It wasn't that I was uncultured or anything, though I dared believe the majority of wolf shifters were. I was well traveled, well educated, but this place was a whole new dimension out of my norm, and from the looks of it, Elise Westin was completely in her element.
She walked tall and graceful, carrying herself like royalty. People stopped and smiled as she passed by. She gave off an air of authority that, if I were being honest, intimidated the bloody hell out of me.
“May I help you?” the lady behind the counter asked.
“Elise Westin, checking in.”
“Yes, Miss Westin, we've been expecting you.”
She eyeballed me beside her and I couldn't help myself. I stepped forward and wrapped my arm around Elise’s waist. I felt her body tighten, but she did not jump or pull away from my touch. I had to force my body to calm down, lest the desire I was feeling from the touch of my mate, would become embarrassingly obvious.
“The reservation was made for one. Has there been a change in plans?”
“Yes,” I said quickly, giving the lady my best smile. “I was able to fly in and surprise her for Christmas, so she didn't know I'd be coming. Right, love?”
I saw Elise's jaw drop in shock and knew the protest was about to start, but with a stroke of good fortune, the lady checking us in began to babble.
“Oh, thank God! There's a terrible storm rolling in and we are booked solid. I would have hated to turn you out.”
Well, if that was what they called the luck of the Irish, I'd take it!
“And it looks as if you have a massage booked for ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Would you like me to change that to a couple's massage?”
“You know, that would be fantastic.” I knew I was laying on the charm and I knew it was irritating my mate. I loved it. I think the hell she put me through warranted a little fun with her.
I kept my arm around her as we walked to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, she turned on me.
“What are you doing? You can't just stay with me, it's a king room. As in one bed only!”
She was cute when she was flustered.
“Relax. I can sleep on the floor,” I chuckled. “That is if you really want me to?” When she glared at me, I winked at her and enjoyed the blush it caused. Then she smirked and something told me to beware of that look.
“Patrick,” she said sweetly, “have you ever had a professional massage?”
“No, love, I haven't, but I have no doubt I'll enjoy it immensely with you there.”
Uh-oh, there went that look again.
“You do realize we'll be in the same room, but not within reach of each other, and naked, while you watch someone else rub his hands all over me.” She gave that sweet smirk again and despite knowing she was goading me, I couldn't stop the growl that erupted from me. She looked at me, like, yeah, understand what you did, stupid?
“Gonna have to control that, wolfy.”
I couldn't stop grinning at her teasing. I'd admit it, I was a complete sucker for her. I knew my mate had dark hair and blue eyes. Beyond that I had no idea what to really expect. I mean her siblings were all good looking, so I assumed she'd be too. I'd hoped at least. The fact that I had spent nearly every day with her family for three months and never even knew she existed, had me more than a little concerned, if I was being honest.
I had purposefully turned away as she was heading towards the car in front of her parents’ house. I had watched the door and waited for the full impact to hit me. And wow! What a sensation it had been. She was far more beautiful than I had ever imagined. Long, almost black silky hair hung loosely down her back. Her skin was flawless and radiant. Her long, slender neck begged to be kissed and more, and again I couldn’t think of the rest of her body without embarrassing myself.
I had been with more than my fair share of women, but not one of those experiences held a candle to how my body responded to just the vision of my beautiful mate.
“Wolfy? Come on, this is our floor.”
I was surprised to see the doors open and Elise already in the room. I had been so lost in thought, I hadn't even noticed.
“Oh, uh, yeah, look it, we're here.”
I had expected to walk into a hallway like a normal hotel, but no, the elevator delivered us directly into the largest, most magnificent room I had ever seen. There was a full kitchen in the thing—a living room, and a separate bedroom, plus an office. I eyed her suspiciously. She shrugged.
“The penthouse was booked already so I had to settle for the Junior Suite.” She sighed. “I told you it would be a little tight.”
I laughed a genuine full belly laugh. “Tight? Seriously? Princess, this place is enormous.”
She scowled at me.
“What? You were seriously worried about us sharing all this? There's an entire couch for me to sleep on.”
For a moment I thought she was going to say I didn't have to sleep on the couch, but I knew that was likely just wishful thinking. Our luggage arrived just in time to curb the awkward silence that had set in. Suddenly, Elise was flitting around, unpacking her things. I had never seen someone actually use the hangers in a hotel closet. Heck, I doubted I'd ever even moved my clothes from a suitcase to a drawer in one, but there she was hanging up dresses and jackets, and carefully placing her other clothes in drawers. By the time I walked in to use the jacks, it looked like the beauty department of a store had carefully thrown up in there. When all that remained to unpack was my one bag, she carefully removed and refolded my clothes, placed all my items in the one unused drawer, and then stowed our luggage in the top of the closet.
I couldn't help but chuckle. “Guess we're all moved in now, love. Good thing,” I said, looking out onto the balcony, “that's some fierce snow we're getting.”
She stood next to me, close enough that our arms touched, and my wolf rejoiced. Baby steps, I thought. I knew if I moved too quickly I would scare her away. She had laid her cards on the table and I had countered. I would proceed with caution and stay positive that I would be able to sway her to reconsider the line she had drawn.
I still didn't understand why she was so adamant that she wouldn't take a mate. Five days. I had five days to get to know her and find out the answer to that question and figure out a way to change her mind. It wasn't much, but it was far more than I could have hoped for. I'd try hard to make the most of it.
“It does look like it's going to be a bad storm.” I didn't know if she realized she did it, but she ran her hand up and down my arm before speaking again. “It's been a long day. I'm going to jump in the shower, then call it a night.”
She left me standing there and it took everything in my power not to follow her into the shower.
I busied myself looking around the place, trying desperately to think of anything but my mate, naked in the next room. The thing about being part wolf in that moment that fecking sucked the most, was my heightened sense of smell. Even with earbuds in and the music from my phone turned up full volume to not hear the sounds of the shower, it did nothing to distract from the smell of her flowery soaps and shampoo and the imagines it conjured up. Jesus Christ, I swore to myself. This girl is going to be the death of me.
I was hard as a rock and brooding when she finally emerged, freshly washed, wearing sweats with a towel wrapped around her head. I had changed into a pair of sleeping shorts and was sprawled out on the couch as she entered the room. I heard her gasp.
“What are you doing? Put some clothes on!” she demanded.
“I'm fully dressed and ready for bed,” I growled back at her. I couldn't exactly place why I was snapping at her. It wasn't like me, but I was so frustrated and physically uncomfortable from being around her and smelling her in the shower, that I didn't back down, nor did I bother trying to hide the evidence of the effect she had on me as I sprawled out on the couch.
She went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of orange juice, slamming everything in her path.
“You cannot sl
eep on my couch with practically no clothes on. It's not right.”
After facing her in the car and listening to her admit how she had calculatedly avoided me for all these months, it did not at all surprise me to find my mate stubborn as any redheaded, full-blooded Irish, but if she thought that would sway me in any way she was sorely mistaken, because I was a redheaded, full-blooded Irish and proud of it.
“This is how I sleep. Anything more and I get too warm. Deal with it.”
“Well, that's not going to work for me.”
“Well, what do you plan to do about it?” I challenged.
To my delight, thinking I had won, I grinned as she stomped back into the bedroom, leaving her glass of juice behind. For a moment I even considered getting up to drink it, but first I would learn the hard lesson of never underestimating my mate's sheer stubbornness.
Elise stomped back into the room in the same fashion she had left only moments earlier, carrying one of my shirts and holding it out before me. If she really thought I was just going to take it, she would do best not to underestimate me.
“Here, put it on.”
“No.”
“Put it on, or I'll make you put it on.”
My lips thinned as I tried to fight back the laugh threatening to explode from me, but before I could even respond she pounced on me like a fecking cat and I was so shocked, that bloody shirt was on me in record time. I grabbed her by the waist and she shrieked and tried to pull away.
“I warned you.” She snorted a little, clearly holding in a laugh of her own. “I have three brothers, you know. I know how to fight and I know how to get my way.”
She stood up, but I wasn't ready to let her go so I tightened my grip on her waist. I stared awkwardly into her eyes trying to just figure her out.
“Is this what you really want? Me covered up and out of sight?”
She sighed and for a second I didn't think she would really answer.
“I'm not immune to you, Patrick. There's just no reason to make this harder than it has to be, and you lying out shirtless makes it all kinds of harder.” She gave me a sad look and when she moved to leave again, I let her go.
I'm not sure what she thought she'd accomplish from such raw honesty, but all my wolf and I heard was “hope.” She found me attractive and that made me want to prance around in all my naked glory for her. She was struggling with her choices. That meant she could be swayed. Most of all, I was affecting her and seeing as she was more than affecting me, that was a bloody good sign in my book.
Elise
Chapter 9
I tossed and turned all night, torn between trying to forget the instances of the day and wanting to remember every second of it. A small, irrational part of me had hoped that Patrick would give up his search for me and just go home, while the logical part of my brain knew I would have been devastated if he had.
I had met Patrick O'Connell face-to-face. It was wonderful and terrifying. He was charming and flirty, but also serious and sometimes funny, and man—seeing him without his shirt on, I doubted that there ever existed a sexier man, and he was sleeping on the couch, respecting my boundaries. When I had attacked him physically, determined to cover him up for my own good, he hadn't tried to take advantage of the situation. For a moment I thought he might, but he hadn't.
He wasn't anything like I expected him to be, and yet he was so much more. If I could have just given into my instincts and let nature take its course, I knew in my heart he'd make me a very happy woman for the rest of my life. So fighting nature, and fighting my destiny, had just become so much more difficult.
The wind outside howled. The storm sounded brutal. When lightning streaked across my window and thunder cracked loudly overhead, I sat up and screeched. It just scared me—that’s all. My heart was pounding in my chest. I had heard of snow thunderstorms before, but until that moment I had never experienced one myself. It was terrifying.
I had left the bathroom light on and the door cracked just a little in case I needed to get up. I wasn't scared of the dark or anything, but new places always made me nervous at first. New shadows, new noises, and a big imagination weren't always a match.
When the light began to flicker off and on and then went out altogether I was working myself up to a full-blown panic attack. No, no, no, no, this can't be happening, I told myself in a whispered voice. No power in the worst storm of my life. I couldn't help but contemplate how long it would take to freeze to death. I heard movement near my door and I screamed.
“Shhh, it's just me, love. I think the electricity may have gone out.” Patrick's voice soothed and instantly calmed my fears. “Did you hear that thunder a few minutes ago?” As if on cue another round boomed and I could see the shadowed outline of Patrick jump. “Bloody hell, I've never seen anything like it.”
He went to stand by the balcony where we had stood earlier in the evening, and stared out into the darkened night's sky. The next lightning strike caused an eerie glow, magnified by the now white wonderland surrounding the resort.
“It's beautiful in a terrifying way, isn't it?”
“It is,” I admitted, feeling overwhelmed.
“Well, if you think you can sleep through this madness, I should let you.” Again he was being so considerate of me and I knew I didn't deserve any of it with what I had put him through. At the door he turned back to me and another round of lightning lit up the room just in time for me to catch a sly grin on his face. “Of course, if you find yourself getting too cold before the power comes back, just call. I can certainly help with that.”
I had a snarky comeback right on the tip of my tongue, but a clash of thunder even louder than the first two had me screaming, “Stay!”
I'm not really sure who was more shocked by the request, me or him.
“Please stay. This storm is freaking me out and I'll worry you're too cold out there on the couch.”
I saw his shadowed figure nod as he made his way over to the bed. Again, I should have been nervous. I should definitely not have felt comforted, safe, and secure. My body and my mind seemed to be at war with each other.
He slowly and cautiously slid between the covers. He was careful not to get too close, but another clap of thunder and I was jumping to close the gap between us.
“I could hear your teeth chattering from the other room. Cold or scared?”
“Both!” I admitted.
“Come here, love,” he said, reaching out and pulling me close to him. Being tucked into his side made me feel cherished and protected like I had never experienced before. “Sounds like it's coming on fast now. Likely the worst is on top of us. Shouldn't be too long before it rolls on out.”
I could hear him talking, but more than listening to his words, I just felt him. His arms were wrapped around me firmly. I was lulled to sleep quickly by the steady beating of his heart despite the storm.
I had the most delicious sleep of my life. Groggy and fighting off the need to pee so I could stay suspended in that perfect bliss of comfort just a little longer, I tried to reach for my cell phone to silence the alarm going off. I didn't quite make it before it suddenly went silent. I sighed in contended relief.
“Elise? Love? Your alarm says fifteen minutes till your massage.”
I froze, fully awake and suddenly very aware of my situation. Patrick O'Connell was in my bed. Why was Patrick in my bed? Oh yes, he followed me. Wait, this wasn't my bed, I was at the resort. I was stretched out, practically lying across him, using his chest as my own personal pillow.
I had never been in a situation like this before. It wasn't that I was a virgin. I had lost that to Bobby Mason in my senior year of high school, but I had never had an actual sleepover. It had always just been sex, and then bah-bye, maybe I'll see you later. Waking up in Patrick's arms, with my drool dribbles on his shirt and my leg hiked up over his, felt so much more intimate than any other moment I'd ever had with a guy.
“Elise?” He tried again. “Do you want to sleep and I'll canc
el our massages, or are you getting up?”
He started mumbling to himself and clearly didn't know what to do. Neither did I, which just made me giggle.
“I'm getting up,” I said, slowly unraveling myself from him and refusing to look him in the eyes. Yeah, I was back to being a chicken, but really, was there any other way to handle an awkward morning after? Even if there hadn’t really been an “after” to feel awkward about, and maybe that just made it all the more awkward?
I ran for the bathroom just as my phone started sounding off again.
“Turn it off this time. Don't hit snooze again,” I yelled.
“Okay,” he yelled back, and it just felt weirdly normal.
“Do I have time for a quick shower?” he asked as I exited the bathroom.
I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and checked. “Nope, not if you're actually getting that massage.”
He grumbled to himself again as he headed for the bathroom anyway. I heard bits and pieces enough to get the gist that there was no way I was going to be naked and alone with another person in the room without him there.
I laughed. “Suit yourself, but no growling,” I scolded, as we finally made it to the elevator.
“No promises,” he teased.
Something in the awkward moments of our “morning after” made everything feel like it had shifted. I didn't want to think about it or examine things too closely. So I was determined to just keep things light and fun, and enjoy a day of pampering.
We were amicably silent on the walk to the spa. I couldn't help but notice the tingling sensation I felt every time we brushed against each other. It was nice and nerve-wracking at the same time.
Urma and Nelson were assigned to us at the front desk, and showed us back to the couples’ massage room. They dropped off fresh, clean robes and towels, and excused themselves while we changed. When the door closed, reality opened. I was nervous for really the first time around Patrick. Even being blindsided by his presence hadn't made me nervous—quite the opposite even—but here we were expected to strip and prepare for our massages. What had he been thinking, inviting himself along for this? I understood that nudity was basically the norm amongst shifters, but no one had warned me that being naked with my one true mate would make me a nervous, jittery mess.
Fighting Destiny (Westin Pack Book 2) Page 6
