Wild Card (2 page)

“Jack.” He’d discarded his vest and rolled up his shirtsleeves, and the slightly rumpled look was sexier than anything she could recall seeing in recent years. “Thank you.”

She tugged off her hat and walked past him, resolute and determined. She could ignore the pull of his body calling to hers, if only she didn’t have to look into his eyes. “I’m afraid I’m having a little bit of trouble, and I didn’t --” The words hung in her burning throat like glass shards. She forced them out anyway. “I need your help.”

The sudden tension in the room was palpable. “What did they do this time?” Jack demanded, his low voice filled with enough anger to make her fight a flinch.

She steeled herself and turned to face him. “Cut the fence in the south pasture. The one Ollie Russell helped me string last week.”

Rage flooded his features for a single heartbeat before he regained his control. “Did you recognize any scent at the scene, or had too much time passed?”

“I didn’t come here to get you riled up and out for blood,” Ginny protested. “I just want it to stop.”

He crossed the space between them in two steps, stopping so close she could feel the heat from his body as he leaned down until scant inches separated them. “We’ve passed the point of pretty words and asking nicely. You came here for my help, Virginia. You may not take it back.”

“My name is Ginny.” She instantly regretted the correction. The last thing she needed was to invite more of Jack’s familiarity, especially when she’d just put herself under his protection.
And that’s the first step, isn’t it? First his protection, then his authority.
“I only want you to talk to them. I mean, it isn’t as if I’m part of your pack, not like they are. I know that. But I don’t know how else to keep things from sliding toward bloodshed.”

The anger flashed in his eyes again, and this time he didn’t pull it back. His magic, the power that gave him his strength and authority as a wolf, crackled through the air as he growled. “You think I haven’t talked to them already? You think I’ve watched them torment you and
done nothing
?”

“No. I don’t know.” She looked away, her teeth digging into her lower lip as she fought a whimper. Everything in her demanded that she placate him with a soothing apology. That she offer him her submission. “I know I’ve flouted your authority.” She barely heard her own voice over the blood rushing in her ears. “I wouldn’t blame you if you’d left it alone. I wouldn’t blame you if you chose to do so
now
.”

Strong fingers slid along her jaw and forced her to look at him. “Every wolf in my territory is my responsibility. I warned Dawson and the others that there would be repercussions for bothering you again. Which means they intend to make sure you’re not around to lodge a complaint.”

Ginny fought not to drop her head back and offer him her throat. She barely succeeded. “I suppose they don’t care that I didn’t do anything to them. I’m a woman alone. An oddity.”

“An oddity,” he agreed quietly. “You and Charlotte certainly make my life interesting, don’t you?”

“If you told Lottie to do something, she would. She’s not interested in reminding you that you don’t own her.” She lifted her chin even more and watched his eyes. “I am, though. All I want is to be left alone. I like it that way, Jack.”

His hand dropped away. “You’re nearly out of options, Ginny. You came to me, and that makes you mine. Mine to protect, anyway.” He smiled, small and bitter, before turning his back on her abruptly and striding to the table. “Don’t worry yourself too much. When you’re safe, I’ll leave you alone, if that’s what you want.”

“Will you?” He couldn’t mean it, not with the way he’d been watching her for months.

Jack picked up a heavy leather gun belt and buckled it around his waist. “If that’s what you want.”

Of course it is.
She opened her mouth to tell him so, but what came out was, “You’re not riding out to Dawson’s spread now, are you? Alone?”

“No.” He tightened the belt and reached for his coat. “I’m going home with you.”

She stared at the back of his head in disbelief. “I’m sorry,
what
?”

“I’m going home with you. You’ll need help rounding up your stock, and you’re not going to be out there alone until I’ve dealt with them. So you stay here, or I go there. Your choice.”

He’d be in her home. It was the one place she knew she could escape from everything, everyone, and Jack would be there. “But --” She looked at the tense set of his shoulders and swallowed the rest of her protest. “I don’t have a spare bedroom. You’ll have to bunk down in the parlor.” She couldn’t help the challenge that crept into her voice.

He just sounded amused when he answered. “Bunked down in worse places.”

Ginny wanted him in her bed. The knowledge should have shocked her, but it had been a long time since she’d slept any way but alone.
Hard up and horny,
she thought dourly.
Might fuck anything with two legs and a pulse at this point. Doesn’t mean anything.
“Let’s go.”

Jack pulled his horse to a stop at the fence that surrounded Ginny’s property and closed his eyes, letting the scents and sounds of the night come to him. The moon hung low in the sky tonight, nearly full, and the call of it tickled at the edges of his senses as he reached out with his power.

He sensed Ginny first, a strong, vibrant presence just behind him, and the wolf inside him paused. The wolf
always
perked up when Ginny was around, always rode him hard and demanded he lay claim to her. He was alpha, the
leader
, and it was fitting that such a female should belong to him and no other.

Maybe if it had happened to him before, Jack would know how to quiet the animal. But single women were a scarce commodity these days, and available female wolves even more so. Of the dozen or so in his pack, only two had the sort of strength that tempted his wolf. Neither had interested the man.

Ginny interested every damn part of him. The man, the wolf…
My cock.
The scent of her was enough to make him uncomfortably hard, but the feeling of her power brushing against his, so close he could reach out and
touch
her…

No.
He’d been patient thus far. Ginny was a wild creature. If he spooked her, she’d run so far and fast he’d never catch her. And now that she’d finally come to him, he could hardly afford to frighten her away for lack of a little care.

Even if it meant sleeping on her couch and wishing himself dead.

She pulled her mount alongside his and sighed. “I only got them all back last time because they ranged down to the corner of Ollie’s property, where the creek cuts through. Doesn’t matter though.” She drew up the reins on her horse and led Jack through a damaged section of fence. “I think maybe you were right. I think they’re through with warnings.”

“Ollie will help you round them up in the morning,” Jack murmured, his eyes still half shut. He could sense someone in the woods, one of his wolves. One of his pack. Ignoring Ginny, he urged his horse around and faced the line of the forest that marked the end of her property. In the moonlight it would be impossible not to recognize him, but he let his energy roll out anyway, a warning to anyone in the area.
Mine.

His sensitive ears caught the faintest sound, a startled noise followed by a rustle of leaves.
That’s right. Run away.

She didn’t move, just stared down at her gloved hands. “Dawson, you figure?”

“Probably.” Jack had to struggle to regain his calm expression before turning back to her. “Whoever it is, they won’t be bothering us tonight. Tomorrow we’ll ride to Oliver’s and ask him to help you while I pay Dawson a visit.” And as long as she was with Oliver, Jack wouldn’t have to worry about her safety. If Oliver had been the least bit interested in politics, he would have been the second or third strongest wolf in the pack. Ginny’s troublemakers wouldn’t dare cause mischief in front of him.

Her eyes were inscrutable in the darkness. “Thank you.”

She rode on.

When they reached her house, Ginny turned straight for the barn. She must have known better than to suggest he go inside and wait for her to stable the horses, so they did it together. They worked side-by-side, in silence, bedding the horses for the night. The tension arcing off her was palpable, recognizable.

She wanted him.

“I have a blueberry pie,” she told him when they finished, her gloves and hat clutched in one hand. “Don’t worry, though. I didn’t make it. Lottie did.”

Jack smiled and followed her from the barn. “As long as it wasn’t Hazel. Lottie may have given that girl a passing acquaintance with manners, but she doesn’t seem too fond of baking.”

“She makes a good rum cake.”

“She
is
fond of the booze.” He glanced up at the stars and fought the urge to ask Ginny’s advice on dealing with Hazel and the trouble that surrounded her in the pack. That her answer would be succinct and to the point just made it harder. He
wanted
to ask Ginny’s advice. He wanted to talk to her about pack problems, to seek her counsel and ask for her help. He wanted her as a partner almost more than he wanted her as a lover, though her proximity was sheer torture on his self-control.

Of course, judging by the strength of the arousal drifting off her, he’d have no problem getting an invitation to her bed. And if that was all he wanted…

But it wasn’t. And something told him Ginny would welcome him as a lover long before she considered him for a mate.

Jack opened the door for her and let his gaze drift over the curves of her body as she preceded him into the house. Maybe sex wasn’t the most important thing he wanted from her, but he’d be a liar and a fool to pretend that wasn’t part of it.
So make the sex part of the hunt.

He rather liked the irony of using sex to seduce her into considering love.

She paused at a table by the door and lit a lamp. “Do you want any of the pie, or some coffee? Tea?” Her voice dropped an octave. “I have a bottle of whiskey. Not the finest, but smooth enough.”

If he went to her bed, he wanted them
both
sober. “Coffee would be nice.”

A flash of irritation quirked her brow, and he knew he’d been right. She’d have drank just enough for the alcohol to shoulder the blame when she woke beside him, naked. “It’ll take a few minutes,” she murmured as she moved past him toward the kitchen.

He reached out and caught her arm, curling his fingers tight enough to hold but not trap her.
 
She tensed under his touch, and he rubbed his thumb along her skin in a soothing gesture without thinking about it. “I wouldn’t want to put you out, Virginia. If you’d rather go to sleep, I can see to my own coffee.”

“I can do it.” She didn’t move for a moment. “I want to, Jack.” It sounded like a confession, and she pulled out of his grasp and walked into the kitchen.

He heard her stirring up the coal stove and the rattle of the coffee pan. Then she took a single long breath and leaned against the open doorway. Watching him. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here tonight.”