by Bear Naked
“Great. How about you come over about eight tomorrow evening? I hope you like pasta because that is the one thing I’m not guaranteed to burn.”
“I’m good with whatever.” She could have served him a freezer burned and charred steak, and he would have eaten it all, licked the plate, and asked for another serving. His heart raced, and the feeling of endorphins bursting inside of him gave Declan this sort of euphoric feeling. It was crazy and intense, and he was looking forward to experiencing more of it. They hung up, but he didn’t start his car right away. Instead he pushed those pleasant thoughts of Melissa out of his head and told himself that thinking of her when he had to go home and find the sorry bastard that was making the drugs that were killing these kids, was not practical.
Just knowing that she had talked to Manny had all kinds of questions moving through his head, but he wasn’t about to ask her about any of them, because they weren’t his business, and as long as the asshole didn’t bother her again, Declan could let this go. This might have been the one and only time he ever said that, but after the search he had done on the meerkat the other day, and found out he was relatively harmless, he let it pass as an infatuation. The guy’s record had been squeaky clean, and he even had some community service thrown in there. He worked for a small film developing company, but he manned the phones in quality control. He was a born and bred Sweet Water resident, and had been a loner his whole life. There wasn’t anything on his family life aside from a lawyer father, a mother who stayed at home, and a brother. Dubbed a geek in high school because he was in the “smart kid” classes, Manny had apparently fallen head over heels for Melissa in the ninth grade. At thirty-seven years old Declan thought the little creep was way too fucking old to have this lifelong crush on her, and to not go out and search for a female of his own. But that shit ended the night of the dinner, and if Manny decided he still wanted to have another go at Melissa, well then Declan would be more than happy to show him how possessive a mated male really was when it concerned their female.
Chapter Seven
“Well shit.” She balanced her cell between her shoulder and ear and pulled the pot of spaghetti sauce off of the stove before she burned the rest of it.
“You okay?” Ary asked, but she was laughing at her. Melissa blew a strand of hair away from her face and breathed out.
“Yeah, but I think I overcooked the pasta, am pretty sure I scorched the bottom of the spaghetti pot, and might have burnt the garlic bread.” She pulled open the oven, and pulled out the cookie sheet that held said bread. “On second thought the bread has survived.” Ary laughed even harder, and Melissa heard Charlie’s deep voice in the background. “Do not even tell him about this disaster called dinner.” Ary brushed off whatever Charlie said, and the sound of kids screaming in the background dimmed before finally everything became quiet.
“All right, I moved away from the insanity that is my household.”
Melissa turned everything off and took a step back. “I don’t know about this. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is going to be a bad idea.” She untied her apron, the one she had just bought today because she didn’t even own one, but assumed all “chefs” needed an apron. Yeah, she was far from a chef.
“Honey, this wasn’t a bad idea, unless you’re not talking about the dinner but of inviting Declan over.” Melissa moved over to the dining room table and adjusted the place settings.
“No, I was talking about the dinner. I have never had to cook for anyone aside from myself, and even that was sometimes a chore. What can I say? I’m just not the cooking type of girl.”
“I’m sure everything will be fine. Besides, maybe your mate likes soggy noodles and sauce that taste a bit on the charred side.” Ary was laughing through her words, and Melissa couldn’t help but laugh too as she looked at the food on the stove.
“Well, if this doesn’t make him rethink being mated to me I don’t know what will.” She started laughing harder at the thought of them even consuming what she had cooked.
“Melissa, there isn’t anything that can drive a male away from his mate, believe me.”
Melissa sobered and moved over to the breakfast bar. She rested her elbows on it and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to work through her sudden nervousness.
“Yes, I know. I just don’t know why I asked him to come here, or that I said I’d cook. Even I know how bad my cooking is.” She looked at the clock and saw she had about half an hour to get ready.
“You asked him to your house because you want some alone time with him, and because what is happening between the two of you, although fast and almost insane in nature, feels so right. You just want to take it to the next level, right?” If anyone knew about mating and dealing with an alpha mate it was Ary. Well, Candace, too. Okay, any of the females that were mated probably knew all about that, but still, Ary was the first out of their group of friends that had gotten mated, and Melissa trusted what she had to say.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She traced the grain of the wood on her counter. “Is it weird that I’m actually nervous about tonight?” Melissa knew things were going fast, but she didn’t see a point in avoiding what was bound to happen. They were mates, had this incredible connection, and she wanted to explore more of it. Although sex had just been about mutual pleasure before meeting Declan, she also knew that she wasn’t some twenty-something year old that had all the time in the world. She was only three years off from being forty, and that family wasn’t going to create itself if she didn’t let go of some of her rigidness and stubborn nature, and try to accept the things she couldn’t change. Besides, being with Declan wasn’t any hardship, and in fact she hadn’t been able to think about much else since she had first seen him.
“No, it isn’t weird that you’re nervous. It’s very normal, especially when you are talking about your mate. Hell, I slept with Charlie the first night we met, got knocked up, but for all my worries and hesitation, everything worked out exactly how it was meant to.” Of course Ary was right. Her friends were level-headed and smart, and she trusted their judgment. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still nervous on how this would play out, and if she was being honest with herself, on whether she would be a good mate or not.
“Thank you. I’m glad I have all of you to talk to when I feel like ripping my hair out.”
Ary chuckled again. After they got off the phone Melissa stood there for a few minutes trying to get her thoughts under control, and her nerves a little less jumpy. But then she realized she had sauce on her hands, and her hair was probably a hot mess. Yeah, she needed to get shit done, especially if she planned on taking things to the next level with Declan, and easing this intense arousal that was claiming not only her, but she knew him as well.
****
Declan sat across the table from Melissa, and although he was hungry, it was hard to concentrate on anything other than her. She had her dark, wild hair in a loose bun atop her head, and although it had a messy look to it, it also looked stylish and showed off the slender curve of her neck. His incisors throbbed with the need to descend, to piece her flesh and truly mark her as a mate would. But he couldn’t lose control now. A few strands of curly hair escaped the bun and fell in a light waterfall along the sides of her face. His cock was hard as fuck, but then again when was it not when it concerned Melissa?
“Are you going to stare at me or eat?” She lifted just her eyes to look at him, but the smile on her face and the teasing note in her voice told him that she wasn’t offended by his blatant observation. “I know the food is bad, but…” Her smile grew, but her teasing didn’t have the effect of calming him down. Instead, hearing her soft laughter, seeing the curve of her lush lips spread across her straight white teeth, and watching her breasts rise and fall over her low cut top, sent tendrils of rapidly increasing arousal through his bloodstream. Her breasts were huge, just the way he liked them, and her cleavage was something wet dreams were made of. Shit, she was certainly a sight, and Declan knew that
jerking off was in his very near future. Her smile faded as their eyes locked, and when she swallowed it wasn’t because she was uncomfortable or felt awkward. The wave of her arousal came from him, wrapped around his entire body, and made everything inside of him become tighter, more feral, and had him barely hanging on to his control.
“The food is good.” Declan’s voice was rough, but he pushed the words past his desire for her, picked up his fork, and started eating. She had mentioned that she fucked up dinner, but it tasted like gold to him because his mate had made it for him. The idea of his female cooking this for him had pleasure slamming into him on a continuous reel, but it made it ten times more potent because of his need to be with her. Declan had never waited to have sex with a female. He always found the ones that didn’t want anything more that to be fucked, and that had always worked well for him. But with his mate he was attempting to go slow, make her feel comfortable. It seemed his bear was a greedy bastard, and wasn’t all about the courting bullshit that went along with being with a female. Well, tough shit, because he didn’t want to fuck this up, not when this was the first good thing that had ever happened to him in his very dark life. He started eating, mainly to keep his mind on something other than Melissa and how good she looked, how sweet she smelled, and how he wanted to run his tongue all along every inch of her lush, nude body. When he was done with the pasta he pushed the plate away, but looked up at her when he felt her stare.
“You manage to keep that down?” She was laughing at him. He had finished the plate in minutes flat.
“It was very good.” She leaned back in her chair and lifted a brow, as if she thought what he said was a load of shit. “I’m serious. You should give yourself more credit. Besides, you cooked this meal for me, and even if it was the worst tasting thing in the world—which it’s not—it still would have been the best meal I had.” He hadn’t meant to say all of that, but he didn’t like her disregarding the gift she had given him, no matter how small she thought it was.
“Wow.” Now it was his turn to lift a brow. “That was a pretty incredible thing you just said.” Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
“Did I just make you blush?” Of course he knew he had made her blush, could see the proof of it right in front of him, but he liked teasing her as much as she clearly liked teasing him. That pink color started to turn darker, and she glanced away.
“Well, yeah. You can’t expect to say things like that without making a female feel embarrassed.”
“And what kind of things did I say?”
She looked at him again. “You know what things. The stuff that is sweet. The stuff makes me feel shy, and being shy is not something that I do. And the kind of stuff that has any reservations that I have going away.”
“Well then I guess I’ll have to say that stuff more often, because I like that you’re shy and that your walls are coming down. But everything I say to you is the truth.”
She glanced down, but her blush was still present.
“To be honest with you I’ve never let myself get close with anyone, but it isn’t just about the mating, or maybe it is. I don’t know.” She looked at him again. “I just feel this connection with you, like I can tell you anything. Does that sound ridiculous?”
Declan swallowed hard. He shook his head in response to her question, and reached for the bottle of wine he had brought. After asking her if she wanted more, and pouring them both a glass, Declan tried to think to what to say. To be honest she made him feel like he was in knots.
“I’ve never let anyone close either.” He held the stem of his wine glass and looked at her. “In fact I’ve always preferred to keep to myself.” He didn’t know how much to tell her about himself. Would it freak her out, have her telling him she didn’t need that kind of complication in her life? Or should he just give her the bone basics of who he was? It all came down to needing her to know who he was, and that was going to require him being totally honest with her. But before he could say anything she started talking.
“I really want this to work out between us. I know I can be a pain in the ass, have a smart mouth, and tend to have a disregard for things, but all of those things have helped me in life, and made me realize what the important things are.” She looked down at her wine glass and ran the tip of her finger over the bottom part of it. “I want to be honest, start whatever this is between us on the right foot.”
Emotion clogged Declan’s throat, and he didn’t know if he was comfortable letting that type of sensation take hold of him. But it was clear that she was willing to give this a shot, and he knew being totally honest with her was the first step in making a relationship with his mate solid. He stayed silent as she clearly worked through what she was thinking about saying.
“I’m not getting any younger, and throughout my life I’ve used sex to experience life, if that makes sense.”
Declan curled his fingers into his palms as the thought of her being with other males had white hot fury moving through him. But of course he had no right to feel that way over what she had done in her past. Did that stop his rage, though? Fuck no.
“I just wanted to let you know that I’m done being stubborn. I want to see where this goes.”
For a second neither said anything, but Declan didn’t need time to think, didn’t need to process what she said. He had been invested in this mating, in Melissa, from the moment he saw her. It was unavoidable, and as much as her mouth and attitude infuriated him, he also loved that she was a little spitfire.
“Since the truth is coming out, I should probably be honest as well.” She didn’t say anything, but he sensed that she was a bit nervous over what he was going to say. She should be, though. “For the better part of my life I worked for the SIL.” Her eyes widened, and he picked up on her pulse increasing. He might have mentioned to her that he was with the shifter military, but the SIL was something completely different. Of course he wouldn’t go into detail about that organization, never could due to the classified shit that had gone down, but she was his mate and she deserved to know the kind of male that was going to claim her.
“That’s some heavy-duty stuff right there.” Her voice was soft, and he wondered if she meant to say that out loud. Declan couldn’t help but smirk at that thought.
“Yeah.” He didn’t know what to say aside from that.
“I caught the past tense there. So you aren’t with them anymore?” She brought her glass to her mouth and took quite a big swallow.
“No. Got an honorable discharge after I was injured.” She slowly nodded, but didn’t stop drinking her wine. When she had sucked the rest of the alcohol down, she set the glass back on the table and licked her lips.
“I’m sorry that you got hurt. Was it really bad?” He sensed her genuine concern, and that made his gut twist. No one had cared about what happened to him, well, not in the sense that she did. His brothers in arms obviously had his back, but being in the SIL meant you had your mission to complete. That was the main goal, the reason they risked their lives, and there were many males lost in the battlefield because they were trying to make a difference. But the way Melissa cared was on a whole different level.
“I survived, so it wasn’t that bad.” He smiled at her, hoping to ease the sudden melancholy that filled the space between them. “I’ve never wanted anything from a female more than what a few hours could provide.” The scent of her jealousy pleased him on a primal level, because it was that scent that made him aware his little wolf wanted him, and the thought of him with other females was displeasing. Well at least he wasn’t the only one. “But then I saw you, and knew I was lost.” He picked up his glass and finished off his wine before setting the empty glass back on the table. “But none of that matters now. Just like your past relationships don’t mean anything to me, all I want to do is focus on you, and what we can have from this point forward.” Maybe Declan hadn’t been completely honest when he said her past relationships didn’t matter, because they did, but he was trying
not to let them control him or his beast.
“I’d like that, too.” She offered him a smile, and Declan found himself returning the gesture. “What line of work do you do now?” Well, he had planned on being totally honest with her, and that meant admitting that he had delved into her personal life without her knowledge. “I do private work for my clients.”
“Private work? Like an investigator?” He didn’t want to scare her, but he also wanted her to know that he also had a side of him that was hard and dark.
“Somewhat. I track down people for my clients…” He gave that a moment for her to understand what he was saying. She nodded once more.
“And when you find them?” Her voice was soft, almost hesitant.
He didn’t speak for a moment, because he knew he needed to tread lightly. “Sometimes I take them back to be prosecuted the legal way, and other times I mete out the fate my client deems necessary.” She didn’t move, didn’t even blink after he said that. Declan leaned his forearms on the table and stared her right in the eyes. “I want to make sure you understand these people that I go after, these human and shifter males, are not good, not in any sense of the word. They have committed heinous crimes, hurt women, children, and others that didn’t deserve it. What I do is bring justice to the ones that need it.” He hardened his voice, because he didn’t want her seeing him as this evil male. “I never hurt people who didn’t deserve it, and that didn’t make this world a better place if they were no longer in it.” He held her stare with his own, but he didn’t scent fear and uncertainty from her, but instead understanding.