Page 51 of The Wolf She Shouldn't Desire

We stare at each other waiting for something else to be said. When nothing comes from either of us, he turns and starts walking away from me. Again.

“I don’t want to marry him, Jordan! I can’t!” I blurt out to his back.

He jerks to a stop, and I can see his fists clench at his sides. I take the opportunity to move closer to him again.

“Last I heard you had no choice.,” he says flatly. He continues to stand with a tight and tense back to me.

I swallow a ball of nerves in my throat down, wanting to speak but at the same time not.

He turns around to face me when I say nothing and assesses me with his eyes. I feel him looking deeply into my eyes as if he is trying to pull out the words I can’t seem to speak yet. I feel desperate for him to understand. To understand me and what I’m tentatively starting to acknowledge between us. To understand what I want and allow us to at least talk.

Something in my eyes must capture his attention because he soon says, “Fine let’s talk.”

“I’d prefer not to do it out on the street where someone may overhear us if that’s okay with you.”

He hesitates but then says, “Yeah, where to?”

“I have an apartment nearby if that works for you.”

“You sure someone won’t be listening in there?”

“Meaning?”

“Is it secure? No listening bugs or cameras placed? Known or unknown?”

“Oh. We’re good. I have a jammer in place, and no one knows about the apartment but me. Not even Danny.”

“Another sanctuary you escape to when you need to get away from everything?”

“Yeah, especially if I want to truly sleep.”

One of his eyebrows lifts in question.

“The coven house isn’t exactly peaceful or…the safest place to lay my head down completely. I’m always on guard.”

“That sounds like a shitty fucking home.”

I shrug my shoulders in response. Nothing to do except find somewhere outside the coven house when I want a deep sleep. And I did.

“Lead the way then,” he states with an arm swept out in indication to do just that.Anger and tension still radiate off him but not as intense.

It takes us a total of fifteen minutes to get there.

“This is where your apartment is?” Jordan asks skeptically.

I smirk. “I can’t have people finding it now, can I? Where better to hide it than here?”

We gaze up at the decrepit building. It’s an old four-story building that I think used to house a factory of some sort but likely went out of business and the building was abandoned. The realtor didn’t know any detailed story behind it when I bought the thing. They also seemed skeptical in me wanting to buy they did. It took some time, but the third floor has been completely remodeled to look cozy and modern. Looking on from the outside, no one would think that such a lavish place would be hiding inside or the many security measures in placeon the floors above and below. I kind of went a little crazy with the booby traps and such, but a girl can never be too careful, especially with the first and only real home she has had. The coven house, as I’ve said before, has never felt like a home to me. Just a gathering place for the coven and I and not a safe one at times either.

I lead Jordan through a side door and through several security measures that I have to disable just to get into the elevator that leads to the third-floor apartment. Once on the third floor, there are a few more security measures, such as a retinal and hand scanner along with an alarm that needs to be disabled. All of which sends a notification to my phone when disabled correctly or through force if anyone were ever to try to get through.

I turn to look at Jordan, and his eyebrows are raised in surprise.

“I wanted to really make sure this place couldn’t be breached if it was found,” I shrug my shoulders again.

“Smart woman,” is all he says in response in a flat tone that I don’t like coming from him.

Shaking the sadness and unease off of me, I finally open the front door leading into the apartment, step through, and move to the side to allow Jordan to walk through.

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