So had Shannon. The last five years their relationship had merely been a safety net for both of them. A safety net held together by friendship and, only rarely, sexual love.
Even Shannon admitted to occasional sex with a man, something Tia enjoyed as well, but it had never been enough. Not with one man, not even with multiple partners. The sense of something else, something more powerful, more sensual, lured her out of every relationship, away from any commitment.
Away from Shannon.
The dreams hadn’t helped. Explicit, arousing, forbidden dreams. Always the wolf, amber eyes glowing, teeth sharp and glistening, the rough, mobile tongue lapping, licking…Tia blinked away the image and scrubbed at her wrists and forearms. Why, when she remembered the dreams, did her skin crawl? She hated it, the itchy, agitating sense of something just beneath the surface. Sometimes she wondered if she were losing her mind, descending into some unexplainable madness.
The plane jerked a bit as it descended. The FASTEN SEAT BELT sign blinked overhead. An attendant leaned close, awakened the man sleeping next to Tia, and asked him to fasten his belt. She smiled at Tia and moved on to the next sleeping passenger.
Tia shook off the strange sensations, and her thoughts returned to Shannon. If her father had only known how close the girls were when they’d asked to go away to boarding school together, he might have forbidden it. Obviously, he didn’t have a clue. In fact, the poor man had been so relieved when Tia left, it was almost embarrassing.
It couldn’t have been easy for him, raising a daughter without her mother there for guidance. Coping with hormones and emotions completely foreign to him, not to mention the issues that occasionally arose because of her biracial status. Maybe Tia and Shannon wouldn’t have become lovers if they’d had mothers, but Shannon’s mom had died of cancer when Shannon was only five. That shared loss had drawn the girls together.
Tia’s mother had been murdered. To this day she didn’t know all the details, only that her father had never even talked of remarrying. He’d loved her mother beyond all women.
He’d loved Tia as if she were a princess, put her on a pedestal. More like a perch, she thought, locked securely in a gilded cage. Rationally, she knew he’d wanted to protect her, but he’d merely driven Tia away.
What would it be like now, to live in the same city, to see her father whenever she wanted, to finally learn more about his life? She’d have a chance, maybe, to learn the details of her mother’s murder. More important, she’d have the freedom her adult status now gave her to search for answers.
Tia sighed. She wished she remembered her mother more clearly, but the image she carried of Camille’s smile was the face in the snapshots, the pictures both Tia and her father treasured.
Ulrich had always had presence, as far as Tia was concerned. She wondered how he did now that he was partially retired. From his letters and calls and their infrequent visits, Tia knew he was still active and involved, busy with his detective agency. He’d always had a lot of friends.
Lucien Stone’s image popped into Tia’s mind. Luc. She hadn’t seen him since the summer before she and Shannon went off to Briarwood, but he and her father had always been close. He was probably married by now with a couple of kids, but he’d filled her fantasies for years. When Shannon made love to her, it was Luc’s mouth tasting, licking, driving her over the edge. When Shannon had used a vibrator or dildo between Tia’s legs, Tia had been filled by Luc.
She stared out the window, watching the multicolored squares in San Francisco Bay as they glided down over the salt beds, and tried to picture Lucien Stone with ten years added to his stern yet boyish good looks.
By the time the plane landed and Tia unbuckled her seat belt, she had an image in her mind of a potbellied, middle-age man with thinning hair.
When she reached for her carry-on luggage in the overhead rack, Tia added bad teeth and an earring. She was grinning as she walked down the enclosed ramp to the gate, the image of an older Lucien Stone taking on cartoon properties in her overactive imagination.
She was still smiling when she arrived at the luggage carousel. Her father waited there, just as overwhelming and handsome as when she’d last seen him, his skin ruddy from wind and sun, his hair a thick shock of white badly in need of a trim. Ulrich pulled her into a hug, his big arms and broad chest erasing every misgiving Tia had felt about coming home.
He smelled just the same as always, a combination of Dial soap and Colgate shaving cream. Tia took deep breaths, just to absorb his beloved scent.
“Sweetie, you are absolutely gorgeous.”
Her father stood back for a better look, his big hands clasped tightly to her shoulders. “I’ve missed you. I’m glad you’re home.”
Tia’s eyes filled with tears. She wanted nothing more than to throw herself back into her father’s arms and tell him how lonely she’d been, how much she’d wanted to come home. How terribly glad she was to be back. “It’s good to be here, Daddy.”
“Was the trip okay?” He reached for the bag she grabbed off the carousel, set it on the floor, and then snatched another she pointed to.
“Yeah. Just long. I…” No. It couldn’t be. Not Luc? A chill raced along her spine, a sense of awareness that left her weak-kneed and shivering.
“Hello, Tia.”
“Luc? Good lord! I haven’t seen you since…”
“Since you were a skinny little sixteen-year-old with braces on your teeth.” Smiling, Luc stepped forward and drew her into a friendly, brotherly hug.
At least, Tia assumed it was meant to be brotherly. Where her father’s hug had been home and comfort, Luc’s was bed and beyond. His big hands stroked her spine, the briefest of contacts that left her feeling naked and wanting. His lips brushed her cheek and she fought the urge to lean closer for more. She breathed deeply of his scent. He was spice and fresh air, deep woods and dark rivers…intoxicating and addictive.
When he released her—was it only seconds later?—Tia clamped her jaws together to keep her teeth from chattering. “Luc, you look…you haven’t…” Her voice drifted off and she realized she was staring at him.
He grinned, obviously aware of her discomfort. His teeth were perfectly straight and very white. His nose wasn’t nearly as straight, but the bump on the bridge where he’d probably broken it at some time during the past ten years only made him look stronger, more masculine.
Tia blinked. The dream she’d had earlier on the plane materialized in all its sensual detail. Damn, Lucien Stone looked exactly like that hungry wolf with his deep-set amber eyes and feral grin. It was much too easy to picture him kneeling between her thighs, his tongue lapping away at her cream.
Tia gulped, no ladylike swallow at all, but Luc ignored her faux pas and instead reached past her to pick up off the carousel the last two of her large bags. He slung one over his shoulder, gripped the other easily in his left hand, and then grabbed the two smaller ones in his right. Ulrich took Tia’s carry-on bag from her and led the way to the parking garage.
Tia followed quietly, her inner thighs sliding moistly, one against the other, with each step. The two men were discussing something, but the words merely sailed past her without sense. Awareness of Luc screamed a steady beat inside her brain, echoed in the rhythmic clenching between her legs. Her chest felt tight and her skin itchy and she’d never been this aware of another human being in her life.
Tia didn’t think to question how Luc had identified her mismatched set of bags out of all the others on the luggage carousel until he shoved them into the trunk and shut the lid.
Somehow he’d found them without her help. But how? Tia turned to ask, but Luc opened the door and gestured with his hand. She smiled as he seated her in the front. Ulrich stepped back on the curb when Luc moved around to the driver’s side