by E A Price
Jackson’s breathing was rough and shallow. He lowered his head to her ear and she shivered at his throaty drawl. “I’m gonna turn you around to face me, you better not try anything okay?”
She nodded as best she could whilst pursing her lips at his bossy tone. With breathtaking speed he spun her round and pressed her back against the door.
Carly gasped at the man before her. He was smoking hot! He had short black hair, piercing blue eyes, a strong square jaw dusted with a few days worth of stubble and high cheek bones. He towered over her, his enormous size dwarfing even her ample frame. It was both thrilling and daunting to be at the mercy of this handsome stranger. Or at least her sex and fox found it thrilling, she was still a little scared...
Jackson sighed inwardly. Fuck she was even better in the flesh. The picture had not done her justice. Her wavy red hair framed a cute heart shaped face, with an upturned nose and wide hazel eyes. Her quivering lips were naturally dark red and just begging to be kissed. His wolf howled at how lovely she was. His eyes travelled down her body taking in her abundant breasts, straining at the white shirt she wore. If they heaved anymore the shirt would pop right open...
The silence hung between them for a while as they wrestled with their attraction. Finally Carly’s sense of indignation pushed to the fore. Even if he was the handsomest man she had ever met she was still pissed.
“If you’re a burglar you’re doing a crappy job.” Her tone was crabby and impatient.
Jackson’s lips curled up. “I’m not a burglar.”
“Then get out of my apartment creep.” She gave herself a mental pat on the back for not allowing her voice to waver. She was very aware that she was at the mercy of this strange man. No, not man, predator. “You leave now I won’t call the cops.” She added hopefully.
He chuckled lowly, and god did her sex flutter at that.
His eyes flooded with amber, titillated by her feistiness. “If you call the cops foxy it won’t be me they take away. You missed your court date.”
Shit. How the hell did he know that? “Who.... who are you?” Carly stammered.
Jackson felt acute disappointment as her arousal started to dim. His beast whined at him. Well mentioning the fact that she was on trial for murder was hardly going to be an aphrodisiac was it dumbass?
A twinge of guilt shot through him. He was annoyed at causing her a little distress, although it was kind of unavoidable given that he was there to take her back to jail.
He eased himself back from her body, still holding her wrists. She opened her mouth to complain at the loss of contact but snapped it shut firmly. What the hell was wrong with her? She shouldn’t be enjoying this, no matter how sexy he was, or how inviting the scent of his arousal was...
Jackson cleared his throat. “I work for Blau’s Bail Bonds; the agency that put up your bond after you got arrested. Since you skipped court I gotta take you back to the cops.”
His heart lurched and his wolf yowled as her pretty face creased. Unused to providing comfort to women he faltered. What the fuck was he supposed to say? Don’t worry I’m sure you’ll have a new court date soon and before you know it you’ll be back on trial for murder...
He knew what he wanted to say. It went along the lines of, ‘you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever met’, ‘I want you to model your sexy underwear’, ‘you give me an erection so hard I could pound nails with it’, ‘just the thought of stripping you naked is driving me insane’... But perhaps now wasn’t the time.
Carly saw his look of uncertainty and quickly screwed up her face. She thought of the saddest thing she could, the scene in the latest King Kong film where the gorilla and the girl are playing on the ice. So lovely but so sad, always gets to her. Soon a few stray tears were escaping down her reddened cheeks.
She sniffled. “I just... I just freaked out this morning... I know what I did was wrong but... but... I’m innocent. I’m really, really scared of going to jail. I swear I’m a good person.” She pouted prettily at him and pushed her breasts against him. The benefit of being a big girl, bodacious breasts. Her fox was loving where this was going.
Jackson gulped. This wasn’t quite as easy as he expected. “Carlotta...”
“Carly.” She sniffed pathetically.
Mmmmm Carly. Our Carly. My Carly. Mine. No, stop that! “Carly, I have to take you to the cops.”
Carly looked at him petulantly. Her fox was in two minds, on the one hand she was completely with Carly on the ‘no going to jail’ thing. On the other she wanted to reach out and rub herself all over this sexy stranger and tell him he could take her anywhere he wanted, even though he was the enemy. “You don’t have to do anything.”
She wiggled her hips and he groaned, god she felt good writhing under him. But he suspected she wasn’t exactly in the mood to take things into the bedroom. The wolf was panting incessantly; he didn’t think taking her to the cops was a good idea either, taking her to his home however... that was entirely more inviting. No, he had to stay professional, focused...
“Either you willingly come with me and we have a nice little drive to the station in my truck, or I handcuff you and throw you in the trunk kicking and screaming.” Great, now the image of her in handcuffs was flitting through his mind, like he needed the extra titillation!
Carly’s bottom lip quivered theatrically. “That’s not really much of a choice.”
“I’m running out of patience foxy...” He wasn’t really, truthfully he could stay there all day with her hot body squished against him. Although if she ground herself against him for much longer there was a distinct chance he would come right there in his pants, not a great first impression...
She looked at him with enormous round eyes and damn he just wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let her go. He had overwhelming urges to protect her, to feed her, to care for her, to mate with her... Jeez he had it bad. Professional, focused remember? In spite of what the wolf wanted he had a job to do.
Jackson tried to be reasonable. “Look, I’ll make you a deal. You come with me now, and I’ll get someone at the station to pull a few strings and get you up in front of a judge before the day is over. You can get rebonded and you’ll be out before you know it.” Or at least he’d get Logan to pull a few strings. The cops didn’t really like Jackson, something about an explosive temper...
She sighed inwardly. The crying thing didn’t seem to be working very well. She hung her head in defeat. “Okay.” She said in a small voice. “I’ll go with you.”
He grinned at her and she practically melted into a puddle. Big bad wolf. They stood locked together for a few minutes before she coughed delicately. “Don’t you want to take me to the cops?”
Reluctantly he pulled away, standing a few feet from her. She lamented the loss of heat from his taut body but at least she was finally able to get a good look at him. And god he was magnificent. Rugged and broad, with layers of muscle barely contained by his tight black t-shirt, the Greek gods would have wept in jealousy at the sight of his perfect form.
She stood admiring him for a few moments. She felt how moist her panties were and instinctively clenched her thighs together. Not that it would do much good, wolves had excellent senses of smell and judging by the way his face was lighting up he knew exactly what was going on down there... So embarrassing.
Carly’s fox had a tremendous urge to just pounce on him but she held steady. If it weren’t for the potential jail time that awaited her she would gladly have followed him anywhere, as it was though... she needed to ditch him. Pronto.
“I need to use the bathroom... and get some comfortable shoes.” She tilted her head down to her feet and wiggled her bare toes. If she wasn’t mistaken he groaned.
“Okay, be quick.” Jackson grunted.
She scooped up a pair of running shoes that she had discarded next to her door. They had been left there three weeks ago when Carly had given up on her jogging craze. Every other month she tried a new diet or a new exercise regime...
they never lasted.
Her legs trembled a little so she walked slowly. She bent to pick up her purse and quick as a flash he was by her side, his hand over hers on the strap.
Jackson leaned over her and was thrilled to see the hard buds of her nipples straining at the tight white shirt. It gave him an inordinate amount of pride to see the effect he had on her. Yeah, she wanted him. The wolf was puffing out his chest and virtually chomping at the bit. Once she was rebounded maybe he should ask her out to dinner, or a movie, or just to the backseat of his truck...
His voice came out huskily. “Leave that here.”
“But my make-up is in there...” She protested.
Jackson chuckled and rubbed one of his thumbs over her cheek. “Foxy, you don’t need it, you’re gorgeous.”
Carly’s legs almost gave way as she let out a satisfied ‘ooohhhh’. Her fox was panting now, very aware that she hadn’t had sex in over two months, and conscious to the fact that god’s gift to women was sexually attracted to her. To her! Sizzling men like him didn’t give her a second thought and yet here he was almost setting her on fire with the feverish looks he was giving her.
Shit! Jackson had to reel it back in. The wolf was salivating and he wasn’t far behind. If she moaned like that again he really would drag her down to the floor and have his wicked way, to hell with the consequences!
Frankly her eyes and cheeks did look a little puffy from crying, but the idea of her putting more make-up on, making herself more attractive for other men set him on edge. She already found her heart stoppingly sexy, but he didn’t want to run the risk that others might too.
Carly nodded and let go of the strap. Not taking her eyes off him she moved toward the bathroom, his lips twitched as he forced himself not to laugh when she collided with a lamp.
Jackson tracked her every movement. She stopped and looked at him thoughtfully. “What’s your name anyway?”
“Jackson Carr.” He said gruffly.
“Jackson Carr, bounty hunter extraordinaire.” She giggled. “It’s nice to meet you, that really suits you by the way.”
As she went into the bathroom her giggles continued floating towards him. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and noticed he was clutching her red purse to himself just a little too tightly. He grunted in annoyance and flopped down onto her couch exhaling loudly. Damn this was hard work.
Carly clicked the lock on the door and pressed her ear against the hard wood listening for movement. Apart from a bit of heavy panting he was quiet. She snorted, silly dog. She was completely peeved at what he had done to her apartment. He’d practically ripped it apart! By nature she was compulsively tidy; it had taken all her willpower not to start cleaning up when he had finally released her from his warm embrace... mmmmm. Damnit, get it together girl!
She turned the faucet on and then oh so quietly she lifted the lid off the back of the toilet and pulled out a plastic bag full of twenty dollar bills. About a year ago a number of her neighbors were robbed; the thieves took loose cash and jewelry. Ever since then she had been a tad paranoid and took to hiding her cash in different places around the apartment. Thank god she had chosen the toilet this week!
Carly slipped on her shoes and pulling out the money she pushed it into the elastic of her panties. Well you can’t be too careful.
She opened her bathroom window and using the toilet for leverage she held her breath and clambered through. With a muffled oof she landed unceremoniously on her butt in her neighbor Mr De Ita’s vegetable garden, squishing several tomato plants. Not wasting a second she got to her feet and took off running, unsuccessfully trying to wipe away the tomatoes clinging to her.
Jackson sat bolt upright at the sound of a thud. He bounded to the locked bathroom door. “Carly open up now!” He yelled.
He gave her two seconds before putting his shoulder to the door, bursting through knocking it off the hinges. His eyes immediately took in the open window.
“Fuck!” He roared, his wolf bouncing around in giddy excitement. Their female was running away from them, she wanted them to chase her! Yes and when he found her he was damn well going to tie her to the bed... no, not now damnit!
Furiously Jackson tore through her apartment, knocking over furniture. He ripped the door open and made his way out the building. He stood outside, eyes wild and blood pumping erratically through his heart, he sniffed in all directions.
Catching the fragrant lavender scent his wolf howled and Jackson tore in that direction. He caught sight of her, hair disheveled and chest heaving; she was sat in a window seat on a bus. He sprinted towards her, her eyes widened as she saw him nearing. The doors to the bus whooshed shut and the vehicle started lumbering forward.
Jackson ran alongside banging on the bus, shouting for it to stop. The bus driver huffed at him and promptly flipped him the bird, speeding up. On seeing that the driver wasn’t stopping Carly visibly relaxed. She smiled out the window at him, and feeling saucy, blew him a kiss.
Dumbfounded Jackson stopped in his tracks only for a bike messenger to careen into him. As Carly was taken away from him he became tangled with a bike and the very irate rider.
The last thing Jackson saw whilst stomping on the bike and swearing at the owner was Carly, hand over her mouth and eyes bulging, laughing at him.
“Fuck!” He bellowed, feeling his claws and fangs emerge as his wolf pushed forwards in frustration.
A number of people put their heads down and crossed the street to avoid him. A young mother gave him a death glare whilst quickly, and pointlessly, putting her hands over her three year old’s ears, the kid was grinning madly at Jackson.
Jackson sneered at the people glancing in his direction and tramped back towards Carly’s apartment, this time using the front door uncaring who saw him.
How could he be so dumb? He’d caught hundreds of skips, all of them, well most of them, with a hell of a lot more criminal aptitude than her and yet he had allowed her to escape. How stupid was he? If it had been that gorilla shifter he spent three weeks chasing last month he never would have let him go to the bathroom to take a piss! Or if he had he would have insisted that the gorilla be handcuffed to Jackson at the same time. Hey, Jackson wasn’t above watching another guy go to the toilet if it stopped him from running off. Going the extra mile and not being afraid to do anything is what made him good at his job.
But he had allowed himself to be swayed by a few tears, a pretty face, a gorgeous scent, a luscious body... No, he was angry at her. Furious damnit! His beast snarled at him, and he ignored the animal.
The little vixen. When he found her he was damn well going to make sure she didn’t run away again. He gathered together a few of her possessions, including her purse and her unopened mail, before letting himself out.
He would take these things home and go through them with a fine tooth comb. In order to find her he had to learn about her. Know thine enemy... yep after that little stunt it was war.
Chapter Four
By the time Carly arrived back at the motel it was getting quite late. After getting off the bus she’d hopped on another, then another and then another. Wolves were notorious for their excellent sense of smell, so she spent the better part of the day travelling round the city, spreading her scent everywhere.
Eventually she dropped by a Stop ‘n’ Go, an enormous hypermarket that sold everything, from above ground swimming pools to socks. Everything you needed was under one roof.
She picked up a pair of pants, some t-shirts, a baseball cap, a backpack, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, soap, underwear, a pre-paid phone and most importantly some food. She was starving! As she was walking down the donut aisle it suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and then it was only granola. Which wasn’t real food anyway.
She flicked through the basic cable TV channels as she munched on one of the dozen Happy Heart donuts she had picked up. Happy Heart made the best donuts in the world, bar none. At tha
t moment she was gorging on a mandarin cheesecake donut, having already devoured the pistachio almond and root beer donuts.
Thankfully there was still no mention of her on the news. She flicked through until she found a rerun of Mike and Molly and tried to focus on that. She could still walk around Playa Lunar anonymously, nobody was looking for her. Her fox growled coyly. Apart from the very pissed off wolf bounty hunter.
Damn, that made her pause. Ugh, the thought made her stomach churn and another part of her anatomy very lively. He might be a complication. Now he had her phone so he knew the names and addresses of her friends and her family. Great, now she couldn’t even go to them for help.
She looked at the extra strength deodorant and soap she’d bought. It didn’t say it on the package but it was a well known fact that they were designed for shifters who wanted to mask their natural scent. You couldn’t just advertise that though, it would make it look like you were helping shifters break the law.
The thought of seeing him again was enticing, but despite her fox’s whining objections she didn’t think it was a good idea. As much as she would love to feel his warm body crushing her, the feel of his soft lips against hers, his big hand snaking its way through her panties to her sex already wet with desire... well crap. Her body flushed with heat. Perhaps a cold shower was in order...
Gathering up the new toiletries she practically ran to the bathroom. Throwing off her now dirty and irreparable court clothes she jumped under the spray.
She soaped up her body, gently massaging her aching muscles. Her hands lingered over her sensitive breasts, kneading them lightly. Lord how she wished it was a certain wolf doing this to her instead!
Her fingers traced down the slight swell of her stomach, down her slightly thick waist. She’d always been a bit shy about her size, but being under the enormous wolf had made her feel so dainty, and feminine. His obvious arousal had made her feel beautiful and proud of her full curves.
Her fingers travelled south as images of her sexy wolf flashed through her mind. After the last few weeks perhaps a bit of sexual release might be just what the doctor ordered...
