“I didn’t ask for your goddamn help.”
Smitty leaned forward, resting his arms on his raised knees. “I’m fixin’ to get mad, Jessie.”
“You’re fixin’ to get mad?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you just get mad?”
“I’m not there yet. But I will be if you don’t start talking to me.”
Jessie pushed herself to her feet. “I have nothing to say.”
He watched that cute little ass walk across the room to the door. Was that what she’d been planning to wear out tonight with him? Ripped black jeans with gray thermal leggings underneath, a Chicago Blackhawks hockey jersey that reached to her knees, and white high-top sneakers.
Maybe she was trying a little too hard not to make an effort? Although now all he wanted to do was get those clothes off her and see what the hell she was hiding.
Why did she insist on driving him crazy? Well, hell... two canines could play this game of tug.
She had her hands on the door handle when he asked, “Does this have anything to do with the kiss?”
And he almost felt real bad when that door smacked her right in the face.
Jess gripped her forehead and spun around to stare at Smitty. “What kiss?”
He slowly got to those big wolf feet. “The kiss we almost had sixteen years ago.”
“Why would anything have to do with that kiss that never happened?”
Smitty gave her an indulgent smile. “Now, Jessie Ann, we both know how you felt about me.”
“How I—”
“And maybe you still feel that way so you’re afraid to get too close to me. To trust me. To—now, Jessie, let’s not start throwing things.”
Jess held an old 60-gig external hard drive in her hand that she’d grabbed from one of the shelves. The thing weighed a ton. It would cave his head in quite nicely.
“I’m just trying to find out the truth.”
“And you’re doing that how?” She didn’t want to talk about that night. The night he’d pushed her away. Always a late bloomer, sixteen-year-old Jess still hadn’t had her first kiss by then mostly because she’d wanted that kiss to come from Smitty. But he’d hurt her that night when he pushed her away. Not physically, of course, but emotionally her young, way-too-romantic heart had been crushed.
Even now, sixteen years later, she still didn’t want to have this discussion. She could already feel her cheeks heating from embarrassment, remembering how she wasn’t cute or hot enough to get a drunk boy to kiss her. What girl couldn’t manage something that simple from the weak? Apparently she couldn’t.
Already she could feel her embarrassment turning to anger. No, she didn’t want this discussion. She didn’t want to hop down memory lane with Bobby Ray Smith. Not now, not ever.
“You know, Jessie, I’m of the mind if we get that kiss out of the way, maybe you could focus on the bigger issues right in front of you.”
Huh. Look at that. Her leash just snapped.
Good thing he was fast because that heavy piece of metal came right for his head. Smitty stepped to one side and it went sailing by.
He stared at her. “Woman, have you lost your mind?”
“No, I think I’m getting it back.” Her hand reached out and she blindly grabbed some other hunk of metal. Computer equipment it looked like. “Yeah, I’m feeling better each second.” She pulled her arm back like a pro baseball player and Smitty took the three long steps over to her, grabbing hold of the thing in her hand and wrenching it away from her.
“Jessie Ann, calm down!”
“Go to hell,” she snarled as she reached for that damn shelf again. Everything on it was a potential missile to take out his head.
Slamming down the thing already in his hand, Smitty reached out and grabbed Jessie by the back of the neck. Without thought, only wolf instinct, he yanked her over to him, determined to get her under control. To get her to submit. That’s what Alpha Males did, and it didn’t even occur to him that Jessie wasn’t part of his Pack. Hell, she was barely part of his life. Just a blip in his week, really.
But when her body slammed up against his, everything but the wolf in him was wiped clean. All that calm, cool, rational logic he’d spent years and years refining until he moved only as fast as he wanted or needed slipped away from him, leaving the raw, demanding animal behind.
Jessie stared up at him, her hands slapping against his chest, trying to push him off. Too late for that, and he could tell by the way her eyes widened and her breath left her body in one rush that she realized it too.
His grip tightened on her neck and he lifted until she stood on her toes.
“Smitty, wait—”
He didn’t. He cut off her next words by slamming his mouth down on hers, his tongue sliding into her already open mouth, and kissing her hard. He sensed her claws unleash, coming for his face or his chest, so he released her neck and grabbed her wrists, before turning them both and forcing Jessie up against the wall. Using his hold on her wrists, he pulled Jessie’s arms above her head and pinned them in place.
She struggled against him, her knee trying to move so she could take out his nuts. Again, the rational voice in his head that he always listened to told him to let her go. Told him “nice Southern gentlemen” didn’t do this sort of thing to sweet, innocent, wild dogs.
Then Jessie Ann groaned. It slid up the back of her throat, easing into his mouth, setting his nerve endings on fire. In that moment, his rational voice got shut down for the beast who ruled his heart.
And this... this right here was why he didn’t kiss her that night all those years ago. If it had caused even a tenth of the lust pouring through his body this very second, his poor little eighteen-year-old brain would have crumpled from the pressure, and the two of them would still be stuck in Smithtown up to their armpits in Smith sons.
He didn’t have to worry about that now, though. They were both adults with an excellent grasp of birth control. They could keep this simple and friendly and still have the time of their lives. Because he had to have her. Now. This very second.
Damn. Poorly planned, Smith. He didn’t think to bring a condom with him. Unfortunate, since he’d love nothing more than to take her right here, right now, and right up against this wall. Then again with such weak drywall probably not a good idea. Of course, the floor had looked pretty clean...“Hey, Aunt Jess, Mom’s wondering if you guys are hun—Whoa!”
Jessie shoved so hard Smitty stumbled back from her. He knew Kristan stood in the doorway, but at the moment he couldn’t really turn around. She was way too young for that visual.
Horrified. Of all the people in the world to catch her it had to be “Big Mouth, I have no filters” Kristan.
“I am so telling Mom!” she squealed.
The evil brat took off, laughing the whole way, and Jess shoved past the bastard wolf standing in front of her and went after her niece.
Kristan threw open the door and skidded into the main office. “You guys are not going to believe what I—”
Jess slapped her hand around Kristan’s mouth and dragged her back into the hallway.
“Excuse us,” Jess said to the room full of shifters staring at them.
Jess carried the pink-clad brat into the storage closet and slammed the door.
“Not a word!”
“Oh, come on! You can’t expect me to keep this to myself. You making out with a wolf. I could sell this to Sixty Minutes!”
“I’m ordering you to keep your mouth shut.”
Kristan snorted and Jess stepped up to her.
“You’re sixteen. Almost an adult. It’s time you learn how it works when you have an Alpha.”
“Yeah, right.”
Jess bared her fangs and took two dramatic steps forward. Frightened, Kristan stumbled back, slamming into the wall behind her. Jess moved in close and rested her cheek against Kristan’s forehead, her snarls low and dangerous, her fangs brushing against the girl’s skin.
“Okay, okay!”
“Are we clear?”
“Yes!”
Jess stepped back. “Not a word. Understand?”
Kristan nodded but wouldn’t look Jess in the eye. Good. She was learning.
“Now get Johnny and you two go home.”
The girl nodded her head again and took off running.
Jess gave herself a very brief moment to get her breath back and wipe shaky fingers over her bruised lips and through her hair, trying to get it back under control before following after Kristan since she wasn’t entirely ready to trust the girl would keep her mouth shut.
But as she opened the door she practically collided with Smitty.
“Jessie Ann—”
“Don’t.”
“But—”
She walked away from him and into the main room. She forced a smile since everyone was still standing around looking confused. “The kids are going home. But I’m starving. What are we ordering for dinner?”
Smitty sat back and watched them stand around a menu for a local Chinese restaurant and place their orders. Jessie acted like butter wouldn’t melt. Cold, indifferent, and trying to pretend like it didn’t mean anything to her.
But it had meant a hell of a lot to the woman he had pinned up against that wall. And if Jessie Ann really thought it would be that easy to shake him, she had so very much to learn.
CHAPTER 10
Jess sat at her desk, staring out the big office window, her feet up and resting on the small ledge. She had no idea how long she’d been sitting there. How long she’d let herself waste precious business hours by thinking about the disaster that was her life. But she couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t stop thinking about that goddamn kiss and the goddamn wolf who’d done this to her. She really should hate the man. If she had any sense, she’d keep as far away from him as humanly possible. But something told her it wouldn’t be that easy. Smitty wouldn’t let it be. Not because he cared about her or wanted her for his very own, but because his ego wouldn’t allow for anything else. He had something to prove, and he seemed intent on proving it with her.