Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Their gazes tangled, lingering too long until he forced himself to shove the truck door open and tumble out.
Melissa headed straight for the Anthropologie store, her walk brisk. Apparently she’d taken the time limit as a challenge. He grinned and followed her, eyes on her heart-shaped ass.
She worked efficiently, seeming to know what she wanted, and plucking clothes from the rack with a determined air. He stayed by the doorway, arms folded across his chest. Based on the looks people threw him, he stood out. Well, he was used to that. The tattoos and rough appearance drew wary glances wherever he went. Still, it seemed to underscore the differences between him and Melissa, which for some reason pissed him off.
He had no interest in Melissa. No interest apart from prying those creamy white thighs open and fucking her hard and fast until she begged to come. Why should he give a rat’s ass if they were compatible? It wasn’t like they were entering into a relationship.
Except he knew most of that was a lie. His wolf wanted her, for a need beyond sex.
Mate.
He swore softly under his breath, catching another nervous glance from a customer.
He wasn’t going to mate a human. Especially not a stuck-up brat like this one. But the memory of her face lit up by that smile flashed in his mind and he felt himself softening again. That smile had been genuine, the real Melissa. The girl who’d let him hold her the night before after he’d made her cry. That girl… he needed.
Melissa tried to make quick mental notes of the basic clothing she might need. A couple of casual things, something suitable for work, just in case. Underclothes. Sleepwear. She didn’t want to spend too much money—she didn’t have much in her bank account to use to reimburse Cody, which is why she would have preferred using her credit card.
She kept her eye on the time, not because she was worried about Cody ‘expiring’ but because she loved a challenge. Eighteen minutes. She took the clothes she’d found and headed out, catching Cody’s eye. She hated him having to cover this. She didn’t know how much he had, but being a burden on him didn’t sit well with her.
He started toward her, his movement far more fluid and graceful than she’d expect on such a large, muscled man. But he wasn’t just a man. She remembered the silver wolf sniffing outside for her the night before—huge, threatening. Magnificent.
He stuck his hand in his pocket and withdrew a wad of bills, just as she’d expect from a guy like him. No wallet. No credit cards. Just a huge wad of cash. Kinda like Jeremy. Did that mean he was into illegal things like Jeremy? Why was he carrying so much cash?
He grabbed a purse from a nearby rack and tossed it on the counter.
She lifted a brow and he shrugged. “You need one, right?”
She bit her tongue to keep from saying, yeah, but not that one. He already thought she was a picky bitch. Scanning the others on the rack, she quickly traded it out before the cashier rang it up.
Cody paid for it all—gulp—two hundred and eighty dollars’ worth of stuff. He dropped a hand on her nape as they walked out. “It’s okay, baby. Are you worried you have to pay me back?”
Had it shown on her face? She didn’t like being dependent on him like this. She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “No, I can afford it. I just need to get access to my stuff.” Her voice came out slightly higher pitched than usual.
He contemplated her for a moment and she felt stripped bare, like he saw right past her lie. He stopped, the hand at her neck holding her back as he pulled her around to face him. Tilting her chin up, he rumbled in his deep voice, “I’m taking care of it.” A wicked light gleamed in his eyes. “But you’re welcome to show your appreciation for your sugar daddy any way you please.”
Her lips curved when she caught the raw hunger in his expression. Remembering the power she’d felt at tempting him that afternoon, she ran her fingers across his chest, tracing the lines of his chiseled muscles. “Is that so?” she purred, using a honeyed voice and lowering her lids to half-mast. “Right here? In the mall?”
His eyes changed to light blue. “Careful,” he rasped, his voice two octaves deeper than normal. He burrowed his fingers into her hair and wound it around his fist, tugging her head back at the same time he yanked her flush against his body. The insistent bulge of his erection pressed against her belly. “You think I won’t find a way to fuck you raw, right here, in the mall?” He laughed harshly. “I’m a very resourceful wolf when I’m offered a challenge.”