Authors: Becca Jameson
“Not sure, baby. Isn’t your Uncle Charles in Texas?”
When did Justin say he was coming home?
“He got back last night,” she mumbled, closing her eyes and plopping her tiny self on the bathroom floor.
The child moaned and curled into a ball in the corner. Jess picked up her little frame and carried her back to the small cot in the nurse’s station. Thank God there was an attached bathroom.
She set her down, smoothed her hair out of her face, and then froze, her fingers still tangled in the mass of blonde curls, her gaze still glued to Miranda’s burning forehead.
Her spine stiffened. Confusion warred with her senses.
Even though she’d only heard stories about this experience and hadn’t ever once acknowledged the actual validity of the idea, there was no doubt someone was in the vicinity whose pheromones called to her.
No. No. That wasn’t precisely true. More than one alluring scent filled her nostrils.
Fuck
.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was exactly what she’d been worried about. The very reason she’d vowed to stay away from shifters, live a human life. Not that there was any guarantee she’d not meet a human mate at some point, but surely she could have avoided him if she did. After all, the man wouldn’t really realize what was going on, and she’d be long gone before he did.
But the two scents assaulting her right this second were both wolves. Could she have avoided this moment if fate hadn’t matched both her roommates with local shifters, thrusting her into a world she’d denied for all these years?
She couldn’t move yet. Her gaze rose to the wall behind Miranda’s head. She untangled her fingers from the little girl’s hair but clenched her fists and held herself rigid for several seconds, afraid to turn around.
“Uncle Charles!” Miranda bolted to a sitting position, pushing Jessica out of the way.
Charles? Was it possible?
Fuck
. Again that inappropriate word popped into her mind right here in the elementary school.
“I don’t feel so well, Uncle Charles.” Miranda lay back down and curled onto her side, the action of sitting up so quickly having upset her stomach once again.
Jessica laid her hand on Miranda’s shoulder and slowly turned her gaze toward the door, where the only sound so far had been deep breaths.
When she finally swiveled around completely, she gasped. In the doorframe were two of the sexiest men she’d ever seen. And both of them had their gazes locked on her, neither acknowledging the child.
Jessica sucked in a breath, which was a mistake, and held it. The man on the left was taller, maybe six feet two. Clearly this was the prodigal son, Charles, because he looked so much like the other men she’d met from the family. Brown hair in need of a cut, a shade lighter than Justin’s and Ryan’s, the two older brothers. His deep brown gaze burrowed into her soul. He was rock solid and stood like a statue, rigidly holding his own breath.
Jessica’s gaze darted one foot to the right. The man squeezed partway into the doorway next to him was about an inch or two shorter, but no less stunning. Blond hair, cut shorter than his friend’s, stood at all angles as though he’d just run his hands through it. His eyes were the deepest blue she’d ever seen, like the ocean.
This friend of Charles, whose name she didn’t even know yet, gripped one of Charles’ arms at the biceps, his fingers turning white from the effort. Charles didn’t even seem to notice.
A long moan forced all of them to turn toward Miranda, just before she hurled for the third time in the last half hour, this time right on the floor beside the cot.
“Excuse me,” came a muffled voice from outside the room.
When Jess glanced back at the door, Charles and his friend had separated and entered the room, allowing the nurse to get through. The poor woman had been down the hall tending to a youngster who’d fallen in the cafeteria. Since she’d returned empty handed, a Band-Aid must have done the trick.
“Oh, you poor, poor child,” she sang in the sweetest voice, perfect for a school nurse. Without batting an eye, the woman grabbed a cloth, wiped Miranda’s face, and then got on her hands and knees to clean the mess on the floor.
“Uncle Charles? Will you take me home?”
Finally, Charles acknowledged Miranda. “Of course, munchkin. I just need to sign a few papers up front and we’ll be on our way.” That voice, deep and gravelly, made Jessica nearly faint.
Oh my God
.
Lust slammed into her like a freight train. As if it could get any worse than the last five minutes had been.
Charles backed toward the door, but his gaze didn’t leave Jessica’s.
For the first time in her life, she thanked God for the smell of vomit masking the tantalizing scent of her two burly mates. It was probably the only thing keeping her from melting into a sexual frenzy right there in the school.
Finally, Charles turned and left the room to sign the release papers in the adjoining office. His friend did not. He stood as though on guard, watching Jessica until her skin pimpled with goose bumps and a chill made her shake. It wasn’t cold. Nope. Nothing that simple. First the smell of throw-up disappeared, replaced by the smell of lemon Pine-Sol. And then that quickly faded when the nurse walked out of the room, leaving Jessica alone with the scent of this unnamed mate of hers.
Well, perhaps those other smells hadn’t really faded but instead were just overshadowed by the pheromones emitting from the blue-eyed stalker, who was now inching toward her as though she were prey. With each step, she got a stronger whiff of him, and she had to squeeze her legs together to keep from trembling. Or maybe trembling wasn’t really her primary difficulty right then. All her blood ran to her core, sending a new shiver down her spine. Her sex tightened with the strongest need she’d ever experienced.
Moisture pooled between her legs. Thank God it was casual Friday, and she’d worn jeans. If she’d been sitting there in just a skirt or thin dress pants, she’d have been visibly leaking through the material.
Get a grip, Jess
. She shook her head to clear her mind and turned back to Miranda. “I’ll carry her out.”
She needed fresh air, and she needed the opportunity to at least exchange pleasantries with these men before she went back to class.
How the hell was she going to go back in and finish this day? Lesson plans? She suddenly had no idea what first graders needed to learn. Maybe she could pop in some sort of educational video until she could pull herself together. Three hours. That’s all she needed, and then it would be Christmas vacation, and she could sort this bizarre, unintended mess.
Jessica scooped up the girl, who was almost asleep now. She stood just as Charles returned to the door. “All set?”
“Yep. Let’s get her in the car.” He turned and high-tailed it toward the entrance to the school as though his pants were on fire.
Jessica followed. Mr. Blond brought up the rear. Right on her heels. Without turning around, she knew only inches separated them.
At the entrance, Charles held the tall glass door open and waited for Jessica to squeeze through with her sleeping bundle.
No one spoke on the walk to the car. Nor when Charles opened the back door of Tessa’s van and stood back for Jessica to put Miranda in her booster seat.
She buckled the child in with shaking hands and hoped she had done it correctly in her foggy state.
When she ducked her head and backed out of the car, both men stood there on either side, still as statues, staring her down as she balanced on one foot and then the other and whipped her gaze back and forth between them.
Charles pushed a button on the remote, and the sliding door slid shut automatically, the movement and squeal of the motor behind Jessica making her jump.
“Sorry. I…” Charles closed his mouth.
“I’m Reese. Reese Becker.” Jessica turned her gaze to the blond god as he set his fingers gently on her biceps. The simple touch sent a jolt of shock down her arm, and her body shook. As those fingers trailed down her arm to her hand, she never let her gaze release his. She was lost in his mesmerizing deep blue gaze, unable to control her reaction.
“You must be the infamous Jessica,” Charles stated. He didn’t touch her, but he did lean closer, inhaling long and slow. “Fuck.”
That had been her exact thought numerous times in the last few minutes. How long had they been in this standoff?
She swallowed hard and turned just her head slowly his way, not releasing the gaze Reese held her captive with until the last second. Her gaze whipped toward Charles when her neck craned too far in his direction.
Reese still held her fingers in his own, just the merest of touches.
Charles’ mouth slowly tipped up on one side in a wry smile. He leaned his forehead against hers, the warmth of his breath mingling with her own. Way too close.
Jessica ducked from between the two men crowding her and making her head spin.
She took two steps toward the building and then spun on her heels. “I have to go back to work … finish the day.” Not stopping her momentum for fear she’d get sucked into some sort of sexual vortex and be unable to escape, she kept backing up. Her hands shook at her sides. Her chest fluttered as though she were exhausted from running.
Charles and Reese stepped in her direction. She put a hand out to stop them. “I can’t … do this … right now.”
“Later, then.” Charles narrowed his gaze. “What time do you finish?” He wasn’t going to give her an inch of space, a single second of time to contemplate this development.
“Three-thirty, but—”
“We’ll be here.” Reese spoke this time. His voice was a shade deeper than Charles’ but just as gravelly. Did they always have that tone that sounded like they were in the middle of having sex? Or was it just now, just because of this initial meeting?
Jessica shook her head. “Not here. I work here. I can’t—”
“You can’t avoid this, Jessica. We have to discuss it. Work it out. Talk. Justin told me about you, about your reluctance—”
“I don’t care what Justin told you, or Ryan. You don’t know anything about me.” She planted her hands on her hips and paused ten feet from them. She gave them a glare.
“Babe, we just want—”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me. I’m not ready for that. And I know what you want. Please, give me space and time to figure this out. Think. How about tomorrow?”
Tomorrow? What am I? Crazy?
That wasn’t nearly enough time to think about what she wanted to do next. Now that she had a few feet of distance between her and these brutes, her head was clearer. Okay, maybe not clearer exactly, but somewhat sharper. She’d spent her whole life dreading this moment. Now? Fuck.
“Uh-uh.” Charles shook his head. “No way. We’ll be here when you get out, and you can either play nice and meet with us or suffer the repercussions of causing a scene in the parking lot in front of your coworkers.” His words were harsh, but his tone was not. In fact, he was grinning.
He had her.
“Fine.” Jessica turned and stomped back into the school, not glancing back even for a second.
Her blood boiled, but she had no idea if it was from anger or arousal, and that just made her madder.
Chapter 3
Charles paced back and forth, stumbling occasionally on a rock or a tree root that had dared to peek out from the dirt, cussing at the audacity of the fucking roots as though they were purposefully in his way.
“Now what do we do?” Reese said, asking the question neither one had the answer to.
Charles ran his hands through his hair for the thousandth time and turned to stare at Reese where he sat leaning against the trunk of a tree.
How can he be so calm?
“Dude, don’t look at me like that. Don’t forget I can hear your thoughts just fine now. Just because I can control myself better than you outwardly doesn’t for one minute mean I’m not boiling inside. And, for your information, my dick is just as hard as yours.”
Charles glanced around at the dense trees. “Yeah, and you being in my head is just weird. My brothers can do that with their mates, but it still gives me the chills. Do you think Jessica can hear our thoughts too?”
“No. If she could, she’d have run from us in the parking lot.” Reese grinned. “Apparently we have to claim her before she’s privy to our thoughts.”
“Well, I’d sure rather be inside her head than yours right now.”
“Ain’t that the truth?”
A chill crept up Charles’ spine, bringing with it a sensation the two of them were hiding from something or hiding something. “I feel like we’re sneaking around.”
“Yeah, well, we are. Do I need to remind you there is a woman in your parents’ house who came home with us? Remember Alyssa? The one your mother is currently entertaining?”
Charles glared at Reese. “I’m aware of the problem.” He resumed pacing. “She’s a conundrum all of her own. Suggestions?” He hadn’t exactly forgotten Alyssa, but he definitely didn’t have her in the forefront of his mind. It sure as hell wasn’t convenient he and Reese would meet their mate less than a day after bringing another woman home.
“Me? Why do I have to solve everything? I don’t have the faintest idea what we’re going to do about her. Getting her out of Oklahoma was easy. Why didn’t we consider what would happen when we got here?” Reese shook the thought from his mind. “I can’t deal with that issue right now. My brain got overrun by a sexy minx with deep brown eyes who blocked out the first twenty-five years of my life in less than an instant. Meanwhile we’re hiding out back in the woods plotting… What the fuck
are
we plotting?”
Charles ignored him. “Let’s consider the facts.”
“Go ahead,” Reese muttered. “Do you have any new ones that have come to light in the last few hours?”
Paying no attention to Reese once again, Charles held up a finger. “First, the elusive Jessica is a wolf. Second, she doesn’t like that idea one bit. Third, well, shit, she’s our mate.” He resumed pacing.
“Good job, Sherlock. Like I said, do you have anything
new
to add?” Reese jumped to his feet. “Look, we are running out of time. We have to get back to the school before our sexy little pixie decides to make a run for it. By the look on her face, I wouldn’t be surprised if she jumps in her car the first chance she gets and hightails it out of town.”