by E A Price
When they arrived at her cabin, she turned to him and asked, “How did you know where I was staying?”
Jake shrugged. “It’s a small town.”
“Umm hmmm. So, will I see you tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Val smiled. “I had a nice time tonight.”
He chuckled. “You sound surprised.”
“Not surprised, just pleased. Good night Jacob Kermit Foreman.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Good night Valentine Daniels.”
He watched her walk to her door, his gaze riveted on her swinging hips and waited for her to go inside.
His wolf was pouting that they hadn’t even got a kiss, but Jake couldn’t have been happier. He was confident that kissing and much more would come later. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. The honeyed scent of her arousal lingered, mixed with her flowery perfume and… something else.
He’d noticed it before, but now it was even stronger. There was something other about her scent. Well, whatever it was, it didn’t matter.
As far as he was concerned, she was perfect just the way she was. With that thought, he drove home a happy wolf.
*
Val clutched at the covers as Jake kicked in the door. She gasped as she saw his hard, naked body filling the doorframe, illuminated only by the moonlight. Her body shivered as he stalked toward her. Without preamble, he ripped the covers away from her and crawled up the bed.
“I thought you left…” she whimpered.
“I’d never leave you,” he growled throatily.
He flicked out a claw and sliced through her nightshirt. She trembled as he nestled between her legs; his large manhood nudged at her drenched entrance.
“You’re mine,” he breathed as he pushed inexorably inside her.
“Yes,” she cooed, “yours, all yours.”
She wrapped her arms and legs around him as he filled her over and over. She felt her body heating, tensing, readying for release.
His eyes turned to the amber of his wolf. “You want this?”
“Yes!” she moaned as her body started shaking.
He roared and swiftly sank his fangs into her neck. She screamed as her climax hit like a thunderbolt.
Her own fangs pushed through her gums painfully, and she drove them into his neck to taste his sweet blood…
*
Val jerked awake as her body quaked from release. She looked around the room for Jake. Of course, he wasn’t there. Crap! Another freaking sex dream!
She should have known she was dreaming when he burst through her door naked. And when, instead of laughing at her nightshirt, he just ripped it off her. A nightshirt with a cartoon moose that said ‘we are not amoosed’ on it was always going to be a passion killer.
She rubbed her neck, checking for any bite mark. She knew there wouldn’t be, but darn, that had felt so real. She knew that shifters sometimes bit their partners during sex, and before now that thought had always repulsed her, but in the dream it had been kind of erotic. Of course, she never envisioned herself actually biting anyone. That was kind of odd. Maybe she was really a vampire! She snickered at the thought, but then groaned as she realized that she needed to change her sheets again and take a shower.
Oh well, it had been worth it. She’d never enjoyed just sleeping quite so much in her life. Actually, she’d never enjoyed sex this much before either – and it wasn’t even real sex. She could only imagine how wonderful it would be if she really had Jake in her bed…
She felt desire pooling in her sex and pulled herself together, busying herself with changing her sheets. She needed to think unsexy thought. Hmmm, baseball. Jake playing baseball. Jake in tight, white trousers playing baseball.
For heaven’s sake! The darn wolf could make anything sexy.
She’d only known him for a couple of days, and yet, she felt so attached to him. Which was strange, because for most of the time she’d known him, he’d done nothing but irritate the heck out of her. Yet, she wanted him, no she felt like she needed him.
Just one question, how was she supposed to cope when it came time for her to leave and go back to Ursa?
Sigh.
Chapter Nine
2nd March
Shannon glared as Val hummed and flounced around the office. She had suffered through another restless night, filled with deliciously wanton sex dreams, and yet she didn’t feel tired – she felt energized.
Like she could run a marathon, climb Mount Everest and ravish a certain wolf shifter all with energy to spare. Although, out of those three activities, she knew which she’d prefer to be doing.
“You’re happy today,” grumbled Shannon, looking just a little worse for wear.
If Val had to guess, the young woman was nursing a major hangover. Shannon wore yesterday’s clothes, with the buttons of her shirt done up wrong, her make-up was sparse, her face was pale and her hair looked limp. Was Val crowing that this younger, slimmer, prettier woman looked awful? You bet your sweet ass she was!
After the previous night, she was in a good mood, and she was determined to inflict it on everyone who got in her way.
She rubbed her fingers over the back of her hand, remembering the way Jake had touched her.
He was so different from the other men she’d dated. He was gruffly honest. Sure, in his own way he was still flirting with her, but he wasn’t pretending to be anything he wasn’t. He wasn’t putting on airs for her. And she wasn’t putting on airs for him either. She didn’t want him to see her as anything other than she was. Yep, no more martinis for her!
Would he call her? He would – she was sure of it. Oh, when was he going to call? She pushed both her cell number and her office number on him last night, just to make sure he had no excuse for not being able to reach her.
The office phone sprung to life. Shannon let out a moan like a wounded animal and clutched her head. Val tried not to snicker, although not very hard, and snatched it up, answering in her breathiest voice.
“Hello,” she purred.
“Have you been running?” demanded a no-nonsense voice that Val would recognize anywhere.
“No, Grandma, I have not been running.”
She clucked her tongue. “You sounded out of breath.”
“I’m fine, Grandma, it’s nice to hear from you… wait, how did you get this number?”
“Well, not from my own granddaughter, thank you very much!”
Val looked at her shoes. She was always reduced to a naughty five-year-old at the sharp tongue of her grandmother.
“I had to call your office and complain at them for thirty minutes before they gave me this number.”
Val rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you just call my cell?”
“It costs too much to call a cell.”
She opened her mouth to argue but decided not to bother. Her grandmother could argue until she was blue in the face, and if, during an argument, she were proved wrong, it would just make her argue even harder. In the end, arguing was just a waste of time. Hmmm, perhaps she took after her grandmother more than she thought.
“When are you coming to visit me?” demanded her grandmother in her most censorious voice. “I haven’t seen you since Christmas.”
“Well, I’m just a bit too busy with work at the moment, what with my promotion…”
She sniffed. “You’d rather work than see your grandmother.”
Yeah, not only was she argumentative, but she was the queen of emotional blackmail.
“You know Grandma, as I recall you were supposed to come and see me a couple of weeks ago, but you canceled so you could go to Vegas for a hen party.”
“Well, I couldn’t miss that. Gretchen’s 75, this might be the last time she ever gets married, and those strippers don’t put dollars in their own thongs,” her grandmother said wistfully.
Val shuddered. That was an image she was never going to get rid of.
“Not that I’m not… enjoying this conversation, but I really need to get ba
ck to work, there are about a dozen people waiting to see me.”
Shannon looked up and around at the empty trailer.
Her grandmother harrumphed. “Heaven forbid you should give me five minutes of your time! But I need to know when you’re going to come and visit, there are things we need to discuss.”
“If it’s about your will, I still remember it from the last time we revised it. I get it, Cousin Lula gets the silverware, Great Aunt Belle can have your collection of antique cake stands, and Cousin Tom can rot in hell. I remember it all.”
“Well, I may want to make a few revisions on that, but there are other things we need to talk about. Things that won’t wait…”
“We, will, Grandma. I’ll think about it and call you over the weekend, okay?”
Her grandmother breathed in and out a few times while Val prayed she didn’t want to argue about it.
“Okay,” she said finally, “but don’t leave it too long.”
“Yeah, sure thing, love you Grandma,” replied Val absently and hung up before she could say anything else.
“You’re not supposed to take personal calls at work,” sniped Shannon.
Val glared at her. That was rich coming from someone who got paid to sit around and read magazines!
Shannon smirked at her; a little color returned to the young woman’s face, but that soon drained away as a loud, growling noise reverberated through the office. Where the heck was that coming from?
Oh, lordy lord! It was her - she was growling. She stopped and started coughing to try and cover it. “Sorry, I’ve had a cold – I have a scratchy throat.”
Shannon looked at her dubiously before swallowing two aspirins and resting her head on the desk.
Val sat back down at her own desk and fanned her face with some paper. Growling? Really?
She shook her head and tried to concentrate on work, but no matter what, she couldn’t seem to get her head around the paperwork. Where were all the receipts and invoices for materials used? Where were the personnel files for all their workers?
What had Glenn been playing at?
And just where the frak had he got this construction crew? The company had done business in Virginia before, so why hadn’t they used the same construction crew they always used? She understood that they had this gig because Conrad went to school with the Mayor of the town, so maybe the Mayor recommended them. Val glanced out the window and was met with an uninspiring array of men lounging around doing very little. Hard to believe anyone would recommend those guys for anything other than draining a keg of beer.
She grabbed the phone and called Conrad’s office phone. His assistant, Lois answered. Conrad was out the office. No, she didn’t know when he was going to return. No, she couldn’t take a message. No, none of the other senior partners were available either. Val slammed the phone down in frustration.
The phone rang again; Shannon let out an ‘ugh’ and Val snatched at it and snarled out ‘yes?’.
“Bad time?” rumbled a deep, husky voice.
“Oh, Jake!” she squeaked and her whole body clenched. “Ummm, no, no, of course not,” she stammered. “I’m glad you called.”
“Are you?” he asked, blandly.
Val relaxed and felt a kittenish mood taking over. “Yes! And if I weren’t so sure you would march right over here and arrest me I’d call you a butthole for doubting me.”
Jake chuckled deeply. “Hold on, let me grab my handcuffs.”
“Yes, please,” she whispered and then blushed furiously.
Thankfully, he didn’t dwell on that. “I was, umm, wondering, that is to say, I…”
Val withheld the giggle that wanted to escape. Yes, her big, bad hunk of a wolf was actually nervous. Awww, it was so cute.
“I’m going to have lunch at the Diner and I thought that you could eat there too.”
“That sounds great! And since we’ll both be there, let’s eat lunch together!”
She bit her lip as a low growl echoed down the line. “Now I really am reaching for my cuffs.”
“Oh, promises, promises. I’ll see you there in an hour.”
“Great, see you then.”
Val hung up and smiled. Yep, she had a date. Hot excitement bubbled inside her.
She looked at the unappealing sights of the messy paperwork piled on her desk and Shannon, who was now snoring lightly. Only an hour to go.
*
After a quick dash back to her cabin to change clothes, put on some more deodorant and touch up her makeup Val was almost perfect. The only thing that could enhance her now would be a wind machine and some professional lighting. And there really wasn’t time to set all that up.
She sailed into the town’s Honeypot Diner and was a little gratified that a number of men looked round and gave her appreciative glances. Yep, her red dress had been a good choice.
A pretty waitress with dark skin and a mass of blonde curls bounced toward her, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hi, Val! Jake’s at the back table.”
Val blinked at her. Had they met before? “Ummm…”
The waitress hooked an arm around her waist, and with strength that belied her small, curvy body began guiding her to the back of the diner.
“I’m Kira, by the way. It’s nice to meet you. Jake’s a great guy, by the way.”
Jake stood as they approached, and his lips curled up slightly. His biceps bulged out of his uniform. Mmm, how it would feel to have those arms wrapped around her?
Kira winked at them. “I’ll be back for your order in a few moments.”
“Thanks, Kira,” he murmured, his gaze never leaving Val.
She was tickled to note that he didn’t sit down until after she had sat. Who said chivalry was dead?
Val inclined her head at Kira as the young woman navigated between tables, chatting and joking with patrons. “She another one of your women?”
Jake couldn’t have looked more surprised than if she’d slapped him in the face and challenged him to a duel at dawn. “My women?”
“Yes, ever since I arrived in town, women have been falling over themselves to tell me how great you are.”
He rubbed his neck self-consciously. “News to me. Who exactly have you been talking to?” he asked worriedly.
She counted them off on her fingers. “Well, Delilah, Carly, Darcy and now Kira. Actually, it’s not as many as I thought.” It just felt more at the time she thought sourly.
Jake fidgeted is discomfort. “That was kind of them, but unnecessary.”
“Ex-girlfriends?” she asked innocently.
His eyes bulged. “What? No, not at all. They’re just pack mates; I don’t see them as being different from males; I guess they want me to find someone to mate with.”
“Hmmm, let me guess, they’ve settled down, so now they want everyone else to as well.”
He chuckled. “Right.”
Val tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Ah, the married woman’s curse. My friends are like that, too. They look around at all their single friends and make it their mission to make everyone as happy as them. Or as miserable - depends on the circumstances. They all seem to care about you, though.”
Jake frowned. “Maybe.”
“It seems you just make a good impression on people.” She felt an odd glow of pride as she said that.
“I don’t see how,” he grumbled.
Val pressed her lips together. He was actually uncomfortable with the fact that people thought he was a great guy. That was priceless. Dang, if he knew just where her feelings were leading her, he’d run for the fricking hills.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, you don’t seem to inspire such loving feelings in the men in town.”
He actually looked amused by that. “No?”
“Mmm, I’m pretty sure Casey and Frank are your enemies for life.”
Jake threw back his head and belted out a laugh. It was so unexpected that people in the Diner stopped to stare at him. In fact, it was so infecti
ous a few started laughing along with him. They had no idea why.
When he recovered, he said, “I’m sure I can live with that.”
When Kira returned, they each ordered a double cheeseburger with fries, onion rings and coleslaw. Val considered trying to be demure and order a salad, but her stomach wasn’t so much rumbling as hollering for something greasy and yummy. She was a bottomless pit when it came to food; it was probably better for him to find that out sooner rather than later.
Val tried to hide her scowl as a gorgeous brunette sidled up to the table and asked to borrow Jake for a few moments. He introduced her as Rosalee before leaving Val to talk to her. What the hell? She felt the familiar and very unwelcome surge of jealousy swell within her. She really had to get a handle on this.
He came back a few minutes later, and Rosalee smiled at her and waved goodbye.
“Another one of your women?” She said it partly in jest but also partly fueled by her frustration at the bevy of beauties surrounding him.
It was strange; she’d never displayed such jealous tendencies before. Heck, an old boyfriend had actually gone on a family vacation with one of his exes, and she barely batted an eyelid. Maybe she just didn’t care enough be a raving, green eyed monster. But now… ugh, she was having to beat off her monstrous tendencies with a stick.
Jake’s eyebrows almost shot off his head. “Rosalee? She’s my Alpha’s mate.”
“She’s pretty,” said Val, ruefully.
He eyed her warily. “If you say so.”
“You don’t have to be coy.” Oh, why was she baiting him into admitting another woman was attractive? It was akin to relationship suicide.
“I’m not,” said Jake, baldly, “if I found her attractive I’d say. I’m not known for having a filter on my mouth. I am known for sticking my foot in my mouth and then trying to dance around.”
“Wow, that’s quite a vivid image. But I kind of like that, it’s refreshing to have someone tell the truth.”
At least it would shut up the insecure little imp that resided inside her. Although, judging by the last few days, she seemed to be more of a raging beast.
