He sat up and I yelped when he accidentally pulled some of my hair. I tugged the silky strands and flipped them over my head. My hair wasn’t thick, so at least it wasn’t unmanageable, but it fell to my lower back and sometimes got in the way of things. After a while, it was just easier to braid it so it didn’t get caught in car doors.
Lorenzo shook his head and sat up. Most of his hair had come loose from the braid and he swept the tousled strands back. “I wanted to see your hair spread across my bed, but it doesn’t have the same meaning as you see it.” He shook his head. “Foolish thinking.” Lorenzo rested his chin on my left knee where I’d bent it. “How’s your leg?” he asked, wrapping his hands around the crease of my thigh and massaging.
“As good as it’s going to get.”
He smiled and kissed my knee. “You shouldn’t have any worries about it affecting your performance in the bedroom. That was very… satisfactory.”
I concealed my smile. “Well, thank you for that kind compliment, Mr. Church. I’ll be sure to leave a survey card on the table before I go. Tell me, was that woman outside the door the one I saved?”
“Rebecca. Yes.”
“And she’s your, uh…”
“She’s been in my bed,” he confided in a low voice.
I reached up and smoothed my hand over his bicep. “I don’t like her.”
He smiled broadly. “Of course you don’t, because now you’re in my bed. Look straight up in the mirror. No other woman compares to that exquisite creature.”
I’d hardly noticed the mirror, and come to think of it, neither had Lorenzo. We’d both been so consumed with each other—so engaged in direct eye contact—that neither of us had looked away.
“That’s not what I mean,” I continued. “I’m not jealous.”
He arched a single brow and I laughed, wiggling my knee until he sat up. Lorenzo curled his arm around my leg and studied me closely. “Then what is it?”
“I don’t know. I get a sense about people, and there’s something dark around her spirit. A coldness in her eyes. I don’t like the way she degrades your pack with her insensitive words—it’s disrespectful. Most of the men don’t seem to like her, or they simply put up with her. But she only has her sights on you. That kind of woman will tear down your empire. If you don’t choose her, she’ll retaliate. I saw it happen once with a neighboring pack when I lived at home. Everyone watched how Yvonne clung to Nathan—the Packmaster. But he chose another woman and kept Yvonne in the house. She tried to kill his life mate out of spite. That’s why I don’t believe there should be relationships within the pack outside of mated couples.”
“You’ve never wanted to take one of Austin’s brothers—”
“No!” My voice had gone ridiculously loud and I softened it. “No. They’re like my brothers; I don’t think of them that way. But imagine if I fell in love with one of them and he chose another woman. I’d have to live in the same house and watch them. It’s different with Rebecca. I don’t see love in that woman’s eyes. Only greed. She wants the power that mating a Packmaster can give her.”
“That’s to be expected with my position. Most Packmasters choose mates who will strengthen their pack.”
“And love?”
His eyes darkened and I felt his mood shift. “Love tore apart my uncle’s pack. It made him do things that shamed his family.”
“You are not your uncle. Do you know why the women in this pack aren’t having babies? Or do I need to tell you?”
Lorenzo dragged a brown blanket over my legs. I gratefully pulled it up to my breasts and he covered himself beneath it, still sitting beside me.
So I continued to enlighten him. “They live in fear. You have a strong pack, but you press your thumb too mightily on them. It’s an aggressive household and feels more like a military camp than a home. No woman wants to raise her child in this environment. Maybe they haven’t told their mates the reason, but I know. I can see it just as clearly as I can see the look of acknowledgment on your face. You know it to be true. Don’t shut me out. Let’s just have this one night where the both of us can be honest with each other. Tomorrow we’ll go our separate ways and our paths will move apart. Tonight I don’t want you to be Church, or Enzo, or whoever you think you need to be.” I placed my hand across his heart. “Just be him.”
He lifted my hand and kissed the palm.
Outside, the sound of wolves joined in song.
“Hmph,” he said with a subtle laugh, settling next to me and propping his head in his right hand.
“Do they normally shift all hours of the day and night?”
“No. My pack is singing for me. They’ve sung that song during celebrations, like when I bought this land, or the time I battled a foe and won. They must be mistaken. Perhaps they think we’ve defeated Fox’s men.”
Or maybe they thought Lorenzo had found a mate. I’d heard that song before too. That’s what my heart leapt to say, but I kept my thoughts to myself.