Chapter 3

Did you like it?”

Micheal blinked, realizing that Anna was still talking to him.

“I’m sorry,” he blinked again, trying to focus, “what did you say?”

She smiled, not seeming to sense his distraction. “Sophia said you went to college in New Jersey. Did you like it there?”

“I did,” he managed to say, even though he could feel the other woman’s eyes still on him.

He stole a glance in her direction. She was still watching him, her light blue eyes, almost eerily pale, direct and unblinking.

Who was she?

“… I didn’t know how I’d like it here, because it’s a really small-town. And aside from the occasional bout of loneliness, I have really liked the change. Small towns are all that people say. Everyone knows each other. And people care about each other, help each other. It’s really nice.”

Micheal nodded again, realizing that Anna probably thought bobbing his head up and down was the extent of his communication abilities. And at the moment, it was. Again, he caught a glimpse of the pale-eyed woman in his peripheral vision. A man approached her, and he tried to feel relief. Her boyfriend or husband-that was good. But instead he felt oddly irritated.

“Of course,” Anna said with a small, rather shy smile that still managed to show she could be interested in him, “it’s always nice to have a new face in town.”

He forced another smile back. This was too damned weird. Yet he couldn’t stop glancing again at the stranger. She sat, perfectly still, her attention trained on him. She didn’t even seem to register the man beside her. Micheal shifted, his body reacting to that steady gaze as if it was a touch, stroking over him, teasing his now burning skin.

“Here we are,” Robert said, setting down another soda water in front of him. Both Robert and Sophia took their seats, and the other woman was mostly blocked from his view.

Good, Micheal told himself. His reaction to the woman had to be an aberration, a response brought on by too many memories. He just wanted to have another quick drink and then go home.

“Hey there, what’s a pretty lady like you doing sitting by herself?”

Arabella flicked a quick look at the man who braced his arms on the table, leaning toward her. Then she returned her gaze to the other man. The man with the eyes like the deepest forest.

But in that glance, she had made note of the man next to her. He was average height, muscular, good-looking in a rough sort of way. His blond hair was shaggy. His jeans were a little greasy on the thighs, he looked like a mechanic working on a vehicle of some kind and had used the denim as a wipe rag. The same engine grease lined his fingernails.

“What'syoyr name?” the shaggy blonde asked.

I'm not interested,” she heard herself say, not looking at him. She had to watch the one with the eyes, the forest eyes. She had to study each of his moves.

“Come on, i won't bite he said. I’m as harmless as a lamb.”

Arabella tore her gaze from the man she wanted, meeting the blonde’s eyes directly.

“But I’m not,” she stated, her voice little more than a low growl.

Instead of being turned off by her warning, the blonde’s interest heightened, his attraction filling the air like the musk of an animal. He wanted her. He wanted sex.

“Well, that’s how I like my women. Dangerous.” He grinned, and more arousal radiated from him.

Go with him. Take him back to his place, screw his brains out, and get yourself under control. One human male will serve your purpose as well as another.

No, not just any man would do. Only one.

“Go away,” she stated flatly, looking back to the man at the other table, although she was irritated to see her view was blocked by his returned friends. No matter, she could still keep an eye him.

“Come on-”

“Go away now,” she snarled, and maybe this time there was just enough anger in her eyes, because the shaggy blonde backed away. Then he shrugged, trying to look as if he couldn’t care less that she’d rejected him. He went back to his friends, a table of men who all watched her with interested eyes.

She registered their attention, then moved hers back to her target. She shifted so she could see that he was taking occasional sips of a drink, listening to his friends, but talking very little himself. And he was making a concerted effort not to look at her.

Pointless. She was sure she'd have his full attention before the end of the night.

He leaned toward the pretty blonde at his side, trying to hear something she said over the off-key croon of yet another karaoke singer. The woman touched his arm as she spoke.

A shard of possessiveness ripped through her. He was her man. At least for tonight.

That could be his girlfriend, his wife, her reasonable mind murmured, the notion barely registering through her need.

So. She just wanted the use of his body. Then the blonde could have him back.

“I heard you weren’t interested in my buddy.”

A growl built in the back of her throat at yet another interruption, but some tenuous hold on her human side made her restrain the noise. Still, her only thought was that she couldn’t lose sight of her prey. She didn’t even glance at the new speaker. All her senses were locked on the man at the table in front of her.

“Maybe I’m more your type.”

She fought back another irritated growl, but this time she did turn to the man standing very close to her.

This guy was taller than the last, more muscled, a goatee and an arrogant twist to his lips. His hair was equally as shaggy as the blonde’s, but a shade darker, somewhere between blond and brown.

She let her gaze move slowly down his body. Thickly muscled arms, a broad, equally muscled chest. A noticeable bulge was outlined by his faded jeans.

“No, you’re not my type,” she stated, her voice low and husky with need, but not for this mortal.

Then she sensed her man moving.

She whipped her eyes back to him just as he rose from his chair. Tall, lean muscles moving under his blue button-down shirt, long legs encased in worn jeans carrying him smoothly across the bar. She started to rise, too. She had to follow him. But the man at her side touched her arm.

She sneered at him, registering him as little more than an annoyance, then she made to follow the other man, noting that he headed to the men’s room rather than the exit.

“Now, you are hardly giving me a fair shot here,” the man beside her said, catching her wrist in a large hand.

She spun back to him, this time not containing the growl that rumbled from deep in her throat. The man’s eyes widened slightly at the sound, but still he didn’t release her.

“Let me go,” she warned, intense rage filling her. This was her chance. She had to go after her man. She couldn’t allow anything to come between herself and her choice.

But instead of dropping her wrist, the man pulled her toward him. Her body hit his, her chest brought fully against his massive one. The contact enraged her more, all her instincts growling, fight. And she obeyed. She shoved him hard, barely controlling the strength of her overstimulated body.

The large man launched through the air, crashing down on a tabletop. The man and the table crumpled to the ground, the noise causing everyone at the bar to turn in her direction. The music, lyric-less and oddly discordant, did nothing to fill the sudden silence of the room. All eyes were on the man-then on her. Even the latest karaoke singer stopped singing with his mouth agaped, his hand on the mic.

Arabella looked around her, then back to the man, who struggled to his feet. She backed away, stunned by what she’d done-or rather, what the wolf in her had done.

God, she was losing it. She was totally out of control. She had to leave now, while her rational mind had taken a brief hold on her thoughts.

“Arabella,” Cassius said, appearing at her elbow. “Are you okay?” His voice was soft and steady, as if he knew he was talking to someone who was more animal than human.

Shame filled her. What would her brother think of her now? There was no disguising that she was not the Arabella he remembered. Not now.

She didn’t meet his eyes as she nodded.

“Is she okay?” the man she’d just shoved demanded. “She’s the one who attacked me.” He jabbed an angry finger in her direction. 

She opened her mouth to apologize, but only a low, angry growl escaped her throat. Cassius stepped between them.

“Then maybe you should take your hands off a lady when she asks,” her brother said, his voice still even but leaving no room for argument.

The man looked at them both, then called to his friends, loudly announcing what he thought of this establishment and its owners.

Once he and his buddies left, Maria came on the microphone announcing that the still-gaping man at the mic was going to start his song again.

As soon as the music restarted, the bar patrons settled back into normalcy, most of them continuing their socializing, only a little more subdued than before.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cassius asked again.

“I’m okay,” she assured him, even as she felt the wolf rising in her again. She had to get out of here. “I’m just going to go.”

Cassius looked as if he wanted to argue, but then he nodded. “Be careful.” Then he smiled. “Although I think you are pretty capable of taking care of yourself.”

She thought she might have seen pride in his eyes, but she was too embarrassed and too afraid to be sure.

She mumbled her farewell and rushed to the door. She needed to go back to her house, away from people. She was dangerous. She’d never acted like this. Never. Something was very, very wrong.

Rain now fell in a steady drizzle as she stepped out into the parking lot. She put distance between herself and the bar, stopping in the shadows among the parked cars to gather herself.

Raising her face toward the sky, she prayed for the cold rain to dampen down some of the heat inside her. Heat from embarrassment and from the desire still swirling inside her, unsatisfied and growing.

She had no idea how long she’d been standing there when she heard the bar door open and the crunch of footsteps on wet gravel. Her body tensed. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know who was coming in her direction. She could smell him. Woodsy, clean, and so, so tempting.

She opened her eyes to see her man, walking right toward her, his tall, strong body silhouetted against the lights of the bar. And just like that, the wolf was back and in full control.

She stepped out of the shadows in front of him.

“Hi there,” her voice was low, husky, and full of hunger.

“I don’t suppose you’d be interested in giving me a ride.”