Wolf Surrender (Wolf Cove Book 4)

by Nina West

  I can’t help myself.

  I leave the dais and trail them outside.

  It’s midafternoon and stifling hot, the only reprieve against the hot sun coming in the form of shaded alcoves and decorative ceiling fans that keep the air from turning stale.

  A few guests mill around, laughing as they sip white wine and champagne, waving pamphlets in front of their faces to cool themselves.

  I spot Scott’s stocky body on the opposite side of the fountain that sits as a centerpiece in the court—a goddess at least fifteen feet high. Feigning interest in the statue, I edge over.

  “...I have enough to last me another three months. Four, if I live like a pauper,” I hear Crystal say, her tone full of despair. “I swear, William died just to punish me. I never should have agreed to that divorce settlement.”

  “He would have ruined you otherwise.”

  “Still... as long as he was alive, I was taken care of. Now? I’m going to be living on the streets.”

  “No you’re not, Mom. Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of you.”

  I frown. Scott is certainly closer to his mother than I expected. And more forgiving of her than Henry, it would seem.

  “But what about the mine?” Crystal asks.

  “I told you, don’t worry about it. Nothing will come of that.”

  She sighs. “I don’t know, Scott. I still think you should fight for the hotel.”

  “And spend all my money arguing against Henry’s lawyers? No way.”

  “But you deserve your share.”

  “So did you, and look how he screwed you over.”

  “Maybe Henry would be more reasonable than William. I tried speaking to him, but he won’t even look at me. He’s as vengeful as his father was.”

  “You need to work on his little girlfriend. Get her on your side.”

  “The redhead. What was her name again?”

  “Abbi.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “Right. She seems like a sweet girl. Henry will crush her heart.” She doesn’t sound worried. More like, full of pity.

  “Believe me, she’s not as sweet or innocent as she lets on. And she must have a golden pussy—”

  “Scott! Don’t be crass.”

  He heaves a sigh. “Whatever. Forget about the hotel, Mom. If I’m right about the mine, Henry will end up the chump in all this.” There’s something in Scott’s tone—a promise—that curls my senses.

  “Why? What do you mean?”

  “Listen, don’t say a word to anyone, but there’s a—”

  “Abbi! There you are!”

  I jump at the sound of Miles’s voice and spin around to find him marching toward me.

  He jabs a thumb toward the ballroom. “Henry’s looking for you.”

  Holding my breath, I dare glance over, to find both Scott and Crystal staring at me. Shit.

  “Tell him I’ll be there in a sec.” I dart for the women’s restroom.

  ~ ~ ~

  “I think your hands are clean.”

  I look up from the sink to see Crystal McGuire leaning against the stone wall, her arms crossed over her chest. She must have followed me in.

  “I don’t know what Henry has told you about me—”

  “Nothing. He doesn’t talk about you.” I grab a towel from the basket and roughly dry my hands. Here I was, pushing Henry to give her a chance to talk, but he was right. She’s not here to reconcile or apologize, or even to see how her son is doing. She’s here for money.

  I head for the exit, intent on getting away from this repulsive woman.

  “I never wanted children.”

  Her voice—and her admission—stalls my feet.

  She strolls over to the mirror and leans in to inspect her eyeliner. “I thought I had won the lottery when I attracted the William Wolf. Of course he wanted to carry on the Wolf name, so I knew I’d have to have at least one child, but I wasn’t in a rush to give up my freedom, or to share what little attention he afforded me with anyone else.” She pulls a lipstick from her purse. “William was never home. That’s the thing with Wolf men. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re addicted to success and control. That’s what the Wolf businesses give them. It’s exciting at first, being around such powerful men. Believe me, I know. And the money, the way of life, almost made up for the loneliness. All the business trips and the late nights and missed birthdays.”

  She drags the dusty rose color over her lips. “The red lipstick on shirt collars, and beautiful women smiling secretively. He swore he never touched any of them, but I don’t see how he could resist.” Bitterness flashes in her eyes—the kind that’s dulled over the years, but still flares every once in a while. “Scott was an accident. But when I told William that I was pregnant, he suddenly changed. He was around more, he became more affectionate with me. I wasn’t just the token wife that he took to events, I was the mother of his child. I realized that I played an important role. I finally had some control over him. That’s why I had Henry. To maintain that control.”

  I feel my face twist with shock at her candid—and disgusting—admission.

  “Of course, I hoped that those maternal instincts would kick in at some point,” she adds as an afterthought, and then sighs. “Anyway, it didn’t last. Once the boys started growing, William became solely focused on the family business again, and getting Scott and Henry ingrained in it. Scott didn’t take as quickly, but Henry....” She shakes her head and chuckles. “He had an impressive collection of suits and ties by the time he was nine. All he ever wanted to do was please his father. He took to it like, well, a Wolf. He turned out just like his father, faults and all.”

  “You don’t know him. You left him when he was eleven years old.”

  “You don’t think Henry’s cold? Hurtful?” Her blue eyes shift from her own reflection to mine. I see the challenge to deny it in them.

  “When the person deserves it.” I learned that the hard way. But I won’t let this woman stand here and talk ill of a son she abandoned and hasn’t talked to in twenty years. “He’s also passionate and caring, and thoughtful. And honest. And he has more integrity than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  “And he’ll never make you his priority. I hope you realize that now.” She smooths another coat of lipstick over her lips. “Take it from me, you will find yourself gravely disappointed otherwise.”

  “I don’t expect to be his priority. I just want to be in his life. I just want to be able to love him and have him love me. Something you’re clearly incapable of, because it sounds like the only person you’ve ever made an effort to love is yourself. And maybe you’re right and Henry is just like his father. But I’m nothing like you. I’m not with him for his money or his power. He could give it all away tomorrow and work on my farm, and I’d be just as happy.” The moment I say it, as ridiculous as the notion of Henry sitting atop a tractor and baling hay is, I realize that it’s true. “Or he could keep working day and night for Wolf. I’d never ask him not to, because I know how important his family’s business is to him and I admire his passion for it. And I don’t expect to be the most important thing in his life, or that he give me all of his time. I already know that I won’t get that, and I’m okay with it. And I can’t wait to have children.” It’s ironic, given pre-Henry, I was avoiding Mama’s pushes for grandchildren. “Lots of children. Not because I want to control Henry with them, but so I can listen to them laugh and hold them when they cry, and love them. I want to make them feel like they’re the most important people in the world, because they are. I will give everything, sacrifice everything for them, and for Henry because I’m so madly, deeply in love with him.” I can’t help myself. “But I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do any of those things with him, because he had an utterly selfish woman for a mother who has left him terrified of—”

  “Abbi.”

  Henry’s calm voice stops my tirade instantly. I spin around to find him standing at the door of the wome
n’s restroom, holding it shut behind him, his face full of shock.

  Oh my God. How much did he hear?

  His gaze shifts from me to his mother, who at least looks somewhat chastised.

  “Henry—”

  “I’ll see you at home.”

  My stomach sinks. What did I just say? I don’t even remember, and I have no idea what he heard. It couldn’t have been good. But I know when to obey Henry’s requests, and this is one of those times.

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Abbi,” he warns.

  I head for the door, stalling in front of him, reaching for his free hand with my trembling fingers. Did I just screw everything up between us?

  Finally he meets my eyes. He must see the fear in them. “We’ll talk at home,” he says more softly.

  That’s the most comfort I’m going to get from him right now. “You were right, by the way. She’s looking for money from the Wolf estate. She lost your dad’s support when he died.”

  His jaw clenches and he gives the slightest nod.

  I rush out of there and straight for the limo, shaking the entire way.

  Chapter Four

  The bed sinks with Henry’s weight as he slides under the sheets at 3:05 a.m.

  Instantly, I reach for him, smoothing my hand over his biceps.

  “Sorry, I tried to be quiet,” he whispers.

  “It’s okay, I was awake. The thunder...,” I murmur, using the nasty storm that’s rolling through as my excuse. Really, I’ve been lying in the dark, waiting for Henry to come back from the office, where Miles confirmed he’d gone after the reception ended.

  Lying here, imagining all the things I’d say to him when he finally came home, so he wouldn’t end this—us.

  Now I can’t seem to find the words.

  It’s Henry who finally breaks the silence. “I heard them fighting one night, right before she left. He told her that it was over, that no Wolf would put up with a cheating wife. She was screaming at him, blaming him for her affair, telling him that it was his fault for not paying enough attention to her. That he was a cold, uncaring bastard who was impossible to love.” Henry’s hard swallow fills the air. “And apparently I’m just like him.”

  “She’s wrong.”

  “Is she?”

  “Yes.” I shift closer and he fits an arm beneath me, pulls me against his bare chest. I listen to his heartbeat for a moment. “So... how much did you hear today?”

  “Enough.”

  I hold my breath.

  “You didn’t need to defend me.”

  “Yes, I did. She’s a horrible human being. She doesn’t get to pretend to know you.”

  “Maybe she’s right.”

  “She’s not.”

  He plants a soft kiss on my forehead. “Either way, she’s out of our lives. Let Scott take care of her. He’s the one she’s kept in touch with.”

  I release a shaky sigh of relief. Henry’s not mad at me.

  “So... you’d rather I be a farmer?” There’s a hint of playfulness in his voice.

  “Yes, I would actually.” I trace his collarbone with my fingertips. “As long as you’re topless and sweaty while riding around on the tractor.”

  “What would the good folk of Greenbank, Pennsylvania, say about that?”

  “I’m sure the female population would be quite happy about it.”

  “And your mother?”

  “She’d accuse you of trying to get in everyone’s good graces while you sell the land out from under them to build condominiums.”

  His deep, throaty chuckle makes my heart swell. “Make sure you pass on my thanks for the flowers, by the way. That was kind of her.”

  “I will.” I’ve been gone from home for almost two weeks and didn’t leave on the best of terms, after Mama resorted to taking a handful of adrenaline pills and giving herself what appeared to be a heart attack to foil my plans to visit Henry in Alaska. We’ve shared the odd text, just to touch base and to let her know that Henry’s father passed and I’d be in New York with him until further notice. And then there were the two voice mails—one to tell me that my father almost fell using his walker and how bad it would have been, and another to note that there would be a floral arrangement arriving at the funeral home from Mama and Daddy and the Enderbeys, and that I should look out for it because those big city florists can’t be trusted.

  Henry sighs, his arm curling around my body, pulling me closer to him. “Get some sleep.”

  I guess we’re not going to talk about all the other things that were said—like how I’m madly in love with Henry and want children. Henry’s children. Lots of them.

  Does he even want children? Will he ever consider marrying me?

  There’s no mistaking how serious I am about him now. I proclaimed my feelings in the hotel bathroom, with him standing behind me, listening to every word.

  His heavy sigh fills the dark room. “Yes.”

  I frown. “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I do want children.”

  “How did you—”

  “Because I know you, Abbi. I can practically hear your thoughts.”

  “Oh.” I let my hand trail from his chest to his abdomen, farther down, to grasp his flaccid dick.

  My whole body shakes with his chuckle, followed by his groan. “I didn’t mean right now.”

  I smile. “But definitely one day, right?” I run my thumb in circles over his tip. He begins to harden almost instantly.

  “Yes, one day, with the right woman. I won’t make the same mistake my father did.”

  Will I be that right woman? His words spark a memory from yesterday. “You told Scott that your dad knew about us?”

  “I came clean before we left for France. Figured it was better he heard it from me than the media, should it for some reason become an interesting story.”

  “What did he say?” Henry had sworn that there was nothing going on between us. How would a man like William Wolf have taken being lied to, straight to his face?

  Silence meets my question.

  And wariness creeps in. “Henry?”

  “He said that I must be pretty serious about you.”

  I bite my lip to stop myself from asking the question he must know I’m desperate to ask.

  Suddenly I’m rolling onto my back, my grip of Henry lost as he fits himself between my legs, resting his elbows on either side of my pillow to cage me in with his arms.

  I inhale that heavenly cologne as he fits his face into the crook of my neck to lay a trail of kisses along my jawline. “What do you think? Am I serious enough about you?” he whispers, gently grasping my earlobe with his teeth as he expertly finds my entrance without the use of his hands and pushes into me.

  I moan, as much from the feel of him invading my body as from his words. I wrap my arms and legs around his body, trying to bring him as close to me as humanly possible as my emotions for this man overwhelm me.

  I don’t want to spend any more days without him.

  I would die if anything ever happened to him.

  Is it even healthy to feel this way about another human?

  I can’t say for sure, but it’s the truth.

  And I can’t keep it in anymore. “I love you.”

  It’s a whisper in the night, against the rhythmic thump of the headboard. And yet it’s out there, and my chest suddenly constricts with fear that I’ve somehow misinterpreted his words.

  Henry slows his thrusts to a pause, to peer down at me. I can just make out the handsome, hard curve of his jaw. His eyes are piercing, even in the darkness. “I can’t remember the last time I used those words. With anyone.”

  I run my hands through his thick mane, pushing the strands that have fallen forward back off his face. “But you can feel them, right?”

  His long lashes flutter with each blink. “Every damn day.” He closes his mouth over mine, ending any chance for more words as he begins thrusting into me once again, this time with the strength and intoxicating beat tha
t is Henry.

  We climax together within minutes, shrouded in darkness, to the sound of rumbling thunder around us.

  Chapter Five

  Henry’s already showered, dressed in a charcoal suit, and picking from a plate of fruit and crisp bacon delivered by the hotel when I emerge from the bedroom, a plush white robe wrapped around my naked, tired body.

  “Margo’s in New York. She wants to meet up with you. I gave her your number,” he announces through a sip of coffee.

  I stop dead. “Meet up? For what?” Paranoia creeps in instantly.

  He smiles. “Relax. She tried those demos you left for her and she loved them. She wants to talk more about your plans.”

  “Oh.” My pride swells. The supermodel Margo Lauren, who could probably afford to clean herself in gold-laced soap on a daily basis, loves my simple soaps, made in the back room of my parents’ hundred-year-old barn? “So, what? Are we all going to do dinner or something?” Henry and me, Margo, and her perverted photographer boyfriend, who makes a living taking close-ups of women mid-orgasm and then hanging them in prestigious art galleries around the world.

  “Sounds like she’s thinking just the two of you, but I’ll let you sort that out. I’ll be tied up all day with work, and the lawyers in the afternoon, over my dad’s will.”

  “Right. That’s happening today.” They don’t waste any time. I pause. “So, how do you think that’s going to go?”

  He shrugs. “I’ve already got the hotel. Scott will get Wolf Gold and they’ll liquidate and split the rest, likely. At this point I just want this done and over with, so we can all move on.”

  Move on with his billions of dollars.

  I give my head a shake. How is this even real? How did I, a farm girl from Pennsylvania, end up with a man like this?

  “I’ve gotta run.” He leans in to plant a kiss on my lips, leaving the taste of coffee behind.

  “Wait. When are you leaving for Barcelona?”

  “I don’t know yet. Likely in the next few days.” His blue eyes search my face. “Why?”