by E A Price
They made their way over to fresh produce and Heather unenthusiastically prodded some tomatoes.
“I have to admit that I’m no cook. Mostly, I eat out or order in or brave a microwave meal. What about you?”
“I like cooking; I’m quite good at it,” he admitted modestly.
Heather beamed. “If you’re anything like your mother, you could change that assessment to amazing.” She cocked her head to one side. “Wow, no blush for that? You really must be amazing!” Then she laughed as his blush really did appear.
“I’d be happy to cook for you. What do you like?”
“Anything,” she nearly moaned.
He could well believe it. Watching her eat at breakfast, watching her marvelous appetite, had been incredibly and embarrassingly dick-hardening. Given the looks he was getting from all the other shifters at breakfast time, he wasn’t hiding just how much she turned him on either. Dex’s smile was so full it almost cracked his face. Thankfully, Temp couldn’t tell he was aroused – she would probably tell Heather immediately.
Jax swept through the fruit section and dumped armfuls into the cart. Heather goggled at them and pointed at one.
“What’s that?”
“Dragonfruit.”
“Huh.” She pointed to another. “This?”
“Starfruit.”
“This?”
“Pomelo – it’s a large grapefruit.”
“This?”
“Kiwi.”
“Ah, I actually knew that one, I was just getting carried away. You really like fruit, huh?”
He blushed and nodded. Heather slipped her arm in his as he pushed the cart.
“Oh my god, can we get some of these marshmallows?” She grasped a packet full of white mallows in the shape of ghosts.
Jax frowned at her. “You can get whatever you want.”
Heather virtually bounced up and down. “How about this pudding mix?” she asked grasping a box of seasonal red velvet vampire pudding.
Jax laughed softly at her enthusiasm. “Of course.”
“This is awesome. You know this reminds me of when I used to go shopping with my mom as a kid. I used to ask for tons of fun things, and she never let me get any. Well, the joke’s on her, now I’m getting all the stuff I want!” She looked around the store with a greedy, excited expression.
“You don’t go to the grocery store much, do you?”
“Eh, I got a job right out of college, and just always started eating out or ordering in because it was convenient, and also because I suck in the kitchen. Sure, in the past I grabbed some things – like ice cream, but I was always in a rush and I never really bought real groceries for myself. This is fun.”
“Your job has long hours?” he asked as he browsed kinds of pasta.
Heather tossed the Scooby Doo pasta into their cart.
“It can do, and sometimes involves a lot of travel. In college, I used to work for a website which sold both new and vintage clothing. I used to source items for them. Then after college, I got a job at Marlowe’s, and I’ve been there ever since. They’re opening another location soon. You’ve heard of Marlowe’s?”
His hand tightened around some tagliatelle. “Yeah.”
“Have you ever shopped there?”
“Once.”
Only once - the place was fancy pants with a capital fance. Everything in there was unique and perfect and way out of his price range. They sourced exclusive and unusual items and clothing from all over the world and had a huge fan base of customers.
His mom went in six years ago trying to get a gift for a fancy friend. In truth, the woman was a frenemy, and his mom wanted to impress her and stick it to her. However, his mom made a mistake in taking Dex and Jax with her, and Dex tried to juggle with some crystal goblets, and Jax tripped over an ornamental rug and careened into a display of twisted glass.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Jax,” she cooed softly and encouragingly.
He told her about his escapade there, and Heather burst into delighted laughter.
“Seriously, you did us a favor – that awful twisted glass was not selling. Another buyer found that and we could not move it. Thanks to your efforts the owner could claim insurance. Oh my goodness, look at all this Halloween candy!”
Heather squealed, making several customers look round. Strangely, Jax wasn’t embarrassed; he actually glared at them until they looked away. He was perhaps the clumsiest reindeer on the planet, and the most easily embarrassed, but he didn’t think that Heather could do anything to embarrass him. Sure she made him blush, but for entirely different reasons…
She threw several bags into the cart, and then five more for good measure. “You can never have too much Halloween candy,” she declared. “Ooh, I feel like Jack Skellington in Christmas town!”
He blinked at her politely.
“From the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas,” she explained on seeing his blank look.
He shrugged.
“Don’t worry, we’ll watch it – it’s great, and both a Halloween and a Christmas movie.”
“Oh, okay.”
Heather grinned and clutched his arm again, making his inner reindeer quiver.
“I’m having such a good time. Who knew grocery shopping was so much fun?”
He certainly hadn’t until that day.
“Sadly, I think we need to get a wriggle on. We have a meeting to get to with Carson.”
Jax snorted in displeasure, remembering the self-satisfaction on the male’s face the previous evening.
Heather bit her lip and looked up at him with an almost sweet yearning. “But we can come back if I think of anything else I want, right?”
“Of course.”
Her eyes lit up, and she grasped his shirt, levering him down for an all-too-brief kiss. Her lips danced across his.
“What was that for?” he blurted in a whisper.
She gave him a dreamy look before her expression clouded.
“We have to look like we’re, you know, dating.”
“Oh, right, yeah.”
The disappointment he had no right to feel welled, but he merely wrapped her hand around his arm and pushed their cart to the checkout.
Chapter Nineteen
“You’re a lying bitch!” snarled Carson venomously.
This was met with several hoots and growls from the various enormous reindeer shifters, all defending Heather’s honor. Even if she actually was a liar, liar with her pants on fire. Jax curled his arm a little tighter around her, and she shamelessly nestled into his beautifully big chest.
Carson’s alpha clearly wasn’t happy either, but at least he had the sense to restrain himself, and tried to restrain Carson too, though he wasn’t doing a very good job.
Branch gave the cougars a bored look. “She’s involved with a herd member, so that’s the end of your claim. The law says that unless she’s free, the claim can’t be enforced.”
“She was free when I made the claim!” spat Carson.
“Can’t you restrain him?” asked Branch to the other alpha.
The cougar alpha humphed. “Have you any proof that the relationship is real?”
Heather opened her mouth to say that she would happily prove her attraction to Jax – right here in front of everyone if they so wanted. Nothing so gross as dry humping, but she would happily kiss him. In fact, she would welcome any excuse to actually kiss him.
“She can’t prove it,” sneered Carson, looking both her and Jax up and down. “As if they go together! Look at him! What do you even see in him?”
The enormous male she was currently attached to – chest to chest – trembled angrily.
“Well, he hasn’t tried to trap me into a mating yet – always a plus!” quipped Heather. “Not to mention the size of his schl…”
“Thank you, Heather,” interrupted Branch, just as she thought she might actually be able to make Carson’s head explode.
“Perhaps the two of you should leave so we can continue negotiations,” suggested Clay, trying and failing to hide an amused smile.
“Yes, we should,” she sniffed imperiously. “I have to take him back to my apartment and marvel at just how big his…”
“We get it!” rumbled Branch in irritation.
The other male reindeers were trying to contain their snickers – not particularly successfully. The thumbs-up Jax was getting from his twin wasn’t very subtle either. Though a peek up at Jax did prove surprising. There was no blush adorning his handsome, granite face. Nope, he looked perfectly sanguine about the whole affair. Though, perhaps he was a little angry with Carson – that she was fine with.
She knew it was childish to comment on Jax’s man parts, but in her defense, Carson was behaving like a total dick. Jax however, didn’t seem to mind in the least, and she actually warmed to him a little more.
She caught his eye and he nodded shortly, before leading her out of the room.
“You will be my mate,” growled Carson as they retreated. “You will be mine!”
Carson was quickly moving from annoying ex-boyfriend to mustache-twirling villain. Heather wished he would, frankly, just bugger off. But as Jax squeezed her hand reassuringly, she couldn’t deny there were perks to her predicament.
*
The moment they were outside the office, Heather grasped his shirt – she couldn’t reach any higher because she was so tiny – and pulled him down for a kiss. He let her. Well, he wasn’t about to say no to a kiss, was he? He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, but there was no way he wasn’t going to take full advantage of his situation!
Gently pulling away she smiled at him, and her eyes flickered. “Just making it look good,” she murmured.
Jax could have pointed out that there were no cougars in the hallway, and he doubted very much that they could see through doors, but he didn’t say a word. Again, he wasn’t that foolish.
He straightened and failed to completely hide the grin on his face, though she didn’t seem to mind in the least.
“Jax,” called a friendly, familiar voice.
He looked up and didn’t lose his grin as Ariel approached. Heather seemed to squeeze even closer to him.
“Hi Heather, hey Jax,” trilled Ariel in her usual bouncy way.
Jax nodded in reply while Heather muttered a hello – not at all in her usual friendly way.
Ariel put her hand on his arm. “Thank you for the book recommendation, I love it, and am already listening to the second of the series.”
“Yeah, it’s a good series,” he agreed.
Ariel was maybe one of the few women in the world he didn’t get tongue-tied around. They grew up together, and she was a like a sister to a lot of the herd members. Though, he was a little surprised that Heather appeared to be stiffening in his grasp.
“You know I’m trying to organize a camping trip with my youth group and I’m looking for protectors to go with us, maybe you…”
“I do love camping,” he murmured. Especially when his brothers weren’t there to put various creepy-crawlies in his sleeping bag, or to put his hand in a bowl of warm water. He had never peed himself, but waking up to find his idiot brothers hovering over him, and then knocking a bowl of warm water all over himself was not fun.
Heather abruptly grasped his other arm and tugged him away. “Sorry, honey, we have to go – lots to do? Right, Jax?”
Jax frowned, trying to recall if she had mentioned anything earlier. “Ah ummm…”
Ariel seemed to smirk and waved at them. “No worries, see you guys later.”
They walked away, Heather setting a furious pace until they arrived at the elevator. She slipped her hand into his, and if she hadn’t been a five-foot-nothing human, the bruising grip might have hurt him. Heather seemed to be in a snit, but he didn’t know why. Maybe she didn’t like Ariel, though why he didn’t know – Ariel was sweet to everyone. Maybe she was annoyed at being seen with Jax – but then why hold his hand?
They passed various herd mates on their journey, and he could see them – especially the females, wondering at what she was doing with him – she could clearly do so much better. Yet, she didn’t shy away from him, didn’t pretend they weren’t together.
He stiffened as Chloe and Zoe stepped out of the elevator. They saw it was him, and they paused for a moment, trying to work out which brother he was. The fact that they started snickering – rather than hooting in anger - told him they had figured it out.
“No need for alarm. it’s just the dumb brother,” whispered Chloe derisively.
“What was that?” snapped Heather. One moment she was a tiny, beautiful doll of a human. The next she looked like she was going to rip someone’s head off – Chloe’s most likely.
“Nothing,” sniggered Zoe.
Heather’s nostrils flared, and she huffed. “Yeah, well just watch your mouths in future.
The two females stared at her in disbelief.
“Yeah, sure,” hissed Chloe.
“I mean it. I brave the designer sample sales at Christian Solange every year and last year I dished out two black eyes, three chipped teeth, and four bloody noses, but I managed to get a pair of black pumps in my size with a ninety percent discount. Seriously, ladies, do not push me!”
Jax creased his brow. He had absolutely no idea what anything she just said meant, but Chloe and Zoe seemed to have gotten the gist. Rather than sneer they nodded and slipped past them without even trying to elbow either of them.
Heather cleared her throat and punched the button for the lobby.
“Who’s Christian Solange?” he asked eventually, after mulling over her words for a few moments.
“A designer of clothes and shoes - very exclusive and very expensive and oh so gorgeous. He has sample sale every year, and they’re like a free-for-all. Last year a woman broke an arm – she got into a fight with another customer over a leopard print handbag and… well, it did not end well.”
“Oh.” That didn’t really make it easier for him to understand.
Heather cocked him a wry look. “My point is, that I can be very vicious when it comes to things important to me.”
Jax would replay those words for the rest of the day.
Chapter Twenty
Heather ended the call, her eyes finding their way back to the door. Behind that door, down a hallway, through her living room and through another door… was Jax. He was in her kitchen, cooking her dinner while she ostensibly worked.
She should have been working – should have been sourcing those new marble cutting boards her prima donna boss wanted and yet she wasn’t. Her boss – the owner of Marlowe’s Boutiques often had dreams about products she wanted, and then it was down to Heather to find them or find someone who could make them. It was the perfect job for Heather – it was professional shopping, and there was no item in the world so obscure that she could not find it. But it became clear after half an hour of trying to find pink marble that her heart wasn’t in it.
So, she called her boss and demanded a few days paid leave. Her boss wailed and threatened and tried to get her to change her mind, but Heather was firm. She hadn’t had a vacation or a sick day in years, and it was about time she had a little time to herself. It was to deal with her little cougar problem, and also so she didn’t miss anything interesting with Jax.
Heather bit her lip. She was attracted to him, of that there was no doubt. Usually, she wouldn’t hesitate. No, usually, by now they would definitely have been at the making out stage of their relationship, moving towards sex, but she wasn’t sure about Jax. Oh, she could tell from the heat of his kiss that he wanted her in the same way she wanted him, but he was just… different from other men. She felt different toward him. She didn’t want to rush and scare him away or ruin it.
She pursed her lips thinking of all the female herd mates who had been looking at him earlier. They had openly stared at the two of them. No wonder because he was definitely the hott
est guy she had ever seen – obviously those women agreed too. But he was temporarily Heather’s… sort of. Back off reindeer bitches!
She hadn’t liked their stares one bit. Hadn’t liked the way Ariel had touched him, had flirted with him! She definitely hadn’t liked the way those total cow bags in the elevator had been so bitchy to him. Humph.
She wondered what he was doing right now. She wanted to be out there watching him in person, getting to savor every movement. Would he appreciate that, though? Her perving on him? Would he become shy if she watched him cook?
Well, she was just going to have to find a way to pull him out of his shyness – at least around her anyway.
*
Jax looked up sharply as he felt Heather’s presence. She was hovering in the doorway.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” he murmured, mildly embarrassed.
She seemed almost uncertain, but after a few seconds she made her way over to the counter and sat at one of the high chairs. She folded her arms on the counter and regarded him frankly. He switched off the radio, and he thought she flickered in disappointment. He would never be bold enough to sing along to the radio – his voice was way too wild for anything as drastic as that – but he had been murmuring along to a couple of songs he knew.
“You ummm, get your work done?” he asked.
“No, not at all,” she admitted.
“Oh.”
“I fancied a glass of wine.”
She started to move, and he motioned for her to stay seated. He retrieved the open bottle from the refrigerator and a glass and filled it for her.
“Thank you.” She took a large sip. “I called my boss and told her I’d be taking a few vacation days.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, figured I was owed some and I can’t really concentrate.”
Probably worried sick about that damn cougar determined to make her his bride. His reindeer clomped his hooves angrily.
