Two for Tamara (2 page)

“Excuse me, Tamara. Selena has asked me to come get you.” Vin Thorn rubbed his hands together.

“You enjoyed that, didn’t you?” Rafe watched the sway of Tamara’s ass in the tight dress as she walked through the throng of people to where Selena stood with Max and Malcolm King.

A small pang of envy hit Rafe at the picture the three of them made standing together. The two leaders of the Ravens had found their Fated, completing the bond that made them all whole. It was what all the Ravens had hoped to find when they’d been sent to Earth so many years ago. Rafe had almost stopped believing it was possible. He still didn’t think he’d find his one, not with the darkness in his soul. But the twin brothers deserved their happiness with Selena.

Vin bumped his shoulder. “We will find our Fated, too, brother.” He nodded toward the happy threesome.

Rafe couldn’t take his eyes off the tall, dark-haired woman standing next to the petite goddess. Even though he didn’t deserve her, he wanted her on every level a man could want a woman. She stared back at him, her full red lips smirked, like she knew what he was thinking, daring him to make a move. Vin’s hand on his bicep kept him in place.

“Dude, if you make a move on her here, Zeus will have your nuts in a cup and I can guarantee you won’t get them back.” Vin tilted his head to indicate the man beside Max and Malcolm.

There, standing with his wife and several other gods and goddesses, was Zeus himself, and sure enough he was doing that thing with his fingers, only this time he pointed at Rafe.

Fuck!

“Yeah, looks like he’s claiming Tamara as one of his own.” Vin chuckled.

“How long do we gotta stay here?” Rafe unbuttoned his shirt and freed it from the dress slacks. The white wifebeater underneath kept him presentable, but he wanted out of the constrictive button-down shirt and pants.

“Since you’re the official best man you need to make a toast, and then there’s the dancing. I’d say another hour or so.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be joking?” Rafe ran his hand over his bald head.

Vin rolled his eyes, mimicking the movement of Rafe. All the other Ravens had hair of different shades and lengths except Rafe and Vin. On more than one occasion, Rafe had been accosted and asked for his autograph. Even after he swore he wasn’t the actor, named of all things, the Rock, they never believed him. Sometimes it was easier to just ignore them, others he would have to get mean. The real Dwayne Johnson’s PR team hated it when Rafe had to get mean, but luckily for him Rafe and he were hardly ever in the same country at the same time, which made his explanations more believable. Add in the fact Rafe never allowed any of their photographs to come out, and there was never any proof. It was good to have the ability to erase modern-day technology with nothing more than a thought.

The sound of a microphone being turned on brought all their attention to the front of the crowd. Rafe wanted to get the hell out of Dodge.

He was never so glad to see the leaders of the Ravens decide to cut the reception short and whisk their bride away. If it were him, he’d have skipped the whole damn thing and gone straight for the honeymoon in the first place.

* * * *

Vin’s heart was beating a triple staccato in his chest. From the moment he’d brought the priest in and announced that they were there, he was ready to get on his knees and pledge his life to the woman named Tamara. The only thing standing in his way was his best friend Rafe and how he’d acted around her. It didn’t take a rocket scientist, although Vin was one, to see his friend had fallen and fallen hard for the Spanish beauty.

He knew a little about her from his connection with the twins, Max and Malcolm, but he needed to learn more. Her snapping brown eyes made him think of dark nights, and the secrets she had that he wanted to know. She was the daughter of a Cajun mama and a Spanish father, although she had never met her father from what Selena said. Vin figured she got some of her fiery temper from him. Some things were inherited and some were learned. He’d bet his last dollar she was one hell of a firecracker, and he couldn’t wait to find out. Rafe be damned, he’d have to learn to share.

His lips kicked up in a smile. Rafe was lots of things, but stingy wasn’t one of them.

It was his chore to get the priest back to his parish and wipe his memory of the ceremony, which totally sucked, or as his friend Rafe was known to say,
sucked balls.
But he’d promised, and Vin always kept his promises.

Once he got the man back to his church, he was heading out to find Rafe, and they needed to decide how they were going to woo Tamara. Maybe he should stop off and buy a flame thrower, because the woman was all ice queen when it came to him and Rafe.

She was a puzzle. Most women weren’t repulsed by him or Rafe, just the opposite, in fact. Sure, they were both larger than your average men, and although Rafe was bulkier, they could pass for brothers. Throughout his long life he’d had several relationships that were somewhat lasting, and even knowing there was a time stamp or an end date on them, he always treated women with respect.

He shook hands with Max and Malcolm and laughed good-naturedly when they tried to announce they were leaving, but Zeus shook his head. He gave Selena what could only be called puppy-dog eyes, and both Max and Malcolm groaned. Vin bided his time and prepared to wait to speak with Tamara. His time finally came when she tried to slip out the back.

“Your friend will be safe with them.” He tilted his head toward the dancing couple.

“I know.” Tamara smoothed her hands down her hips.

Vin turned to look at her fully. “Why are you so nervous? Do you not like weddings? Maybe being surrounded by so many of us makes you uncomfortable.” He made it sound like a question, but they both knew it was the truth. He wasn’t sure how much she knew about her best friend, or how much would be wiped from her memory, but it would be hard to not realize she wasn’t at a normal shindig.

Vin tried to see through her eyes. He and Rafe were well over seven feet tall, but compared to Zeus and the others they were small. However, the gods and goddesses had taken on a more humanlike size, but even then they were larger than the tallest known men. They all had hair that flowed like living silk. Vin had always envied that about them and the other Ravens. He and Rafe were the only two who had never grown any hair. To this day nobody knew why. Vin and Rafe came to realize it set them apart, but not in a negative way.

He spotted Rafe leaning against the wall of the pavilion. He seemed to watch everyone except Tamara and Vin. His cell phone was held up to his ear, a look of annoyance clear on his face. Vin turned to Tamara. She had her head tilted at an adorable angle to the right, her bottom lip tucked inside her mouth. He stifled the urge to bend and take the chewed on flesh into his own lips.

“I’m not nervous or whatever. I’m happy for Lena and her men.” Tamara spoke so softly he had to lean closer to hear.

She sighed heavily, and it occurred to him that she was maybe just a bit saddened about her friend’s wedding. “Hey, look at me.” Vin finally did what he’d wanted since the moment he’d seen Tamara. He used his index finger to raise her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. Ah, Vin saw through her façade. Her eyes were windows to her soul. Her look of annoyance was nothing but a smokescreen for how she was truly feeling, and that was a woman who worried she was being left behind. He sympathized with the gorgeous female. How many times had he watched people meet and fall in love? Way too many to count.

“I know you are, and she’s happy. Be happy for her.”

Tamara jerked away from him. “You don’t know me,” she snapped. Her back ramrod straight, she strode into the crowd of people.

Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut?

“Because you’re an ass?” Rafe punched him in the arm.

Vin grunted. Not from the punch, but because Rafe was right. He only wanted to reassure Tamara that her friend was going to be fine so she could focus on other things.

Rafe snorted. “Yeah, you wanted her focused on you.”

“And you don’t?”

“I’m not going to deny that I’ve wanted that woman since I first laid eyes on her months ago, but she ran like a scared doe then, and she’s running now.”

“What do we do then? I want her, you want her. Are we going to share her like Max and Malcolm?”

Rafe laughed. “Man, do you hear yourself? That woman”—he pointed to the fine ass in question—“doesn’t want either of us. We could go fuck each other before she’d fuck either of us.” Rafe held his hand up. “And as much as I think you look good naked, I am not fucking your hairy ass or vice versa.”

One of the things Vin loved about Rafe was his intensity, but when his friend laughed with such unrestrained mirth, he realized why they were best friends.

“My ass isn’t hairy, dickweed, and that’s not an invitation.” Not that Vin hadn’t slept with both men and women in his extremely long life, but fucking his friend wasn’t something he had ever fantasized about. They’d shared women between them, and those had been some of the best times of his life, but not once had he wanted to bend Rafe over.

“Good to know.” Rafe laughed.

“Get out of my head, fucker.” Vin shoved him.

With one arm Rafe grabbed Vin in a headlock. “Make me, boy.”

* * * *

Tamara, being the daughter of a priestess, was used to all the strangeness that comes with all that. But the night she first saw Rafe, she also saw something that scared the holy living hell out of her. Even thinking about the vision had fear snaking down to her toes in her high heels.

“Why are you shaking so, Tamara?” The smooth, accented voice had Tamara looking up at the woman she knew to be Selena’s long-lost sister, Asteria.

Tamara pasted a fake smile on her face. “Hello, Asteria. It was a lovely ceremony wasn’t it?”

“Ah, this is what you call an evasion tactic?” She nodded her head. “But yes, it was beautiful.”

She immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long couple of weeks.”

The sound of booming male voices interrupted their conversation, followed by what had to be the cutest thing Tamara had ever seen. Rafe had Vin’s head tucked under his one arm, while he was rubbing the knuckles of his other hand over the top. Although, she wouldn’t admit it to the two overgrown buffoons that she thought they were gorgeous.

“They are amazing men, both of them, all of the Ravens. We owe them so very much,” Asteria said.

Tamara gave her a puzzled look. “Who?”

“Rafe, Vin, and the others. They have sacrificed so much, to see them playing and having fun is truly a wonderful sight to see. They deserve more—”

“Asteria.” Zeus’s voice interrupted them.

She’d been feeling sorry for herself since Selena’s wedding, lost in her own personal thoughts. Seeing her friend so happy brought up her own feelings of sadness, loneliness, and yes, regret.

Silent communication flowed between Selena’s father and Asteria. How she knew that she wasn’t sure, but she knew it was true.

She also agreed with Asteria that everyone deserved happiness. Life was full of bad people who did bad things.

At the tender age of seventeen she’d almost been gang raped in a back alley near her home. Luckily for her, a fifteen-year-old Selena had saved her like an avenging angel. To this day she still had nightmares of what could’ve been, but she’d sworn to herself then and there to take her sexuality in her own hands. She’d planned to save herself for marriage, but in that dark place behind a dumpster, those men wouldn’t have cared that she was a virgin. Tamara had been smart and she had been choosey. Hell, she was also the sister of overbearing older brothers, but since giving up her virginity to a nice young man that she remembered fondly, Tamara hadn’t looked back.

There was something about the two wrestling around that told her they were different, and while they would move on to someone else, she had a feeling the saying about being ruined for all others would be true in her case.

Why the hell she was thinking of them in the plural sense was beyond her. Being in control of her sex life was one thing, but she’d never had a threesome in her twenty-seven years. And, if she did decide to swim in that pond, then every man after that would have to measure up to not one, but two, yardsticks. Tamara was sure that their yardsticks were way too big to begin with, add them together and no man was ever going to compare.

“Earth to Tamara. Where is your head at, girl?” Selena looked worried.

She closed her eyes. “Sorry, hon. I’m still exhausted from the trip here.” Truly Tamara wished she was anywhere but there.

Selena grabbed Tamara’s hand. “We’re leaving. Do you want to ride with us?”

Tamara could see Selena’s two husbands loved that idea.
Not!
To jerk their chain she almost said yes, but she actually liked the two men her best friend had married.

“Your dad offered to give me a lift.”

Malcolm groaned.

“Hey, you be nice. My dad is wonderful,” Selena teased.

“Absolutely. He’s the best.” Max put his arm around Selena, pulling her against his side.

Tamara knew what was going on, but either Malcolm was an idiot, or he thought he was getting a free pass on his wedding day.

“Of course he’s wonderfully full of…”

Selena launched herself into his arms and covered his mouth with her own. That was when Tamara realized Malcolm was a very smart man indeed.

“You’re such a jackass, Mal,” Max grumbled.

Malcolm grunted in pain, which Tamara realized he did a lot when the brothers were arguing. She made a mental note to ask Selena about that.

“Quit groping Malcolm and say your good-byes, woman.” Max grabbed Selena by the waist to pull her from his brother. She was giggling when she finally released Malcolm.

The look of pure love shone from all three of them, reinforcing the fact she was the odd one out to Tamara.

Tamara was glad her walls were up, and were as thick as she could make them. She didn’t want to ruin a moment of her friend’s happiness with her own morose thoughts. “Go on, I think you have a couple impatient men.”