Page 39 of Sear
“Hell, no, I’m not the courting type.” He leaned back in his seat and forced himself to smirk at Kymberlie. “But, I gotta say, that Malia is one hot chick.” He let his grin widen. “And the locals sure are friendly in this town, if you catch my drift.”
She glared at him. If looks could kill, he’d be slumped over his steering wheel right now and on his way to hitting room temperature.
He gave her his most innocent expression, and added,“Mostof the locals, anyway.”
She leaned in menacingly, and he smelled the heavy tang of anger. Her blue eyes glittered with gold flecks, a sign that her wolf was near the surface.
“Look, buddy,” she said, her voice low and husky with the edge of a growl. “If you take advantage of her or hurt her in any way, I and the rest of my pack will hunt you down and turn you into a lion skin rug.”
He wanted very badly to reassure her that he wasn’t out to hurt Malia. But he couldn’t. He needed to convince everyone in this town that he was a sleazeball…without telling Kymberlie an actual lie that her shifter senses could detect.
Never letting his confident grin slip, Lucas thought fast.
“Look, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m only gonna be in town for a few days. I didn’t make your cousin any promises other than to show her a good time while I’m here.” He paused.
The next part was going to be tricky. He needed Kymberlie to be angry and despise him, but not to the point where she actually lost control and attacked him.
His cat suddenly resurfaced. It couldn’t resist the opportunity to taunt the wolf lurking just below Kymberlie’s human surface.
Taking a chance, he added, “Besides, maybe she’s only barely legal, but ‘barely’isstill legal, if you know what I mean.”
“You’re a pig,” Kymberlie snarled. “Exactly like your friends over there.”
She jerked a thumb in the direction of parking lot’s entrance.
Lucas saw Bickham’s pickup turning off the highway, heading straight towards them.Shit.
Lucas needed to wrap up this conversationright now. He liked that Malia had family members who cared about her so much, but at the moment, it was really fucking inconvenient.
“By the way,” he said, in his most obnoxious dirtbag sleaze tone. “Does your hot little cousin know that you’re on chaperone duty?”
Kymberlie’s jaw dropped, and the gold glitter in her eyes increased to a sheen.
He continued, “Because she seemed to take it poorly when one of her other kin tried to tell her not to hang out with me.”
He could practically hear her grinding her teeth at his words.
Bickham pulled up behind Lucas’s pickup and parked.
Kymberlie straightened and pushed back. Her lips twisted in a snarl. “You watch yourself around her, Lucas. I’m warning you.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he assured her. His eyes flicked to his rearview mirror, checking for any sign of Bickham and Silvers exiting the vehicle. He continued, “I’ll be leaving this two-bit burg as soon as I bag some game.”
Lucas waited for his cat to react his pronouncement, but after the night’s tantrums, it seemed to have finally settled down.
“Remember what I told you.” Kymberlie turned on her heel and stomped off in the direction of the delivery truck.
Troubled by all the gossip that his ill-advised makeout session with Malia stirred up, Lucas opened his driver’s side door.
He grabbed the box of pastries from Cinnamon + Sugar and a large insulated jug of coffee from the passenger seat.
Then he took a deep breath, and prepared to face yet another day of drinking beer and listening to his two new friends boast about how many elk and deer they’d poached last year and the year before without getting caught.
“Hey, what was that all about?” Silvers asked as Lucas slid into the cab behind him.
Lucas might not be able to lie to a fellow shifter, but Ordinaries were fair game.
“She’s hot, so I asked for her phone number. She told me to fuck off.” He shrugged with fake casualness. “You win some, you lose some, right?”
