Chapter 5
A month earlier…
Aubrey Silver’s dad, Gary Silver, who was the head of their clan and referred to as the Chief, had just canceled her betrothal to Ryan Brown, the Alpha werewolf whom she’d nearly killed a woman for, out of jealousy barely five days ago. Now here she was sharing a drink with his cousin, Eric Brown, who has been her father’s associate for about a year now. Aubrey only had a passing knowledge of Eric since they’d rarely crossed paths in the last twelve months he’d worked with her dad.
They sat at her father’s grand in-house bar, sharing a bottle of Remy Martins and trying to have a conversation. As she sipped her drink, Aubrey studied Eric over the rim of her glass. His dark brown hair was parted on the left side, and it gleamed in daylight like polished mahogany, his green-grey eyes were framed with thick, short eyelashes under full, dark eyebrows. He had a perfectly chiseled face with prominent cheekbones, an aristocratic nose, and plump lips. He was a beautiful man compared to his cousin, Ryan, who was ruggedly handsome.
For the hundredth time, Aubrey wondered why she’d never noticed this guy before even though she’d run into him a couple of times since he started working with her dad. Was I so blinded by my love for Ryan that I didn’t notice anyone else all this while? She wondered. What else have I missed out on?
“Tell me about yourself,” she said with a flirtatious smile.
“What do you want to know?” He asked.
“Everything.”
Eric was having a hard time figuring out what game his boss’s daughter was playing with him, but he was enjoying the drama, nonetheless. She sat on the bar stool with her back looking straight as a pole. Her long, silky, black hair was held back in a severe ponytail that showed off all the angles of her oval face. Her thin eyebrows were winged perfectly, overlooking those lustrous eyelashes that framed her doe hazel eyes. Her pointed nose towered over a pair of wide lips that rarely smiled. A thin gold necklace with a crescent moon pendant hung from her long neck. She was dressed in a black cold-shoulder blouse, with a cobalt blue flared skirt. Eric suspected that the outfit was from her clothing line.
Nearly everyone in the clan regarded Aubrey as a snob because of her anti-social tendencies, and the handful of friends she had were either the daughters of her father’s business associates or acquaintances from school that she’d converted to friends. Eric had never exchanged more than a few pleasantries with her in the past one year, but here he was sharing a drink with her in her father’s bar. Wonder of wonders!
He took a sip of his drink and rewarded her with his famous knock-em-dead smile. He was in the mood to play her little game today.
“There really isn’t much to know about me,” he said in response to her previous request. “I’m an open book.”
“Well, there has to be something to read even in an open book,” she replied. “Or is yours empty?”
He wasn’t sure if that question was an innuendo, so he let it slide and said, “I’m just a regular guy from a regular family, living a regular life.”
Aubrey chuckled. “You’re still not telling me anything.”
“Ok, fine. My dad is Antoine Brown’s younger brother, and if you don’t know, he runs a thriving trading post here in Fairbanks where you can get all sorts of indigenous memorabilia and pawn valuable stuff.”
“Wow, I didn’t know there was such a store around here,” she said.
“You don’t hang around here much,” he replied.
“Touché,” she smiled.
Eric was right. Aubrey had spent a major part of the last decade in Anchorage, growing her fashion business. Even before she began her business, she’d never spent more than a few weeks in Fairbanks—she was either away at school or going on an expedition trip somewhere abroad. She’d done everything she could to avoid being at home for long because the house, the neighborhood and everything around it reminded her that her mother wasn’t here anymore.
“And the rest of your family?” She prompted Eric.
“I have a sister,” Eric answered. “She’s in college in Texas.”
“That’s a world away from here,” she remarked.
“That’s the idea.”
There was silence. It stretched for too long and it became awkward. It seemed they both had nothing else to say, but Eric wasn’t ready to hang his boots just yet. He needed to know why Aubrey suddenly took an interest in him.
“What are we doing here?” He asked abruptly.
“Why, we’re drinking,” Aubrey replied, trying to sound flippant.
“Let’s cut to the chase Aubrey, what do you want?”
She felt a bit uncomfortable with his probing questions. But then, why had she invited him for a drink? Why was she trying so hard to initiate a conversation with him? What did she want? She glanced at Eric and saw him regarding her with those gorgeous eyes of his. She had never seen him in werewolf form, and she wondered what he looked like as a wolf.
Aubrey shrugged a slim shoulder. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said.
“Fine then,” Eric said and finished his drink in one gulp. He was done playing games and it was time for him to move on. “Thanks for the drink. I’ll be on my way out now,” he said and dropped his glass on the table before rising off the bar stool he’d been sitting on.
Desperation made Aubrey fast; she’d been out of the dating pool for too long that her flirting game had become rusty, so instead of enticing Eric with her suggestive invitation, she’s only succeeded in driving him away. She sprang to her feet and stood in front of him to block his way. He looked down at her with a puzzled expression, his lips parted with an unspoken question. Aubrey saw her chance and she pushed herself against him, rose on tiptoes till they were standing nose to nose, and then grabbed him behind the neck to draw him closer. She met his lips with hers and kissed him with as much passion as she could muster, while trying to hide her nervousness.
Eric hesitated, confused. He wasn’t sure what was going on even as Aubrey’s lips moved against his, her teeth grazing his lower lip as she inserted her soft tongue into his mouth. Was she drunk? Was she testing him? Was this part of her game? What the hell was going on?
He pulled away from her gently and tore his lips from hers. “What are you doing?”
“Kissing you, of course,” Aubrey said and nearly added a duh, to her reply. “Don’t you like to be kissed?”
Eric chuckled. “I like to be kissed, but you took me by surprise. I thought you and Ryan are betrothed to each other, and he was here with his folks a while ago, wasn’t he?”
Aubrey scoffed. “News flash, we are no longer getting married. My dad called it off. He met someone else and fell in love with her.”
“Ouch,” Eric said, hearing the hurt in her voice. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s ok. I’m over it,” she said with a fake cheerful smile.
“No, you’re not,” Eric said, giving her a sympathetic look. “You’re just doing this to get back at him.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about Ryan. It’s over between me and him and I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Damn it! This is going the way I pictured it in my head.”
Eric gave her a knowing smile. “You imagined that you’d kiss me, and I’d melt in your arms, and we’d fall over each other having sex like those well-placed random strangers in porn movies?”
Aubrey giggled. “Something like that. Now you’ve ruined the mood with your 21 questions.”
He laughed. “Sorry.”
“Whatever.”
Eric wasn’t going to lie to himself and pretend as if he wasn’t attracted to Aubrey. He’d caught himself a few times wondering what it would be like to get intimate with a haughty lady like her, but he’d usually banished those thoughts immediately they formed because he knew she belonged to Ryan. But not anymore; she was now free and available, and this was finally an opportunity for him to find out what she was like sexually. He closed the distance between them with two steps and pulled her against his chest. When their lips met this time, there was no pressure or confusion, they flowed easily like two streams running in the same direction. As the kiss deepened, Eric ran a hand down her back until he found her small round butt. He gave it a little squeeze, eliciting a soft moan from her. He liked how her slender frame fit perfectly against his own muscular body. We’re a perfect fit, he thought.