"Of course it does, but a very nice woman came halfway across the country with us for the holidays. You want to tell her or you want me to?"
Charles cringed again. Reese was right. Furthermore, Nancy Masters, Charles' mother, was not going to be very happy if her son treated anyone, wolf or otherwise, with anything but respect and courtesy. He could hear it now. "Son, you invited this charming woman to spend the holidays with us, so now you must reap what you sow and deal with it."
Reese craned his neck forward, waiting for an answer.
"Let's figure that out later. First, we have to go talk a reluctant Jessica into … well, I don't know quite what, but something."
"At least we agree on that." Reese turned on the balls of his feet and headed directly for the truck. "No sense stopping by the house now. We're out of time anyway."
* * * *
Jessica peeked out the small window in the corner of her classroom for the fiftieth time. It was the last day of the semester. The first day of Christmas break. Why the hell was anyone still in the building?
There were three cars outside. Her Honda Civic. An unfamiliar black truck right next to it with steaming windows, which could belong to no one other than either Charles or Reese. And last of all, the assistant principal's Mercedes. Obviously Carrie's husband had a better job than she did.
Stalling was Jessica's middle name this afternoon. A confrontation with two hunky men was inevitable, and the last thing she wanted was witnesses.
She'd been waiting, rather impatiently, for the last few people to leave the school for a half hour. Normally, everyone scrambled within moments of the last bell to begin a break, especially a long break. Not today. No. It was taking an excruciatingly long time for everyone to vacate.
Butterflies bounced around in her stomach. Her head was so light she'd already stuffed it between her legs three times since school got out.
"Jessica?" The soft voice made Jess nearly jump out of her skin as she twisted herself around to face her assistant principal. Her hand got tangled in the blinds she held open to stare out the window, and they clanked against the frame, the noise louder than a freight train in contrast to the silence of the nearly abandoned school.
"Oh. Sorry. You scared me." Jessica put her hand over her chest and heaved breaths. How had she managed to be oblivious to the approaching footsteps of Carrie St. Martin? The woman tromped around in tall heels every single day. It was nice because she could never sneak up on anyone's classroom. Everyone could hear the woman coming a mile away as she clacked down the hallway.
Although somehow Jessica had been so far off in space, she'd managed to completely miss the woman's approach even in the total silence of the afternoon.
"Are you okay? Why are you still here?" Carrie didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she angled herself around the desk and peered out into the waning winter day. "Is someone waiting for you?"
"Yes." Jessica scrambled to stuff papers in her bag. Clear her desk of debris. "I was just finishing up."
Carrie laughed as she turned back around. "Well, I'm leaving. I just thought I'd check on you when I noticed your car still outside. You'll be okay? Do you know those people?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'll be right behind you. Friends. They're waiting on me."
Carrie looked concerned. Her brow furrowed as though Jess were lying. "Okay," she drawled, seeming to realize how ridiculous that would be. "Everything's locked up. Just make sure to pull the door closed when you leave.
As Carrie left the classroom, her heels resonated like tap shoes, echoing on the linoleum floor. She turned back one more time at the door. "Go. Enjoy your vacation." She smiled and disappeared.
Exhaling a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, Jessica scrambled to gather her things, flipped out the lights, and headed for the front door.
Now what are you going to do, smarty pants? Perhaps it would have been better to leave while there were still teachers all over the parking lot than now when it was ominously empty.
As soon as she stepped outside, the chill bit at her cheeks and fingers. Large flakes were delicately drifting through the air toward the ground, in no hurry to reach their destination. Apropos, seeing as she had no spur on her heel to reach her destination either.
Fortifying breaths. She just needed to face these hunks and get out of here as fast as possible. Preferably before she succumbed to the lure of their scent as she had earlier today. This was not in the plan.
Charles and Reese stepped out of the dark truck parked next to her Civic and leaned against the bed. Their matching stares stabbed into Jess like four sharp daggers.
The afternoon had given her the opportunity to stiffen her spine and gather her wits without the ridiculous male pheromones to cloud her judgment. In fact, she practically held her breath now so she could think, and she stopped several feet from the men, spreading her legs a foot apart in the standoff. With her hands plastered to her hips, she could only hope she demonstrated a daunting presence.
Breathing in through her mouth to avoid what she'd already experienced earlier today, she began. "Listen, this isn't going to work. I know-"
Charles laughed, practically in her face. "Are you kidding? Did you just become a lupine last night?"
His expression changed from mocking to sober to contrite as she glared. He didn't continue.
"Listen, I'll be the first to admit I'm not extremely versed in the ways of your-our-kind, but I know enough. I know I do have the right to refuse you, and that's what I'm doing. Exercising that right."
Charles took a step forward before Reese grabbed his arm and hauled him back against the car.
Reese took a few deep breaths, tipped his head back, and then narrowed his gaze at her again. "Why would you do that?" His words wafted toward her on the slight breeze, faint, almost unintelligible.
"None of your business. Please, let me be. Find someone else. I don't want this."
Charles had more difficulty controlling himself than Reese. He yanked his biceps free of Reese's grasp and stepped toward her. "It doesn't work like that," he began. "If it did-"
"There is no need to make this difficult," she interrupted. "I. Don't. Want. A. Mate." She separated the words and enunciated them succinctly to ensure there was no misunderstanding.
"Jessica-" Charles tried again, but this time Reese cut him off.
"Believe me, we didn't head out this morning in search of a mate either. In fact, it's downright complicated for us, but that doesn't change the fact we are drawn to you on a level we can't resist … and you are just as affected by us." He lowered his voice and tucked his chin as he stated this last part. "Denying a mating is … rare."
"It would be difficult. Unimaginable," Charles finally managed to squeeze in. He even had the audacity to adjust his crotch.
Jessica's gaze went from his face to his groin, taking in his stance that appeared almost painful. Neither man wore a coat, even though it was hovering near the freezing mark this afternoon. The bulge in Charles' jeans grabbed her attention and held her gaze. She actually had to shake her head to wipe out the image and draw her attention back to his face.
Her lips burned in the cold, and it occurred to her that her mouth was hanging open, letting the frigid air in and drying her lips and tongue. She swallowed as she faced off with both men, licking her lips as she glanced from one to the other. "I'm not interested in mating."
"Ever? Or with us?" Charles asked.
Tucking her fingers into the pockets of her coat to warm them, she shivered. "Ever." There was no mistaking her intention. She'd not minced words. Were they dense?
Charles cocked his head and narrowed his gaze again. "You do realize this is inevitable, right? What are you afraid of?"
Jessica gasped. He'd hit the nail on the head and come way too close to reading her. She didn't want anyone to dig into her brain and find out her secrets. It was her life, and she intended to live it in celibacy. They didn't have stores full of vibrators and dildos for nothing. Somebody had to shop there.
"Please," she pleaded, hearing the squeak in her voice. "I just want to go home." Back to the apartment where I've lived for four and a half years. The one where I live alone with my toys. The very one I was abducted from in the fall. Where I cry myself to sleep at night, praying I never meet with another group of crazy religious freaks or run into anyone resembling a mate-like you two.
With a tear sliding precariously close to the edge of her eye, Jessica plowed past both men, yanked her car open, and climbed inside out of the frigid air.