Surrendering, he faced the nearest jet, took hold of his problem, and solved it.
Chapter 18
Giselle hadn’t expected to have alone time, but she planned to make excellent use of it. The minute she’d heard the lock click on Luke’s bedroom door, she’d made a dash for the guest room, abandoning the last of her strawberry waffle. That was a crying shame, but she had her priorities.
Once she left Vegas, she never expected to see Luke Dalton again, so while she was here, she wanted to soak up as much of his wonderfulness as possible. But they’d pushed the envelope the night before, and she needed to heal before she could partake again without wincing. That’s where being a werewolf came in handy.
She made certain the guest room door was locked. Discovery would mean disaster. Then she pulled off the boxer shorts and T-shirt she’d borrowed from Luke and stretched out on the soft carpet. She hadn’t shifted in at least a month because she’d been so busy covering for her brother. As she readied herself, she realized she wasn’t as angry with Bryce about his disappearing act as she had been.
Although she still didn’t appreciate the way he’d taken off without a word, his defection had brought her to Luke and a whole new appreciation for the sexual act. She also now had a template for what she was looking for in a mate. Unfortunately, Luke might be one of a kind, which would leave her settling for second best, but she couldn’t help that. Luke was human.
Closing her eyes, she eased into her shift. Muscles expanded, bones realigned, and in a few short minutes a wolf with green eyes and dark red fur lay on the carpet. Giselle’s flanks heaved. She’d like to walk around a little and work out the kinks, but there wasn’t time.
A second shift following on the heels of a first one took extra energy, but she didn’t mind. Luke was worth it. Her wolf eyes closed as she focused on reversing the process. The air around her seemed charged with electricity. Fur dissolved, facial features changed, and she was in human form again.
She couldn’t resist reaching between her legs to test the shift’s healing capacity. Her vulva was petal soft and moist with no sign of chafing. She smiled. Luke might not believe that she’d recovered so quickly, but she’d praise the value of Epsom salts. And when he realized he could love her again without restraint, he wouldn’t care how or why. He’d simply enjoy.
The time she’d devoted to shifting meant she had to hurry through her shower and hair-washing routine. Luke would be ready before she was, but she knew human males were used to waiting for females to groom themselves. Giselle normally wasn’t like that. She didn’t believe in taking more time than necessary to dress for any event, whether it was a walk in the woods or a gala ball.
After blow-drying her hair, she dressed in jeans, boots, and a soft white sweater. She found Luke sitting on the leather sofa looking at the picture and the program that had affected him so much last night. He glanced up, and she glimpsed something soft and vulnerable in his expression before he chased it away with a brilliant smile.
“You look great.”
The frank admiration in his blue eyes warmed her in a way that no male gaze had ever done before. Although she’d been complimented on her looks in the past, the praise hadn’t meant so much. But one simple comment from Luke made her glow.
She walked over and sat beside him. “That’s such a beautiful picture of Cynthia.”
“It is. But the program is what really got to me. I was sitting here wondering why, and I think it was remembering that moment when she dashed up to us and insisted all three of us had to sign it. She must have felt so loved and supported by all of us, and now . . .”
She put her hand on his knee. “You still love her, Luke.”
“Yeah, but what about the support? I thought that’s what I was doing, but you’ve made me rethink everything.”
“I have?” She looked into his eyes, excitement humming through her. “You’re going to support her dream?”
“Even better. I’m going to offer her a vice presidency in the corporation.”
Giselle groaned.
“What’s wrong with that? You said I should ask her if she wants to be part of the business.”
“I know. But asking her if she wants to do that is a whole other thing from offering her a top job without any prior discussion. It will come out sounding like a bribe.”
“So I shouldn’t offer her a job?”
“Maybe eventually, but first you need to let her know you understand her yearning to be a dancer. You can show you understand by hiring her at the Silver Crescent. Then, sometime after that, you can offer her—”
“Can’t risk it. Once I give her a job dancing, she’s liable to love it so much that she won’t want to quit for some desk job.”
If she’d been close to a wall, she would have banged her head against it. Or, better yet, banged his head against it. “Luke, can you hear yourself? If she does love it that much, then that’s what she should do! Life’s too short not to love your work.”
His jaw tightened. “She might also love being a doctor, or a lawyer, or hell, an astrophysicist. But she’ll never know if she goes into dancing instead.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that reasoning, except that—”
“Aha! You admit it’s valid.”
“I admit it’s logical. But that doesn’t give you the right to impose your logic on her and try to control her life. If she chooses to throw away a potential career as an astrophysicist so she can shake her booty on the stage of the Silver Crescent, that’s her prerogative.”
Folding his arms, he gazed at her with those incredible blue eyes. He didn’t even seem particularly angry. In fact, he looked a little smug. “I’ll remind you of that speech when you’re trying to convince your brother to come home and accept his responsibilities.”
“That’s different.”
“Not much. Why come chasing down here after him? Why not let him live his life the way he chooses?”
She hated to admit he had a point. But he didn’t know the stakes in this game. He saw a wayward older brother who should be allowed to choose his own path. But she saw a werewolf who could create a political nightmare for the Landry pack if he refused to take over as alpha. That was different . . . wasn’t it?
She tried to tell herself he was rebelling against the manipulation of his parents and future in-laws, not the concept of becoming the pack’s leader. He’d be excellent in that role.
She handed Luke the photograph of Cynthia. “I realize it looks as if I’m trying to direct Bryce’s future.”
Luke nodded as he put the picture back in the envelope. “It does.”
“But there are deeper issues at work.” Most of which she couldn’t talk about. “The family dynamic is—”
He laid the envelope on the coffee table. “You want to talk about family dynamics? Try this on for size. Your dying father puts you in charge of his beloved daughter’s welfare. I can guarantee that if he hadn’t died, she’d be about to graduate from Yale in a few weeks. He would have expected that of her, and she wouldn’t have defied him the way she’s defying me.”
Giselle believed that. Fathers could have tremendous influence over daughters. Her dad hadn’t specifically asked her to come down to Vegas and talk Bryce into accepting his place in the pack hierarchy, but she’d known that’s what he and her mother hoped Giselle would accomplish. She was here to please her parents in much the same way Luke was trying to honor his father’s wishes.