Jessica scooped up the girl, who was almost asleep now. She stood just as Charles returned to the door. "All set?"
"Yep. Let's get her in the car." He turned and high-tailed it toward the entrance to the school as though his pants were on fire.
Jessica followed. Mr. Blond brought up the rear. Right on her heels. Without turning around, she knew only inches separated them.
At the entrance, Charles held the tall glass door open and waited for Jessica to squeeze through with her sleeping bundle.
No one spoke on the walk to the car. Nor when Charles opened the back door of Tessa's van and stood back for Jessica to put Miranda in her booster seat.
She buckled the child in with shaking hands and hoped she had done it correctly in her foggy state.
When she ducked her head and backed out of the car, both men stood there on either side, still as statues, staring her down as she balanced on one foot and then the other and whipped her gaze back and forth between them.
Charles pushed a button on the remote, and the sliding door slid shut automatically, the movement and squeal of the motor behind Jessica making her jump.
"Sorry. I … " Charles closed his mouth.
"I'm Reese. Reese Becker." Jessica turned her gaze to the blond god as he set his fingers gently on her biceps. The simple touch sent a jolt of shock down her arm, and her body shook. As those fingers trailed down her arm to her hand, she never let her gaze release his. She was lost in his mesmerizing deep blue gaze, unable to control her reaction.
"You must be the infamous Jessica," Charles stated. He didn't touch her, but he did lean closer, inhaling long and slow. "Fuck."
That had been her exact thought numerous times in the last few minutes. How long had they been in this standoff?
She swallowed hard and turned just her head slowly his way, not releasing the gaze Reese held her captive with until the last second. Her gaze whipped toward Charles when her neck craned too far in his direction.
Reese still held her fingers in his own, just the merest of touches.
Charles' mouth slowly tipped up on one side in a wry smile. He leaned his forehead against hers, the warmth of his breath mingling with her own. Way too close.
Jessica ducked from between the two men crowding her and making her head spin.
She took two steps toward the building and then spun on her heels. "I have to go back to work … finish the day." Not stopping her momentum for fear she'd get sucked into some sort of sexual vortex and be unable to escape, she kept backing up. Her hands shook at her sides. Her chest fluttered as though she were exhausted from running.
Charles and Reese stepped in her direction. She put a hand out to stop them. "I can't … do this … right now."
"Later, then." Charles narrowed his gaze. "What time do you finish?" He wasn't going to give her an inch of space, a single second of time to contemplate this development.
"Three-thirty, but-"
"We'll be here." Reese spoke this time. His voice was a shade deeper than Charles' but just as gravelly. Did they always have that tone that sounded like they were in the middle of having sex? Or was it just now, just because of this initial meeting?
Jessica shook her head. "Not here. I work here. I can't-"
"You can't avoid this, Jessica. We have to discuss it. Work it out. Talk. Justin told me about you, about your reluctance-"
"I don't care what Justin told you, or Ryan. You don't know anything about me." She planted her hands on her hips and paused ten feet from them. She gave them a glare.
"Babe, we just want-"
"Don't ‘babe' me. I'm not ready for that. And I know what you want. Please, give me space and time to figure this out. Think. How about tomorrow?"
Tomorrow? What am I? Crazy? That wasn't nearly enough time to think about what she wanted to do next. Now that she had a few feet of distance between her and these brutes, her head was clearer. Okay, maybe not clearer exactly, but somewhat sharper. She'd spent her whole life dreading this moment. Now? Fuck.
"Uh-uh." Charles shook his head. "No way. We'll be here when you get out, and you can either play nice and meet with us or suffer the repercussions of causing a scene in the parking lot in front of your coworkers." His words were harsh, but his tone was not. In fact, he was grinning.
He had her.
"Fine." Jessica turned and stomped back into the school, not glancing back even for a second.
Her blood boiled, but she had no idea if it was from anger or arousal, and that just made her madder.
Chapter 3
Charles paced back and forth, stumbling occasionally on a rock or a tree root that had dared to peek out from the dirt, cussing at the audacity of the fucking roots as though they were purposefully in his way.
"Now what do we do?" Reese said, asking the question neither one had the answer to.
Charles ran his hands through his hair for the thousandth time and turned to stare at Reese where he sat leaning against the trunk of a tree. How can he be so calm?
"Dude, don't look at me like that. Don't forget I can hear your thoughts just fine now. Just because I can control myself better than you outwardly doesn't for one minute mean I'm not boiling inside. And, for your information, my dick is just as hard as yours."
Charles glanced around at the dense trees. "Yeah, and you being in my head is just weird. My brothers can do that with their mates, but it still gives me the chills. Do you think Jessica can hear our thoughts too?"
"No. If she could, she'd have run from us in the parking lot." Reese grinned. "Apparently we have to claim her before she's privy to our thoughts."
"Well, I'd sure rather be inside her head than yours right now."
"Ain't that the truth?"
A chill crept up Charles' spine, bringing with it a sensation the two of them were hiding from something or hiding something. "I feel like we're sneaking around."
"Yeah, well, we are. Do I need to remind you there is a woman in your parents' house who came home with us? Remember Alyssa? The one your mother is currently entertaining?"
Charles glared at Reese. "I'm aware of the problem." He resumed pacing. "She's a conundrum all of her own. Suggestions?" He hadn't exactly forgotten Alyssa, but he definitely didn't have her in the forefront of his mind. It sure as hell wasn't convenient he and Reese would meet their mate less than a day after bringing another woman home.
"Me? Why do I have to solve everything? I don't have the faintest idea what we're going to do about her. Getting her out of Oklahoma was easy. Why didn't we consider what would happen when we got here?" Reese shook the thought from his mind. "I can't deal with that issue right now. My brain got overrun by a sexy minx with deep brown eyes who blocked out the first twenty-five years of my life in less than an instant. Meanwhile we're hiding out back in the woods plotting … What the fuck are we plotting?"
Charles ignored him. "Let's consider the facts."
"Go ahead," Reese muttered. "Do you have any new ones that have come to light in the last few hours?"
Paying no attention to Reese once again, Charles held up a finger. "First, the elusive Jessica is a wolf. Second, she doesn't like that idea one bit. Third, well, shit, she's our mate." He resumed pacing.
"Good job, Sherlock. Like I said, do you have anything new to add?" Reese jumped to his feet. "Look, we are running out of time. We have to get back to the school before our sexy little pixie decides to make a run for it. By the look on her face, I wouldn't be surprised if she jumps in her car the first chance she gets and hightails it out of town."
"What do we do about Alyssa?"
"Alyssa who?"
"Ha ha. The sexy blonde girl?"
"Was she blonde?" When Charles turned toward him, once again widening his eyes in shock, Reese laughed. "Oh, good grief. I know what color her hair is. I'm just pointing out what portion of my brain is actually focused on her." Reese turned and stomped toward the opening in the trees. Taking advantage of their new ability to communicate silently, he spoke directly into Charles' mind. "You coming, or am I going to claim Jessica alone?" There was no need to shout or turn around now that they'd found a mate. Their friendship had just taken an about-face.
"Do you have to be so crude?" Charles grumbled, but he didn't care. This situation was sticky at best; it had disaster written all over it at worst.
"You want me to sugarcoat it?" Reese spun around in front of him, his nostrils flaring. "We're fucked."
"Hey, it's not our fault. We're innocent in this whole thing. How the hell were we to know we would meet our mate today of all days? People, wolves too for that matter, have lives. This surely happens."