His Stolen Luna

5. Finding the Way

~ JOHN-PAUL ~

He huffed a laugh and found he suddenly wanted to serve her with more opportunities to be cute.

But, unaware of his train of thought, Lark got very thoughtful.

“So you really had nothing to do with your cousins bringing me here? Or is this just some convoluted way to make me think you’re a good guy? Because, I mean, I’m kind of down for the whole idea of getting the packs off my back? But I told you, I’m not going to invite you. So, if this is some weird kind of reverse psychology or whatever, we should both just walk away. Rumors of my power have been greatly exaggerated.”

John-Paul raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“Yes. So you can stop eyeing me like a piece of fillet.”

She sighed then and her shoulders slumped. “Look, I don’t know. That’s the truth. But let’s just say, if I found out my father had exaggerated my power in order to gain power himself, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

That pissed John-Paul off. He realized he was more angry with her father than he was with his own pack for bringing her here.

“I think,” he said carefully, “that there’s potential for both of us in this place. Are you in?”

She took a deep breath, but then she smiled. “I think so. Yeah,” she said. Then she turned to smile at him and he felt it in his gut. When their eyes met, electricity crackled between them.

Lark blew out the breath she’d taken. “But… if we aren’t completing the bond, how are we going to fight this draw?”

John-Paul grunted and sat back on the couch, clawing a hand through his hair.

But she didn’t take her eyes off him. “I’ve never felt this before. Have you?”

His lips twisted, but he made himself be honest. “No. It’s never been this strong before.”

“But you’ve felt a bond before?”

“Yes.”

“So we just… deny it?

“Deny ourselves,” he said flatly. “Keep your eyes on the prize—our mutual freedom from our meddling families. Independence. And a big f**k you to your father, and my enemies.”

She nodded. “And when we don’t have any kids?”

He shrugged. “It’s not exactly something we can control, is it?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Seems like that’s exactly what we’d be doing,” she pointed out.

He huffed. “I guess you’re right. But it’s the only way forward I can see unless you have another idea?”

Lark gave that some thought—and he found he loved that when he made a suggestion she seemed to actually consider it. Not just throw things at him as if she’d already thought of them.

“Nope,” she said finally. “I don’t have a better idea. Honestly, this is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.” Then she looked at him again and John-Paul had to clench his hand on his thigh to stop himself from reaching for her.

“Wow, so we’re really going to do this?”

“I think so.”

And then he smiled.

*****

~ LARK ~

It gave her a strange feeling when he smiled at her—a fizzing kind of hope, all tangled up with that frustrating heat. But then he turned away and launched into an entirely different talk.

“If I learned anything from my previous bond, it was that there are many… expectations that are easy to hold over a mate without even realizing it. Why don’t we discuss the details, and make sure we can actually do this? And then, yes. If we’re both agreed… it’s an answer that would suit me.”

She found the temptation to touch him so strong, that she asked him to sit at the table instead, so there’d be a barrier between them. She thought he might question the idea, but he actually looked relieved. Though he did glance at her as if he knew why she had suggested it.

When they were settled across the table from each other she cursed herself. Sitting on the couch, it might have been easier to touch him, but she’d been able to naturally look at other things. Now she sat facing him in all his Alpha-smelling glory and Lark almost groaned.

He’d rolled his sleeves up earlier to bare his forearms, but now he’d loosened a button or two as well, revealing a v of skin at the base of his throat that displayed strong collarbones and a hint of the flat planes of his pecs. Staring at it made Lark’s mouth go dry, so she looked down at the table. But he’d rested his arms there and his hand…

The tendons that stretched across the back of his palm, the thick knuckles… every line of his body spoke of restrained strength, that impossible control that a powerful male always seemed to have over his own body, and the world it inhabited.

Lark cleared her throat. She needed to think about something else.

“What would this look like? I mean… we’d have to live together otherwise the packs won’t believe it. We’d have to share a bedroom, otherwise, they’ll catch on.”

Visions of sharing a bedroom with him swam in her head and Lark’s heart rate increased. He raised an eyebrow—he’d heard it. But then his own picked up as well and Lark had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling.

John-Paul frowned. “You’re right,” he muttered. He didn’t sound happy about it. Lark’s stomach dropped. But then he sat back in his chair. “It’s okay, my bedroom is large enough for both of us. And there’s a lounger there, in front of the fireplace. You can have the bed and I’ll sleep on the lounge.”

His words conjured more images—herself lying in one of the huge beds the Alpha males generally needed. In the dark. A fire crackling on the hearth. And his form silhouetted, walking slowly towards her as if he’d risen from darkness itself.

He was the darkness.

She could smell him—that pine and musk underlined with something distinctly masculine. Distinctly him. And she thought about being in the quiet dark and smelling that.

Then she thought about… what if he wanted to be in the dark… but with someone else?

Her breath whooshed out of her and she drew herself up, frowning.

His eyes sharpened. “What?”

“If it’s getting announced to everyone... if they all think we’re mates, I can’t do the cheating thing. It’s just… I can’t do it.”

“Cheating?”

“If you’re going to bring other females around or go mate with others, this won’t work. I watched that with my parents and it just destroyed my mother. It’s a non-negotiable for me.”

He snorts. “Don’t worry.”

She gave him a flat look. “John-Paul, let’s not play games. You’re a handsome and powerful wolf. You can’t tell me, even with your reputation, you don’t get plenty of offers.”

“Actually, the only females I spend time with are family. There’s no draw there. I’ve removed all females from my immediate circle at work, and I do not socialize. You might have noticed?”

She frowned. “That sounds like… not a lot of fun. Why?”

His eyes lost their shine. “There’s always a risk that a mate bond would take us by surprise. I can’t risk forming one by accident and getting someone killed. It isn’t worth it for a simple night of pleasure.”

The words ‘night of pleasure’ conjured those images of him stalking her in the dark, the flames behind him again. It sent a ripple up her spine. She had to press her thighs together and—

“That’s going to be a problem,” he muttered, his chin low and eyes fierce on her.

Lark blushed. “I’m sure I’ll get used to this. I’ve just never been around someone who made me want to mate before. The males in my circle are all either ambitious or weak.”

He closed his eyes and gave a tiny whine, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers like he had a headache. “You’re really a virgin? You’ve really never—”

“Never. My father never allowed it. And by the time I was old enough to really want to explore that, all the good ones were taken.”

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a look that spoke as loudly as if he’d used his voice.

He hadn’t been taken.

But Lark just returned his gaze and didn’t correct herself.

In the end, John-Paul gave a low chuckle, the depth and richness of it twirled in her belly. “Well, I’ll certainly never have to be concerned that you might use words to stroke my ego.”

“I give compliments when they’re due,” she said primly. “But I don’t flatter.”

He nodded. “I have a similar approach.”

They stared at each other and that electric power crackled between them again. They both ignored it and turned back to the conversation. He began to speak as if it were a business meeting.

Money. Taxes. Appearances in public.

“…it would be far simpler to make it a union in truth—as far as the details. If you’ll trust me to keep you in the manner to which you’re accustomed, I believe it will be easier to continue the ruse if we just live as we would if we were, in fact, bonded.”

Lark nodded. In truth, she’d never had to handle finances, or cars, or… anything. Her father had handled everything. And even though it was stifling, she realized at that moment all the ways she had been sheltered.

“I’m happy for you to handle those—as long as you explain them to me,” she said. “Show me how they should be done. Clearly, you’re successful. If anything ever happened to you, I’d like to know how to… manage.”

He nodded. “A good idea.”

“And I want training.”

“Of course.”

“No, John-Paul, I’m serious. You said he was wrong to keep me out of that side of things. I want to train for real. I want to fight. I want to… get stronger.”

He nodded, his face serious. “I think that should be our priority,” he said. “Any decent Alpha would have provided that to you already. I’d be as bad as him if I didn’t start immediately.”

Lark experienced a strange internal turmoil then. She agreed with him. She wanted what he was offering. But her father… he’d taken good care of her, too. Even though she didn’t like how he’d done it, the truth was, her reputation was something that brought a lot of danger and complications. If her father had done one thing, he’d kept her safe through it all.

Well, as much as anyone could have.

“That’s good,” she said. “That all sounds… really good.”

John-Paul swallowed, but his expression didn’t change, and he didn’t drop his gaze. “Then, I guess the next question is how do we break this to your father?”

That was the bucket of cold water that Lark’s nether regions needed.