Page 20 of When Hairy Met Stella

So, he waited, busying himself by flipping through the channels on the television before settling on one showing an episode ofFriendshe’d seen so many times he knew several lines by heart. Turned out, it wasn’t enough of a distraction, because every minute she spent in the bathroom getting ready made his hands sweatier and sweatier. Besides, she was wasting her time. There was no way she could make herself look more beautiful than she was when she had gone in there.

When she opened the door fifteen minutes later, he realized how wrong he’d been.

“How do I look?”

Where to begin? She always looked beautiful. But tonight, the word didn’t do her justice. Not by a long shot. Her hair hung in long, golden waves down her back while her face glowed. If she’d applied any makeup, it was minimal, letting the natural soft pink of her cheeks and lips steal the show. But what she wore—well, that stole his breath. She’d paired dark, curve-hugging jeans with an ivory sweater that hung off one shoulder—a milky white shoulder he wanted to touch with his lips as they worked their way up the gentle curve of her neck, finding their home on her glossy lips.

Oh, boy. He was in trouble tonight.

“I’m still waiting…” She popped her hip, posing with raised brows, waiting for him to answer the question she’d asked an indeterminate amount of time ago.

“You look stunning.”

Her eyes popped to his, large and rounded, like that wasn’t what she’d expected to fall out of his mouth. Shoot, was that not the right thing to say? There were so many things he could have complimented. Heck, he could have written a poem about her hair alone. Though, that would have been super weird and inappropriate. But half the things running through his head were inappropriate for this situation. She was his boss, and he was her employee. She was a human, and he was a werewolf. She seemed hurt by whatever Bobby had done to her, and…well, okay…that was one thing they had in common. The only thing.

“Thank you.” She walked toward him, and he hadn’t even noticed her black stiletto boots until he heard their soft click on the floor. Their pointy toes stopped an inch from his boots. “You hungry?”

Starving.

Stella was talking about dinner, of course. Not whether or not he wanted to devour her. Which he did. But not that way. Or…maybe that way? When he shifted into a werewolf, there was no telling what or who he would devour. Though, he’d never attacked a human before. But that didn’t take away from the fact that he was a monster. He needed to remember that.

When she’d told him about her ex, he’d wanted to protect her. To shield her from that kind of pain and from anything that could cause it in the future. He was a fool not to put his name at the top of that list. And reversely, there was a very real chance she’d hurt him. He’d long believed that no one could ever love a monster. But after watching Lucy and his brother, he began to wonder if his mantra needed a tweaking.

Maybe no one could ever lovehim.

“Stella and Nathan! Over here,”Lucy chirped, waving to them from across the restaurant. The hostess had mentioned they were the last in the party to arrive, and that meant they got last pick of the seats, which were two empty chairs smooshed closer together than the others. Stella wasn’t at all surprised.

They walked through the restaurant under the orange lights strung overhead and past patrons enjoying their meals at the rustic wooden tables scattered about the large room.

She knew she shouldn’t have taken so much time getting ready. Except, she wasn’t so much getting ready as she was just standing in the bathroom trying to regain a modicum of composure. Why had she brought up Bobby? She’d tried to forget about him, and until recently, she’d been doing a wonderful job. But packing that costume, thinking about the ways he’d diminished her confidence, dulled her flame—the memory of him came rushing back and flew right out her mouth.

“Good to see you all,” Nate said with a half wave and a tone that said he wasn’t all that happy to see any of them. He probably didn’t like the table set-up either. The firm set of his jaw remained as he pulled out her chair, and she swore she heard a tiny growl as his came out with it. What was the deal? No one else looked like they were sharing the same seat.

“We ordered some drinks, and the music should be starting soon,” Lucy said. “Everyone ready to get their dance on?”

“I know I am,” Angie, the ballroom dancer responded, surprising no one—except for Stella because…

“I thought we were eating dinner first.” She sure hoped so, anyway. She hadn’t eaten since she finished off the snack pack of Goldfish crackers she’d shared with Nate.

“Oh, I texted you earlier. I made a reservation at the Trace Chophouse. They couldn’t seat us until later, so I thought we’d enjoy some music and dancing beforehand.” Lucy looked around the table. “Did you not get the message?”

Truth was, she hadn’t looked at her phone since she’d gotten here because she’d been a little distracted. Wonder why that was. Her eyes tracked to the man beside her.

She was just about to say they could wait when her stomach rumbled. Ifshewas this hungry, she couldn’t imagine how her roommate felt. “We’ll order an appetizer and then join you all on the dance floor when we’re finished. Is that okay with you?” She turned to Nate, who sat so close to her their shoulders bumped when she turned to him. Heat radiated from his body as though she sat next to a roaring fire. But there was something roaring in his eyes, made more apparent to her by their close proximity. Poor guy was probably starving. She pulled out the half-eaten pouch of Goldfish crackers from her purse and sat them on his lap.

“That sounds…” he began before his eyes dropped under the table. The corner of his mouth tipped up the slightest amount as his looked back at her. Another chocolate morsel for her. “Perfect. That sounds perfect. Thank you.”

She shrugged and returned his tiny smile with one of her own. “Whatever it takes to keep you from becoming insufferable.”

“Aren’t I always insufferable?”

“So just imagine when you haven’t eaten.” Her voice came out deeper, huskier, an edge to it that might have been flirting-adjacent. She blamed the acoustics of the room.

He popped a cracker in his mouth, his eyes never leaving hers, and…since when had eating a childhood snack ever looked so good? Forget marketing these to kids with cartoons and little fishy mascots. If the Goldfish people really wanted these things to sell, here was their ad. Women across America would go nuts. Not Stella, of course. Just…other women.

“Great,” Lucy said as she smiled at the two of them like they were characters in a romantic-comedy movie she couldn’t get enough of. How long, exactly, had she been staring at him eating cheese-flavored fish? “We were just talking before you got down here about some of the other activities for the week…like a couples massage? Oh, and there’s couples yoga. The couples aerial course…”

Stella stiffened, something Nate no doubt felt as they sat shoulder to shoulder. He reacted the same. She’d seen the brochures about the yoga and massages, though she was pretty sure Lucy was just adding the wordcouplesto everything she mentioned because what the heck was a couples aerial course?

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