Free Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) by Kelly Lucille Page A

he knew there would be no mate for him. 
Claiming Lucas’ young daughter would be a betrayal of the worst order, and he
knew there would never be anyone else, not after he saw Cleo at 15 and wanted
her more than he wanted anything in his life. 
    It was a blatant betrayal
of everything he was.  She was a child.  A child in his pack, and Lucas’
daughter to top that off.  When he realized what was happening, he did his best
to stay clear of the girl with the long coltish legs and too much hair for her
slim shoulders.  He had sworn to himself he would never act on his desires, and
he never had.  But fuck all if he had not come close in the sultry wilds of the
Amazon.  He was going to have to get over this.  She was barely twenty-one, way
too young for him, and feeling things for the first time.  That she was feeling
things for him only made it worse.  He needed to get out and be gone, before he
did something they would both regret, like claim a beautiful lioness when she
was made for better things.
    ***
    Cleo had no idea what
Shawn was thinking; she felt his eyes on her and turned to look, but as usual
he was blank-faced and giving nothing away.  If she did not have Miley looking
at her questioningly from the marble island where she sat with her wine, she
would hiss and swipe at him, just because he was in her territory . . . and
because he was not hers.
    She rolled her eyes at
Miley when he refused to sit down, patrolling the rooms instead. You know, in
case someone had snuck in while her father was distracted.  Yeah, right.
    “Did something happen
between you and Shawn?” Miley asked gently. 
    Turning away from the
sight of Shawn walking into her bedroom in taut Levis, she was forced to blink
her brain back into gear.  “What do you mean?”  Then she tried for innocent,
but since she had never been particularly good at the look it was not really a
surprise when Miley raised a doubtful brow.
    “You know, I may get
hangovers unlike you, but that doesn’t mean I suffered any memory loss.”  Cleo
wanted to roll her eyes when she whispered it all, when she should know just
how good shifter hearing was.
    “Believe me, Miley,
whatever you remember, nothing happened between me and Shawn, and it won’t.”  And
that’s all I’m going to say.
    “What exactly brought
Shawn to your garage just in time to rescue you from the attack?”
    Cleo snorted, “I don’t
know if I would say he rescued me.  I was kicking ass when he showed up.”
    “Until you were darted
and hit the pavement unconscious,” Shawn stated distinctly from the other
room.  Bastard.
    Miley jumped at his voice
and then laughed.
    Cleo gritted her teeth.  I
really am going to have to learn how to dodge those little fuckers.
    The phone rang just as
she was reaching for her wine, and thinking of a way to deflect Miley’s
attention. Turned out the call worked just fine.  It was the landline rather
than her cell, and since she had that only for emergencies, at her dad’s insistence,
no one should have that number.  She was not even sure she had the number. 
Thinking it was probably a telemarketer, she answered with a rudely growled, “Yeah?”
    But it was not a
telemarketer.
    “I had hoped to finally
make your acquaintance this evening.”  The voice was smooth, but lacking in
emotion, or life.  It sounded the way she assumed an evil computer would
sound.  She knew as soon as she heard that voice she was talking to her would-be
kidnapper.  Something must have shown on her face because Miley pulled out her
phone and started furiously texting, her eyes flashing from Cleo to her phone
in rapid beats.  Shawn was by her side as soon as the words hit the air around
them.  No shifter would have missed that voice in the quiet of her apartment. 
Even on the other end of the line, and in another room.
    “Arnaud Gerent, I presume?”
    There was a long pause
before he spoke again; this time surprise was evident in that dead voice.