Page 73 of The Wolf She Shouldn't Desire

Sighing, I look at my lap and the new phone Danny was able to get me. I look at the message feed between Jordan and I. There’s only one new message asking if I am okay. No ranting or asking why I haven’t responded. I should get a grip. He probably figured I didn’t have my phone anymore or that it could have been compromised to where he didn’t want to risk any other messages. And I don’t know why I am hesitating to text or call him now.

“Stop being stupid,” I whisper to myself as I shake my head and pick up the phone.

Meet me in the garden.

That’s all I text as I put the phone down on the bench beside me. I stand and walk over to a bush of pink camellias. They’re bright and smell sweet and fragrant. The petals are soft against my fingers as I brush them. Some are wilted slightly,indicating they are not newly blossomed but are holding onto what life remains in them. I pick one off the bush and stare at it.

The sound of paws hitting dirt rapidly reaches my ears a few minutes later. I close my eyes as the noise gradually comes closer and becomes louder. Soon they slow and the rustling of branches replaces the sound. When I open my eyes, a giant black wolf with ice blue eyes stare back at me. I want to smile at the sight of him but don’t. Instead, I stand there like a deer in headlights not knowing what to say or if I should go to him. I know the man likes me and he’s mentioned his wolf a few times that hinted at his wolf liking me as well but I’m still not certain it is safe to approach him in wolf form. He’s sexy and masculine in his human form, but this form? His wolf form? He’s magnificent and radiates another level of power and dominance. It takes my breath away, and my fingers twitch with the urge to run my fingers through his thick, glossy coat. His right front paw lifts slightly before stomping back to the ground and digs into the soft dirt. He starts to vibrate slightly and then bones crack as he transforms into his human form in a blink of an eye.

Jordan stands tall and completely naked in front of me as his eyes roam over me. “Tell me you’re okay,” he whispers in a strangled tone laced with restrained anger. He’s tense and looks like a statue wrapped in flexed, taut muscles.

“I’m okay,” I whisper.

My answer is like the release of a rubber band snapping. He eats up the space between us and grabs me by the waist and threads a hand through my hair. His lips crash into mine and my hands grab his face as I kiss him back. It’s a hard and desperate kiss fed by our need for each other. For me, it’s also filled with relief and happiness of being with him again and in his arms while he kisses me. Jordan’s hand that is threaded in my hair releases its grip to glide downward to cup my jaw, and the kiss slowly turns tender. I smile against his lips as his forehead restsagainst mine. I lightly kiss his lips once more before opening my eyes and staring into his to see that they are completely focused on me.

“Hi,” I whisper.

His hand on my hip tightens and pulls me closer to him. “You didn’t text or call me when you were safe.” A low rumbling growl reverberates in his chest. His tone is not strangled this time and is instead fully laced with frustrated anger.

The smile on my face fades away. “I’m sorry. I lost my phone when Zander kidnapped me.”

A fierce growl comes from him now. I caress my hands down from his face to his chest, resting on his pecs with one hand over his rapidly beating heart. “Easy baby. I escaped. I’m okay now.”

The growling stops, and he kisses me fiercely as if to solidify what I just said is the truth. That I’m here and this isn’t a dream. He stops kissing me and when I open my eyes this time, his face is scrunched in what looks like pain, but I don’t know why.

“Please tell me that Danny killed that piece of shit like he said he would before he went to get you back. All I know is the fucker’s house was burned down and no one has heard or seen any of his coven since.”

“One, remember I’m not a damsel in distress in need of rescuing.”

“Of course. How could I forget?” he chuckles.

“Two, I killed Zander after I drove a stake through his dick, literally, and then his chest, followed by a very messy but satisfying sawing of his head off well before Danny and the others showed up. I even made sure his head burned very nicely so as to make sure it couldn’t be reattached. So, yes, that piece of shit is dead and good riddance.”

Jordan takes a step back without letting go of me and looks slightly stunned. “Definitely don’t want to get on your bad side. Got it. I think my dick just shriveled up and inside me.” He winces.

I laugh. “Your dick is safe…for the moment.”

“Good to know.” He steps back towards me and presses his body against mine again, leaving no space between us. The hand cupping my face caresses down my body sending shocks of pleasure in every nerve his hand passes until it comes to rest on my hip that he isn’t already gripping. If the growing hardness pressed against my stomach is any indication, he is having a similar reaction to us touching each other again after several days passing since the last time we were able to be this near to each other. His face sobers as he looks at me tenderly. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life, darling. I was losing my mind not knowing if you had gotten away from Zander, if you were hurt, or if you were possibly dead. My mind was coming up with every possible bad outcome, and it was not good for my sanity or my wolf’s. My wolf was losing his shit to where I had to run in the woods for hours until I was about to drop from exhaustion. The thought of seeing you horribly injured or never seeing you again…I couldn’t handle it.”

I wrap my hands around his neck. “I’m okay now. Really. I’m sorry I didn’t text or call you sooner. Like I said, my phone was gone and when I got a new phone, I didn’t want to message you before I could both get out of bed finally and get away from the coven house.”

“Get out of bed?” There’s a subtle hint of panic in his voice with those words.

I hesitate to answer. I don’t want to tell him how badly I was hurt from Zander’s torture extravaganza, but the look on his face shows he’s determined to know exactly what I meant by those words. My throat clenches with the thought of telling himand nervousness in how badly it will upset him. “I was laid up in bed healing for a few days.”

That look of anger I’ve become used to when he thinks about me being harmed takes over his features. “How badly were you hurt?” His tone is calm but stern. I know it’s the calm before the storm. He knows vampires heal quickly and likely knows it takes a lot for us to become so injured that I would have to lay in bed to heal for a few days.

“Pretty bad,” I whisper.

He pulls away from me and starts pacing. He runs one of his hands through his hair in the process, indicating how flustered he is but is trying to hold back the visceral response he no likely wants to unleash in hearing my words and the images it no doubt also conjures up in his mind.

“I’m not going to tell you the gory details because I know you would likely blow a gasket, and I don’t want you visualizing it.”

“Too late for that.”

“He tortured me, but it wasn’t anything I haven’t dealt with in the past or that I haven’t been trained to deal with.”

“You shouldn’t have to be trained to deal with it, let alone actually deal with it!” he yells. His eyes are narrowed in a furious scowl and lines of tension bracket his lips. His fists are clenched as he stares at me.

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