“So they’re your bodyguards because they’re protecting you from a rival gang?” Rachel’s eyes were wide with this. “Oh, man. They don’t even know you. I’d heard they were all manly and protective, but…” Then her awe crashed down fast into that glinty-eyed savvy look Arabella knew so well. The one that wouldn’t be fooled for long by whatever story she told her. “Wait a minute. Are they making you… Ari, are they forcing you to…” Her eyes widened in alarm.
“No!” Arabella rushed out, that weird heat rising to her face again. Conflicted. Her body’s over-the-top attraction to Lucian fighting with the part of her head that knew she had no business even thinking about that. Especially with a man like him. A dragon, for fuck’s sake. “No, I promise, Rach. They’re not that way. They wouldn’t force me into anything.”
Rachel’s hunched up shoulders dropped. “Good. Because I’d have to kick their asses. Both of them.”
Arabella grinned. “Well, at least Lucian would probably enjoy watching you try.”
Rachel cocked an eyebrow at her. “Is that right?”
Arabella flushed again. What was she doing? She tried to brush it off. “He just said something about the guy who attacked me. I was, you know, defending myself before Lucian showed up to help.” To save her life. She might have been able to fight off that asshole, but she wouldn’t stake her life on it. That’s why she carried that gun in the first place.
“And he thought that was hot?” Rachel lifted both eyebrows.
“Yeah. Pretty much.” Arabella was squirming inside her own skin.
Rachel nodded, getting that savvy look again. “He’s into you, Ari.”
“It’s not like that.” But of course, it was. At least her body was seriously into his body.
“Yeah, sure it’s not.” She crossed her arms and tapped her lips with one finger. “Maybe this is the one for you. Maybe a hot shifter man is just what you need.”
“I get all I need from Mr. Wiggles.” Yeah, so, she named her vibrator. It happens.
Rachel rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. It’s been long enough, Ari. You need to get back in the game again. The man game, not just a vacation with some vibrating plastic. And what better way to do that than with a one-night-stand with a wolf? I’ve totally followed this stuff on the news. They’re way into the no commitment, just hot sex thing with humans.”
Arabella cringed. She loved Rachel like a sister, and Rachel knew all that had happened to Arabella that dark night… but that didn’t mean she confided everything to her best friend. Especially not all the times afterward that she had tried to put it behind her. She’d taken all the counseling advice and tried to turn it into practice for herself… but it simply hadn’t worked. And she knew, deep down, the truth of it was that she simply wasn’t ready. So she’d stop trying to fix herself and just focused on fixing the messed-up lives of the women who walked through her door. Getting them divorce decrees and orders of restraint and a fresh start on their lives.
Because that she was damn good at.
Lucian Smoke just complicated her life, but he wasn’t the answer to her problems. Except maybe paying the rent. That would help her keep doing the things she was actually good at. The rest was just a miserable reminder of the part of her that had withered and died.
But Rachel didn’t know about any of that. And there was no way she’d let go of this, not if she thought Lucian was the answer. She’d be hounding Arabella to give it a try at least, all the way up until Lucian Smoke was mated off to some other woman and safely out of her life again.
“I’ll think about it, Rach,” she lied. “In the meantime, I’ve only got a couple of hours here—then Lucian’s taking me back to the safehouse until this gang thing is all cleared up. So let’s get some work done while I’m here, okay? People are depending on us.”
“All right.” Rachel grinned. “But I want to hear all about how shifters do it better when you get back.” She slid a look to the door. “And bring the Irish one back next time you come in.”
Arabella shook her head. She dreaded finding out the details of how shifters, Lucian in particular, did it better… with someone else. Doing her best to banish that thought—and any others regarding the hot prince of the House of Smoke—she dove into her work.
Focusing on others was what she did best, anyway.
“What do you mean, you’re not interested?” The woman was angry with him, and truly, he couldn’t blame her. His behavior was insulting, not to mention strange.