“I don’t think you can. You’re constantly stuck in Beta mode. You let your job define you.
Your job isn’t who you are, Dante, it’s what you do. There’s a difference, but you don’t see that.” He thought about that for a second and then sighed. “You’re right. Everything you’ve said has been right. Not that Rhett and the guys haven’t already said that to me a thousand times. I just never really thought of it as a problem. But that was when I didn’t have you to think about. You have needs and I’m not meeting them, and that’s not acceptable to either of us. Give me a chance to fix this, baby.
I’ll do what I can to ease my job commitments. I’ll start delegating more and making sure we get more time together and—”
“Don’t try to make huge changes,” she interrupted, touched by the gesture and feeling her anger begin to melt. “That’ll never work. And I’m not asking you to make big changes, I never did. I just wanted to appear in your schedule somewhere.”
“From now on you will,” he vowed, lifting his weight to flip her onto her back so that she could see the seriousness in his gaze. “When I plan schedules for me and the enforcers, you’re going on mine—right there in black and white. You were right when you said that sometimes I do stuff I don’t really need to do. I just have this…urge to be doing something, to keep busy. But I’ll work on it
—no pun intended. I’ll finish at a certain time each evening, okay? I can’t say that I won’t be called out occasionally to do things or sort things out. It’s part of my job. But I’ll make time for you, for us.” As he stared down at her with a hint of desperation in his eyes, he seemed so lonely and lost.
He looked at her as if she was his lifeline, as if he really did need her. Jaime never would have guessed that this relationship was so important to him. Never would have imagined that he was prepared to make these kinds of changes to his life. She felt even more of her anger fizzle away.
When she didn’t speak, Dante felt himself beginning to panic. His wolf was equally anxious.
He dropped his forehead to hers. “I know I’m a little fucked up. Don’t give up on me, baby. I’m not saying that things will suddenly be perfect. I’m a guy, and guys can be stupid. I admit I need the room to mess up a little. I can’t promise I won’t piss you off again, but I can promise you that I’ll never deliberately hurt you. Nothing is more important to me than you. Nothing.” Why did he have to say stuff like that and wear that vulnerable expression when she was trying to stay mad at him? Earlier, she had been resolute on the decision that their relationship was over. But hearing him say these things, knowing that he cared about her and was prepared to make so many changes to his life in order to make this work…It was hard to hold out against that. Oh and now he was delivering sensual licks to her neck, knowing perfectly well how it made her melt. “That’s a low move.”
He chuckled. “I’m not above using sneaky methods. You know, when I was five, my dad told me that if I hadn’t been the runt of the litter, I’d have made a good Beta. He said that even when I was a toddler I had a one-track mind, that if there was something I wanted, nothing would distract me from trying to get it. And now I want you. And I can promise you right now that if you tell me you still want to end this, I won’t leave you alone. I’ll do everything I can to wear you down. I’ll stalk you until you cry, panic, and give in.”
She tried not to smile in amusement, but it was hopeless. Trying to resist him was hopeless.
“You know, before you, I worked even longer hours and I didn’t make time for anything else.
Everybody thought I couldn’t possibly have been happy to work so hard, but I was. It wasn’t until you that I realized I hadn’t been happy at all. I’d been sort of content, but that’s not the same thing as being happy. Not really. You answer a kind of… need inside me that I hadn’t known I had. Do you hear me?
I need you. I’d never imagined saying that to another person. If you’d have asked me to choose between you or my job, I’d have chosen you, baby.”
As she saw the truth in his gaze, tears stung her eyes. She combed her fingers through his hair.
“You are so good with that mouth.”
He grinned, but he couldn’t relax until he’d heard her say that she wasn’t going to leave him.
“Does this mean you forgive me, that you’ll give me a chance to fix this?” She released a long-suffering sigh. “I guess so.”
As relief washed over him, his body seemed to unlock from its position and sag. Dante fused his lips with hers, taking her taste inside him, pouring his need for her into her mouth. He kissed a path down her chin and along her neck, letting himself drown in her scent. He rubbed his cheek against hers, wanting that scent on his own skin and wanting his scent on hers.
“But I won’t forgive you for hugging Bitch Face,” she added, snarling.
As his mouth twitched into a smile, he was glad she couldn’t see his face. He knew she wouldn’t appreciate him finding her jealousy amusing—and damn hot, for that matter.
“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re smiling.”
He lifted his face and nipped her lip. “It’s a smile of relief, baby.” She snorted. “Sure it is.”
“I swear things will change,” he told her in a grave voice.
Jaime wasn’t positive that they could, despite his good intentions. But it was important in relationships to accept the bad with the good, wasn’t it? He’d said he’d choose her over his job, but she didn’t want to ask that of him. She cared for him too much to do anything that would hurt him.
Maybe with the right support, things could change over time. “I don’t mind helping you with Beta stuff if you want.”
“Help?”
“I know it plays on your mind when you have things to do, and I see that it’s a big weight on your shoulders. I work at the sanctuary most mornings, but I still have my afternoons free.” Emotion clogged in his throat. “You’d do that?”
“I’m not saying I don’t think you can do your job,” she said quickly in case he became offended. “I’m just offering to help.”
“Even though it would mean that you’ll sometimes work long hours, too?”
“If you think it will be good for you, yeah.”
He honestly couldn’t believe this. Instead of giving him an ultimatum, she was offering to work alongside him. This female got to him in ways that he could never articulate. He brought his lips down hard on hers again, shooting his tongue into her mouth to dance with hers and kissing her hungrily, almost violently. An urgent need to be inside her hit him. A need to feel her cling to him, mark him, and come apart around him.
“Does that mean you like the idea of me helping? You could think of me as your secretary or something.”
An impish grin surfaced on his face. “You really shouldn’t have said that. It’s making me think some really dirty thoughts about fucking you on my office desk.” He lifted her leg, hooked it around his waist, and he dug his hips into hers, groaning.
She snorted. “As if I’d let you do that!” The breathlessness in her voice totally contradicted her words, but it was his fault for continuing to rock into her at a very seductive rhythm. She was still feeling needy from earlier, and this was making it worse. Jaime did love makeup sex.
“Oh you would,” he drawled, breathing hotly into her ear. “And you’d love it. Love it when I bent you over and tugged down your jeans so that I could see that gorgeous ass of yours.” Peeling up her dress to her waist, he snapped off her thong and slid his fingers between her slick folds. “I’d check to make sure you were nice and wet for me, just like you are now. Then I’d do this.” Jaime cried out when he plunged two fingers inside her. God, she’d needed that. Helplessly she moaned as he nibbled and sucked on her neck while slowly fucking her with his fingers. He kept his thrusts slow and shallow, enough to make her moan, but not enough to make her come. He was such an ass.
“I’d thrust them in and out and in and out until you couldn’t take any
more.” With his free hand, he unbuttoned his fly and rubbed the head of his cock between her folds. “And then…I’d fuck you like I own you. Because I do.” Dante removed his fingers and slowly and deliberately pushed his cock inside her, wanting her to feel every inch of him sink deeper and deeper. Never had he felt a pussy this amazing—so hot, wet, suctioning, and oh-so-tight around him. He was pretty sure that no one in the world had a pussy this good. “Mine. All mine,” he said against her lips.
“Dante.”
“Shh. I’ll take care of it, baby.” Very, very slowly he withdrew, and then he slammed into her.
He’d hoped to go slow, but…“Fuck, I need this.” Then he was pounding into her with deep, branding thrusts. A territorial growl escaped him. This amazing female was his. This body that he constantly craved was his. He paused briefly to rise to his knees and hook her legs over his shoulders, allowing him to go even deeper with each violent thrust. He knew the cries that tore from her throat were a mix o f pleasure and pain. He knew exactly what line between the two that she rode, and he gave her exactly what she wanted.
Surprising a gasp from Jaime, he abruptly bit down on her nipple through her dress. He sucked it hard and plucked at it with his teeth over and over. “Dante, I’m going to come.” Good, because he wasn’t going to last much longer. Not when the panic he’d felt at losing her was still riding him. “Bite me, baby. Bite me hard.” Rearing up, she sank her teeth into his shoulder through his T-shirt. He growled. “Yeah, that’s it.”
Jaime sensed the desperation in his movements, because it was the same desperation she was feeling. Desperation to reconnect and be sure that they were there with each other and that everything was okay. Feeling his claws digging into her thighs, leaving marks of possession, she snarled in the back of her throat. It didn’t surprise her when a powerful fist knotted in her hair and pulled hard.
Objecting to a dominant male marking you when he thought you belonged to him was asking for trouble. But she liked trouble.
“Mine, Jaime. No one else will ever fuck this pussy again. It belongs to me— you belong to me. Admit it.” When she didn’t, he tugged harder on her hair. “Admit it or I’ll stop right now and come all over you.”
“Do you have to be such a goddamn jerk?!”
“Admit it!”
“I’m yours,” she gritted out.
“That’s my good girl.” Then he bit down hard on her neck, and her pussy constricted around him as she came, screaming and shuddering. With a loud, guttural groan, he exploded inside her, filling her with everything he had—marking her with his come just as he had with his claws and teeth.
And he knew right then that he was seriously close to loving this female, if he didn’t already.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dante dedicated the following few weeks to ensuring that Jaime didn’t ever again think that she came second to his job. He did just as he’d promised her that he would: he delegated more to the enforcers (who were happy about it and sincerely loved Jaime for making him “see the light”), he scheduled uninterrupted quality time for them to spend together alone, and he always headed back to her at the same time each night.
That nagging feeling to keep busy taunted him from time to time, but all he had to do was remind himself how it had felt when Jaime tried to end things between them. Just like that, the nagging became background noise. He refused to go through it again, refused to lose her for real.
It probably would have been much harder to adapt if Jaime hadn’t kept her promise to help in the afternoons. At first it had been hard to let her help, because he wasn’t comfortable having another cook in the kitchen—particularly a messy one—but the difference her help had made was actually shocking. She had taken over having the private meetings with members of the pack who had grievances, and they had actually come to prefer speaking with her. He guessed it was most likely because of how she gave a person her full attention; it probably reassured them that their issue would be addressed.
In addition, she often answered and made important calls. Her husky sex-hotline voice made her a popular medium of communication, and he knew she was often asked if she was mated. That pissed him off, but she only laughed at his jealous grumblings.
One thing he didn’t allow her to help him with was the paperwork. He had a nicely organized system going, and he did not want her fiddling with it. Fortunately, she wasn’t a fan of paperwork, so she merely shrugged at his refusals to accept her assistance—just as she had done only five minutes ago. She knew she was messy, and she was unapologetic about it. It was surprisingly endearing even while it made him crazy.
Because of her new duties in the pack, her increasingly improving control of her wolf, and her perseverance with the training he was giving her, the pack had settled around her. There were some who still had some reserves—namely Greta, Cam, and Trey. But it was only ever Greta who voiced them, and that was no longer out of any real concern. Greta did that purely to torment Jaime for fun.
He could sense that Greta actually admired Jaime for the strength she had shown. But obviously the old woman would never admit it aloud.
Dante wasn’t really in much of a position to criticize people who wouldn’t admit things aloud.
Not considering the thoughts he’d been having and keeping to himself lately. Six nights ago, he had lain there looking at Jaime’s sleeping face, thinking about just how different his life had become since she came along. Being his support boat, his assistant, and his confidant, she was much like a Beta female, he’d mused. A second later he’d dismissed that thought, because no, it was more than that.
She was like an enforcer, a Beta female, and a mate all rolled into one. And that was when he had first started contemplating the idea of imprinting.
His aversion to mating up until now had been that he didn’t want to have to give up his position within the pack. But he knew that Jaime would never ask him to do that. Even when he was neglecting and hurting her, she hadn’t given him an ultimatum. In fact, she was supportive of his job and even helped him juggle his responsibilities so he could have a work/life balance. Not only that, but he cared about her. Cared more deeply than he was comfortable admitting. In short, she was everything he needed and wanted. The only thing he wanted now was more of her. He wanted, needed, every single part of her.
Getting her to agree to imprint, however…that could prove to be difficult. Although she was battling hard to maintain control of her wolf, and fully intended to win that battle long-term, he knew that she had her doubts. She would never mate with him, as she would see that as risking his life. If she had been anyone else, he’d have been confident that he could wear her down over time, but he could begrudgingly admit that the woman was, in fact, more stubborn than he was. He’d learned quickly that she was resistant to bribery and emotional blackmail. She was also way too smart to fall for his attempts at reverse psychology, so little tricks would get him nowhere.
He told himself to just be satisfied with what he had, but now that he’d explored the prospect of imprinting, he couldn’t let it go. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he owned her, body, heart, mind, and soul. That presented him with an even bigger problem. If he wanted to be bonded to her that badly, there was a good chance that the process of imprinting would automatically begin. What he had to decide now was whether he should tell her what he wanted, or whether to let her find out when she suddenly started wearing his scent and sensing his feelings. Yeah, he didn’t think Jaime would appreciate the latter. But to tell her what he wanted would be to risk her leaving him. He couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t.
“You’re staring,” Jaime accused in a singsong voice from the small sofa to the left of his desk.
She hadn’t had to look up from her laptop computer—she was supposed to be checking the Pack Web but had ended up playing solitaire—to know that. She’d felt his eyes on her; she always did. He had a way of looking at her that made her feel that she was the only thing he could see, the only thing of
any relevance to his life. His need for her—both sexual and emotional—was right there in his eyes for her to see whenever she wanted to. He didn’t hide it, didn’t hold back from her anymore. And she loved it.
Jaime hadn’t found it at all surprising that his office was immaculately tidy and orderly. So orderly that it often made her want to mess it up just for fun. Honestly, neat places were the equivalent of big, red, tempting “Don’t Press” buttons to her. But Dante would probably hyperventilate, and while that would also be fun to watch, it would make him take longer with his work.
Opting out of telling her that he’d also been lost in thoughts of imprinting on her, Dante instead said, “Give me a number between one and twenty.”
Unable to see where this was going, she shrugged. “Eleven.”
“You lose. Now strip off your clothes.”
She laughed, adoring how roguish he could be sometimes. Despite being a naturally good-humored person, he was only ever this playful with her. She loved that he was comfortable enough to drop his guard for her. “Aren’t you supposed to be going on a pack run?” He was, but he didn’t want to go without her. He felt bad leaving her behind, hated the idea of her alone and yearning to run with them but not able to. “Too much paperwork to do.”
“Bullshit. Get out there. You’ve avoided going the last few times, and don’t think I don’t know why. Your wolf needs this.”
“He needs you more.” It was true.
“There’s that mouth again,” she chuckled. “Get out of here. I’ll be waiting naked in bed for you. How does that sound?”
Rising from his seat, he went to squat in front of her. Taking the laptop from her and placing it on the sofa, he took her hands in his and massaged her palms with his thumbs. “Come with us.” He breathed her in, letting her delicious, captivating scent galvanize and arouse him.
“I can’t. You know that.”
“You don’t have to shift. You can still come with us. Taryn used to do it all the time before overcoming her latency.”
Wicked Cravings Page 22
