"I should have been there for you. I'm sorry. The deadline for the project I'm working on is steadily creeping and I had to get to the office today to go over some things. Is that for me?" He looked down at the steaming plate in her hands. She nodded, struggling to remember why she was mad at him. "Smells great. Why don't we go eat?"
Alison nodded and let him take her hand in his. He led her to one of her tables and put a plate in front of her, then asked her what she wanted to drink and got it for her.
It was strange, Alison thought, being served in her own restaurant by a man who looked at her like she was the sexiest woman in the room.
Everyone ate and finished their plates with a stream of enthusiastic compliment that had Alison blushing, then laughing. "If you think this is good, you should try my chocolate cake. It's to die for."
Sarina's eyes widened. "Oh my god, don't tease. I need your chocolate cake now." Alison laughed and moved to clear everyone's plates.
"I'll make you one, don't worry." With Rome's help, she cleared the dishes into the back washer. She heard the door chime ring from the front of the restaurant and went to see who was there.
"May I help you?" Alison asked. The woman looked down at her from her insanely tall high heels. Her dress was short enough that if she were to bend over her entire ass would be in view. Alison stifled a shudder and stared expectantly at her red, shiny lips.
The woman's voice was soft and sexy. "I'm looking for Rome. Ah! There you are." She flounced over to him completely ignoring his look of disbelief, and then anger.
"What are you doing here, Sandra?" He turned to look quickly at Alison, his jaw hardening. Alison swallowed, then went to work scrubbing the tables they'd eaten at. She made eyes with Sarina who was glaring bullets at the bitch in heels. She scrubbed the tables harder than necessary. There wasn't anything on them anyways except a few crumbs.
"I came to see you, baby. It's been too long. I miss you so much. You haven't returned any of my phone calls." The woman trailed a long painted fingernail down his chest.
"That's because I called things off between us and you know it. Don't act like there was anything more between us, ever." His voice was cold. He flicked her finger off him with a slap at her wrist.
Finding the tables completely clean and not wanting to move past the fighting couple to go back into the kitchen, Alison settled down into a chair and turned to watch the show. She definitely won a point for being brave. Besides, she was relieved to know he really wasn’t seeing a woman on the side.
"Things were hot between us, Roman. Come on, can't we just hook up? I'll let you tie me up again." She smiled widely at him. To Alison it looked like a predator baring its teeth before it lunged. Her teeth were shiny and impossibly white against the sharp red of her lipstick. Was anything on her not perfect?
Rome unclenched his jaw. "Get out of here, Sandra. We're done, forever." He stepped away from her and crossed his arms, then nodded at the front door. "Take a hike."
The women's eyes glowed with the eerie light of her lykaen rising to the surface. She turned and growled at Alison. Her beast was at the surface, which would make her much stronger, quicker than usual. Alison felt her own surfacing. The idea of a fight didn’t sound too crazy either.
"It's this little bitch, isn't it? You got a thing for losers in glasses now, Rome?" She threw her head back and laughed huskily, then sauntered to the front door with her long-legged stride. "What kind of lykaen needs glasses? And here I thought you liked real women." She punctuated her comment with a cock of her hip. She looked once more at Alison and gave her a withering glare. "As for you bitch, Conlin wants you back for good...and he's not going to stop until he gets it."
Everyone in the room tensed. Even the sound of breathing stopped. "He says he looks forward to making up for lost time with you." She giggled, the sound high-pitched and scary, then slipped out of the café.
"At least your taste in women has improved," Gerome joked. Alison turned away from Rome. She couldn't stand the hard look he was giving her. She didn't want to know what he was thinking about, or what it looked like he wanted to say.
"Let's just go home," Alison said, her voice weary and tired.
Chapter 11
The car ride home was silent and awkward. How she managed to home with Rome in his black SUV and not with Sarina and the guards had her crossed arms squeezing tight across her middle. The bastard seemed to think he had some right to her.
As for Sarina? Well, she was a traitor. She winked at Rome and practically shoved her towards his car after she locked up the café.
Too many negative emotions were swirling in her, furling together to put her in one hell of a mood. Anger, jealousy, possession, fear. And one tall woman set all that into motion. At the moment, jealousy was seething at the top of the list.
To know that Sandra touched Rome's skin, felt his breath along her body, his hands on her skin, his beautiful cock thrusting inside her. It was enough to have her hands curling into fists. God she wanted to punch her way through the window and make a break for the trees in the distance. Anything to burn off this coiling heat.
It was he who broke the silence. "I'm sorry about that. She and I have been over for weeks, it was never anything serious anyways." She watched his jaw clench from the corner of her eye. He looked like he had more to say but was biting back the words.
Alison had questions burning like hot acid in her mind. She closed her eyes and turned away, counting back from ten over and over. She'd always had this bad habit of asking stupid questions. Questions that lead to answers she almost never liked. She opened her eyes to see they were nearing Kategan territory.
"How long were you with her?" Old habits die hard. Shit.
His shoulders bunched. "Two months." So many emotions she felt from just those two words. But she didn't want to think about that right now, so she pushed it away. Even as she knew she had zero right asking such questions, another came out. It was like pushing a slinky down the stairs, once it started it just kept going.
"What did you like about her?" She wanted to add that she didn’t think it was her charming personality, but then again she apparently had some charm somewhere. Alison was banking it was in the boobs.
He cut a hard glance at her. "I really don't want to talk about her." The hard muscle of his forearm curved and twisted as he squeezed the steering wheel.
Alison bit her tongue to keep from asking any more, or giving anything else away. Afraid she'd already done too much. She made herself shrug and toss him a no problem smile.
Inside she was dying. She was relieved when they pulled into the large compound that was Kategan territory. The sentinel guards at the front gate waved them on at the sight of familiar pack faces.
By the time they pulled in front of Rome's cabin, she was nearly suffocating from the thick silence in the car. When he stopped the car, she bounded out and was practically running back to the guest cabin, keys in hand. She had only a moment to register the hot, male presence behind her before she was pressed forward against the wooden cabin door. Her cheek and front from breast to thigh pressed into the wood.
Anger and pleasure engulfed her. A tingling butterfly sensation danced in her womb, spread throughout her body at the dominate gesture. A hand found the nape of her neck, hips kept her locked tight against the door. He pushed the hair away from her neck and then teeth found her neck and bit down.
She cried out, husky and soft. Her hips pushed back against his hardness.
His arm pressed bold, possessive caresses down her spine, over her hips. It made her breath catch. Hot lips and then the wet press of tongue circled then bit her at the juncture between her neck and shoulder. He released only after she growled in pleasure.