He waited for the drama, knowing full wellshe couldn’t abide the idea of marriage.
“You told me you never wanted to get married again after whathappened to Piper.”
Grayson’s chest caved with the memory. Theimage of his wife’s mutilated body, murdered by a rival pack theday after she’d given birth to Luna, still plagued his thoughtsafter twelve long years.“Leave Piper out of this. I made sure it states clearly on myprofile on the dating website that I’m looking for a mutuallyagreeable business arrangement, a marriage of convenience.” Anotherlie, but he was willing to do almost anything to get her off hisback.
Imogen stepped back. “A marriage ofconvenience? Good luck with that,” she said, her tone laced withsarcasm. “It’ll never work.”
“It will.”
“What happens when your ‘little wifey’doesn’t give you what you want in bed?”
Was she ever going to leave? His wolf thought the same. “Mymarriage will be a convenience in all departments, includingservicing my sexual needs.”
“Whatever you say, Grayson.”
He squared his shoulders and emitted agrowl. If playing the alpha card was the only way of getting the message through toImogen, then so be it.
With a whimper, she backed off towards thefront door—at last.
“Goodbye, Imogen.”
She didn’t reply. Grayson got theimpression he hadn’t heard the last from her. He shut the doorbehind her and leant hisback against it.
Today was not going as he’d planned.
Raking his fingers through his hair, hemade his way to the lounge and sat on his favourite chair, mullingover the series of events that had taken him completely by surpriseand made him questionwhat the hell he was doing with his life.
Yesterday he had his life in order. Luna wasexcelling at school thanks to her extra studies with a home tutor,his businesses were doing well, and he’d finished it with Imogen—orso he thought.
Out of idle curiosity, he’d gone onto the Love Bites datingagency website to see if anyone might be remotely interested in analpha werewolf single dad. What he hadn’t expected to see was thepicture of Jamie, a headset clamped around her straight,caramel-coloured hair and a beautiful smile that, to his surprise,had made one of his own appear. A popup speech bubble hadappeared: Hi,I’m Jamie, your Love Bites coach. How can I help youtoday?
A box for him to type his reply had comeup and for some reason, he froze. He’d closed the website, called himself a fool, andthought nothing more of it. Until his dream last night.
He was walking in the woods thatsurrounded Beckett Hall—nothing unusual—but Jamie was there too,and Luna, the pair of them laughing and joking likethey’d known each otherfor ages.
Then Piper appeared, ethereal and floatingabove them, her hand outstretched and smiling, as if she was givinghim her blessing. Impossible, he knew that, but when he woke, ithad seemed so vivid and real. Piper’s beautiful smile, the one he had somehow forgotten inthe twelve years since she’d been gone, came to him again and heknew what he had to do.
He’d rung the dating agency direct, andafter a bit of coercing, he’d persuaded the owner, Harper, to sendJamie to his home.
He sighed. It didn’t matter now. He’dblown it with Jamie. She’d said no to him. No one ever dared to sayno to him. He’d been flabbergasted, and aroused too, but why thehell had he offered to pay her to go out with him? He rubbed histemples. No wonder shecouldn’t get out of there fast enough.
A gentle knock on the door dragged him fromhis reveries.
Alice poked her head around the door. “Is itokay to come in?”
“Yes, Imogen’s gone.”
“Thank goodness for that.” His aunt enteredcarrying two mugs of tea. “Hopefully for good this time.”
There’d never been any love lost betweenImogen and his aunt, and she’d made her feelings known on manyoccasions.
“So do I, Alice.” He didn’t dwell.“Where’sLuna?”
“Up in her room. I made some tea.” Shehobbled over and handed him the mug.
“Thanks. Did Luna hear what I said to Imogen?I tried to keep my voice down, but I barely held it together.”
“No, I don’t think so. What did you say toher?”
“The damn woman kept throwing herself at me, insisting westill had something between us, so I had to lie. I told her Iwanted to find a mother for Luna.”
Alice laughed as she lowered herself slowlyinto a chair. “I’m guessing she wasn’t too happy?”
“No, but she still wouldn’t back off, so I said I joined thedating agency because I wanted a marriage ofconvenience.”
“Why on earth would you say that?”
“The way Imogen looked at Jamie… I thoughtshe was going to rip her throat out.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Alicecommented.
Grayson stared into the steaming brew asthough it might hold all the answers. “I’m afraid I got Jamie tocome here under false pretences.”
His aunt shook her head, her sympathetic gazenot helping. “What have you done this time, Grayson?”
He placed his mug on the side table and mooched over to theGeorgian fireplace. Resting his arm on the mantlepiece, he staredinto the ashen logs and told Alice how he’d coerced Jamie’s bossinto asking her to meet him.
“I don’t understand why you wanted tojoin a dating agency inthe first place,” Alice said.
“I was idly Googling nothing in particularwhen the website popped up. Then I saw Jamie’s picture. I evendreamt of her last night.”
Alice chuckled. “Oh my, you’ve got itbad.”
“Got what bad?”
“You like her.”
“Yes, I do, but it’s too late. I ruinedeverything by behaving like a total jerk.”
“I wondered why she ran out of here fasterthan a greyhound chasing a rabbit.” She shook her head. “What didyou say to Jamie?”
“I asked her out and she said no.”
“I’m sorry, Grayson.”
“That’s not the worst of it. I offered to payher to go out with me.”
“You did what?” Alice’s incredulous tonewas nothing he didn’t deserve. She plonked her mug of tea on theside table, its contents splashing on the surface. “If youweren’t the alpha and mynephew, I’d smack you upside the head to knock some sense intoyou.”
“Maybe you should. I can’t believe I offeredto pay her… and I think I insulted her choice of profession, too.She called me desperate and arrogant, among other things.”
To his surprise, Alice burst out laughing.“And you didn’t wolf
