“I would prefer one to this,” he told her.
“Do you even know what a colonoscopy is?” Frankie asked, her lips twitching.
“No, but it cannot be worse than discussing this.”
“It’s where they stick a camera up your butt,” Frankie took great delight in telling him.
He shuddered. Brogan turned pale and even Tecan lost his smile.
“Do you want a cinnamon bun?” Eden asked.
He nodded. Of course he did. What foolish question was that?
“Then spill. What really happened last night?”
He made a low, growling noise that had his packmates stiffening. “I do not wish to talk of it.”
“You were given the assignment of watching her.” Ioin had remained quiet up until that moment. Now he leaned forward, hands leaning on the kitchen counter, his eyes narrowed. “That was all. Why did you not follow orders?”
Nax always followed orders. He might like to grumble and moan, but he never went against his pack or his leader. Until her.
“You were watching Crista? Why?” Eden asked, looking around at them all. “I thought it was just a coincidence you were there although that doesn’t make much sense now that I think about it.”
They stayed silent.
“You guys are keeping things from us?” Frankie asked.
“This is of no concern to the two of you,” Ioin said stiffly. “We will continue this conversation in the living room.”
“All right. Everyone grab a cinnamon bun and let’s go,” Frankie said, glaring at Ioin.
There was a pause while everyone gathered themselves. Ioin’s eyes narrowed and Sacaren stepped up beside his mate, pulling her close. Not that Ioin would ever harm her. Physically. However, he could do a lot of damage with what he said. And Frankie was female. She would probably cry. Then Sacaren would get upset.
He sighed. Things were simpler before Sacaren and Marcun found their mates. But life without them had also been stark and cold.
“This is not a conversation you need to be part of,” Ioin told Frankie and Eden.
“Are we not part of this pack?” Surprisingly it was Eden who spoke. Her mate came up behind her and pulled her back against his body, placing his hands protectively over her stomach.
Marcun kissed the top of her head. “You know you are, mate.”
“Then we deserve to know what is going on,” Frankie said. “If it affects us too.”
“We don’t ask about your missions. Even though that’s damn hard. But this is isn’t a job.” Eden stared steadily at Ioin. “Why did you have Nax follow Crista? Is she in danger?”
Ioin sighed. “There is no need for the two of you to worry.”
“That’s great,” Frankie said with a big smile. “Now, what’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Ioin told them both. “I asked Nax to follow Ms. Nelson because I thought she might be his mate.”
Shock rocked him back a step. “What? That is not what you told me.”
“His mate? Really?” Eden asked, looking surprised.
“You told me you wished me to spy on her to see if we could discover who wishes to purchase this house and why they are so eager.” Where was this mate stuff coming from?
“Yes, there was that reason too,” Ioin said calmly.
“Well? Is she?” Frankie asked him.
“Is she what?” he growled.
Sacaren sent him a warning look. But he was almost beyond caring. What had Ioin been thinking?
“Your mate?” Tecan asked.
“No.” Maybe. “I am going out.” He stormed towards the front door. What was Ioin doing? Since when did their leader try to find their mates for them? And he lied to him.
“Nax, wait,” Ioin called out.
“I do not wish to hear what you have to say.”
“You have no choice. I am still the leader of this pack.”
Nax swung back. The others all held back, but they were listening. “You lied to me. You told me to find out what I could about who wished to purchase the house.”
“And that was the truth. Even if I had not thought her your mate I still would have sent you to follow her.”
“But the reason you sent me and not Tecan or Brogan is because you had the odd idea that she might be my mate?”
“Is she not your mate?” Ioin asked calmly.
He just stared at his leader for a moment. “I am returning to the ship for a few days.” He needed time to think. To rationalize all of this. “You know where I am if you need something.”
He opened the door and a small fist landed against his chest. Then someone fell against him. Soft skin. Blonde hair. The scent of peaches.
He reached out automatically to catch her. What was she doing here? He looked down at the ground as he righted her. There was nothing for her to trip over.
“Right. Good. You’re home.” Crista straightened her shirt. “I wish to talk to you.”
“What did you fall over?”
“What?”
“You just fell into me. How?”
Red stained her cheeks. “I was going to knock. Loudly. I was leaning into it. And then the door opened and I couldn’t pull back and I fell forward. But that doesn’t matter. That’s not why I’m here.” She stared up at him determinedly. Then worry filled her face and she bit at her lip. “Are you okay? That looks rather sore. Didn’t you put some ice on it when you got home?”
She was worried about the bruise on his face?
“It is fine. What do you want?”
“Nax, you’re being rude,” Eden chided from behind him. “Why don’t you invite Crista in. I’ll get some—”
He grabbed Crista around the waist, picked her up and stepped forward. Putting her down, he turned and slammed the door shut on his packmates, drowning out the rest of Eden’s words.
“Well, that was rude,” Crista told him, looking from the door to him.
“Do not care.”
“I can see that. You don’t care about interrupting a dinner date, attacking a man who has done nothing wrong, and then manhandling me.”
“Manhandling you?”
“You just picked me up and moved me where you wanted me.”
“You were in the way.” Was she really protesting the fact that he’d shifted her out of the way so he could get outside and away from his nosy, interfering pack?
“You could have asked.”
“Moving you was quicker.”
She placed her hands on her hips, looking up at him in exasperation. “Just because something is more convenient for you doesn’t mean you should do it. What if I didn’t want to be picked up and moved around?”
He stared down at her in confusion. To him this conversation made no sense.
“You can’t touch people without their permission.”
“You touched me,” he pointed out.
“What? I certainly did not.”
“You did. You hit me in the chest with your fist and then fell against me.”
“Th-that’s different!”
“How?”
“It was an accident.”
“Perhaps I accidentally picked you up and moved you out of my way so I could get outside before my pack could descend.”
“Your pack?” She stared behind him at the door. “Do you mean your family? What are you, like wolf shapeshifters.” She started to laugh then her face grew serious. “You’re not, are you?”
“Wolf shapeshifters? Of course not. The only shapeshifters I have heard of shifted into rats.”
Her eyes were wide. Her mouth dropped open. She looked shocked. And he realized what he’d just said. Most humans hadn’t had any contact with aliens. Only those in the military who took off-planet assignments and those with enough money to go on off-planet holidays.
“That was a joke,” he told her.
“Oh.” Blink. Blink. How had he not noticed her long eye lashes before? The way they contrasted against her creamy skin. The scent of peaches tickled his nose
.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, like you’ve never seen me before.”
“Of course I have seen you. Far too much of you,” he snapped.
She flinched and he immediately felt guilty. But then her shoulders straightened. She glared up at him. “Yeah, well, the feeling is mutual.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’ve been seeing a bit too much of you as well. Or did you forget what happened last night? You know how they say two’s company and three’s a crowd. What did you think you were doing last night?”
“I thought he could have been the male who attacked you.”
“Well, he wasn’t! I don’t know who attacked me. I mean, I saw their faces but I don’t know who they were. Do you really think I would go on a date with the person who hit me?”
“Eden said that some women remain living with the males who abuse them.”
She went silent for a moment. “Okay. So maybe you were worried he might have been the one who hit me. But you had no right to barge in on our dinner like that! And you still hit him even after I told you that he wasn’t the one who hurt me.”
He stayed silent. There was nothing much he could say to that.
She sighed. “You are the most frustrating man! Now because of you, Marc doesn’t want to have anything to do with me and I can never go back to Pinco’s for dinner again.”
“I am going to pay for the damages, it should not take them long to get the eating establishment back up and running.” And he did not think it was such a big loss not to see that male again. In fact, it was very good that she wouldn’t.
“I meant because of the embarrassment.” She threw her hands up into the air. “I don’t understand you! Why do you even care if Marc had been the one to hurt me? You don’t even know me.”
“You are our real estate agent.”
“Not any more. I sold you the house. End of story. I don’t expect to see any of you ever again, understand me?”
She wiggled her finger at him. What did she think that would accomplish?
“What about the people who wish to buy our house?”
“Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like they want it anymore. And if they do, then my boss can find someone else to handle all of this, because I’ve had enough.” She turned to walk away. His gaze was focused on her ass. It jiggled softly under the skirt she wore. His cock pressed against his pants. What would it feel like to squeeze her ass while she rode his shaft?
Stars. He needed to stop thinking thoughts like that.
She turned back suddenly. She stood still for a moment, then stormed back up the path. “Were you staring at my ass?”
“What? No.”
“You were. You were totally staring at my butt. What the hell is wrong with you? I just told you I never want to see or hear from you again and you check out my ass as I walk away.”
He shrugged.
“Uh-uh, no. Don’t you shrug at me. Give me a proper answer. With words.”
He simply stared at her.
She made a frustrated noise. “You make me want to pull my hair out. I don’t even know why I came here this morning. I told myself to stay away from you. To keep my distance. Instead, I just had to come here and make sure that you were all right. And all you can do is shrug at me. How would you like it if I shrugged every time you asked me a question?”
“Would make it a lot quieter.”
“Are you saying I talk too much?”
“And you are loud.” He was deliberately baiting her. But he could not stop himself. The more her temper grew, the more he wanted to take her inside, lock them both in his room, and not come out until he had mated with her.
He wondered if she talked this much during joining? He had ways to stop her from talking. He nearly smiled at the thought.
“Better to be loud and talkative than grumpy and a jerk!”
“I have to get to work.” He turned to walk away. He had to get away from her before he did something he would no doubt regret.
“Hey, don’t walk away from me before I’m finished telling you off.” She reached out to grab his arm and he turned sharply.
She let out a gasp and stepped back and fell off the stoop, landing on her ass. He just shook his head.
“Oh. Oh. Shit.”
“Have you always been this clumsy?” he asked. “Have you had your eyes checked lately?”
“There is nothing wrong with my eyes,” she muttered.
He reached out a hand and she stared at it for a long moment. Just as he was about to pull it back and pick her up instead, she reached out and grasped hold. Electricity shot through his body. She gasped, as though she felt it as well. He heaved her up, using too much strength and she slammed into his body. He held her against him. He couldn’t let her go, didn’t want to. His balls tightened and the ache inside him intensified.
“You can let go of me now. I’m all right.”
She might be. He was not.
He tried to tell his hands to let go of her, instead they tightened and pulled her up against him.
“Oh. Nax, this really isn’t a good idea. You said you had work. Shouldn’t you get to it—”
He pressed his lips against hers. She made a muffled noise. Was she still trying to talk while he was kissing her? He grabbed hold of her ass, pulling her tight against him. She let out a soft sigh and opened her lips. He slid his tongue inside her mouth to tease and arouse. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on tight. Her legs found their way around his waist as she kissed him back.
And he knew he was gone. He moved one hand up the side of her body, finding her breast. He cupped the small mound and she whimpered.
“Hey! This is a decent neighborhood!” someone yelled from the street. “Go get a room.”
Nax drew back and set her down, pushing her behind him as he glared down at the older man standing on the footpath. A small white dog walked beside him.
“I have a room. And a whole house,” Nax replied.
“I shouldn’t be subjected to that sort of sight while I’m out walking Betsy.”
“Sorry, sir,” Crista called out from beside him. He pushed her back behind him and gave the other man an angry look. The older man turned pale and walked swiftly away, Betsy’s legs struggling to keep up with him.
“Jeez, you didn’t have to terrify the poor guy,” Crista told him.
He swung around to look at her. Her shirt was half out of her skirt, her hair was a mess, and she probably had dirt on her ass from where she’d fallen over. And he didn’t think he had ever wanted someone more.
“If I put you somewhere, stay there.”
“Excuse me?”
“I put you behind my back to keep you safe. You moved before I gave you permission to.”
“Keep me safe? From what? Betsy the poodle? Yeah, she looked really scary.”
Poodle? Was that what sort of dog it was?
“And for your information, I don’t have to do what you tell me to do.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Really? Why is that? You think one kiss means you get to boss me around? Well, it doesn’t. That kiss was a mistake. This whole conversation was a giant mistake. All I came over to do was to tell you to stay away from me. Got it?”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“I am not going to stay away from you.”
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “You can’t just decide you won’t stay away from me.”
“I believe I just did.”
She shook her head. “There’s a word for that.”
“What is that?”
“It’s called a stalker.” Her eyes narrowed and she took a step back. At least this time there was only the house behind her, so she couldn’t fall again. “You’re not stalking me, are you?”
“Of course not.” He did not call it stalking. Stalking was s
omething that crazy, irrational people did. He had been spying on her.
“Then how did you know where I was last night if you weren’t following me?”
“I did not say I wasn’t following you.”
She inched her way along the stoop. “Right. So you’re following me but not stalking me. Do you hear how crazy you sound?”
Right now he did not believe he was the crazy one. Her eyes were wide, her make-up smudged so she had black streaks under her eyes and her hair was starting to frizz around her face.
“I wanted to make certain you were safe.”
“You were following me to make sure I was safe? Uh-huh, pretty sure that’s what a stalker would say.”
He sighed. “Talking with you is frustrating.”
“I’m frustrating! Me? Seriously.”
“Yes. Seriously.” He did not know why she thought he would joke about that.
“I’m leaving.” She poked that finger out at him again. “You are staying here.”
“I was not planning on going anywhere.”
“Right. Good. Because I do not want you following me anymore.”
“All right.”
“Um, okay. That was easier than I thought.”
“I will pick you up at seven tonight.”
“Okay, then…wait, what did you say?”
“I will collect you from the place where you live at seven tonight.”
“Why?”
“For dinner.”
“But…what…why would I go out for dinner with you?”
He drew her close, ignoring her gasp, and pulling her close, kissed her again. She was stiff to begin with, then she melted against him, her lips immediately parting. He dove inside her. When he drew back, her eyes were glassy, her breathing heavy.
“Because of that.”
“Huh…umm…ohh.”
“Are you well?” Was she having some sort of seizure? He had seen something like that on one of those reality medical TV shows. “Are you having a stroke? Do you need medical attention?”
“What? No. I don’t need medical attention. You’re not that good a kisser.” She made a scoffing noise, but she still looked shaken. And he did not know what his ability to kiss had to do with her medical issues.
“Good. If you are well, I need to go to work. I will see you tonight.”
He turned and walked away, heading towards the garage, where he might actually manage to get some peace.
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