Impending Mate, The Moltiare Collection: Bk2 (Sample)(Available on Amazon/SW)

Chapter 2 (Aaron)

“Ethan, if you do that anymore, I’m going to have to tape your hands to your sides.” I complained as I watched Ethan nervously rub his palms together for the fifteenth time in a row.

“You’re kidding me, right?” he turned long enough to raise a brow before turning to watch the guests gather in the pews, “I’m about to be married, a father of two, and you want me to be calm?”

“I’m not asking you to be calm,” I corrected and pointed towards his hands as he did it again, “but that is annoying the hell out of me.”

His mouth twisted in displeasure as he stopped the motion and forced himself to bury his hands in his pockets.

“Allie say something again?”

“Yeah.” I frowned down the aisle and towards the door that the girls had gathered behind, preparing to make their entrance. The truth was Allie was always saying something that upset me. Saying or doing, anyhow, but the recent event to affect me had been a combination of both.

“I’m surprised you’re not being you, and weaseling your way in.”

A chuckle left my lips that time. There was a time when I would have tried that, when it would have worked on the girls I smiled at or went after, but that was before Allison. With the way that she walked, smiled, or pushed her hair back and wrinkled her nose when she was irritated with me, she was different. She was different in a way that took my breath away and scattered my thoughts.

The whole concept of mates was new to me, even after seeing Jess and Ethan together for so long. It was confusing, wonderful, and hell if it didn’t frustrate me at times. I suppose that some part of me had expected her to be as willing to accept me as Jess had been to Ethan, but I should have known better. There was a shadow in Allison’s eyes, a certain kind of sadness that had been heavier than what we had seen in Jess’s eyes when she came here, and it was with her everywhere that she went.

I had seen Jess ask her about it once, a while back, but even to the only family she had left, she wouldn’t answer. She forced a smile onto her face and asked to hold Lilyia again, ignoring the way that her sister cried silently for her.

“It’s a little more complicated than that.” I turned away as his hands slipped from his pockets again, not really wanting to see him rub his hands together for another time.

“Since when have complications stopped you?” He teased and punched my shoulder lightly, “The Aaron I know loves a challenge, or has he lost his touch?”

I laughed and shook my head, “I never lose my touch. Even when I lay in wait, I’m just looking for an opening.”

He shrugged, “Think of what you haven’t done yet.”

“Just moments before you get married, you decide to give me relationship advice?”

“It’s kept me from pressing my palms together.”

“Continue then.”

“Whatever you two are doing, it’ll have to wait.” Ethan’s mother, Sarah, cut into the conversation quickly. Her hair had been pinned up into a neat bun while strands of it had been curled and left to frame her face, “It’s time to start.”

“Ma!” Ethan gave an exasperated sigh as she fussed with his tux again.

“Oh hush. It’s not every day that my son gets married. I want you to look presentable.”

Ethan rolled his eyes as I tried and failed to stifle a laugh. His mother immediately raised a finger and narrowed her eyes in my direction.

“Don’t start Aaron, or you’ll be next.”