Wait. Is thathim? The possibility shimmers through my veins until I realize that Ihave, in fact, seen that man before. I glimpsed him this morning at the coffee shop. God, it feels like eons ago.
“He looks pissed, doesn’t he?” With a smirk, Zed points the man out with his chin—as if I could miss him. “See him? Arms crossed. Resting bastard face.”
I’m not comfortable with staring, but I can’t deny the compulsion to give him another quick look, then another. “Not pissed, exactly.”
“No? What would you call that expression?”
The man catches us watching him, shakes his head and looks away, as if annoyed or bored, although the next time I glance over, our eyes meet and there’s a snap of something in the air.
You, my body thrums.You you you.
He looks away, totally uninterested.
Oh. Okay. Maybe not. I feel silly. Disappointed.
“You meet him yet?”
“That guy?”
“The Overlord,” Zed intones in a movie trailer voice.
I look up at him. “TheOverlord?”
“This is his place. All of it.”
Him?I dare another quick glance, for which I’m again rewarded—or is it punished?—by a crackle of…interest? Attraction? Is that what this is? I mean, I like the way he looks, I guess. Definitely more my speed than this tall, dimpled, cocky situation that Zed’s got going on, with his neatly trimmed body hair, the easy, white smile, and muscles that are way too artfully strung over his taut, towering frame.
He’s hot, yes, butthatman…
I give the Overlord another furtive glance. God, you’d need a bulldozer to move someone like that.
“His place?” I murmur, not understanding and barely aware of the crowd flowing past, the kinksters playing dirty games, the low thrum of music—everything but the presence of that man, bored in his corner, unaffected by it all. A woman stops and winds her arms around his neck, drawing his attention away. He peels her off him, gentle, but firm, and turns away. A minute later, someone else appears beside him, gushing at him effusively, which even I can see from this distance is about as effective as water splashing on rock.
“Yeah. So… You’re curious, huh? Curious is good.” Zed’s leaning down to watch me in a way I don’t like at all. It’s not lascivious in the least. No, that wouldn’t bother me nearly as much as the…shrewd look he’s giving me.I know what you are, it seems to say.I know what you’re doing here.“I’ll look for you at some point, Grace,” he says with a wink before cutting into the steadily-moving stream of people on his way to meet his friend.
I don’t watch him go and I definitely don’t let myself look at that other man. I want to, but I don’t.
Instead, I find the nearest door to the outside, shove it open, and gulp in huge breaths of humid night air before tromping back to the Thunderdome, where rather than pass out in my fancy tent as planned, I put pen to paper and let all my pent-up emotions flow.
13
Grace
I thinkabout putting up another note the next day. I know, I know. I shouldn’t.
I should live in the moment and let what happened happen and move on, but I can’t. I mean, I will, but I don’t want to.
I want to see him again. Well, not see, but feel. Touch, listen. I want to be near him again. I want to be taken up against a tree. On the ground. Wherever we fall.
“Maybe you should play with someone else,” Max suggests when I tell her my thoughts. “There are other Primals, Grace. Plenty of guys here would be more than happy to fulfill a forced sex fantasy, even if it’s more yours than theirs.
Maybe she’s right.
Max, a therapist in her day job, and pretty much a sage in a general way, has been the most supportive person in my life these past few years. She’s the one who stuck with me through my parents’ accident. At 21 years old, I went from a care-free art student with dreams of inking people in my own tattoo studio, to a full-time caretaker whose only purpose was to keep my mother alive and the two of us afloat.
“This is a vacation, too, Grace, don’t forget. Your first in forever. Go crazy. Swim in the pool or something. Or, hey, you should go to the Masquerade soiree tonight.”
I perk up. “What’s that?”
