Free Claiming Magique: 1 by Tina Donahue Page B

everything was
going to be all right.
    She’d survived this long without
Hunt in her life and would continue to do so, this time making certain of it.
It had been a huge mistake to give in to her yearning, allowing him to embrace
her again, holding him in return as though he were her lifeline when he wasn’t.
Even so, she couldn’t deny how good he’d felt, so solid and strong, washing
away all the loneliness she’d known, making her believe she wasn’t only wanted,
but cherished. A moment Alexa figured she’d treasure,
fool that she was.
    She sighed.
    Wallace made a noise that sounded
pained. She glanced over. He sat in the passenger seat of Ronnie’s Lincoln Town
Car like a man going to an execution, his hands gripping his knees, legs
bouncing. A visual representation of how she felt.
    This had to stop. “Nothing bad is
going to happen.”
    “As long as I’m driving,” he
countered. “I should be behind the wheel.”
    “Yes, I know. But it’s all right. I
can manage. I do have a license.”
    “You’re not Ms. DuBlanc’s driver. I am. If anything happens to you or this car, she’s not going to be
happy with me.”
    “Nothing’s going to—”
    “Red light,
red light, red light!”
    Alexa brought the sedan to a sharp stop. “Okay, okay, okay.”
    Wallace blew out his breath.
    Ignoring him, Alexa resisted the urge to see if Hunt was in one of the cabs behind them. Not
exactly following, but at least moving in the same direction. A short time
before, she’d forced herself and poor Wallace, her pseudo professor, to order a
second dessert neither of them wanted, hoping Hunt and David would leave before
they did.
    Sweet David kept sneaking glimpses
of their table even as Hunt stopped staring, pretending she didn’t exist. No
different from her father. So why had she hoped for Hunt’s continued interest,
while also dreading it?
    You know why.
    She gripped the steering wheel to
keep from pounding it with the heels of her hands. Hunt knew her real name, so
he no doubt knew who her family was. Before she’d hooked up with him in the
ladies’ lounge, she’d kept asking herself if that was why he’d continued to
call the agency, wanting to book an appointment. Had he hoped that by getting
to know her better, making her crave him more than she already did, he’d gain
entry into her father’s inner circle? Was he like most guys, coveting the man’s
wealth and connections to help him in his own career, while using her to get
that far?
    Alexa’s stomach and chest hurt at the thought, bringing her back to
the few times her father had actually taken the time to speak to her.
    “You’ll think men will want you,”
he’d warned, a mantra he kept repeating as though she’d been too stupid to get
it the first thousand times. “But it will only be because of my money. Remember
that.”
    What a nice thing to say to a little
girl who’d never considered herself as pretty as her
mother or attractive enough for any man, especially her father. Alexa’s poor eyesight had forced her to wear glasses and
then contacts when all the other kids were free of them. Only Lasik surgery had
fixed that problem when she’d turned twenty. She’d been so thrilled with the results, she’d barged into her father’s office without
making an appointment.
    “What’s different about me?” she’d
demanded.
    He’d glanced up from his work and
gave her less attention than he did waitstaff at
restaurants. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
    Before she could react to such a
cruel question or scream at him to notice her…to just be nice…he’d said, “If
you are, you’re on your own, Alexa . I put up with
your crap during school when you managed to get yourself expelled repeatedly.
I’m not doing it anymore.”
    That was the last time she’d sought
him out. When she’d lost the weight he’d criticized her about for years,
becoming the woman she was now, she hadn’t bothered to ask him what he thought.
Nor did she