Gio lifted the three pair of jeans she’d been holding and walked into the back room. Ambriel had to have heard every word she and Jason had said, but she wasn’t showing it. Gio could come to like her.
“So how’d you meet?” Ambriel asked as she perched on one of the benches in the large dressing room.
Gio looked around. There was nowhere for her to move to. To hide. She was supposed to get undressed here? In front of this woman, who had to be a perfect size 6? Really?
“We met online.” There was no way Gio was about to say anything about the mix-up with her sister.
“Wow. Bet you thought you were dreaming when he started spouting fur.” Ambriel giggled. The grown woman actually giggled.
“You could say that.” Nightmares counted as dreams.
“Um…can I get the underwear first?” she asked before she lifted the sweatshirt over her head.
“Don’t worry, honey. Nickolas ripped through so many of mine, I rarely wear them now. You get used to it.” The woman grabbed a pair of panties and a bra that looked to be about the right size, handed them to her, then stepped away and turned her back on Gio.
Gio hurriedly threw her clothes off and stepped into the underwear, then pulled her bra on and stuffed her breasts in. The underwear looked substantial but wasn’t more than just a thong with lace around the sides. It screamed
rip me off
. She wanted big granny panties. Anything to turn down the fire Jason ignited without even trying.
“These won’t even last the night,” she muttered to herself. It would be different if she were just fighting Jason. Gio bent and pulled on a pair of jeans, then quickly buttoned them up. She smoothed the material over her thighs and smiled. These were awesome jeans. They hugged her curves, and miracle of miracles, no muffin top.
She pulled on the blouse, and although it looked good, she knew it was probably going to end up in a pile next to the underwear and bra. “Do you have a shirt that’s a little bit more…sturdy?”
“Honey, he’s going to rip through whatever I give you. You should just enjoy it and wear it as long as it lasts—which might only be until you get home.” The darn woman giggled again.
“How about I take two pair of pants and just wear his sweatshirt? That way if he rips something, it’ll be his own shirt, not mine. And I will have a pair of pants to wear while I wash the others.”
“You drive a hard bargain. But if you talk Jason into bringing you by for dinner after the solstice celebration, then you have a deal.” The woman smiled.
Gio wasn’t fooled. The woman wanted to make sure Gio at least ran into Jason once after being admitted to the pack. But two pair of jeans without having to feel indebted to Jason? It would be worth it. “You’ve got a deal.”
When she came out of the room, she made sure the underwear peeked out of the jeans. She bent over to hand him the bag, letting his sweatshirt move up enough to show off that hint of thong.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her onto his lap. She fell on him, doing her best not to scream. She opened her mouth to ask him what the hell he was doing, when she heard the jingle of the bell as someone else stepped into the shop.
The woman was a brunette who looked a hell of a lot more interested in Jason and Gio than in the clothes. Gio started to get up but couldn’t; then she felt the tightening of the band of the underwear. Before she could slap his hand, the fabric snapped. It was like a gunshot. She looked up, and Ambriel was smiling. The woman at the door cut her eyes at them, then turned around and left.
“Damn it,” she told him and jumped off his lap. This time he let her up.
“That was Toni’s best friend, Becca. Someone probably told her you guys were over here, and she decided to get a look at you,” Ambriel told her as she came over and hugged Jason and Gio again. “Now, you two head on out. I’m going to take a break and see if my gossip is better than Toni’s.”
She grabbed Gio’s hand and squeezed. The woman passed her a scrap of fabric.
Please let that be another pair of underwear
. She started to open her hand, when she heard the roaring. She caught sight of Donovan parking on the sidewalk, blocking the door. He stepped inside and turned the dead bolt.
“Is your back door locked?” he asked Ambriel.
She looked from Donovan to Jason. “Yes, why?”
“We’ve got to get them out of here. Dane went ballistic when Toni got home and admitted Gio was a potential Alpha’s mate.”
“And being a potential Alpha’s mate is rare?” She couldn’t believe it was.
“Alpha’s mate is a female wolf strong enough to mate with the Alpha and keep the female half of the pack in line. Not everyone can be an Alpha’s mate.” Ambriel took a step closer to Donovan. “Do I need to call Nickolas?”
“No, you need to go see him. We have no clue who might be just standing around. The last thing we need is for one of Dane’s men to overhear.” He turned back to Jason. “Dane has stepped up his schedule. He has his men out looking for you. They tried the cabin, but you weren’t there. Now they’re searching through town.” Donovan looked up and down the street through the windows.
“We need to get you guys out of here. As soon as possible. Dane’s men have orders to snatch her at all cost. He’s going to force you into issuing the challenge,” Donovan said, zeroing in on Jason.
“He can’t do that, can he? Just kidnap me in broad daylight?” For a moment Gio couldn’t swallow.
“It is illegal, but none of the pack will stop him, because you aren’t pack. He wants to make sure you don’t become pack either. If Jason dies in the Alpha fight, he’ll sic all his men on me, and if he knows Ambriel has met you, he’ll go after her and Nickolas next.”
“Hey. Nick and I can take care of ourselves,” Ambriel told him.
“I know, but what about your children?” Donovan asked. Ambriel swayed.
“He wouldn’t,” she whispered.
Donovan raised an eyebrow. “Are you willing to chance it?”
None of them answered.
“It doesn’t matter, as long as he doesn’t know you were here with them. If you—”
“Becca was just here. She saw them and left,” Ambriel answered.
“Shit.” Donovan ran a hand over his face, then shook his head.
“Am, do you mind if I leave my chair in your dressing room?” When she nodded, Jason turned and looked at Donovan. We’ll all stay at your place. We can hole up there for the next two days.”
Everything seemed to shift into fast-forward. The second he turned the chair off, Donovan picked Jason up and carried him to the truck. It didn’t take them but a hot second to leave town. As they passed out of town, she turned to him.
“Are you going to fight to be Alpha again, or are you going to let this hurt the people who matter to you? And don’t say you’re doing this for the good of the pack. Personally, I don’t see how you could be a worse Alpha.”
He didn’t answer her. Instead he just continued to drive.
“Look, I understand about you being ashamed of me. Believe me. I know the only reason you had sex with me was because you turned me. But—”
“Have I ever said I didn’t want you?” He took his eyes off the road for an instant to look at her. “In fact, I think I have told you time and time again that I like touching you. If I didn’t want to touch you, I wouldn’t have, whether I transformed you or not.”
“Have you ever changed anyone before?”
“No. I was always careful.”
Until her.
“And if we make it through the next couple of days, I’m going to show you how much I like touching you.”
She watched his hands flex on the steering wheel. She bit her bottom lip, then asked quietly, “You really like touching me?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Toni. When she left me, she told me she couldn’t see tying herself to half a man. And after the accident, I was. Before you, I hadn’t had sex since before the accident. I couldn’t. I couldn’t get an erection no matter how much I tried.” He pulled in a breath and stretched his fingers before tightening them on the wheel.
“I lost everything in the accident. Absolutely everything. I couldn’t be Alpha anymore; I couldn’t transform. And then to find out I might never be a father. It devastated me. About three months ago I finally got feeling back in my cock. I could get hard; I could come. If nothing else, I could be a father.” His voice quavered.
Then she came along and fucked up his entire storybook world. “I’m sorry Celestine tricked you.”
“I’m not. Otherwise I wouldn’t have met you.” He licked his lips. “When we get to Donovan’s, I’m going to show you how much I want you.”
Gio hadn’t been expecting that and had no clue as to how to reply to it. Another thing she wasn’t expecting was Donovan’s house. That sucker was at least two times the size of Jason’s. “Let me guess. He wants to have two baseball teams?”
“My emergency basic wheelchair is behind the seats. Can you get it down for me?” he asked as he pulled into Donovan’s garage. Lights sprang up everywhere.
“Donovan takes security to a whole new level, doesn’t he?”
“You haven’t seen his gun collection,” he told her as he opened his door.
She moved the seat, pulled the chair out, opened it, and rolled it over to the driver’s side. Jason climbed into the chair and breathed a deep sigh.
“Go down the hallway to the last room on the left. And while you’re in there, take off any clothes you don’t want me to rip off.”
Gio opened her mouth but didn’t say anything. There was no one here, and her life might be on the line. Was she really going to fight the chance to feel special to him for one more night?
Jason watched her. Things were spiraling downhill so quickly that he didn’t have time to check the feelings he was developing for her. Every time he told her something he’d given up, she made him feel stupid for not realizing he could still have those things, still have a life. Kind of hard not to fall for someone who did nothing but uplift you.
He stopped in Donovan’s office and turned on the motion cameras and alarms, and cut the power to the garage. The only way in was straight through the front door. And five inches of reinforced steel weren’t going to give easily.
The most important thing he needed to do was show Gio he wanted more of her. That he loved touching her, pleasuring her. That although it had started as a way to ease her ache, it had turned into something neither of them could stop. But first he wheeled into Donovan’s room. It only took him five minutes to find what he was looking for.
When he opened the door to the guest room across the hall, he watched the light caress Gio’s naked flesh. She was sitting on the bed, waiting on him. His cock jumped at the sight.
“I told you that making love to you wasn’t a chore. I enjoyed it as much as you did. And before the night is over, you won’t be able to doubt it any longer.” He wheeled into the room and up next to the bed.
“Now it’s making love and not just sex?” She shifted her hips to the left and stared at him. Her breasts were almost directly lined up with his mouth.
He swallowed as his palms burned, and he remembered the feel of her flesh as he squeezed her soft skin. He opened his mouth and cleared his throat. “Lie facedown on the bed and spread your arms and legs. Wide.”
He watched her hesitate for a second, then move back on the bed. She flipped over and stretched out. Her legs were wide, but not wide enough for what he had in mind.
“Wider.”
She spread her legs until he could see the strain in her calf muscles. She jumped when he grabbed her ankle, and slipped the velvety-soft material of the restraint over her foot. It only took a few moments to hook her arms and legs up to the bedpost. He’d picked up a blindfold too, but he wanted to be sure she’d remember who’d touched her tonight. He wanted to see the passion in her eyes.
“I’m going to start at your feet and work my way up. Then I’m going to work my way back down.” He picked up one of her feet and massaged it with his thumbs. Soft moans escaped her lips as he worked his hands up her calf. When he reached her knee, he repeated the process on the other leg.
He grabbed the side of the bed and pulled himself up and over her. He positioned himself directly between her open calves. Jason leaned forward and traced a small line up her thigh with his mouth. He nipped her, he kissed her, and then he sucked on her flesh. Taking his time to drive her into a heated frenzy.