Chapter Twenty
Selena rolled her eyes as Katrina and Alexis giggled at the two strippers—er, entertainers—who were flirting with them. Of course, when they announced themselves as the boss’s “favorite nieces,” many of the guys were quick to fawn over them. They also positioned themselves strategically, ensuring that Selena was right behind them, blocked off from any of the males. Her stepsisters were taller than her, so she couldn’t even see the rest of the room, and, thus, was trapped between their stick-thin bodies and the refreshment table and delegated to pouring them champagne whenever they waved their empty glasses at her.
Not that she minded. Selena didn’t care for these nitwits. Even if they were hot, the fact that they could easily fall for Katrina and Alexis’ charm made them so not hot in her eyes. Besides, she already had a sexy man waiting for her in bed. A smile curved on her lips, thinking of Quinn. He easily outshone all these guys in the looks department alone. If anything, she was more annoyed that she couldn’t get out right now. Hopefully, they would move out of her way so she could sneak out. But it was like they were torturing her. Double torturing her because not only did she have to suffer their company (and get whipped in the face by blond hair extensions every couple seconds), but also because she couldn’t get to the delicious Lycan waiting to do naughty things to her in bed.
“Katrina, Alexis, why don’t you give poor Selena a chance to breathe?” Uncle Lucien’s cool voice interrupted the loud chatter from the two. “And perhaps leave some champagne for my other, paying guests?”
“Oh, Uncle Lucien, such a kidder!” Alexis brayed. She stepped aside. Katrina snorted beside her. “Sorry, Selena. I didn’t notice you were there.”
“Yeah, whatev,” Selena muttered as she pushed her way out of their circle. She took a deep breath, finally free of the oppressive cloud of perfume that followed her stepsisters. “Thanks,” she said to Lucien gratefully.
He smiled at her. “Don’t thank me yet, my dear. I think trouble has just begun.” Lucien nodded to the entrance of the VIP room.
“Oh shit.”
Quinn was standing there, his brows furrowed and his eyes scanning the room. Selena’s heart slammed against her ribcage, and, for a moment, she wanted to duck and run. Or hide. Then, as if the karmic gods heard her and decided to pay her back for every single bad thing she did throughout her entire life, Quinn’s gaze crashed on her.
“Crap.” So much for her escape plan.
As soon as he saw her, he strode over, quickly reaching where she and Lucien stood. “Merlin.” He nodded to Lucien. “Nice spread.”
“Lycan. I don’t remember inviting you here,” Lucien replied, but his tone was more amused than mad. Like he had been expecting Quinn all this time. “I should go, Selena dear. I’ll see you around.” He gave Quinn a raised brow and then walked away.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in a quiet whisper.
“I finished work early, so I wanted to see you. Why are you whispering?”
She gave a nervous laugh. “Whispering? Was I whispering?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What is going on, Selena?”
“Going on?” she echoed. “I told you, I’m here to see the show. And support Evie.” She glanced around. Where was her best friend?
“She’s outside,” Quinn said as if reading her mind.
“Right. Well, thanks for coming. Let’s go home.” She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door.
“Selena, who’s your friend?”
She dropped Quinn’s hand like it was a piece of hot coal. “Motherfucker,” she muttered. She pasted a smile on her face. “Alexis. Katrina.” She swallowed audibly. “This is Quinn. Quinn, these are my stepsisters.”
Alexis’ eyes devoured Quinn. “Oh my,” she giggled. “Selena never told us she had such a charming … friend.”
Katrina’s nostrils flared. “A charming Lycan friend.”
Quinn frowned. “Hmmm … that’s odd. She never mentioned you guys either.”
“How silly of her,” Alexis said with a chuckle. “But then she’s always so absentminded and forgetful. Oh my,” she said, running her hands down Quinn’s bicep. “Do you work out?”
“I’m sure he’s naturally talented,” Katrina added, sidling up to his other side. “He’s a Lycan, after all. Is it true what they say about your kind?”
Quinn laughed. “Exactly what have you been hearing?”
“Oh look,” Selena said weakly. “I think they refilled the hors d'oeuvres table.” She walked away from the trio, unable to bear hearing her sisters fawn over Quinn and him basking in their attention.
This was it. This was what she had been dreading. But she never thought Quinn would fall for her sisters’ siren call. It was doubly excruciating, and she washed down the bitter lump in her throat with half a glass of champagne.
“Selena, there you are!” Evie said, appearing behind her. “What are they doing here?”
“Who?”
The brunette nodded to the other side of the room at Quinn and her sisters. Connor joined them as well. “Quinn and Connor. How did they get … hey, are those your sisters? They were waiting outside our apartment today.”
“Stepsisters,” she glumly corrected. It was like a train wreck, and she couldn’t look away. Alexis had obviously staked her claim on Quinn, while Katrina was trying to cozy up to Connor, much to the other Lycan’s consternation.
“What are they doing?” Evie said, grabbing Selena’s arm. Her fingernails dug into her skin.
“Ow, hey, watch it!”
Evie’s face was redder than a tomato, and her eyes were throwing daggers at Katrina. Despite herself, Selena suppressed a grin. “Cool it, Evie. He’s in no way interested in her. In fact, he looks really uncomfortable right now.” Katrina started running her hands up and down Connor’s bicep, giving it a playful squeeze. Connor stood there, his back as stiff as a board, his brows furrowing.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Selena gave a mental eye roll. Evie was a smart girl, but, sometimes, she could be so dumb. Or pretended to be.
“Now what are they doing?”
Quinn put an arm around both girls and then said something to Connor. Both Lycans walked toward the door with the girls.
Tears burned at Selena’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She grabbed a mini tart from the table and swallowed it whole, the pastry tasting like ash in her mouth.
“Well, I don’t give a flying fuck about him—them—at all,” Evie said as if agreeing with her. “He can have her and her magical tits and sparkly pussy.” She took a champagne flute from the table and downed it one gulp. “I—Selena, are you okay?”
“Me?” She gave a tight laugh. “Of course I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
Evie looked at the door where the foursome had disappeared and back to Selena. “Oh my god. Selena, are you in l—”
“Sorry, I have to go to the bathroom,” Selena mumbled, as she walked away from Evie. The humiliated, deflated feeling began to creep into her, and she just prayed she’d make it outside before she broke down. She walked out of the VIP room, her hurried steps leading her toward the private exit Uncle Lucien had shown her before.
“Selena! Selena, wait up!”
She stiffened, hearing Quinn’s voice. She took a deep breath and wiped away the tears that had gathered in her eyes with the back of her hand. “Yes?” she asked brightly, turning to face him. She would not let him see how hurt she was.
“Oh good, you’re ready to go,” Quinn said. “C’mon, I’m starving and tired. We can order in tonight.”
Her brows knitted in confusion. “What? I mean, what about Alexis?”
“Huh?” He looked at her as if she were crazy. “Your stepsister?” He shuddered. “God, I thought I was never getting away from her. Now I know what women mean when they say they feel like a piece of meat. I think I’m going to need a shower as soon as we get home. That perfume she’s wearing is sticking to my shirt.”
Shock struck her system like lightning. “But … you left with them.”
Quinn chuckled. “Yeah, I had to get them out of there. Connor’s stuck with them now,” he said gleefully. “I think I’m just about done getting Connor back for kicking my ass.”
Selena couldn’t suppress her laugh, thinking of Connor and her stepsisters. She felt a twinge of guilt. Connor wasn’t a bad guy, so she didn’t agree that the punishment fit the crime in this instance.
Quinn let out a sigh. “Why didn’t you tell me about your stepsisters? Or that they were in town? Are they the real reason you’re here?”
Selena bit her lip. She didn’t want to lie to Quinn. “Yes. I’m sorry. I just … I don’t know how to explain our relationship. Not just to you, but to anyone.”
“Is it the power thing? With your coven?”
She nodded.
“You don’t have to explain things to me, Selena.” He drew her into his arms. “And I know I haven’t been that open with you, so I’m not one to give you a lecture. Now, let’s go home.”
She stiffened in his arms and then pulled back to look up at him. Quinn didn’t want her stepsisters. Quinn chose her. He chose to be with her. Warmth spread over her, and she forgot the momentary hurt she felt. “Yes, let’s go home.”
***
Selena lay in the big bed, Quinn’s arm over her waist. He had been asleep for a while, but she couldn’t quiet her mind long enough to drift off. That pit in her stomach was forming again. It was like a bad feeling she couldn’t shake.
They went straight home from Merlin’s, not bothering to say goodbye to Uncle Lucien, Evie, or even Connor. She sent a quick apology text to her friend and then turned her phone off. All she wanted was to be alone with Quinn. As soon as they were, he swept her up into his arms and made love to her. He was gentle and sweet tonight, taking his time with her. As they both approached their orgasms, he gazed right into her face, his eyes like twin blue fires boring into her soul. It scared her and excited her at the same time. She felt out of control and like she was hurtling into some unknown she wouldn’t be able to recover from. When she fell apart, she raked her nails down his back and screamed his name. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away before he saw them.
Selena felt lost. She never expected this, never asked for this. All she wanted was to lead a quiet life and be truly accepted by her people. If she was really honest with herself, she had thought if she had a magically talented child, the coven would stop feeling for her and finally respect her. But she knew now that would not only be incredibly selfish, but also unfair to Jason and any child of hers.
“Can’t sleep?” Quinn murmured against her neck.
“I have a lot on my mind.”
“Care to talk about it?”
She shook her head.
Quinn let out a sigh. “C’mon, maybe some hot milk will help you sleep.” He got up and rolled off the bed, pulling on his boxers. Selena followed, grabbing her robe from the foot of the bed, then padding down to the kitchen with him.
She sat on one of the stools around the kitchen island and watched him take some milk out of the fridge and put it in a pan. “You look like you know what you’re doing,” she said in an amused voice.
“Archie used to do this for me when I couldn’t sleep. I would stay up until all hours of the night, tinkering on my computer, and he’d come into my room at three a.m., begging me to get some rest. He would bribe me with warm milk. Eventually, I did get some sleep.” He let the pot warm up on the stove, then poured the milk into a mug for her.
“Do you miss him?”
“Every day,” Quinn said with a sad smile as he handed her the mug.
“You should be glad for the time you got to spend with him.”
“I am,” he said with a shrug. “I’m grateful for everything he gave me.”
Selena took a sip of the warm liquid. “How did he find you?”
Quinn paused, but before she could say anything else, he started talking. “I would hang out at this warehouse with a bunch of other kids. Troublemakers, all of us.” He gave a small laugh. “We were messing around with computers, trying to see what kind of trouble we could get in. At the end of the day, though, all those other kids went back to their homes with their parents. Not me. I lived in that warehouse. I ran away from …” He paused and swallowed, but continued. “I learned how to hack ATMs for money, and I’d been on my own for a few years then. I was fourteen.”
She gasped. That was so young. Too young to be without any parents and on his own. “Then what happened?”
“Archie came to this warehouse and scared the other kids away. Told them he was from the FBI and he was going to call all their parents. They all left except me, of course. I didn’t have anywhere else to go. So he introduced himself to me. Told me the truth and that he knew what I was. Actually, I was so scared, Wolf came out.”
“Wolf?”
“Yeah, that’s what I call him. My animal. Not at first, though. It was tough being a Lycan during puberty and not having any help. I couldn’t control it, and I’d just shift at random times and sometimes I wasn't sure when I'd change back. Archie helped. That first time, he wasn’t scared of Wolf. He was able to make Wolf calm down enough to let me get back my body. Archie told me that I had to learn to control my animal. I’d been without help for too long, it seemed almost like an alien parasite living in my body. Archie said it might help if I treated it like it was a friend. So I started doing that.”
“Did it help?”
“Yeah, though sometimes you’d think Wolf is in charge.” A low rumbling came from his chest, and he laughed.
She smiled and then put the mug down. She walked around the island over to his side and then wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling against his back. This man … who knew she would ever meet such a person? She clung to him tighter. She had to tell him. No, not at this moment. First, she had to decline Jason’s offer. The guilt of keeping the arrangement from Quinn weighed her down, keeping her awake. Jason would probably understand. She’d tell him it just didn’t feel right. Her father … well, that was an entirely different conversation, and she would have to take things one at a time.
“Feeling sleepy now?”
She nodded. Yes, that was it. Time to come clean to Quinn and finally she could move on with her life. She yawned and closed her eyes, letting Quinn lift her up and carry her back to the bedroom.