She lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest. “About?”
In a voice too low for anyone else to hear, he said, “Well as much as I like you bald down there, I wouldn’t mind knowing if the color of the carpet matches the curtains.”
She slapped his chest. “Trey!”
“Oh look,” snickered a familiar, annoying, witchy voice. Greta. “Not only is she lounging all over you like a slut, but she’s flashing her underwear to all and sundry.”
Glancing back, Taryn saw that the top of her red lacy thong had ridden above her jeans. “Do you like it? I quite like your blouse, Greta. Wouldn’t you like to slip into something more comfortable, though? Perhaps a coma?”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you sarcasm’s the lowest form of wit?” Greta turned to Shaya and Caleb. “Do us all a favor and take this hussy with you when you leave.”
Taryn sighed. “How about we play fetch with a twist, Greta – I’ll throw the ball for you, but just don’t come back. What do you think?”
Huffing, the old woman marched off. Taryn smiled at a chuckling Trey before laying her head back on his chest, facing Shaya and Caleb. She wondered what their odd expressions meant. She finally found out an hour later as she walked them to Shaya’s SUV.
“I told you that what really matters is that you’re happy,” said Caleb. “And it seems like you are.”
“Is that your way of saying that I have your blessing?”
“I’m still having trouble getting my head around him being your true mate but…well you act like true mates and he obviously adores you. That’s enough for me. I have to admit I’m kind of jealous that everyone around us seems to have mated.”
She patted his arm. “Don’t worry, I’m sure your own true mate is somewhere just waiting for you to find her, and I’m sure she’s the next model up from the inflatable one you already have.”
“Bitch,” he said affectionately.
Shaya had her palm pressed against her forehead, looking stressed and confused. “I don’t know how anyone can not be terrified of that wolf…but his true mate wouldn’t be, mates never fear each other. And clearly you don’t so...Look, just promise me that if you suddenly think you’ve made a mistake or he ever hurts you, you call me and you get out of here.”
Taryn smiled. “Aw, Shaya, if he ever hurt me he’d be dead before I made that call.”
A grin spread across Shaya’s elfin face. “That’s my girl.”
It hadn’t been a surprise to discover that Trey had disappeared into his office before the car had even moved out of sight – acting time was over. She turned to Tao who had been waiting a few feet behind her. “Hey, fancy going out somewhere?”
“Where?” He sounded a little suspicious.
“I’ve gone twelve whole days without pizza and that’s just not right.”
He grinned. “Pizza definitely sounds good. Let me just tell Dante we’ll be out for a while.”
She hadn’t realized just how much she had missed her Hyundai until she was driving it en-route to town five minutes later. Tao, apparently not content enough with being her bodyguard, had wanted to play chauffeur too, but she easily got her way because he was smart enough to know that she wouldn’t give in.
“Did your friends buy the act?” asked Tao about fifteen minutes into the journey.
She shrugged. “They’ve accepted it, but I don’t think anything will ever completely convince them.”
“They don’t think you and Trey fit?”
“It’s not so much that. They saw how close Joey and I were, and then they watched me deal with his death pretty badly. For me to suddenly claim that Joey was nothing but my best friend…” She let the sentence trail, knowing he’d see her point. “I think if it had been anyone other than Trey, I might have had more luck with getting them to accept it.”
“Trey’s not your type?”
“I meant because he’s psychotic. Although it’s true that I’ve never been with a guy built like a highlander before, but I don’t really have a type. I either like someone or I don’t.”
“And you like Trey.”
“To an extent,” she said with a smile. “Selma made it clear that I’m not his type.”
“Trey’s always gone for, what do you females call them, hourglass figures or something like that?”
Noticing he hadn’t sounded so fond of them, she prodded, “You’re not such a fan?”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say no to one. Plenty of times Trey and I have shared one of his women -”
“Really?”
“- but I prefer my women to be more…athletic, I guess. And I have a thing for blondes.”
“Ooh, please don’t say that line – that was the first thing Roscoe ever said to me. Makes me shiver even now.”
His words were both consoling and sympathetic. “It has to have pissed you off that you had two guys wanting to mate with you but neither really wanted you for you.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll make a good mate anyway.”
“Why?”
“My natural reaction is to hold back from people, especially guys. It’s something I honestly can’t control. When Joey and my mom died, I had this big hole and it’s as if when I taped it up, I did it too tight. I don’t know if I could ever really make myself completely vulnerable to another person again. And when you mate with someone, really mate with someone, there can’t be protective walls.”
Tao’s smile was a little sad. “The right wolf will hammer them down.”
“It might take more than a hammer. Anyway, let’s talk about something more interesting. What’s this thing about you and Trey sharing women?” Ménages weren’t exactly unusual among shifters, but she wouldn’t have had Trey down for someone who shared.
“Before you, Trey’s never been possessive with women. Plenty of times we’ve shared. The invite was always open to Dante, but he just likes to watch with Marcus, Trick, Ryan, and Dominic.”