~

 

“Tell me why I don’t just kill her,” Chloe muttered from her lofty lookout on one of the upper branches of her favorite oak tree with Monty sitting beside her.

“Who, Dorothy?”

“Sarah.”

“Because she’s family.” Monty offered back, and there was a small smile on his lips that wasn’t lost on her. It might have made her want to punch him repeatedly in the face, but it still held an attraction for her.

 “Family doesn’t treat family the way Sarah’s treats me...”

“Family doesn’t want to feast from a major artery like it’s an all you can eat buffet, but ho-hum, life goes on, and on, and on, and on…”

Chloe elbowed her mate so hard in the chest that he flipped backward from the branch and thumped against a few others on the way down to the ground. It was somehow satisfying, but not as satisfying as getting Sarah to let her into the inn would be.

“Thank you.” He called from below.

“You’re more than welcome.” She muttered as she strummed her fingers against the wood.

She needed a plan. A devious plan that would get her inside her old home. Either that or killing Sarah would be the next best thing.

 

~

~

~

 

Rick had two thoughts in his head. Wooing and getting in that hot tub. He’d prefer it if both thoughts merged into one outcome. Wooing in a hot tub sounded like fun — although, there was a possibility of drowning.

His wolf didn’t like that idea. Protect their mate above all else. The beast growled in protest.

Yeah, he’d much prefer her to be spread out on a bed where he could love her right. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have a little fun – play a little. He just needed to get her to see things his way.

Somehow, he didn’t think that was going to be easy.

Elizabeth didn’t feel threatened by him. At least, not in the conventional sense. The man might have been built like a brick outhouse with muscles upon muscles, and yet, there was a look in his eyes that was bordering on playful.

She wasn’t a witch to be toyed with. He could get that thought right out of his mind.

Somewhere in the back of her mind that dormant desire to be needed by a man, truly needed, definitely desired, had awoken and was jumping up and down, screaming and waving its arms to try to get her attention, but he wasn’t the man for her.

He was a wolf shifter, and she’d been around the block enough times to know that if you weren’t a mate as her mother was then you would be second best. She didn’t want to be the person that a man settled for.

Elizabeth was in her fourth decade of life, and that was young enough to realize that love, real love, could still come knocking at the door. But old enough to tell herself that it was unlikely to happen.

But then, she had to think of her mother. She’d found a mate. A soulmate, and at her age. Maybe there was still hope.

Just not with him. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t have thoughts about rolling in the hay with him — maybe, not hay, because of her allergies — she did. Who wouldn’t?

She was entirely sure that the experience would be satisfying on both sides.

But that wasn’t the point. What if her mother was claimed as a mate? She’d live on pack land, and that meant that Elizabeth would have to regularly visit to see her — run into him — and that would be — awkward.

The man had already seen more of her body then she was comfortable with. She knew that it was trendy to not give a damn about the slippage of age. That you were supposed to be happy to parade your faults out in the open, and maybe on a Caribbean beach packed with an assortment of body types then she might have got used to that idea — eventually – but not one on one with a sexy, perfectly formed, despite being the same age as her, sex god.

She’d never been one to let it all hang out, and there was no way in hell that she was starting a new trend in front of him. While it was true that life was for the living, and that you should always take the opportunity whenever it raised its head, she had to draw the line somewhere.

The man looked as if he was dreaming up some devious plot. Elizabeth couldn’t even imagine what that would look like. Perhaps, he just hadn’t had his quota of fiber for the day.

“I really want to get in that tub,” Rick said, and he couldn’t hide or silence the underlying growl that rumbled along with his words.

“If it means that much to you then turn around while I step out.”

“That’s not what I had in mind.”

“Don’t even go there.”

“Oh, but I think you’d like it.”

It wasn’t just the hungry look in his eyes that made her heart batter against her ribs. It was the way that he’d said it — full of promise — and that was one thing that they both could probably agree on.

“Don’t think. It’s not working for you,” she said. “Now turn around…”

“Why so shy?” Rick teased her again.

“That’s it.”

Elizabeth wanted out of the tub. She’d had enough.

A heartbeat later and Rick yelped at the sting in his eyes. It felt as if she poked him with her fingers.

He slapped his large hands against his face, covering his eyes, and she hightailed it out of the tub while she could. While he was preoccupied.

Rick could hear her splashing around in the water, and even as his wolf growled within him at the thought of her escaping, he listened hard for the sound of her feet hitting the ground.

“Don’t leave!” He growled as his beast rose up within him and he could feel the prickle of the wolf’s fur just under his skin.

“Yeah! I’ll just stick around for round two,” she snorted contempt for that idea.

Elizabeth snatched up the towel and wrapped it around the body as she started for the inn. She muttered and grumbled with every step.

Rick was in danger of losing control of his wolf. As an enforcer; his beast was ever present just below the surface, ready to anything, and that was what made him so good at his job. Unfortunately, his beast could also be willful and unpredictable.

He knew that he had to do something to try to control the situation. He did not want his wolf to break free and try to hunt her down.

In his beast’s mind, their mate was escaping. If she ran now, then that would be very bad.

Rick dropped his hands and tried to focus through the blur, but he had very little vision. His eyes still stung like crazy from her magic, but he had no other choice than to act because he needed to keep the wolf within its human cage.

He started on fast legs towards the sound of her footsteps. His upper thighs slammed into the hardwood of the hot tub, and as he thrust his hands out in front of him for stability and found only air — he knew what was coming next.

Rick went headfirst into the tub. The loud splash of his body hitting the water caused Elizabeth to turn and look over her shoulder.

Rick’s legs were up in the air, wedged against the side of the tub. His bare backside was sticking out water, but the rest of him was submerged.

Elizabeth couldn’t help herself — she felt the hard rise of laughter within her — and even though she slapped a hand over her mouth, it really didn’t help. When the sound burst free from inside of her, she doubled over, braced her hands against her knees, and really let rip.

She hadn’t laughed that hard in – forever. It was made worse as the shifter fought to regain his feet.

Rick was slipping and sliding and shimmying his legs downwards, as he scrambled with his hands to push up for air.

“You certainly wanted in that tub!” Elizabeth bit out through the roaring, rolling laughter that went through her as the man finally broke the surface and gasped in one hard breath after another as he spluttered out water.

“I’m glad you’re amused,” Rick grumbled and growled.

“Oh, I am.” It was all that she could manage to get out between fits of laughter.

Rick was out of the tub a moment later with every inch of his hard body on show again. He grumbled a growl as he stalked straight for her.

Now that he could see once more, he saw the amusement in her eyes start to fade, and he was grateful for it. His pride had taken something of a battering.

“That was not my fault!” Elizabeth rushed out in the hope that the man would cease and desist from whatever his plan was, and because she was still struggling to breathe after laughing so hard.

“Oh, trust me. That was definitely your fault.” He growled back.