Page 18 of Reckless Wolf

I didn’t give her a chance to respond before padding across the white tile floor and through the glass doors toward the backyard, overlooking the granite infinity pool.

A small flock of birds chirped from a nearby ash tree, heightening my hunting instinct, if only for a second. Primal urges were primal urges, after all. Maybe that was why I was so smitten with the doe-eyed girl. I was being guided by something ingrained deep in my DNA over which I had no control.

“Here, Mr. Atlas,” Luve called, her lilting Spanish accent reaching my ears. I glanced over my shoulder as she neared, a cappuccino mug in hand. “There is a man at the door for you. He is from the casino.”

I frowned.

“Already?” I asked worriedly, accepting the cup.

She nodded. “El feo,” she added, grimacing.

I snorted and downed the coffee in one sip. I wouldn’t tell Virgil that she called him “the ugly one.”

“Send him back,” I instructed her.

Luve hurried to oblige my order, and a moment later, I found myself facing the guard, a flutter of abnormal nervousness touching my chest as I tried to read his expression.

“You delivered the message already?” I asked dubiously. “How?”

“I managed to catch up with her before she made it over the wall,” he explained. “There was no reason to enlist Gideon this time.”

I hadn’t anticipated that.

“I trust that you handled it better than you did when she came back to the casino,” I growled.

Virgil nodded vehemently. “Yes. Yes, of course. I reiterated word for word what you said, that the offer was not a joke, and that if she is interested, she is to report at midnight, but not a moment before and not for any other reason.”

I drew in a breath to still my nerves.

“And?” I demanded when he didn’t follow up.

“Well…” Virgil cleared his throat. “At first, I thought she was going to hit me.”

I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had.

“She didn’t.”

I continued to stare daggers at him to get on with it.

“She just looked at me for a minute, like she was trying to decide if I was pulling her leg or something. I told her that I required an answer, that you were waiting for a response.”

Time paused for half a second.

“She said she’ll be at the casino tonight,” Virgil concluded. “She wants the job.”

I exhaled and released a small chuckle as I set down my cup and clapped Virgil on the back.

“Good,” I laughed.

My pulse raced at the prospect of seeing Bianca again, and this time, I didn’t care what kind of fire I was playing with, having her so close. She was coming back. I’d get to inhale her tantalizing smell at least one more time.

Chapter9

Bianca

Stupidly, I was chasing the high of being caught by Virgil on the way back to Forny, the giddiness overtaking my common sense as I slipped back over the walls toward Jesse’s compound, a grin painted on my face as I realized that my initial take on the immortal wolf had been right.

Hedidwant me as much as I wanted him. Why did he deny me? I didn’t know. Maybe he was playing a game with me, but it was a game I had a chance of winning if he was sending his security chasing after me, almost begging me to take this job.

---