“Should I call or text him?” she wondered out loud as she stared at the screen of her phone.
She knew, if the roles were reversed and he was getting in touch with her, that she would prefer to get a phone call… but for that reason, she decided she would do the opposite and send him a message instead.
“Don’t want to be over the top too soon…,” she said as she opened the message app and began to type her opening bit.
J: How is a writer supposed to write without a desk? I’m starting to think you forgot about me ??
She hit send and then threw the phone across the island as if it were on fire. She closed her eyes and cringed. She had never been very good at being the one to text first, and now she was worried she would never get a reply.
Luckily, she didn’t have long to wait to be put out of her misery because, within about half a minute, her cellphone sounded with a beep.
D: Forget about you? Come on! I was actually just about to call you… your desk is ready. Are you home?
She grinned from ear to ear and hastily typed her reply.
J: I sure am, come on over x
She smiled and laid the phone down on the island, and then she found herself pacing the floors of the cabin. The whole place was spotless, and she didn’t have anything to do… all she could do was think about Dash and the fact that she was about to see him again any minute.
When he knocked at the door, her heart did a little dance in her chest, and the butterflies in her belly grew stronger and stronger.
She flicked her hair over her shoulders and walked slowly to the front door, her boots clicking against the wood floor.
She could see part of his face through the viewing window at the top of the door, and she could already see how handsome and unshaven he was from a few feet away. It looked like he hadn’t shaved that morning and it made her pussy twinge. He looked even sexier with some roughed up stubble, and she thought of what it would feel like to kiss his lips and feel his chin graze against hers.
She opened the door and he stood there looking down on her with his dark eyes. His arms were big and muscular, peeking out of his t-shirt, as his low-slung jeans gave her a glimpse of his taught abs and a small patch of dark hair running down from his navel.
It was exactly like her dream, and she gulped down her nerves.
“Hey!” He smiled with glistening eyes as he leaned forward and planted a perfect, solitary kiss on her lips.
She felt the tingling and the fire between them. Every time they connected, their bond grew stronger. Their souls were fusing together, becoming more in tune and aligned with one another, and she was excited to see how much further they could go.
“Hey!” She smiled as she looked into his eyes.
Jet was next to his feet wagging his tail, and she bent down and gave him a friendly rub on the head and behind the ears.
“He’s never far from your side, is he?” she smiled.
“He’s my best friend,” Dash said as he whistled, and Jet sat down perfectly and pricked his ears back.
Jannie could see the desk in the driveway behind Dash and she grinned when she saw how beautiful it was. It was clearly old and must have been with him for a long time. It was a dark oak, with strong sturdy legs and a stunning feel about it.
“Wow,” she whispered. “What a desk!”
“It was my grandmother’s, actually,” Dash said with a warm fondness. “When she died, I inherited a few of her things, and this was one of the pieces of furniture I always remembered about her the most.”
“It’s stunning,” she said as she reached out and traced her fingertips across the top of it. “And you just had it sitting in your attic gathering dust?”
Dash shrugged.
“We wolves don’t have a whole lot of use for antique desks,” he winked.
For a moment, she had almost forgotten that Dash wasn’t just a man… that he had an animal living inside him too. He had wolf’s blood in his veins. Her heart thumped.
“Thank you so much for lending it to me,” she said as she stepped back, leaving the doorway clear for him to bring it in. “Want me to grab one end?”
Dash laughed and shook his head.
“You go get me a beer, and I’ll do the rest.” He winked, and she bit her lip. She loved his playfulness the most. He had been so serious when they had first met, but now that she knew why, it only made her like him even more. He had been trying to put up a wall, the same as she had, but in the end, they had both been unable to resist the pull.
There was clearly something important and deep between them. Something she had never felt, and now, she knew that he had never felt it either.
She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer, then popped off the cap with the end of a corkscrew. She watched as Dash picked the desk up effortlessly and held it in front of him and over his head as if it were weightless. Shifter strength. The cabin may have been small, but its hallways were wide, and the rooms were high. As he made his way through, he looked like a contestant on one of those world’s strongest man shows, walking with a huge desk above his head like it was a feather.
When he placed it down at the foot of the step ladder that went up to the mezzanine, he turned to look at her and she smiled coyly. Every time their eyes met, she felt something new. Something even deeper and more exciting, and she was beginning to get addicted to the feeling.
Dash was turning into her drug.
She held out the bottle of beer, and he stepped over and took it from her, holding it to his lips and taking a swig.
“Thanks,” he said with a gasp after he swallowed. “I needed that.”
“Well, you know what they say,” she teased. “It’s always five o’clock somewhere…”
Dash threw his head back and laughed.
“When you hang with us mountain men, you learn there’s no such thing as time,” he winked. “We make our own rules.”
He looked so handsome standing there, and it was taking all her willpower not to jump on him and pull him down onto the couch. She smiled shyly and hoped she wasn’t blushing.
He took a step closer to her and leaned in next to the island.
“I thought about you all last night,” he said. “I was worried about you over here…”
“You don’t need to worry,” she said as she looked into his eyes. “I’m fine… I’m used to taking care of myself, you know…”
“I bet you are,” he smirked. “But here, it is different. I just hope that’s sinking in and you’re listening to what I’m saying.”
She nodded and smiled weakly.
“I just wish you could tell me everything,” she said.
Dash breathed in and then sighed. His eyes traveled out to the lake and to his cabin on the other side.
“I know I can be here in a split second if I need to be,” he said. “But I just want you to be careful, that’s all.”
It felt so good to have someone caring about her. When she had been with Dylan, he wouldn’t have given a shit if she had gone missing for two days, as long as he had gotten her back in the end and then made her pay for it. He had never cared about her safety, only that she was doing what he wanted her to do at all times. Even if that meant sitting in a parked car in a dodgy part of town, completely oblivious, while he went and bought drugs around the corner.
He really was a total low life.
And now that she had met Dash, she couldn’t believe she had ever put up with it. She was starting to see the real side of love. The side she hadn’t known existed. He wanted what was best for her, and he wanted to protect her.
It was a wonderful feeling.
“So, how do you plan on getting that up there?” she asked as she looked up to the mezzanine level.
Dash took another long drink of his beer and then grinned.
“I’ll pull it up,” he said matter-of-factly, and then he turned and collected a long, thick twist of rope from by the front door. He came back and smiled and waved
it in between them before he went over to the desk and tied the rope around the very center of it with a big knot.
Jannie stood back and watched him as he pulled himself up the step ladder in only two strides and jumped up onto the floor above. She could imagine him being good at rock climbing. His shoulders were so broad, and his arms were so strong, it was as if he were a god. When he looked over the mezzanine level with the other end of the rope in his hands, he used the bannister of the balcony to pull the rope across smoothly and the desk bounced up, with ease, in the air. It brushed against the wall a couple times, making dents in the paint and Jannie had to cover her eyes.
“Don’t be such a wuss,” Dash teased. “I could repaint that wall in about half an hour.”
“Well, I’m holding you to that then,” she called back to him. “I don’t want to lose my deposit.”
Dash winked at her and grinned.
When the desk reached him, he used his spare hand to guide it over the rail and then took hold of it properly and set it down.
“There you go,” he said as he slapped his hands together. “Piece of cake.”
Jannie clapped her hands appreciatively and made her way up the step ladder.
When she got to the top and stepped into the open space, she couldn’t believe how good it looked in there. Dash waited for her to show him exactly where she wanted the desk to go, and once it was in place, she wrapped her arm around him and nestled her head onto the side of his arm.
“Thank you so much,” she breathed. “This is such a big help.”
“It was nothing,” Dash smiled.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and then turned her so that they were looking deep into each other’s eyes again. She could see the shining glint of green and the way his pupils widened when he was locked in on her.
She had never been this attracted to someone before. And having him there with her but not tearing his clothes off was absolute torture.
She smiled and he brushed her hair behind her ear and held onto her neck. His hands were so big, and she felt tiny next to him, but she also felt as if they fit together perfectly. There was something so completely arousing about him, and also, something that she adored. It was a pure and warming kind of love. It was like coming home.
Dash moved closer and kissed her on the lips. This time, he didn’t hold back, and his tongue searched her mouth, kissing her harder and deeper by the second, and Jannie felt herself melt in his arms. Her whole body was tingling; she gasped as he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around him. He walked with her to the edge of the desk and sat her down on it, and then he broke their lips apart and looked down at her.
She bit her lip and gripped the waist band of his jeans. She so desperately wanted to undo the buttons and reach inside, but she had to hold back. The feeling of waiting was turning her on even more.
“You really are something else,” he said to her with a mischievous smile. “You just turned up and flipped my world on its head.”
She grinned back at him and leaned up to kiss him again.
He was right. They really had turned each other’s worlds upside down… and they were only just getting started.
For Jannie and Dash, this was the beginning of something life-changing.
13.
To not rip his clothes off had taken all the willpower in the world. They had kissed and moaned, and Jannie knew that things could easily get out of hand, but she managed to put the brakes on before she let Dash claim her.
She wanted him so badly, but she had so much still to think about. To be taken by a shifter wolf wasn’t a decision to make lightly. She had to be one hundred percent sure that he wasn’t going to break her heart. And she had to be sure that she was up to the challenge.
When Dash and Jet had left her, he had leaned in and kissed her again and his lips had been hot as fire.
“I want to take you out properly,” he said. “Tomorrow night?”
Jannie bit her lip and grinned.
“That would be great,” she said.
Dash smiled and nodded, and he gave her a wink before he backed slowly out the door and watched her as he moved away.
“I’ll call you in the morning,” he said.
She watched as he turned away and Jet skipped along next to him. As Dash was about to move out of sight, he looked back over his shoulder and gave her a wave, and she raised her hand and did the same.
She must have been the strongest person in the world to be able to resist him. And he had been good too… she had no idea how he had managed to hold himself back. It so easily could have gotten hot and heavy.
As the night rolled in, Jannie went up to her new office area and sat at the desk. She turned on her laptop and spread her notes out around it, so she could see all the information she had collected.
Once the laptop had powered up, she opened a search engine and typed SHIFTER WOLF. As the results started to appear on the screen, her heart fluttered wildly in her chest and she found her hand shaking as she clicked on some of the links.
Her eyes scanned images of larger than life wolves roaming around forests and mountains. She saw snarling animals, and read stories from people who believed they had seen this particular phenomenon for real.
She had yet to see Dash turn… but she knew it was in there. She had heard and felt the wolf. She knew it was lurking beneath the surface and at the right moment, he would come leaping forward.
She closed the computer and sat back in her chair. She found herself nervously biting the tip of her thumb and she closed her eyes.
This is so unlike you, she thought. Are you just getting carried away?
She hated to think that may be the case, because what she felt with Dash was mind-blowing… and yet, she still had her reservations. She didn’t like the way he wasn’t being one hundred percent open with her about what was happening in Bridge Hollow.
She found herself grumpily getting up from the desk and climbing back down to the main floor, where she lit some scented candles, turned on the television, and found a big tub of ice cream in the bottom freezer drawer.
She was going to have to occupy herself for a while and try not to let her mind be always just on Dash. He was already in her head so much, and she knew that if she wanted to continue seeing him, it was only going to get stronger as their connection grew. And then there was the claiming… if she slept with him… she would be his forever.
Her pussy throbbed.
She liked the idea of being claimed. It turned her on.
“Come on, Jannie,” she scolded herself. “You’re not doing a very good job of not thinking about him!”
She stomped over to the couch and sat down with the ice cream and dug into it with a spoon. She watched reruns of old sitcoms, ate her treats, and sat by candlelight until it was nearly midnight. When she turned off the TV and blew out the candles, she looked out over the lake and saw that the lights in Dash’s cabin were still on and she wondered if he was looking across at her too.
It was so hard to keep walking away from him. She didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to do it.
She closed her eyes and listened to the lapping of the water as the lake softly hit the shore, and then she was sure, in the distance, she heard the howls of wolves.
She smiled.
She was beginning to like that sound.
And she was beginning to like it so much in Bridge Hollow that she was wondering if she would ever want to leave.
Jannie wandered around town with a big smile on her face as she nursed a take-out coffee in one hand and held her cellphone in the other. Dash had been messaging her all day, and their flirtatious banter was beginning to become the norm. She had never met someone who just seemed to get her, and it truly was as if they had known each other for years.
She dipped in and out of stores on Main Street, looking for inspiration for something to wear that evening. She had no idea where on Earth he was taking her, but she was excited to see, a
nd she wanted to make an effort.
She looked in the windows of the few clothing stores that were dotted around town, and she even found herself browsing through books at a secondhand shop, even though she already had plenty to read. By the time she had been up and down Main Street on one whole side and began down the other, her feet were already beginning to ache and she wondered if she would be better off heading home rather than wearing herself out when she would likely need all her energy for later.
She grinned to herself at the thought.
Even though she was telling herself straight up that she had to be good… her bad side was still wanting to shine. She knew the devil on her shoulder would be telling her to go for it… because the devil knew what she really wanted.
Just as she was about to call it a day, her eye was caught by something purple, and she found herself being drawn toward it. It was the sign out front of one of the stores, and as she got closer, she saw the multicolored beaded curtains in the window, the crystal balls and tarot cards, and the incense burning lightly by the doorway. There was a sign for palm readings, and she stepped a little closer.
This shop looked awesome. She had seen places like this before, but not one in such a small town. She loved the way the whole of Bridge Hollow embraced the legends that surrounded it, and they clearly were into their paranormal subjects.
She looked through the window and wished she had the nerve to go inside. She turned and stared at the palm reading sign again, and then she shrugged her shoulders and thought, what the hell!
Inside, the shop was dark, and the scent of incense hung heavily in the air. It was silent, apart from the sound of the wind lightly whistling in through the doorway and the ting of the windchimes that were hanging for sale along one wall. As she walked in further, she looked at the crystals lining the displays, some were big and some were small, but each of them were unique and enchanting.
She stopped and started to flick through the small library section, but it wasn’t long before she was aware of someone else in the store with her, and she turned to see an older woman standing there with long silver hair and a kind smile.
Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection Page 28