He chuckled. “I could sit and watch them swim for hours. They’re actually the perfect pets for me. If I’m a little late because of the job, I don’t have to worry about them making a mess on the carpet.”
Jayna touched her finger to the glass tank and gently traced it back and forth in time with the motions of the three saltwater fish. “Do they have names?”
“The red one with the silver markings is Lady Liadrin, the dark blue one is Queen Azshara, and the black one with the long, wavy fins is Lady Vashj.”
She glanced at him. “Those are the strangest names for fish I’ve ever heard. What’s wrong with Dory?”
He moved closer to her, breathing in her scent as she went back to watching the fish swim among the colorful coral and lush plants. “They’re all female characters from World of Warcraft. It’s a video game.”
“Yeah, I know what World of Warcraft is.” She turned to him with a smile. “Wouldn’t have pegged you for a gamer either.”
He grinned. “I like to think of myself as a man with varied and complex tastes. Come on. I’ll give you a grand tour of the place.”
His apartment wasn’t that big, so maybe grand wasn’t the right word, but Jayna seemed eager to look around.
The moment they walked into the kitchen, she locked in on the two big bowls on the floor in the corner. “I thought I smelled a dog.” She looked around. “Where is he?”
“I share custody with the rest of the Pack,” he said. Then, when she gave him a confused look, added, “We picked up Tuffie a few months ago after she and her owner got shot by some psycho. Her owner didn’t make it, so we took her in. We all take turns bringing her home with us.”
Jayna smiled and looked wistfully at the bowls. “That’s so cool. I always wanted a dog when I was a kid. But with my screwed-up home life, getting a dog was out of the question.”
Becker never thought of himself as a softie, but his chest tightened up at her words. “Then I’ll make sure you get to meet Tuffie. In fact, we’ll make it a priority.” He put his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”
They wandered from the kitchen to the second bedroom, which was set up as his computer-room-slash-home-office. Jayna stopped in the doorway and stared at the four computers with their huge, oversized monitors.
“What the heck do you do with all these, spy on the NSA?”
He laughed. “Nah. I used to do work like that, but these days, I just play around on them. Kind of like a hobby, I guess.”
“A hobby, huh?” She lifted a brow. “Like hacking into Starbucks’s computers and the city’s video cameras so you could find me?”
“Exactly.” He grinned. “Some guys like to work on cars or do woodworking. I search for beautiful women who might want to bite me.”
She blushed. “I never intended to bite you. Shoot you, yes. But never bite you. At least not the first time we met. The desire to bite you came much later.”
Becker had a sudden image of Jayna nipping at his neck with those sexy canines of hers, a thought that immediately made his cock stiffen. He decided he’d better do something intelligent before he gave in to his animal urges and pulled her into his arms. He led her back toward the living room, intending to show her his killer TV and video game setup, but she stopped halfway there.
“What’s in here?” she asked, motioning her head toward the closed door.
“My bedroom,” he said, heading toward the living room again. “Nothing interesting in there.”
Not unless you counted his king-size bed. And while it wasn’t all that interesting on its own, he was already picturing her lying back on it, gloriously naked with her silky hair fanned out on the pillows. That image made his cock even harder.
He cleared his throat. “You want to try your hand at a few video games? I promise to take it easy on you.”
“I should be offended that you’re assuming I suck at video games.” Jayna plopped down on his big, comfy couch, then kicked off her flip-flops and sat cross-legged. “But since I don’t play them very much, you’re probably right.”
Becker made a quick detour into the kitchen to grab two bottles of water from the fridge, then powered up his game console and television.
“You sure the TV is big enough?” she teased as she sipped some water. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to see it clearly from here.”
He selected a simple race car game he thought would be good to start with. “It’s the biggest one I could get through the door.”