“Of course,” he said tightly.
Sighing, she stopped walking and when he did as well, turned to face him. “The flowers were a nice thought, but—”
“You’re married,” Justin said quietly for her.
She nodded. “I know you think I’m a possible life mate, Justin. But I am married, and I take my vows seriously. I’d appreciate it if you just got on with my training so that I can go home and continue my life with my husband.”
Rather than respond, he turned and continued walking again. After a moment, Holly followed, trailing him back to the house and into the kitchen. It was empty now. Apparently Dante and Tomasso had finished their cake and, judging by the muffled sounds coming from the front of the house, were back in the living room watching another action movie. That or they were having a very quiet shoot out. She doubted real explosions and gunfire would sound so muted.
“There’s fried chicken and potato salad in the basket,” Justin said, setting it on the table as she closed the door. “Help yourself.”
“Aren’t you having any?” she asked with surprise when he started out of the kitchen.
“No,” was all he said.
Holly frowned after him as he slipped out of the room, letting the door swing closed behind him. Then she set the blanket over a chair, opened the basket and began transferring the food it held to the refrigerator. She wasn’t really hungry. She should be, it had been hours since she’d eaten, but she just wasn’t.
Eleven
“She doesn’t like picnics on the beach,” Justin muttered to himself with disgust as he paced the room he was using while here.
He should have realized. Justin briefly berated himself for not knowing, and then more fairly thought, well, okay, how could he know that? But, really, once she’d said that bit about picking sand out of everything for the first part of her life it had made perfect sense. He didn’t care for picnics on the beach himself for that very reason and he hadn’t spent years doing it. He should have arranged the picnic on the lawn instead. No sand there.
And she didn’t like fish with the head and tails on. That one, he definitely should have thought of. He knew she liked fish, Anders and Decker had found that out for him, but he was sure a lot of people who liked fish would probably be turned off by the head and tails and skin being left on. He should have considered that possibility and prepared trout almondine or something.
As for the flowers, of course it hadn’t been appropriate to give them to a married woman. And, of course, he’d gone over the top with them.
Justin peered out the window, mentally kicking himself. He should have been more subtle and avoided such an overt gesture. He should have bought flowers and put them in the kitchen, maybe in the hallway and living room too, as if for the whole house to enjoy rather than filling her room with them and sprinkling petals on the floor.
The thought made him flush with embarrassment. He’d been waiting in the kitchen with anticipation when Gia had returned from Holly’s room. Like a fool, he’d fully expected Holly herself to come running down. He’d hoped she’d throw her arms around him, kissing him excitedly as she thanked him for the flowers. Instead, Gia was the one to come down, and when he’d asked how she’d reacted to the flowers, Gia had hesitated and then admitted, “She asked if someone died.”
While he’d stood gaping in dismay at this news, Gia had gone out to the garage. Justin’s upset had only increased when the woman had come back inside seconds later with a rake. At first bewildered, he’d then been mortified when she’d explained they were for the petals. The women were concerned about stepping on them and staining the carpet.
Flushing, Justin had taken the rake from her and hurried upstairs. It had been his brilliant idea to strew the petals around, he would clean it up. Determined as he’d been to clean up the mess himself, he’d also been extremely relieved to not run into Holly as he did. He’d heard rustling from her bathroom and known she was in there, so had worked at top speed to remove the petals before she came out. He’d just gathered the last of them and stepped out of the room when he’d heard the bathroom door open.
Justin knew he should have taken the failure of his first two attempts at wooing her as a sign, and given up there and then. Instead he’d plowed determinedly forward with the second part of the plans he’d made that day while she was out with the others. The minute they’d left, he’d called in an order for the flowers that had filled her room, paying the exorbitant fee for express delivery. He’d then called a local gourmet restaurant to order the meal for their picnic. After cleaning up the mess in her room, he’d rushed out to the garage to fetch the picnic basket and blanket. He’d found both of them earlier and stowed them out there so that she wouldn’t see them until he was ready. When he’d come back in the house, Dante had mentioned that Holly had just gone out to take a jog up the beach, and Justin had thought it a sign that this attempt at wooing her would definitely work. He wouldn’t have to find an excuse to get her down to the beach and surprise her with the picnic, she was already there. He would set the scene and she would come back from her jog, see what he’d done, and blush with pleasure and embrace him.
“Yeah, right,” Justin muttered to himself on a sigh. He followed that up with shaking his head with bewilderment. Why were his efforts going so wrong? Hell, he had harassed the other men horribly about their stumbling about while trying to claim their own life mates, and here was he, with actual inside information about what she liked and didn’t like and everything he did backfired on him.
Groaning, he scrubbed his fingers through his hair and then massaged his temples miserably. Justin wanted to give up. He wanted to just pack his bag, head to the airport and fly back to Canada. But he couldn’t. First off, Lucian had ordered him to train her. But more important, she was his life mate . . . and unless he wanted to spend the next several centuries or even millennia alone, he had to make this work. He had to convince her that they were life mates . . . the old-fashioned way.
Damn, it would be so much easier if he could just take her to bed. One round of life mate sex and she would forget she even had a husband. Unfortunately, that was not allowed. It would be considered undue influence if he deliberately seduced her knowing how the nanos would send them up in flame. So if he wanted to avoid the pain, and keep his position as an Enforcer, sex was out.
But what about dream sex?
Justin blinked as that question ran through his mind. The fabled dream sex that life mates were supposed to enjoy even if they were unacknowledged life mates. Let them sleep in the same vicinity and they experienced apparently incredibly realistic sex dreams about, or perhaps with, each other. He wasn’t sure which it was since he’d never experienced them.
And why was that? He suddenly wondered with concern. They should be experiencing sex dreams if they truly were life mates. Biting his lip, he considered the matter briefly, then headed out of his room in search of Gia.
He checked the living room first, but while Dante and Tomasso were there watching television, there was no sign of Gia so he continued on to the kitchen. Much to his relief the woman was there and alone. She was seated at the table with a nearly empty bag of blood at her mouth and a book open on the table.
Justin eased into the room, allowing the kitchen door to close behind him, then moved to stand by the table, waiting patiently as Gia finished feeding. It only took a moment.
“Holly went to bed,” Gia announced after tearing the now empty blood bag from her fangs. “Her hours are all screwed up after the last couple of days and she said she was more tired than hungry.”
“Oh,” Justin nodded, but then asked with concern, “She didn’t eat?”
“No. But she did have blood. Three bags,” Gia assured him, and then smiled and added, “She brought her teeth out on her own and went to it like a pro.”