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What This Wolf Wants(42)

By:Jennifer Dellerman


With all the blood rushing to her nether regions at his words, Jackie was surprised to find herself still standing. “What? No dinner for the condemned? Just off to jail?”

He frowned and instead of taking her words as the beginning of an argument she was pushing for so he wouldn’t look too closely, he did just what she didn’t expect him to do. He simply looked at her, and she knew what he was seeing. More than the anger that lit her eyes was the shadows of worry, highlighted by the dark circles of fatigue. No doubt he could hear the rapid beat of her heart and she damn well knew he could scent her arousal. She was upset, exhausted, horny, and hungry. And not necessarily in that order.

And Zan noticed it all. “I thought we would eat in Denver, but if you’re hungry now, we’ll eat now. Or tell me what you want and I’ll make it while you pack.”

Pack, that’s right. She refused to see the charm in him offering to make her food and focused on why she was packing. “Do you have any pictures of this Shider?” Jackie asked as she headed to her bedroom.

“I can get some. Why?” Zan followed her and sat on the edge of her bed, digging out his cell phone. Was he accessing the information without waiting for her response? The idea put a nice, warm glow around her heart. To get over it, she dumped a large suitcase she pulled from the closet next to him on the bed. He glanced at it and then her.

“I don’t pack light. Live with it.” She answered his unspoken question.

“Okay.” Zan drawled the word. “Scott will send the photos to your phone.”

Yep. Immediate action. Honestly, she’d expected another argument with him about it. Thinking he’d say something stupid like not to worry her pretty little head, that he was the big, bad soldier man and would take care of her, or that it was a need-to-know basis and she didn’t need to know. Nope. He just did what she’d asked. Zan was turning out not to be at all like what she’d first assumed, and it scared her to death.

And you know what they say about assuming?

Oh, shut up, she told her wolf.

He’s not at all like your uncle.

Didn’t I tell you to zip it!

“You okay?” Zan asked, yanking her from yet another inner debate.

She blinked at him. “Uh, yeah. I was just thinking that this Shider has an unfair advantage over me, knowing what I look like while I can’t say the same.”

“I should have thought of that, Jackie. I’m sorry.”

Again with the niceness. He was killing her. Destroying her initial beliefs of him. And without those beliefs to hold on to as a safety net, she just might fall for him.

She began filling her suitcase. Two pairs of jeans went in followed by various shorts, shirts, dress pants, bras, panties, and Pjs.

With each item she packed, Zan’s eyes grew wider. “Um, planning on staying awhile?”

Jackie peeked up at him. “Would you mind?”

His pause was her answer and she straightened, planting her fists on her hips. “Face it Zan. You’re not ready for what’s happening between us anymore than I am. You have a life in Virginia, I have one here. Our hormones are out of whack because of the mating heat, add in the element of danger and everything’s all mixed up.”

Zan leaned back on his elbows, his large body sprawled across her sheets like so much eye candy. She visually lapped him up, knowing when she returned to this room, all she would have left of Zan would be this memory to place alongside all the others she would carefully store.

“Just because I’m not ready doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

“Such a man. That’s lust talking.”

“Desire, which is cranked up to the nth degree via the mating heat. Nature isn’t wrong, Jackie. We’re meant to be together, no matter what you said about other potential mates out there. I see you and I don’t want to look anywhere else.”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. She would not melt, dammit! “And how will you feel when the mating heat goes away. How will you feel the next time you go on a mission, knowing that you’ll be leaving me alone, in a strange city, with strange people while you put yourself in danger, time and time again.”

Zan cautiously rose to his feet. “Jackie...”

She backed away when he reached for her. “No, Zan. Think about it. Seriously. Logically. I can’t live like that. I won’t live like that. It’s simply not fair to ask it of me.”

“And you could walk out the door of your clinic on any given day and be hit by a drunk driver.”

“I’m not saying death isn’t inevitable and could strike any second without warning. I’m saying I can’t be with a man that courts it every day of his life. It’s hard enough on Tess who worries over Caleb every day he goes to work, but he’s not sneaking into enemy territory or battling drug lords or dodging bullets every day.”