Aislinn had just refilled the water at one table and was headed over to the next couple that had been seated. The large man wasn't dressed for dinner at the Taigh-oèsda and the woman with him certainly looked as though she was being paid for his company. But with the casino across the lobby it was a fairly regular site. All it took was one jackpot for Joe Schmoe to be able to afford the steak.Suddenly Rissa grabbed her arm and yanked her off toward a corner booth. "Lord Arnauk came in for dinner. When he comes in, if you have his table, everything else gets dumped and you deal with him. Without making it look that way though. It's important cause he's too nice to cut in line with other customers, but he's Lord Arnauk."Aislinn nodded and filed the information away in her brain with everything else she had been learning and got ready to take a mental picture of 'Lord Arnauk'. When she came around the booth and saw Cullen sitting there with Jenna she stopped as though she had hit a wal
Aislinn went through the motions of serving dinner and completing the rest of her chores for that evening. Cullen and his date who, Aislinn managed to find out from another member of the kitchen staff, was actually his fiancé ate their dinner in relatively short order and then left. Jenna had been conspicuously silent on all the subsequent visits that Aislinn had to make to the table and Cullen had managed to catch her eyes with an apologetic stare at one point.Aislinn sat in the back of the taxi on her way home. She felt rich in her ability to afford the small luxury each night. Walking would have taken at least an hour. But she would have done it if it had been necessary. She figured that if tips continued the way they were that she would be able to afford to move out of her crappy apartment and closer to the restaurant in relatively short order. She was calculating how much time it would take for her to pay for her missed rent, pay back her friends for her jail break, afford an at
Aislinn was standing in the middle of the street in front of her apartment. It was eerily dark and quiet. There were no stars or moon and the light from the street lamps seemed to be absorbed into the air as though it was being eaten by the darkness. The only sound she could hear was her own breathing and heartbeat.Aislinn looked up and down the street and felt as though she was being watched. She looked up at her apartment. It may have been a hole but it allowed for some protection. She briefly considered going up there but something in her told her that it just wasn't safe any longer. She looked down at herself and realized that she was completely naked. She didn't understand it but somehow it felt normal and safer to be naked than to be wearing clothes at that moment.Suddenly out of the darkness she heard quiet whispering. Unintelligible and frightening. She didn't know what it was but she knew that she was in incredible danger. Something was coming for her.Aislinn turned and st
Cullen turned and headed down one of the halls to a guest room. He never took any of the girls up to his actual rooms. Again, this was mostly to keep any of them from becoming too attached. He walked into the room and immediately took off his coat and shoes discarding them on the armchair off to the side of the door. When his shirt and pants followed in short order Celia knew that his comment had been even more serious than she had taken it. He was never this quick about undressing.When he turned to her and she saw his angry face and his ready hard-on she knew that he was on a mission to get off and that was it. She felt a little scared. He had never inspired fear in her before. Without missing a beat he approached her and ripped her white t-shirt up and off. He only took a moment to run his hands down her breasts, waist, and stomach before unbuttoning her jeans and forcing them down over her hips. The fact that she wasn't wearing underwear only served to reinforce in his mind that h
Cullen sat in his office staring out the window. He was still trying to wrap his brain around the latest information he had received. Originally he had believed that the raids his southern border was suffering were perpetrated by the La Rayne. Stephen La Rayne, alpha asshole, of that pack had always been trouble. When he wanted to torment the human population he had a tendency to do it on other people's land so that the branch of the American government that periodically monitored and helped to hide the lycan population would blame someone else.Cullen had been in the process of explaining to the feds that he knew about the raids, they weren't originating from his pack, and he was in the process of getting the situation under control. "Muin," he swore as he looked over the reports that showed the raids moving closer and closer to the city. That wasn't like La Rayne. He didn't go any farther than he had to and he didn't chance his men getting caught, which was a distinct possibility of
Aislinn stood in the courtroom. Derrick was looking at her luridly from behind the prosecution's desk with his attorney. In the end Aislinn hadn't been able to afford much. She had at one point considered asking Lord Arnauk for help, but decided that no matter how good his lawyers probably were there was no way he would help her out after what she'd said to him that night.Aislinn had asked Luke and Renee to testify on her behalf but no one had been willing to lose their job. So with her cut price lawyer and no witnesses the only thing she had to go on was the fact that she was half Derrick's size and didn't have enough money to hire a hitman. Her defense had been based on that and Derrick's previous history of sexual harassment.Aislinn stood in there waiting for the verdict and hoping that if she lost she'd have a fine and wouldn't have to go to jail and possibly lose her job. At the same time her premonitions were telling her that she wasn't safe in her apartment and there wouldn't
Aislinn shook her head. "I can't. Please I just need to go to the restroom. I'll be fine." She sounded so defeated. Cullen knew how she felt."Aislinn," Meghan said in a sympathetic tone, "I need to tell Liam something. I know you told Rissa that you had to go to court today. Is this about that? What happened?""Rissa told you?" Aislinn was scared to death she was going to lose her job. God she had just been to court and found guilty of battery. Never mind that it wasn't her. She would have done it herself if she had been capable. But as it was it didn't matter who had done it. She was the one who was found guilty and the Taigh-oèsda wasn't the kind of place that employed people with a record."Hey, don't be like that," Meghan said softly. She reached out to Aislinn again. "She was just trying to help. We're on your side here."She shook her head. Well what was she going to say? It was public record. If she lied they could look it up. "Fine," she said with that defeated tone and more
Rissa was immediately over to the table and taking their order. "And while you're at it you can tell Meghan that Liam can have his office back and I ordered Aislinn to have dinner with me. She'll be back to work as soon as I'm done with her," he smiled over at Aislinn as he said it and was rewarded with an amused grin as she shook her head at him."You realize," Aislinn said as Rissa headed off to get their order in, "that the entire kitchen is going to be gossiping about this for a week?"Cullen smiled deviously. "Just think of how much fun the rumors would be if they caught us in the office a few minutes ago?"Aislinn blushed a bit. "You're a dangerous man I think," she said a bit breathlessly. "But not in any of the ways that everyone else believes."Cullen grinned and winked at her. Aisliin reached for her glass of water and noticed that Cullen was staring down her blouse. When he finally met her gaze again she gave him a knowing, amused look. "I'm only a man.""I have a hard time