Big Bad Bite (29 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Sitting alone in her suite facing the
windows, Jenna watched as twilight settled over the city of
Frankfurt below. It was an awe inspiring view to behold, and yet
she couldn’t genuinely appreciate it because her mind kept running
over everything that was Adam. That confusing Pros and Cons list
she’d started in her head to help her sort this shit out was about
as useful as a hemorrhoid on the ass of progress. She thought about
her doubts and fears with Adam, but felt guilty when her brother’s
words came back to her. He’d pointed out her insecurities when it
came to trusting others. Her almost indestructible emotional walls
that kept anyone who wasn’t blood related far away from her heart.
More importantly, that she couldn’t walk through this life
constantly pushing the people away that could enrich it for her.
Those people, like Adam, who could make their extraordinarily long
lives enjoyable and worthwhile.

This brought her back to all of the things
she’d listed on Adam’s Pros side. He was sweet. He was funny. He
even had extremely romantic moments. He took care of those he
called his own. And he might have the overwhelming urge to protect
her from all harm, to lock her away and keep her safe, but he
curbed those urges just for her. He hadn’t tried to interfere with
her job, a job that could be considered dangerous, and he hadn’t
tried to prevent her from joining her Uncle’s hunt for the truth.
Instead, he stood beside her as if she were his equal and not an
inferior wolf compared to his own. Ready and willing to lend her a
hand when she needed it. She had to admit that Adam sounded like a
fantasy man come to life. Now, she just had to determine if it was
a fantasy, or if it was indeed reality.

She was hoping for the reality.

The fact that she’d been sitting here staring
at the Frankfurt skyline for the last two hours after having left
her brother’s company, trying to sort it all in her head without
getting anywhere, didn’t help her grumpy disposition. Neither did
the knowledge that she should apologize for the frigid bitch
routine when she saw Adam again. As Logan had pointed out, just
because she was confused and scared didn’t give her the right to
treat innocent bystanders like crap. Especially when the innocent
bystander was going through a truckload of crap thanks to her. Adam
facing down a possible feral future was undeniably her fault. Even
if it was unintentional, the blame could still be placed at her
feet.

Adam himself had said that it was more than
her looks and her scent that had drawn him to her. It had been her
refusal to submit to his dominance that had clenched the wolf’s
interest. The wolf had seen a female worthy to rule by its side. If
only she felt as worthy as Adam’s wolf seemed to think she was,
she’d feel a bit better about all of this.

The loud thump of a knock on her door echoed
through her room. As Jenna walked towards the door, Adam’s scent
teased her nose. Opening the door to see him leaning against the
doorway’s frame caused a smile to spread across her face. The smile
faltered however when she realized he was watching her warily, as
if waiting for her to lash out at him again. Well, she couldn’t
exactly blame him for that reaction, could she?

“Hey. How did it go? Did you guys find out
anything?”

“Yeah. Alec is signed up for a fight tomorrow
night. We’ll start there. That’s not why I stopped by though. You
feel up to our date, or should we reschedule?”

Her heartbeat sped up in her chest. His
uncertainty was like a shot in the gut. Excruciatingly painful. She
had caused that too. Thankfully, this was something she could fix.
“Yeah. Going out sounds great. Do I need to change?”

He grabbed one of her hands and laced their
fingers together. “No. You’re perfect just the way you are.”

Adam walked into the quaint restaurant first
before allowing her to enter. Jenna shifted her attention to the
back of the man who continued to confound her with his unusual
behavior, and decidedly rude etiquette. This was the second time
Adam had done this to her. After they’d checked in at the front
desk, he had refused to let her drop off her duffle bag in her
hotel suite until he first went in inspect it and she’d shot her
brother a disgruntled look about it. Logan gave her a ‘don’t
question it look’ but explained later that, unlike their human
brethren, shifters’ manners worked a tad differently. You didn’t
open a door for your woman, or allow her to enter a room unless you
first checked it yourself for possible dangers. What was the point
of holding the door open for your mate to enter a residence if
someone was going to attack her the moment she stepped through it?
Apparently shifters thought the human male population was downright
stupid for not protecting their mates, and weaker family members,
when they allowed basic precautionary measures to disappear all in
the name of ‘manners’.

As he reached back to grab her hand and pull
her inside to stand beside him, she noticed the restaurant was
empty and about the size of a shoebox. Okay, so maybe it was a bit
bigger than that, but not by much. It only housed five two-seater
tables, which were each covered by red table cloths, a couple of
candles, and a small floral arrangement. The front wall and an
adjoining wall were stone faced while the other two walls were half
white and half timbered. The back wall supported a couple of
shelves holding various beer steins in all different shapes, sizes
and colors. Jenna’s inspection of the room was interrupted when a
round woman in her mid-forties wearing a bar maid’s costume came
out to greet them with the cheeriest freaking smile she’d ever
seen.

“Guten Tag!”

Adam answered her in English, “Hi. I was told
you speak English here?”

Although Jenna wouldn’t have thought it
possible, the woman’s smile became bigger. In her thick German
accent she said, “Ja! Vee speaks English here. You come for dinner?
You vant some of our famous schnitzel?”

“Yes, we’d like some of your famous
schnitzel.”

So they sat at an intimate table in the quiet
restaurant, with their two candles casting a low glow about them,
and stared at each other. Waiting for the first move to be made.
The first word to be said. Without uttering a word, Adam gradually
slid his hand, palm side down against the table top, across the
distance between the two of them. When he stopped it less than a
foot in front of her, he turned it palm side up.

She stared at the hand that was so much
larger than hers. The lines that ran through its center providing
some kind of story. The strength in it that promised her
protection. The roughened fingers curled up in invitation to her.
That hand said, ‘Accept me’. That hand said, ‘Give me a chance’.
That hand said, ‘Trust me’.

She looked from
that hand
he held out
to her in question, to his warm amber eyes. Those eyes were saying
something too. Those eyes were pleading with her. Not quite in
desperation, but something that came damn close to it. Those eyes
of his said, ‘Take my hand. Be mine, and let me be yours’.

She should have been scared of that hand and
what it represented. Scared that all of those fears and doubts that
riddled her mind until it felt like a crappy piece of Swiss cheese
were right, and this man would hurt her in a way that no other ever
could. But in this moment, with so much hanging on that strong hand
laying in front of her, she chose to ignore all of those doubts.
Jenna chose to place her trust, her heart, and her hope in that
hand when she willingly gave him her own.

Adam leaned over the table a little as he
brought her knuckles up to his mouth and pressed a kiss them. Her
breath caught at the tender gleam in his eyes, and the whisper of
his lips against her skin. How a man who could be seen as hard and
unbreakable to everyone else, would let himself be so unguarded
with her, was overwhelming. Never taking his eyes off of her, he
dragged his lips over the side of her thumb, across the fleshy bit
of her palm, down to where her pulse was beating wildly in her
wrist, and gave her a love bite right over the throbbing point,
before soothing the sensual sting with the lazy lap of his tongue
followed by another luscious kiss.

Her body exploded with want. Need. Arousal
burned through her insides like an out of control fire that could
only be quenched by him. With her free hand she pushed the candle
to the side and out of her way so she could lean across the table
to touch him. Tangling that hand in the hair at the nape of his
neck, she brought his face towards her own and kissed him clumsily
in her eagerness. She would have pulled back, embarrassed at the
sloppy attempt, except he groaned hungrily against her mouth and
took over. Feeding her mouth passionately with his own. Kissing her
deeply, as if he were using his whole being to show her with this
one act how much he not just wanted, but needed her. They might
have been separated by the small table, but she felt him in every
nerve of her body. From where they connected at their mouths to the
tips of their toes, and everywhere in between, she felt him like he
was already inside her. It was such a beautiful feeling, she was
starting to think that it would be worth whatever potential
heartache he might bring, just to feel like this with him for as
long as possible.

He pulled away when their barmaid posing
waitress came back with their beers. He didn’t let go of her
completely though. Instead, he laced their fingers of one hand and
watched as she sipped the strong brew. When he took an obvious,
deep breath in, she knew he was savoring her scent, which made her
blush. He couldn’t erase the intense look glowing from his eyes,
but he did start talking about casual things to make her feel less
embarrassed with the fact that the entire room smelled like her
need for him.

He asked probing questions. What was her life
like growing up? Did she like growing up in River Bend? What was
her family like? Relaxed conversation flowed, and when their dinner
arrived they continued to talk. It felt good to be able to be so
open with someone like this. She’d never had the chance to do that
before. She occasionally asked him similar questions. What was his
family like? What was it like growing up in a pack of wolves? His
stories were sincere and frequently funny. Like the time he and
Clay were caught skinny dipping with a couple of girls in a nearby
pack member’s pool, and his Dad made the two boys walk home naked
while he followed them in the car as punishment. The pool had been
heated to keep them warm in the crisp fall night air, so the walk
home had been humiliating in more ways than one.

Every now and then, he would scoop up a tasty
tidbit of food from his plate and feed it to her. After he
continued to do that a few times, she started to return the favor
and before she knew it, they were feeding each other as much as
they were feeding themselves. When their plates were clean he paid
the bill and swept her out of the restaurant so they could walk
down the street and back to the hotel.

When they finally reached the door to her
room, hands still laced together, she waited patiently as he
checked the room over quickly before holding the door open for her
to enter. His tall frame was leaning against the doorway, prepared
to leave her alone for the night, when she realized with startling
clarity that she didn’t want to be alone.

It wasn’t fear of being alone for the night
that made her decision, but the fear of being alone in life. Did
she have a mother that loved her? Absolutely. Did she have a small
extended family in her two Uncles and her new found younger
half-brother? Yes. That didn’t mean that when she came home at the
end of a long day running craptastic criminals down, that she
didn’t wish she had someone there to give her a hug and kiss that
wasn’t platonic. Someone she could sit up with late at night and
speak in low voices with about her plans for the future. Someone
she could actually make those plans with.

Before, she didn’t have a hope in sight for
those dreams to ever be realized, so she’d never lamented on her
situation. It hurt too much to dwell on. Now? Well, now she had
someone standing in front of her that made her feel alive in ways
she’d never dreamed of. He fed that starving need for more. With
every second she spent with him, he found more ways to burrow
himself deeper inside those dark places she’d never thought would
see the light of day, nevertheless flourish under a tender
hand.

What the hell was she thinking keeping him at
arm’s length? What the fuck was her problem? It couldn’t have
become clearer to her if Einstein had stood in front of her and
drew idiot proof diagrams for explanations. Here was her chance to
have it all. She could finally be that woman who had the career,
the family, and the hot guy waiting for her at home. Was it love?
No. Not yet, at least. Could it become love? Yeah, she thought it
could. Because Adam was the walking definition of that adage,
‘seeing is believing’. Every moment he was with her, she watched
him prove that the packaging met the goods on the inside. There was
no false advertising with this man.

Jenna’s eyes focused back on the man in
question who was still propped like a sexy statue against her door
frame, only now he had his head tipped to the side studying her in
curiosity.

“You have fascinating facial expressions when
you’re thinking. I hope you don’t interrogate suspects. You’d be
horrible at it.”

She barked a surprised laugh, “No. Not
interrogating for me. I like to chase them down and cuff them.”

A devilish twinkle entered his eyes. “Like to
use the handcuffs a lot, do you?”

Smiling saucily she sauntered to stand right
in front of him. “Oh, yeah. I love my handcuffs. I like it even
more when I’m able to get a little rough with them when they try to
resist arrest.”