Free he Alpha Men's Secret Club 2: Desire Games by Dawn Steele

genuinely interested in what I’m studying. I do that
in all classes.”
    “Why do you like me, Carlo? Why
do you persist on doing – ” She waved her hand “ – this? Do you
want me that badly? I asked you this before. Do you want me only because he
wants me?”
    Carlo hesitated. She stared at
him – at his handsome olive-skinned complexion. At the color rising in
his cheeks.
    “I don’t know,” he confessed.
“Maybe it started out that way. But not anymore. I like you, Kate. I think
you’re beautiful.”
    “Because you have seen all of me,
and I’ve seen all of you? A shared experience of nudism?” She should be
flattered, but she just felt sad.
    “No.” He placed his hand over
hers. She did not move her hand away. “Because I’ve gotten to know you, and you
are good and powerful and strong on your own. You just don’t know it. You don’t
need some guy to make you feel like a woman. You can do it all on your own.”
    “This isn’t about what he makes
me feel,” she argued. “It’s about what I feel about him.”
    “And do you love him? You think
you love him? It’s only lust, Kate. What he’s feeling for you is probably just
lust as well.” Carlo squeezed her hand. “When it wears away, he will drop you
like a sack of potatoes. I know this guy, Kate.”
    “Really?” This time, she withdrew
her hand and placed it on her lap, under the table. “Then tell me what you know
about him.”
    Carlo paused.
    Then he said, “I know that he
used to date a girl called Shamilar. He knew her from our circles.”
    Shamilar. Why did the mention of
her name spear her heart so? Inwardly she flinched but steeled herself not to
show it.  
    “‘Used to’,” she said. “We all
have pasts.”
    “It’s what happened to Shamilar
that you should know about.”
    “Is this hearsay or is it the
truth?”
    “It’s the truth as our circles
know it. Shamilar got pregnant – ”
    This time she cringed. She felt
her womb contract.
    “ – and he made her lose
the baby. It was because she wasn’t a tiger shifter. He didn’t want
contamination between the shifter breeds. And he was furious with her. Furious
because she tried to trap him.”
    Kate’s mouth went dry. Her
stomach turned with more dread than she could anticipate.
    “Well, she shouldn’t have tried
to trap him,” she whispered.
    “Yeah, she shouldn’t. But doesn’t
that tell you something about the kind of guy he is? He would abort his own
child if the genetics didn’t suit him.” Carlo’s tone was bitter.
    She knew Carlo was trying to turn
her against Rust. But it wasn’t going to work. She was in too deep –
sexually, emotionally.
    She loved Rust, no matter what
Carlo said about him. Whether or not he was damaged, or callous, or cruel.
    “Carlo,” she said gently,
“whatever you say doesn’t matter. I’m not going to turn away from Rust.”
    “Yeah.” He sighed. “I got the
sense of that.”
    “You’re young. You’re
good-looking. You can have the pick of any girl you want. Any girl who isn’t
taken, that is.”
    “Taken,” he said bitterly.
“That’s a good word for what he does to you. You have no idea how crazy you
drive me, Kate.”
    “This is going around in
circles.” She got up and reached for her purse.
    “No.” He got up too. “I’ll pay.”
    But she had already fished out
her wallet and placed a ten dollar note on the table.
    “Thanks for the coffee,” she
said.
    She left before he could protest.
Her heart was beating fast.
    She wondered if she was doing the
right thing.

 
    13
     
    Kate walked and walked blindly. She
found herself walking to the river once again, the scent of water guiding her
nostrils.
    Once she reached the embankment,
she went to the railing and stared out into the river – at the boats and
barges trawling there, at the cafes and the pedestrians on the river walk down
below. A tourist boat was winding its way upriver, its tour guide speaking into
the blaring loudspeaker.
    Her heart