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Not that Seth didn’t intend to find out exactly what Lillian had said. The woman could be a bitch; everyone who knew her was aware of that.
Her husband, Craig, was a good man, enamored of his wife and accepting of her faults, but aware. He made apologies where they were needed and reined her in when he had to. She would learn, though, not to snipe at Dawn—he wouldn’t have it.
“This is nice,” she sighed, finally relaxing against him marginally as they seemed to exist in their own little world.
He was conscious of the other couples around them, many of them watching him. They were used to seeing him with Caroline. They had come to accept that Caroline would be around permanently. They were surprised, and in some cases shocked, to see him with the little bodyguard.
And he didn’t give a damn. Hell, he had known things wouldn’t work out with him and Caroline. This only confirmed it publicly.
As he looked around, he did grin. Dash and Elizabeth were across the room, and Dash appeared to be surrounded by female fury.
Elizabeth was glaring at him, and Cassie looked mortified.
“I think we should go rescue Dash,” he murmured, turning her until she could see the small group across the room.
“Hmm, I can smell Dash’s anger from here.” She stepped back, taking his hand as they started off the dance floor.
“Hey, Dawn. It’s my turn to dance.” A hand gripped her arm from behind, tried to pull her from Seth, and something inside her snapped.
She turned back with a snarl, barely holding back her violent reaction as she jerked her arm from the grasp, her flesh feeling blistered, dirty.
“Whoa!” Jason Phelps fell back, a look of surprise on his face as Seth quickly pulled her back against his hard body.
Other dancers were pausing now, watching, avid curiosity in their gazes.
“Don’t touch me again.” She leveled furious eyes on him, the animal inside her reacting with a ferocity she couldn’t understand. She could smell his blood, beating hard and fast in his veins, and she wanted to see it spilling to the floor.
“Dawn.” There was an edge of warning in Seth’s voice and it pissed her off.
“If you want him to have a dance, then you dance with him,” she hissed, pulling away from him and casting him an accusing glare.
He knew the mating heat. He knew the symptoms of it by now. A mated female couldn’t tolerate another male’s touch during those first weeks and months of the bonding.
Betrayal flashed through her as he watched her with a frown, and what she perceived as an edge of censure in his gaze.
“Excuse me,” she bit out between gritted teeth. “I think I’ll find a drink.”
“Hey, come on, gorgeous, I just wanted a dance.” Jason laughed. “I thought we were friends.” A male pout pursed his lips and it sickened her.
The mating heat was destroying her. Her nerves were strung as tight as a banjo string, and the animal inside her was clawing for freedom, almost a separate entity, attempting control.
“I don’t have friends,” she told him with deadly softness, making certain her voice carried no farther as rumor-greedy eyes tried to listen to the exchange. “I warned you of that before. Remember it.”
With one last furious look at Seth, she turned and moved across the ballroom as she motioned to Styx to cover Seth’s back. She couldn’t do it right now. Her emotions, her sense of balance were so compromised she felt almost outside her own flesh. As though her spirit were gliding alongside her body rather than within it. And before her inner eye Jason Phelps’s face flashed back at her. Shock, surprise But how could he be surprised? He would know…
She stopped and shook her head before turning slowly and staring back at him.
He couldn’t know about the mating heat, and he wouldn’t know about the reaction female mates had to touch from males other than their mates. A reaction the males were supposed to experience as well, but with female touch only.
Seth knew.
That’s why her reactions were so extreme, almost violent. He knew, and he had still attempted to curb her response as though—what? She was going to spill Breed secrets in the middle of his ballroom floor?
She shifted her gaze to Seth. Suddenly, the need for him swept over her. Her juices flooded her pussy, instantly dampened her panties and had her forcing back a growl as she turned once more and stalked to where Dash and his family stood.
“Dawn, get a handle on it,” Dash muttered as she stopped beside Cassie.
“Yeah,” Cassie murmured. “Make certain you’re the one that gets a handle on it. It’s not their responsibility to do so.”
