Sighing, Beth glanced out the window again. Scotty and Magnus were still talking, but they were also moving away from the SUV, and she was quite relieved to see that he was wearing his jeans. Whether he’d donned them before or after Magnus had arrived, Beth didn’t know, and she really supposed it didn’t matter. She doubted it had taken more than a heartbeat for the man to figure out what they’d been doing out here in the garage all this time.
That thought made her wonder just how long they’d been out here. How long did those bliss faints last when life mates mated? Beth had no idea, but if she were to go by the hunger cramping her stomach, she’d guess they’d been out here for several hours at least.
That distracted her for a moment, and then Beth realized Scotty was ushering Magnus out of the garage. Relieved that she could now get out and find her pants, she shifted to crawl to the hatchback and then paused to glance toward the two men. They were at the entrance. Magnus stepped out even as she looked, and Scotty leaned against the open door and nodded at something the man was saying.
Deciding that was probably the best time for her to do it, Beth opened the SUV’s hatchback and slid out, then rushed around gathering her clothes. She found her jeans first, and then searched for her underwear. They were nowhere to be found, but she did find her torn T-shirt and her bra.
Giving up on her panties for now, Beth quickly tugged her jeans on, did them up and found her underwear when they fell out of the bottom of her jeans. Grimacing, she snatched them up and shoved them in her pocket. She then turned her attention to her bra, only to grimace when she saw that it had been torn where it connected at the front between the two cups. Beth didn’t recall it happening. Actually, she couldn’t remember it being removed at all, but things had gotten a bit wild a time or two, so . . .
“Ye’re awake.”
Beth glanced around to see Scotty hurrying back toward her. Retreating from his reaching arms, Beth grimaced and said with a little embarrassment, “I need a shower. And we should probably go get those groceries. I’m rather hungry.”
“Ah, no need to get the groceries,” Scotty told her almost apologetically. “Odilia and Donny took care of that yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” Beth echoed blankly, and then understanding struck and she asked with alarm, “It’s Sunday? What time—” The question died on her lips as she glanced toward the dirty windows and noted the light managing to get inside. It wasn’t the gray light of early dawn. In fact, it looked like the bright light of early afternoon.
“It’s all right,” he assured her. “It’s only eleven o’clock. We have time to get to the airfield.”
“Oh my God,” Beth breathed, rushing for the door.
“Wait, Beth!” Scotty followed on her heels. “We need to talk.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?” she cried, pushing out into the sunshine.
“Because I wasn’t awake either. Magnus woke me up just moments ago to warn me that it was growing late.”
“Dear God, I need to shower, change, make sure I have everything packed and—I didn’t even get a proper visit with Matias. He’ll be annoyed with me. I—Dammit, I wanted to call Kira and be sure she is still returning with us. Bloody hell, I hope there’s room for everyone on the plane. She’s bringing her bodyguards, you know.”
“Nay, I didn’t know. But . . .” Scotty let his words die and slowed to a halt as Beth reached the back door and slipped inside. She was still rattling off things she had to do when the door closed behind her.
“So much for talking,” he muttered to himself and then gave a start when a wet nose pressed into his palm.
“Piper likes you,” Matias commented, making his presence known.
Scotty petted the Doberman and found it oddly soothing.
“I take it you sorted out everything with Beth?” Matias asked after a brief silence.
Scotty shook his head. “I meant to, but we just . . .” He waved vaguely toward the garage.
“Ah,” Matias said, sounding disappointed. “So, she hasn’t heard and accepted your explanation for why you had not claimed her?”
“Yet.” Scotty stressed the word. “I had not claimed her yet. I was always going to claim her eventually.”
Matias eyed him dubiously. “Are you sure about that?”
“Of course,” he said firmly, and then added, “When we met she was traumatized by her experiences and her turn. I was just waiting for her to heal.”
“Are you sure you were not waiting to see if she would finally fall completely apart and you could have the three-on-one mind wipe performed on her?” Matias asked quietly. “A clean slate. No memories of her days in the brothel, so you could forget about that yourself?”
“That wasn’t—” Scotty frowned. “They are bad memories for her. I thought only to ease her suffering.”
“Oh, sí, of course.” Matias didn’t sound as if he believed him, and then he said, “When she told me about your wanting to perform the mind wipe on her, I did wonder . . .”
“What?” Scotty asked warily when Matias fell silent.
“I wondered what would have happened if you had managed to convince Dree to let you perform the three-on-one,” he admitted. “Would Beth have still been a possible life mate for you? Or would the removal of those memories of her past have changed her personality so that you were no longer suitable to be life mates? We are all shaped by our experiences, after all.”
“So you are a Rogue Hunter in the UK? How did you become one?”
Beth smiled faintly as Kira leaned toward Odilia with obvious interest. Other than the fact that Kira was a blonde and Odilia had long dark hair that was a blend of chestnut, umber, hickory and chocolate, the women were very similar. They were both beautiful, both stood about nine inches taller than her and both outweighed her by a good twenty pounds. Beth wasn’t surprised that Kira would be interested in the other woman’s experiences.
A laugh from the back of the plane drew her gaze, and Beth watched Scotty interacting with the men. He, Donny, Magnus, and Rickart had taken up positions leaning against the wall by the bathrooms when they’d boarded. Kira had shown up with all four of her bodyguards, and as Beth had feared, there weren’t enough seats on the plane for everyone. That being the case, the men had left the seats for the women. There would have been just enough seats if Scotty’s people hadn’t appeared on the scene, but now there was one seat going empty because none of the men would lay claim to it.
Rather like her, Beth thought suddenly. She was an unclaimed seat. Only there was only one man who should claim her, and he wasn’t interested. At least, he hadn’t said he was claiming her, or even asked if she would let him during all those hours in the garage. They’d just screwed like frantic bunnies until they ran out of time. Some women might have seen that as his staking a claim, but Beth wasn’t foolish enough to do so. Thanks to her life as a mortal, she’d had a lot of men in her bed, and watched just as many leave it. Sex—even wild, passionate sex—was not a declaration of anything. It was just sex.
“Please, tell me. Da?”