Chapter 4 Four

"Feet hurting?" Paris smiled with sympathy."Half-way through."

Only half-way, Lia dug deep for her strength of will.She began to get a rhythm as the time passed however, and her confidence improved, until she landed a tray for table four again.She met Raiden's eyes as she made her way over with their order.

"Brock is taking Paris out for a ride after your shift finishes," Raiden told her, his voice toned low, as she slid the beers onto the table.His voice made her knees want to give way and brought to mind decadent images of skin against skin."I will give you a lift home." It was not an offer - it was an order delivered with the magic of alpha command in his voice.

"Oh," she struggled against the alpha command."That is not necessary."

"It would be unsafe for you to go home alone," he replied."I will take you home."

"Okay," she sighed it.He had a point – traveling home at that time of the morning by public transport wasn't the safest thing to do.But neither was accepting lifts from strangers."Thank you," she added for the sake of politeness.

"Hey," Paris caught her at the bar.Her makeup was beginning to sink into her skin, the eyeliner around her eyes fuzzing slightly into the eyeshadow, and her lips stained in the creases with lipstick rather than wearing any."I am catching a lift home with Brock.Raiden says he will take you."

"Paris, I do not know them.It is not exactly safe to get into a car with strangers." It would be very dangerous, she thought, considering her reaction to the werewolf.Cars and sex had been connected since the first teenagers decided to get inventive in the back seat.If the werewolf used his alpha command on her, she would not be able to resist.Hell, if the man so much as looked at her suggestively, she suspected she would make like Paris and simply drop her panties.

"That is fine," Paris laughed."As it will be a motorbike."

"Paris!" Could you have sex on a motorbike, Lia wondered immediately, and then felt like burying her face into her hands.What was her obsession with sex all of a sudden?

Brock and Raiden lingered at the bar talking with Elior in lowered voices long after the club closed and the other guests were shown out, and Paris and Lia wiped down the tables and stacked the chairs on top of them aware that all three men watched them discretely.

Lia met Raiden's eyes as she and Paris slipped through the door into the dark hallway.He smiled in a reassuring way, his eyes warm and friendly.Trust me, his smile seemed to say, I will look after you.

Yes, Lia wanted to reply, but they probably had different ideas of what looking after her meant.Her mind slid into the decadent gleam of bronzed skin and muscle moving in sensual ways, and she tried to pull herself together as she followed Paris down the hall.

In the change room, Paris split their tips as Lia steamed their uniforms.Paris was excited about her date with Brock and chattered brightly as she divided the money and fixed her makeup.

"Are you sure?" Lia hesitated as they turned off the lights in the change room and made their way down the dark hallway to the alleyway door.

"Trust me, Lia.Brock and Raiden are good guys.It is safer than dating a guy off an app."

"I don't date guys off apps," Lia muttered as they stepped out into the cold.

Two motorbikes blew steam out into the darkness, waiting for them.There was something savage and dangerous about these growling mechanical beasts patiently biding their time until the two women mounted them.Something primal and basic, and utterly in character for werewolves.

"That is because you just don't date.Relax, have fun for once," Paris' said under her breath, before smiling and running up to Brock.She put on the helmet he offered her and swung onto the motorbike behind him without hesitation.

Lia approached Raiden cautiously."I have never been on a motorbike before," she admitted releasing her hair from its ponytail and sliding the tie around her wrist, feeling as if this lift home had far more significance than the werewolf helping his friend to spend some time with his girl by making sure her friend got home safely.

"Here," he grinned, flashing strong white teeth, and slid the helmet over her head before doing up the strap.He was being very careful to appear unintimidating and friendly, she thought and wondered if she looked as if she would bolt at the slightest provocation."You look cute," he told her, holding the helmet between his palms.

"Sure, I do," she said dubiously, smiling despite herself."How do I get on?"

He swung a long leg over the bike easily."Footrest," he showed her, "and over just like I did."

"You are not wearing heels and a skirt," she laughed, half in protest.

"No," he agreed with a grin."C'mon, you are a ballerina, right? This is nothing compared to one of those high kicks."

She put the toe of her shoe onto the footrest and swung herself into the seat behind him with a gasp as the angle of the seat slid her into contact with his body.She wanted so much, she thought, to press herself up against him but shyness had her pushing back to create space between them.

"Good," he said with approval."Hands around my waist."

Hands around his waist… She took a deep breath and hoped that the fresh air disguised the scent of desire that she knew had to be simply flooding off of her as she moved closer to him, letting the angle of the seat to press her against his back, and she wrapped her arms around his waist.God, she thought as she gingerly did so, the situation was designed to spike her pulse and drive her body to the edge of its tolerances.The leather of his jacket combined with the smoked scent of lavender and citrus was just like the man himself, an intoxicating mix of safe and dangerous.

She felt his body shake with laughter.

"Don't be so polite," he took her wrists and brought her tighter against his back until her palms were against his stomach.The jacket was open, and there was only the thin fabric of his top between her hands and the muscles she could feel tense with his chuckle."You don't want to fall off."

He did something to the bike, and it began to roll down the alleyway at a sedate pace, the bike bumping beneath her as it rolled over the pavement and onto the road.She tightened her grip reflexively and felt him laugh again.

The bike picked up speed, weaving between the cars, and she clung on, before laughing as they burst free of the traffic.

It must be a little like flying, she thought, feeling the wind against her as she hurtled forward at speeds her body had no way of achieving on its own.She leaned against Raiden's back and laughed as they raced through the darkness.

He made his way unerringly into the suburbs, slowing as they approached her street until he stopped in the driveway.She was almost certain that he had been the biker who had seemed to stare back at her through her window and flushed remember how he had featured in her fantasies before she had even seen his face or known his name.

She slid from the bike and struggled with the release of the helmet.He took his helmet off easily, hanging it off the backrest of the bike, and swung off the bike.

"Here," he said, laughing.His brunette curls were a mess from the helmet.He untied the helmet from beneath her chin and lifted the helmet from her.

She ran her fingers through her hair.He put the helmet onto the rear seat and reached out, smoothing his hands over her hair, still laughing at her.

"There.Beautiful," he murmured as the expression in his eyes changed from laughter to desire, and the air was stolen from her lungs as he pulled her against him.

His body was big, hot, and hard, and the scent of citrus and lavender clung, as he kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, the lingering flavor of beer giving way to something that was just him and made her pulse race wildly.He tasted right, she thought, as if she had spent her life waiting for that subtle, undefinable flavor.

She felt her knees give, and he seemed to take that as invitation to draw her closer, tugging her hips against his, so that she could feel his hard on pushing through his jeans.Her pulse raced, and she moaned, her body knowing very well what it wanted and pressing back against his, so that they both groaned.His lips caressed their way to her ear.

"Invite me in," he breathed, his voice hoarse with desire.There was no alpha command in it.He was not coercing her into it.But he did not need to.She wanted to, very much.Her body craved his skin against it, and her heart pounded hard.

"I can't," she whispered reluctantly fighting against herself.

"Why not?" He was working his way down her neck and her head dropped back heavily on her neck, exposing the column of her throat to him.Oh god, she thought, arching into him, as if lifting her breasts in invitation."You want me," he said it with absolute certainty, as he had every right to, she admitted.His keen sense of smell would be telling him exactly how much she wanted him, and she wanted him oh so very much.

Why not?

Because her grandmother had always warned her about getting involved in the Other world, and although her grandmother had always been odd, and in the last few years had become senile, her words haunted Cecelia's mind, as did the cautions to always hide what she was from humans and Others alike.

And because she had a magic book hidden in a magic tower inside of her house where sometimes her grandmother's ghost still walked the rooms as if she had forgotten that she had died, and she did know if the werewolf would be able to detect the magic or see the ghost, and if he did, she would have admit to him what she was.

And, most of all because if she took the werewolf into her house, her bedroom, her bed, she suspected that he would claim her as his and want to turn her at the next full moon, and she was worried that she might want that too.It was not the sort of thing a girl should just leap into in a moment of passion.

"It is alright," he murmured, brushing his lips against her cheek."We have only just met.I understand.We can take it at whatever pace you want to set, Lia."

"I am sorry," Lia said breathlessly.

She wanted, very much, to ask him inside, but at the same time was frightened by her sudden recklessness after a lifetime of being sensible in her pursuit of dance.She wasn't even on contraceptives, she told herself sternly.She was hardly prepared to start bringing virtual strangers into her bed.

Raiden stroked a lock of her hair behind her ear, his eyes gentle."It doesn't matter.Maybe next time," he said softly with easy acceptance."Okay then," he leaned forward and kissed her, lingering, and she felt the heat rise between them again.It was very tempting, very, very, tempting to invite him in, she thought again her body rebelling against her mind, and when he drew back, she saw from his eyes that he knew it.

He smiled."Until next time, Lia." As she stepped away, he held her hand until the last second, their fingertips grazing still as she made her way up the path, the werewolf reluctant to release her.He watched from the bike as she unlocked the front door, starting it with a roar and putting on his helmet only once she was in her front hall.