“Where are you going?” he asked while she zipped up her backpack. Why she felt the need to bring her laptop with her to a karaoke bar, he’d never know.
“Back to the office. I’ve got a ton of work to do.”
He waited for the punch line, but it never came. “You’re serious?”
“She’s serious,” Sabina sighed out. “Pathetic, isn’t it?”
“Give me a break. I left a lot of stuff not done.”
“And you’ll sleep when?”
“I can use the couch in my office. And the engineering-coding floor has a Sleep Room. I’ll crash there.”
“I thought... ”
“You thought what?”
Smitty glanced around at the Pack and he quickly figured out they had no intention of giving him and Jessie some privacy.
“I thought you’d come home with me tonight.”
Sabina bumped her arm. “Sex is better than work. Go home with the wolf and use him like the dirty, vile whore he is.”
Smitty frowned. He had no idea if the woman was helping him or not.
“Not tonight. He didn’t make it worth it.”
“Make it worth it?”
She looked up at him. “Yeah.”
“If you come home with me, I’ll make it worth it,” he promised.
“Sex is sex, Smitty. I can get good sex from any unmated male here.”
“She sure can!” someone from the crowd yelled out, proving they had everyone’s attention.
“So what would make it worth it for you?”
She grinned. “Sing for me.”
“I don’t sing for anyone.”
“So I’m anyone?” She snorted and picked up her backpack. Sad when she had to have Danny help her haul it on. But when she put that thing on, it meant she was leaving.
“You’re serious?”
“Extremely,” she muttered while trying to keep her balance. Why she didn’t get a better bag or take some of that crap out, he’d never know.
“Fine.”
Brushing past her, Smitty headed up to the stage.
Jess’ eyes grew wide and she looked at her Pack. “No. Way.” She turned, but did it so quickly her backpack threw her off and if Danny hadn’t caught her, she’d have fallen flat on her ass.
Letting Danny put her back on her feet, she watched Smitty flip quickly through the song book, pick something, and plug the code into the machine.
She never thought he’d get on that stage. Not in a million years. Even his mother could never coax him into singing. Not even when he was drunk off his ass and he’d do pretty much anything else. Based on his reaction alone when she mentioned it, Jess thought nothing had changed.
Yet there he was, pulling his baseball cap a little lower on his head, hooking his thumbs into the front pocket of his jeans, and focusing on the monitor rolling the lyrics. It took her no time to recognize the music. She’d always had a thing for Randy Travis. No country singer she knew of had better down-home love songs. But it was the man’s voice that got her every time. Yet, for the first time ever, she found a voice to rival the master. Low, smooth, and decadent, Smitty’s voice rolled over her as he started singing “Deeper Than the Holler.”
“Lord have mercy,” May whispered next to her.
“Good God,” Sabina said in shock.
Jess didn’t say anything. She had no words. Nothing witty or dismissive. She could only stare—and pine.
It wasn’t a long song, and before she knew it, Smitty finished. The crowd jumped to its feet—even the bears, who were notoriously snotty about that sort of thing—clapping and cheering.
Smitty, his eyes focused on the floor, walked off the stage and through the crowd, ignoring all the pats on his back and praise of his voice.
He walked right up to Jess, grabbed her hand, and kept on moving. He didn’t even stop to say good night, check on his friend, or anything else people might do.
Smitty walked out of the club and dragged Jess down the street until he hit an alley. He pulled her inside, pushed her up against the wall, and kissed her. A desperate, yearning kiss she returned, her hands running up his back and shoulders until her fingers could dig into his hair.
He finally pulled back, after he had her like melted chocolate in his hands, and said, “You’re coming home with me.”
Definitely an order and she so didn’t give a shit. “Yeah. I’m coming home with you.”
He kissed her one more time until she groaned and clung to him. That’s when he pulled away and, taking firm hold of her hand, dragged her to his truck.CHAPTER 18
The cell phone woke him up Thursday morning. Not surprising. He’d meant to set his alarm but he kept forgetting. For the last three nights he’d had Jessie Ann in his bed and the last thing he worried about was time. After they left the Karaoke bar Monday night, they’d started making out in the elevator leading to his apartment, unable to keep their hands off each other. Nearly fucked in the hallway but she took off running and Lord knew he loved a good chase. The rest of the night they spent in bed, making each other come like crazy. It had been nice.
Hell. Who was he kidding? It had been amazing.
The next night she’d shown up at his door, extremely tipsy on champagne after dinner with a client, and dumped there by Phil. After getting her out of her skimpy dress, they’d dived under the covers and spent hours playing “what am I fondling now?”
Then last night he’d had a job that wouldn’t end until late and he didn’t think he’d see her. Done by two, he still found himself driving over to her office. He wasn’t exactly shocked to see that the light in her office was on. Now that he and Mace handled all security for Jessie’s company, he’d let himself in, gone up to the top floor, dumped her over his shoulder, and taken her back home with him. They’d both been exhausted and ended up doing nothing more than kissing and nuzzling before they both fell asleep in each other’s arms.
He’d never slept so well before in his life.
And he’d had no intention of getting up early, until his damn phone went off.
Yawning, Smitty flipped open his phone but quickly realized it hadn’t been his ringing.
By the time he turned around, Jessie had her phone to her ear and was scrambling over the bed and over him, heading to the bathroom.
Before the door closed all he heard from her was, “No. I’ll handle this myself.”
She didn’t sound happy, but he figured he could dig into what was going on once she got out of the bathroom. He really hoped it didn’t have to do with that idiot Wilson. He had Mitch tracking him down. The lion could find anyone once he set his mind to it. But until they tracked Wilson down and Smitty had a chance to talk to him, he wouldn’t feel Jessie’s Pack was safe. At least not safe enough.
He soon heard the shower start while he had the coffee brewing, when his own phone rang.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, buddy. It’s Phil.”
“Yeah?”
“Okay. Not a morning person. Good to know. Anyway, the Pack needs you to do us a favor.”
“What?”
“Stay with Jess.”
Smitty’s lip curled back, he felt his incisors lengthen. Did he actually just have a dog tell him he should stay with Jess? As in permanently? Two things bothered him about that. One, he didn’t want the little runts ordering him to do a damn thing. And two... that “permanently” didn’t sound as bad as it should.
“Hello? Damn. I think I lost the connection.”
“No. I’m right here.”
“Oh. So you can do that?”
Taking a deep breath, “Don’t you think that’s up to me and Jessie Ann?”
“Well, she’ll just say no.”
And there went his hackles.
“What d’ya mean she’ll say no?”
“She’ll say she won’t need you.” The little runt said it so matter-of-factly too. Why wouldn’t she need him? They got along real well. Didn’t irritate each other too much, in his opinion. And had amazing sex.
Dammit. Now what was he doing?
“Are you there?”
Smitty ignored the pooch’s exasperated tone. “If she doesn’t need me why are you trying to force the issue?”
“Because we don’t want her to go to Connecticut by herself. Since she’s our Alpha Female we have to abide by her wishes. But you don’t. And from what I can tell, you won’t.”
“Connecticut?”
“Yeah. What else have we been talking about?”
Annoyed, frustrated, and just downright pissy due to lack of coffee, Smitty slapped his phone closed and stalked to the bathroom, bursting into the room.
He snatched the shower curtain back, and got a lovely Jessie scream for his trouble.
“What?” she demanded, trying in vain to cover herself with a washcloth—although he didn’t know why. He’d spent many hours licking her from head to toe, exactly what hadn’t he seen? And tasted? And enjoyed?
“Why are you going to Connecticut?”
“Were you listening to my phone call?”
“No.”
She gave an adorable little snarl. “Damn Phil.”
“Answer my question.”
“No.”
She yanked the curtain closed. But Smitty just yanked it back open.
“Why are you going to Connecticut?”
“I need to check on something out there. Something that has nothing to do with you.”
She yanked the curtain closed again. Smitty yanked it back.
At this point he kind of guessed he was being a bit ridiculous, but that didn’t stop him from finding something else to go off about. “What is that on your head?”