“Miss McQuade,” he murmured as he drew her to his side. “I trust you’ve been well since I saw you last?”
“Quite well,” she assured him, staring up at him from beneath her lashes as he drew her along the walk. “And you?”
His head lowered, his lips touching her ear. “Hard.”
Gypsy, who never blushed, felt a flush of heat warming her face as pleasure tightened her womb and her pussy wept, aching for his touch again.
Light exploded around them at that moment, as it seemed every cameraman there wanted a shot of the tall, imposing Breed whispering into the ear of the unknown female on his arm.
Ignoring the questions hurled at them, Rule drew her to the hotel’s entrance and into the lobby behind her parents. Three sets of wide double doors were thrown open to the main ballroom at the top of the wide curving staircase.
They didn’t leave the journalists outside, though. Gypsy felt a glow of satisfaction at the sight of several cameramen taking notice of her parents with Jonas Wyatt and his fiancée, Rachel, as they stopped outside the ballroom to chat.
This was what her parents needed. As much as they loved the candy and gift shop they’d given their younger daughter to run, it was the image consulting business they dreamed of making a success.
“Isn’t your sister attending?” Rule asked as he drew her to a stop several feet from the small group.
“She’s arriving with a date,” she told him quietly. “There’s
a Breed who’s been hanging around the store who invited her several weeks ago. She hadn’t even told us.”
Kandy was keeping her relationship with the Breed quiet until she’d learned her parents were attending the same ball she had been invited to attend. Funny, but Greta hadn’t displayed the same disapproval toward her younger daughter as she had Gypsy.
“They’re still seeing each other?” he asked her curiously.
“Loki?” Her lips twitched at the name. “Considering Navajo history, I would have thought she would know better.”
Thankfully, her sister wasn’t so easy to fool. Just because her father had named her Kandy Sweet didn’t mean she tried in any way whatsoever to live up to that name.
“Miss McQuade.” Jonas surprised her when he turned to her. “If you’d join us, I’d like to introduce you to one of the Breeds’ greatest assets, Cassa, and her husband, Cabal St. Laurents.”
“I’ve followed many of your stories, Mrs. St. Laurents.” Gypsy shook her hand, pleased by the firmness of her grip.
“Thank you.” Cassa smiled back at her as she looped her arm over her husband’s elbow. “It’s nice to see Rule looking like the arm candy he should be rather than glowering at the other mates for enjoying the position.”
The Bengal at her side muttered something as Gypsy held back the frown that would have pulled at her brows. She sure as hell didn’t want one of those popping cameras to catch a frown on her face.
“Oh.” Cassa’s eyes widened. “Sorry, dear, the mate reference just slipped out.” She smiled at Gypsy again, a friendly, warm smile. “Rather like referring to one as a date.”
Gypsy’s lips twitched. Even she knew better than that, but she allowed the reference to slide.
“I hear your parents have accepted the contract Jonas offered for their services,” Cassa remarked then. “I’ve been telling him for a while now that image consulting begins at the individual level, but he never seemed overly fond of the idea.”
“You have good ideas sometimes, Cassa,” Jonas drawled mockingly. “It’s just so very rare that they’re compatible with Breed Law.”
Now Breed Law, she definitely knew about—the laws that governed every legal or contractual, criminal or enterprise endeavor involving any Breed, or Breed affiliate, including but not limited to wives, children, siblings, parents, lovers or intended spouses, and how the government had to deal with them. More than a century of detailed horrific experiments backed up by recordings of some of the most vile acts humanity could commit had ensured that nearly every government that had been sued by the Breeds at the onset of their discovery had been willing to pay up rather than face the combined individual lawsuits that would have been brought against them in international court.
Cassa rolled her eyes at Jonas’s remark as they stepped into the ballroom entrance and began moving down the wide staircase.
The alphas of each community stood at the bottom of the stairs along with the president of the Navajo Nation, Raymond Martinez.
Gypsy had never personally cared for Ray Martinez, though along with everyone else, she adored his father, Orrin, and brother, Terran.
Accepting the elbow Rule held out to her, she descended the stairs along with him, aware of the flashing bulbs and the knowledge that by offering his arm to her, Rule Breaker, considered one of the most eligible Breed bachelors, had ensured that her picture, as well as that of her parents and their reason for being there, was splashed across every society page known to man.
This was more than she could have hoped for where her parents were concerned. But she also acknowledged that it would begin making it much more difficult for her to collect the information the Unknown depended on her to collect. She was the neutral party, so certain individuals hadn’t cared to brag about strikes being planned against the Breeds by the groups determined to destroy them. Just as she had been told of Breeds in hiding, trying to escape or to find a place to rest before traveling farther. Usually, the information she received was of Breeds traveling through the area looking for work that wouldn’t require an ID. Many wanted to stay under the radar of humans and Breeds alike. Those Breeds, the Unknown were well equipped to help.
As they grew closer to the line of the alphas and their wives and the president and Mrs. Martinez, the president’s chief of staff moved to him, whispering something in his ear.