He’d already done some research online using the netbook he’d brought with him and a secure site dedicated to Weres. The site had been live for only a few months, so Luna might not know about it. But her grandparents obviously did.
Edwina and Jacques Reynaud used the site to promote their new venture, the Byron Reynaud Foundation, which benefitted orphaned or displaced Weres. Judging from the information Colin found, the Reynauds were kind and generous souls who’d decided to devote their golden years to doing good works. They didn’t seem like the sort to reject a granddaughter who provided the only connection to their beloved son.
Colin wasn’t sure how Luna would react when he told her how he’d spent his morning. But she needed to know what he’d been up to, and a trip to Seattle would give them plenty of time to discuss it. If all went well, they might chance a visit to the Reynauds, although Luna might choose not to identify herself as their granddaughter.
But first he’d needed to get Luna to Seattle. Barging into her office with the suggestion hadn’t seemed right, and then fortune had smiled on him. With less than an hour before takeoff, he’d met her on the stairway and coerced her into coming along. Having Dulcie there to support his plan had been a bonus.
Luna hadn’t wanted to go, which didn’t surprise him. But he was willing to manipulate the situation to get her into the chopper and on her way to Seattle. He’d insulted her background and caused her pain when he’d wanted to give her joy.
She was right to ignore him now. But he fervently hoped that eventually she might get to know her grandparents. Helping her connect with her family again might make up for the fact that he’d unwittingly forced her to reveal her secret.
He passed out the lunch, sandwiches all around and those silly little juice boxes Americans were so fond of. The helicopter ride was as noisy this morning as it had been the last time he’d flown over Puget Sound. He sat back and tried not to be bothered by the easy interaction between Knox and Luna.
Knox took pains to give her a good show, pointing out sights and angling the chopper so she could see more easily. When they flew over a pod of orcas, Luna pressed her nose to the window until they were out of sight, and then gave Knox a dazzling smile and a thumbs-up.
Colin ground his teeth together, not happy with being odd man out even if he deserved it. She used to smile at him like that, but thanks to the phone call and what came afterward, she’d stopped smiling when she looked at him. God, how he missed her smile.
He tried to convince himself a friendship between Knox and Luna was a good thing. Now that Colin had removed Luna’s fear of sex, she was free to explore that side of her nature, and she should after being celibate for so long. He’d been lucky to be her first lover, but he didn’t expect to be her last.
Knox Trevelyan seemed like a considerate, intelligent sort, someone who would appreciate Luna’s finer qualities. Once the inn opened for business, Knox would probably fly guests over on a regular basis. He might even park the chopper on the helipad and stay the night.
Colin’s jaw tightened. Yes, it would be extremely noble of him to give his blessing to a sexual relationship between Knox and Luna. But he wasn’t that noble. Fortunately he’d be in Scotland and wouldn’t know what was going on. He suspected they would gravitate toward each other, though, and his imagination would torture him with images of Knox and Luna together.
By the time Knox landed the helicopter on the roof of the Trevelyan Enterprises building in downtown Seattle, Colin was in a mood. He had no bloody right to be in a mood, either. He had no claim on Luna and would never have one.
But no matter how many times he told himself that, whenever he looked at her, something primitive inside him howled mine. Well, too bad. He was a civilized Were, one who wasn’t ruled by his primitive instincts, thank God. If he were, he would have mated with Luna last night.
He went very still, mesmerized by that unacceptable thought. It had hovered, unacknowledged, in the back of his mind ever since he’d met her. He’d agreed that she could run the inn, but some part of him had known that he had other plans for her.
Those plans hadn’t risen to a conscious level because his pack would object to an American Were with no pack affiliation. He would have had to win them over gradually, but he could have done it. Now, however… now he was caught in a trap of his own making.
Taking Luna as his mate would contradict his belief that the races shouldn’t mix. Because she had human blood, she could potentially bear human children, although the chances were lower than with a human-Were mating. Still, the possibility was there. Unfortunately, knowing that didn’t stop him from wanting her with a desperation that he’d never felt with another female Were.
“Colin?” Knox poked his head in through the passenger door of the chopper. “You coming out?”
That’s when he realized the rotors were quiet and both Luna and Knox stood outside the helicopter, waiting for him to climb down. He wondered how long he’d been sitting there looking totally daft.
“Sorry.” He extricated his sizable body from the small space. “I was thinking about something and lost track of where I was.”
“Obviously.” Knox laughed. “You were gone, man. Completely checked out. I admire that kind of concentration, though.” He held out his hand. “Have a great time in the city.”
“Thanks.” Colin shook Knox’s hand and resisted the urge to apply a little more pressure as a warning that he was a Were to be reckoned with. How juvenile was that?
“Still planning to head back around midnight?”
“Midnight?” Luna shoved her glasses to the top of her head and stared at him. “I can’t stay until midnight, Colin. I have several things to—”
“Humor me.” He smiled at her, knowing she wouldn’t smile back at him the way she had with that cheeky bastard Knox. “I haven’t had dinner at the top of the Space Needle since Geraldine brought me here as a teenager. I made reservations for nine, so we could watch the sunset and see the lights come on. It’s spectacular.”
Her eyes narrowed. Twelve hours ago she would have greeted that story with a soft gaze filled with understanding. Well, that wouldn’t be happening anymore. Clearly she suspected him of being devious, which was right on the mark.
“You’ll love the view from the Space Needle, Luna,” Knox said. “As long as you’re here, you should see it, and the real show doesn’t happen until after dark.”
She turned to Knox, and all the concern Colin used to enjoy was focused on the pilot. “Bless your heart for thinking of me, Knox. But then you’ll be up until the wee hours of the morning. That seems very selfish of us.” She flicked a glance at Colin that plainly said it was selfish of him.
“Hey, Colin pays me well for it, and besides, I get a kick out of night flying. You go enjoy the Space Needle. And then I’ll show you some pretty night views on the way home.”
Colin wondered if it was too late to request a different pilot—a graying, paunchy pilot.
“All right, Knox.” Luna favored him with another warm smile. “You’ve convinced me. Take care.” She pulled her dark glasses over her eyes before turning to Colin. “Shall we go?”
“Yes.” Colin felt a stabbing pain in his right temple.
“That vein in your temple is standing out again,” Luna murmured conversationally as they walked toward the rooftop doorway leading down into the building.
Colin noticed that he no longer rated a bless your heart, either. “I’m not surprised.”
Luna had never been wooed before, and she couldn’t imagine why it was happening now, except that Colin must have liked the sex and wanted more of it. He might think a romantic dinner at the top of the Space Needle would do the trick, but she was determined not to climb back into bed with him. He could fly her to Paris for dinner, and she still wouldn’t get nak*d with Colin MacDowell.
But she couldn’t afford to tick him off, either. He’d promised that their personal relationship would have nothing to do with their business relationship, and so far he’d kept his word. But Dulcie was right. Playing along, at least when it came to the business side of their relationship, was the best plan.
“Let’s visit a hot tub showroom first,” Colin said as they rode an elevator down to the lobby of the Trevelyan Enterprises building. He’d tucked his Wayfarers into an inner pocket of his designer sport coat. “We’ll need to drive a ways, because I checked and there aren’t any in the heart of the city.”
“I wondered about that.” She’d wondered a lot of things about this apparently impromptu trip. “Are you going to drive?” She was pretty sure Scottish people used the wrong side of the road, which could make for some tense moments if Colin planned to take the wheel.
He glanced at her. “Worried that I’ll get us both killed?”
“A little.”
“Well, you can relax. I’ve arranged for a driver.”
“When? I didn’t mention the hot tub until an hour before we left Whittier House.”
“I contacted George Trevelyan right after I talked to you. He gave me the name of a good dealer and offered the loan of a car.”
“Oh.” Luna had always suspected there were advantages to being well connected in the Were world. She’d never had that going for her, not even with Geraldine, who’d been a maverick. Geraldine had never traded on her status as a MacDowell once she left Scotland and had seemed proud of the fact.
Luna thought of something else. “Was it difficult to get a reservation at the restaurant on short notice?”
“George took care of that, too. He made sure we had a table.”
“That George is a handy Were to have around.”
“Yes, he is.” Colin gazed at the numbers flashing by on the elevator and consulted his watch. “We’re right on time.”
Apparently it was an express elevator, because they were in the sparkling marble and gold lobby before Luna had a chance to ask any more questions.
Colin put a hand to the small of her back, a subtle gesture to guide her toward the revolving doors leading to the street. She moved out of reach and walked a little faster. His touch still had the power to affect her, damn it.
So did those electric blue eyes. When he’d mentioned wanting to eat at the top of the Space Needle for old time’s sake, he’d managed to tug at her heartstrings for a split second. She’d quickly squashed that reaction. This entire trip had ulterior motive written all over it.
Stepping quickly into one wedge of the revolving door, she made her way out to the sidewalk. A white stretch limo sat at the curb, engine idling. Surely Colin hadn’t hired a limo to take them hot tub shopping.
He joined her on the sidewalk, and immediately the driver climbed out and opened the passenger door.
Luna glanced back at him. “Seriously?”
“It’s what George had available. All the town cars were in service.”
“I hope you realize that pulling up to a hot tub store in a limo will ruin any chance of getting a bargain.”
Colin smiled. “You’ve obviously forgotten that I’m a Scot. We always get a bargain.”
Now, that was funny. She had to clamp her lips together to keep from laughing.
“It wouldn’t kill you to smile, Luna.”
Instead of answering, she ducked into the limo. Too bad she liked Colin so much. Well, she liked him a lot except when he talked about the dangers of Weres and humans mating. But when he graced her with that amazing smile—the one that made her heart race and her body tremble—then she absolutely hated him for being so tempting.
She’d never ridden in a limo before, and when confronted with something that resembled a living room sectional, she couldn’t figure out where to sit. The back seemed safest, because at least she’d be facing forward like in a normal car. She eased down on the black leather and gave an inadvertent hum of pleasure.
How embarrassing. She didn’t want Colin to know that she liked the luxury ride that he was providing, or George Trevelyan was providing because he and Colin had some sort of alpha-male mutual back-scratching thing. But she had to admit this was the nicest upholstery her tush had ever enjoyed.
She held her straw purse on her lap, because clutching it gave her something to hold on to in this cavernous space that held a scent of oiled leather and a light perfume that might be an air freshener. The driver seemed miles away.
Colin sat right next to her, of course, bringing with him his maddeningly sexy scent. She could have predicted that he’d plop down right where she was, his thigh touching her thigh.
She wasn’t about to put up with that. The brush of his pants leg against her dress was far too erotic to go on for even one minute. She moved a few inches to the right, and he didn’t follow. His pride probably wouldn’t allow him to chase her around the black leather.
If things had remained the same as they once were between her and Colin, she would have joked with him that until now, she’d also been a limo virgin. But she wasn’t in a joking mood, so she didn’t say anything and pretended she’d been chauffeured like this dozens of times.
The limo pulled out so smoothly that it took her a second to realize they were in traffic. “Don’t you have to tell him where to go?”
“George told him. George also alerted the sales staff that we were coming, and told them to give us their best price.”
“That George. What a guy.”
Colin glanced at her. “He asked if we’d come up to his office after we finish with the hot tub shopping. You should probably meet him. He’d be a valuable contact to have.”
“I suppose he would.” Colin was right. Geraldine might have prided herself on being totally self-sufficient, but Luna couldn’t afford to operate that way if she expected to make a success of Whittier House. “Then we should go to his office, and thank him for the limo while we’re at it.”