Lucien takes the chair opposite Jared. Jared places his elbow on the table and proffers his hand. Lucien does the same. Every single eye in the restaurant is riveted on them, and Shannon is self-conscious to be in the center of so much attention.
The two young men lock their grips. Jared’s eyes are brown steel while Lucien’s are a bright cornflower blue. She finds herself admiring Lucien’s well-toned forearms with their sparse blond hairs. She wonders how his large hands would feel like on her body.
Suddenly, she is not sure who to root for to win.
It isn’t that she doesn’t love Jared. They have been together for a long time, for better or worse. But he has been increasingly volatile of late. She understands the reasons, but does not actually relish being in the firing line.
Nevertheless, Lucien Walker is turning out to be a very interesting prospect. Very interesting indeed. Shannon is not looking for a relationship. She has had too much heartache in that department, especially with Jared being so unpredictable, but she is not dead set against having one either.
The thing is that Lucien Walker does not seem to be the kind of guy who wants a relationship either. A conquest, yes. An easy fuck, maybe. But not a relationship.
“You tell us when to begin,” Lucien says to Shannon. His eyes gleam with an unmistakable spark of desire.
She swallows. Jared eyes her balefully, aware of Lucien’s obvious attraction to her.
Lifting up her chin to mask the sea of uncertainties boiling within her, she says: “On the count of three.”
The guys grip each other’s fists tighter. The air is electric around the table despite the humidity from outside. Lucien’s eyes never leave hers. A delicious tingle runs down her spine and sends a heat wave into her groin, which is rapidly becoming moist. Few men have affected her in the manner Lucien Walker is affecting her now.
She says, “One . . . two . . . three.”
The atmosphere immediately becomes charged as the two men grip each other’s fists in strained embrace. Both men’s forearms are completely exposed. Their muscles bulge as their brows furrow in concentration.
Some customers from the other tables are getting up from the chairs and crowding closer to watch, as are the waiters. Shannon sees all this from the periphery of her vision, because she doesn’t dare take her eyes off the dueling contestants.
She remembers an episode from one and a half years ago when Jared first started to turn feral. He had a run in with a couple of thugs from a local gang. It was in a quiet alley, and Jared and she had decided to take a shortcut to get to the other street. They were ambushed at knifepoint by two youths who suddenly materialized from a dark doorway.
She was frightened at first when she saw the gleam of the knife angled at her.
“I’ll be taking that pretty purse, Miss,” says the youth who was pointing his knife at her throat.
“And I’ll be emptying your pockets,” says the other youth, who has his knife poised at Jared’s throat.
“And what if I don’t wish to do that?” Jared says calmly. She can feel the power coursing through him by the way his neck muscles bunch.
“You have no choice in the matter, pretty man,” the youth says, grinning. “Give your wallet over or he’ll cut your girlfriend’s pretty throat.”
“And maybe gut her like a pig after I’m through with her.” The one on her side lifts her hair up and smells it. “She’s real pretty.”
“Jared,” she whimpers, “just give him your wallet.”
That is when Jared explodes. He has been gaining in muscle strength and agility since ‘the change’, and even in his current form, he is lethal. With a few quick, sharp chops, he floored the two youths. They were writhing in pain and groaning on the ground. Their arms were bent in unnatural angles.
She gazed up at him with new fear in her eyes.
This very same strength – even more magnified with the passing of time – now dances in Jared’s sleek and enhanced muscles. She imagines him pushing down Lucien’s arm and breaking it off with a pop at the elbow. Jared is capable of doing that too, and he has recently acquired a cruel streak which frankly frightens her.
This was why he was so eager to take on this quarrel with Lucien. Because part of him wants to show off what he can do. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea to call anyone’s attention to them, but she may as well try talking to a cliff wall. They are bound to attract trouble wherever they go.
To her surprise, Lucien seems very well matched in the strength department. The man is huge, no doubt, but Jared has to be using all his accelerated capabilities. Unless Jared isn’t even trying yet. But both men appear to be taxed, with their forearm muscles in complete and severe tension. The veins in their forehead throb and their jaws are clenched.