The True One

Chapter 19

Verity

Closing the door, Verity leaned against it and allowed herself a moment to fantasize.

Alek, all hot and bothered, insisting on staying by her side instead of rushing off to get himself killed.

Alek, assuring her that the best way to keep them both safe through the night was if they spent it together.

Alek, peeling off layers of clothing, both his and hers, as his lips explore her exposed neck. A vase crashing to the floor when he lifts her onto the entryway's console table.

"Damn," she said to her empty apartment. She picked up the vase and then set it down. It would have been an expensive but worthy sacrifice had her fantasy played out in real life.

In comparison, these forbidden thoughts of Alek made her brief foray into Chip territory seem like a virginal peck on the cheek. Aggravating and cryptic as he was, Alek might be a dangerous option, but that was undoubtedly part of the appeal. Plus, he could read her mind. She'd known from the beginning that there was something different about him. But what was that something? An image of them exploring that question all the way to her bedroom floated in front of her. "Damn," she said again, louder this time.

"What was that?"

Startled, she nearly knocked her vase off in a PG version of her fantasy. Her wolf form sat on the threshold of her mind and the outer world, ready to be called to duty if necessary.

She stepped into the living room to find her father settling down on her couch, cup of tea in one hand and the TV remote in the other. "Dad? You almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here?" And what, exactly, had he heard?

"I had a date," he said. "Not far from here. So, I thought I'd check in with you before I headed back home."

I sat down next to him. "I'd ask you how it went but it's barely past ten and you've already been here long enough to make tea."

"Oh, no, it was perfectly lovely." He clucked his tongue. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you pity me. It was a first date, Verity. Middle aged people with previous marriages and children don't approach relationships the same cavalier way young people do. We're cautious. We met at a nice restaurant, had a nice dinner, good conversation, and then I walked her back to her car and we called it a night."

I bit my tongue, ignoring his impulse to slight my entire generation. "So, are you going to see her again?"

He took a sip of his tea. Peppermint-scented steam rose from his cup. "We'll see. What about you? You accused me of having a boring date, but here you are, home instead of hitting the clubs. What have you been up to tonight?"

I went with my conman telepathic bodyguard to find secrets to my past hidden in a disorganized archive, got chased by homicidal werewolf cult people, used my wolf persona to ward them off, then came back here where I haven't been able to stop lusting over a man despite his tenuous relationship with the truth.

"Out with a friend. Nothing earth shattering."

"A friend, huh?" He gave her a wink.

"Gross, dad, don't do that!" She needed to tread carefully here. "Were you eavesdropping on my conversation with my... friend?"

He opened his mouth, forming a shocked O. "What do you take me for?"

"An overprotective father who lets himself into his adult daughter's apartment without telling her he's coming over."