Page 113 of Dominion
Her uncharacteristic humility fascinated him and he watched her flush at the memory while he started the truck. “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “I lost the deal. A huge one—a half a million dollar home. It was horrible—I’d been so proud of getting my license and thought I was finally going to make something out of myself and then I totally screwed it up.”
He didn’t like hearing her talk that way about herself.Finallygoing to make something of herself? She didn’t strike him as a fuck-up like he’d been. Apart from her poor choice in a boyfriend, that is.
He struggled to remember a deal falling through, but there’d been so many and he didn’t know the time frame.
“I missed the inspection and Steele yanked it from us. He probably had a better offer and was just waiting for me to mess up.” Again, she sounded rueful, rather than bitter. He definitely didn’t remember yanking a house from a buyer because he had a better offer, but a deal had fallen through six or seven months ago due to an inspection.
“Steeleyanked it?”
She shrugged. “That’s the tough thing about real estate. You can never tell if it’s the agent who’s the hard-ass or the guy behind him. I like to think it was the agent.”
His lips twitched. “Why’s that?”
“I love Steele’s work. I admire the hell out of him and what he’s done in this town in just a few short years.”
“Huh.” Irrational pleasure spiked through him.
“I’m dying to own a CJ Steele home—they’re so beautiful.” The respect and awe in her voice made his chest ache, which didn’t make any damn sense. It couldn’t be because he wanted her to feel that admiration for him, Cody, instead of the Steele she’d put on some pedestal.
He parked at the Promenade Shops at Briargate and looked balefully out at the scene. He’d rather have tacks shoved under his fingernails than go clothes shopping. He wished he could just hand Melissa a wad of cash and wait in the car for her, but that wouldn’t be safe. He glanced at the clock on the dash.
“You have forty-five minutes to find what you need.”
Her eyes widened as if shopping that quickly was an impossibility. “Why? What’s the rush?”
“That’s when my patience for this,” he made an irritated gesture toward the shops, “expires. And believe me, you don’t want to find out what happens when I expire.” He figured he sounded like a grumpy asshole, but Melissa giggled.
Seeing the brightness of her smile nearly took his breath away. Angelic. It made him want to make her laugh again, but he couldn’t think of anything funny to say. Instead his lips surprised him by stretching into a matching smile.
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 triedto 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?”