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As I went through the process of getting ready, I kept thinking about what Alijah had planned for me. He said to dress pretty, so that’s what I did. I dressed pretty.
Digging deep into my closet, I managed to find my purple ombre cocktail dress with a shark bite hem. The material was light and airy and tended to give others the impression that I could glide across the floor. I matched it with gold strappy heels to help bring out the little bit of glitter sewn into the dress.
After adding in some more waves to my hair, letting it fall around my shoulders, and light makeup to make my eyes pop and lips seductive, I was ready. I double checked my little purse to make sure I had everything. The intercom by the door beeped, and I went over, answering it.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Dr. Porter, a Mr. Alijah Orr is here to pick you up,” Roman said in a professional voice.
“I’ll be right down.”
I smiled and blew out a breath. I didn’t know what to expect for tonight. Giddiness swirled inside of me. I was finally going on a date with one of the guys. And the way Alijah said someone was picking me up, I had a feeling it wasn’t just going to be him tonight.
When I got downstairs, my smile widened as I took in Alijah. He wore a suit, black jacket over a white shirt, with black pants, and shiny black shoes. No tie. The suit was definitely tailored to fit over his massive chest and arms, and he looked out of his comfort zone.
“Don’t you look dapper,” I said and laughed. I could see the lines in his expression deepen just as he went to scowl, but then he froze, his eyes turning into a dark amber as they trailed over my body.
I grinned and did a little spin that sent the hem fluttering around my legs and then stopped in front of him with a teasing expression. “See something you like?” I asked.
A growl slipped out, and he froze when he realized what he’d done. His expression cooled as he collected himself. “You’re beautiful as always, Laila.” He held his arm out for me to loop mine around his elbow. Ever the gentleman, he escorted me outside to his vehicle. His car was a smooth looking black one, more for practicality than to show off. Acting like a gentleman, he opened the door for me, and I slipped inside.
As I settled and got comfortable, he got into the driver’s seat and then we were off.
“So, what’s going on tonight?” I asked. “Why the sudden date?”
“Why not?” he asked. “If we’re to get to know each other, we need to go on dates.” His gaze flickered to me briefly before focusing back on the road. He sped through traffic seamlessly, avoiding other vehicles, the odd giant, and even a few feathery folks that thought it’d be fun to pretend they were cars as they glided over the asphalt.
We pulled up to a restaurant that had managed to claim a small square in the middle of the city to call its own. The building was small, two stories, and definitely not what I expected. Granted, I’d never been on dates before, but from talks with Ami, normally a man took the female out to expensive places for two main reasons: to show off their money and to make the woman feel special.
I chuckled. This was better. “Barbeque?” I asked.
Alijah nodded, his expression softening. “We figured you weren’t much for fine dining.”
“You told me to dress pretty.”
“Of course. This is a date after all. Besides, this is barbeque fine dining. A piece of meat here is easily triple what it’d cost in a normal restaurant.”
“Okay. I’m game. Let’s check this out.”
He drove around the corner into a parking lot in the back and smoothly parked between two massive trucks. When he came over to get me out of his car, I took a moment to gaze upon the massive silver Sierra Denali. The beast looked like it could mow me down and not even notice. I loved it.
“I think I’m jealous right now,” Alijah said, and I turned to see the amusement in his expression.
“You should be. If it were between you and this truck, you’d lose. Look at it. It looks like it eats creatures like you for breakfast.”
“You know shifters are strong enough to lift vehicles, right?”
“And you know any magic user can do a simple enchantment so you won’t even be able to touch their vehicles, right?”
He snorted and escorted me inside. My own truck had a similar set-up. I still didn’t know how Alijah got past it when he’d picked me up at the airport after I’d helped Shanton. When I’d asked him about it, his answer was that he was a Sumatran tiger, as if I should have known what that meant.
The outside of the building was beautiful: the first floor all brick to fit in with the barbeque joint theme and the second floor a silver-gray modern look to it, the store sign in a handwritten style.
“The Lunar Oxen, huh?” I asked.
“Wolves,” Alijah said. “They own this place. The wolves enjoy howling at the moon, so their goddess is Luna. It’s said that she rides a chariot pulled by oxen. Hence the name. The wolves see themselves as her support.”
“So really the oxen are them?” I asked.
He nodded.
I mulled that over as we headed inside. I wondered how Venni viewed Goddess Luna. I had trouble thinking about gods and goddesses out there other than Goddess Hekate heh-KAH-tee. To me, she was very much real. She existed every time I weaved magic, every time I sang to it and spoke her language. As the Goddess of Magic, I saw tangible proof. I wasn’t so sure about the others. For a long time, it was thought that shifters were created through a disease. It was only in the last two hundred years that it wasn’t seen as such.
In Europe, there were a few large shifter packs, but America had the biggest shifter population in the world due to genocide. Many of them were pushed out of their homes in Russia and Europe, migrating to Asia. When America was discovered, they beelined it here and ingrained themselves into the population.
America became their salvation.
Alijah held the door open for me, and I slipped through. Inside was nice with dark wooden tables spaced out evenly, with silverware wrapped in napkins, and glasses waiting. Along the walls were booths with plush seats and high backrests to create privacy.
“Miss Porter,” a man said when he spotted us. He flashed us a smile. “Right this way. The rest of your party is already waiting.”
I glanced at Alijah, who just motioned for me to follow. The man walked with grace, his uniform stretching over his shoulders and down to his narrow waist.
“Stop checking out the host,” Alijah growled into my ear. The deepness in his voice created a little whirlwind of warmth low in my stomach.
“I’m not checking him out,” I whispered, aware that the host could probably hear us with his heightened senses. “Besides, I’m a nineteen-year-old woman. I have a right to check people out.”
“Not anymore,” Alijah said. He pulled me into his chest and then moved me until I was tucked into his side, his arm wrapped around me, his protective instincts coming out.
“Okay, caveman,” I said, patting his chest.
We ended up going through a set of propped open doors and into a private room. I froze at the entrance, gaping at the table and the men standing there, grinning at me. They were all there. Every single one of them.
“Wh-what?” I stuttered as my eyes burned at the beautiful sight. They were all dressed in similar fashion to Alijah, standing behind their chairs, waiting for me.
Davies grinned the biggest as he leaned over to Venni and whispered, “I think we surprised her.” Venni grunted his agreement, his eyes never leaving my face.
“You look beautiful,” Lombardi said, standing at one end of the table, his suit dark gray instead of black like the others.
Rhett stood next to him and sent a smile my way. “He’s right, Laila. You look absolutely stunning.”
Elliot smiled as he motioned to the chair on the other side of Lombardi. “We talked the restaurant into giving us a standing reservation,” he said as Alijah nudged me toward the seat Elliot pointed to.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It means we fucked up,” Davies said.
When I sat down, Alijah pushed it in for me before settling into the last empty chair to my right.
“We didn’t realize you’ve been neglected,” Rhett said.
I blinked. “You’re talking like I’m some pet you abandoned.”
Lombardi shook his head. “What we’re trying to say is that you should have been taken out on dates. We didn’t mean to leave you alone these last few weeks. There was a lot of miscommunication going on in the group, and because of it, you doubted our intentions.”
I glanced at each guy, at the sincerity in their expression. “So... you all want to date me? Is this the official declaration? I mean, I know some of you guys told me, but... I don’t know. It never felt real.”
“Of course it didn’t,” Alijah muttered. “We tell you one thing and then it probably seemed like we ignored you afterward.”
I nodded.
“Well, this is our way of fixing it. Every Saturday, you come here. Anyone who isn’t busy will be here to have dinner with you,” Lombardi said.
“What if you’re all busy?” I asked.
“That won’t happen,” Rhett said. “We won’t let it happen.”
I wanted to believe them. I really did. But I also imagined showing up here and dining by myself in this big room because they all conveniently forgot or miscommunicated and ended up on a mission.
“She doesn’t believe us.” Davies’s shoulders slumped, and for a moment he made me feel like I just kicked a cute little baby pixie.
“That’s okay,” Elliot said, staring at me. “You don’t need to believe us. Just show up here every Saturday night and you’ll begin to trust us again. As Davies so eloquently put, we fucked up. You were told you were going to go on dates and then weeks passed and nothing happened. That’s on us. Now we need to fix that. Just don’t stand us up and not come here. Please give us another chance.”
I glanced from face to face at the seriousness in each one, even the guilt and shame. They really meant what they said. I didn’t know how to respond. I wasn’t even sure what I felt at the moment. I was little overwhelmed. I went from feeling like I was ignored and forgotten, to having them all here. Happiness swirled inside of me but so did fear and paranoia. I really did not want to come here, only to be stood up by six guys. I was comfortable sexually, but dependency? Never.
“Fine. But if I get stood up, don’t ever bother me again.”
Some of the guys winced, but not Davies. Oh no, he grinned, as if he knew a secret.
“Never going to happen,” he said, taking on my challenge.
I met Lombardi’s eyes and saw determination there too. His eyes said what Davies voiced. He wasn’t going to let it happen, because he saw exactly what I was thinking.
If this fell apart, if they stood me up, I’d leave Biomystic.
Hell, I’d leave the city. I wouldn’t suffer much for it. It would suck, but I got offers nearly daily to work in one lab or another. People all over wanted me working for them. The only hard part would be to leave Ami and the home I’d built here. But I knew me. If this went to hell, I wouldn’t be able to stay. I’d probably level this place with my magic if I did. I’d grow bitter and angry, hating myself for being incapable of keeping a relationship together.
I glanced at Elliot as he said something to Rhett, thinking about what he’d told me while he was in the hospital. I needed to trust and build connections.
Soon after, the waiter came and we placed our orders. The rest of the night went by smoothly as we ate and talked. That was all we did. Talk. Elliot placed a No Work rule and we got to know each other better, or more like, they got to know me better since they knew each other pretty well already.
I had never talked about myself so much before and never once did they judge me for what I had to say. I told them about my time as a sixteen-year-old college student, about those who challenged me and the fun I had in putting them into their place simply by proving them wrong. Once or twice I even had to destroy hurdles that were tossed my way, and I was very proud of how I was able to disintegrate them. I fought tooth and nail for my life, and I refused to let catty bitches bring me down.
Our dinner plates were cleared, and I sipped at a glass of white wine, the fruity flavor tingling against my tongue as magic gave it a little extra potency. Davies leaned forward and grinned at me.
“What?” I asked, eyeing him. He wanted something.
“We heard a lot about you in college, but not really a kid. Dish. What fun stories do you have in your childhood that you’re holding back?” he asked.
Elliot and Lombardi stiffened. They knew a bit of my past. Elliot, because I’d told him, and Lombardi because it was part of my file, though nothing more than a line or two lines. I met Elliot’s eyes. He was trying to say something to me without using words, and I thought I got the gist of it.
I knew their personal details. Every single employee at Biomystic had a file, and I happened to have a copy of each of them, even of those who had recently been hired, which were quite a few. With the increase of jobs came an increase in employees too.
I sighed. Elliot wanted me to share, but he wasn’t going to push me. Just like how he wasn’t going to tell on me.
“Not much to tell,” I finally answered. “I was abandoned as a newborn baby, left behind in a dumpster to die. Some poor soul found me, took me to the hospital, and then from there I went from home to home.” I shrugged, trying to not make a big deal.
It was a big deal though. I grew up feeling like I wasn’t worth it. The moment I used magic and fucked everything up I was returned as if I were some broken toy. No one wanted to deal with me or take the time to teach me. It was hard. Frankly, sometimes I was amazed that I was still alive and not rotting in some cell, blocked off from my magic and going half crazy.
Davies’ smile slipped into a frown. “There has to be something.”
I thought about it. I really did. But there wasn’t much. Maybe moments here or there, but every day was a battle. I wanted to be perfect, to do everything right, and I never did. The day my foster parents realized I was useful and worth something was the same day I broke away from the foster system. They couldn’t hold me, not when I practically supported myself. And they didn’t fight very hard to keep me either. I was pretty sure my case worker threw a party when she realized I wasn’t her responsibility anymore.
“Sure, there’s some things.” I thought harder. It was so hard to come up with a moment when everything was overshadowed by all the bad. But I knew there were some moments, a few days of calm before the storm, a few days where I was just left alone. I smiled as a particular memory managed to fight through the onslaught of all the bad and disappointing. “There was one foster father I had when I was about eleven. He was the nicest.”
“Oh, fuck, he was a pervert, wasn’t he,” Davies said.
I glared at him and he shut up. “No, he wasn’t a pervert. He was one of the few people in that damn system who gave a fuck about the kids they took in. I ended up being one of them. He was a musician, pretty damn good too. He was a magic-user, but he barely made the cut, and his gift was in sound. So he became an instructor. He tried to teach me, but apparently, I’m tone deaf and just couldn’t get the notes right. He didn’t care. He stayed patient and kept trying to teach me. We tried all the instruments. Nothing stuck. It was only for three weeks, but they were peaceful. I remember his big hands as he strummed a guitar, his patience as he showed me over and over again the keys on a piano and the smile while I managed to make a violin screech like a dying cat. It was fun.”
“What happened?” Venni asked.
“The usual. I fucked up. Some kids went running to their parents because when they said something to me, I talked back. The parents all ganged up on him. The pressure and stress,” I shrugged, “it was too much. I got angry and frustrated, and the earth responded to me. I created a small pit at the playground. A parent fell inside and the enforcers had to help get her back out. She ended up having connections and abused them to get me removed. He stood up for me, but it wasn’t enough. Instead, he was deemed unfit to foster kids, and all the kids were removed.”
I had to stop, the anger building up again. He didn’t deserve that. He had a kid when he was younger, but she had died young due to health complications. Fostering was his way to get through it. It was so important to him, and I ruined it. I took it away from him.
I cleared my throat and gave them a weak smile. “Anyways, that’s pretty much what my childhood consisted of. I’m sorry if it wasn’t what you expected.”
“I’m sorry, Laila,” Davies said.
“For what?”
“Asking.”
I smiled. “No one has really asked me before and I don’t get a chance to talk about it often.” My smile widened. “It was nice actually, to speak about it a little. Besides, if my childhood wasn’t how it was, I wouldn’t be here and be the way I am. Someday, I’ll move past it all and be able to appreciate some of what happened, but for now, it’s just hard to talk about.”
“I want to hear,” Alijah said.
“Hear what?”
“You play something.”
“No. Goddess, no. That is not happening,” I said, shaking my head.
The guys chuckled at my expense, and I glowered at them. “Your ears will literally bleed,” I said.
“I’m curious too,” Lombardi said.
“No.”
They continued to tease me as desserts were served. I had to hold back a moan. I was so full, but I sucked it up and took a bite of the chocolate lava cake and enjoyed the rest of the night with my guys.
When we were all done and just talking, Elliot stood up and came over. “Come on, Laila, let’s get you in for the night.”
“You’re my escort home?” I asked.
He smiled and nodded as I got up.
I said a quick goodbye to everyone and let Elliot lead me out of the restaurant, sad that it was already over. When would everyone be together like that again?
The ride back was quiet as I spent most of it lost in my head, trying to build up the hope they’d given me tonight into something tangible. When we got to my apartment building, Elliot found a spot on the street out front. He turned the car off and came around.
He escorted me into the building and still didn’t say anything. I kept sending glances his way, noting the way his hair had grown over the last couple of weeks. There was a slight curl to it now, only adding to his pretty boy image.
“You keep staring,” he said as we loaded into the elevator.
“I like your nose.”
He blinked as he processed what I said, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I held back a laugh. And then a snort escaped. Before I knew it, I was laughing, leaving poor Elliot perplexed.
“What’s with my nose?” he asked.
“It’s narrow and straight, but there’s a neat, smooth curve to it at the bridge. It’s different.”
“It’s not perfect,” he said.
I shrugged. “So? I’ve seen what amounts to perfect. It’s creepy.”
He chuckled and warmth curled in the pit of my stomach at the sound. I wanted to hear more of it. His lips curled into a smile as he shook his head.
“I never know about you.”
“If it gets you to smile like that, I’ll take it as a compliment.”
The elevator beeped, and we got off. He walked me right to my door. “Thank you for giving us another chance, and I hope you’ll be able to believe us.”
He went to turn, and I reached out, grabbing his arm. “Is that it?” I asked.
He looked confused.
I tapped my lips. “I want a good night kiss to end a really good night. I think it’s only fair.”
He chuckled and my body responded, turning hot, heating me to the core.
“I can do that.”
He stepped forward, his hands going to my waist. He nudged me until I stepped back. When my back hit the wall, he leaned forward and kissed me.
And damn was it a kiss.
My eyes involuntarily closed as I got lost in the sensations he coaxed from me. All I could think about was him, his scent, his touch, the heat, the taste, everything. He consumed me with that one kiss. A human, kissing me, reaching down into my soul, devouring me. I moaned against his lips and gripped him tighter. His hands went to my ass and pulled me closer, so I could feel how much he wanted me.
I opened to him, and his tongue met mine, giving me a good idea of how he would be in bed. It was agony to stand there and only kiss. I wanted to strip him down, explore his body, I wanted him to slam into me and show me his other hidden talents. I just wanted more. My body craved him and these last few days had been hard, all of them teasing me, bringing me so close to begging only to walk away, leaving me hot and bothered.
Dammit. I wanted release. Needed it.
When I felt him ready to pull away, my hands went into his hair and gripped his silky locks. He tried to step back for air, and I refused to let him, pulling him back to me. He groaned and his hands went to my thighs and lifted until I could wrap my legs around him. I felt all of him against me, all of it. And I wanted it all. I wanted to claim him so damn much.
“Laila,” he whispered, his breath warm against my skin. He pulled away so our lips no longer met, but he didn’t pull completely away. Instead, we stayed like that, our bodies pressed together, my legs around him, his hands on my thighs, squeezing.
“Come inside,” I said, keeping my voice barely a whisper, afraid to break the spell between us.
He groaned, his eyes closing. He leaned his forehead against mine. “I want to.”
“Then what’s stopping you?”
“You know what,” he said.
I shook my head. “I don’t.”
Finally, he lowered me until my feet were safely on the ground and stepped away. His eyes were a swirling storm of need as he stared at me. I saw the passion I’d just felt in them, and I never felt so desperate to have a guy inside me as I did in that moment. He wanted me so damn much, and yet he held himself back. They all did.
And it was driving me up a wall.
I groaned and rubbed at my face. “Really?” I asked. “I’m here, hot and bothered, ready to take you inside and you’re turning me down?”
He shook his head, breaking the spell we had cast on each other without even using magic. A grin formed, and he leaned over, pecking my lips briefly before pulling away again and even taking a step back, as if that one step was going to keep him safe.
“Yes, Laila. We’re going to take our time. Go slow and learn about each other before we jump into bed. When we do finally have sex, I’m going to make love to you, and you’ll have no choice but to accept it as love and not a quick fuck. Now, go inside and lock your door.”
I huffed out a breath, trying to control my hormones. “You’re not playing fair. None of you are.”
He chuckled and pointedly glanced at my door.
“Fine!” I gave in, slipping into my apartment. I locked it behind me and then used the monitor to stare at him. He stayed in front of my door, as if sensing I was still there. After a minute, he went to the elevator to go back down. I grinned.
I’d play their game. For now.
