“Are you sure your cousin won’t mind that I’m coming,” Charlotte said.
“Not at all. She always says the more, the merrier.” They were walking from the metro stop down the rue de Rivoli to a bar where they were planning to meet Dany and her boyfriend, Guy.
“Is this going to be one of those loud clubs with pulsing music?” Charlotte asked. “I’m not so into those kinds of places, especially tonight. I’m exhausted and it’s been so hot out, I just want a relaxing night.”
“That’s what I want to.” Catherine turned toward her new friend. “So, let’s make a deal. If it is one of those horrible places, we’ll leave together and we’ll go have a quiet drink somewhere else, with or without my cousin.”
Charlotte smiled and they continued down the road.
In another few handfuls of steps, they came to the place Dany had told Catherine about. They went down a short flight of stairs and through a heavy wooden door into a dark room with comfy chairs strewn around the small space. A long counter took up one wall, lined with stools.
“Catherine, over here,” a voice called out from their left. Charlotte and Catherine turned toward the voice and found a group of people sitting in some of the low chairs.
Catherine hadn’t expected so many people. She recognized Guy, the huge bear shifter her cousin had been dating since even before Catherine left Paris for the South of France. But she didn’t know the other two young men with them. As she and Charlotte approached, the two men stood. One was almost as big as Guy, with dark skin, almost as dark as the night. His broad shoulders filled his white and blue striped button-down shirt in a way that made Dany itch to grasp onto them. The other man was shorter and leaner, with auburn hair and pale skin and a smirk that made her think it was always close to his lips.
Catherine kissed her cousin and Guy on both cheeks, and introduced Charlotte.
“You can call me Charlie.”
“This is my old friend from university, Martin,” Dany said, gesturing toward the dark-skinned man. He kissed the two women on both cheeks and then introduced the other man.
“And this is my friend visiting from the States, Reid.”
“Nice to meet you both.” He held out his hand to shake Catherine’s and she couldn’t help but laugh. He clearly wasn’t a local, which intrigued her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, as they all sat down.
“I’m taking a break from my job and I missed this big lug.” Reid gave Martin a soft punch in the arm and Martin pretended to be hurt.
“Your French is so good,” Charlotte exclaimed. “I think you’re the first American I’ve met who actually speaks it.”
Catherine had been thinking the same thing and leaned closer to hear Reid’s answer over the music coming from speakers at either end of the bar.
“I learned in high school and volunteered for a humanitarian organization in Senegal one summer during college. That’s where I met the big lug.” He smirked again and glanced affectionately at Martin.
Martin leaned forward. “Can I get you a drink?” He glanced from Catherine to Charlotte.
“Sure, a beer,” Catherine said. “Thanks.”
“Same,” Charlotte said.
Martin rose in a graceful gesture that Catherine couldn’t help but follow with her gaze. She watched him walk to the bar and lean fluidly over it to speak to the bartender.
“He’s one of the good ones,” Dany said.
Catherine whipped her head toward her cousin as guilt reddened her face.
Dany laughed. “I approve.”
“There’s nothing to approve,” Catherine whispered. She wasn’t ready to think of Nicholas as her boyfriend, but he was definitely more than a friend. And as long as that was the case, she had no business admiring another man, let alone two men. Her face reddened again as she felt Reid’s eyes on her skin. She turned to look at him and the left side of his mouth quirked up even more. Had he heard her? Her nostrils quivered and she noticed his scent for the first time. Under the more obvious notes of trees and nuts was something animal. Wolf, like her, but different.
He was a shifter.
Charlotte was human, so she’d have to wait until she and Dany were alone later to ask her cousin about Reid. And when Martin returned, she realized he was also a shifter, but she didn’t recognize his scent beyond tropical fruit like pineapple and mango and date.
She took a long sip of her beer and watched the two men. They were each handsome but in such different ways – one dark, one pale – one built like a tank and one lean. And they both intrigued her and attracted her.
“So Reid, tell me more about yourself,” Charlotte said. “How long will you be in Paris?”
“I don’t really know. I just left a teaching job in New York and haven’t decided what I want to do next. I could be here a couple of weeks or a couple of months. Who knows?”
“You’re a teacher?” Catherine asked.
“I was a teacher for two years in a special American government program for urban areas. I taught English in an inner-city high school.”
Catherine was surprised. Reid didn’t strike her as a humanitarian. Then again, she could imagine him with high school students. He probably taught them more dirty jokes than they taught him.
“Ooh, what’s New York like?” Charlotte asked.
He looked at Catherine, not Charlotte, while he answered. “New York is awesome. Such a lively city, full of things to do. Just like Paris.” His gaze lingered on Catherine and she began to feel warm all over.
“I’ve always wanted to visit New York,” Charlotte said. “Maybe I can visit you there someday.”
Reid tore his gaze from Catherine. “Maybe, but I’m actually from North Carolina. When I leave Paris, I have no idea where I’m headed next.”
Catherine turned to Martin. “You went to school with my cousin?”
He nodded. “I knew her before she met Guy.”
“Did you study psychology too?”
He nodded again.
“Are you a shifter hunter like Dany, too, or did you stick with psychology?”
“I’m a psychologist,” he answered. He lowered his voice. “I work with legitimate shifters who are struggling with having to keep such a large part of their lives a secret. It can take a big toll on some people.”
“I’m sure. That sounds really noble.” It made her like him even more.
Reid and Charlotte laughed and Catherine turned to look at them. Reid stared back at her, heat like an intense flame in his gaze. Swallowing past sudden desire, she turned back to Martin. “So, you met Reid in Senegal. Is that where you’re from?”
“Yes, but I moved here to go to university. I met Reid when I was home one summer visiting my family. He’s actually a good person, despite how he seems.”
She looked at Reid again, and again, he was staring at her. What was this connection between them? All of them? She felt just as strong an attraction to Martin as to Reid, and all of it despite her feelings for Nico.
She shook her head.
“Are you okay, Catherine?” Martin asked.
Turning back to him, she pasted a smile on her face. “Yes, just tired.”
But was she okay? Why did she have strong feelings for three different men? It wasn’t like her. Or was it?
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