Page 5 of Guy (House of Frazier #4)

“Just outside the bank.” He took off toward the bank a little faster than she thought he could move and intercepted her before Shawn did.

She didn’t know where Margaret was, but she’d be willing to bet that she wasn’t that far behind him.

Amber was safe inside the bank when the other one walked by.

“She needs to be more aware of what’s going on around her. Can you tell her that?”

He did, but it must have triggered something in her head about him because she asked if he was Guy Fraizer. He looked like he wasn’t going to answer her, but he did finally, and Amber hugged him.

“Don’t get all mushy around me.” Guy peeled Amber off him and took several steps back. “Your mother is here. She’s the one who warned me about your family. I’m glad that I was able to keep you from getting your head bashed in.”

“Yes. I knew it had to be you. You’re the rudest man I’ve ever talked to.

Can she hear me if I just talk to her?” He told her daughter how it worked with her being able to hear her talking.

“Good. And you’ll tell me what she says?

I have some questions to ask you both. Why are you looking at me like that? ”

“Mates. We’re mates. Damn it.” Belinda laughed. It did her heart good to know that Amber would be safe from now on because of her being with Guy, but she also thought it was funny that he’d found his mate today, and it was her little girl. “I don’t want a mate, especially a human one.”

“Well, isn’t that just too bad for you? Me too if you think you’re going to be rude to me for the rest of our lives.

In the event you’re wondering, you’re not.

” She looked around and smiled. “Tell me where Belinda is so that I can pretend to hug her. And don’t be rude when you tell me what she’s saying to me. ”

“Do you think we can do this later? Your sister is looking for you, and now I’m going to have to make sure that you’re all right with her around.

” She glared at him, and Belinda laughed again.

“Laugh it up, and I’ll pretend like I don’t hear you when you want to have a talk with her. I mean it. I will.”

“Let’s go back to your house. They’d never think to look for her there.

” He begrudgingly agreed. Belinda was more determined than ever to find out what had happened to him to make him the man that he was.

If he was going to be around her daughter all the time, she wanted answers and soon.

“Be nice to her. I know you can, I’ve seen you being nice to those little girls. ”

He growled low in his throat, and she laughed again. Not as loudly as before, he was making sure that Amber got out of the bank safely. She’d just have to dig around for something—perhaps one of his brothers might know something. She’d figure out a way to get them to tell her soon.

Belinda didn’t mind the cold. She was dead after all, but she could tell that it was too much for Amber.

Not only did she seem to be freezing, but she didn’t have the right boots on or coat.

Before she could think of something to do for her, Guy took off his coat and put it on her shoulders.

Amber didn’t fight him either, telling him thanks through chattering teeth.

It took them twenty minutes to get back to the house on the hill.

Instead of taking his coat back, Guy got several of the new little quilts that were on the back of the couch and wrapped Amber up in them.

While doing that, he also turned on the gas fireplace and got a roaring fire in it.

After dragging her to the fireplace, he went to make her some hot cocoa. This was a new Guy and she liked him.

After two cups of hot cocoa and thirty more minutes in front of the fireplace, Amber looked as if she was thawing out. Guy asked her why she wasn’t dressed better, and she thought that Amber was going to hit him. Instead, she simply turned in the chair so she didn’t have to look at him.

“I’ve not been able to cash the check yet.

So I don’t have the money for a new coat and boots.

I was hoping to get them while they’re on sale, but I don’t have the money.

Again, I can’t cash my check.” He told her that he’d buy them.

“No, you won’t. You’re already mean to me, and I don’t want to be beholden to you any more than I have to.

You’re a mean person and a rude bastard. ”

“I’m sorry, but when I see a grown woman in a heavy sweater and not a coat, I do wonder what’s going on.

You should have said something to me. I would have gotten you whatever you wanted or taken the car to the bank to get you.

” She huffed at him. “That’s really mature. Did you miss your nap by any chance?”

When she stood up, dropping the blankets and coat off of her, Belinda took a step back. Even her tiger was a little scared at the face that was looking at Guy. When Amber announced that she was leaving, he stood up as well and blocked the doorway.

“Don’t be stupid. You’ll catch your death.

” She told him it was better than putting up with him.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to tone it down a bit, but I’m worried that you might have caught something out there, and I don’t want you sick.

” Amber glared at him some more. “I’m not used to having people around me that I should be nice to.

The others just take it. They might bust my chops about being so rude, but they take it from me. ”

“Perhaps you should be nice to everyone. Whoever shit in your oats has made you this way, and it’s too much for anyone.” She stayed nearer to the fire, and Belinda was glad for that. “I’m betting there is a lynch mob after you about now. And for as rude as you’ve been to me, I’d help them.”

“I said I was sorry. What else do you want me to do? Give you my blood?” She said she wanted him to be nice; was that so hard?

“It is, actually. I’m rude to everyone; it’s not just you.

Christ, this is why I didn’t want to have a mate.

Now I not only have to be nice, but I have to put up with you being a human.

It’s not your fault, I know, but something that I have to work on. ”

“Why? Why are you such a rude person when being nice is so much easier?” He told her that it was none of her business.

“Of course it is, I’m your mate from now on, and that’s the way it should be.

No secrets between us at all. So tell me what has made you like you are so that I can take care of them.

It had to be a woman, that’s all I can think about. ”

“It was a woman, damn it.”

~*~

Guy didn’t want to have to tell anyone how he’d been hurt.

It still was as fresh a hurt today as it had been several years ago when he’d been just sixteen.

Not even his brothers knew about the woman who had treated him so callously.

Now he was trapped into telling his mate what had happened so that he could be humiliated once again.

“Her name isn’t important. But she was older than me and had asked me out.

” He looked at the fireplace that had been keeping the two of them warm for the past hour before he spoke again.

He couldn’t even look at Amber for fear of what would be on her face.

“I’d just been sixteen and we were no longer living with our parents.

The Wilkins had taken us in when the courts allowed them to raise us.

They were good people and did a good job of raising us up to be good people, too. ”

He thought about how the couple had helped them buy the farm that Lica had been running for them and how they’d barely made ends meet.

But after meeting Brandy, she’d made sure they were wealthy enough to buy their own homes, and it had worked out very well for them all. Guy looked at Amber, then Belinda.

“She kept pestering me to go out with her. She was at least twenty-five, and I had no idea at sixteen why she would date someone like me. Just a kid. Of course, I didn’t look all that much like just a kid at the time.

I’d matured early and had a beard by then.

But she kept at me until I said yes.” Amber asked her name and if she still lived in town.

“Yes, and no, I’m not going to tell you her name.

Suffice it to say, she no longer bothers my family with her hurtful ways. ”

“But she is still hurting you.” He knew that on some level as well, but didn’t mention her name. Guy did, however, go on with his story about her and why he was so bitter about people. “She’s human. You can tell me that, right? She’s a human.”

“Yes, she’s human.” He thought about the date and knew that it was going to come off with him sounding like the fool in all of this. “She only wanted to go out with me so that I’d shift and fuck her.” There he’d said it.

“And? There has to be more to it than that. Or did you mean as your wolf?” He nodded. “I see. I don’t know what I would have done either. But that doesn’t seem like enough for you to be so bitter about. There’s more to it than just that.”

“She wanted to film us fucking.” Amber told him to stop beating around the bush and to tell her what had happened.

“She wanted us to have sex, me as my wolf. But before that, she convinced me to kill her husband because he was so mean to her. Come to find out, she likes her sex rough, and she had lovers who would beat her during sex. She thought because I was sixteen and having sex with her, she could convince me to kill off her husband and go to prison for it.”

“How did you get out of it? I’m sure that you didn’t kill her husband, and it’s doubtful to me that you had sex with her as your wolf, too.

” He just stared at Amber. “I’ve only known you for like a couple of hours, but I wouldn’t ever doubt that you’d turn her in over being caught up in a murder for sex scheme. ”