“Will you have dinner with me?”
Dinner? But Aidan…
Of course, they didn’t have a relationship or anything. They’d only been on one date, and they hadn’t been intimate yet.
She both wanted to accept this offer of a date, and at the same time she didn’t want to accept. What was wrong with her mind?
He smiled. “Are you going to stand there with your mouth hanging open, or are you going to answer me?”
She clamped her mouth shut. God, she must have looked like a halfwit. She hoped drool hadn’t oozed out.
Why not? It wasn’t like had any kind of commitment to Aidan. Though he’d been driving her crazy for months.
“Sure. Where do you want to go?”
“I’ll pick you up here at six.”
“Um…” Her nerves skittered. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Micah.
Micah. Again, some sense of knowledge resonated within her. But she’d never heard the name before nor seen this man’s face.
“Well…Micah… I’d rather meet you somewhere. We just met and all.”
“I understand.” His gaze bored into her. It was green this time. “But I promise you will be safe with me.”
Yes, she’d be safe with him. Yes, yes, yes. Of course she would. Why had she been thinking otherwise? Of course she would. This was Micah.
Micah.
She shook her head. Aidan.
No, Micah.
Damn it! What was going on in her head?
And then Aidan was there, entering the store with a jostle, his gorgeous dark hair in disarray, and his eyes green.
No, blue.
No, green.
Micah turned around, visibly tensing.
Aidan strode toward the desk. “Hi, Kristen. Micah.”
“You two know each other?”
“Micah’s my brother.”
“Your…what?”
“Half brother,” Micah said.
“Wow. No wonder I had this weird feeling…”
“What weird feeling?” Aidan asked.
“Like I knew him.”
“So I’ll see you at six,” Micah said.
“You’ll what?” Aidan’s eyes widened.
“We’re going to dinner tonight.”
“Like hell you are.”
Kristen dropped her mouth into an O. What was Aidan going on about? It’s not like they had a relationship. No matter how badly she wanted one. He hadn’t made love to her the one time they went out, even though she’d been longing for it.
“Why shouldn’t this lovely lady go to dinner with me?”
“Because she’s mine. That’s why.”
Kristen stood in a daze. Two men—two gorgeous men—were arguing over her. Two gorgeous men she barely knew. Was this really happening? Mousy librarian Kristen the object of a fight between two amazing men? Were the planets out of alignment of something?
If she had to choose, she’d choose Aidan, of course. She’d been lusting after him for months, after all.
But Micah…
Here stood Micah. Totally different from Aidan, and just as attractive in his own way. The pull she felt toward him was uncomfortable—so different from what she felt pulling her toward Aidan—but it was a pull nonetheless.
With Aidan it was lust, but something more. With Micah it was… She wasn’t sure.
“She’s going out with me tonight,” Aidan said.
“Funny, I think she just said she’d go with me,” Micah said.
The fog began to clear, and Kristen regarded the two handsome men vying for her attention. “I’m not sure.”
“Kristen, I thought we—”
“Let her choose, Aidan,” Micah said.
Kristen bit her lip. Her heart quickened, and the skin on her arms tightened as though it were shrink wrapped. An invisible breeze pushed her toward one but then toward the other. “I don’t want to come between two brothers.”
Choose Aidan. Choose Micah. Choose Aidan. Kristen grabbed two fistfuls of her hair. “Stop it!”
“Stop what?” they both asked.
“In my head. I can’t choose. I can’t—”
“Easy, Kristen,” Aidan said, reaching out to touch her arm. “Easy.”
The fog cleared again, and she drifted off as a curtain fell before her eyes.
13
What was that about?” Micah said through clenched teeth.
“She was going crazy. We were both in her minds, and she couldn’t take it. I had to let her sleep.”
“For God’s sake, Aidan,” Micah pounded one of his fists on the counter, “she has to choose one of us. It’s her destiny. And it’s going to be me.”
Aidan shook his head, sighing. “You think she can choose? Our mother couldn’t. Do you really want her to have to go through that?”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what she goes through as long as she ultimately chooses me.”
Aidan seethed. This man, brother or not, was not worthy of Kristen. “How can you say that? If she’s truly your soulmate, then you ought to care about her.”
“I care for no one. I haven’t since my father died.”
“But this is in your blood. She’s your mate. You have to care. You have to love her.”
“I love no one. And I never will,” Micah said, his voice a low monotone. “Since you put her into dragon slumber, she’ll be out for the rest of the night. I guess neither of us has a date tonight, brother.” He strode to the front of the store and left.
Aidan cradled Kristen in his arms. “Come on, baby,” he said. “Let’s get you home.”