Susie awoke a couple of hours later.
Barlow quickly muted the TV. “Sorry, did I wake you?”
“No, not at all,” she murmured.
She smiled and grimaced. “My skin still feels hot and wrinkly. Do I look okay?”
“Yep,” he answered immediately, but she didn’t believe him for a second. “But I’d avoid mirrors for the next few hours.”
Susie huffed and then laughed. He helped her sit up in bed and un-muted the movie. He was watching Murder On the Orient Express. It had always been one of Gram-Gram’s favorites. Growing up, he had seen it about fifty times, so Susie’s constant questions of ‘who’s that guy?’ and ‘what did he say when I was asking you who the other guy was?’ didn’t bother him in the least and it meant he could easily answer.
“Holy crap!” she exclaimed at the ending.
“Didn’t see that coming, right?” he asked.
“No, definitely not. Good movie, though.”
“Surprised you’ve never seen it.”
“Surprised you have,” she giggled.
“Grandma’s favorite.”
“Ah, my grandfather has only ever watched movies about cops, and my grandma is partially blind, so she doesn’t watch much TV. I guess you spent a lot of time with your grandmother growing up, given that you lost your mother.”
Barlow stared at her. “Yeah,” he said slowly.
An icy shard pierced his heart. Right. He had almost lost Susie only a matter of hours ago. Nearly failed to protect her as he had his mother. But Susie wasn’t his responsibility – it wasn’t his job to take care of her. Though, he had felt pretty damn responsible when he found her in the sauna, looking so small, so fragile. For a second he thought he already had lost her – and he never wanted that damn feeling again.
She looked like she wanted to say something else on the subject.
“You hungry?” he asked quickly, wanting to change the topic.
“A little. What time is it?”
“Six.”
“Crap!”
She swung her legs off the bed and immediately crumpled to the floor.
“Susie!” he snarled, leaping around to help her up.
“Ooh, still a little woozy.”
Barlow grunted.
“But I have to hurry – we have the rehearsal dinner tonight.”
“I don’t think…”
“I have to go – she’s my best friend, and she’s only getting married once.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” he said sagely.
Susie raised an eyebrow. “Well, if I don’t go, Jules will come find me, and I’m not about to say that to her. Seriously, how do I look?”
“Gorgeous,” he answered immediately.
Well, okay, she didn’t look her best – she would need to be naked to look her best – and her skin seemed to be glowing, and not in a particularly good way, but she was always gorgeous.
“I don’t think I believe you, but thank you, I needed that.”
She leaned up with an ‘ooh’ and kissed him.
“Yeah, well, I still don’t think you should go,” he groused, and his wolf agreed. She needed to stay in their room and recuperate, preferably naked…
“I’m fine, and not going anywhere near any saunas in the near future.”
“Hmmm. Your friend, Candace came by while you were asleep. She said the manager thinks it was just a random employee who dropped the towels while cleaning up. Be an employee needing some dental work if I find them.”
Susie’s expression flickered, and she looked away. His wolf was immediately on edge.
“What…”
“Will you help me shower?” she interrupted.
Barlow’s suspicion was immediately doused, as something else entirely lit up inside him. “You mean, hold you and soap you up while water flows all over you?”
“Yes, that’s what a shower is.”
“Oh, little darling, I will certainly give you a shower.”
Susie giggled as he hauled her into his arms and damn near ran into the bathroom.
*
“You look sexy,” murmured Barlow into her ear as Susie picked at her salted caramel cheesecake. His lips grazed her lobe most deliciously.
It was nice to hear – she had caved to Jules’ demand and packed her cute green dress. She was glad she did, it was one of the few garments that hugged her curvy frame in a flattering way and made her short legs look longer. But, she couldn’t believe he didn’t have an ulterior motive to his compliment.
She pouted slightly. “You just want my dessert.”
Barlow had already eaten his, asked for a second helping and eaten that, and then managed to charm Jules’ grandmother into giving him hers.
“That too,” he murmured.
Susie shook her head and slid her cheesecake over to him.
He took on an ‘over the moon’ expression – the look he usually had right before they had sex – and eagerly started devouring the dessert. Much as he would then devour her.
She wasn’t overly hungry, and couldn’t wait to leave. She was smiling bravely for Jules’ sake, but the snickers and smirks from Helen and her friends, not to mention the sneers from Roxanne were getting to be a bit much.
Susie’s skin was starting to calm down and return to its natural brown color, but she still looked like she was imitating a red light. She could probably glow in the dark at that moment.
The taunts she could probably stand, but it was the uneasy feeling that someone had done this to her on purpose that bothered her. Would Helen or Roxanne really do this out of jealousy? Why would Helen bother? Sure, she was angry that her mate was trying to bring Susie into a three-way mating, but surely she knew Susie wasn’t interested in that. And as for Roxanne, what was there to be jealous about? Roxanne was engaged to someone else, and it wasn’t like Susie had any claim over Barlow long term. Even in the short term, he wasn’t truly hers. Even if he was attentive and caring, he wasn’t hers, and he didn’t want to be.
Barlow put the cheesecake away within seconds, and she tried not to laugh as he started eyeing Jules’ portion as well. Jules was too busy excitedly chatting with everyone to eat hers, though Susie knew she would eventually. The menu was filled with Jules’ favorite foods, and Susie had known Jules to walk five miles in the snow just to get a slice of salted caramel cheesecake.
“I’m going to the bathroom, and then I think I’d like to go.”
“You okay?” he asked quickly, assessing her with those wonderfully concerned eyes.
Susie nodded. “Just tired.”
“Okay.”
He watched the cheesecake longingly as Jules started attacking it with her fork.
Susie pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “There’s a bakery around here that’s open until late for the tourists. They make the most divine salted caramel layer cake. Why don’t we stop and pick some up before we go back to the hotel?”
“Dear god yes, what are we waiting for? Get moving.”
He helped Susie to her feet and patted her ass to get her moving – right in front of everyone. Like her face needed to get any redder! Not that she really minded, it was nice to be fussed over by a man. No, it was nice to be fussed over by Barlow.
She caught Allen’s disgusted frown and hurried to the bathroom. Allen had rarely ever wanted to hold her hand in public, never mind anything else. He was not affectionate in front of other people. In fact, he was not affectionate in private, either.
She went into the bathroom and moved to wash her hands.
“Have you heard the latest about the ex-girlfriend?” asked one of the voices from the stalls.
Susie froze as she recognized it as one of Jules’ pack. It was Adriana – one of Helen’s young friends.
“What is she up to now?” The reply came from a different stall – Connie, another of Helen’s friends.
“She can’t get over the fact that Allen chose Helen over her, and now she’s pressuring him to accept her as his second mate.”
Susie gritted her teeth as she realized they were talking about her.
“Ugh, she really is pathetic. I don’t think she even knows that Allen was sleeping with her so-called friend Lila for months before he took up with Helen.”
“He was?”
“Yeah, he and Lila had been hooking up every full moon for about a year, but apparently Jules found out and put a stop to it. That’s when he found Helen.”
Susie slapped a hand over her mouth. She wanted to vomit. She wanted to vomit up the beef consomme, the roast duck, sautéed vegetables and the small portion of cheesecake she had eaten all over the floor.
Noiselessly, Susie ran out of the bathroom. Air. She needed air.
She ran outside the restaurant, and yes, she did vomit, right there in the street. It was gross and awful, and tourists around her gasped and made sounds of disgust, but she couldn’t keep it in.
No, it couldn’t be true. Allen made it sound like he had only cheated on her a couple of times with Helen. He couldn’t have done anything with Lila, could he? How could Lila do that to her? Why wouldn’t Jules tell her?!
Susie coughed as she ran out of food to expel. Shaking, she straightened and allowed hot tears to trickle down her cheeks, making her already hot skin sear. She wasn’t sure if she was crying over what she heard, or just at being sick.
She wrapped her arms around her, pointedly ignoring all the people who were staring at her. They probably thought she was drunk, and she didn’t care to correct them.
She heard the squeal of tires and an angry yell, but it wasn’t until two strong arms pulled her back against a hard chest, that she really registered the fact that she was in danger.
“Susie, what the fuck?” roared Barlow.