Wolf's Lady (After the Crash Book 6.5) (7 page)

“He’s beautiful. I liked him.” She smoothed a finger over his braid where it spilled across her knee. “Could you hear me talk to him?”

“Vaguely, like from a long distance. So, if your dad doesn’t like me I have no chance with you?”

She pulled her finger away. “You
could
hear me!”

“When do I get to meet your dad?”

She sighed. “That depends on what happens tomorrow at the inquiry.”

They shared her bed that night. Sand tried to sleep on the floor again, but she had a strangely fierce desire to hold him. Surely, the mayor would be kind. The tax Sky and The Limit provided the city was sizable, and the mayor liked Sky. He wouldn’t offend Sky, even to keep his friend Terry Askup happy. And, if worse came to worst, she had enough money to bribe whoever she needed to, or pay whatever fine was posed. She hoarded her earnings so she would have money to pay the marriage tax if she ever found anyone she wanted to marry. But for Sky —and especially for Sand— she would spend every tiny bit of it. How had he become so important to her so quickly? She burrowed her nose into the nape of Sand’s neck and breathed his warmth in.

Sand woke with the warmth of his mate’s back pressed against his front. His nose was buried in the wealth of her hair, and the scent of it was a comfort, a joy, and a call to arousal all at the same time. Waking with her like this for the rest of their lives was the most wonderful future he could imagine. His hand rested on her soft belly, just below the temptation of her breasts and it was all he could do to not caress her. His imagination supplied a vision of him cupping her soft breast in his hand while she woke and turned on her back with an inviting smile. He would push her tauntingly thin nightdress up past her waist and slide inside her. He always wanted her, but right now, his desire was like fire in dry grass.

The pinch of his jeans over hardening flesh reminded him that last night she’d required him to wear something to bed. She wouldn’t welcome his advances this morning. He shifted to ease the pressure of the buttons on his fly and relaxed against her. At least he had this. If the investigation didn’t go well, at least he’d have the sweet memory of lying beside his mate, her body lax and trusting in sleep against his.

The next ten minutes passed with him savoring the scent of her hair and the warmth of her body against his. She woke as he’d imagined, with a sleepy smile as she rolled onto her back beside him. He had to clench a fist and press it into the mattress to keep from caressing her.

“I’ve never done
this
before,” she murmured in a voice husky with sleep. The edge of her teeth showed in a small smile as she reached he palm to cup his cheek.

“Done what?”

“Wake up with a man.”

That startled him almost enough to not notice the way she smoothed her hand over his cheek. “Never?”

“No, never.”

Pride swelled his chest, mixed with awe. She had been with many men before, but he was the only one she’d slept beside. “Do you like it?”

Her smile was small and tender. “Yeah, I like it.”  Her eyes looked closely at his face, obviously thinking of something else now. “You don’t need to shave, do you?”

It wasn’t really a question. “No. I pluck a few hairs sometimes, but I don’t use a razor.”

He hated to let her go, but when she squirmed to get out of bed he made himself lean back out of her way. In the thin cotton nightdress that hid nothing of her beautiful body, she scrambled past him out of bed and went to the door.

“I’m going to brush my teeth and wash my face. I’ll be back in a minute.”

After she left, he lay for another minute on the bed that smelled of her. Last night after they’d lain down in her bed she’d explained that she had more than one mattress. Each business woman had mattress toppers that were changed between appointments, but at the end of the night they slept on their own mattress. He had been surprised and confused, but also vastly relieved and pleased that no man had ever been on this mattress before. Depending on what happened today at the mayor’s office, this might be the only time he lay in this bed.

Amanda was preparing herself for the day; he should do the same. He jumped out of bed and hurried down the stairs and outside to the bunkhouse where he stored his few toiletries. He used the facilities, washed his hands and face, and brushed his teeth, but didn’t waste time doing anything with his hair. It was still in the same braid he had put it in yesterday, rumpled and frayed from sleep. Leaving it a mess, hurried back to Amanda’s room. He tapped lightly, but she didn’t answer so he slipped back inside. The room was empty. She must still be freshening herself. How long did it take her to get ready? The women at the den didn’t take very long.

He was straightening the sheet and blanket on the bed when he heard her walking down the hall to her room. She came in, her hair damp, dressed already in a floaty skirt like the one he had first seen her in and a pale green blouse with puffy sleeves. Her nightdress was over one shoulder, and she carried a suit on a hanger in her hand.

“Look. Here’s the suit Sky sent for you to wear this morning. I think this dark charcoal gray will look good on you.” She lifted a couple of ties. “I think the red will look best for you, but do you like the blue one better?”

A tie too? Sand swallowed his inner growl. “Red is fine. If you like that one best, I’ll wear that one.”

She flipped a smile over her shoulder when she turned to hang the suit up on a hook over her door. “And now I finally get to play with your hair! Sit down.”

The chair she indicated was the frilly fragile-looking one at her vanity. He hesitated, then settled himself on the little seat, hoping it would hold him. “No one has combed my hair for me before, not since I was a baby.”

Her hands were fumbling at the end of his braid, unfastening the strands of hair he used to tie it off. “So, this morning we both get to enjoy something new. Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

Sand’s eyes closed in bliss while his mate carefully unraveled his plait. He had a few mats from sleeping on it, but Amanda was true to her word, and her hands were gentle when she untangled the clumps with her fingers before gliding her comb through the length of his hair. With him sitting in this low chair, it was long enough that she had to kneel to comb the ends.

“I love your hair,” she murmured, smoothing her hand over it in the wake of the comb. “It’s so smooth and shiny.”

A contented smile curved his lips. “Did you know that in the old days, Lakota wives took pride in their husband’s hair? It was their privilege to take care of it.”

“Oh, I see.” She made a sound almost like a giggle. “Just another lure for me to marry you?” She gave a few strands a teasing yank. “It’s 7:40. You better get dressed so you have time for breakfast before you have to leave. Here, put on the undershirt.”

He did, then reluctantly accepted the pressed trousers she handed him. She turned her back so he could slip his jeans off and pull Sky’s borrowed pants on. They were the right length, he supposed, but a little loose in the waist.

“Turn around,” Amanda commanded, and he obediently turned. “Damn,” she sighed. “There is nothing like a male ass in a pair of well tailored trousers.”

Blushing, he rushed to put the coat on. His mate licked her lips when she looked at him. “Mr. Wolfe, you are
yummy!
But you need to put the shirt and tie on before the jacket.”

He blushed harder and took the coat off. Amanda touched his hand. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.”

He wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment. He felt ridiculous in the scoop necked undershirt that barely covered his nipples, and her blatant admiration of his butt had caused heat to rise in his cheeks. But it raised another kind of heat inside him. The trousers didn’t hide his erection.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t sound sorry.”

“Ouch!” She pretended to shake sting from her fingers. “I am sorry, to have to send you off like that, without giving you relief. If we had more time…”

He groaned a short phrase in Lakota.

Amanda seemed to have decided that going on to the next thing was best. “Here’s the shirt. Shall I help you with the tie?”

Her fingers looping the narrow silk around his throat did nothing to cool his blood. It took every ounce of self-control he possessed to stand still while her breasts brushed over his chest while she tortured the tie into a fancy knot at his throat. She held the coat for him and then stood back to look at him.

“You really are very handsome,” she told him, smoothing a bit of lint from his sleeve.

He scented Sky outside the door even before the knock came. “Thank you,” he told Amanda quietly, before he opened the door.

“Ready to go?” Sky asked.

“He hasn’t eaten yet,” Amanda said quickly.

“I’ll be fine,” Sand shrugged. “Wolves are used to going hungry.”

“You’ll need to be sharp at the mayor’s office,” she argued.

“I’ll be fine,” he said again, but the knowledge that she cared made him smile.

One of her hands squeezed the other hard enough for the knuckles to go white. “You don’t know that. This could be the last time I see you. I mean…”

He brushed a quick kiss over her cheek. “It will be okay, Amanda,” he whispered. “I’ll be back soon.”

He saw the uncertain glance she gave Sky, and the grave smile Sky gave her.

His cousin nodded. “Tim won’t want to disrupt the flow of our taxes,” he said, his tone encouraging.  “Kiss your mate good-bye, Sand. We can’t be late.”

Her kiss tasted of suppressed tears. “It will be fine, Amanda.”

She nodded briskly. “Of course it will. I’ll see to that myself, if I have to.”

Sand’s gaze clung to her as he walked down the stairs. She cared for him. He knew she cared for him. The question was how much?

*

Sand didn’t like the look of the mayor’s house. From what he could see above the thick wall that enclosed it, it was more of a stone fortress than a house.

Sky nodded at the man who came to the gate in the tall, thick wall. “Good morning, Arthur. This is my cousin, Sand Wolfe. We have a meeting with the mayor this morning.”

The man looked them over with no expression. “You’re expected, Mr. Wolfe,” he finally said, and directed two men to open the heavy gate.

It was habit that made Sand automatically catalogue how many guards there were at the gate in the tall stone wall, and how many more were positioned along the wall and in the grounds, and how they were armed. He figured there were at least ten, but probably more, around the back where he couldn’t see, and they all carried heavy batons perfect for cracking skulls, as well as guns and knives. They could be trouble if he and Sky needed to leave in a hurry.

Sky walked confidently over the decorative gravel drive to the house. Out of the corner of his mouth he muttered, “Remember to keep quiet unless you are asked a question. Answer honestly, but do
not
mention your wolf.”

Sky had already said that several times during the half hour it took to walk here. “I remember.”

“And quit tugging on your tie like that; you’ll ruin the knot.”

Sand lowered his hand to his side, remembering his mate’s hands twisting the length of fabric into a complicated pattern at his throat, and her heady scent so close to his nose. Another guard answered the front door. This one wore a suit, but Sand saw the outline of a gun beneath the coat.

“Mr. Wolfe,” he said, with a little bow. “Please come in. Mayor McGrath is in the library.”

“Thank you, Davidson.”

It was cool inside the house, but Sand began to sweat anyway.  He followed Sky to the back of the house, past half a dozen armed guards into a room with a fireplace, a round table in the center, and books on the walls. Another time he might have liked to look at the books, but now all he saw was the smug, oily face of Terry Askup. Just as his lip began to raise in a snarl, Sky jabbed his elbow into his side. Terry, seated at the small table, tilted his head with a smile that made Sand yearn to punch his fat mouth. Sand subsided with a tight smile for Vann, who sat in a straight-backed chair along a bookcase. The man beside Terry rose from the table to shake Sky’s hand.

“Sky,” he said warmly. His hair was brown with lots of gray, his body tall and going soft around the middle, his smile wide, with too many teeth showing. He reeked of cologne. Sand’s hackles, barely smoothed after sighting Askup, threatened to rise again. His wolf didn’t like this man, or his perfumed scent. “Thank you for coming.”

Sand shot a glance at Sky. They’d had a choice? His cousin took the mayor’s hand with a smile as falsely cordial. “Thanks for setting the investigation here instead of at City Hall.”

“I think we can get things settled a little more quietly here, don’t you? There’s no need for formality.” The mayor sent Askup a quick frown before he turned the wide, too perfect smile on Sand. “And you must be Sand Wolfe.”

Sand allowed the mayor to pump his hand up and down and hid his distaste behind a cool nod.

“You all know Peter Vann? Excellent. Let’s all sit down and make ourselves comfortable. Coffee?”

Sand declined, Sky accepted. Sand sat in the leather arm chair and forced a calm, polite expression on his face. Sky and the mayor wasted a few minutes exchanging pleasantries about the mayor’s wife’s delicate health, the weather, and some upcoming social event that Sand couldn’t care less about. Askup didn’t seem to care either. His stare was fixed on Sand with an unpleasant smirk twisting his lips. Peter Vann said nothing.

The mayor set his coffee cup aside. “So, let’s get down to business, shall we?”

“Certainly,” Sky said, leaning back in his chair with supremely relaxed smile. In the years he’d been away from the Pack he had become a fine actor. Sand thought that was sad. At the den Sky had never used a word like ‘certainly’.

“Terry has made a complaint about treatment he received at your house a couple of days ago. He tells me Mr. Sand Wolfe threw him out without explanation when he had a long-standing appointment with Miss Amanda. He incurred some physical injuries during the encounter.”

Sky just kept smiling. “Naturally The Limit regrets any inconvenience to Terry. We have always reserved the right to cancel appointments at the lady’s discretion. Amanda has canceled all her appointments for the foreseeable future.”