Blackstone Ranger Charmer - Alicia Montgomery Page 0,34
to live under the shadows of their sisters.
“How long will you be staying?”
“I’m not sure yet. Actually, I’m here because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I heard some stuff about—”
“Gabriel?” came a voice from behind them. “Where are you? Is everything okay?”
Shit. Temperance. Stepping away from Ginny, he padded toward her in the darkness and reached out to grip her arms. “Yeah, it’s all good, baby.”
She sighed. “I was scared, but then I could hear you talking, what—” A yelp escaped her mouth as the lights suddenly turned on. Her eyes squeezed shut, then fluttered open.
“Oh. Oh, wow,” Ginny snorted. “Looks like I was interrupting.” Her gaze zeroed in on Temperance. “Hi there.”
Temperance tensed. “Gabriel? What’s going on? I thought you said someone broke in.”
“Someone did,” he said wryly. “Turns out it was Ginny. My sister.”
“Sister?” One hazel eye widened up at him.
“Ginerva Russel,” Ginny introduced. “But you can call me Ginny. And you are?”
“T-Temperance Pettigrew.” She remained stiff by his side, unmoving, the right side of her face carefully turned away from his sister.
His sister gave him the side-eye. “Makes sense now.”
He was about to ask what she meant, but Ginny gave him a look that said later. “Ginny’s visiting, from out of town,” he explained. “And so, she decided to drop by unexpectedly.”
“What Gabriel means is that I like to break into his place for fun,” Ginny corrected with a grin. “Sorry for disturbing you, Temperance.”
“It’s not … y-you didn’t,” she stammered. “Gabriel, it’s three a.m. I should get ready.”
“You go ahead, baby,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “The spare bathroom should have everything you need. We can leave in half an hour.”
“All right.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Temperance,” Ginny called.
“Thanks. Nice to meet you too,” she said before disappearing into the hallway.
As soon as he heard the bedroom door close, he stalked to his sister. “Did Gen send you?”
“Did Gen—what the hell are you talking about, Gabriel?” Ginny planted her hands on her hips. “Why would Gen send me?”
“She’s been on my case lately,” he said. “About—”
“About you doing your family duty?” she finished.
“How did you know if you haven’t talked to her?” Gabriel pointed out.
“No, no,” Ginny said. “But I’ve heard some chatter on the grapevine, Gabriel. And it seems like the news is coming from one source: Vicky Woolworth.”
“Vicky?” he exclaimed. “What has that lunatic been saying?”
“What else?” Ginny grimaced distastefully. She hated Vicky as much as he did, as the other lioness had been jealous of his close relationship with his sister and did everything she could to drive a wedge between them. “Vicky’s been insinuating that her father and Gen are this close”—she placed her thumb and forefinger half an inch apart—“to brokering your marriage.”
“Fuck that shit!” He slammed his hands on the island counter. “I’d rather have my balls chopped off than be married to her.”
“Well, she’d probably do that eventually if you did marry her,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “That’s why I came back; to warn you and let you know I’m going to disown you if you ever married that cow.” She pointed her chin toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “And that? What’s going on there?” she asked, a brow raised. “I didn’t think you were the type to have sleepovers.”
“It’s not like that.” Uneasiness stirred in his stomach, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide the truth from his sister. “She’s mine, Gin.”
“Yours?”
“Mine … my mate.”
Ginny gaped. “Your mate?”
“Shhh!” He covered her mouth with his hand. “Temperance doesn’t know. She’s human.”
She ripped his hand away. “And when are you going to tell her?”
“I …” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know how. We only met for real a few days ago. She didn’t want anything to do with me at first. I couldn’t even get her to come here with me unless I kidnapped her gnome.”
“Kidnapped her gnome?”
“I’ll explain later,” he said. “But you can’t tell her.”
“Well, you better do it soon,” she said. “What are you going to do? About Gen and Vicky, I mean.”
A knot twisted in his stomach. “I’ll have to figure out what’s going on first.”
“And shut that lying bitch’s mouth,” Ginny added.
“Vicky tried to sabotage my first date with Temperance,” he said and gave her a quick version of what happened the night at the French restaurant. “And before that, she’d been blowing up my phone with DMs.”
“God, what a delusional bitch. What is she thinking? That if she repeated a lie and spread