Chapter 4

Keegan POV:

“I am not denying it,” she replied. “But you responded so enthusiastically and it seemed like you wanted a lot more. Then, you obviously remembered that you like your head on your shoulders.”

“What was I supposed to do?” I drew my finger a halo around my head. “Do I look like an angel to you?”She sighed. “Look, it doesn’t mean I don’t like what I see.” Her eyes roamed slowly down my chest and lower still. “Or that you’re even wrong about the kiss. What I am saying is, I agree that it wouldn’t be a good idea. One of us has to be strong enough to resist. And from this moment on, that will be me. Now, what exactly do you like to eat?”

I clenched my teeth. I knew that we needed ground rules. We were both all too aware that we couldn’t act on our impulses. Yet, even in the matter of a few hours, the tension seemed to grow between us, even when she tried to put a stop to it.

I had never said we were actually going anywhere?

“Vianne—” I started, but she cut me off. Again. The girl had guts. She was in front of a stronger man and a wolf and she could talk back. Maybe I didn’t need to worry about her confidence after all. She was definitely Luna material.

“Save it. You can’t control me. I have had enough of that shit for too long. I am not about to let some thug and wolf push me around again.” She glared at me, her face flushed red, nostrils flaring, and her brow furrowed in anger.

As if I would let her scare me. I took a step closer. “You aren’t leaving this house.”

She did the same, stepping right into my personal space. We were nearly chest to chest and that shit made everything harder. It was fucking unfair.

“Like hell, I can’t,” he hissed. “No one knows who I am or who Clement is here. So…”

“And if the people start talking and asking questions, what the hell are you going to say about who you are?”

Her brow tightened as if she hadn’t been aware of how close she was to me.

“Easy. We will pose as husband and wife.” I stood there with my jaw on the floor as she continued. “Clement agreed and said that you get all your stuff delivered and haven’t bothered to go into town. Any real shopping you do is in the next town over.”

If I went along with what she asked, it would be my demise. There had to be a way out of this situation. “What about Claire?”

I was making excuses.

“She knows not to talk to strangers,” she stated. “We have had to pretend before. We will just have to keep an eye on her, pay attention to what she says and to whom.”

I knew I wasn’t going to win. And if Clement had agreed to this cover story, there was little I could do. “Fine,” I said, defeated. “I’ll go get dressed and we will go into town.”

“Good,” she chirped. I glared at her and she smiled at me before returning her attention back to her list.

I took my time getting dressed before I made my way downstairs and found Vianne and Claire coloring in a book on the dining table. The time upstairs gave me the distance I needed to get over my reaction to Vianne’s presence.

And I also realized that she had been right. Locking her away would only make it harder for everyone. Plus, I had not the first clue what to shop for a little girl and a grown woman. Asking someone to drop it off at the house would compromise our security and I couldn’t leave them unattended at any cost.

Hence, we came to a truce.

“Ladies, are you ready to go?” I smiled at Claire. She giggled and nodded. She shot up from her chair and curled her fingers around one of mine. The gesture felt strange and unsettling but in a good way. I raised my head to see Vianne walking towards us, the mask she had brought out back on her face as she took my hand and placed something in it.

I looked at it and then arched a brow at her. “Where did you get the ring?”

“Edwin. He was the one who suggested the cover story.”

“Of course, he did,” I whined. Vianne said something under her breath that I couldn’t catch, but wiggled her fingers, showing me her matching silver band. I sighed and put on my ring.

I looked at it and felt a terrible feeling overcome me.

It was the best cover story since I had met some of the locals, but not many. Those that I met didn’t know anything about me.

I showed Claire and Vianne to the garage and led them to my car.

“Wait,” Vianne said, looking around.

“What is it?”

“We need a seat for Claire. Did Edwin leave the one he had?”

I looked toward my work table and sure enough, the seat was there. “Got it!” I called. Vianne took it from me and swung the back door open. She proceeded to install it properly and then buckled Claire inside.

“I hate this, mommy,” Claire pouted.

I stifled a laugh as I climbed inside and started the car. Vianne came around to the passenger side and looked at me sternly. “What?” I asked, pulling out of the garage.

“Edwin warned me about your driving.”

For some reason, I found the fact that she knew about me troubling. I didn’t know anything about her except for the trouble she was in. Edwin needed to keep his mouth shut. I also needed to remind Edwin that I could kick his ass.

“Did he now? And?” I prompted.

“I thought I should remind you that you have a child in the car now.”

“Nothing is going to happen. I am a good driver.” I grinned.

She cocked a brow that told me she wasn’t going to back down. I looked in the rearview mirror and found Claire humming a song to herself. “Just stick to the speeding limit.”

I hated driving slow. But the sweet little pub who smiled when I turned toward her made me realize it wasn’t worth the risk. I only nodded in response and pulled out of the driveway.

“Turn on the radio, please,” Claire said from the backseat.

“Sure thing, Claire,” I Said and showed Vianne how to work the sound system. A few seconds later, Claire started to belt out a popular tune slightly off-key. From the corner of my eye, I saw a real smile gracing Vianne’s face. If all the ones she had given me before were part of the facade she was putting on, and if I was ever at the receiving end of a genuine one, I would be in serious trouble.

Twenty minutes later, I discovered something. I had no idea how much time a person could spend at a store. Vianne and Claire kept throwing things into the cart. I would also be completely unaware that two petite girls could eat so much, wolf or not. There were like three kinds of cookies and three kinds of cereal. There were also three kinds of milk-skimmed, two percent, soy milk, and chocolate milk.

We made our way with the full cart to pay as Claire chatted away about the importance of keeping a secret identity, using an old show about a high-school pop star living a double life as an example. We had sat her down and talked with her earlier about pretending that I was her dad. So, her relating our situation to the kids' show was brilliant.

It was strange doing something so domestic. I had always considered being a wolf with being wild and violent, that was why crime and beating people up had been a course I took. I hadn’t been comfortable with it, but it had seemed like a good option. I would have thought this domesticity would bother me, but I was hit by how it didn’t bother me at all. But that scared the hell out of me. I had never wanted—especially since joining the Slater crime family—a family of my own.

But there I was, playing husband and father. I reminded myself that it was just that—playing.

Vianne started to put items on the belt when someone cleared their throat. I looked up as I grabbed a few things from the cart to find a little human watching her.

“Well, hello there,” he said grinning like an idiot. The guy’s name was written on the tag and was still leering at her. Talk about bad service. This had never happened before in my thirty years of life. And did he not see Claire or me?