“Hmm.” She turned her attention to Tom and asked, “What did you think of her, Tom? Possibilities?”
He shook his head. “She’s just like Jake said. A ll business through and through. I doubt she has a seductive bone in her body.”
“Sometimes all a woman needs is the right man.” Alicia ran her hand over Jake’s thigh.
He slipped his hand beneath her blouse and stroked a bra-covered breast, enjoying the way her nipple strained against the silky fabric with his touch. If they’d had more privacy, he would have taken her cue and had his way with her. Stopping at a hotel on the way was an idea, too. But he couldn’t inconvenience everyone with his insatiable need to have her.
Tom said, “Darien told me everyone in the pack is coming to the wedding. It’ll be a feast to end all feasts.”
“Lelandi said it would be in the clearing in the woods out back,” Alicia said. “Is it big enough?”
“Yeah,” Tom said. “We have pack games and other pack gatherings there.” He turned to give Jake an annoyed look. “You realize that after this wedding is over, Lelandi’s going to be on my case even more about finding a mate, don’t you?”
Jake shook his head. “Her babies are coming soon.
She’ll be wrapped up in that. So you’re off the hook for a little while.”
Alicia was melting into Jake’s lap, and he was getting damned hard as he continued to massage one of her breasts. “Tell Peter to drive faster,” she whispered to Jake.
Tom shook his head, probably having overheard Alicia’s words spoken in private to Jake. “Hell, I’ve got to get me a mate,” Tom said.
Of all the damned things, Mario thought as he circled in his wolf form around the house that the artist lover-boy owned. Wolves lived in this area. Were they wolf-wolves or werewolves? He couldn’t tell the difference. But never having met any other werewolf types except the bastard he’d killed and the ones he’d made, although only one still lived, he hadn’t thought many more existed. They probably were regular wolves.
He sniffed the area and listened. No one was here. The place was quiet, and no one was guarding it. He figured that when Jake Silver returned with Alicia, he’d most likely have that bodyguard force with him. Mario was going to have to enlist the help of the one other man he’d turned if they had to fight a couple of wolves. Danny and a couple of others would have to be the firepower to serve as a distraction so he could grab Alicia and leave.
Things were getting too hot for Mario in Colorado. A warrant had been issued for Danny’s arrest, and he was a dead man once Mario got his hands on Alicia.
Not only was that damned police chief in Breckenridge breathing down Mario’s neck, but the Denver police somehow had linked his name to Ferdinand Massaro’s death. And the Feds were looking into Tony Thomas’s death, somehow linking him to someone named Antonio Frasero.
Mario was thinking of going someplace else.
Somewhere in Minnesota, maybe. Up nearer to the Canadian border where he could slip away if need be.
He’d heard there were real wolves in those parts. That meant he could blend in.
A ll his trouble had started with that damned Tony. If he hadn’t been looking into Mario’s business dealings, and then if Missy Greiston hadn’t gotten involved, everything would have gone along like it always had. Their deaths had gotten Missy’s daughter involved, and she had created even more trouble for Mario. One little woman.
Wolf now. He’d show Alicia what it meant to mess with him.
He turned and loped off to his car hidden in the woods.
Time to get reinforcements.
After dinner at Darien’s and a much more relaxed atmosphere, except for Lelandi bringing up the wedding plans again, Alicia had had a wonderful time with the family and already felt as though she’d known them forever. When she and Jake returned to his home, guards were again posted outside. She hated that men had to stand guard detail all night, although Jake assured her no one minded doing what they needed to when they had to keep pack members safe. Even so, she did feel much safer knowing they were there.
Jake made her sit on the couch and watch the orange flames shoot up toward the chimney as he heated cups of hot chocolate. She could envision a winter-filled landscape out the big picture windows when the first snowfall began and how beautiful the woods would be.
Just like her favorite poem by Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
“A penny for your thoughts,” Jake said, stalking back into the living room with two cups of steaming hot chocolate for them to drink.
“Did I tell you how much I love you? You’ve rescued me more times than I can count. Been my knight, my protector, never condemned me for having so many husbands when your kind never divorce.” She took a deep breath, then sipped her hot chocolate, the rich velvety flavor tantalizing her tongue and the aroma making her take another deep breath of it.
“That’s because our animal senses help us to find the right mate the first time around. And our loyalty is inborn,” he said, watching the way she curled her tongue around a dollop of whipped cream before it melted into the chocolate. He took a swig of his drink. “We don’t go through a phase where we feel we’re missing out if we don’t ditch the old way of life and try out someone new.”
She took another wondrous sip of the chocolate and whipped cream and sighed. She licked her lips, and his gaze switched to her mouth.
“We renew our love for each other in special ways to spark the old flame. It’s important to our kind to stay together throughout our lives. Although if we lose a mate, we’re free to find a new one. Some do. Some don’t. Besides, Alicia, the men you ended up with were real jerks. I already told you so,” Jake said, adamant about it.
But then he smiled at her with a speculative gleam in his eye. “I can’t believe anyone would prefer to watch ice hockey to watching you dance on ice like you do.” He shook his head and took another sip of his hot chocolate.
She studied the chocolate and a speck of whipped cream on his lips, tilted her chin up and licked both off his lips.
He set his half-finished cocoa down on the coffee table and took her free hand in his. She hastily finished her cocoa, not wanting to give up a drop, and set her mug down with his, knowing he had other business in mind, and she was all for it.
His hands combed through her thick curls as he pressed her back against the couch with his body and kissed her hungrily. But then he took a deep breath, rose from the couch, and lifted her into his arms. “Although the men are watching the house to protect you, I don’t want to distract them from their business. No drapes on the windows,” he added.
“I noticed.”
“Tom and I took the old ones down. They were worn and badly needed to be replaced. I actually had it in mind to leave the windows bare to show off the view. Living alone or with Tom, it wouldn’t have mattered. But with you, that’s another story.”
“Hmm,” she said, unbuttoning his shirt as he strode down the hall to the only furnished bedroom, carrying her tightly in his arms. “I didn’t think any of your pack members would look.”
He chuckled. “They’re only human, Alicia. And a lot wolf.”
He carried her into the bedroom, and before she even sank into her soft, comforting mattress, she thought of how wonderful it would be to make love again to Jake in her bed. Not in some unfamiliar motel room or in the forest, although anything would do, but still, she felt a certain possessiveness in knowing they weren’t in a strange bed, but hers. And he was hers. In her bed. And not just for a one-night stand.
The concept that anyone might want her forever still seemed foreign, but for this night and for as long as they would have each other, she knew her dream had come true. The home was quiet, too, unlike the noisy apartment she was used to. With her enhanced hearing, it would have been worse. But here…