He got into the car, which molded to him like that suit, an extension of the persona he’d created. He pushed the button to start it and threw it into gear, the car chirping as it jumped forward.
“Jacinta, your beauty has me entranced,” he said, speeding to the end of the street. “You are perfection.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, my heart expanding until it didn’t feel like my body could contain it anymore.
“May I please ask that you be careful about touching other males tonight, and allowing them to touch you? I know I sound like a jealous—”
“No, I get it. I understand that shifters are weird about that. Kingsley makes it awkward.”
“If you knew Earnessa, you’d know why. She’s as possessive as any alpha. Kingsley loves that about her.” He took a deep breath, whipping the car around the corner. Unlike with Damarion, his speed didn’t bother me at all, probably because I knew he was in complete control. He was always in complete control, unless someone was threatening me. Or when we were twisted in each other’s bodies, not knowing where he ended and I began.
“I will control myself to the best of my ability. I trust you implicitly…I hope you know that. Logic fights my beast most of the time, but at a certain point, my animal takes over. Especially now, since we’ve made love…”
“Austin, trust me, I do not want random guys touching me. You’re not asking much, and I understand why you’re asking at all.”
He jammed the gear stick up and stepped on the gas, the car shooting forward as it climbed the onramp to the highway.
My lips pulled to the side of their own accord, half a smile. “But I hope you know this goes both ways—you can’t ask me to follow a rule you won’t follow. That’s not how I roll.”
Shadows passed through his eyes. “I remember my mom and dad fighting about that when I was a kid. He’d fly off the handle when she so much as smiled at a male, but he used to cheat on her left and right.” He shook his head. “It was a messed-up situation.”
“I won’t let you turn into your father. Not only out of duty to you, but mostly because no one has time for that. I will be treated well, or I will leave.”
“If I ever act out of turn, do as any alpha female would. Make me submit to you. You have the power to do it.” He rolled his shoulders, the dash lights highlighting his handsome face. “I will do anything for you, Jacinta. And that includes fighting my animal to do right by you, at every turn if I need to.”
I placed my hand on his thigh. He pulled his hand from the shifter and covered mine.
“You still don’t give yourself enough credit, but okay,” I said. “I’ll keep you in line if things ever go topsy-turvy.”
A smirk played on his lips, his dark mood lifting a little. “And if you get out of line, I promise to throw chocolate at you and run.”
I laughed. “Yes, good thinking.”
The closer we got to the restaurant, the more my stomach twisted.
“Have any of your people seen them yet?” I asked, leaving my hand on his thigh when he changed gears and slowed the car, pulling into a long driveway with dense trees to either side. I knew he had shifters patrolling the area in animal form, watching in case anything went wrong.
“Yes. We’ve been monitoring their team closely. It looks like they brought about a hundred people, though we’re not yet sure what they’re capable of, magically speaking.”
“A hundred people?” I cried out. “Is that normal?”
“Kingsley doesn’t think so. I wanted to ask Sebastian about it.”
That didn’t bode well for our “friendly” meetup.
I blew out a breath. “We definitely needed your brother’s help.”
The trees opened up and the restaurant glowed and twinkled ahead, pixie lights on poles lining a red carpet leading into the establishment. A perfect line of muscle-bound people waited on one side, hands clasped in front of them. The men wore black suits with red ties and matching pocket squares, and the women wore red dresses with loose bodices and long slits in the skirts. They’d be easy to get off in a hurry. Kace stood in the second position of the line, and Kingsley waited at the front, looking straight ahead, the broadest of them, his very stance and posture easily communicating that he’d give someone real trouble in a fight.
A line of limos waited in the parking lot beyond them, the first half-dozen long and black, just like those used by the Ivy House crew. Huge SUV limos took up residence on the other side of the parking lot, dwarfing the others, their number identical.
“Which limos did your people take?” I asked.