design was actually kind of funny looking. It seemed like a coat of arms. Except…well, besides the crossed swords and the detailed outline of the shield itself, what was displayed in the center of the design made Lucy giggle for a good thirty seconds before she got a hold of herself.
“Is that—are they…doing what I think they’re doing?”
“Yes,” Gabriel said, turning his head away as he scratched the back of his ear. “That’s two…wolves…”
“Screwing,” Lucy shrieked with laughter.
“I was going to say mating.”
“And I was going to say to werewolves screwing doggy style!” She fell over on her side on the couch, melting into peals of laughter and holding the framed photo to her chest and tried to catch her breath.
“They’re wolves,” Gabriel said, looking like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Lucy practically barked out a snide laugh at Gabriel’s protest. “I’ve seen wolves,” she said, holding her stomach as she raised the photo up to her face to get a better look. “Wolves don’t have human torsos, especially muscular He-Man chests. And look!” She pointed at the photo. Gabriel tried to grab it from her, but she scooted away as she fingered the point of interest on the picture.
“This right here. The…wolf on top has definite clawed hands! He’s got one…well, wrapped around the other wolf’s…torso, and the other is holding on to his shoulder…for, um…leverage?”
Gabriel sighed unhappily. “Well, I was drunk when I—” and then he just stopped, leaning back on the couch and crossing his arms over his chest.
Lucy gave him a curious glance, and then she held the photograph out away from her, taking the entire image in form a distance, then bringing it back trombone-style and noticed something interesting about the texture of the “canvas” the werewolf mating coat of arms was stenciled on.
“Is that a freckle?”
Gabriel groaned and threw his brawny arm up over his face. “I said I was drunk, for the bet and the…the—”
“Tattoo!” Lucy howled joyously. “This is a tattoo, isn’t it? That’s the third part of the bet.” Lucy reached over and pulled Gabriel’s arm from obscuring his face. He looked to her pleadingly.
“A framed photograph, prominently displayed in your office, of a lewd tattoo on your—” She stopped and turned to shoot Gabriel with a wrinkle of her eyebrows. “Gabriel…where exactly on you is this tattoo?” She shook the photograph in her hand for emphasis.
“You don’t want to know.” He looked into her eyes and she felt a little shudder, like how she felt when she fantasized about stealing Brad Pitt form Angelina.
She shook that feeling out of her mind. It was preposterous. She hated this guy…well, she didn’t exactly hate him, not anymore, but he was still a condescending pain in her ass.
“Yeah, I do want to know.”
He smiled ruefully to himself, and as he shook his head he leaned away from Lucy and pointed down behind him to the back of his slacks. It took a second, but then Lucy realized he was pointing to his butt, and she suddenly realized with a squeak, and then more riotous laughter, that she was holding a photograph of a tattoo on Gabriel’s ass.
“It’s not funny.” His face was sobering up as he leaned his head back. “And leave it to Micah to get me into the tattoo parlor and snap a picture of it while I was still…inebriated.”
“You must’ve been wasted,” Lucy said, handing the picture back to him, using her thumb and forefinger like it was something yucky. “But I’ve got to give you credit for actually sticking to the terms of that drunken bet.”
“Thanks.”
“I just can’t wait to meet your brother!”
Chapter 10
THE WEEK before the engagement party passed far too quickly for Gabriel. His confidence in Lucy had grown considerably, yet he still felt anxious about her meeting his family. Would they fall for their act? Could he convince them he was in love with the girl? He wasn’t worried about Lucy’s performance: she was showing herself to be an incredible actress. And the story she’d concocted of the way they’d met had been genius.
It went like this:
They’d literally run into each other in the entrance of The Szechuan Garden. He had knocked her down, accidentally, and she had thought he was a complete jerk. He’d helped her up, and was unsuccessfully trying to apologize when she’d kicked him in the shin and took off down the street, absently leaving behind her takeout order.
He’d scooped up the bag and rushed after her.