Most Eligible Wolf by Julie Steimle (the best e book reader txt) đ
- Author: Julie Steimle
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âAlright,â Daisy said casually. âEach to his own and all that. I see you take it seriously.â
âAnd you donât?â Audry turned around toward her. âIt affects everything.â
Shrugging, Daisy did not seem bothered at all. âOh, come on. It is the way of nature.â
Audry rolled her eyes.
âYou, studying animals and you donât see that?â Daisy asked, her lips twisting in amusement.
Facing her, Audry replied, âWeâre not talking about animals. This is about human beings. Human beings have responsibilities.â
Flinching, Daisy pulled back with a disgusted huff. âOh, glory beâyou are talkinâ just like him.â
Audry stiffened.
ââI have responsibilitiesâ,â Daisy mocked, tossing her fluffy blonde hair. âWhat about his responsibility to me? He got me pregnant.â
Those around them hushed.
For Audry, it felt as if her stomach had fallen. Again, Rick just didnât seem that kind of guy. But of course, sex led to pregnancy. That was biology. That is what those organs are forâreproduction. But him, just leaving her?
Daisy waved it off. âOh⊠donât make that face. He didnât abandon us or nothingâ. His father made him not come around. And I miscarried besides. But if I had the kid, he would have been there. We were goinâ to get married. He was goinâ to make it happen.â She then sighed. âOnly⊠four years. Thatâs a long time not to make contact.â
It would be, if he truly loved her.
But was what happened love? If it really happened at all. This Daisy could in fact be full of it. Audry regarded the woman from the side of her eye as she continued to sort some things out under the table. Perhaps she was just talking this way because she wanted to stir up a scandal. That was the trend now-a-daysâconcoct a scandal for extortion.
Audry eyed Daisy more. Honestly, she also didnât seem to be his type. Yeah, Daisy was pretty. In fact, the way she was dressed, it was if she was planning on drawing him in so she could get laid. It wasnât âsexyâ per se, not in the kinky short tight skirts and revealing clothes sort of deal. But rather her clothes were the loose flowing type, the kind that could easily be slipped off and drew eyes to her breasts. In fact, it didnât look like she was wearing a bra. And the kind of girl she seemed to be, Daisy probably wasnât wearing any underwear either. His type? Just looking atâsayâJessica whom Rick most likely did have a crush on at one time, or that famed California surfer chickâhe liked the sporty, principled types. And this Daisy was nothing like that. Rolling around in the grass with men seemed to be the only sport she was into.
âWhat?â Daisy asked, watching Audry watch her.
Audry finally said it. âIâm sorry⊠Itâs just, you dismissing his responsibilities is really rude. And, again, not to be rude, but I am having a hard time imagining that guy just⊠setting them aside for aââ
âA night of mad pleasure?â Daisy cut in with enjoyment, leaning her hand on chin and her elbow on the table. She fluttered her lashes at Audry. Her dress was barely hanging on, giving her booth mates too much of a view down her dress. She definitely wasnât wearing a bra.
Groaning, Audry was ready to walk away. The only reason she didnât was that she was in charge of the booth. She could not leave it.
Chuckling deeply, knowingly, Daisy said with a voice that was no longer honey sweet, but well-knowing and almost seductiveâlike Joan Collins in her early roles, âOh⊠it was a bit of work to get him to sleep with me, to be honest. But once he was hooked, he didnât want to stop. I mean his manhood was likeâŠâ Daisy demonstrated with her hands. âAnd wow. Seriously. I canât tell you how many times Iââ
âEnough!â Audry paled, feeling sick. This woman was bragging?
Daisy dug out from her purse a small jar not too different from Audryâs own container of Tiger Balm. She held it out. âYou see, Rick has got a super sensitive nose. He can be driven wild by certain scents. Lose all control, you know.â
Audry stared at the jar, leaning away from it. âYou used a perfume to manipulate him?â She was utterly disgusted. This Daisy was total slut. Audry had yet to hear one thing about Rick as a human being from that womanâs mouth. Jessica had plenty of things to say about Rick as personâgood and bad. So did Silvia. But it was becoming clear that this Daisy saw Rick as a piece of meat. It was revolting.
âNo.â Daisy shook her head, twisting off the cap. She held it out for Audry to sniff. âItâs a pheromone enhancer.â
Blinking at her, Audry stiffened. âWhat?â
Taking a small daub out from the jar, Daisy rubbed it her chest just above her breasts then into her cleavage. Then she rubbed it along her jugular, both sides of her neck. âPheromone enhancer. It enhances the smell of a womanâs pheromones. And if a man is attracted to the scent of those particular pheromones, he gets intensely aroused. It drives him wild, actually.â She handed Audry the jar, then rubbed it into her wrists. âIf you want to get laid, all you gotta do is rub some on in discrete places where your blood is close to your skin, and the man of your dreams will come runninâ.â
âNo way.â Audry could not believe it, holding the jar as if it were a sharp piece of glass.
âAdmittedly, Rick didnât just jump on me at first smell or anythinâ,â Daisy casually drawled out. âI had to lead him along. You know, tease him with it. But once he really breathed it in, it was really hard for him to resist. And after weâd made love for the first time, his desire for me almost impossible for him to ignore. He fought the temptation a short bit, but in the end he came to like a puppy dog and begged for me. If he had stayed in our town, I would have gotten laid any time I wanted. He gets turned on just with a whiff of my scent now. Or did. Itâs been four years, ya know.â
Audry still could not believe it. By a smell? Rick abandoned all sense and ended up having sex with this girl because of a jar of balm and her pheromones?
âBut I bet if he smells me now, heâll invite me back to his hotel room, and we can finish where we started off,â Daisy murmured, sniffing her wrists. She then heaved a hormonal sigh, just dreaming about it. Audry could not smell a thing.
Audry sniffed the jar. Nothing. It just smelled a little oily.
âWhy are you tell me all this?â Audry stared at her, especially grossed out about Daisyâs continued bragging. It was disgusting.
With a twinkle in her eye, Daisy smirked at her. âBecause all men are the same, dearieâdeep down. And you are naĂŻve. And I want to educate you.â
Audry bristled, gingerly holding the jar in her hand. She felt like chucking it at Daisyâs head. Hard.
Daisy continued to talk this way. âBesides, I know youâre not after Rick, so I donât feel any animosity toward you for maybe accidentally honinâ in on my territory.â
âHoning in?â Audry jerked back. âYou think I kept him away fromâ?â
âNo,â Daisy laughed, shaking her head with her hands raised in protest. âHis dad did. He wanted to end us. And I am sure daddy has big plans for his sonâand that includes marriage. Iâm sure he is selectinâ his sonâs bride as we speakâand I donât think it is you.â
Audry had a hard time believing in all that arranged marriage nonsense also. It just felt so backward. And Mr. Deacon did not seem backward. And Rick did not seem the type either to go along with such a thing. The fact that he had rejected Selena Davenport was proof. He could have had a posh girlfriend from among the elites. Easily. In fact, back at that party she had gone to with Vincentâwhere she had bumped into Rick last, where Harlin had embarrassed her to deathâRick was not actually in attendance. His mother and stepfather were there with his grandparents. He had elected to babysit his half-brother and sisterâmost likely to get out of it. He had only shown up at the thing to sneak out snacks for the little kiddies.
Besides, it didnât make sense that Rick would have just jumped into the sack with this woman just because she had smelled good. It was stupid. It had to have been a lie. All of it.
Several of Daisyâs friends jogged back to their booth, breathless, grinning. One of the guys gleefully reported, âWe saw him!â
âWhich one?â Daisy tersely asked. âRick orââ
âRick.â The guy nodded firmly, cutting her off with a look to those nearby. Audry wondered whom else they were waiting for. âWe didnât get to ask him any questions or anything. And the audience was too dark for him to see usâso he didnât see us. But heâs here! And heâs gonna be around here the whole day.â
Audry frowned, glancing at the others at her booth. None of them were waiting to ask the Deacons for permission with doing projects on his land that she knew of. But it was likely he would walk the convention center and probably pass by. He did that.
âLook what I found!â A girl from their group trotted up. She was holding up a pendant necklace of a Celtic moon.
âOoh!â Daisy reached out for it. âTola! Where did you find this? This is amazinâ.â
Tola pulled the long chain over her head, shaking out her blond curls so that the cord lay safely under it. âA booth over there. Theyâve got Diana moon charms and earrings. Iâm gonna wear this at the next full moon ritual.â
Daisy immediately trotted away to get herself one. Even before she was out of earshot, her friends cast her mocking looks.
âJealousâŠâ The guy with them laughed.
Tola nodded in agreement. âBut she got moon-bonded with a mingled-soul wolf, so she deserves to feel jealous about something.â
âNow whoâs jealous,â the guy said to Tola, laughing more, this time at her.
Huffing, Tola hissed to him (though Audry overheard), âItâs not fair. How many pups has she got from drifters? The pack elders spoil her. They gave her that house, and she does not have to watch her own. Iâm just saying if she hadnât miscarried his pup, the pack would have had a great deal more leverage over those heretics. And he would have been really useful to us. She blew it.â
None of that conversation made sense. It had to be code language.
Or⊠the inside language of an insular group of cultists, which was what Audry realized they had to have been. The reason she believed it was that, was because she knew four years ago Rick had been dealing with something that had really messed with his life. One of the main rumors was that one summer he had fallen in with a cult that had tried to brainwash him. No one knew the truth, of course. Mr. Deacon II have made sure of that. But here was a group of double-speaking, manipulative people who claimed to be Rickâs friendsâand Daisy herself said she had enticed Rick into having sex with her.
Panic seized Audry. She could feel it, and now she knew it. These people were dangerous.
She looked around for convention security guards. She had to alert one.
Daisy returned in a heavy-footed march. She shot Tola a hard look. âYou took the last one.â
Grinning at her, Tola declared, unrepentant, âI did.â She then trotted off, even more unrepentant.
These were nasty people. How in the world did Rick fall among them? How? Clearly he had barely escaped them. And she needed to.
âCan you leave?â Audry finally said to them. âYouâre making it hard for people to visit our booth.â
Daisy glanced back at her. Her periwinkle blue eyes examined Audry sharply. But then
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