Lover Beware

likely to play hell with my job. “Things went pretty far, pretty fast with us last night. There’s something I’d meant to ask you. Or tell you.”
    “A jealous boyfriend I don’t know about?’ His voice was light.
    “No. That’s just it. If there had been a man in my life, last night wouldn’t have happened. Fidelity is very important to me. You might say it’s nonnegotiable.”
    “I see. You don’t think I can—or would want to—be faithful to you.”
    A little bump of hope, quickly squelched, stuck in her throat. She swallowed. “Lupi don’t respect fidelity.”
    “Normally, that’s true. We consider jealousy a sin.” He drove in silence for a moment, one hand holding hers, one on the wheel, staring straight ahead. “You need to see for yourself to understand. That’s one reason I’m bringing you to Clanhome. So you’ll understand.”
     
    CLANHOME WAS VINEYARDS and forests, steep slopes and a long, narrow valley cradling what amounted to a village or very small town. The Nokolai held roughly seventeen thousand acres, and were jealously protective of their wilderness; only a small part of the land was used or settled.
    To Lily’s surprise, dogs raced the Explorer as they drove down the single main street. Modest stucco, timber-frame, or adobe houses lined the dusty street and peered out from the pines and oaks covering the slope to her left. Lily saw a gas station, a small open market, a café, a laundry, and a general store.
    And children. Laughing, playing, arguing, they raced around in swirls and eddies like flocks of birds. The youngest ones, boys and girls both, wore shorts and nothing more.
    So did most of the adults she saw—the men, at least. The two women standing talking in one neatly fenced yard had added skimpy halters. A teenage girl sitting in front of the store drinking a Coke wore a loose, gauzy dress. A huge, silver-coated wolf sat beside her, panting cheerfully in the heat.
    The Lupois’s home was set slightly apart, perched partway up the slope at the end of the street. It was larger than the others, but by no means a mansion—a sprawling stucco home with a red tile roof and a terraced yard brimming with flowers.
    Rule’s son came running out when they drove up.
    Lily recognized who the boy was instantly. He looked so much like his father…but she’d thought both boys lived with their mothers.
    Maybe his mother was here, too. Lily got out of the car slowly.
    Rule kissed his son on the cheek, leaving his hand on the boy’s shoulder when he straightened. He was tall for his age—if she hadn’t known better she would have guessed him to be thirteen or fourteen instead of eleven. His eyes were darker than Rule’s and shining with curiosity.
    “Paul,” Rule said, “I would like you to meet Lily Yu.”
    “Oh! Is she the one you—”
    “Your mother would be unhappy with your manners,” Rule interrupted gently.
    “Sorry, Ms. Yu.” He smiled, and some of the resemblance to Rule slipped, letting the person he was becoming shine through. “I’m happy to meet you.”
    “I’m glad to meet you, too, Paul.” Though apparently he knew more about her than she did him. Rule had scarcely mentioned his sons.
    Rule kept his hand on Paul’s shoulder. The boy chattered happily all the way to the house. “Grandfather’s much better today. He was sitting up in bed when I went to see him. He called me a nosy pup and told me to go chase rabbits. I said that wasn’t much fun when I couldn’t catch them, not being four-footed yet, and he chuckled. You know that chuckle of his.” He glanced around his father at Lily. “You’ll see what I mean. It sounds like when you turn the bass way up on the stereo. So I figured he was feeling better, if he was chuckling instead of cussing.”
    “I suspect you figured right,” Rule said.
    The entry hall was large, tiled, and ended in sliding doors, left open, that led to an atrium. Doorways opened off both sides of the entry. The woman who stepped out of a doorway on the right was fifty or sixty with gray hair hanging in frizzy clouds to her waist. She wore running shorts and an athletic bra. Her skin was coppery, probably from heritage as well as sun, and her muscle tone was excellent. She heaved a short, put-upon sigh. “Paul said that was your car. He knows the sound of the engine, I suppose. Go on in, Rule. Your father’s expecting you.”
    “Giving you a hard time, is he, Nettie?” Rule asked sympathetically.
    “He wants