Jodi Redford - Cat Scratch Fever

“Sure.”

Great. Now his arrogance would truly know no bounds. Grumping beneath her breath, she scuffed her boot heels on the floor mat.

“What about the mating do you want to talk about?”

“Noth—”

“Lilly,” Dante prodded warningly.

“You know, most males prefer not getting into these types of conversations.”

“I’d rather we get everything out in the open now, versus you springing it on me when I’m least expecting it.”

She drummed her nails on the armrest, waiting for him to return his focus to the road. Once he did, she expelled her breath in a rush. “I’m curious if you feel weird about it. That’s all.”

“Why would I feel weird?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you bit my freaking neck and got all growly and possessive.”

His eyebrows formed a low V. “I told you what was going to happen.”

“You did not mention those last two things.”

“Lilly, I’m a werewolf. Growly and possessive is what we’re all about.”

She remained quiet for a moment while she digested his words. “Does that mean you’d be that way with anyone you mated?” From the corner of her eye, she noticed the wariness settling on his gorgeous face.

“Why do I get the feeling that anything I say might be used against me twenty years from now?”

“Fine. Forget it.” She went to adjust the volume on the radio, but Dante gripped her hand, stalling her. It was her turn to give him an uncertain look.

“No, I wouldn’t have been the same with someone else.” The heat in his eyes backed up his words.

Dante’s admission stirred a mix of happiness and trepidation in her belly. This was getting way more serious than she’d signed on for. A business arrangement was one thing. She knew how to deal with that. Anything else was terrifying territory.

The remainder of the trip passed by in an agonizingly slow drag. By the time they reached the outskirts of Rochester, Lilly’s nerves were stretched tighter than a wire.

“Which exit did you say again?”

She glanced at the dashboard clock. “I’ve changed my mind. We’ll go to Kinsey’s place first, then swing by my house.”

If Dante was surprised by her snap decision to take the bull by the horns, he didn’t let on. “Which way?”

She gave him the directions and fidgeted with the seam on the side of the seat as he took the correct off-ramp. By going to Kinsey’s now, she was in essence killing two birds with one stone. She’d be getting the dreaded speech done with. And her sister’s no-nonsense approach to things would be the perfect reminder about the reason for this entire charade.

Yes, charade . Because that was what this was, after all. Right? Hell, even the fact that Dante was here with her now was merely out of convenience. If not for the meeting with his distributors tomorrow morning, there’d be no reason for him to spend this time with her. He certainly wasn’t doing it because their relationship was real .

Less than twenty minutes later they pulled in front of Kinsey’s modest ranch house. A groan floated from Lilly when she spied her mom’s Lincoln Continental already parked in the drive.

“Something wrong?”

“I wasn’t expecting my mom to be here.”

“Look on the bright side. Now you won’t have to break the news twice.”

“Believe me, my mother won’t be the difficult one to convince. All you’ll have to do is lay on that werewolf charm, and she’ll be putty in your hands.” Unfortunately, that’d always been the case for Chloe Prescott—a detrimental weakness for hunky heartbreakers.

Lilly gave Dante a covert glance. He certainly fit hunky to a tee, but what about the heartbreaker part?

She had no intention of finding out the answer to that, if she could help it. With a determined shove, she wrenched the door open before Dante had an opportunity to dash to her side of the vehicle. Ignoring his wry look when she met him at the front end of the truck, she led the way to the porch and rang the bell.

A few seconds later Kinsey opened the door, her greeting petering into the ether when she spotted Dante. Her gaze panned between him and Lilly. A groan sprang to Kinsey’s lips. “Oh crap. What did Lilly do this time?”

Lilly scowled at her sister. “Must you always jump to that conclusion?”

“Yes, I’ve seen you in action, remember?”

Chuckling, Dante swung his arm around Lilly’s waist. “Don’t worry. She’s been behaving. Mostly.”

Kinsey’s eyebrows threatened to get lost in her hairline. Lilly wasn’t sure if that was due to Dante’s affectionate, albeit territorial hug or the possibility of Lilly actually behaving.

“Okay,” Kinsey said slowly, as if she were waiting for the punch line.

“Is it all right if we come in?” Lilly asked pointedly.

A flush crept across Kinsey’s cheeks. “Sorry, yes. Of course. Mom and I were just about to have dinner. Why don’t you join us?”

“That’s not necessary. This won’t take long.”

Dante rubbed the back of Lilly’s neck, his thumb caressing the mating mark that was concealed beneath her hair. “Actually, dinner sounds good.”

She debated stomping on his foot, both for thwarting her plan to enact a fast getaway after spilling the beans, and drawing her attention to the incriminating bite. But those steel-toed boots of his would only make the gesture useless. Not that it stopped her from shooting him a hard glare when Kinsey wasn’t looking. Ducking his head, he banished Lilly’s surliness with a kiss containing enough tongue action to be quick yet suitably hot. Unfortunately, the kiss also managed to rekindle her hormones, which had up till then been on their best behavior all day, damn it.

She broke away from Dante and licked her lips. “Well played, wolfman. But I’m still pissed at you.” She pasted on a smile just as Kinsey stepped inside the entry and turned to face them.

While Kinsey held the door aloft, Lilly and Dante trooped inside and shrugged from their coats. After storing everything on the nearby bench that acted as a catchall, Lilly took Dante’s hand and strode toward the kitchen, where the unmistakable and mouthwatering scent of Chloe’s world-famous chicken cacciatore emanated from. They stepped into the spacious room, and Lilly gazed at her mother’s profile. Garbed in her bright pink apron and humming some vaguely familiar tune, Chloe Prescott looked the picture of the domestic goddess. She was everything that Lilly wasn’t.

Lilly had worked hard the majority of her life to make sure of that. Not that she didn’t love her mom, because she did—with her whole being. Which only made her ache inside that much more every time she’d witnessed the pain and depression her mom had undergone living all those years with Rob Prescott’s tomcatting ways.

Unfortunately, Chloe had always been the exception to the typical female lynchat. She’d never been in possession of a backbone and believed that a woman stuck by her man no matter what. It’d finally taken Rob doing the right thing for the first time in his life—initiating the divorce proceedings—to make Chloe see the light. For the most part, anyway. Lilly knew Chloe still pined for her husband, despite everything he’d put her through during the rocky twenty-eight years of their marriage.

Chloe dragged in an audible breath before slapping her oven mitts on the kitchen counter and turning. She gave a startled jump when she spotted everyone clustered in the archway. “Lilly!” A beaming smile lighting up her perfect, porcelain features, Chloe clapped her hands in delight and rushed forward to offer a warm hug.

Lilly’s eyes misted as she returned her mom’s embrace. As always, Chloe’s familiar cinnamon scent brought a tidal wave of childhood memories rushing back. Most of them revolved around Chloe engaged in one of her manic baking sessions while waiting for Rob to come to his senses and leave his current mistress’s bed. To this day, Lilly couldn’t look at a chocolate-chip cookie without feeling queasy.