Queen Bitch of the Callowwood Pack (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

The soft brush of the mustache of his beard against her skin, and the heat of his lips liquefied her body. She locked her knees to keep from collapsing and hoped he hadn’t kissed the others as sensually as he was kissing her. The thought made her growl, but she shifted it into a wistful moan and his lips curled into a delighted smile. She definitely wanted him to kiss her more often and in many more places than just her hands.

He closed his eyes as if tasting a special treat and inhaled deeply. Julianna shivered again, and Jeff’s musky, male scent slammed into her awareness, spiced with a hint of arousal. She wanted to pull him into her arms and rub up against him, soaking in the heat of his body and the strength of his muscles. She held herself still only with the knowledge that she’d hurt their standing in the Pack should she give in.

“Damn, you taste and smell good, Julianna,” he murmured, pulling back from her reluctantly. “Come on, we better get in the car and go before I drag you up the stairs and into real trouble.”

She whimpered in protest as he released her but slid into the seat readily enough, trying to still her breathing. Sebrina had been right. The thoughts and feelings washing through her while Jeff held her hand were enough to overpower her civilized mind. And it was only going to get worse from here on out. How the hell were they going to be able to keep their hands off each other now that she was working for him in his bar?

Dear God, I am in so much trouble. The whole pack is gonna know I’m hot for him.

Good. That will keep those other bitches out of your way.

Julianna doubted Brenda Solaris would take any heed.

She swallowed hard and clicked her seatbelt around her with shaking hands.

Jeff paused outside his door, cracking his knuckles and inhaling slowly, then he opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. He looked at Julianna and laughed a little breathlessly before starting up the Camaro with a muted roar. She grinned at him as they left her house and headed onto the highway.

The drive to Wipple was tension-filled only because they tried so hard to keep their hands off each other. Julianna held her purse and the door handle with white knuckles as she sought to calm her arousal, but her nipples were as hard as stone, and her pussy ached with excitement. It was all she could do to breathe normally. Jeff shifted in his seat every now and again as the comfort of the leather had fled, and his jaw clenched as he stared at the road. The muscles in his arms flexed when he shifted gears, and his hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles, too, were white.

At last they arrived in Wipple and stopped at The Macaroon, an elegant restaurant with red and white awnings over the arched windows. The front doors had palm fronds etched in their frosted glass panels and brass hand pulls. There was no valet, but two men in top hats and tuxedos held the doors for them as they entered. Jeff had donned a light cream-colored sport coat and opened the car door for Julianna. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he grinned but took her hand to pulled her gently out. Then he placed a hand on the small of her back as they walked to and through the front doors. Julianna felt his touch all the way to her soul.

The maître-d’ led them to a table on the back veranda, and Julianna closed her eyes for a moment to feel the gentle breeze brush through the loose tendrils of her hair. She took in the scents of the foods around her, the people enjoying it, and musky scent of Jeff’s arousal. Her nose had become so sensitive she could detect the emotional scents of the patrons—fear, nervousness, joy, lust, anger, and curiosity. She opened her eyes again to see if she could tell who was broadcasting what, but she was too inexperienced to determine the individual sources.

Their tense silence continued as Jeff urged her to the table behind the maître d’ and pulled out her chair. Julianna folded herself into it, glad for the support when Jeff’s hand retreated and he sat across from her, his eyes taking in her clothing and cleavage. Julianna tried to focus on the menu when it was handed to her, but her mouth watered for something entirely different than the Macaroon’s offerings.

“Hungry?” Jeff asked.

“Very.”

“Do you know what you want?”

“Yessssss,” she mused slowly, then grimaced. “Unfortunately, it’s not currently on the menu.”

“Oh?” he asked surprised and a little concerned. “What’s that?”

She looked up at him, met his green-gold gaze, and smiled slowly.

“I’m not sure what the proper term is, but I think it has something to do with cocks and kittens.”

Where the hell had
that
come from? She’d never been so vulgar on a date before in her life! She almost blushed and apologized, but Jeff’s eyes sparkled, and he took a deep breath, shivering a little as he exhaled in a measured way. He reached for his water and gulped down several swallows before he cleared his throat.

“That’s a very specialized dish, my dear,” he murmured, his smile predatory. “Unfortunately, it’s not available tonight, not that I’m not tempted. I think the fare here is far tamer than that. Is there anything else on the menu that looks good?”

Julianna swallowed hard and drank some water herself before her eyes dropped back down to the lists of food available. It was hard to think beyond her raging arousal and the scent of his, but she focused and decided on the top sirloin with roasted red potatoes and steamed broccoli.

The waiter returned and took their order, pausing long enough to ask them if they wanted wine as he looked Julianna over with appreciation. He was subtle about it, she had to give him that, but Jeff’s expression hardened and his body tensed. Julianna raised an eyebrow at the waiter, who smelled like moldy cheese and rancid cologne, and turned her head away from his perusal after declining the wine. Jeff didn’t growl, but his eyes followed the waiter until the young man disappeared out of sight.

“It’s good that he didn’t touch you.” Jeff bit off each word.

“Yes, it is, for all our sakes. He smells terrible.”

“What?”

“Yeah, like moldy cheese and cheap cologne.” Her nose wrinkled. “Yig!”

Jeff laughed. “‘Yig?’”

“You don’t say ‘yig’?” She gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence.

He shook his head, his lips curling into the sexy smile she loved.

“How about ‘wuff’?” Julianna waved her hand in front of her nose with a theatrical grimace. “Cologne is nasty. I didn’t even like it before…”

She almost said “before I was
west of left field
” but added lamely, “Before I came home.”

Jeff looked at her for a moment, a small frown creasing his brow, but their salads arrived and he was forced to divert his attention away. Julianna was grateful for a small reprieve. If she was chosen as his mate, no,
when
she was chosen, she’d eventually have to tell him about her inexperience as a Moon Singer, but she knew telling him
before
then was a
bad
idea.

“Are you glad to be back in Callowwood?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yes, I am,” she admitted. “It’s nice to see Mom again and all the familiar places in town. Not too much has changed since I left. But it’s especially nice to…to see you again. I really didn’t think you’d be interested in me after all this time. In fact, I thought you’d be married with, like, a hundred kids by now.”

Jeff smiled at her joke but only shook his head. “No, I never found anyone who seemed right. And then there was the whole issue with me being my dad’s son and all.”

“Yes, I guess that could make it pretty difficult to choose just anyone.”

“I
have
chosen,” he rumbled so low she doubted the other diners around her could hear him, but she felt it all the way down to her pussy. His eyes blazed at her as he took a drink from his water glass, but he said no more about it.

Julianna cleared her throat and nodded, trying to still her heartbeat, but the excitement and his scent were revving it up. She wanted to drop her fork and lunge across the table at him, snarling and wrestling to decide who’d be on top. She tightened her grip on her silverware and tried to think about cleaning a backed-up toilet or scrubbing an overly greasy pot, anything to keep her hormones under control.

“Dear God, is this going to get any easier?” she demanded under her breath.

“As I understand it, it only gets worse until we do something about it.”

Jeff’s jaw
and
fist clenched, though the rest of him looked calm. How the hell did he
do
that? She felt like she was going to leap out of her chair.

“And we can’t until I’ve passed the tests, right?”

“Right.”

“Shit!”

“Yeah.”

“So what do we do now? What do we talk about to distract us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what did you talk to the others about when you visited them?”

He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Mostly, it was all small talk centered around their gratitude for my visit. The mothers pointed out their daughter’s most ‘attractive’ attributes while the candidates preened.” He stopped, snapping his mouth closed. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I’m just trying to find something to think about other than…well, you know.”

Jeff laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in it. “Yeah, I know. I appreciate it, but I think we should stick to more innocuous subjects.”

Julianna raised her eyebrows. “Innocuous? Okay. What sorts of ‘innocuous’ subjects did you discuss with the others?”

“The most pressing issues facing the group today: development, expansion, membership maximums, and discipline within the ranks.” He shrugged as he picked at his salad. “It was interesting to know how they felt the group should be run and what changes they’d make, but each one put her family first. It seemed to be more of a power-play than an improvement.”

“So, how
do
you feel the group is running? What would you do about those major issues you mentioned?”

Jeff stared at her a moment to see if Julianna was serious, and she looked back at him with pleading eyes, hoping he’d agree to steer them away from the overwhelming lust and arousal burning through them.

After a few breaths, he caught on and nodded, then launched into his concerns about leading the pack. He never used any words revealing he was the Successor to a pack of werewolves, but she filled in the proper terms. He was amazing, and she realized she had to learn to speak the same way to keep her species safe from human hysteria.

Julianna listened intently and asked a few questions, but she didn’t remember much of the conversation afterward. She’d been concentrating so hard on keeping her mind away from the motion of the muscles in his shoulders when he gestured or the way the light danced in his intense eyes. She loved it when she coaxed a smile or laugh from him. He had the endearing habit of rubbing the right corner of his mouth with his index finger when he thought something through.

Exhaustion set in by the time they finished dinner, and gratitude slid though Julianna when they climbed back into the car for the drive home. Jeff’s tension never eased, but he kept his touches tame, even for a first date. She almost laughed at that. It
was
a first date between them, but it felt more like the date preceding sex. No matter how much they both wanted it, they had to keep their hands off each other.

“Thanks for the nice time,” she said in the silence of the car, tracing one finger over the stitching in her seat.

“That was a nice time?” Jeff barked incredulously.

“Yes.” She shrugged with one shoulder. “I like being with you, even if I can’t jump you. If nothing else, it’ll make our first time together that much more pleasant.”

“Or more desperate,” he muttered.

She sighed, resigned. “Yeah, or desperate.”

“I was stupid to hire you.”

“What?” Her guts clenched. Would he fire her? “Why?”

“Because now I’m going to see you every day, and it’s going to kill me. How the hell am I going to hide that I want you?”

She grimaced. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure the whole damn pack can smell me coming with how wet I am for you all the time.”

He took a deep breath and smiled lazily. “I sure can.”

“At least the humans are ignorant of it. I’d never live it down if my mother found out. Of course, I may not live it down when your sister realizes it.”

He grunted in rueful agreement.

“Jeff, this overwhelming lust we feel toward each other, does it mean we’re meant to be mates for life? Like True Mates?”

He glanced at her quickly before turning his eyes back to the road.

“I think so. I’ve never felt it before for anyone, even when I was young, dumb, and full of myself. I was a horny teenager like the next guy, but I was never unable to control myself. I’m having a hell of a time around you.”

Jeff’s honesty amazed Julianna, and she doubted she’d ever experienced anything like it with anyone before, particularly with Terence. It was refreshing and unnerving at the same time.