ameliorate the anxiety he could feel emanating from her in waves.
Meredith’s eyes were huge in her face. “Are you sure it’s not too much?”
“It’s more than you’re used to,” he said, acknowledging her bravery in trying a style so different from that which she’d grown accustomed. “But it’s by no means too much. It’s going to be perfect, you’ll see.”
Meredith nodded, but her fingers still clutched Dylan’s as they walked toward Alex’s front door, and then through.
Dylan, meanwhile, wondered at the other emotion he could feel. It lurked underneath her nervousness, and it surprised him. For Meredith was genuinely terrified of the party and of making any sort of grand entrance. Yet there it was—an absolutely contradictory emotion floating, luminescent underneath the fear.
The emotion was anticipation. And Dylan wondered what lay behind those massive entry doors that had Meredith so very, very eager.
“The new medium?” said a curiously distant voice.
“What?” Alex managed to mumble, his mouth gone dry and the rest of his attention riveted on his front door.
“You were telling us about your new medium,” repeated the voice patiently.
But Alex was already walking away, unable to think or see past the vision stepping shyly as a doe over his threshold. She clutched her coat around her, appearing reluctant to take it off and hand it to the uniformed girl asking for it. But when she final slipped off the long, dark evening coat, a flood of lust coursed through Alex’s body.
Meredith? he wondered, almost incapable of believing that the vision in front of him was the woman commonly known as “Teddy Casaubon’s widow”. This woman was all long limbs and pale flesh, set off by a perfectly cut, perfectly teal dress.
She looked around with wide eyes, scanning the crowd as if afraid they’d turn on her. And when those wide eyes met his, Alex knew it was Meredith. Even across the expanse of his massive foyer, where he was making his guests linger with champagne and canapés before he threw open the doors to the rooms he used as his personal galleries, he recognized those eyes. Their intensity, their liquid beauty—they could only belong to Meredith.
Alex made his way through the crowd, trying to remember to be polite to everyone who wanted his attention but finding it difficult. There was only one person there in whose attention he was interested.
Meredith, meanwhile, was trying to keep calm. She recognized only a few faces in this crowd, and they were the merest of acquaintances. The majority of the guests, she assumed, were out-of-towners flown in especially for Alex’s opening. Dylan had slipped away to help the girl with their coats and to find them champagne—she craved a drop of liquid courage. But once her selkie lover had left her side, Meredith only felt more conspicuous and embarrassed.
This was a mistake , she thought, looking around rather desperately for someone—anyone—with whom to talk.
And that’s when she saw Alex.
His tall form was making its way to her, his eyes latched on hers. The fierce look in those always-intense green orbs riveted her to the spot. And yet, from the heat flushing through her body, she was equally aware of her own visceral hunger for Alex’s beautiful, arrogant body.
Who, exactly, is the predator? she wondered, her belly squeezed tight with what she now admitted to herself was desire.
Meredith’s drew herself up as she took a deep breath, stepping forward to meet the only man who made her forget absolutely everything else.
Including the selkie, Dylan, who watched from the shadows as the woman whose body he’d devoured earlier that day stepped eagerly into the arms of another man.
Chapter Nine
Meredith tried to keep the hug she gave Alex casual, but she knew her hands lingered overlong on his upper arms. Similarly, while Alex’s lips seemed quick to find her cheek, they were equally long in leaving her smooth skin.
“You
Meredith’s eyes were huge in her face. “Are you sure it’s not too much?”
“It’s more than you’re used to,” he said, acknowledging her bravery in trying a style so different from that which she’d grown accustomed. “But it’s by no means too much. It’s going to be perfect, you’ll see.”
Meredith nodded, but her fingers still clutched Dylan’s as they walked toward Alex’s front door, and then through.
Dylan, meanwhile, wondered at the other emotion he could feel. It lurked underneath her nervousness, and it surprised him. For Meredith was genuinely terrified of the party and of making any sort of grand entrance. Yet there it was—an absolutely contradictory emotion floating, luminescent underneath the fear.
The emotion was anticipation. And Dylan wondered what lay behind those massive entry doors that had Meredith so very, very eager.
“The new medium?” said a curiously distant voice.
“What?” Alex managed to mumble, his mouth gone dry and the rest of his attention riveted on his front door.
“You were telling us about your new medium,” repeated the voice patiently.
But Alex was already walking away, unable to think or see past the vision stepping shyly as a doe over his threshold. She clutched her coat around her, appearing reluctant to take it off and hand it to the uniformed girl asking for it. But when she final slipped off the long, dark evening coat, a flood of lust coursed through Alex’s body.
Meredith? he wondered, almost incapable of believing that the vision in front of him was the woman commonly known as “Teddy Casaubon’s widow”. This woman was all long limbs and pale flesh, set off by a perfectly cut, perfectly teal dress.
She looked around with wide eyes, scanning the crowd as if afraid they’d turn on her. And when those wide eyes met his, Alex knew it was Meredith. Even across the expanse of his massive foyer, where he was making his guests linger with champagne and canapés before he threw open the doors to the rooms he used as his personal galleries, he recognized those eyes. Their intensity, their liquid beauty—they could only belong to Meredith.
Alex made his way through the crowd, trying to remember to be polite to everyone who wanted his attention but finding it difficult. There was only one person there in whose attention he was interested.
Meredith, meanwhile, was trying to keep calm. She recognized only a few faces in this crowd, and they were the merest of acquaintances. The majority of the guests, she assumed, were out-of-towners flown in especially for Alex’s opening. Dylan had slipped away to help the girl with their coats and to find them champagne—she craved a drop of liquid courage. But once her selkie lover had left her side, Meredith only felt more conspicuous and embarrassed.
This was a mistake , she thought, looking around rather desperately for someone—anyone—with whom to talk.
And that’s when she saw Alex.
His tall form was making its way to her, his eyes latched on hers. The fierce look in those always-intense green orbs riveted her to the spot. And yet, from the heat flushing through her body, she was equally aware of her own visceral hunger for Alex’s beautiful, arrogant body.
Who, exactly, is the predator? she wondered, her belly squeezed tight with what she now admitted to herself was desire.
Meredith’s drew herself up as she took a deep breath, stepping forward to meet the only man who made her forget absolutely everything else.
Including the selkie, Dylan, who watched from the shadows as the woman whose body he’d devoured earlier that day stepped eagerly into the arms of another man.
Chapter Nine
Meredith tried to keep the hug she gave Alex casual, but she knew her hands lingered overlong on his upper arms. Similarly, while Alex’s lips seemed quick to find her cheek, they were equally long in leaving her smooth skin.
“You
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