by Siobhan Muir
Incredulity slid through him. Did she really just say that?
Be honest, you do want to get into her pants, his Brother quipped.
Yeah, but that’s not why I offered her the job.
Oh yeah, why then?
To keep her close and see her every day without making it obvious that I’m favoring her over the others.
“Wow, you don’t pussyfoot around, do you?”
“Never found a reason to do so.”
He laughed. “Yes, send me your resume. It’ll help me preserve my reputation as a fair and objective employer.”
She laughed again, and his heart swelled in his chest. Goddess above, I can listen to that forever! And he would, once she’d passed all the Luna tests, but damn, he didn’t want to wait. The sunlight danced over her body, highlighting the curves and hollows exposed by her clothes. The delicate shadow between her breasts called to him, urging him to press his nose to the soft flesh.
He cleared his throat. “In fact, why don’t you bring it by in about an hour and I can get you familiar with the way the place runs.”
“An hour.”
“Yeah.”
They stopped at the corner of her street, and everything inside him protested at letting her go on alone. Her scent teased his nose, taunting him to walk her all the way home, inside her door, to tuck her into bed.
“I’ll see you in an hour.” She held out her hand to him, and he grasped it, fighting the urge to drag her into his arms and kiss the hell out of her.
“And for dinner. Pick you up at seven tonight.”
“Yes, dinner, too. I look forward to it.”
“Me, too.” Man, do I look forward to it.
“Good.” She retrieved her palm as if reluctant to let go, but she smiled her brilliant smile and sauntered away, her ass twitching in those tight denim capris. His cock rose to attention in salute.
Down, boy! You have to be a gentleman tonight.
Only on the outside, his Brother remarked smugly.
Shit, he was in so much trouble. Why the hell had he offered her a job in his bar? He’d see her all the time, and he wouldn’t be able to touch her! Man, he was so fucked! Despite his penchant for blue balls, Jeff turned to walk back to the bar with an ear-to-ear grin that just wouldn’t quit.
* * * *
Julianna’s day had passed in a blur of activity, and she sifted through the memories while she stood on her front balcony with her heart in her throat. She could hear the engine of Jeff’s Camaro bringing the sexiest man she’d ever met closer to her home. Her nipples hardened with the thought of him taking her out, and she rubbed them unconsciously. She’d stopped by her mom’s house after Jeff left and told her all about the new job and the date. Beth had been thrilled for her, more about the date than the job, but she’d wished Julianna good luck. Julianna grinned for the millionth time, thinking about her visit to Jeff’s bar earlier that day.
He’d introduced her to Zach Bushman and Kyle Howler, his two best friends who worked as Jeff’s “right-hand men” at the bar and behind it. Through her new partnership with her Sister, Julianna could tell both were betas, but she sensed given their own place or a little more age and experience, they’d be alphas. Kyle helped with supplies and Zach was head bouncer and day bartender. Both of them treated her with respect and deference when Jeff introduced her as the next staff manager. She’d initially been shy, uncertain of her reception from Jeff’s oldest friends but soon realized wolves didn’t appreciate shyness. Instead, she projected confident authority as they showed her around the bar. The result was immediate respect and probationary loyalty.
Julianna met the waitstaff, a collection of betas and omegas ranging in age from twenty to “forty-five”, and mostly women. Sebrina’s remark about Jeff’s age was confirmed by Kyle’s uncle Gary, the oldest barkeep in the Den, still cracking at “eighty-eight”, who didn’t look older than forty-five.
The females had watched her without emotion or welcome, but Julianna didn’t sense outright hostility. Everyone understood she was on probation until she’d proven she could do the job. No one made any remarks suggesting the only reason she’d been offered this job was because Jeff wanted her more than the other candidates, but she saw it in the eyes of the bouncers, all betas strong and loyal to Jeff. Still, they were respectful and just willing enough to give her a chance. Julianna knew she’d have to earn her place.
I hope that doesn’t take too long. If I’m gonna be Luna, I suppose this is a good place to show my leadership skills.
About time you got around to accepting your place.
Julianna sighed and shifted her weight in her heels as she leaned against the railing. Passion and arousal zipped through her as her thoughts returned to Jeff. He is finally taking me out on a date. Sheesh, only took eighteen years! God, I’m as jittery as a teenager. She hoped she didn’t do anything really stupid tonight, like drop her drink on herself or snort when she laughed. That would ruin the image of a confident Luna candidate in a hurry.
Fidgeting with the tasseled ends of her paisley-patterned silk wrap, Julianna kept her eyes trained on the road beyond the driveway. Would Jeff like what she wore? Did she look the proper mix of demure and hot? She was certainly sweating. She’d pulled her hair up into a French twist and worn actual makeup in hopes of knocking his socks off.
If he didn’t knock hers off first.
He drove up in that sleek black Camaro and the growling engine matched the throbbing rhythm soaking her panties with liquid excitement. Her nipples hardened again, and she held her arms still to keep from rubbing them. Her heart skipped a beat as Jeff pulled up and stepped out of the car. Her heart thundered in her chest, and her breath completely stopped.
Jeff had chosen to wear a pair of long khaki shorts made by Dockers hugging his hips. An olive-green button-up short-sleeved shirt with a large leaf print on it in shades of tan and cream fell over his hips, just covering his groin. He wore no jacket, but she thought she could see one in the car. Leather sandals covered his sexy feet and she tried not to stare at his legs too long. They were muscular and tanned, the dark hair marking each dip and hollow of his masculine strength. He was built like an athlete in his prime, the muscles hard and robust. She shivered at the idea of running her hands over all that exposed skin.
“Wow,” Jeff breathed, jerking her back to the present. “You’re beautiful.”
Her laugh broke free with delighted abandon as her insides warmed to his compliment.
“Thank you. So are you.”
“Thanks.”
His eyes flared with intense interest as she descended the steps. “No one will see me tonight, though. Everyone will be looking at you. Including me.”
Julianna laughed again. He made her giddy.
Jeff strode around the front of the car and opened the passenger door for her, his assessing gaze taking in every detail of her outfit. Before she could slide into the cool, dark interior, he caught her right hand with the token dangling from it and kissed the inside of her wrist, sending a frisson of electricity zinging up her arm. She gasped involuntarily as his green-gold eyes watched her intently, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth despite his kiss.
“Is that how you greet all the candidates for Luna?” she whispered.
“No.” He flipped her hand over. “This is how I greet the others.” Then he laid another soft, sensuous kiss on the back of her hand near her knuckles.
The soft brush of the mustache of his beard against her skin, and the heat of his lips liquefied her body. She locked her knees to keep from collapsing and hoped he hadn’t kissed the others as sensually as he was kissing her. The thought made her growl, but she shifted it into a wistful moan and his lips curled into a delighted smile. She definitely wanted him to kiss her more often and in many more places than just her hands.
He closed his eyes as if tasting a special treat and inhaled deeply. Julianna shivered again, and Jeff’s musky, male scent slammed into her awareness, spiced
with a hint of arousal. She wanted to pull him into her arms and rub up against him, soaking in the heat of his body and the strength of his muscles. She held herself still only with the knowledge that she’d hurt their standing in the Pack should she give in.
“Damn, you taste and smell good, Julianna,” he murmured, pulling back from her reluctantly. “Come on, we better get in the car and go before I drag you up the stairs and into real trouble.”
She whimpered in protest as he released her but slid into the seat readily enough, trying to still her breathing. Sebrina had been right. The thoughts and feelings washing through her while Jeff held her hand were enough to overpower her civilized mind. And it was only going to get worse from here on out. How the hell were they going to be able to keep their hands off each other now that she was working for him in his bar?
Dear God, I am in so much trouble. The whole pack is gonna know I’m hot for him.
Good. That will keep those other bitches out of your way.
Julianna doubted Brenda Solaris would take any heed.
She swallowed hard and clicked her seatbelt around her with shaking hands.
Jeff paused outside his door, cracking his knuckles and inhaling slowly, then he opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. He looked at Julianna and laughed a little breathlessly before starting up the Camaro with a muted roar. She grinned at him as they left her house and headed onto the highway.
The drive to Wipple was tension-filled only because they tried so hard to keep their hands off each other. Julianna held her purse and the door handle with white knuckles as she sought to calm her arousal, but her nipples were as hard as stone, and her pussy ached with excitement. It was all she could do to breathe normally. Jeff shifted in his seat every now and again as the comfort of the leather had fled, and his jaw clenched as he stared at the road. The muscles in his arms flexed when he shifted gears, and his hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles, too, were white.
At last they arrived in Wipple and stopped at The Macaroon, an elegant restaurant with red and white awnings over the arched windows. The front doors had palm fronds etched in their frosted glass panels and brass hand pulls. There was no valet, but two men in top hats and tuxedos held the doors for them as they entered. Jeff had donned a light cream-colored sport coat and opened the car door for Julianna. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned but took her hand to pulled her gently out. Then he placed a hand on the small of her back as they walked to and through the front doors. Julianna felt his touch all the way to her soul.
The maître-d’ led them to a table on the back veranda, and Julianna closed her eyes for a moment to feel the gentle breeze brush through the loose tendrils of her hair. She took in the scents of the foods around her, the people enjoying it, and musky scent of Jeff’s arousal. Her nose had become so sensitive she could detect the emotional scents of the patrons—fear, nervousness, joy, lust, anger, and curiosity. She opened her eyes again to see if she could tell who was broadcasting what, but she was too inexperienced to determine the individual sources.
Their tense silence continued as Jeff urged her to the table behind the maître d’ and pulled out her chair. Julianna folded herself into it, glad for the support when Jeff’s hand retreated and he sat across from her, his eyes taking in her clothing and cleavage. Julianna tried to focus on the menu when it was handed to her, but her mouth watered for something entirely different than the Macaroon’s offerings.
“Hungry?” Jeff asked.
“Very.”
“Do you know what you want?”
“Yessssss,” she mused slowly, then grimaced. “Unfortunately, it’s not currently on the menu.”
“Oh?” he asked surprised and a little concerned. “What’s that?”
She looked up at him, met his green-gold gaze, and smiled slowly.
“I’m not sure what the proper term is, but I think it has something to do with cocks and kittens.”
Where the hell had that come from? She’d never been so vulgar on a date before in her life! She almost blushed and apologized, but Jeff’s eyes sparkled, and he took a deep breath, shivering a little as he exhaled in a measured way. He reached for his water and gulped down several swallows before he cleared his throat.
“That’s a very specialized dish, my dear,” he murmured, his smile predatory. “Unfortunately, it’s not available tonight, not that I’m not tempted. I think the fare here is far tamer than that. Is there anything else on the menu that looks good?”
Julianna swallowed hard and drank some water herself before her eyes dropped back down to the lists of food available. It was hard to think beyond her raging arousal and the scent of his, but she focused and decided on the top sirloin with roasted red potatoes and steamed broccoli.
The waiter returned and took their order, pausing long enough to ask them if they wanted wine as he looked Julianna over with appreciation. He was subtle about it, she had to give him that, but Jeff’s expression hardened and his body tensed. Julianna raised an eyebrow at the waiter, who smelled like moldy cheese and rancid cologne, and turned her head away from his perusal after declining the wine. Jeff didn’t growl, but his eyes followed the waiter until the young man disappeared out of sight.
“It’s good that he didn’t touch you.” Jeff bit off each word.
“Yes, it is, for all our sakes. He smells terrible.”
“What?”
“Yeah, like moldy cheese and cheap cologne.” Her nose wrinkled. “Yig!”
Jeff laughed. “‘Yig?’”
“You don’t say ‘yig’?” She gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence.
He shook his head, his lips curling into the sexy smile she loved.
“How about ‘wuff’?” Julianna waved her hand in front of her nose with a theatrical grimace. “Cologne is nasty. I didn’t even like it before…”
She almost said “before I was west of left field” but added lamely, “Before I came home.”
Jeff looked at her for a moment, a small frown creasing his brow, but their salads arrived and he was forced to divert his attention away. Julianna was grateful for a small reprieve. If she was chosen as his mate, no, when she was chosen, she’d eventually have to tell him about her inexperience as a Moon Singer, but she knew telling him before then was a bad idea.
“Are you glad to be back in Callowwood?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, I am,” she admitted. “It’s nice to see Mom again and all the familiar places in town. Not too much has changed since I left. But it’s especially nice to…to see you again. I really didn’t think you’d be interested in me after all this time. In fact, I thought you’d be married with, like, a hundred kids by now.”
Jeff smiled at her joke but only shook his head. “No, I never found anyone who seemed right. And then there was the whole issue with me being my dad’s son and all.”
“Yes, I guess that could make it pretty difficult to choose just anyone.”
“I have chosen,” he rumbled so low she doubted the other diners around her could hear him, but she felt it all the way down to her pussy. His eyes blazed at her as he took a drink from his water glass, but he said no more about it.
Julianna cleared her throat and nodded, trying to still her heartbeat, but the excitement and his scent were revving it up. She wanted to drop her fork and lunge across the table at him, snarling and wrestling to decide who’d be on top. She tightened her grip on her silverware and tried to think about cleaning a backed-up toilet or scrubbing an overly greasy pot, anything to keep her hormones under control.
“Dear God, is this going to get any easier?” she demanded under her breath.
“As I understand it, it only gets worse until we do something about it.”
Jeff’s jaw and fist clenched, though the rest of him looked calm. How the hell did he do that? She felt like she was going to leap out of her chair.
“And we can’t until I’ve passed the tests, right?”
“Rig
ht.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah.”
“So what do we do now? What do we talk about to distract us?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what did you talk to the others about when you visited them?”
He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Mostly, it was all small talk centered around their gratitude for my visit. The mothers pointed out their daughter’s most ‘attractive’ attributes while the candidates preened.” He stopped, snapping his mouth closed. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I’m just trying to find something to think about other than…well, you know.”
Jeff laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “Yeah, I know. I appreciate it, but I think we should stick to more innocuous subjects.”
Julianna raised her eyebrows. “Innocuous? Okay. What sorts of ‘innocuous’ subjects did you discuss with the others?”
“The most pressing issues facing the group today: development, expansion, membership maximums, and discipline within the ranks.” He shrugged as he picked at his salad. “It was interesting to know how they felt the group should be run and what changes they’d make, but each one put her family first. It seemed to be more of a power-play than an improvement.”
“So, how do you feel the group is running? What would you do about those major issues you mentioned?”
Jeff stared at her a moment to see if Julianna was serious, and she looked back at him with pleading eyes, hoping he’d agree to steer them away from the overwhelming lust and arousal burning through them.
After a few breaths, he caught on and nodded, then launched into his concerns about leading the pack. He never used any words revealing he was the Successor to a pack of werewolves, but she filled in the proper terms. He was amazing, and she realized she had to learn to speak the same way to keep her species safe from human hysteria.
