But they obviously didn’t, and Jaemus was clearly upset that her big mouth had spilled the beans. Maybe she should go back home and forget about dinner. Maybe she’d be walking into some family drama she had no business getting in the middle of.
Maybe lasagna wasn’t in the cards tonight for her.
“But I’m so hungry,” she said aloud as Daisy whined beside her. “I know, Daisy-girl. You want to play with your wolf buddies.”
So Nika kept walking toward Silver Moon. What was the worst that could happen? Jaemus could yell at her for opening her big, fat mouth. He could tell her to go home. That she was no longer invited to dinner.
That he wouldn’t be returning as her Wolfman.
Ugh. She couldn’t let that happen. After Zavier posted the video ad on as many social media sites as possible, she’d received fourteen calls about getting advance tickets to the show for tomorrow. Fourteen! She had to do whatever it took to keep Jaemus around. She had to pull in the money to push away Robert.
As she approached the gates of Silver Moon, a few wolves loitered in front of Brandy’s cabin. Nika had always loved the wolves. She and her father would frequently visit the Wendons and play around with the residents as if they were a pack of friendly dogs. Nika hadn’t stopped by much since her father’s passing, but it felt nice to see her furry pals again.
“Hello, pups.” She unlatched the gate and Daisy bolted in, tail wagging as she got reacquainted with Lug, Midir, and Nymph. The others slowly crowded around to greet their guests too.
Nika rubbed between Albi’s ears as Dylan ran over.
“Hey, Nika!” he called. “Is that chocolate cake?” The boy’s eyes widened and he licked his lips.
“It sure is. I brought it for dessert… assuming these fierce wolves allow me to make it to the house.”
He laughed. “Yeah, right. Fierce. They’re about to roll over and expose their bellies to you.” Dylan got to his knees and let Daisy lick his cheeks. “Aw, who’s a good girl?”
Daisy’s tail reached propeller level in her excitement over the wolves and the boy. Deeming her in good hands, Nika freed herself from the circle of canines.
“I’m heading to the house. Is your mom inside?”
“Yeah, everyone’s there. Tell Mom I’ll be inside in a minute.”
Nika saluted the boy and walked toward the front door.
Where Jaemus was waiting for her.
She stopped walking to admire the view. Blond hair was hooked behind his right ear, while on the left side it hung to his chin over the scar on his cheek. That short, stubbly beard encircled his mouth, reminding Nika how it had scraped along her sensitive flesh earlier today. His long, sturdy legs were covered in black denim, and a slate gray T-shirt showcased his biceps and chest muscles. Her memory filled in the abs she knew hid behind the cotton, making her fingertips itch to touch him again.
But would he let her, or was he still mad at her and her big mouth?
He pushed off the doorjamb where he’d been leaning and stepped outside to meet her on the path. “Good evening, sprite.”
“Is it a good evening?” Her voice shook a little over how much she wanted him to scoop her up and carry her off somewhere. What the hell?
When his lips turned up in a slow smile and he reached out a hand to cup her cheek, she sighed.
“You’re here, so aye, it’s a good evening.”
“You’re not mad at me for telling Meredith about—”
He put his fingers over her mouth to stop her babbling. “No. I should have told them all anyway. My brother has always been in my business. I don’t know why I thought I could keep him in the dark.”
“Why did you want to?” If she had some family around, she was certain she’d tell them absolutely everything that happened in her life. She and Tato had never had secrets. They’d talked about everything.
Well, everything except her mother.
Jaemus shrugged his left shoulder. “I don’t know why I wanted it to be a secret. I guess I wanted to make sure I was good at being your Wolfman before I announced it to them.”
Nika nodded. That made sense. No point in blabbing and then failing. “Trust me, you are good at being my Wolfman. Exceptional.”
“And you,” he stepped back to take in her appearance, “are lovely.”
Heat flooded her cheeks and points south. Why did such a simple compliment affect her so much? Why did this man affect her?
“I brought cake.” She took a small step back and held up the box she carried.
He reclaimed that space between them, fingering the waves of chestnut hair about her face. “I had another dessert in mind.”
“Oh, well…” Nika felt as if the sun were still out and beaming on her full blast. “I brought that dessert too.”
Jaemus chuckled and regarded her with amusement in his golden brown eyes. “Shall we, sprite?” He offered her his arm and she looped her free hand around it.
As they approached the house, Dylan ran past them. “Last one in has to wash the dishes!” He giggled and zipped up the front steps.
Nika made a move to catch up to the boy, but Jaemus squeezed his arm to his side, trapping her next to him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, a playful arch to his eyebrow.
Nika motioned to Dylan whose hand was on the doorknob. “We can’t let the kid win.”
“We can. I have a vision of playing with soap bubbles with you that I can’t get out of my head.” He leaned down and nuzzled the top of her head with his nose.
He inhaled deeply and Nika hoped to Christ she smelled like the peach-scented shampoo she’d used. He must have found her scent pleasing because he moved his arm and slid his hand down to take hers.
“So I guess we’re washing dishes then?” It’d be worth it. Totally.
“And some other items.” Jaemus dropped a light kiss on the back of her hand.
“We’d better get eating then, so we can get to the washing.” She edged him toward the door. “And the soap bubbling.”
Nika led him into the cabin where Brandy immediately greeted her with a huge hug after accepting the cake and setting it on the kitchen counter.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you, Nika. It’s been too long.”
“It has.” Nika squeezed her friend then stepped back to look at her. “Have you been working out or something? You look amazing.”
Brandy hesitated for a moment then waved her hand dismissively. “Just chasing after wolves all day.”
Jaemus cleared his throat as if he were fighting off a laugh, but Brandy elbowed him in the stomach before turning her attention back to Nika.
“You’re looking fabulous yourself.”
Nika thanked her friend, knowing it wasn’t entirely true. She’d lost weight, maybe a little too much with this no-money-for-food diet she’d been on the past couple of months. Some of her clothes were too big. Her cheeks were a little more pronounced than they used to be. She felt scrawny sometimes. Maybe a huge hunk of chocolate cake tonight would help.
She said hello to Meredith who was making a salad at the kitchen counter then accepted a kiss on the cheek from Reardon. She picked up on the look… well, perhaps it was more of a glare… Jaemus gave his brother after that harmless kiss. The smirk Reardon sent back didn’t go unnoticed either.
Oh, God. Do they know Jaemus and I did it?
Nika wasn’t one to have to sex with the first available man to happen by, but Jaemus had been irresistible earlier today. And she’d been aroused beyond belief by him. She’d been powerless to stop getting her hands on him and letting him devour her in any way he’d wanted.
That didn’t mean, however, she was ready for other people to know what they’d done. Embarrassment heated her face, and she desperately tried to think of something else, anything else, besides her huffing and puffing beneath Jaemus. Trying to not think of getting freaky with Jaemus only made her think of having gotten freaky with Jaemus and how much she wanted to get frea
ky with him again.
Get a grip, sister.
She wasn’t some hormonal teenager with no self-control. She was Nika Skarvinski, owner and operator of Maple Ridge Trading Post. She was a grown woman for crying out loud.
One with needs.
Needs Jaemus could fulfill.
Completely.
Ugh. Getting a grip was harder than it should have been.
“Lasagna’s almost ready,” Meredith announced.
“Good,” Jaemus and Nika said at the same time, causing Nika to look up at him. The fire in his gorgeous eyes as he studied her said perhaps he was experiencing the same internal struggle she was. Maybe he wanted to get to the portion of the evening where it was just the two of them as badly as she did.
Not that she wanted to rush through Meredith’s lasagna dinner. Hell, no.
“What can I do to help?” Busy hands might get her mind off carnal pleasures with Jaemus.
“Jaemus,” Brandy said as she handed him a bottle of wine and a corkscrew, “why don’t you open this, pour you and Nika a glass, and enjoy the patio while we finish up in here?” She gave Nika two wineglasses and herded them both out the door.
“Did we just get excused?” she asked.
“Appears so.” Jaemus grinned. “Do you mind being stuck with me out here?”
“Not at all.” She held the glasses while Jaemus opened the wine and poured.
“What shall we drink to, sprite?” He took one of the glasses after putting the wine bottle down on a patio table.
“Our successful business partnership?” Nika held her glass up to his.
“Aye. What else?”
“Barn renovations?”
“Aye. Anything more?” He stepped closer and lowered his head to catch her lips with his. His tongue sought entrance and Nika willingly allowed passage, loving the possessive strokes and the heat of his mouth. His arm came around her waist and pressed her against his chest as he deepened the kiss, making her heart pound against her ribs. She nearly dropped her wineglass.
When he ended the kiss, he gazed into her eyes. Nika didn’t care if the moment ever ended.
“Let’s drink to more of that,” she whispered.
“Aye.” He clinked his glass to hers, took a sip as she did, then pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’m glad you’re here, sprite.”
“Even if I have a big mouth that gives away your secrets?” She still felt terrible about that.
“This mouth,” he traced her lips with a rough fingertip, “can do whatever it wants as long as it allows me to taste it.”
“Deal.”
They finished their wine and went in when Dylan told them dinner was ready. Reardon sat at one end of the table and Jaemus took up the other with the rest of them filling the chairs between. Nika sat at Jaemus’s left where she could take peeks at that scar on his cheek and imagine running her tongue along it. Now and then his knee brushed against hers under the table and it was as if he’d touched her intimately. She’d never been this keyed up in someone’s dining room.
At dessert time, Reardon served coffee and Jaemus passed out cake. Though the brothers didn’t resemble each other in coloring, they had similar builds, and both moved like lithe wild animals, muscles rippling under their flesh.
Something about Brandy was like them too. As if she had an extra dose of graceful athleticism all of a sudden.
I have to have dinner here more often if it’s going to make my body look and move like theirs.
A little regular nutrition did wonders apparently. If Jaemus kept being her Wolfman, she’d soon have enough money to eat properly again. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
“So, I cleaned my room today, I helped Jaemus clean Nika’s barn, I read thirty pages of my summer reading book instead of my new comic book, and I did the laundry,” Dylan announced after every crumb of chocolate cake had been scraped off his plate. “Does that mean you guys will take me to the midnight show of the new Captain America movie?”
“Midnight showing?” Meredith said. “That’s waaay past your bedtime, kid.”
“But it’s summer, Gram. I don’t have to get up for school tomorrow.”
“Lad’s got a point,” Reardon said, eyeing Brandy then shooting quick glances to Jaemus and Nika.
Brandy followed Reardon’s gaze, a slight grin on her lips. “Okay, Dylan. Let’s do it.”
Dylan popped out of his seat and threw his arms around Reardon’s neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Nika wouldn’t have thought anything would soften a mountain of a man like Reardon, but he put a hand on the boy’s arm and pressed his forehead to Dylan’s. “I’m not sharing my popcorn with you though.”
Dylan giggled and bounced over to Brandy to hug her. “That’s okay. Mom will.”
“Don’t bet on it, my dear.” She kissed his cheek. “Help me clean up here and we’ll go.”
“We can clean up.” Jaemus stood and took his and Nika’s cake dishes. He gestured to Dylan. “The lad challenged us earlier to a race. We lost. We’re washing the dishes.”
Nika immediately grabbed their coffee cups. “It’s the least I can do for inviting me over and sharing your lasagna with me.”
Brandy looked as if she were going to protest, but Reardon stood and grabbed her hand. “C’mon, fairy lass. We’ve been released. Let’s take advantage.”
“Oh, brother,” Dylan said with an eye roll. “That means they’re going to kiss.”
“Disgusting,” Jaemus said with a grin.
“Nasty.” Nika crinkled her nose.
“Exactly,” Dylan said. “I’ll be outside with Daisy and the wolves when you’re ready.” He said bye to Nika and ran out the front door.
“He’s too cute,” Nika said to Brandy.
“Growing up too damn fast though.”
“Maybe not. He still thinks kissing is gross.”
“Yeah, but for how long? I saw him staring at Missy Timbell while we were at Rosie’s Diner the other day. I even said the words mutant and superpowers and that didn’t break the trance.” Brandy rolled her eyes.
“Beautiful lasses are hard to ignore.” Reardon sidled up next to Brandy and pointed to the clock on the stove. “We have approximately twenty minutes to make out. Let’s not waste it.” He tugged her away from Nika while Brandy waved goodbye.
“Guess you folks have this under control,” Meredith said. “The Hallmark Channel is a-calling my name.”
“Thanks for inviting me over, Meredith,” Nika said, hugging the woman.
“You’re welcome here anytime, Nika.” Meredith stepped back and rested her hands on Nika’s shoulders. “Having you around reminds me of your father and what a sweetheart he was. God rest him.” With a pat on Nika’s cheek and a wink to Jaemus, Meredith left.
“You certainly know how to clear a room,” Jaemus said as he deposited dishes on the kitchen counter by the sink.
“Me? They left because you said we’d clean up.”
Jaemus shook his head, his hair coming loose from his right ear, making him look roguish and sexy as he stalked over to her. “They left because they knew how badly I wanted to do this.”
He cornered her against the counter, putting an arm to either side of her waist and feasting on her mouth.
Nika was full after lasagna and cake but not totally satisfied.
Yet.
Chapter Ten
In his time staying with Reardon and Brandy, dinner time had been the one shining moment in each day. The food was a far cry from what he’d been accustomed to scrounging for in Ireland as a wee lad, on the battlefields with the army, and on that blasted island where Flidae had first sent him.
Silver Moon Wolf Sanctuary food was divine. Meredith did a great deal of the cooking and everything that woman brought to the dinner table was incredible. Jaemus was convinced she could season a worn leather boot and it’d taste like a feast fit for royalty.
Her lasagna was no different, and while he savored every bite tonight, h
is focus on food wasn’t what it usually was. How could a man concentrate on filling his belly when a woman like Nika Skarvinski sat in such close proximity? The sprite’s body was on display in that black, sleeveless top and flowing skirt, and Jaemus praised the gods for giving him eyes to enjoy her beauty. The moon jewelry she’d decorated herself with added enough sparkle to mesmerize him. His fingers couldn’t stop thinking about releasing her hair from that neat knot at the base of her neck. They hummed with a need to bury themselves in the soft, chestnut tresses.
Other parts of his body wanted to bury themselves in places too. His tongue, his arousal. In her mouth, her hot, wet center. More than once tonight, Jaemus thanked the gods he was seated at a table and his lower body was covered by the length of table cloth. Otherwise, Dylan would have gotten an up close and personal education about the male sex drive.
And the scent of Nika’s attraction to him drove him wild. He’d smelled it as soon as he met her on the path by the front door when she’d arrived. It was torture knowing she wanted him that bad, but he had to wait until they didn’t have an audience.
While Jaemus dined on Nika’s mouth right now, he rejoiced that everyone had left. It was just him, Nika, and an empty house. The possibilities spun around in his head until he wanted to try every one of them.
Settle down.
He had to pace himself. He’d already engaged in relations with Nika today. How many times was she willing to allow him to ravage her in one day? How much was too much?
A small, pleading noise sifted out from her as he consumed her lips. Maybe too much wasn’t going to be a problem for them tonight.
Nika’s hands wrapped around his waist then traveled up to grip his shoulder blades. She raked her nails against his T-shirt, and he suddenly couldn’t stand that thin fabric standing between them.
Reaching back, he broke the kiss for a millisecond to rip his shirt over his head and toss it to the kitchen floor.
Nika hummed her approval and her hands were instantly on him again, her fingertips skating over his flesh in a way that made him shiver in her grasp. A sexy smirk played at the corners of her mouth as she realized what she was capable of doing to him with a simple touch.
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