Big Bad Bite Page 20

  Jenna was in awe of this man in front of her. Others may not have thought that his sharp cheek bones, jaw, and strong nose that gave credence he was indeed more animal than man could be beautiful, but she’d disagree. He was entrancing. His harsh, masculine features, combined with the haunting wolf eyes, and paired with his captivating blend of authority and caring, were quickly coming to be the most breathtaking thing she could have ever hoped for. She decided he was, in fact, more than she would have ever believed possible in a world she feared would never know she truly existed. Better than any hero she’d read in any book. Better than any idol worshiped lovingly in a song. Better than any figment her imagination could have ever created.

  The reason why he was simply better than any of those things was fantastically obvious. He was real, lying in front of her, and taking her in with a look as if he could gaze upon her face from now till this world was dust, and he would never tire of his view. If she followed the direction her vulnerable heart was headed, she knew life wouldn’t be easy. He could be a hard man. There would be times when Adam would give a verdict that he expected to be followed blindly. Times when he would set aside his feelings for her to do what was best for those under his care, regardless of how she might feel about the situation. Probably times when she would rather kill him than kiss him.

  Oh, but think of the other times, her mind whispered. The times when he would stand beside her, in lieu of in front of her, blocking her way. Always allowing her to be the independent woman that thrived on fighting in battle, rather than a meek mate expected to allow others to fight the battle for her. How he would love and respect her for her strengths rather than cut her down for her faults. Think of how he would leave the Alpha behind when it was just the two of them. Allowing her and her alone to see his vulnerabilities, his emotions, and finally, his love.

  And she knew without a doubt now, that it would be love that shined from him. Surrounding her in an easy warmth of affection and understanding that she’d feared forever lost to the possibilities of this life. The unmovable beast would melt for her in the sanctity of their space to become the man who even now, petted her with reverent strokes down her arm, her ribs, and traced little circles on the patches of exposed skin.

  Did her eyes now reflect the same things she read in his own? Could he see there that she saw a future blooming before them where they would walk this world hand in hand, always growing in the easy confident devotion of the other? She thought that perhaps he could, since his smile became brighter.

  Rolling onto his back, Adam pulled her into his side so that her head lay on his chest. “Come here, sweetheart,” he murmured as he started lazy strokes down her back as they lay in companionable silence, enjoying nature around them. Fireflies danced in the woods around them. Twinkling stars shined down on them. The entire world around her played the stage for the story of her life. A story she’d always thought of as a struggling tragedy before now. No, now she saw that story line changing, becoming an epically awesome action and adventure tale with the heroine meeting an equally formidable hero to fall for.

  To think, at one time she had been sure that Adam would end up being her death sentence. With that stray thought, she chuckled, pressing her face into his chest. It didn’t take long before strong fingers threaded her hair, fisting it and turning her face towards his own.

  “What’s so amusing?”

  “I was just thinking that you are the best mistake I’ve ever made.”

  Rather than having her explain her bizarre statement, he once again proved that he was the perfect man for her because he did one thing.

  He smiled.

  Chapter Twelve

  The trip to Wilmington International Airport the following morning was surprisingly annoying. Of course, that might have had something to do with Uncle Owen acting like an impatient dictator and Adam his trusty General. It was a whole new insight into the dominating side of Alphas demanding the kind of unquestioningly behavior they expected from those under their command. Before Jenna had the chance to have her two cups of coffee that morning was a terrible time to subject her to this kind of display. When her Uncle yelled at her through the bathroom door to hurry up while she was taking a shower, she ignored him. When Adam came down the stairs from the second floor carrying her duffel bag from the guest room she’d slept in, and told her that she’d better drink that cup of coffee PDQ – pretty damn quick – exactly fifteen minutes since she’d been yelled at from her Uncle, she ignored him too. When her brother strolled in into the kitchen not even five minutes later, she was barely halfway into her beloved cup of life affirming elixir. He stated that she had to hurry the hell up because everyone was waiting on her. Jenna decided now was a great time to display how much she loathed to be bothered in the morning

  She whipped her handgun from its holster where it sat secured on her waistband at the small of her back, pointed it to a spot on the floor exactly six inches from the tip of Logan’s boots, and fired a warning shot. Running footsteps thundered all over the house heading in their direction. In less than thirty seconds, every wolf in the immediate vicinity, and one tiger with freaky blue eyes, was standing behind Logan at the kitchen’s entrance staring at Jenna as if she’d lost her flippin’ marbles.

  Now that Jenna was entirely sure she had everyone’s attention, she pulled her coffee cup away from her mouth and calmly said, “The next person who tells me to hurry up before I finish my cup of coffee gets a bullet in the ass.”

  It took less than fifteen seconds before she was left alone in the kitchen with not one single being within hearing distance of her. A few minutes after she’d finished savoring the other half of her coffee, she strolled out of the house and had to bite her lip at all of the wary eyes following her as they hid behind their SUV’s, watching her as if she might do a psychotic impression of Annie Oakley at any given moment. Even her Uncle was sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, playing the ever-impatient man waiting on a woman. The only brave soul that dared to stand in the open was Adam who stood leaning against the Pack Master’s SUV, arms crossed across his chest, an amused grin on his face, and shamelessly eating her up with his eyes. He pulled open a door to the back seat for her. Closing the distance between the two of them, she couldn’t help but smile at the man that she was quickly finding was crazy enough to like her just the way she was. Stopping in front of him, Jenna shyly lifted up on her tiptoes to place a chaste kiss on his lips.

  She should have known a chaste kiss wouldn’t be enough for him. His free arm wrapped around her back, crushing her body against his, and he took possession of her mouth like he was a marauding Viking and she his spoils from war. The moment quickly built to something Jenna was sure she would later be adding to her ‘Best Moments in Her Life’ list, but the sound of her brother gagging kind of ruined it for her. So in tune with her every move now, Adam slid his hand down the length of her back to grab her own hand that had been reaching for the gun holstered there, stopping her from pulling it out and shooting to maim her own flesh and blood. Apparently, he was going to make it extremely hard for her to get away with things if this relationship continued to develop between them. That was clearly something to write down on the ‘Con’ side of the list she started to help her decide whether she should give this mate thing a chance. Adam pulled away to smile down at her flushed and pouty face before gently pushing her into the back seat. He climbed in next to her as everyone else piled into the two vehicles heading for the airport.

  That was only the beginning of a very long, horrendous and mentally painful nine-hour plane ride where Jenna spent most of her time squashing the urge to break big no-no rules such as shooting someone in a plane at 30,000 feet. The insanity on the plane started with her twenty-year-old brother asking for a packages of peanuts thirty minutes into their flight, then whining like a toddler for a half hour when he found out there weren’t any peanuts and he was instead stuck with something rock hard and questionable looking that was supposed to pass for
cookies. He finally shut up when Jenna threatened to feed him her boot in place of said peanuts. That made him stop whining, but lead to their first sibling argument which didn’t end until Uncle Owen had enough of their so called ‘squabbling’ and roared his displeasure. Of course, he roared so loud he scared the bejesus out of their mere human pilot who temporarily lost control of the plane and soiled his pants. Poor, poor pilot.

  After having the plane in a free fall for a minute or so, everyone came to their senses and remained quiet for the next hour or so while Jenna sipped on the cup of coffee that Adam talked the still visibly trembling flight attendant into making for her. When they were three hours into their trip, Jenna learned the valuable lesson that three male wolves and one behemoth-sized male tiger were incapable of sitting inside one small private plane for an extended period of time without fidgeting. Naturally, it was all Adam’s fault because he started the fidgeting by bouncing his leg so fast that if someone placed a foot pump underneath the offending leg, he could have inflated bazillions of air mattresses on the way to Germany. On the other hand, perhaps it could add some jet propulsion to the plane’s engines. Either way, it was quickly getting on her nerves.

  This started a fidgeting epidemic. From Adam's bouncing leg, it spread to her Uncle who started tapping his fingers on the small table next to his chair. Then over to the rock-star-wannabe tiger who sat in a chair on the other end of the grouping of three chairs facing the small couch she and Adam sat on, where he was still bouncing his leg at warp speed. The tiger started tapping his hands on the tops of his thighs to the beat of his music playing from his mp3 player. The combination of Adam’s leg bouncing up and down, her Uncle’s fingers going tap-tap-tap on the table top, and the tiger’s rhythmic drumming with his hands, caused Jenna’s left eye to twitch. She knew it was unreasonable to shoot the antagonizing appendages, but it was starting to look like an exceptionally flippin’ good idea. Looking back later, Jenna could see that it was Logan who started humming the Mission Impossible theme song that finally caused her to lose her grip on reality, making her snap..

  Jenna slapped her hand that was closest to Adam down so hard on the top of his leg that he yelped, while simultaneously using her telekinetic abilities to lift the couch’s two throw pillows and slam them angrily into Logan and Alec’s heads repeatedly. With her Uncle’s interest momentarily caught on the proceedings next to him in the seating area of the plane, his fingers stopped their tap dance on the table. After she’d smacked her brother’s head for the fifth time, and the tiger had shredded the pillow that was assaulting him, she had the four annoyed men’s attention pointed at her.

  She didn’t even blink.

  “Please, for the love of Pete and all that’s holy, stop with the fidgeting!”

  Logan whined, “But we’re bored.”

  Jenna pointed to the flat panel television hanging on the wall, “Then watch a movie, you moron. But if you hum one more note of that stupid song, I swear I will throw you off of this plane.”

  The stewardess walked past the entrance of the seating area then as she moved into the plane’s kitchen, and Alec’s eyes tracked the woman’s pin up worthy body every second until it was out of sight.

  Moving like lightening, he shot out of his seat and stalked in the poor woman’s direction. “Okay kids, be good. I’m going to entertain myself.”

  Jenna shook her head in disgust. The poor woman would never know what hit her. Just when she didn’t think the plane ride could get any worse, a disturbing sound came from the television. Hanging her head so that it was resting against Adam’s chest, she whined the word ‘why’ to him when the first notes of the Mission Impossible theme song started to play.

  The red haired bastard chuckled at her misery. “We’re shifters baby. Crowding us into small-enclosed spaces where we can’t escape for hours on end has a tendency to make us a little wired. Okay, more like slightly crazy. I’m amazed it’s not bothering you.”

  She groaned in dismay. “So what you’re basically telling me is that I just have to deal with you fidgeting like a pack of meth heads, and put up with annoying theme songs from the action movies that Logan wants to watch while the tiger screws our poor stewardess silly in the kitchen?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “I don’t imagine any amount of threatening the lot of you with torture or cutting your balls off will get the four of you to stop this madness?”

  “Only in your dreams, sweetheart.”

  Adam laughed when she started to pout. Pulling her body around so that she was lying propped against him, he wound his arm so that it was clamped against her chest just under her collarbone, trapping her to him. Only she wasn’t in such a hurry to escape this trap. With his chin propped on the top of her head, they sat and watched the movie in contented silence. An hour later, Alec swaggered back into the seating area just a tad sweaty and smelling like sex. The good news was, he no longer looked hyped up enough to tap out an entire concert on his lap while listening to his rock music. The bad news was, the entire kitchen now had to be disinfected from his sex cooties.

  Ewwwwww.

  After the movie finished her brother popped in its sequel. Jenna was tempted to jump out of the plane hatch and save herself from another two hours of this torture, but decided that she felt too good wrapped up in Adam’s arms to actually move, so she closed her eyes and took a nap instead.

  Her body was floating. The dark warmth of sleep still surrounded her, but she felt her body moving. Where it was going though, she had no idea, so she cracked an eyelid to take in her surroundings. The first thing she saw was a t-shirt covered chest. Oh, and what a good-looking chest it was too. All warm and muscled. But why exactly was she looking at it? She tipped her head back and met a pair of amused amber eyes. Well, she’d already known it was Adam’s chest because she was surrounded by his scent. But that still didn’t explain why she was apparently sitting in his lap and waking up in his secure arms, to the extremely drool worthy view of his pectorals.

  “Have a nice nap?”

  She tried to clear her sleep hoarsened voice before talking but failed, “Apparently so if I was out of it enough that you moved me around like a sack of potatoes, and I didn’t even wake up to notice.”

  He chuckled. “Maybe you felt safe enough to sleep so deeply because I was holding you? Not that it was a chore or anything, sweetheart. I’d hold you anytime, anywhere that you’d let me.”

  His arms tightened around her, which caused her body to tingle in his embrace. Sometimes she wondered if the man had a live wire that was specifically designed to zap every nerve in her body in the most delicious ways. Of course, the downside to that was that half the time he zapped those overly receptive nerves at extremely inopportune times. Like now, when she could smell others in the space with them. Turning her head away from Adam, she glanced to the front seat of the vehicle they were apparently sitting in the back of, with an unknown man driving it. Her brother, Uncle, and the randy tiger were nowhere in sight.

  She looked back to Adam with curiosity. “Did you kill them on the plane and hide the bodies when we landed?”

  He smiled in answer, and then shook his head. “They’re in a second cab. They all said that they didn’t want to ride with our disgusting display of affection.”

  Her lower tummy felt like it was melting into a warm puddle at the images that came to her when the word ‘affection was applied to Adam. She, however, didn’t think they were disgusting. But that devious little voice in the back of her mind whispered that it felt like this was all moving too fast. Goading her with doubts about how genuine any of this could be when she’d only known Adam for such a short time. How genuine were his displays of so-called affection? Or was this all part of some intricate act he was performing to reel her into a mating to save his own life? The disturbing realization of how much that would hurt her put an arctic freeze on all of those warm gooey emotions she was feeling just seconds before. So, that’s what a reality check felt like.
>
  No longer liking the idea of sitting in Adam’s lap, wrapped securely in his arms, she tried to push off him, only to be stopped by the same arms she’d just been admiring a few minutes ago. “Yeah, well, disgusting display of affection aside, this is probably killing my image, me sitting here on your lap like some weak-willed woman who needs saving. Which, I’m not. So I’ll just get off and sit on my own now. Thanks for being the big bad protector while I was taking my nap.”

  Adam’s eyebrows snapped down at her sudden change of mood, and confusion was clear on his face. He refused to let her up, and tightened his arms instead to hold her in place. “What’s wrong, Jenna? Why are you upset?”

  She gave a mock affronted snort to hide her roiling emotions. “I’m not upset. Just ready to get off your lap, and get a move on with what we have to do here. We’re here for a reason, remember? Not a vacation.”

  Still looking deeply confused at her turn around in attitude, Adam remained silent as he let her slide out of his lap and onto the back seat next to him. She kind of wished he’d lash out at her snarky comments, say something to try to put her in her place. That would have justified her bitchy attitude towards him somehow if he’d been a dick in return to her. Instead, he sat there, ever the stoic Adam, probably trying to figure out what he’d done wrong for her to start acting this way towards him. It just made her feel worse. Combine those feelings with her insecurities and doubts, and well, she might as well be a hormonal teenager all over again. Just lovely.

  Turning her head to look out the window, she watched the city of Frankfurt pass them by. It must seriously payoff to be a rich, influential Pack Master. Not only had they flown in a decadent private jet, but they also entered another country without even going through customs. This for her was an outstanding thing since she was still armed with a handgun. Jenna wondered how much power her Uncle actually held. These thoughts drifted away though as she started eyeing some of the buildings landscapes. Most of the buildings looked like your average everyday modern 20th and 21st century architecture. High rises, shopping malls, and apartment buildings. Like hidden gems though, every now and then she’d see a house or shop that looked old world. These little treasures varied in design from Gothic, to Romanesque, to cute cottage like buildings that were half-timbered looking. She wasn’t an architecture expert, but she did like looking at different styles for enjoyment. In a way, they were pieces of art with their lines, arches, and embellishments. Pieces of history that helped you imagine what it was like in those times.