I had no idea whatIwas getting myself into.
FOUR
KOR
The woman who had stood up for my claim on thePackLeadership, had a soft and gracious voice and a gorgeous figure.Itried not to notice but it was impossible not to—the way the rain had drenched her black mourning dress and caused it to cling to her curves was pretty damn distracting.
As for her face,Ididn’t know.Shewas still wearing that black lace veil that covered everything from her forehead to her chin.Iwondered if maybe she was disfigured in some way.Ormaybe she just didn’t like showing her face in public.Eitherway, it was her business—thoughIhad to admitIwas extremely curious about what she looked like under there.
I had taken anUberfrom the airport to the funeral and had expected toUberback as well.Strangely, there were no hotels in the little town where my uncle had lived—maybe becauseBlackridgewas aPackTown—that is to say, a town where the localWereslived freely without fear of being discovered by regular humans because therewereno regular humans.Ifthat was true, then it wasn’t surprising they didn’t have any place to stay because they would want to keep tourists and visitors of the human variety out.
I was glad again that my mysteriousViviennehad been kind enough to offer me a place to stay.Thenagain, it wasn’t likely she was lacking spare guest rooms—not in a huge mansion like this.
I stared at the towering home again asIcame around to open her door to help her out.Yes,Iknow my manners are old-fashioned, but that’s the way my mom trained me.Shealways said, “Goodmanners never go out of style,” and so far, she’s always been right.
I helpedVivienneout of the car—noticing that strange tingleI’dfelt the first timeItouched her.Whatwasthat?Itwas almost like a very mild electrical shock.Exceptgetting shocked doesn’t usually make your cock hard—what the fuck wasthatabout?
I didn’t know butIlet go of her hand as soon as she was out of the car.Ididn’t want her looking at the front of my trousers and thinkingIwas getting excited just to be alone with her.Thatmight make her thinkIwas some kind of serial killer or rapist—Ididn’t want that.Ididn’t want to do anything to scare her—she’d already been so kind to me, standing up against that fucking bully back at the funeral home and offering me a place even after he told everyone not to.
Of course,Ihad never expected to stay.IthoughtI’djust come to the funeral and speak toUncleCarter’slawyer to see if there was anything in the will at all for me.Ifnot,Iwould have gone straight home.Butafter that challenge fromMurdochand the fact that it was clearIought to be thePackLeader,Iwanted to stay.Evenif allIdid was win theAlphaChallengeand then appoint a different successor soIcould go back to my business, it would still be worth it.Thepeople of this pack deserved better than that blowhard bully as their nextPackLeader.
“Well, come inside,”Viviennesaid, nodding at me.Ihanded her the car keys, which she put in her purse, and then we walked up the curving path to the front doors, which were at least two stories tall and perfectly enormous.
But though the doors looked like something you might find in a fancyFrenchchateau, they had been modernized.Fingersflying rapidly,Viviennepunched a series of numbers into an electronic keypad.Aftera momentIheard abeepsound from the right-hand door and the lock popped open.
I hurried to pull the door open, and she stepped inside asIfollowed.
Once inside,Itook some time to admire the house.Thefront doors opened onto a marbled foyer bigger than my entire living room.Therewas a grand staircase curving upwards and several smaller rooms leading off the main area.EverywhereIlooked, the house seemed to scream, “OldMoney!”Therewere paintings by theOldMasterson the walls as well as tapestries that had to be hundreds of years old.
I was so busy looking around,Ididn’t notice that my new benefactress was taking off her hat and the veil attached to it.
“I hope you likeWolvertonManor,” she was saying.
“Yes, it’s really—”Istarted to say but broke off abruptly asIturned to her and saw her bare face for the first time.
My thoughts and words stopped together andI’mafraidIsimply stared at her.
She was utterly fucking gorgeous.
FIVE
VIVIENNE
He kept staring at me.
I wondered what he was looking at.Wasmy hair out of place?DidIhave something on my face?
I couldn’t help thinking of the wayCarterused to criticize me all the time.
“What’s wrong with you,Vivienne?You’rea mess.Whathave you done with your hair?Didyou change your makeup?Youlook like a clown!”
And on and on and on…the criticism literally never stopped.Whenevermy late husband noticed me at all, it was only to tell me what was wrong with me.
I put a hand to my face, wondering what the problem could be.Kor’seyes kept returning to my eyes and then my lips.Whatcould be wrong?
“Do…doIhave something on my face?”Iasked hesitantly.
“What?Oh, no—nothing like that,” he said quickly.“Ijust…didn’t expect you to be so beautiful.”