Chapter Nine
Wendy fully expected the day to be awkward as hell with Cato, especially after the way he had left the night before. The way he bailed so quickly after fixing her burn made a piece of her ache for him.
There was just something in his tone and his face that made her think she’d reminded him of something he’d rather forget. Maybe she was just tricking herself and trying to make it all into something more than it was, but the pain she sensed seemed all too real.
After her arrival at the ballroom, she realized the day would be anything but awkward. Mostly because they didn’t have time for awkward exchanges.
The minute Wendy and Cato stepped into the room, a huge number of people greeted them, their crew for the party. Florists, caterer, DJs, waitstaff, a practical event army.
It was a race to keep up with the chatter, questions, and the complaints. Oh, the complaints! Each person had a mountain of complaints about the timeline of the whole event.
It’s impossible… especially with this budget.
Can’t you just move it back a month?
It’s almost a two-hour drive to get here from our building.
We’re glad for the business, but our normal policy for an event this large is at least six weeks’ notice.
And on, and on, and on.
Wendy swore if she heard one more time about how little notice they had been given, she was going to start taking volunteers for rifle range dummies.
The government and the Lodge were about to throw piles of cash at them, and yet they still wanted to bitch. She half wondered if some of them were just complaining in an attempt to squeeze out more money from their clients.
She noticed Cato didn’t say much as the different people gave their spiels. It wasn’t that he was shirking his duties. He was carefully listening and watching each presentation.
Occasionally, he would wrinkled his nose or grunt in agreement, but he seemed to want to leave it to her to make the final decisions.
She wasn’t sure if she should be happy he wasn’t being unreasonable or annoyed that he didn’t seem to have more of an opinion. After all, the whole point of having a hybrid paired with a soldier was that the hybrid could offer his feedback on what the hybrids might like.
He just didn’t seem to have any strong preferences. Maybe all the hybrids didn’t. The hybrids had lived a spartan lifestyle before freedom, and it wasn’t exactly like luxury and fun seemed to be a big part of their current lifestyle either.
It didn’t matter. By the end of it all, they had a decent plan for the party. It was going to be an elegant affair, but still relaxed enough that both sides would feel comfortable.
At least she hoped so. Cato didn’t seem to have any complaints anyway.
The florist had been irritated they were going with seasonal flowers instead of the red roses he suggested about a million times. Somehow adding roses would have made the whole thing seem like something it wasn’t supposed to be. This was a mixing of soldiers and hybrids, not some sort of romantic ball.
The last thing she wanted to do was make it seem like she was setting the mood or something. As it was, she was having a hard time keeping her mind out of that realm. She’d hoped yesterday she’d just been a bit confused, but after a whole day in close contact with Cato, there was no way she could deny her strong, burning attraction to him.
Despite herself, she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Cato throughout the day, no matter what he was doing. Now, she watched him as she arranged the table displays from across the room.
Being the tallest and strongest in the room, he walked from place to place with the main decorator as they decided just where the various decorations would go. Over and over the huge hybrid was forced to hold a red string against the wall.
Seeing the huge man grim-faced as he helped decide where to hang party decorations did add a bit of levity to the situation. Even those actions impressed her.
She knew it must have been driving him crazy, but he still continued on without any complaints other than a few grimaces and grunts here and there.
For her part, though, she needed to concentrate on her own work. She tore her attention away from Cato to attend to continue setting up the example table displays. They’d eventually need to recruit some others for set up, but it wouldn’t do any good until they had finished displays to show to people.
“Would you come over for a moment?” someone called to her.
Wendy looked up from the glass rocks she was placing in a vase. Vincent, the decorator, stared down at her.
“I’d just like to get your opinion,” he said, a bit of a frown on his face. “Your friend isn’t being much help.”
Wendy sighed. Cato wasn’t being helpful? They stepped over to where Cato stood on the ladder.
Cato glanced between Vincent and her before shrugging. “I told you, I don’t know about this shit.”
The twitch of his mouth suggested he was reaching his limit.
Vincent sighed dramatically. “This is not… shit.” He glared at Cato. “This is the difference between the Van De Fleur affair and the Montgomery fiasco. I will not be humiliated again.” He crossed his arms.
Wendy didn’t have the slightest idea what the hell either of those parties were, but it was clear Vincent was having none of that.
She glanced over to Cato who was staring at the decorator like he’d sprung a second head.
Of all the things she’d imagined being responsible for when she received word of the unit’s assignment to Luna Lodge, playing diplomat between a decorator and a hybrid was probably about last on the list.
“Of course,” Wendy said with just the slightest twitch of her mouth. “We wouldn’t want that.”
Vincent nodded, glad that someone finally agreed with him. “If you wouldn’t mind doing it again,” he said to Cato.
Cato muttered something under his breath.
She couldn’t quite catch everything he was saying, but she was fairly certain that he’d said something about “head” and “ass.” Neither of which, she assumed, were meant in a pleasant way.
Wendy might have snickered if she hadn’t looked back up to Cato and been totally mesmerized by the bare skin that had been exposed when he lifted his arms up.
The tan skin there pulled tightly over the flexed muscles. A light dusting of dark brown hair ran a path down the middle and disappeared into his pants.
She swallowed hard. Her mouth suddenly dry. The thought of running her tongue along the path made her center wet.
Pure white heat radiated from her center, and for a moment she forgot just what she had been doing.
“What do you think?” Vincent asked.
Her gaze trailed up to where Cato stood staring down at her. His normal amber eyes were glowing now. Wendy watched as he took in a deep breath and heard a low rumble come from him.
The sound made her nipples tighten under her shirt. Suddenly she was entirely too sensitive. The bra she wore scraped against the hard peaks, and she had to take in several deep breaths to keep from moaning.
A little skin and she was already more turned on than she’d ever been in her life. Whoa.
“Is nobody going to give an opinion here?” Vincent huffed.
Her attention snapped over to the other man, and she could feel the heat in her cheeks.
“Yeah,” she said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “That looks good.”
Vincent smiled. “It really does,” he said. “Okay, that’s good for today. I’ll just pack up a few things and be on my way.”
Wendy nodded. She barely heard what Vincent had been saying. Her body was far more aware of the giant hybrid climbing down the ladder so very close to her.
Cato came to stand next to her, and she could feel the heat from him as he leaned in a little.
Despite that, she couldn’t even look him in the eye, she was so embarrassed. Getting caught staring at a guy’s package area.
Wendy looked up to the large man in front of her. “I’m so sor—”
His mouth closed the distance between them, and she barely had time to think before his mouth was on hers.
It was insane. They weren’t alone. Sure, there wasn’t anybody else left at this point but Vincent, but still…
The kiss was hot and forceful, demanding she follow him where he was leading.
She did. Wendy kissed him back with everything she had. The burning inside her only flared hotter when he pressed her against the wall, his knee pressed between her hot thighs.
A small explosion burst in her panties, begging her to just rub a little against his leg.
Suddenly there was cold air between them, as if Cato hadn’t just had her wrapped in the hottest kiss she’d ever had.
“I think I’ve got everything,” Vincent called from over at the table.
She turned and saw him smiling at the table, seemingly unaware of what had just taken place.
When Wendy looked back over to Cato, she could see the ragged way he was breathing and the large bulge in his pants.
“I’ve got to see Titus,” he said gruffly.
She watched, unable still to say anything as he stormed out the ballroom door.
Vincent came to stand beside her and sighed a little. “Now that is one hell of a man.”