Chapter Three
Hayley rushed toward Summer and Jackson. She liked seeing her brother so happy, with his arm casually wrapped around Summer’s waist, his attention on her. And Summer looked back at him, a gooey expression on her face. Hayley squashed a feeling of envy. She wanted that. She wanted to be the focus of one man’s world, and she wanted to be accepted for who she was—bold, strong, and dirty-mouthed.
She had the insult “rubbercock” on the tip of her tongue, ready to unleash it cheerfully on her brother. But someone stepped right in her path.
“Hayley,” he said.
She looked up. She didn’t know this guy, but immediately she could smell that he was a shifter. A fellow mountain lion. She should’ve sniffed him out when she’d first walked into the bar, but envy over Jackson and Summer’s lovey bliss had distracted her.
The dude’s dark eyes were fathomless, and he wore a fake, disarming smile. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. She sniffed again. He smelled like sawdust and raisins, and her nose itched.
If she’d been in lion form, her hair would have lifted and her back would’ve arched defensively. “Who the hell are you?” she asked.
“I’m Alec,” he said smoothly. “We met briefly, long ago. You probably don’t remember me. You hung up on me earlier, but we need to talk.”
Now she remembered him. Her parents had made that awful deal with the Spokane Pride, just before the war with the Clausen Pride. Alec had been there with his father, the Spokane alpha. Hayley had been bartered like a piece of meat in order to ensure the Spokane Pride’s help.
Hayley had fought it, until her dad took her aside and said, “There is no way you’ll ever have to go through with something you’re not comfortable with, okay? This is a formality only.”
It hadn’t mattered, because the Clausens won the war, and the last of the Jaynes family had been chased out of the Dark Pines territory.
But maybe it had mattered, at least a little bit. Because this nasty fuckbasket was here, claiming to be her fiancé.
“I don’t want to speak to you,” Hayley said.
He chuckled. “You made that pretty clear when you hung up on me a few hours ago. But we need to talk.”
“I’m already with someone,” she said, trying to shove past him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t sense the lie.
His hand closed around her upper arm, and she spun, ready to stomp on his instep. Before that could happen, a giant, burly biker dude stood up from the table nearest them. “This guy bothering you?” he asked.
Hayley looked from the biker to Alec. “I don’t know, Alec. Are you bothering me?”
He sized up the biker and shook his head. He dropped Hayley’s arm, glowering. “We’ll talk later.”
Hayley watched as Alec retreated to a corner of the bar. Shit, that had been close. There was nothing to say to him, but now she’d told him she was seeing someone. That would be the best possible solution to this shitstorm. He couldn’t marry her if she already had a mate.
She turned back to the bar, where she’d seen Jackson and Summer a second ago. But neither of them could help her out of her predicament. She needed…a boyfriend. And fast.
The guy standing next to Jackson—dark-haired, brown-eyed, with a set of monster muscles—would do the trick. He must be Jackson’s friend, Marius. She’d heard a little about him already, how he’d helped Dan Clausen scare Summer.
Striding up to him, she pretended that the butterflies in her stomach hadn’t grown talons and weren’t clawing their way up her throat. Instead, she shook her hair back and made eye contact with those chocolate brown eyes of his.
“Hello, Marius,” she said, turning her voice into a purr.
He gaped at her until she closed the distance between them and pressed the full length of her body against his. Wrapping her arms around his massive shoulders, she whispered, “Are you single?”
“What?” His voice was so quiet, she could barely hear him.
Somewhere behind her, Alec was watching this show. She had to be convincing, but she didn’t want to mess anything up if Marius already had a mate. “Are you single?”
“Uh…yeah. Yes.”
“Good.” She tilted her face up toward his and kissed him like she meant it. Her lips pressed against his in a spark of heat that surprised her, but she went with it, afraid to break contact. If Alec thought for a second that she was lying—and he probably did because shifters were so good at sensing dishonesty—then she’d have to convince him right now, with her actions. If she convinced him well enough, hopefully he’d go back to whatever rock he’d come from and leave Hayley alone.
Thoughts of Alec flew right out of her head as Marius took control of the kiss. His arms came around her waist, tightening her to him. He parted his lips and pressed harder, so she had no choice but to open to him. Not what she’d intended, but his tongue tentatively brushed the edge of her mouth and she couldn’t hold back a moan of need.
This was not at all what she’d expected.
Forgetting that they stood in a crowded bar, she allowed him to deepen the kiss. One of his hands trailed up her back and fisted her hair at the nape of her neck, controlling her. His lips were bruising, full of heat, and his tongue slid against hers in a way that shot electricity straight to her pussy. He tasted like cool beer on a summer’s day, but he was so much more intoxicating.
“Hey. Hayley. Hayley.”
Her brother’s voice. Marius’s arms were tight around her, but as soon as she pulled back an inch, he let her go completely with a muttered curse.
Hayley blinked and turned to Jackson and Summer, who both stared, their mouths wide open. She slugged Jackson in the shoulder. “Heya, rubbercock.”
Jackson turned to Marius, a murderous expression on his face. “That’s my sister, you asshole.”
“Stop,” Hayley said, touching Jackson’s shoulder. “I’ll explain later.”
Marius’s body heat, no, his very energy, had seeped into her skin. She could smell him all around her, but she turned around to look at the people in the bar. Alec was nowhere to be found.
It had worked. She let out a breath. The kiss had worked.
Now she had to explain.