Mating Rituals [Impulse 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

“I see.” Kane looked at her in a way that made her wonder if he understood her situation better than he was letting on. No, that was impossible. “How have you found the air so far?”

“I don’t know how you guys can breathe it,” she said with feeling. “I only walked a hundred yards from my car to your door, but I felt like someone had clamped a vise around my lungs by the time I got inside.”

Tyrone laughed. “You’ll get used to it, but I gotta tell you, working outside until you do is gonna be a challenge.”

She summoned up her most enticing smile. “I was hoping you might be able to give me some help with that.”

“In what way?” Kane asked.

“Well, I read up on this place, and you guys seem to hold all the information that’s ever been written about the history of Impulse’s weather patterns. Not much of it is available online, and I thought that, perhaps…Shit, I’m sorry.” She turned away from them, embarrassed to sound so needy. “Of course you won’t let me see it. It was unprofessional of me even to ask.”

“Not necessarily,” Kane said with a glamorous smile.

“There’s no need to be kind. I get it, really I do. If you wanted the world to know about your atmospheric anomalies, you’d make the information you have freely available.” She turned toward the door. “Perhaps I should find a hotel and rethink my strategy. I must seem very ditsy to you, coming down here without a clear game plan.”

“Have dinner with us,” Kane said, smiling at her. “We were about to eat and could use the company.”

“Thanks, I’d love to,” she said, surprised by the invitation but not hesitating to accept. “If you’re sure it’s no trouble.”

“None whatsoever.”

Kane placed his hand in the small of her back, sending sensation swirling through her pathetic body. If Kane noticed her shudder he was too polite to remark upon it and guided her toward a corridor that led to a staircase. She climbed the stairs ahead of the two guys, hoping her damned blush would have faded by the time they could see her face again. When she reached the top of the stairs she found herself in a large living room that had a great view of the Intracoastal.

“Wow!” she said. “This is some place.”

“One of the advantages of living on such a small strip of land,” Tyrone told her. “It you look out the windows on that side you can see the Mexican Gulf.”

She turned around and took in the view from the other direction.

“I think I’d be too busy staring outside to get anything done if I lived here.”

Kane shrugged. “It’s like anything. You get used to it.”

“I guess. Is it just the two of you in this apartment?”

“Yep,” Kane said, “we live right over the shop. Get our guest a drink, Tyrone, while I order us some food. Anything you don’t eat, Aisha?”

“No, I like most things.”

He offered her a smile that tested the strength of her knees. “Then why don’t I surprise you?”

You’re already doing a pretty good job of unbalancing me.

“This way, Aisha.”

Tyrone flashed a smile that packed as much wattage as Kane’s. She followed him to a comfortable arrangement of chairs that looked out over the Intracoastal. There was a wide terrace with high-end furniture on the other side of the full-length windows. Under normal circumstances she might have suggested sitting out there and watching the sun go down. This part of the world was supposed to have pretty spectacular sunsets and she figured that’s what the guys would normally do. Presumably they were being thoughtful because they knew she’d have trouble breathing the moment she stepped outside.

From her reading up on the area, Aisha was aware that everyone who’d been here agreed they could breathe normally indoors, but the moment they went outside they had problems. Aisha was having enough trouble keeping her breathing even as it was, being almost overwhelmed by a plethora of alpha male. She didn’t need atmospheric ions adding to her problems.

“What’s your poison, babe?” Tyrone asked from behind the wet bar.

“Oh, white wine please.”

“Coming right up.”

He poured her a glass and handed it to her, tipped a packet of chips into a basket, and placed them on the table in front of her. By the time he’d done that, Kane rejoined them and took the seat next to Aisha. Tyrone threw him a can of beer. He caught it one-handed, popped the tab, and took a long drink.

“Food won’t be long,” he said, wiping froth from his lips with the back of his hand.

Funny, Aisha hadn’t heard him on the phone placing an order. “This is really kind of you,” she said. “Taking pity on a bothersome stranger, I mean. You must get a lot of people like me passing through here.”

“Not exactly like you, no,” Tyrone said, sitting across from her and winking.

“What does your producer expect you to find out while you’re here?” Kane asked.

Aisha paused, wondering whether to tell the truth or to wing it. She’d already said she was doing this for herself, but would her credibility be shot if she admitted the precarious nature of her relationship with the station right now?

Aisha wasn’t even sure if she wanted to go back to working with Rick. Incubating inside her brain was a whole raft of possibilities for a future that had no place for manipulative men. If she could crack the perennial conundrum of Impulse, not only would she have made her name as a serious scientist, but she’d also be able to sell to the highest bidder, practically naming her price. None of that would be possible, though, without the cooperation of Kane and Tyrone, and something told her they’d see through any lies she told them in a New York minute.

“Well, the thing is,” she said, twisting her fingers together anxiously. “My producer doesn’t actually know I’m here.”

Hesitantly at first, and then in a steady stream of words, Aisha told these two strangers everything. She hadn’t realized until she started just how badly she’d needed to talk it through with someone. When she’d gotten it all off her chest, she felt a lightness that she hadn’t known since…well, since before she took up her job at the station. She hadn’t understood the pressure she’d been under until it was no longer there.

“I worked so damned hard to establish myself,” she said bitterly. “I actually believed Rick when he said…well, everything he said. Pretty dumb, huh?”

Kane and Tyrone looked suitably distraught on her behalf, which was sweet of them given that they didn’t know her from Adam.

“He sounds like a total jerk,” Kane said.

“Probably has a small dick,” Tyrone added. “His type usually do.”

“He’ll have issues with his mother as well.”

“He probably faked his resumé.”

Aisha giggled. “Well…”

She heard footsteps on the stairs and a pretty lady walked into the room, bearing bags emitting a mouthwatering aroma.

“Hey, Rochelle,” Tyrone said, standing to relieve her of the bags. “This is Aisha.”

“So I heard already. It’s lovely to meet you at last.”
At last?
“I’m Rochelle. I run the restaurant at the Cat’s Whiskers.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Aisha said, shaking her hand. “That smells delicious.”

“Hope you like beef Wellington.”

“It only happens to be one of my favorite dishes.”

Kane kissed the top of the woman’s head. “And no one cooks it better than Rochelle.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Rochelle replied, laughing.

Kane winked at her. “It usually does.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it then. Shout if you need anything else. Bye, Aisha, enjoy.”

“Bye.”

Tyrone busied himself with unloading the bags and setting the table. Kane opened a bottle of red.

“Come and sit,” he commanded.

“I feel I should be doing something to help.”

“You are,” Tyrone told her. “Just by being here.”

What the hell’s that supposed to mean?

She sat between the two men and accepted a glass of wine from Kane. She took a tentative taste of her food, closed her eyes, and sighed with pleasure.

“That’s awesome,” she said, savoring the flavor and allowing it to slip reverently down her throat.

“I’ll tell Rochelle you said so,” Kane replied. “She’ll be glad.”

The guys appeared to go out of their way to entertain her, bouncing insults off one another like schoolboys competing for her approval. It was bizarre. She’d foisted herself on them and yet they were treating her like a long-lost friend. Or more. They took every opportunity to touch her—her arms, her hands, her shoulders. Each time their fingers made contact with her body she felt a strong gravitational pull, a sense of belonging, a deep oneness with these two amazing specimens of not entirely civilized masculinity that defied explanation.

Excitement and expectation surged through Aisha’s bloodstream, caused by a certainty that she’d arrived in a place she’d always been supposed to find. She had no idea why that should be—she simply felt it deep in her core. Aware that something definitive was happening to her, something beyond her control, it felt so absolutely right that she didn’t even question it, much less fight it or look for the explanations a seasoned journalist ought to seek.

“I can’t eat another bite.” Aisha pushed her chair back from the table and patted her stomach, having just eaten two slices of Rochelle’s chocolate cake at Kane’s insistence. “You were right about the cake, though. It’s divinely decadent.”

Both men laughed. Tyrone took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Go and sit back down over there and make yourself comfortable. We’ll clear this away and make some coffee.”

“Let me help.”

“Not a chance,” Kane said.

“Well then, I ought to go and find myself a hotel. It’s getting late.”

“There’s plenty of room here.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You’re inviting me to stay with you guys?”

“You wanted to look at the research that’s been done into Impulse’s weather.” Kane shrugged. “It’s all here, on the computer and in paper records. It would make life easier if you were here, too.”

“You’ll let me look at that?” She frowned. “Why would you do that? From what I’ve read, all other requests for access have been met with polite refusals.”

“We trust you,” they said together.

“Well then, thank you to both offers.”

“Give me your keys, babe,” Tyrone said. “I’ll bring your bags up.”

She passed them to him and he slipped down the stairs, hardly making a sound. She couldn’t get over the fact that two such muscular men were so light on their feet. Perhaps that had something to do with the elements, too?

Kane handed her a cup of coffee and resumed his seat beside her, an unreadable expression lighting his eyes. She met his gaze and held it, hypnotized when the corners of his mouth lifted and a smile flirted with his lips.

“Welcome home, babe,” he said, covering one of her hands with his own.

Kane and Tyrone installed Aisha in a guest suite and made sure she had everything she needed. Much as they would have liked to stay and tuck her in, they headed for their own room instead, but sleep was the last thing on their minds.

“Of all the lousy timing,” Tyrone complained. “We’ve waited all this time for our mate to come along. Now that she has, neither of us is in a position to make a move on her.”

“I know.” Kane threw off his clothes and lay flat out on their huge bed, feeling as though he’d earned the right to be aggrieved. “Still, admit it, she was well worth waiting for.”

“And then some.” Tyrone stripped and joined Kane on the bed. “A redhead. Who would have thought it?”

“And all those curves.” Kane groaned. “I gotta tell you, it was all I could do to keep my paws off her.”

“Keeping her here is all we can do until we figure out how to fix our other problems.”

“Yeah, I have no intention of letting her get away from us.” Kane extended his claws and growled his frustration. “Shit, I’d give anything to turn the clock back and not have gone to that conference.”

“No point wasting time on regrets.”

“Yeah.” Kane shook his head and concentrated his attention on Tyrone. “Tell me exactly what happened with Maria.”

It was Tyrone’s turn to growl. “The same old shit. She’s using the kids to try and force me to leave Impulse and live with her in St. Augustine.”

“Man, that sucks.” Kane ran a hand along Tyrone’s arm. “I still don’t get where she’s coming from on this. She knows that—”

“We’ve been through it a thousand times, buddy. There’s nothing more to say other than it was a wasted trip.”

“You’ll get the kids back, lover. She’s the guilty party.”

“She wants me and the kids in her life, but on her terms.”

Kane curled his upper lip and snarled. “Ain’t gonna happen.”

Tyrone sighed. “It’s such a fucking mess.”

“You’re not tied to her anymore. Just hold that thought. She’s a purebred shifter but broke the shifter code, which leaves you free to mate with a human of your choice. And,” Kane said forcefully, “we both know that human breezed into both our lives today.”