Page 106 of Dominion
He tossed her a second bag. “There’s a burner phone in there. And a Chromebook, so you can work.”
Her jaw dropped. “You bought me a phone and computer?”
“Just a Chromebook.”
“But I can’t afford that,” she said immediately, then blushed as if she didn’t want him to know. Her words surprised him, although he should have gathered that from the location of her house. She had acted so stuck up that he’d assumed she came from money. But no, she was a wanna-be rich girl, the type who spent all her money to look rich, and fell into credit card debt to keep up appearances.
“Your brother-in-law can,” he said gruffly. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to tell her it was no sweat off his back, that he had plenty of money and didn’t mind buying her things. Possibly it was because she had been so stuck up about Walmart and his place. Like she’d been too good for him.
He didn’t want to impress her with money, because she was a superficial girl who cared about stuff like that.
There was a flaw in his logic, but he didn’t care to tease it out at the moment.
She rolled her eyes and snatched the bags, opening them. She looked back up. “Thanks,” she said grudgingly.
“What’s missing?” He could tell she wanted to say something but had bit it back.
“Makeup,” she mumbled.
He frowned. “You don’t need that.”
Her eyebrows lowered. “Whatever. You’re the one who has to look at me.”
He laughed. “What I see looks just fine, baby. More than fine.”
Pink tinged her cheeks, making the blue of her eyes pop. Yeah, that girl did not need a drop of makeup.
“I got a bunch of food. I didn’t know what you like to eat, but you should be able to find something. I gotta go get some work done.”
She raised an inquisitive brow. “What kind of work?”
He hesitated. “Construction.”
“Mmm.” She looked properly unimpressed, as he’d expected. “Is there coffee?”
Damn, he hadn’t thought of coffee. “No coffee,” he grunted.
She stared at him in surprise, like he’d denied her a basic right, like the use of a toilet or something.
“You’ll have to suck it up, princess.” He entered his number into her phone. “My number’s in there. Call me if there’s any trouble. Do I have to put a guard on the house, or are you going to stay put?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll stay put.”
He stared her down for a beat, alpha style, but since she was human, she didn’t quite get it. Her eyes never lowered, although an adorable blush did start to creep into her cheeks.
Though he knew it was unwise to get too close to her, he couldn’t stop himself. He stalked around and leaned one hand on the table in front of her, bringing his face nose-to-nose with hers. “If you set foot out of this house, I’ll spank your ass again,” he warned in a low voice with a flick of his brows.
Her eyes dilated like she loved the idea. Well, that was one thing they had in common. He inhaled her scent before he walked away, and smiled when he detected the beautiful musk of arousal.
He headed out, calling Ben as he walked the few blocks to his current house project. He just had a few more rooms to paint and then molding to put on around the floors.
“This is Stone.”
“Cody Steele. Checking to see if you found anything out on your end.”
“My pack mate Mark Ruhl is DEA in Denver. He knows the guy Rabago that you saw. Word on the street is that someone stiffed Rabago on a huge shipment to Colorado Springs. He’s coming down to question Melissa, but he already has an APB out on Jeremy, her dickwad ex-boyfriend. Best guess, Jeremy or one of his friends was behind the bad drug deal and they think he has the money. I’m willing to pay it off to get the hit off Melissa, but we need a plan to contact him and make the offer. Do you have any connections to this guy?”
“None.” His pack mates weren’t angels, but he’d helped most of them become semi-contributing members of society. He’d know if any of them were into anything that deep.