“Boss?”
“Long story,” the woman said.
“Look, please, have dinner with me tonight,” Beck said.
Dewi spoke up. “Us. All of us. At my place. Tonight. My uncle and I, and my fiancé, and another…co-worker of ours. You won’t be alone. We’ll even make anything you want.”
Nami had to pull out in one minute. “You stayin’ on this bus? If so, you need a pass, or pay the fare.”
Dewi backed up a step toward the door. “Please? You won’t be alone. He’ll give you our address. Heck, bring someone, anyone you want with you, so you aren’t alone. Let Beck show you he’s a good guy. I’ve literally known him my entire life and can tell you he’s a stand-up guy.”
“Why are you his boss? What do you do for a living? Why were you on the bus the other day?”
“Long story,” they both said.
“Please?” Beck asked.
Nami knew the only way she’d get that bus rolling again was to agree to their cockamamie plan. She also didn’t have to pick up Da’von tonight. Since it was Friday, Da’von and Malyah were going to go see a movie later, so Malyah would pick him from Lu’ana’s. “You’ll cook anything I want?”
“Anything,” Dewi agreed.
This will shut them up. “Black-eyed peas, turnip greens with ham, and cornbread to sop up the pot likker, of course.”
If that didn’t stump them, nothing would.
On the other hand, maybe she’d get a good meal out of it. Or at least a laugh.
Dewi didn’t miss a beat. “I have no clue what that is, except the ham and the cornbread. But I’m sure if we Google it, we’ll find a recipe for it. Beck, let me know what time tonight.”
Before Nami could protest, Dewi bounded off the bus.
Beck scanned his pass and sat in his normal seat. He looked smug. Victorious.
Kissable.
Argh!
Nami closed the door and pulled out of the parking lot.
* * * *
Beck knew he’d won a small victory. Nami hadn’t openly refused the invitation, even though she felt a little aggravated at him for how he’d sprung it on her. That much he could tell by her body language.
I’m wearing her down.
He desperately fought to stifle the chuckle he wanted to let out at the tense, rounded set of her shoulders, the mental grumbling he could faintly hear, the way she would glance at him whenever possible, yet looking away again as if not to be caught peeking.
I love her so much.
Now he wanted to show her how much.
At lunch time, when she swapped with another driver at the Marion Transit Center, Nami pulled Beck aside to talk. “How long are you gonna keep this nonsense up?”
“As long as I have to, until you give me a chance. Let me text you the address for dinner tonight.”
She pressed her lips together, a drawn, thin line, as if trying to keep her mouth shut on something.
After a minute of silent staring from her, she let out an aggravated groan. “Why won’t you go away and leave me alone?”
He stepped a little closer. “Because I know how good things will be between us if you give us a chance. But if you really, really don’t want me around, then tell me. You order me to leave you alone, for good, and I’ll turn around and walk away right now.”
That was a calculated risk on his part.
When he felt the change in her pulse as he made that declaration, even through the short distance separating them, he knew.
She wanted him, too, but fear still held her back.
Okay, no problem. Fear I can work with.
And she didn’t order him gone.
Her voice dropped to a pained whisper. “Why are you doing this to me?”
He held out a hand to her, palm up, and silently waited. She stared at it for a moment, a visible shiver passing through her as she slowly reached out and placed her hand in his.
Then he looked into her eyes, never breaking contact, as he lifted her hand to his lips and gently feathered them across her knuckles.
Her eyes dropped closed, a low moan escaping her.
When she opened her eyes again, he softly said, “Because when I finally gain your trust and you can open up to me, I know that the rest of our lives together will be beautiful. And unless or until you order me away, I won’t leave you. Ever. I don’t know who’s hurt you in the past, or why you’re so scared of me, but I promise you, Nami, I’m not like any other man you’ve ever known before.”
“Been made lots of promises in my life that weren’t kept.”
“I never make a promise I can’t keep.” He kissed her hand again before gently lowering it and letting go, opening his fingers and making her pull back from him.
He didn’t miss how, for a moment, she left her hand in his, even with his fingers not clutching hers.
“I’ll take it as slowly as you need me to,” he said. “Weeks, months. Years, even.”
“What if I tell you I’m married?”
“Are you?”
She finally shook her head.
He offered her a smile. “It’s okay. I’m scared, too.”
Now disbelief flashed across her features. “What do you have to be scared of?”
“I’m scared of losing you before I ever have a chance to show you how I feel.” She didn’t back away when he stepped closer, gently tipped her chin, and brushed a light kiss across her lips. “May I please text you the address for tonight?”
She nodded.
* * * *
Lord…have mercy.
What she wanted to do was grab him and kiss him again, a long, hard, deep kiss that would likely end up with the two of them sprawled out across a bed somewhere.
His kiss on her hand had lit fires deep inside her in places she hadn’t even known existed.
The kiss on the lips…
She’d nearly come in her slacks.
With trembling hands, she dug her cell phone out of her purse and got it turned on.
“What’s your cell number?” he asked. She recited it. Her phone buzzed a moment later with an address, and a gate code. “Is seven thirty okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Today was a short shift. She’d be off work well before then. “Long as you don’t mind me coming dressed like this.”
He smiled. “You come dressed however you’d like.”
In her mind, she could have sworn she heard his voice say, “Or come dressed in nothing at all.”
Her eyes widened as a playful smirk curved his lips. “I’ll be waiting out here when you’re done with lunch.”
She nodded, then hurried inside to the bathroom and found, yes, she needed to clean herself up. Fortunately, she hadn’t soaked her panties—yet—but she suspected if he was going to be doing that kind of teasing with her a lot in the future, she could probably expect wet spots on her drawers.
She also had to force herself to slow down and not wolf her lunch just to get back outside to see him.
What?
What is wrong with me?
It would seem her body and heart had effectively settled the matter regarding Dawson Beckett.
* * * *
Beck waited until after Nami had gone inside to call Dewi.
“Seven thirty.”
“Cool. Badger’s at the grocery store now. Apparently I’m the only person in this house who had never heard the term ‘pot likker’ before.”
“Ken knew what it was?”
“His mom used to make greens a lot, he said. It’s just the juices. Why do I get the feeling she was using it as a test?”
“Thank you for not Priming her.”
“Dude, she’s your mate, not mine. You want to claim her, you have to do it. Although I’ve clearly stated my opinion of how you’re handling this. You’d already be picking out china patterns if it were up to me.”
“It’s not up to you. I just had another brief talk with her, and I think once we get through tonight, it’s going to go a long way to sho
rtening the process.”
“Good. Because I’ll leave you down here while I’m in Valdosta, if I can count on you to not to spend the time following her around like a puppy.”
He brushed back his irritation only because Dewi was right to be concerned. “I’ll be okay.”
“We’ll see you tonight. Call me if anything changes.”
“Will do.” He ended the call and sat on a bench in the shade, smiling to himself. While talking with Nami, he’d added a little mental flirting.
Based on her sudden change in expression, she’d heard him.
If you’d just trust me, this would be so much easier.
He wouldn’t force her, wouldn’t rush her. In his forty-nine years, he was used to being patient.
Especially considering he’d helped Badger with Dewi for nearly her whole life. First as an extra bodyguard, then, later, to help train her.
I hope that’s not going to be a problem for Nami.
He knew it had initially squicked Ken out a little, to learn that Beck and Dewi had been lovers since she was eighteen. Beck had to explain the facts of wolf life to Ken, how it wasn’t like with normal humans.
That Dewi being a Prime Alpha wolf meant even when she was in her early teens, she’d been far more mature than a human her age.
All he could do was wait.
And hope.
Chapter Thirteen
Nami thought she might have time to run home first and change clothes after all, but accidents and traffic made that pretty much impossible. So instead, she stopped by an open air mall up in Wesley Chapel and window shopped for a while to kill some time before their dinner.
And to settle her nerves.
Part of her was hoping she’d talk herself out of this nonsense.
Beck had stayed on the bus with her, until she switched with another driver at the Marion Transit Center to catch a ride to the depot with someone else going that way.
Beck had once again kissed her hand. “See you at seven thirty. When you get to the gate, just punch that code in and it’ll open. Follow the road through the trees to the house.”
“Trees? What, they serial killers hidin’ in the woods or something?”
“No, pine trees. Like a tree farm? Agricultural tax exemption. Cheaper than raising cattle.”
“Oh.”
“And don’t worry about bringing anything. Just yourself.”
When he let go of her hand that time, she wanted to reach out, grab him, and hold on tight.
And never let go.
She finally tore herself away from him and headed for the bus that would take her to her car. All the way there, she stared out the window, still impossibly able to taste Beck’s kiss from lunchtime on her lips.
Or maybe it was just wishful dreaming on her part she was tasting?
Truthfully, she knew she’d already left caring about the reasons why in the dust. Maybe tonight would give her some answers, or insight, to enable her to walk away or let him in.
Either way, she knew she couldn’t continue existing in this land of emotional limbo. It would destroy her sanity if she let it go on too long.
Time to knuckle under and do something about it, woman.
As time drew closer for her to head to dinner, her steps slowed.
No one knew where she was, or where she was going.
Pulling out her phone, she texted Malyah. Going to dinner with friends. Might not be home until late.
While she wasn’t a massive party animal, it wasn’t unheard of for her to go out once or twice a month, now that Da’von was old enough—and acting responsibly enough—to trust on his own.
Malyah texted her back. Have fun! Heading to movie shortly.
Nami returned to her car and sat there for a moment, trying to decide if there was any valid reason she could use that would allow her to both cancel their plans and not hate herself the next day for it.
There wasn’t.
That settled, she cranked the engine and headed for the address.
* * * *
“If ye don’t sit down, or at least stop that infernal pacin’, I’m gonna hogtie ye and toss yer scruffy hide in the pool.”
Beck stopped on the other side of the counter from where Badger was finishing up dinner preparations, with Ken’s help. “What if she doesn’t show up?”
“What if she does?” Ken said, looking wholly amused by the situation. “I’m betting she does, and by the end of the evening, we have a new family member.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dewi snarked as she walked into the kitchen. “Mr. Procrastination there is stalling. I have no doubts he’ll keep stalling.”
“I’m not stalling!”
“Then what the hell do you call it?”
“I told you—”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved a hand at him to quiet him. “You know how it works. How we do things in the pack. You feel it. You know it’s right, that it’s the right thing to do. Why fight it?”
“Because I want to be better, that’s why.”
Dewi and Badger went silent and stared at Beck.
Martin let out a groan. “Oh, duuude. I think you just stepped in it.”
Dewi started to say something, but Ken took over. “Beck, take a look at me. Do you see me complaining about how things happened between me and Dewi? No. Did it shock the shit out of me when it happened? Yes. Do I have any regrets? No. So if you feel about Nami the way Dewi felt about me when she claimed me? Then stop worrying about it and just do it, because I guarantee you Nami will be okay with it once she gets through the weirdness.”
Beck didn’t know how to explain it to them. And he suspected that, at his current rate of foot-in-mouth fumbles, he might end up making things a whole lot worse instead of better.
“And remember,” Dewi warned. “No wolf stuff until you claim her. Period.”
“I remember.” He opted to walk out to the lanai and sit by the pool. Nami would hopefully be there in twenty minutes or less.
If she didn’t back out.
He hoped she wouldn’t.
Desperately hoped she wouldn’t.
Maybe they’re right and I’m wrong.
Maybe when Nami got there, he should lead her up to his bedroom, claim her, and be done with it.
And deal with the guilt for the rest of my life.
Yes, mates always seemed happy…after. But were they happy because they were happy, or were they the unreliable narrators of real life? Happy because they thought they were happy following being claimed.
The thought of grabbing Nami and taking her, making love to her, claiming her, made both his cock and his heart ache.
But doing it without her consent wasn’t something, wolf ways or not, his stomach could tolerate.
Neither could his conscience.
* * * *
Nami pulled up to the gate, rolled down her window, and stared at the lit keypad on the stalk sticking out of the concrete post in front of the gate.
Stared at it a whole minute, at least, before she finally made herself reach out and punch in the gate code.
The keypad made a long beep at her before the gate started to roll open sideways.
She nearly goofed up, finally remembering she was supposed to pull through the gate and keep driving. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she spotted the gate rolling shut behind her, faintly glowing red in the wake of her taillights.
If this was a horror movie, Malyah and I’d be screaming at the heroine right about now to get her sorry ass home.
No shit.
A little relief filled her when the driveway emerged from the trees and opened into a huge area. There were a couple of cars parked outside, in front of the large garage off the end of the house, so she parked in that area, too.
Even though what she wanted to do was turn around and head home. Here was a house that, if you counted the property, likely approached the million-dollar range, or more. Depending on how large the property was, probably a lot more.
&nb
sp; And here she was, in a crappy seventeen-year-old Toyota and happy to have a three-two apartment in Carrollwood that wasn’t government-subsidized housing.
And she was in her bus driver’s uniform.
No, what she really wanted to do was bust out crying, but the last thing she wanted to do was show up at the front door in tears.
Um, yeah.
Somewhere from deep inside her she mustered the nerve to get out of her car and head to the front door. When she rang the front doorbell, she heard an almost thunderous stampede before Beck himself opened the door just a couple of seconds later, startling her.
His beaming smile was almost enough to help soothe her nerves.
Almost.
“Hey! Did you have any trouble finding it?”
“No, my phone’s GPS picked it right up.”
“Great.” He seemed to realize his manners. “Um, sorry. Come on in, please. I’m so glad to see you.”
She stepped inside and Beck closed the door behind her. If she wasn’t mistaken, those delicious aromas wafting through the house were black-eyed peas, greens, ham, and cornbread.
“That her, lad?” a man’s Scottish brogue called out.
Beck seemed entranced, smiling down at her as if he couldn’t believe she’d actually come. “Yeah, sorry,” he answered.
Then he held his hand out to her.
Nami looked around, first, taking in her surroundings. While neat and tidy, the house felt lived in. The furnishings didn’t appear to be super-expensive despite the house’s size. Two stories, but she didn’t see anything obvious to indicate serial killers or a whacked out sex cult lived there. No bodies dangling from chains or anything.
I really need to get out more if my preconceived notions are based on cheap-ass horror movie reruns.
Finally, she laid her hand in his. “People know where I am.”
“I would hope so,” he said. “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t bring someone with you. I expected you to.” He started to lead her through the house, giving her a brief tour of the downstairs as he walked. They ended up in the kitchen, which was the source of the delicious aromas making her mouth water.
Geek Chic Page 10
