Wolf Line

Chapter Seven

Keri sprawled on her back, one foot hanging off the edge of the bed. She’d dragged a pillow over her face to stop the light sneaking in the small portside window from shining into her eyes.

Thoroughly satisfied. Boneless relaxation. She considered rolling over and looking around the room, but she didn’t have the energy to even do that.

Mark, no, Jared—her mate—had started with a slow seduction of her body that had gone on for hours. Speeding up, slowing down. They’d basically covered the entire room and the bath before the last time when she’d buried her teeth in his neck to stop from screaming during her orgasm.

There was no doubt about the physical connection between them. Maybe a couple of wolves farther up the hierarchy would have been able to hold off their animal sides to get to the bottom of the talking they had to do. For them, both firmly mired in the middle of the pack? Their wolves were stronger than the human side when they wanted something, and they’d both wanted their mates, badly.

She wiggled her fingers across the mattress in search of his warm body. Her inner beast stirred with more curiosity than lust, and Keri was both happy and sad. It wasn’t every day a girl got mated, but they really should do something other than burn up the sheets. It would be good if the animal side allowed them to take a short breather.

Her hand found nothing—not even a warm patch on the empty sheets—and she shoved the pillow away from her face as she rolled sideways and searched the room.

There was a note lying beside her and she grabbed it, collapsing back as her stomach muscles protested. Hmm, that bit of reverse cowboy had worn her out more than she thought.

She lifted both hands in the air and stared skyward at the writing. His letters were strong and bold and definitely masculine.

Hmm, masculine.

She beat down her inner husky to concentrate on the words.

Hi lover.

My phone went off while you were still sleeping like an angel, so I went to grab a few things. We’ve been invited to dinner. Kind of have to go—I’ll explain later, but in the meantime, rest up. We’ve got a lot to talk about.

You look delicious asleep, BTW.

Jared

Keri padded to the bathroom to soak her head and get fully awake. The clock over the dresser said it was five p.m. already, and the first dinner settings were at six.

A dinner invitation they had to meet? Her confusion returned fourfold. She really hoped this had nothing to do with the stolen jewelry. Oh God, she couldn’t stand to have just met him and have him taken away.

All kinds of scenarios raced through her mind. Him being blackmailed to steal. Him as the linchpin of a shifter mob who infiltrated shifter-only events and…

“Arghhhhh.” She rubbed her hair in an attempt to rid herself of the circular logic racing through her brain.

The towel covering her head must have masked the noise of the door because the next thing she knew there was a set of gentle hands assisting in drying her long hair. Jared slipped the towel away, and the light shone on his strong jaw and gorgeous brown eyes.

“Hey. You okay?”

Those eyes—those couldn’t be the eyes of a criminal. It would be such a rotten shame. Instinctively she stepped against his body and accepted his embrace. Not a word until the opportune moment. “Hey yourself. Light sleeper?”

“Only when there’s this really hot woman cuddled up to me so tight I’m unable to breathe she’s turning me on so hard.”

The tension in Keri’s belly wiggled off the cool setting onto the burner set to high, and she whimpered in pain. “Not fair. Your note said eating, not crawling all over each other for another four hours.”

His hand cupped her face, thumb gentle over her bottom lip. “It is rather bad timing, isn’t it? Can’t be helped. We’ll have to work together to convince our wolves to act politely for a couple hours while we dine, and then I promise we can come back here and continue until you can’t stand me bringing you to another climax.”

Another whimper escaped as she pictured returning to the room. “We need to change the topic. This isn’t helping.”

He brushed his lips over hers, stealing a kiss before stepping back and nodding solemnly. “Distraction needed. I agree.”

The cards he held forward caught her attention, all right. Official cruise seating-arrangement cards for the first-class dining hall. Shifters had hierarchies on top of hierarchies. The average pack might be very relaxed about some things, like sex, but you didn’t cross a line uninvited, and money and power often went hand in hand.

“Jared? Where did you get those?”

“I told you we had invites for dinner.” He looked away for a brief moment then returned to meet her gaze with a smile. “One of the upper-class families had room at their table, and I heard they’ve been inviting people to join them—kind of a be nice to the masses gesture, I guess.”

Keri opened the gold-gilded card with shaking fingers. There was her name written in fancy-schmancy script, seven o’clock seating time and the Fedoras’ official crest pressed into the wax seal.

Oh. Boy.

Sheer willpower kept her gaze connected with his. What she wanted to do was glance at the drawer where she’d tucked the brooch—the costs-some-ungodly-amount brooch she was pretty sure belonged to the Fedoras. But giving away the fact she knew something was up wouldn’t solve the problem.

Sudden raw anxiety wrapped around her like a miniature tornado.

It was annoying that the first thing that really caused her to panic had nothing to do with the thefts.

“I don’t have a thing—”

“—to wear?” His smile flashed instantly and he looked almost proud. “If you’ll allow me to solve that issue, I picked us up a couple things at the shop. They had your size on file from the staff list. Please, don’t say no. It’s my…mating gift to you.”

He’d pointed to the right, and for the first time she noticed the hangers hooked over the wall sconce. Something dark hung against the wall—a suit jacket, perhaps. But in front there was a shimmering red gown that made her gasp in surprise and dismay.

“Oh, Jared. How did you—?”

He caught her against him and kissed her protests away. It was a touch annoying, and yet how could she object when his mouth was doing such sinfully distracting things?

He drew away slowly, as if gauging to see if the complaints would pour out again. “I want you to feel comfortable tonight. I know it’s just a dress-up-to-dress-up thing. But you are so beautiful, I had to get you something that was nearly as pretty as you.”

“Silver-tongued devil…” Keri smiled slowly. It wasn’t her jeans and ratty T-shirts, but she wasn’t into being a rebel for rebellion’s sake anymore—she’d gotten over that as a teenager. He placed a hand on her lower back, directing her toward the clothing. The heat of his palm lingered against her flesh.

Contradictions raged inside, an emotional and mental battleground. She slid the back of her fingers down the material, a shiver racing over her at the sheer decadence of the fabric. She loved being cared for—and wearing this dress would make some of her little-girl daydreams come true. She was a princess being cared for by her fairy godmother.

Said godmother pressed against her back, and the image switched from pumpkins and formal balls to Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, who was now nibbling on her neck and the sensitive place behind her ear.

Big Bad Wolf was a better image to keep in mind than some kind and helpless old matriarch.

But the invitation had been issued. Declining would be massively rude, i.e., rude enough to be mentioned, and suddenly Tessa’s reputation was on the line and Keri was ready to laugh out loud.

It was easy to justify what you wanted to do in the first place, wasn’t it? She let her other protests die away for a moment as she turned to face him. “It’s simply incredible. Thank you.”

The expression lighting his eyes made her incredibly happy right before a tiny corner of guilt snuck in. Had the gown been paid for with stolen funds?

Screw it. She couldn’t hide in the sand like an ostrich forever, but for the next three hours? She would take the pretense of the fairy tale and roll with it. Keep her eyes wide open and hope her heart wasn’t about to be broken into pieces.

Jared coaxed the smile back to Keri’s face, and finally his wolf stopped slapping him around. The beast hadn’t stopped poke, poke, poking since he’d hit the damn ship. He’d figured it was because of the mate thing, but now that he and Keri had gotten together—and wow, nothing had prepared him for how much better sex with a mate was—Jared had figured his wolf would take a chill pill.

Nope. Still with the poke-poke shit. The stupid beast sensed something was wrong with his mate and wanted to fix it, right now. Jared couldn’t figure out what the lupine was going on about, which made both of them slightly pissed off and started the typical shifter internal-domination games. Two-brains-in-one-head couldn’t always live together in harmony, and this was one of those times.

Keri had pulled the gown off the wall and was flipping the hanger back and forth, checking both sides. He could hardly wait to see her in it. The skimpy garment had a low, low back, which should showcase that incredible tattoo she had. Which was a good thing.

The scoop of the fabric also meant that when he managed to sweet-talk her into dancing after dinner, he’d get to have his hand on bare flesh. Which was also a good thing.

There was no way she could wear a bra with that neckline. A very, very good thing.

He was such a dog.

“Oh!” Jared fumbled in his pocket. “I checked. If you want, you can get your hair done. And your…whatever else you want. They can sneak you in so you’re ready in time for our seating.”

Keri took the salon’s card from him and that brow of hers went up again. “You think I need a haircut?”

Jared stopped in confusion. That wasn’t the response he’d expected. “Umm, no, but I thought you might enjoy getting done up all fancy.”

The pause was barely there, but he still noticed. He’d made her uncomfortable, and that was the last thing he’d intended. His wolf gave him shit and this time he agreed.

“Actually, I stopped at the salon to grab a bottle of massage oil so I can seduce the crap out of you later, and then I thought most women love to be pampered and stuff.” Jared grabbed her hands and squeezed them tightly. Starting a lifetime relationship not knowing a thing about the other person was freaking hard, but damn if he’d mess it up over something as inconsequential as a dinner out. “That whole ‘I’m yours, you’re mine’ thing? I meant it. In everything, even in the little things. Hell, especially in the little things that make you happy. If you tell me you want to go to dinner in our jeans, I’m game. I don’t mind pushing the boundaries of politeness, but I also want to give you special things. You can dye your hair neon green and I’ll still think you are gorgeous. You can—”

It was his turn to be kissed into silence. Keri all but crawled up him, and her tongue was down his throat, and if he didn’t exercise more control than he wanted to, he was going to be buried in her body and not let either of them come up for air all night long.

It took every ounce of strength to catch hold of her hair, wrap it around his fist and tug lightly. She gasped, not with pain, but something sweet and dark and dammit, his cock couldn’t possible get any harder, but it did.

“You’re going to make us late for dinner.”

She grinned. “I’m sorry I misunderstood your offer. I’d love to hit the salon, on one condition.”

He knew that look. Oh man, he’d seen it on his mom and sisters when they were about to do a little “improving” on him. “No. Please, no.”

She batted her lashes.

“Oh, as if that’s fair. Using your physical addictiveness to entice me into a salon? You’d do that to me?”

She stroked her fingers through his hair. “I like how you look as well, Mr. Gilliland, but if we’re going to do this, let’s do it up right. I doubt we’ll be dining with royalty very often in our lifetime. Why not make it a night to remember?”

Jared grinned. “Deal.”

Keri shuffled past him. He called to confirm their bookings as he watched her pull on minuscule underwear. It wasn’t the right moment to expand on the fact this was probably going to be the first of many such dinners.

He didn’t want to freak her out too badly.

“Thirty seconds and I’ll be ready.”

Jared waved as she disappeared into the bathroom. He leaned back on the desk then remembered he’d better phone his parents before the night was over, but the call was bound to take more time than he currently had. If he forgot, and his folks heard from someone else, his ass would be in a sling. Only, what were the odds he’d be too distracted when they returned to her room?

Better safe than sorry. He slipped open the drawer looking for a piece of paper to leave himself a reminder. He’d plop it in the middle of the bed so they couldn’t miss it.

Jackpot. A notepad.

He grasped a page, tugging to remove it from the pad, and the entire drawer jerked forward. Displaying a very familiar diamond-and-ruby pendant tucked into the back corner.

“Keri—?” Panic sealed his lips in mid-question.

Oh shit. Oh shit. Jared darted a glance toward the bathroom to make sure the door was still closed, then palmed the brooch and slipped it into his pocket.

His heart pounded as if he’d been racing around the deck whilst being chased by some of the bigger and nastier cougar shifters, the type who were known to provide loans with horrible interest rates to the losers hanging out in the onboard casino.

Not that he’d had any business with those kind of riffraff, but they were a part of shifter culture as much as human society.

The brooch rested in his pocket like a lump of coal, ready to burn his life to ashes. It wasn’t fair, but then, life wasn’t fair. He was old enough to know that truth.

Keri stepped from the bathroom and joined him with a happy smile. “Ready to go.”

He put his best face forward. “We’ve got plenty of time. We’ll come back to change if that’s okay.”

She wrapped her fingers around his arm and they stepped together up the hallway.

They were quiet as they strode the hall. Jared was too busy thinking about what the hell he was going to do to solve this shit of a mess to make polite conversation.

Keri cleared her throat. “It’s weird, isn’t it? This whole mate thing?”

The question helped him focus, the innocent query deceptively complex. It was as if she were completely a part of him and yet completely hidden behind a wall. “I can sense little things I didn’t expect. And I like your sense of humour. I know a lot of people who have found their mates, and they’ve always told me that the relationship was totally right, just what they’d been looking for.”

Keri stumbled a little, and he braced her. “You okay?”

She nodded then blurted out, “Am I what you’ve been looking for?”

The brooch slowed his step, a ball and chain of worry weighing him down.

Her fingers tightened before he could respond. “Jared? You okay? I…I’m sorry if I put you on the spot. Let me say that differently. I hope I can become what you’ve always wanted in a mate.”

And with those brave words, all his fears vanished. He turned her into his arms and rested his forehead against hers. Taking slow breaths, looking into her eyes and seeing her soul.

Finding out his mate was possibly the thief everyone was talking about belowdecks had momentarily freaked him out. But she was right—people could change. He was going to support her every way he could, and they could move forward into a new life together.

“I know it’s early, and we don’t know each other completely yet, but Keri, I’m going to fall in love with you. Thoroughly and completely. So you’d better bet you’re what I’ve always wanted in a mate.”

A tiny crease marred the corners of her eyes as she fought back tears. “We can do this, can’t we? We can fall in love, as well as our wolves?”

“Oh yes.” Jared pushed his wolf as far into the corner as he could. For once the beast went with only a second’s pfft at being told to bugger off. “We’re going to fall in love so hard our wolves are going to be jealous of our human sides.”

Keri laughed out loud. “Yeah, right.”

Jared kissed her laughing lips, her mouth still open as he captured her. It was a short exchange, with more tenderness than passion. A kiss of hopeful need and yearning to belong mixed with promises of long days and years to come.

Jared would make sure they fell in love.

But first, he had to find some way to return the brooch to the Fedoras without Keri being caught. Because the distinctive arrangement was most definitely his father’s handiwork and had been a family gift to the rulers a few years back.