Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (10 page)

Once seated and alone, I leaned across the table, closing the distance between us.
“How did you do that?” I whispered, looking around to make sure that we really were a
lone—I didn’t want to share him,
and was secretly hoping for the seducing Jay Dee thing.

“Do what?” he asked, seemingly uninterested and looked at the menu.

There was an air of confidence, pride and superiority, smugness and old world refinement about him that annoyed me
,
but strangely turned me on at the same time.
When
he was a smug jackass like that,
I w
anted to hit him; but when he opened
t
he door and ordered for me, helped
me with my jacket or
did
something overbearingly chivalrous
like that
, it turn
ed
me on.

I had
issues.

“Get us a table like that!” I softly snapped at him, annoyed by his smug, hotness.
“Did you give her a big tip or something?” I demanded under my breath; I hated it when people threw money around frivolously.

“No, not exactly,” he said, still sounding uninterested.

I softly growled under my breath and he chuckled.

“Flirting, figured as much,” I mumbled and leaned back.

Since the vampire across the table from me was irritating the shit out of me at that moment, and I was having problems
not
envisioning choking him out while attacking his pouty, sexy, velvety looking lips with mine, I looked around the restaurant, trying to look at anything
but
Tanis.
The restaurant was nice, cozy
,
and romantic—as nice and romantic as you could find in an out of the way town like Bellingham I suppose.
I had heard of the place but had never been there before.
Nineteen-dollar appetizers and thirty-dollar main courses were not something I would spend money on.

When Tanis noted that he was irritating me, and that I was still growling at him,
so
he smiled.
“Flirting?” he asked, overly amused, trying to steal my attention.

Of
course it worked, it always did.

“I assure you
, Miss Jay Dee,
I was not flirting.
It is a
vampire
thing,” he teasingly informed me.

“Huh?” I asked dumbfounded and he chuckled.
“Explain...please?”

“I am not supp
osed to reveal the secrets of my
people,” he said ominously with
a mischievous smirk pulling at the corner
s
of his sexy lips.

I leaned across the table, batted my lashes
,
and pouted my bottom lip out.
I’ve never been good at flirting but I wanted to know everything about him.

Tanis laughed, shaking his head at my antics, and pushed my pouting bottom lip back in with his finger so I snapped my teeth at it.
He quickly pulled
his hand
back
and laughed even harder.
“You are a naughty little
bird,” he said,
then licked his lips—maybe I wasn’t as bad at flirting as I thought I was.
He leaned across the table, closing the space between us, his eyes moving over my face many times.
“It is called thrall,
or compulsion, depending on where you are from or how old you are,” he explained.
“Thrall gives the wielder the ability to put
a
suggestion
into someone’s mind.”

I’d only heard of stuff like that in books.

I guess all of those hours of mindless reading weren’t in vain after all.

“So you thralled the hostess into giving us a table?” I surmised.

“In essence,” he said.
“I
suggested
that m
y
name was on the top of the reservation list thus that is what she saw.”

Damn, that’s impressive...and seriously messed up
.

“So it’s evil?” I blurted out.

“No,” he said and laughed again.
“I mean, I suppose it
could
be used for evil.
Then again, everything can be used for evil if you think about it.
Like you for
instance
, you are the embodiment of evil and yet you do not even realize it,” he
informed me
.

My head tilted to the side.
“What do you mean?” I asked the obvious.

The mischievous smirk was back and his eyes worked over my face many times.
“You have no idea just how very evil you are.
You possess an innocence which my presence has never had the honor, nay
,
the privilege, of being blessed with before, and that is what makes you so
very
evil,” he
amusingly
informed me and his finger softly started brushing against the back of my hand.

“Oh,” was all I could say
,
and even that I struggled to articulate...
that
vampire was one to talk!
He was obviously the evil one
between us
.
“Are you flirting with me?” I asked because I honestly couldn’t tell.

The smirk became even more predominant on his face.
“Me?
Never,” he purred and I lost the battle and whimpered which caused him to chuckle.
“Back to your initial question,” he said, reassuringly patting my hand in an almost parental manner.
“Usually thrall is a means of causing mischief or a tool for protecting oneself from humans…it is easier to thrall them into thinking that they cut themselves shaving than having them try to explain fang marks on their wrists.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes.
“Nice,” I scoffed and he smiled; Tanis wasn’t nearly as funny as he thought he was.

“Romeo uses thrall to get laid when needed,” he said.
“Usually he does not need to,
however,
sometimes mothers and daughters
need
persuaded
into
…never mind,” he said and cringed, effectively wiping the smirk from of his face, making him appear as an average, embarrassed, run-of-the-mill teenage boy.
“Do you know what you would
care
to order?” he mumbled, his cheeks flushed from embarrassment.

“Ew,” I said, making a face.
“That’s a mental picture I could have lived without.”

“
My apologies
,” he
said
,
and
a small, sheepish smile pulled at the corner
s
of his mouth.
“Remember,
Miss Jay Dee,
you make me blurt out what is in me head.
What would tickle your fancy this evening
?” he asked, motioning towards the menu in front of me
which
I still hadn’t looked at.

I rolled my eyes, opened the menu and promptly closed it.

“No.”

“
Yes
,” Tanis sang.

“Why?”

“
Miss
Jay Dee, I asked you to dinner,” he said as if it were obvious, beca
use let’s face it, it was really
damn obvious.
But what wasn’t obvious was the reason why.

“
Mr. Ashton...Tanis
, you h
ave to give me something here. A
reason.
Please.”

He cocked an eyebrow.
“Because I asked you,” he said,
sounding unsure
,
as if he was trying to figure out where my question was leading.

I shook my head.
“No.
That isn’t good enough.
Give me...you have to...why?
You just met me!
If you hadn
’t noticed, I’m kind of a freak
show…ask anyone, and…I mean…I don’t know what else
,
but you’ve gotta give me something here...other than dinner.
Please,” I practically begged, whined and pleaded all at once.

The things that silly vampire reduced me to doing.

Tanis nodded, seemingly understanding my qualm.
“Because I asked you to dinner,” he said with a warm, reassuring smile.
“It has been far too long since I have enjoyed a meal with someone, let alone someone that
...
” he paused, his eyes moving over my face many times before he smiled fuller, seemingly finding what he was looking for, “…someone that is such intriguing company.”

I snorted; he was so full of it.

He
shook his head, appearing mildly amused yet slightly frustrated.
“As strange as this might be for you to hear,” he whispered, “especially coming from a vampire who is over three hundred years old, I
find you very interesting and
I
enjoy your company very much.”

That was the most romantic thing I had ever heard in my young life…and that admittance was pathetic on so many levels that it wasn’t even funny, but pathetic-ness aside, it made me feel really good but super paranoid and suspicious at the same time.

“You’re
so
not getting laid,” I accidentally blurted out and instantly cringed, quickly hiding my flushing face behind the menu.

Tanis laughed, shaking his head but didn’t say anything.

God, could I make myself look more pathetic and stupid if I tried?

When the waitress came over to take our order, Tanis motioned to me so I reluctantly opened the menu and looked.

Great, no pressure!

“Ladies first,” he teasingly sang
so
I kicked him under the table
,
getting a grunt in
return
.

Cheap, cheap, cheap.
What’s the cheapest thing on here?
Oh God, there
’
s nothing cheap on this damn thing!
Eleven bucks for a plate of soggy lettuce tossed with dry shaker cheese!? You’ve got to be kidding me!
I’ll just get a stupid coke…Jesus, that’s five bucks!
This cannot be happening.
I got ten bucks…crap.
Maybe he’ll let me owe him the dollar and change for tax and tip if I get the stupid salad...I hate salad.
Damn it!
I’m so hungry I could eat three of their signature forty-dollar steaks.
Ugh!

“Um…” I nervously gnawed on my bottom lip, trying to find the courage to ask if it was okay to pay him back the buck and change difference for the salad.

Tanis raised an eyebrow, his head tilting to the side to regard
me as if he could read my mind
.

Oh shit!
He better not be able to read my mind…if he sparkles in the sun, that’s it, I’m staking his ass myself!

“
Caesar salad?” I meekly ordered and instantly cringed when Tanis made a disgusted, scoffing
sound
—that I foresaw.

“No,” Tanis said in a clipped tone.
“We need another moment.
P
lease bring
us a bottle of Baroli Barolo,
” he
ordered
, his voice soft and velvety and, once again, I fought to contain the whimper building in my chest.

“Can I see your ID please?” the waitress asked and nervously tucked her hair behind her ears.

Lovely.
Just because I’m a werewolf does
n’t
mean that I’m a
god
damn ancient.
I’m only seventeen!
Oh, that isn’t good. He’s over three hundred years old…that makes me jail bait and then some!
Well, that answers that.
He took me to dinner simply because he’s amused by the little wolf girl...by the young kid sitting across from him.
Since I can’t keep blurting stuff out, can’t keep from undressing him with my eyes, can’t stop envisioning attacking his lips with mine…that sucks.
Jay Dee, you were obviously giving yourself way more credit than you were due.

Tanis looked
intently
at the blushing, flirting, young waitress and I fought the snarl that was suddenly tugging at my top lip, and I bit my tongue as it fought to growl that
he was mine
.
Tanis smiled when the waitress made eye contact with him.
His pupils completely dilated, covering the beautiful blue and silver with black.
“We are both twenty-one,” he said in a deep, sexy voice.
“Thus there is no need for you to verify our ages.”