Wulf’s Den was the nightclub Beowulf owned. Both werewolves and mortals went to the club. None of the mortals realized they were rubbing elbows with werewolves, either. Leif had picked up his fair share of women there.
“No,” he said. “I’m not going to Wulf’s Den tonight. Maybe I’m just in a hurry to get home, sit in front of the TV, and call it an early night.”
Skylar burst out laughing. “Sure you are. What’s the matter? Are you in a slump when it comes to finding women to sleep with? I haven’t heard you bragging about taking a hot woman to bed for the last couple of days.”
Clenching his jaw, Leif took a few deep breaths to stop himself from snapping his teeth at Skylar. As if he would go and sleep around on Jaden now that he’d found her.
She was the only one that he wanted naked and moaning with pleasure in his bed. He wanted only her to stroke his cock, making him hard before she took him in her mouth.
Fuck. There he went again, thinking about Jaden as a mate he was going to claim. It wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t about to give up his freedom. He liked it too much.
Not bothering to explain himself to Skylar, Leif brushed past the other warrior and headed outside. Before heading to Marin County, where the Protectors’ mansion was, he’d go for a drive. He needed to get himself back under control before he went home. So far Jager had kept his mouth shut about Leif finding his mate. He didn’t need the others to figure it out as well.
Getting into his car, he drove out onto the street and decided to drive to wherever the mood struck.
Chapter Three
What a long day. Jaden walked out of the grocery store ready to go home, put her feet up and relax in front of the TV. Her shift had ended up being longer than what she’d been scheduled for. When one of the other girls had called in sick, the manager had asked her to stay for a few extra hours to help cover her shift. Not one to turn down the extra money, she’d said she would do it. Now her feet and lower back ached from standing at her cash register for so long.
Feeling tired, it was times like this that she wished she still had a car. When her old late-model Tempo had finally given up the ghost, she hadn’t been able to afford another car to replace it. Not even another clunker. Jaden was now relegated to riding the bus to and from work, along with anywhere else she couldn’t walk to.
Crossing the parking lot, heading for the bus stop not too far from the grocery store, she noticed the sporty black Cadillac parked close to the lot’s entrance. If she were rich, that was the type of car she would buy for herself—one that cost an arm and a leg and had enough power under the hood to make an adrenaline junky envious.
Wanting to get a closer look, Jaden altered her course a little so she would have to walk right by it. She’d just take a peek inside to see if it was an automatic or a manual drive. She always thought it was a shame that people who could afford sporty cars like this one ended up with an automatic transmission. Sports cars were meant to be manuals.
At the driver’s side, she stopped and looked inside. What she saw had her breath catching. The hot guy who had kissed her earlier that day sat behind the steering wheel smacking his forehead against it. Before she could think about what she was doing, she knocked on the closed window.
His straightened in his seat and turned his head to look through the window. When his gaze latched onto her, he jumped. Jaden took a step back when he opened the car door and got out. His gaze never left her, staring at her intently.
Jaden swallowed. He really was a big guy. Next to all those muscles and his much greater height, she felt really small. She had to crane her neck to look him in the face.
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I was just admiring your car, and then when I saw you smacking your forehead on the steering wheel I…”
She let her words fall away. He didn’t say anything, but continued to stare at her as he had both times she’d seen him in the store—with hunger blazing in his blue eyes. Her body of course reacted as it had before. An ache started to beat inside her pussy and wetness pooled. Every time she saw him, her libido kicked into high gear. She had to stop it or she’d end up not only being horny, but frustrated as well. He may have kissed her, but that didn’t mean he would do anything beyond that.
He still had yet to say anything, Jaden really started to feel uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and shifted her gaze to her feet. “Like I said, I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone now.” She’d begun to turn to continue on her way when his hand shot out and his fingers wrapped around her wrist.
“Wait,” he said. The husky tone of his voice sent a thrill through Jaden’s body straight to her pussy. “Don’t go. Are you just getting off work?”
She turned back around to face him. “Yes.” A shiver of awareness zipped through her when his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist.
“I guess you wouldn’t have eaten dinner yet. Would you like to go somewhere with me to eat?”
She blinked. “You want to take me out for a meal?” Jaden had to ask just to make sure she’d heard him right. He couldn’t possibly want to take her out on a date. Could he?
“Yes. We could go back to your place first so you can change.” He then stiffened and said “Shit. What the fuck am I doing?” so quietly under his breath she almost missed it.
Jaden yanked free of his grasp and slowly backed away. “Look, it’s okay. I’ll just be on my way. I don’t want to miss my bus.” She’d only taken a few steps when he captured her wrist again.
“Jaden, don’t go. I…I’m having a hard time…just forget what I said.”
“How do you know my name?” He glanced down at her chest, and Jaden followed his gaze to her name tag pinned there. “Oh,” she said with a blush. “Right.”
She looked up when he caressed a finger across her cheek. “Your cheeks turn a nice shade of pink when you blush,” he said with a smile.
Of course that made her blush even more. “Ah, thanks.”
“Since I don’t have a tag, I’ll tell you my name. I’m Leif.”
Even his name was sexy. Jaden didn’t think there wasn’t anything about Leif that didn’t scream sex. She pulled on her wrist, but he kept his fingers wrapped around it. “I really should go before I miss my bus. The next one won’t come for another half hour.”
“Forget the bus,” he said as he started to pull her toward the passenger side of his car. “I’ll drive you, then we can go out for dinner.”
Jaden yanked a few more times on her wrist, but it didn’t do any good. She found herself standing near the passenger door while Leif opened it. “It’s really not necessary.
I’m sure you’d rather be doing something else besides driving me home.” Like going out on a date with a gorgeous model who matches you in looks.
Leif’s answer was to pull her up against his wide chest and lower his mouth to hers.
He kissed her hungrily, his tongue spearing into her mouth, before he lifted his head. His voice even huskier than it had been, he said, “It really is necessary, and there is nothing I’d rather do than be with you right here, right now.”
Jaden forgot to breathe. By the time she remembered to, Leif had gotten her into the passenger seat. He put the seat belt around her and the back of his hand brushed one of her breasts as he moved to click it into place. She sucked in a breath at the contact. Her nipples tightened even more, the taut peaks brushing against her shirt.
Unable to find her voice, she silently watched Leif shut her door and walk around the front of the car. He folded his large frame into the driver’s side, and he started the car.
She closed her eyes. This had to be a dream. This couldn’t really be happening. She wasn’t sitting in a fancy sports car owned by a guy who was hotter than sin and about to let him drive her home. She counted to five and opened her eyes again. She found Leif watching her with a bemused look on his face. Oh, my god. It really was happening.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “So where to?”
* * *
He watched Jaden squirm in her seat. Watching her reactions to him seemed to attract him all the more. She was a mixture of uncertainty and shyness. So unlike the usual women he dated, she was like a breath of fresh air.
When his aimless drive had ended with him parked in the grocery store parking lot, Leif had sat there in disbelief for a few minutes. No matter how hard he tried to stay away from Jaden, he subconsciously always ended up doing the opposite. She drew him like a lode stone, and he couldn’t fight the pull.
Frustrated, he thought to knock some sense into himself by bashing his forehead on the steering wheel. At the rate he was going, he’d end up cracking the damn thing. But when someone knocked on his window and he saw it was Jaden, everything he told himself about staying away from her flew out the window. He was out of the car in no time at all and staring at her with all the pent-up longing he was trying so hard to bury.
Asking her out for dinner had slipped off his tongue before his brain could catch up with it. Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to just walk away without spending some time with Jaden, Leif had decided to roll with it. Maybe if he got to know her better, he’d be able to appease his mating urge enough to let him leave her unclaimed after the meal.
Leif smiled and heard Jaden’s breath catch. “We can sit here all night if you want, but I’d much rather take you some place nicer than the inside of my car.”
Jaden blushed again. “Oh. Sorry.” She then rattled off an address.
He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Do you like Italian? I know of a place that has the best Italian food.”
“Anything is fine. I’m easy.”
“You’re easy, huh?” he said with a grin. “I’ll have to remember that.” He was then rewarded with the pinkening of Jaden’s cheeks once more when he glanced in her direction.
“I…I didn’t mean I’m easy, easy,” she stammered. “I meant when it comes to food I’m easy. I’m not picky.”
He chuckled. “Relax, Jaden. I’m just having a bit of fun with you. I knew what you meant.”
“Oh.”
When the silence grew between them, Leif asked, “Have you been working at the grocery store for long?”
“For about a year now.”
“Do you like it?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shrug.
“It’s a job.”
“So in other words, not really.”
“It’s better than some jobs I’ve had. That’s about all I can say about it.” She then pointed toward the windshield. “There’s my place. The second driveway on the left.”
Leif pulled into the drive of small bungalow. It wasn’t much to look at, and the neighborhood was an older one. To be polite, he said, “Nice house.”
“It’s all right, I guess. It isn’t mine. I rent the basement from the older couple who own it and live upstairs.”
Jaden got out of the car before Leif could get to her side. She led him to a side door, unlocked it and stepped inside. He followed her in and down a flight of stairs and through another door to a small basement that had been converted into a bachelor-type apartment.
The tiny kitchen, living room and bedroom were all visible with no walls separating them. Being in a below ground basement, the apartment was gloomy. Leif had a feeling even if it had been the middle of the afternoon, instead of the evening, there wouldn’t have been much light streaming in from the small windows set high in the walls.
Personally, if he had to live here, he would have been claustrophobic within a week. The drop ceiling was low enough that Leif had to almost hunch his shoulders so the top of his head wouldn’t brush it.
Moving to the area that was her bedroom, Jaden pulled some clothes out of her dresser, then said, “Take a seat. I’ll just be a few minutes.” She walked over to what had to be the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
Leif went and sat down on the couch that had seen better days. A small nineteen-inch TV sat across from it on an equally small stand. The place was no prize, but Jaden kept it neat as a pin. There was no clutter, and there didn’t seem to be a speck of dust on any of the furniture. She obviously didn’t have enough money to live better than this, but Jaden appeared to be making the most of what she could afford. Seeing how his mate lived, Leif had to fight the instinct to take her away from all this and give her something better. But since he wasn’t going to claim her as his, he couldn’t do that.
Jaden came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of black jeans and a pink long sleeved t-shirt. She carried her store uniform over to her bedroom and put it on the bed before she moved over to where he sat.
“Is what I’m wearing going to be okay?” She gestured to his jeans and shirt. “Going by what you have on, I figured we wouldn’t be going anywhere fancy.”
“No, it’s casual.”
“Good. I guess we should head out then.”
Jaden headed for the door when Leif stood. Following behind her as she walked up the stairs, his gaze fell to her ass. The jeans she wore hugged her hips and backside, showing off her curved-in waist a lot better than the dress pants she’d worn for work.
Even the long sleeved t-shirt she had on molded her upper body in a flattering fit. Before she’d turned away, Leif had seen she had generous breasts, something the grocery store’s uniform did not reveal. Looking his fill of the back of her, his cock hardened painfully.
He quickly adjusted his erection before Jaden could see it.
Back in his car, he drove them to the Italian restaurant he’d told her about. The interior had dark wood paneling on the walls, red thick carpet under foot and red and white checked tablecloths. Not owned by a large restaurant chain, it was family run and only had limited seating. Luckily for them, there was a table free, and they were quickly seated.
Once they were settled with menus open in front of them, Leif said, “So, what do you do for fun when you’re not working?”
Jaden lifted her gaze from her menu and looked at him. “Not much. I mostly sit at home and watch TV or read.”
“You don’t go out with your friends?”
Her gaze fell to the menu again. “No. I don’t have what you would call close friends.
I don’t mind really. I’ve always been a bit of a loner anyway.”
When the waitress came to take their orders, Jaden ordered the manicotti and Leif asked for the spaghetti and meatballs. After she left them alone again, he said, “Nothing wrong with that, I guess.”
Jaden snorted. “As if you would know anything about being a loner.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Have you looked in the mirror lately? A guy like you is never alone. I’m sure you just have to snap your fingers and a woman falls into your arms. Which leads me to ask, why me?”
Leif latched onto the last part of what she’d said. There was no way he was going to tell Jaden she wasn’t too far off the mark with her statement about women throwing themselves at him. And if he survived this evening, there would more than likely be many more years of it.
“What do you mean by why you?” he asked.
“I’ll say it again, have you looked in a mirror lately? Why would a guy as good-looking as you—who could get any woman he wanted—want anything to do with someone as plain as me?”
The wolf inside him didn’t like how Jaden talked down about herself. Nor did the man. She may not have spectacular looks, but she wasn’t ugly. If she only knew how she affected him, she wouldn’t have asked that particular question. He still had a hard-on, and he ached to bury it deep inside her. He also wanted nothing more than to pull her to him and show her how wrong the perception she had of herself was. Someone had to have put that notion in her head. Whoever it was should count themselves lucky he didn’t know them or Leif would have gladly made them pay.
Reaching across the table, he took hold of Jaden’s hand and laced their fingers together. Touching her made the mating urge dig its claws deeper, but Leif wanted, needed, to have some ta
ctile contact with her.
When she lifted her gaze to his, he said, “When I kissed you, did it feel as if I didn’t want you? Even now, I want to come around to your side of the table, take you in my arms and kiss you until neither one of us knows our name.”
Jaden swallowed. “No, it didn’t feel as if you didn’t want me. I just don’t understand why.”
He lowered his voice so only she heard. “If we were alone right now, I’d show you how badly I want you. Let’s just say the front of my jeans is about two sizes too small.”
With his acute werewolf hearing, Leif heard her heart beat faster. The scent of her arousal perfumed the air around her. The smell of it made his cock jerk. Jaden may have a hard time understanding his interest in her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want him.
As the air became charged with longing, the waitress appeared with their food. Leif reluctantly let go of Jaden’s hand. She quickly put it on her lap under the table as her food was placed in front of her. Alone once again, she focused her gaze on her meal. Leif decided to let her have that space. He needed it to get himself back under control. Eating some of his spaghetti, he forced his body to cool. He couldn’t let things blaze out of control between them. They would have their meal, he’d drop her back home, and then he would leave. He could do it. No, he had to do it. He didn’t want the alternative if he couldn’t walk away.
Chapter Four
Jaden stole a quick glance over at Leif as he drove them back to her place. She still felt a bit nervous around him, even though their meal had gone well. She hadn’t choked on her food or dumped it on herself, which was a good thing. Most of her nervousness came from how good looking Leif was. During the meal, she’d pinched herself under the table a few times just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. And hearing Leif say he wanted her left her shaking. Stuff like this didn’t normally happen to her.
Once Leif pulled his car into the driveway of her place and shut off the engine, Jaden took off her seat belt before she turned to face him. She really didn’t want this evening to end. She thought of asking him if he wanted to come inside and watch some TV with her, but she didn’t want to appear too pushy, or desperate.
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