You won't believe the number of hot women who were there. It looked as if a super model convention was taking place there."
Finn rubbed his hands together. "I know where I'll be going tonight. I have an itch I'm sure one of those ladies won't mind scratching."
Billie pretended to stick her finger down her throat and gag. "And you think I'm bad. Isn't it about time the two of you settled down and started a family of your own like Keegan and Hayes? You aren't getting any younger you know."
Eli gasped in mock horror. "Not in this lifetime."
"And I second that," Finn quickly added.
"I'll be sure to rub that statement into both of your faces when you each find the right woman," Billie said. "The whole playboy persona won't hold up with age you know. Someday it'll turn a woman's stomach instead of her head. Now if you all are done, I have somewhere to go."
When Billie tried to walk away, Keegan moved to stand in front of her, blocking her path. "Oh no, you don't. You're not leaving until you tell us more about the man you met at the nightclub."
Knowing there would be no escape until she told them something, Billie blew a breath out on a sigh. "His name is Royce. He offered to help me with Hayes. Other than that he is gorgeous, muscular and taller than all of you, that is everything I know about him. Now get out of my way before I'm forced to do something painful to you."
Billie bit back a smile as Keegan automatically brought his hands up, protectively cupping his groin as he moved out of her way. She had to give it to her brothers, they were quick learners. None of them took her warnings lightly anymore.
"Tell Dad I'm finished for the day and I'll see you all tomorrow."
Anxious to be on her way, Billie only took the time to collect her purse before she headed out to her car. Once she was behind the steering wheel, she closed her eyes and brought Royce's image up in her mind. Focusing, she honed in on his location. A smile of satisfaction spread across her lips when she found him.
* * * *
Royce pushed away the newspaper he had been trying to read in disgust. He had come into the kitchen to have a coffee and read that day's newspaper, hoping to distract himself from thoughts better left not thought about. He was failing miserably.
Thoughts of Billie were haunting him. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get the smell, taste or feel of her out of his head. Just thinking about her brought the wolf inside him roaring to life. With the mating urge riding him hard, he'd had one erotic dream after another about her during the night. He'd woken up with his body hard and aching for her. Even now, he was still semi-aroused.
With a snarl, he tried to rid his mind of the memory of how it had felt to kiss Billie, have her body pressed to his. But it wouldn't go away. It had been hundreds of years since he had held a woman in his arms in that way. After the loss of his mate, he hadn't been interested in having another woman in his life. And finding a woman he wanted to take to his bed for only a night held no appeal for him.
Now, after the many years that had gone by since Alicia's passing, he had found another mate. And like Alicia, Billie was not a werewolf. He didn't want to be mated to another mortal. It had caused him too much pain when Alicia had been taken from him. The only thing that had kept him going had been his baby daughter, Nina. She was all he'd had left of his mate. To protect her from the villagers who had killed her mother, and not sure of how his pack would have reacted to his having a daughter who was mortal, he had stepped down as pack leader and gone lone wolf. He took his daughter away and watched over her as she grew to womanhood, as he had all her descendants.
Royce didn't mind being alone. He still had Roxie and her mother, Belinda, to watch out for. He had raised Belinda as his own daughter when her parents had died when she was little. She was mortal as all of Nina's descendants had been. All of them except Roxie. Roxie