~

Lana couldn’t help but chuckle as she turned away from the window and the show that Ava was putting on outside. But that chuckle died on her lips when she walked straight into the hard chest of her mate.

Cary offered a small grunt, followed by a rumble of a growl that caught in his throat, and pinged against her nerves like she was a pinball machine.

“My brother, the idiot,” Cary said.

“Ava can be unforgiving,” Lana offered back, grateful he seemed distracted by his brother’s woes.

As long as she’d known Ava, that woman had always zapped first and then not bothered to ask questions after.

“Of course, you’re not the zapping kind?” Cary offered her a small, teasing smile as his eyes lit up with amusement.

“Only when necessary, and only when truly deserved,” Lana said, slightly leaning in towards him, and hearing another rumble of a growl catch in his throat again.

If she’d taken a moment to consider her actions, then she should have known that a growl would follow any closeness between them. Maybe, somewhere in the back of her mind she already had. She did like the sound of that growl.

“So, it was necessary to zap me, and I deserved it?”

“Yes,” she said without thinking about it, and then she did pause for thought for a moment. Then a wickedly gleeful smile touched her lips, and she offered it up to him on a platter.

There was that growl again, this time it was louder and longer, and strangely enough; it sort of made her toes curl a little in her boots. Lana knew that could be dangerous and that she was playing with fire, but right then she didn’t much care.

“I can see I’m going to have to keep my eye on you.”

“The beady one, or the normal one?”

“I have a beady eye?” Cary resisted the urge to walk across the room to the nearest mirror and take a look for himself. He thought his eyes were pretty much matched, but if his mate said they weren’t then he guessed they weren’t.

“It was the first thing I noticed about you.” She lied.

“Want to know what the first thing I noticed about you was?”

“Keep it clean.” She warned him with a big smile.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Cary asked.

“That’s a leading question…”

“And one you’re prepared to answer?”

“Hmm, let me think,” she teased him. She didn’t need to think about it; she wasn’t about to answer that question — not just yet.

“Take your time; we have forever.”

“Oh, good answer,” she said with a wicked grin, and her eyes sparkled with amusement.

“I thought so. It’s also true,” he offered back.

“Now I’m definitely not going to rush to judgment on that one,” she teased.

“I’ll wait,” he offered her a shrug of his broad shoulders and an equally playful smile.

“Could be a while,” she cautioned him, but they both knew better than that.

“I’m a patient man…”

“Now that is definitely a lie,” she pinned him with a hard stare.

“Okay, you got me there. I’m not a patient man, not normally, but for you…” He left that line hanging.

“Oh, you’re good at throwing out the line to see if you’ll get a bite,” she chuckled.

“Are you going to bite?” He offered her a drop dead gorgeous sexy grin, and she felt her panties were in danger of dropping around her ankles.

“Shouldn’t that be the question I ask you?” Lana tossed back. Either someone had turned up the heating, or she was feeling as nervous as a vampire in church.

“Oh, I’m going to bite,” he assured her with a wolfish grin.

“And that’s what you think a girl wants to hear?” She chuckled.

“Sweetheart, you’re not just any girl — you’re my girl.”

“Am I now?” She tossed her hands onto her hips, tipped her head to one side, and offered him a curious look.

“That’s the one thing I am sure about.”

“Don’t you count those chickens, Buster,” she warned him, but she couldn’t keep the amusement from her eyes, and Cary was definitely not disheartened by her words.

She was his mate that he was sure of, and he was going to woo her damn panties off — literally.

 

~

~

 

“So, are you going to take me for a ride?” Audrey’s eyes were more expressive than River thought they should be, but he liked it.

He didn’t need to look into her thoughts to see her wicked intent because it was right there in those eyes. She was playing him, and that was only fair, how else could she get what she wanted?

“I would love to take you for the ride,” he offered back.

“Hey!” Breanna’s tone was a cross between a warning and intent. If he took liberties with her friend, then she’d see him boots up before the end of the day.

“In my car,” River bit out in disbelief, as he rolled his eyes down into a hard stare for the female vampire. “Not all of us have a dirty mind.”

“I do,” Audrey offered him a dirty chuckle to go with her admission.

“Okay you, behave,” Breanna sighed as she wrapped a hand around Audrey’s upper arm and yanked the she-wolf away from River and his stupid sports car.

“I’m just being friendly,” Audrey said as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

“I like friendly,” River said with a deep chuckle that drew her attention toward him. Having a member of the pack on his side certainly wasn’t going to hurt his plans.

“I like friendly too,” Breanna mimicked in a baby voice, and then she took a moment to think about it. “Actually, no. I’d prefer to rip your heart out of your rib cage, so back off,” she snapped.

“I can see you have anger issues,” River said, offering her the kind of smirk that would see him on his backside again if he kept it up.

“Where you’re concerned I do,” Breanna snapped back.

“Where’s the harm in going for a ride in the sports car?” Audrey asked, turning a look of disbelief on her friend.

“It’s not the car — it’s him,” Breanna informed her, but the death glare was aimed at the vampire and not at Audrey.

“Oh sure, what am I going to do? Feed,” River said with another roll of his eyes, and that really jumped up and down on Breanna’s last nerve.

“Just you try it and you’ll be dead a moment later,” Breanna snapped back.

“She’s a grown woman with claws and fangs of her own,” River protested.

“He’s right, I am.” Audrey turned a look of disbelief on her friend.

“And he’s a vampire, which makes him stronger, faster, and deadlier than you.” Breanna only told her what she already knew.

“Your point?” Audrey said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Yes, your point?” River offered, stirring the pot between the friends.

“Oh, don’t make me knock your fangs down the back of your throat,” Breanna warned him.

“Now, let’s just say I was prepared to let you try — do you really think you can out vamp me?” River asked, and folded his arms across his chest, taking up a neutral stance, but she could see that he was ready for her this time.