This was no longer the friend who had sheltered Mica along with Cassie when they were kids. She wasn’t the woman that cut Mica’s hair the first time, or the one that taught her to use makeup when she was a teenager, when her own mother refused to so do.
She was now the Prima, the dominant feminine force within Sanctuary, and there wasn’t a Breed male or female within the compound that didn’t inherently recognize her quiet, intuitive strength and power.
Mica glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Oh, two hours maybe?” she answered blithely. “Could be a minute more, could be a minute less. So let’s not get into the whole psychological mishmash that goes with it quite yet, if you don’t mind? I’d like another minute or two to adjust.”
There was the odd situation or two when her need for truth was almost outweighed by her need for privacy.
Breeds and their mates were just too damned nosy. And she couldn’t tell Merinus to mind her own damned business as she would most other Breeds.
“You’ll likely need more than a minute or two to adjust,” Merinus said ruefully. “It’s been fourteen years since I met Callan and I still can’t say I’ve adjusted.”
But she was happy. Mica could see the happiness as well as the contentment in the Prima’s gaze. She might appear now no more than twenty-four or -five, but she was fourteen years older and wise well beyond her years, Mica often thought.
That didn’t mean she wanted to discuss with Merinus something as private and as confusing as what had happened in her bed earlier with Navarro though.
“I wondered what was going on when Navarro stomped downstairs and out the front entrance.”
Picking up the plates and cups, Merinus deposited them on the sink counter before turning back to Mica, leaning against the counter and bracing her hands on the edge behind her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Navarro stomp before.”
Mica was quite certain no one had ever seen Navarro stomp before, simply because he so rarely stomped.
Just as he so rarely kept the same lover for longer than a week or two.
She imagined he was stomping because it wasn’t as easy to walk away from a mate as it was a one-night stand.
Poor Navarro, she thought mockingly.
Her shoulders almost slumped in dejection, “poor Mica” was more like it. She was the one sitting here alone with Merinus rather than trying to figure out exactly how she was going to keep her father from killing Navarro.
It would be hard, especially considering the fact that at the moment, she wouldn’t mind killing him herself.
After he f**ked her again.
She wondered what it would take to convince him to f**k her again just before she killed him?
She glanced at Merinus as the other woman watched her compassionately. And that compassion grated. As though someone should feel sorry for her. They should feel sorry for Navarro, because her father really wasn’t going to be happy.
“Did you and Navarro argue before he left?” Merinus finally broke the silence between them.
“No.” She brushed her hair back from her face as she gave Merinus a tight smile. “There was nothing to argue over.” Moving from the bar stool, Mica tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.
The sudden memory of Navarro’s hands cupping her rear, lifting her to him, flashed through her mind as a shiver chased up her spine.
Just as quickly, her womb clenched, a second before a rush of heat flashed through her pu**y.
Mating heat.
Swallowing tightly, she jerked her hands from her pockets and stared around wildly for a moment, thrown so off balance that she knew Merinus couldn’t help but realize.
She could feel herself flushing, knowing that if Merinus’s sense of smell was anywhere close to a Breed’s, then she would know what had just happened.
Mica hated this. There was nothing worse than allowing anyone at all to realize something as intimate as her arousal.
“There’s always something to argue over if mating heat affects you. And I can imagine Navarro, as quiet as he is, could be a force to be reckoned with if he became angry.” Merinus sighed as though she had no idea of the sudden flames of aroused heat that were beginning to burn inside Mica.
“Navarro wouldn’t hurt me.” Mica shook her head dismissively.
She just wanted to escape. She wanted to run to her room, or outside, get away from Merinus’s too perceptive gaze or her possibly too sensitive ability to smell.