Wolf on Board (Wolves of Willow Bend Book 14) (5 page)

“I know, it’s one of my favorite parts about the place.” She curled her fingers in invitation. “Follow me.”

He slammed the door on the van, and she could practically feel the heat of him at her back as she led him around the house. She bypassed the front door to head along a garden stone pathway to the deck on the back of the house. It overlooked the ocean. Three steps up, and they were out of the foliage and into the beautiful sunshine on the wooden deck.

A low whistle breezed from his lips as he took in the two-story deck with the wraparound bannister. The varnished cedar had been colored red, and it was warm under foot after being in the sun. Built into the deck was a wraparound bench, a sunken fireplace, and a hammock. A canvas sunscreen could be extended if she wanted to create artificial shade.

“This is sweet.” He strode over to the railing and glanced down at the sea. “This is a really sweet view.” Pivoting, he squinted at her and a smile curved his lips. “It suits you, too, sweetheart.”

“Hmm.” Refusing to be charmed proved harder than she would have supposed. The lamb would take longer, so she elected to narrow their food offerings to one type. “I’ve got a grill and some steaks for dinner. Just so we’re clear, I’m offering steak, some veggies and maybe a beer if you’re very, very good…and nothing else.
Capiche
?”

Warm laughter rumbled in his chest. “Anything you say, sweetheart, just put me to work. I can grill a mean steak.”

“You can start by getting that fired up.” She pointed to the charcoal grill. “Then you can wash up in the guest room.” Fortunately, the cottage boasted three bedrooms, so even if she felt an ounce of guilt in making him sleep in the hammock, she had a room to offer. Not that she planned on offering him a room. Unlocking the French doors, she pushed them inward and didn’t give him a single solitary look backward.

Before she reached her kitchen with the groceries and her duffel, she caught the scent of flames on charcoal. Well, she’d give Jake credit—he followed directions well. Glancing over the bar from the kitchen, she found he’d stripped off his shirt and the sun gleamed on his bronze skin.

Holy hell on a cracker.

He definitely needed to sleep in the hammock…on another continent. No wolf should look that good. As if sensing her staring at him, he looked over his shoulder and met her gaze. His eyes gleamed and his smile grew. “See something you like?”

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation. “Obedience pleases me.” Then she jerked her gaze away and busied herself in the kitchen. Somehow, she had to put together the steaks, the vegetables, and her composure before she went back out there and threw herself at him.

His laughter caressed her and her nipples went peaked.
He’s here for food. Nothing else.

Too bad her body didn’t believe her anymore than her mind.

T
hree things Jake
liked about Mimi’s cottage…the view, the smell of the meal she grilled, and the woman herself. He’d gotten the charcoal lit, admiring the cedar she’d added to the stack in the grill, then she returned outside after a prolonged absence with two bottles of cold beer and a platter of steaks, veggies and more. When he tried to offer assistance, she’d slapped his hand and scowled at him.

Liking his fingers where they were, he accepted his beer and settled on the railing to split his attention between her and the ocean though he found himself watching her more and more. She’d sliced the vegetables with an expert hand, then began to thread them onto skewers. Once the fire heated the metal grill, she painted it with oil before beginning to cook the steaks.

The combination of heady female wolf scent with grilling meat, left his mouth watering for both. Taking a long swallow of the beer, he tried to keep from leering at her. The last thing he needed was to piss her off.

“You’re concentrating awfully hard over there.” Damn, she’d already noticed.

“The food smells fantastic, and I’m contemplating how damn lucky I am to be here in the first place.”

“Good answer,” she said, her smile a flash of pure sunshine. “So what were you doing following me today?”

Another gulp of beer helped cover his shock at her direct inquiry. “Who says I was following you?”

She speared one of the steaks, then flipped it before fixing him with a look. The heat in her gaze scorched him, and at the same time held him still in absolute fascination. Was it possible for a woman to grow more beautiful by the moment?

When she said nothing and asked him no more questions, he had to fight the urge to fidget. “I wasn’t following you…exactly.”

“Ummm-hmmm.” The low sound wasn’t precisely comforting, but he grinned at her nonetheless.

“Seriously, I wasn’t following you…” It wasn’t a lie. “I wanted to be in your path, which is not following so much as lying in wait.”

Her snort didn’t comfort him.

“I mean it, I
wasn’t
following you to invade your privacy or to stalk you. I just wanted you to call me or join me for a meal, so I thought if I were more convenient for you to discover, my charm would do the rest” Because he was exactly where he wanted to be, he grinned wider. “It worked.”

The heat in her gaze didn’t cool, but she twisted back to the grill and painted a sweet smelling sauce over the meat. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you?”

“Actually,” he considered his answer before speaking. “Pride indicates I did something worthy. All I did was get damn lucky. So, at the risk of pushing my luck, want to tell me what pissed you off so much you were ready to show tooth and claw on a public street?”

She added another layer of sauce to the steaks before turning them again. Whatever she coated the meat increased his drool factor. “Since you were lying in wait noticeably like a preening peacock, did you notice the female wolf who left the shop ahead of me? Brunette, olive skin?”

Letting the not-so-subtle dig at his manhood go, he frowned at her description of another wolf. “I didn’t really pay attention to the people shopping.” It had been crowded in the little village center. Crowded with moms and their little kids, tourists, and a number of local artisans who plied their trade. “You spotted another wolf?” Warning bells clanged in his head.

“Oh, yeah. Spotted her, made eye contact, and drove her out of the store.” The firm, factual delivery impressed the hell out of him. Mimi Chase intrigued him on levels he’d never experienced before. He didn’t doubt her account for one instant. “Didn’t know her. Neither did Mitch.”

“When did you tell Mitch?” Aggravation scraped over his spine.

“On the drive here.” She turned her vegetable skewers then flipped the steaks again. The moves were smooth, and her attention seemed focused. “I didn’t recognize her scent, more it was a scent that didn’t belong. Maybe she’s a Lone Wolf, maybe she isn’t, but with recent events…”

“The attacks on our packs?” His wolf shivered, prowling close to the surface. Shifting his attention from her loveliness, he scanned the beach below then the foliage shaping around her cottage. Suddenly, their bright, sunshine-splashed spot felt too exposed. He should have insisted on eating inside.

“Unless you have more recent data to suggest another problem I haven’t heard about yet?” If not for her sobriety, he might have gone for the joke.

“Not that I’ve heard of…but if you thought she was one of them, why the hell were you chasing her?”

Mimi removed the steaks from the grill and began piling them onto a plate, but she paused to give him another long stare. The hair on his body rose, along with his hackles. His wolf sensed the danger, even if her scent didn’t change one iota. “I was protecting my territory.”

The five foot nothing, curvy wolf shouldn’t have to defend anything. She was so precious and sweet, but the gold ring around her irises warned him not to state his observation aloud. He tilted his beer bottle toward her as though in a toast. “You consider the bookstore your territory?”

“I consider anywhere I’m standing in unclaimed land my territory. I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. Yet, she walked into that shop and kept her eye on me. I have no idea what she was doing. I also didn’t plan on giving her an easy target. If she was scoping me out for a possible attack? Well, I wanted her to understand I was not going to roll over and play dead.”

“God, you’re hot when you get all cold-blooded and vicious.” He wanted to wag his tail so she would appreciate the compliment.

Her mouth opened then snapped shut, then opened again as though she were at a loss for words. Finally, she jerked back to the grill and removed the vegetable skewers.

“Can’t take a compliment, sweetheart?” In for a penny, might as well go for the whole pound.

“I can take compliments just fine.” She shut the grill lid and carried the platter toward the house. “Please grab my beer and follow me.”

He thought she would never ask. Leaping down, he snagged her beer and trailed after her. A spicy mix of eucalyptus, citrus, incense and warm amber greeted him. The French doors opened into a living room with blond wooden floors, polished and warm beneath the sun. A heavy, thatched rug occupied the center of the room with the furniture arrayed around it. Even as he followed her toward the kitchen, he studied the layout and colors—and the stack of books next to the sofa. Most were textbooks or how to’s of some kind.

A corner of the living room had been transformed by a tarp on the floor. An easel propped with a half completed canvas occupied the center of it. Torn between the food and his curiosity, he gave into the second and prowled over to see what she worked on.

Hints of oil paint mixed with linseed and citrus tickled his nose. He would have expected it to smell worse, but it couldn’t compete with the savory dinner Mimi prepared. The painting on the canvas seemed incomplete, and the paint remained somewhat damp. Surprising, because he hadn’t seen her work on it for even an instant. Behind the painting, he looked out the windows toward the ocean rolling in, then back to the canvas again.

The water beckoned to him in both. She’d achieved the sensation of wave movement. The water crested into white foamy caps as it closed on the shore, and the ocean extended off into the horizon. It was almost perfect, yet…

“It’s missing something,” Mimi said from his right side. How she’d closed the distance between them without him even noticing baffled him. If not for an utter lack of worry where she was concerned—another source of confusion—he might have jumped out of his skin.

Taking a slow breath, he did his best to calm the racing of his heart. “I like what you’ve done with the waves. The ocean is alive.” The rising tide, the promise of a storm in the distance… Still, he had to admit she was right. It was missing something.

“I wanted to add more to the beach.” She touched a finger to a blank area of canvas. “But every time I go to paint in the rocks and the sand, it just doesn’t come out.”

Maybe because the water held a promise of tempestuous currents? The beach was where all that power ended, slammed onto its shores. “Have you gone out on the ocean yet?”

“No,” she said, skepticism rifling the word. “Food is ready. We should eat.” She tapped his arm once. He pivoted, half-watching her stride to her little kitchen where the tempting steak and vegetables beckoned. Still, something in her unfinished painting refused to let him go.

“You should go out on the water,” he told her, finally pulling himself away and trailing her over to the half-bar which separated the kitchen from the living room. Setting her beer on the bar, he drained the rest of his before continuing. “I could take you. I surf.”

“I remember. You dripped all over me.” She loaded a plate with meat, vegetable skewers, and fresh bread before sliding it over to him. “Do you want another beer?”

Warning bells went off in his head. She had an encounter with a strange wolf. Then she invited him to her place. Now she’d prepared him a meal. Why did it feel like he’d just walked into a trap? A part of him waited for the snap of the cage door slapping closed. “Sure and, not that I’m complaining, but…” He accepted the beer she proffered then set it next to the plate. “What are we doing here?”

She raised an eyebrow as she filled her own plate. “I’ve just finished making food, now I’m planning to eat it. Later, you’re going to explain to me this stalking fetish you’ve developed where I am concerned. We’ll do all of that with you here and safely out of sight while Mitch investigates the wolf in town.”

The straightforward answer let all the air out of his half-formed indignation. “You’re keeping me busy?”

“Yes,” she said, not quite smiling, although a glint of humor showed in her eyes. “Don’t worry, surfer boy. I’ll protect you from the big, bad world.”

Not entirely certain whether to be insulted or pleased, he reached for his plate and muttered, “Yes, I’d like another beer.”

Her soft laughter swiped at him. Scowling at her, he wanted to refuse the beer on principle, but his stomach growled in anticipation of the food she’d taken the time to fix—for him.

Pride or hunger?

Yeah, he’d never worried much about pride before. Why start now?

P
oor wolf boy
didn’t know what to make of her. Mimi shouldn’t toy with him. In fact, if either of her parents had been there, she wouldn’t be able to get away with the not so subtle taunts. That said, she’d been completely honest with him and wouldn’t take so much glee in tormenting him if he had bothered to put his shirt back on. As it was, she kept the bar between them and set his plate in front of him so he would sit on a stool.

They said little as they both dug into their food. His low sigh of appreciation sent warmth curling through her. When he was halfway through his steak, he pointed his fork at her. “You’re an amazing fucking cook. Best meal I’ve had in a while.”

“You live out of your van.” It came out way more critical than she’d intended. Raising a hand, she spread her fingers asking him both for patience and to understand she hadn’t meant to attack him. “I apologize. What I meant is that you live out of your van, so you probably don’t get a lot of home cooked meals.”

“True, but I wasn’t born in a van.” He gave her an easy smile, and reached for his beer. His muscles flexed with every movement and it took discipline to keep her gaze on his face and not on his pecs. “My mom’s an exceptional cook, or at least I always thought she was. You’re better. What did you do to the steaks?”

“It’s Dr. Pepper and A-1 steak sauce with a little orange zest.” It was a personal favorite of hers. “Usually I marinate it, but I didn’t have time, so I basted them while I flipped the steaks.”

“Huh.” He stared at his food. “And the vegetable skewers? Did you use the same stuff?”

The citrus would have been too acidic on the mushrooms, so she shook her head and frowned. “Of course not, I used some balsamic vinegar with a garlic base. I wanted to enhance the flavor, not bury it.”

“Huh,” he repeated his earlier sentiment. The grunt didn’t tell her much but when he dug back into the food, she found herself studying his expressions. His scent hadn’t changed. If anything, she could drown in the warmth of his masculinity. It overpowered the simple nature of the food she’d prepared.

“I’ve been taking some cooking classes. I have a lemon pound cake in the fridge.” Why volunteer that information? “I actually spent time this morning at a cupcake seminar.”

Jake choked then put a hand over his mouth, asking around his food, “A what?”

Someday, she might learn how to not offer unnecessary information. “A cupcake seminar. Several hours of creating the perfect cupcakes. I’m a decent cook, and I really enjoy it. On the other hand, baking was never my forte. My mom used to make the best cakes in the world, but she couldn’t manage bread. One of my goals for this year is to achieve mastery in baking, cooking, and more. Maybe I can open a café or a restaurant at home. You know, a diner where families can enjoy all kinds of treats.”
And I can shut the hell up now…
The words spilled out of her, and she had no idea why.

To his credit, Jake didn’t laugh at her. “Dude, do you get to bring home samples of what you fix?” He shoveled in another mouthful of food. His steak was three-quarters gone, as were his vegetables. His enjoyment pleased her immensely.

“Not today. We actually ate some then donated the rest to a party at a shelter for battered women.” She admired her instructor’s dedication to social work and making lives better for the battered women and their families. In the pack, they took care of each other. Abusers were few…most wolves could fight back, and those that couldn’t would be protected.

“I’d whine that I’d like to have tried one, but that’s a great place to bring some sweetness and light.” Of course, Jake understood it. “I hate those places though.”

“They’re a necessity, especially for those escaping those who would hurt them.” She didn’t particularly care for the scent of them either—defeat, sadness, pain, and grief always tore at her when she went anywhere near them. Those weren’t the only scents she experienced—she’d also tasted hope, simple joy and relief.