.  His eyelids shuttered closed, then he was back to being his aloof, busy self.

“Stay out of trouble,” he reminded me before waving me away.

~~~

“It’s just the two of us then?”  Audrey got inside the SUV next to me.  She looked prettier than usual.  Her purple and white striped blouse hugged her body like second skin, emphasizing the kind of cleavage that flat chested girls like me could only dream of.  The black miniskirt, tights, and mules she wore with it added funky glamour to her look.

“Just the two of us, yes, and you look fantastic, by the way.”  I raised a brow and teased, “Are you planning to get someone’s attention?”

She rolled her eyes.  “Come on, Deli.  You and I know Wesley’s so into you he barely notices anyone else when you’re around.”

I remembered the last time I had spoken to Wesley and looked away guiltily, busying myself with driving.  “Audrey?” I asked in a small voice.

“Yeah?”

“Are you angry at me?”

She asked in astonishment, “Why should I be?”

“Because when Wesley flirted with me a few days ago, I flirted back.”  My voice had gotten smaller and smaller until I was close to whispering the last few words.

“Oh.  That.”  She didn’t even pretend
not
to know what I was talking about and my guilt increased.

“I’m sorry,” I burst out before she could say anything further.  “I know it was wrong.  I know it,” I repeated miserably.  “But I was just so
mad
at Lucian I wanted to get back at him in any way.  Then Wesley came and I wanted to make Lucian feel jealous—”

“It’s okay, Deli.”  She stopped my ramblings with a soft laugh.

“Is it really?”

“I can’t say I wasn’t a little hurt, but in the end, I knew you didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I promise I won’t do it again.”

“Not make Lucian jealous?”

“Duh.  Not
that. 
I mean, flirt with Wesley.”  I tossed my hair over my back.  “I can’t promise I won’t try to make Lucian jealous.  There will be times when it’s the only way he’ll remember I’m not just his ward—”

“Is that an Australian term for girlfriend?”  Audrey tossed me a curious look.

“Something like that.”  I tried laughing my little blunder away.

We got to the fair at half past seven.  The whole town seemed to have turned up for it, and we had to endure long lines just to buy cotton candy, throw darts at colorful balloons, and ride the Ferris wheel.

Nevertheless, Audrey and I had fun.  It was pretty amazing how well we got along considering the short span of time we’d known each other.  She was as outrageously blunt as ever, and I couldn’t stop laughing as she pointed out people she knew, whispering horrendous facts about them.

There was the primly dressed Martha, a lovely brunette who had been caught two years ago having sex in the boys’ locker room with Arthur, the pimply-faced son of Sanger’s Reverend Andrew Roberts.  She had been quickly wedded to Arthur, and her wild child days had come to an end under the Reverend’s strict supervision.

Bartholomew Scott, a large, balding man in his fifties, was described to be an old, pompous, know-it-all.  He was the richest man in town, lived in an ostentatious two-story home, and everyone knew the only reason he came to live in Sanger was because he had been tired of living in the shadow of his far wealthier relatives.