ADORA deftly stepped out of Matt’s reach, all too conscious of Shay’s gaze, which darted between her and Rachel. She had obviously come to the conclusion that both females had been subject to a shifter’s need to reconnect with his mate after she’d been threatened and almost taken from him.
Except Adora wasn’t a mate, and in fact, had been sent here to push Matt into Shay’s arms. Well, maybe not Shay specifically, at least not when the Assigner had initially given her the assignment. But there had been no other viable prospects since her arrival, and with the exception of Adora’s own jealousy, there was really nothing wrong with the female shifter.
Other than the fact that Adora had slept with her potential mate. Twice. And fates be damned, she wanted to do it again. Which meant she needed to put some distance between herself and Matt, especially right now, while Shay gave her a squinty-eyed glare and balled her fists, clearly upset over the realization of what Adora and Matt had done together.
Adora slipped over to Rachel’s side, silently offering her support. Shay hadn’t exhibited any signs of disliking the pack master’s human mate, yet Adora didn’t like the fact that Shay was the first person to come calling when word began to spread within the pack about the recent attack. She didn’t even belong to this particular pack—at least, not yet.
Matt was irritated by her actions, Adora could tell. She needed to get him and Shay mated, and quickly. That way, he’d be distracted by his new mate, and would forget about Adora. Forget about what it was like when they were alone together, just the two of them with nothing between them but the passion and desire that seemed to grow with each passing minute. Nothing between them but the knowledge that they were perfect together—yet they weren’t. They couldn’t be. That wasn’t how it worked. Cupids didn’t get to take mates, and she would do well to remember that.
She’d been down that road before—remember? With a grimace, Adora tried to focus on whatever Shay was saying, instead of her own miserable mistakes.
“…And I heard there were two of them and they wore masks and—” The doorbell chimed, cutting off whatever Shay had intended to say next.
Jeannine, who had been hovering, providing snacks and drinks and refills as the occupants of the room devoured them, rushed to answer the summons. She was ever the good hostess. Josh was lucky to have her. Especially considering everyone else was too distracted to even think about offering refreshments to their guests.
When the housekeeper returned to the room, another woman trailed behind her, one Adora had not met. She was a shifter and a stunning beauty, with dark hair highlighted by auburn streaks, dark eyes, and lush curves in all the right places. She strutted in on spiked heels and paused to pose in the entryway, and Adora could actually feel the shift in the atmosphere as all gazes locked on the newcomer.
Tossing her thick wave of hair over one shoulder, the woman scanned the room until she spotted Matt, and then zeroed in on him as if she’d come just for him. Maybe she had. Adora’s heart dropped to her feet as she watched recognition mixed with trepidation and a dose of sexual attraction dawn on his face.
So this was the one. Not Shay. Adora had been right to have concerns about Shay. Because she wasn’t Matt’s potential mate. This one was. It couldn’t have been more clear if the Assigner had appeared at that moment and stabbed her finger at each shifter and pronounced, “This is what you came for. Make it happen.”
Make it happen. Make it happen. Make it happen. Adora tried to tell herself to act, to greet the newcomer, to guide her over to Matt, to do what she had come here to do. Yet she could only stand where she was and watch the interaction unfold entirely without her interference.
“Kat?” Matt’s voice was a croak, and he cleared his throat several times after speaking her name. His gaze never left the dark-haired vixen.
At least Adora wouldn’t lose her wings. She may have lost her heart, but Cupids had no need for a heart, anyway. When she was done here, she would head home to Cupid’s Plain and channel all her energy into her scheduled time in the Procreation Chamber. It would be the perfect opportunity to enjoy sex with no emotional attachment.
Perfect.
“What are you doing here?” Matt asked the woman standing in the doorway.
“Matt,” she cooed. “It’s been so-o-o long.” She drew out the word as she strutted across the room with her arms open wide.
Matt stood stock still—clearly in shock—as the woman embraced him, wrapping herself around him like a cat and sending Adora’s blood to boiling. She wanted to grab Kat by that perfect hair and yank her out of his arms.
And her stomach didn’t even protest at the horribly violent thought.
Was she jealous? Adora recognized the emotion. She’d spent the better part of her adult life feeling jealous—jealous of every couple she had ever helped get together, because she knew she could never have what they had. Her job was to find love for others, not for herself.
Adora reminded herself of the assignment that had knocked her from a Cupid Level Four status down to a Level One. Sex, she had learned the hard way, did not necessarily beget love. Especially for Cupids. They weren’t hardwired to fall in love. Cupids were supposed to have sex for short-term pleasure, for the purpose of procreation, and that was it.
What she and Matt had done together had been straight up sex, nothing more. They had both felt a need, they had acted on it, and now…Now it was time to accept it for what it was, and guide Matt to his future mate.
Some other woman. Not Adora.
Matt extracted himself from Kat’s embrace and held her at arm’s length. Adora noticed he did not release his hold on her person.
“It has been a long time,” he acknowledged. There was no emotion, no inflection in his voice. “So why are you here now?”
Kat looked around the room, summarily analyzing and dismissing each occupant until her gaze alighted upon Adora. “This is why,” she cooed and rushed to stand before Adora.
The woman towered over her, eight inches taller, leaving Adora feeling small and terribly insignificant. She is definitely the one. It was a miserable thought. Matt needed a woman who could handle him, who would be his equal. Who would look good standing next to him. Adora was a foot shorter than him. They probably looked silly standing next to one another.
“I’d heard there was a Cupid in our midst. How fascinating. I’ve never seen a Cupid before. I’ve never even heard of Cupids before.” She reached out and ran a blood red fingernail down the length of Adora’s arm. “You don’t feel any different than we do, although you certainly are small.” She peered down her nose at Adora.
Adora resisted the urge to use her magic to break every one of those talon-like nails. She couldn’t believe all the violent thoughts she was having. And not a lick of nausea.
“And you’re Matt’s Cupid, right?”
Adora wanted to scream, “Yes! Yes! I am his Cupid—his and his alone and you need to stay the hell away from him!” Instead, she nodded mutely.
“As I understand the legend, you’re supposed to help him find his true love, correct?”
Again, she nodded mutely.
“Kat, this is none of your business. And we have more important things going on right now than my love life, so if you don’t mind—”
Kat cut him off. “Oh please, Matt. What could possibly be more important than your love life?” She gave him a look that Adora didn’t understand. A warning, maybe? A knowing look? This woman was setting off so many alarms in Adora’s head, she couldn’t even think straight, let alone decipher what they all meant.
“I can think of a few things,” Josh interjected, drawing Kat and Matt’s attention. “Actually, I can think of a great many things. And he and I have a meeting starting in about four minutes to discuss a few of those things. If you’ll excuse us, ladies?” Josh nodded at Matt, who all but ran from the room behind his cousin.
Josh stopped on the threshold and said, “Rachel, Adora, do not, under any circumstances, leave this house. Do you understand me?”
It was on the tip of Adora’s tongue to make a snippy comment about not being a member of his pack and therefore he couldn’t boss her around, but she caught the look Matt was throwing her way, which told her he knew exactly what she was thinking, so she kept her mouth shut. Rachel, however, deliberately rolled her eyes before turning her back on her mate.
“Would anyone care for a drink?” Rachel asked politely to Kat and Shay. Adora wished she hadn’t offered, but she understood the need for socially acceptable rituals. Still, she was disappointed when both women accepted. Adora would have rather she and Rachel were left alone while Josh and Matt had their meeting. Preferably with a nice bottle of wine.
“Whiskey,” Kat said. “Neat.”
“Beer. Le Tigre pale ale, if you’ve got it,” Shay added. Jeannine had disappeared, presumably to the kitchen, so Rachel excused herself to seek out Shay’s request, leaving Adora alone with the two female shifters.
Shay didn’t bother to hide her glare, while Kat eyed her with more curiosity than fear that she might be stealing the woman’s future mate. Of course, Kat wouldn’t know Adora and Matt had just made love on the very couch upon which she sat. Adora had noticed her nose twitching when she sat down, but she’d probably dismissed the scent of arousal as Josh and Rachel’s, since it was their house.
“I’m fascinated by the concept of a Cupid,” Kat said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had descended.
Adora felt a wave of relief. If she and Matt handled themselves appropriately from this point forward, Kat would have no idea the Cupid had taken her mate for a few test drives before handing him over.
“Apparently they exist to find people’s mates, but they have no qualms about hooking up with them in the meantime,” Shay said, effectively destroying Adora’s hopes that Kat would not hate her.
Kat lifted her severely arched brows and steadily watched Adora. “Really? You’re here to hook him up with his future mate, but you’re sleeping with him in the meantime?”
“Er…That’s not how it’s supposed to happen,” Adora said.
“But it is happening,” Shay said, not bothering to hide her disdain.
Rachel reappeared and handed a frosty mug and a bottle of Le Tigre to Shay, who gave the mug a sour look before placing it on the coffee table and taking a long swig from the bottle. Rachel poured two fingers’ worth of whiskey into a lowball glass and Kat twirled her finger, indicating Rachel should keep pouring, until the glass was nearly full. Finally, Rachel half-filled two wine glasses and handed one to Adora, who gave her a commiserating grimace as she prepared for the next onslaught.
“Yeah, so explain this Cupid gig to me,” Shay said. “The way Matt made it sound, you’re supposed to be able to tell when he finds his mate. Is that right?”
“Really?” Kat interjected. “You—you already know that?”
Adora shook her head and took a fortifying gulp of wine. If she hadn’t slept with her assignment—twice—and hadn’t developed feelings for the man, this situation would be infinitely easier to handle. Shay had obviously determined she and Matt had slept together, and Kat appeared to be trying to decide whether Shay or Adora—or both—were her competition.
It wasn’t unusual to have potential mates competing for her assignment, although rarely was it so unclear which one should be the true mate. Unfortunately, Adora didn’t think either woman was particularly right for Matt, but she knew her own emotions were clouding her opinion. She didn’t want either woman to be right for him.
She wanted to be right for him.
“No,” Adora said. “I cannot literally look at someone and know they are meant to mate with another.” Even though that was exactly what happened when Kat walked into the room. But that had been more of an observation of Matt’s stance, features, body language than a knowing of some sort.
“We have extra sensitive instincts,” she tried to explain. “I can usually tell if someone has less than pure intentions toward my assignment.”
Kat took a swallow of whiskey and chuckled. “I imagine most women have impure intentions toward Matt. He was damn hot in high school, and he’s only gotten steamier with age.”
Matt and Kat had known each other since high school, and Kat had obviously noticed him back then. The signs they should be together kept piling up. While she should be elated, Adora felt only…sadness. A deep, aching sensation that threatened to swamp her. She lifted the glass in her hand and drained the contents, needing the chill of the wine and the buzz of the alcohol to sustain her.
“I mean impure as in interested in mating with him for reasons beyond sex and love,” she forced herself to explain. “Like—like an ulterior motive. Power. Financial gain. Those sorts of reasons.”
Shay stood and walked over to the nearest window, sipping her beer and staring out over the expansive lawns of Josh’s property. “You actually know that stuff?” she asked with her back to the other occupants of the room.
“Not exactly.” It was difficult to try to explain her Cupid senses to other people, especially when she didn’t always understand them herself. If they were cut and dry, she would still be a Cupid Level Four and likely would have never been given this particular assignment. She recalled the Assigner telling her it ought to be an easy one, and she had the ridiculous urge to laugh.
“I have extra sensitive senses,” she said. “Humans would refer to it as a sixth sense. I can usually read people, know their intentions, better than most.”
“Huh,” Shay said without turning around. “So you don’t actually know who Matt should be mated to.”
Yes, I do. Unfortunately. And neither you nor I are going to like the answer. “Not exactly. I have a…sense of the best choice. But ultimately, it’s Matt’s decision. My job is to guide him to make the right one, but I cannot make it for him.”
Shay snorted. Adora glanced at Kat, who had a thoughtful look on her face. She wondered what Kat was thinking. Was she plotting, trying to determine the best way to ensure Matt became her mate? Adora suspected if that was the case, Shay didn’t stand a chance.
Of course, neither did Adora.
* * * *
After finishing their drinks, Kat and Shay both finally decided to leave. Rachel saw them to the door. Jeannine appeared and began cleaning up the remains of the earlier gathering. Adora asked her to leave the bottle and wine glasses and the housekeeper hurried from the room just as Rachel returned.
The pack master’s mate refilled the wine glasses and then dropped onto the couch next to Adora.
“I have a new respect for you, Rachel. I don’t know that I could handle such cattiness, day in and day out.”
Rachel sighed and leaned her head against the back of the couch. “I’m not going to lie. If I didn’t love Josh so much, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve even had to go hide in the basement and have a good cry after enduring one of those ridiculous pack meetings, where they all glare at me as if I’m the enemy. Which is so stupid, because it was one of their own who was trying to oust Josh out of his position in the first place.”
“Too bad he isn’t more like Tanner Lyons. Tanner is perfectly content not running a pack, even though that’s what he was born to do.”
“Don’t kid yourself. He runs that coterie now. Olivia’s father is still the king, but Tanner calls the shots. It’s just that he has a nicer bunch of subjects to oversee.”
“Maybe it will change with time.”
“Maybe.” Rachel sipped her wine. “It would be easier to endure if you stayed here with me. I bet I could get Josh to talk Matt into moving in here. It would be easy right now, considering what happened to us this afternoon.”
Adora blinked back sudden tears. It was time to be honest with her new friend. “Rachel, I have a confession to make. Once Matt is mated, I have to leave. And I won’t be back.”
Rachel’s back stiffened and she sat up on the couch, staring at her. “What? Why not?”
“I live in an entirely different world. One that is only accessible to Cupids.”
“But you can come back. You said yourself you can travel pretty much anywhere, without having to use portals or whatever.”
“Yes, but just because I can does not mean I will. When this assignment is complete, when I return home…” She grabbed her glass and took a gulp of wine. “When I go home, I’m certain I will be sent to the Procreation Chamber.” The idea of having sex with anyone other than Matt made her stomach roil in protest, and for a moment, she was afraid she would throw up all over the plush rug in front of the couch.
“It’s past time for me to see to my other Cupid duties. I need to get with child, ensure my species can carry on our responsibilities to all the other species in the various worlds.”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “But—but I thought—I thought you and Matt…”
“Me and Matt?”
Her human friend nodded. “Didn’t you…I would have sworn you two slept together. The way Matt looks at you. And he’s calmer now. Happier, too, well, at least until the debacle at that restaurant, and then Kat showing up. Who is she, anyway?”
As startled as she was by Rachel’s guess that she and Matt had slept together, Adora had no interest in discussing the situation with her friend. So she seized upon the question in her statement instead.
“Kat, I suspect, is Matt’s future mate.”
“Kat? But what about Shay? Or better yet, you?”
“Me?” Adora squeaked. “Not me. Cupids don’t take mates.”
“I know you’ve told me that, but it doesn’t seem right. You’re perfect for him. Why can’t you break the rules?”
“Well, rules exist for a reason…” Although if Rachel asked, Adora would not be able to give her the reason for that particular rule. No one had ever given her one, and she’d asked often since graduating from Cupid School.
“It’s a stupid rule.” Rachel flapped her hand, as if dismissing the thought. “You’re a better fit for Matt than anyone else on that list you came up with. Or Kat. Especially Kat.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Why do you say that? Did you see the way Matt reacted to her when she came into the room? I actually thought the exact opposite—that she might make the perfect mate for him.”
“She looked like a slut.”
“More like sex on a stick.” Adora drained her wine glass and snickered. Lifting the second bottle of wine Rachel had unearthed, she filled both hers and Rachel’s glasses. “And Matt noticed.”
“Everyone noticed, Adora. Don’t read into anything you think you saw on Matt’s face. Even Shay was staring at her. And Matt looked more frightened than anything else.”
Rachel had her lips on her glass when Jeannine stepped into view, hesitating on the threshold. “Will there be anything else, ma’am?”
Rachel had had more than her fair share of wine by this point. “Oh Jeannine, stop it. You’re twice my age. It is really necessary to call me ma’am?”
“You’re my employer,” Jeannine said, her stance stiffening.
“So were Josh’s parents. I bet you didn’t call his mother ma’am.”
Jeannine did not have a response to that.
Rachel sighed. “Come on, Jeannine. I’m not the enemy here. What can I do to prove that to you?”
Jeannine hesitated, and then apparently gathering her courage—or something else—she said, “Become a shifter.”
Adora’s eyes widened, while Rachel said, “You know that’s impossible.”
“Then leave our pack master, so he can take a shifter to mate.”
Adora decided to take back her earlier thought that Jeannine was an important and necessary part of this household. Housekeepers were a dime a dozen, even shifter housekeepers. She hoped Rachel would remind her of that.
Instead, surprise skittered across Rachel’s features. “I thought shifters mate for life.”
“They do,” Jeannine said. “When they mate with other shifters. I’m sure an exception can be made, considering this isn’t a real shifter relationship.”
“It is a real shifter relationship,” Rachel said coolly. “Josh is a shifter, and he is in a relationship. With me. Shifter or not, I happen to be deeply in love with him, and no one is going to change that fact, not you or any of your cronies. I don’t care how much you hate me or loathe me or despise me. You’re stuck with me, so long as Josh is your pack master. I’m not going anywhere, Jeannine. Get used to it.”
Jeannine reacted as if Rachel slapped her, jerking her head back as her face flushed with anger. Finally, she turned and stiffly walked from the room, slamming the door behind her.
“You should fire that one,” Adora said, voicing her thoughts.
“I wish. But who would replace her? Everyone else hates me, too. And I’m afraid to bring a human in here. I’m afraid of what they’d see. Plus, they’d get a lot of hostility, too. It isn’t fair to do that to someone else.”
“I wish I could help you,” Adora said honestly. “And I really do wish I could stay…sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“My family is on Cupid’s Plain. If I stayed here, I’d never see them again.”
Rachel leaned back against the couch and looked at her through eyes bleary from too much wine. “That sucks, Adora,” she murmured in drunken sympathy.
*
“They’re drunk.”
Two hours later, Josh and Matt stood in the parlor, looking down at the two females, who were lying on the floor on their backs, with their legs propped on the couch, giggling like schoolgirls. Adora, who wore a skirt, had bunched it in her lap, so while her legs were on full display, at least her panties were hidden from sight.
“We’re busy trying to figure out who the hell attacked them, and they spend the time getting drunk?” Josh asked in disbelief.
“Look at it from the bright side,” Matt suggested. “If they weren’t getting drunk, they’d probably be doing something stupid like trying to find the culprits themselves.”
“Good point,” Josh acknowledged.
“Joshie!” a female voice called out from the floor. “Top Gun me.”
Matt raised his eyebrows in silent question.
“Haven’t you ever seen the movie?” Josh asked. “Remember when Goose’s wife tells him to take her to bed or lose her forever?”
“Oh.” Matt rolled his eyes. “Right.”
“And I’m taking that as my cue,” Josh said, his lips quirking. “Who am I to deny the lady?” He crouched, pulled his mate into his arms, and stood up again. “You’re welcome to stay here,” he said to Matt, just before he turned and swept out of the room with a giggling Rachel’s arm slung around his neck.
Matt peered down at Adora, who lay on the floor looking up at him with wide, unblinking eyes. “What about you? Don’t you want to take me to bed or lose me forever?” he teased.
“I want to take you to bed,” she replied. “But I don’t want to lose you forever.” She turned her head to the side. “Unfortunately, I can’t take you to bed, and I will lose you forever.”
“I’m here for the taking,” he replied, determined to keep the mood light. “And you don’t have to lose me at all.”
But she was not in a playful mood. She rolled over onto her stomach and pushed herself into a seated position. “I’ve already lost you. I’ve found your mate. It’s tantamount to the same thing.”
“Actually, they are two very different things. And after the way she acted tonight, I’ve lost all interest I may have had in Shay. Which, by the way, wasn’t much to begin with.”
“That isn’t true,” Adora drunkenly argued. “You liked Shay.”
“Yes, I liked Shay. But I didn’t have any desire for Shay. There’s a big difference, don’t you think?”
“What about me? Do you like me? I know you think you have desire for me.”
“I don’t think,” he said, losing patience with her drunken ramblings. “I know I desire you. And I like you, too. Very much so. Which room are you staying in? I want to spend the night with you.”
“I’m drunk,” she said as she let him pull her to her feet. “Are you really going to take advantage of a drunk woman?”
“Absolutely,” he assured her. When she didn’t move fast enough, he took a page from Josh’s book and scooped her into his arms. She curled against his chest, much like Tanner’s pup had done to her that day they’d all been sitting around in the library, waiting for the party to start.
He recalled that moment, when he’d watched her handle the child with such grace and ease, as if she were born for the role of mother. But didn’t all females have some sort of inborn knowledge when it came to pups? Maybe. But some were more clearly defined than others. Adora was one of them. She would make a wonderful mother someday.
He didn’t stop to consider why he was having such fanciful thoughts. He went with the moment, enjoyed the feel of her in his arms, the fact that she was not resisting him and talking of leaving and going back to Cupid’s Plain, a place where he could not access her.
Placing her on the bed as gently as if she were made of the finest, most delicate china, he slowly stripped her of her clothing, kissing each bit of skin he exposed as he went. By the time she was naked, she was panting and begging for more, writhing and twisting her hands in the blanket while looking up at him with doleful eyes. Despite his own eagerness to couple with her, he stood next to the bed and stripped out of his own clothing, not allowing her to touch him as he did so. Her eyes dilated with each limb and expanse of skin he exposed.
When he finally joined her on the bed, he continued to touch her, to hold her with reverence, his gentleness only serving to increase both his passion and hers. Lying on his side, with her on her back next to him, he let his hand wander the length of her body, until he cupped her sex, stroking with languid movements. She spread her legs, tossing one over his hips, while one hand clung to his side and the other slid down to cover the hand intimately touching her. Using the pressure she provided as a guide, he slid two fingers in and out of her sex, working her as her hips bucked and her moans grew louder and louder.
She screamed, the sound torn from her throat, and she practically levitated off the bed as she climaxed, squeezing his wrist while he continued to stroke her. After a few moments, she shoved his hand away and pulled him on top of her, grasping his erection and guiding him to her opening. Her eyes wide open, their gazes locked as he pushed into her, her body accepting him, wrapping around him, enveloping him as if they were meant to be like this. Two halves of one perfect whole.
“Your eyes,” she said while their bodies moved in sync. “They always glow when we’re together like this.”
When he found his release a short time later, he swore it was the most explosive climax he’d ever experienced.
And when she curled into his side and fell asleep, Matt wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her tightly, and wondered how in the world he could keep her here with him, without forcing her to leave her family behind. Because one thing was certain: he could not imagine his life without this woman sleeping at his side.