Jessica’s Wolves(5)

“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.”