“Once? Really?” She grinned and bit his jaw. “Seemed like more than that.”
“Mmm, no. I was keeping track.” He curled his fingers in her hair, loving the way it felt under his hand. “Christ, you still need to eat.”
Nick tucked her head under his chin. “So do you. We need to get some things together for Michelle and find some time to talk, and—” She lifted her head suddenly and stared down at him. “Can you still take that vacation you mentioned last night?”
“Sure, Nick. Hell, Andrew might not let me back through the office doors if I wanted to be there.”
She stroked her thumb over his cheek. “Can you stay here with me? Just until we figure out this whole thing with the Conclave? It’s the only thing I can think of that’ll calm your instincts. And…me.” Her lips brushed his. “It’ll be better for me too.”
They hadn’t managed a single date yet, and she was inviting him to take up residence in her home. He would have been thrilled if half of him hadn’t been terrified that he’d never want to leave. But the wolf replied for him, whether he wanted it to or not. “Yes. Of course.”
She studied him wryly. “Too much, too fast, but I don’t know how else to fix it, Derek.”
He snorted. “You don’t get it. My real concern is how I’ll make myself move back out when it’s over.”
Something softened in her eyes as she sat up and smiled down at him. “Let’s burn one bridge at a time.”
“Fair enough.” He reached up to curl a damp lock of her brown hair around his finger. “You should get dressed. I’ll see what I can salvage of our breakfast.” And my clothing.
She climbed up and pulled on her tank top. Then she balled up the expensive silk remains of her panties and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “I’ll be upstairs, okay?”
She ran out before he could say anything else, even if he’d been able to find the words.
Chapter 5
Nick fled upstairs. It was bad enough she’d attacked Derek in the kitchen when they had more important things to do, but to ask him to move in with her?
He had to think she was crazy.
To top it all off, she hadn’t given a thought to birth control before yanking off his clothes in the kitchen. She stared at her reflection in the mirror before stripping out of her tank top and skirt. Maybe Derek hadn’t had much experience dealing with the mating instinct, but she knew better.
She should have known better.
“Fuck. Fuck.” She covered her face with her hands. “Damned mating—” Her words cut off in an angry sigh. No matter how much Derek affected her, she couldn’t afford to get distracted by the need to touch him, especially to the exclusion of everything around them. Michelle couldn’t afford that.
She couldn’t afford for Nick to sit around brooding, either.
Nick grabbed some fresh clothes, dressed hurriedly and snatched the extension phone from her bedside table. The Conclave had to have a trace on her phone already, but they’d be idiots not to suspect Mahalia of being the one to help Michelle and Aaron flee.
The woman who had been a surrogate mother to her for the past few years answered on the second ring. “I’ve been waiting for you to call, Nicole.”
The receiver’s plastic casing cracked, and Nick had to remind herself to loosen her grip. “Thank you. I don’t know what I can do for you, but I owe you.”
“Don’t insult me like that. How is she?”
“Exhausted. Scared.” Nick shuddered. “Worried as hell.”
“Don’t blame her one bit.”
“Me either.” She hesitated. “Does Daddy know?”
“That I helped?” Mahalia sounded wholly unconcerned. “Honey, if he can’t figure it out, he doesn’t need to be the Alpha.”
Which was the witch’s way of saying John Wesley Peyton had known and let them slip away. “Are they giving you a hard time?”
“They dragged me before their little board table,” Mahalia admitted. “It was all very official and intimidating.”
Nick fought a vaguely hysterical laugh. Intimidated was the last thing the older woman seemed. “Threatened you?”
“Mmm. Said I should just tell them what they wanted to know, because they have ways of encouraging people to talk.”
Fury washed over her in a red wave, and Nick gritted her teeth. “You didn’t react well, I take it?”
Mahalia laughed, the amusement edged with something dark and determined. “I told the bastards they could try, they just wouldn’t like what happened.”
“Good for you.”
“They don’t scare me, baby girl.” She remained silent for a few moments. “How’s he holding up?”
Aaron. “He’s getting it done. Mahalia, you know who I’d call first.”
“I do. And so does the Conclave.” The words carried a soft warning.
Alec didn’t give a damn if every council in the United States knew he took every chance he could get to buck their rules and traditions. “Do you know where we’d take them?”
It took her a moment to answer. “I have a good idea.”
“Is it safe enough?” Nick wanted to trust Alec and Jackson, but this was her sister. She had to find out everything she could. “Do they have anyone strong enough to get in there?”
“Hell, no. Not anymore, anyway. It’s safe.”
Nick released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Thanks, Mahalia.”
“Don’t mention it, Nicole. Take care of her.”
She heard the whisper of Derek’s bare feet against the floor a moment before he knocked on her door. “Nick?”
“I have to go, Mahalia. I’ll call later.”
“That better be a promise,” she shot back. “Now, you give Derek Gabriel a kiss for me, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Nick hung up as Derek opened the door. “Is something wrong?”
Derek held up his cell phone. “Alec just called. Jackson’s with your sister, but Alec’s coming over. He said someone from the Conclave is here.”
She hadn’t had time to prepare herself for the political shit. “Did he say who?”
“I believe the quote was ‘Enrica’s punk cowboy mama’s boy is on his way to try and bag your woman. Don’t eat him or you’ll start a national incident.’”
“Luciano Maglieri,” she said automatically. “His mother’s on the Conclave. She’s probably heading the search, since my father obviously can’t do it.” It was clear what Enrica had planned. “Luke’s a beta, always has been, but marrying me would guarantee him control of the Conclave. That’s what Enrica wants. Why he’s coming here.”
Derek looked a little queasy. “So dynastic marriages are still all the rage for shapeshifters?”
“For some.” It was part of what she had to tell him, part of everything he’d need to understand to help her through Michelle’s defection. “The ones who have power, like Enrica, want to keep it. The ones without power will do just about anything to get it. Like—like Alec’s father.”
“Oh.” Derek leaned against the doorframe. “Alec said his father had called him, but not why. I guess he’s supposed to come over here and try to bag you first?”
“Something like that.” Nick fell back on the bed and stared at the slowly revolving ceiling fan. “I want no part of it, Derek. It’s…everything I wanted to get away from.” She couldn’t breathe. “It’s crazy.”
“Hey.” His feet made almost no noise as he crossed to stand next to the bed, and he brushed his fingers over her hand. “Alec said almost the exact same thing. At least he’s on your side of whatever this is.”
“Luciano doesn’t want me, either. What I don’t know is what Enrica’s going to do when we both say no.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Derek suggested softly, and she could tell the words hurt him. “I mean, don’t marry him…but don’t say no right away. Wouldn’t that buy us some time?”
Nick rolled to her side and looked up at him. “Maybe. Or maybe if I hesitate, it’s as good as blood in the water. She’ll try to force my hand while I’m weak, come in for the kill.”