She spotted Miranda standing by herself and walked over, hoping she might have gotten over her anger. Unfortunately, Miranda cut her a cold look. Not giving up, Kylie leaned in and asked, "What was the problem between Del a and the other vampire?"
Miranda shrugged. "Don't know, she wouldn't tel me. It appears that when she's mad at you, she's also mad at me." Miranda's name echoed from the front and she took off without another word.
Kylie was watching Miranda walk away when she felt someone step beside her.
"You ready?" The deep male voice made her stomach drop.
Kylie glanced up into Lucas's blue eyes. "Ready for what?"
"I got your name." He held up a piece of paper.
And I got a headache. Or PMS. Or bad cramps. Just been diagnosed with the flu. She had to come up with something to get out of this. But with his blue eyes focused on her, the words didn't come out. She looked around the crowd to see if the she-wolf was sizing Kylie up for a casket. Fredericka wasn't around.
"I know a place we can go," he said. His hand came around her back to nudge her along.
She took a step, trying to get the words I can't to slip out, but they wouldn't come. And just like that she knew why. She wanted to know if he remembered her. Why it mattered, she didn't know. But it did.
"You seemed interested in the dinosaur tracks." He met her gaze. "I know where there are some more. Why don't we go see them?" He guided her down the path that led toward the cabins, and she fol owed.
It wasn't until he turned to go down one of the wood trails that Kylie sensed something was different. Then she knew what the difference was. She wasn't afraid of him. When had she stopped being afraid of Lucas Parker? Maybe she was just getting immune to fearing supernaturals as a whole.
Questioning the logic behind her lack of fear, she recal ed what she knew about him. He'd been raised by rogues. He'd kil ed her cat. Was it real y smart of her to trust him?
She searched her instincts for anything resembling fear, and nope, it wasn't there. What she did find was the memory of how tenderly he'd helped his grandmother into the dining hal . And then Kylie remembered how he'd protected her from the neighborhood bul ies.
"You do know that if your girlfriend sees us together she's going to be pissed, right?"
"What girlfriend?" he asked.
She rol ed her eyes at him. "The one who is usual y attached to your hip."
The muscle in his jaw tightened. "Fredericka is not my girlfriend."
"Oh, so she's just the girl you make out with behind the office, then," Kylie said before she could stop herself. His frown deepened. "I figured that's what you thought that day."
"So I was wrong?" Kylie purposely al owed the sarcasm to play in her voice. "Do I look stupid to you?"
He stopped walking and swung around so fast that Kylie bumped right into his chest. He caught her shoulders and set her back. The feel of his hands on the shoulder straps of her white tank top sent heat flashing through her chest. But it faded the moment she saw his angry expression.
"No, you don't look stupid," he said in almost a growl. "But you are making assumptions without al the facts, and that's not a sign of intel igence."
Kylie's mouth dropped open at his insult. "So what was she doing, showing you her new bra? Come on. She was buttoning up her blouse when I stumbled on you guys."
He frowned and pushed a hand over his face. "You're right. I'm sorry I said that." He moved his hand and opened his eyes. "I admit you had a right to jump to that conclusion, but you're stil wrong."
She offered him another eye rol .
"She wasn't showing me her bra; she was showing me her tattoo. On her shoulder. She got a wolf tattoo and wanted me to see it."
He started walking again and Kylie fol owed. "Wel , she obviously has a serious crush on you."
"I know." He sounded frustrated. "She and I ... we sort of hooked up last summer at the very end of camp."
"So she was your girlfriend." Kylie stopped moving and glanced at him.
He shook his head ever so slightly. "It wasn't even like that. We ... met up on a ful moon, and ... it shouldn't have happened. But it did."
Kylie had visions in her mind of two wolves playing leap frog, but not quite leaping, and she felt her face flush.
"We haven't even spoken since camp last year. But she shows up here acting as if we're together. I tried discouraging her."
Kylie pretended to be interested in a bird singing in a tree so she wouldn't have to look at Lucas. "She obviously doesn't discourage very easily, or you've done a bad job of discouraging her."
"Probably both. I've even talked to Holiday about it, because she's driving me crazy."
Kylie started walking again. It wasn't her place to ask, but ... "What did Holiday say?"
"That I'd probably have to be up front with her. But ... I don't know, I guess I don't want to hurt her."
That or you just like having a girl hanging all over you and unbuttoning her shirt to show off her ... tattoo. Kylie knew her last thought might be unfair, but it applied to most boys she knew. Heck, even her dad had warned her that teenage boys were general y after one thing. Not that she was exactly listening to any of his advice right now.
"If you're that worried about hurting her, maybe you do care about her," Kylie said.
"No," he said adamantly, and then added, "okay, I feel sorry for her. She's had a rough time of things at home, and people judge her too harshly for it."
Kylie, knowing Lucas's past, read more into his statement than he knew. Or did he know? Did he realize she remembered him and that she knew he'd lied to Holiday about having lived with his grandmother al his life?
It suddenly occurred to her that when he'd jerked her aside to ask about what the FRU had wanted with her, maybe he'd been afraid she was tattling on him. Was he stil afraid she'd tel ?
The slightest hesitation about being alone in the woods with him wiggled through her mind, and that's when she realized they were deeper in the woods than she'd ever gone before.
Deep enough that nobody, not even her campmates with super hearing, could hear her scream.
She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Exactly how far away are these dinosaur tracks?"
Chapter Thirty-one
"Not too far," Lucas said. If he was aware of her sudden insecurity, he hid it wel .
"They're actual y in a creek bed right outside the property line of our camp," he added without looking at her. "But there's this part of the fence that's been cut that we can slip through."