Big Bad Bite (24 page)

Jenna was mortified. Her face must have shown
it too because Amy watched her reaction with fierce curiosity.
“You’re telling me that his wolf wants me, and he’s miserable
because he doesn’t?”

Realization dawned on Amy’s face, “No, no,
that’s not what I’m saying. In Adam’s case, he does want you. I
know that for a fact. He was just trying to capture your interest
in ways you’d understand since you didn’t grow up knowing how one
of our males would proceed with a female he wanted. He didn’t want
to scare you off. Have I heard of obsession cases where the animal
wanted something or someone that the human side didn’t want? Yes.
That shit doesn’t end very pretty.”

“What do you mean?”

Heaving a sigh she continued, “If the human
side of the shifter doesn’t handle the obsession and nip it in the
bud, then the animal basically fights them for control. If the
animal wins, then you have a feral shifter running around, doing
whatever they want to get whatever they want, damn the
consequences.”

“Which would make it exceptionally scary in
someone like Adam’s case, because his wolf is so close to the
surface anyways?”

“Exactly.”

“So what’s Adam going to do?”

It seemed like the weight of the world had
settled on Amy’s shoulders, and it caused her to look somber as
hell. “I don’t know. What I do know is that he’s honorable enough
to not let his wolf force him to do anything he thinks would make
you uncomfortable, scare you away, or inadvertently hurt you. Which
scares the piss out of me, Jenna, because I’m afraid I’m going to
lose the last member of my family seeing as he’d rather die than
hurt the ones he cares about. There’s a good chance that my brother
will surrender to the wolf, rather than force you to be his mate,
so that he can survive.”

Chapter Eleven

After her talk with Amy, the severity of
Adam’s situation weighed heavily on Jenna. The logical part of her
brain told her that there was no way in hell any of this was her
fault. It’s not like she’d run up to him and said; ‘
Hi there,
you’re hot, and I want your wolf to become crazy about me so he can
slowly drive you insane until you eventually go ape shit, turn into
a raging animal, and have to eventually be killed by those closest
to you so that you don’t accidentally hurt someone or expose the
‘Other’ species
’. On the contrary, she’d done her best to get
Kent and Adam to leave her the hell alone. Still, her emotions were
in the ringer and she was just waiting for someone to hang her out
to dry on a clothes line to top off the emotional upheaval it was
putting her through.

She had no idea yet what to do or say about
Adam’s wolf’s obsession, or even what her human side thought about
possibly giving in and becoming Adam’s mate to help save his
sanity, and therefore, his life. However, her wolf’s side was
growling in pleasure at the thought of attaching them to such a
strong, Alpha wolf. She felt her beast rumbling seductively at the
idea of having such an impressive mate, and she was all but rubbing
her fur on the inside of their human skin trying to entice Jenna to
give in to her lusty animalistic desires. Her wolf kept sending
graphic images to their brain as to what Adam for a mate could get
them.

She had to admit, a naked Adam in her bed for
the rest of her days was one hell of a hot mental snapshot.

Jenna had managed one small victory in the
talk with Amy. She was able to get Amy to agree to keep their
conversation between the two of them for now. She didn’t want Adam
to know she knew what was going on, and it was for two very good
reasons. The first reason was that if she could pretend to be in
the dark about the problem, then there was less pressure on her
about making a decision on what she was going to do. The second
reason was that she wanted the opportunity to see how Adam was
going to try and coerce her into being his mate. Would he try to
bully and manhandle her into a relationship to save his own life as
her human half feared? Or would he be as honorable as his sister
claimed him to be, and try to develop something between them so
Jenna would want to tie herself to this man and his beast, leading
her and her beast to fall in love with him? She hadn’t known him
very long, but what she did know about Adam was more than enough to
peak her interests, and perhaps make him a tad bit endearing to
her.

He was protective of those that he considered
his, in ways that was sure to drive her mad, but he did it because
he wanted those he cared about to be safe from harm. He was
obviously close to his sister, and his best friend Clay, who were
good people in her eyes. In return, Amy and Clay were loyal to him
on levels that were kind of awe inspiring. She knew without a doubt
that they would follow Adam to the ends of the earth.

She’d also taken notice that the McPhee Pack
seemed well taken care of. So she could deduce that he took his
responsibilities as Alpha seriously, instead of using it as a title
to abuse and get the things that only benefited him. He was funny
and flirty towards her in a way that made her think a relationship
with him would be loads of fun. That was something that appealed
immensely to her, since she hadn’t had a chance to experience that
kind of thing yet in her life. Not to mention, the wolf was beyond
sexy, and inspired such longing in Jenna’s body that there were
times she thought she’d end up tackling him to the nearest
horizontal surface to quench her hunger for him.

It was a lot to swallow, and she had to tread
carefully into murky waters to make the best decision. It seemed
like an impossible situation, since she had to not only think about
her own future happiness, but also the ramifications of what would
happen if she turned Adam away. It would not just be the sad point
that Adam would more than likely not be able to subdue his wolf and
keep his sanity, but also the fact that if he went feral, and had
to be put down, that Amy, Clay and their pack would suffer a
tremendous blow in losing him. There was more than herself to think
about here. Only Adam could prove to her that it would be worth it
to become his mate. The quickening patter of her heart as he came
into sight when she re-entered the conference room just assured her
that there was a tremendously significant part of her that hoped he
could prove it worth it.

He was standing alone in the room, leaning
his butt against the table with legs crossed at the ankles as he
watched her progression into the room. Those warm amber eyes seemed
to see everything. Looking through her bodily shell, into the heart
of her and her wolf. The wolf liked the direct contact. The woman
was a little unnerved by the intensity in his eyes. Moving slowly,
he held his hand out to her, palm side up, inviting her to take it.
She couldn’t help but stare at that strong hand for a second.
Noting his neatly clipped nails, the strong lines of his fingers
that connected to the palm, asking her to take a chance. She
hesitantly slid her hand into his, and immediately felt comforted
from the warmth that radiated through his hand into hers.

He pulled her gently to stand in front of
him. Guiding her to straddle his crossed legs so that she now held
herself mere inches from total contact with his body. The warm
penetrating gaze of his never left her own eyes, and the closer her
body got to his, the hotter that look he gave her got. By the time
he settled her in front of him, his hands burning her with intense
heat through the clothes she wore at her hips, his strange brown
eyes were molten with lust. Her breath caught at the sight.

What would it be like to have a man that
looked at you like that for eternity? Would he always want this
badly to lay desperate eyes on her? Or would his attraction wane
one day? It was too early to tell, but she did know that part of
her would give anything to know that a man, maybe this man, could
look at her like that for the foreseeable future.

His voice came out gravelly when he said, “I
like the look of you in my clothes, my little sweet tart.”

She wrinkled her nose in playfulness. “You
didn’t like the hooker outfit they gave me to replace my own torn
clothes?”

His hands slowly trekked up her back,
erotically rubbing ever muscle on their journey until they reached
the space between her shoulder blades before making a devastatingly
similar journey south. It was the best petting session she’d ever
had. The way he sensually rubbed along her spine was like hot
liquid pouring down her frame until it pooled between her legs.

“On the contrary, those clothes you were
wearing were so hot they burnt my retinas. It was ruined for me
though when your scent came to me, and you reeked of cat.” His
hands inched a little further down so that they gripped her at the
top of her butt, then he eliminated the scant few inches between
them so they were touching from hips to chest. His erection was a
hot wedge against her lower stomach. “It might sound lame, but I
much prefer you dressed like this as a substitute to that minuscule
skirt.”

“Why?” She breathed. Her hands moving from
their place prone at her sides to inch up his flat stomach and lay
on the pecs of his chest. He groaned at the slow sensation of her
caressing his body.

“Because the look of you freshly showered and
wearing my clothes makes my imagination run wild. It makes me think
of the next time you’re dressed that way, just exactly how I could
get you there. Which would involve getting you undressed again.
Then giving you many, many reasons to make you hot and sweaty
enough to need another shower. Followed by dressing you in more of
my clean clothes. Now, can’t you see why I would like that scenario
so much more?”

She was rendered speechless. The air froze in
her lungs as her mind played horrible tricks on her. Flashing
little clips of what Adam could do to her while naked to get her
sweaty. What delicious images they were too. If he couldn’t scent
the little bit of arousal she’d felt before when he’d petted her so
seductively, then there was no way he could miss it now. There
wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the lips of her sex had flooded
with desire, and he undoubtedly smelled her reaction to his
words.

As if needing evidence to his ability to
smell her lust, his nostrils flared and he released a growl that
was low and sexy, vibrating into her body since they were touching.
His grip on the cheeks of her derriere tightened, closing her eyes,
he lowered his head so that their lips were finally touching. In
place of the consuming hard, fast kiss he’d given her at his club
days before, this one was infinitely gentle. He rubbed his lips
against hers. The soft sensitive skin tingling with each slow pass,
lingering before his tongue peeked out to skim the crease between
her lips, urging her to open up for him.

When she did, his tongue slipped between her
parted lips and the sensual invasion was almost too much for her to
bear. Her fingers fisted in his shirt, and she made her own groans
into his mouth. His tongue was swirling around hers in such
heavenly ways as he moved one of his hands up to grip her hair,
angling her head slightly backwards so that he could invade her
mouth deeper. The hand still hanging on to her backside tightened,
and then started moving her hips to rub her core against his
thighs. As if that weren’t enough sensation to kill her, he started
to suckle her tongue in his mouth. The combination of the two acts
had her core tightening and sensation building until she felt as if
she would burst into a million pieces. Just as it became too much
to bear, he disengaged his mouth and eased her backwards a few
inches.

Her vision seemed blurry, and she was
confused as to why he’d stopped. He gave a harsh groan before
dropping his forehead to her own, “Don’t look at me like that. I
had to stop before we got carried away. I can hear the others
footsteps, they’ll be hear any minute, and I didn’t think our first
time should be on a conference table with an audience.”

She nodded her head like a bobble-head in
agreeance. It didn’t seem like all of her brain cells had come back
on line yet. Hell, he’d probably just short circuited every last
one she owned.

His hands cupped her face tenderly, “I know
things have been hectic for you lately Jenna, but would you spend
some time with me later? Just you and me, getting to know one
another?”

She tried not to look flabbergasted, but was
sure she failed. “You want to go on a date?”

He huffed a laugh at her bewilderment. “Not
this second, no. Later? Definitely. We’ll do whatever you want. Go
to dinner. Go for a ride on our bikes. Anything at all.”

Having those brain cells working right about
now would have been nice. She looked into his eager eyes. How could
she tell this man no when he looked at her like she was the
sunrise, and he was tired of sitting in the dark?

Her cheeks flushed, and she nibbled her
bottom lip. Shyly averting her eyes from his, she whispered,
“Dinner sounds nice.”

He tucked a finger underneath her chin and
smiled at her pink cheeks. “I like that I can bring that color to
your face. It lets me know that I get to you as much as you get to
me.” Pressing a soft, short kiss against her lips, he pulled away
and said, “Thank you, sweetheart. Dinner it is. Till then, can you
do me a favor?”

Curious, she asked, “What?”

“No more rubbing up against or hugging other
men.”

Shocked at his request, and maybe a little
pissed at his proprietary demand, her brows furrowed as her anger
started to kick in. Who the hell did he think he was to ask that of
her? To expect her just to walk through life as his personal toy no
one else was to come near? It ruffled every independent woman
feather she had.

She opened her mouth to tell him what she
thought of his cave man routine, but he cut off her protest by
adding, “I asked. That’s more than I would do with anyone else,
Jenna.
Others
, I would tell them what to do and expect it to
be followed. Or they would face the consequences. You, I asked.
Think about what I’m asking for, it’s not a big thing. Imagine if
you smelled some other woman’s scent on me, how you would
react.”