The Lion’s Forbidden Mate

“So you’re the poor soul that got stuck with his job,” James said with a grin and shaking his head. “It’s a hell of a lot of work that he’s put in for the job and his body definitely took the toll for it. I heard it was his gall bladder. I think those only exist for you to have them taken out. Or are those appendages?”

“Appendixes,” Lucy laughed at the mix up. “I think you’re right, though.”

“Well, how are you liking the tour?” James asked her with a grin that looked like he was already aware of how much she was getting overwhelmed and stressed out by all of it.

“It’s madness,” she said without really giving away anything. She didn’t want him to know that she was drowning under the waterfall of jobs that she needed to get done right now. She wanted to convey a strong and powerful woman.

“It absolutely is and it never gets easier,” James assured her as he took a drink from his glass of dark liquid. She had no idea what he was drinking, but he appeared to be enjoying it. “How did you end up getting the job?” James asked her after a moment.

“My parents and the elders of my pack put in the application for me,” she confessed after a moment, not afraid to tell the truth of her situation. It wasn’t like she was embarrassed by the fact that she’d never heard of The Pride before a few weeks ago. There were plenty of people who never listened to their music before, it all just depended upon what kind of life you lived, so she wasn’t afraid of telling him the truth at all. “I guess I beat out all the other applicants. It wasn’t anything that I did by any means.”

“I’m sure they saw something impressive in you,” James assured her. “I know that Lynn is a stickler for the tour and hates when Shifter politics get in the way of things running smoothly. She’s already threatened to have a bunch of people kicked out if they didn’t stop playing the game.”

“The game?” Lucy looked at him with a furrowed brow.

“You know,” James laughed. “The game where you’re supposed to find out if there’s a mate here for you or someone that you can marry to advance your family or group. There are so many new people and new faces who try to put their own groups ahead of the tour and she hates that.”

“Do you let things get ahead of the tour?” Lucy asked him, wondering if there was more to this conversation than he was letting on.

He laughed at that and she really liked the sound of his unbridled laughter, but she wasn’t sure what had set him off. He looked at her and he shook his head. “I’m not exactly the one in charge of that,” he said with a shrug. “The higher you get on the totem pole, the less say you have in who you want to spend the rest of your days with.” He paused for a moment and looked at her with thoughtful eyes that sent a chill down her spine. “But I would definitely be willing to buy you a drink if you’d let me.”

“Are you flirting with me?” she asked him with a suspicious tone in her voice. She wasn’t about to get in trouble because he was looking for a date.

“Not yet,” he said with a charming smile. “But I definitely intend to make my intentions clear to you in a few minutes.”

“Would you two like anything else before the bar closes up?” The bartender came over like he’d heard what they were talking about and took his cue to ask for the last call.

This was the moment of choice and she knew that if she ordered something, she was going to be saying yes to him and she was going to be telling James that she was interested in having a drink with him. That was a risky thing to do and she wasn’t sure this was the best way for her to start out the tour. Lynn had warned her about sleeping with members of the crew and right now, she was more than interested in seeing what was going on underneath that man’s clothes. She took a deep breath and stared at him for a moment, studying his face before she decided what she was going to do. God, he was handsome.

“I’ll have another mojito,” she said with a smile on her lips. She’d had more than enough to drink and she probably wasn’t actually going to drink it, but she was more than willing to pretend to nurse it until they were done talking for the night. She really wanted to keep him around for a little while longer.

“Whiskey,” was all that James said to the bartender and the smile on his lips was enough to tell her that he was extremely excited that she had said yes to him. She knew that he was going to gloat over this.

“So what are you going to do for the tour?” she asked him, leaning forward and wondered how much trouble she was going to be in if she progressed down the path of showing her own intentions to him. She didn’t want to find out that this was Lynn’s personal assistant.

“I work with the performance,” he said with a shrug. There was a look in his eyes that told her today had been rough; something had been difficult and he wasn’t interested in talking about this particular subject. That was fine, she was willing to move on, but she was going to let him pick the subject. “You are incredibly beautiful. I bet you’ve heard that a million times in your life.”

“A few,” she shrugged. That was the biggest understatement of the night. She looked at him, wondering what he was thinking right now. Was he trying to find something that was going to wow her that she hadn’t heard before. This made her feel even more curious about what was going to come out of his mouth next.

“It’s an effortless beauty,” he said with a ponderous voice, lost in his own contemplations and thought that made her wonder what he did for a living. “It’s the kind of beauty that someone would take as a muse for their art. You know what I’m saying? You have to see it, every morning when you look in the mirror when you first get up.”

“I’m a little desensitized,” she confessed to him.

“Can I ask you something personal?” he asked her after a moment.

“Sure,” she shrugged, deciding that there were worse things in the world than a personal question.

“Are you stressed right now?”