along the side of his mouth, tracing the muscles around his lips.
What? I signed his paperwork!
“Karl, you’re into kinky sex. I know you’re a were-wolf—,”
“Weir,” he groaned. “Please don’t say were.”
Letting that go, I rushed onward, “—I signed your paperwork, I called you Sir, what more do you think you need to tell me?”
“There’s more, trust me and I want you to have time to think.” He ran his fingers through my hair.
“Maybe we should slow down a little.”
“Why do you want to take it slow?”
“When a man and woman make love my way, the act releases powerful chemicals. Endorphins. These can cloud your judgment. I want you to want me, but I don’t want you to want me because of endorphins. I don’t want you to awaken one day and realize you are stuck with a sicko, twisted freak, and not remember how it happened.”
He said one day. In the future. He sees us having a future. Fuck. I’m falling in love. Maybe he’s right.
“But you aren’t a man.”
Karl’s gave me a measuring gaze, “My biology is…complex. I will explain it to you over time, if you give me the time. But, I have my human side. I’m dual-natured, I’m not just a dire wolf wearing a monkey skin. I have endorphins too. I have emotions. Sharper emotions when I’m in my…other state.”
“Wolf emotions,” I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Dire wolves love their mates, Grace, don’t ever think otherwise. We also make decisions quickly. We know the right one when we smell them, in the wild there isn’t much time to sniff around.”
Love. He said love.
seventeen
“Let’s have a real date. Somewhere public. Where you can run away if you want to. Say dinner on the Key. OK?”
“I could do that.”
“Cool. Tonight?”
I sighed. “I have to go to Economy Gear and help Pablo update his website. He’s launching a new beachwear line. I’ll be shooting pictures and video, and live blogging.”
“He needs you there?”
“Yeah. Pablo doesn’t blog.” Great salesman, but he can’t figure out how to switch his computer on.
“We’ll be done around ten.”
Suddenly in my head I saw Karl and I laughing, and singing, and trying to make things work together. Will this choice turn me from my path, or is it the deal that I will forever regret letting go?
“I’ll send my driver to pick you up at ten-oh-one.”
Of course he has a driver.
“Yes, Sir.”
Karl’s eyes widened and his nostrils flared.
“I like when you call me Sir.”
eighteen
About an hour after Karl left, Leslie banged through the front door.
“Well, someone has been having fun,” we both exclaimed at the same time.
My sundress rode up around my waist. Leslie wore her getup from the night before.
Walk of shame, meet walk of shame.
“So, the date with Mister Morning went well?” I tucked my knees under me and pushed my skirt under them primly.
She collapsed on the couch. “He’s coming around.”
“Coming around to using us or coming around to using you?”
Leslie giggled. “Both!”
She reached over and poked my arm. “So how was your dinner with Mister Norman?”
I blushed.
“I brought up my adoption issues and he felt sorry for me.” I rubbed my face with my palm. “I almost left early.”
I peeked at her through my fingers.
“Then I fucked him and then I ran.”
Leslie sniffed and gave me a suspicious look.
“He called today for another round.”
She smirked. Leslie knows I change my mind often. When I get my way, I usually have second thoughts and try to give anything back that I’ve gotten by being headstrong.
“Why didn’t you just stay with him last night?”
“I ran all the way to the entrance before I…decided to go back. The valet splashed me.” I sighed. “No way could I walk back through the Ritz wearing a soaking wet dress.”
Leslie giggled.
I gave her an evil look, but I couldn’t hold onto my anger very long. Leslie’s laugh infected me and I