Jasper stepped forward just close enough that his power crackled against my skin and his smell of fresh pine and wolf musk filled my senses. It had to be deliberate. I was pretty sure everything this alpha did was intentional. “This job won’t strain your injury, and you have the right skillset for it.”
Heat flushed up my whole body as the implications of his words hit me. Obviously, the Teagan show last night gave him the very wrong impression, and I was sure using the words that I wanted a “one-handed job” didn’t dispel him of that notion.
“Jasper, I don’t know what skillset you’re referring to, but you should disregard everything I said last night.”
“Last night?” He moved in closer, so close his proximity made my skin tingle with awareness. His hands slid down to grip my hips, and my breath caught as he pinned me. “What do you want me to disregard, Teagan?” Jasper scooped me up under my thighs and slid me onto the counter.
“I was talking nonsense.” Without even thinking about it, I parted my legs for Jasper, and he slid in between my thighs.
“Which part was nonsense, when you called me a dick… or when you said that you want to fuck me?”
At this moment, as Jasper stood flush against me, I definitely could not deny the second part. Every inch of my body ached for his touch.
“We don’t even know each other,” I said.
“You don’t have to know someone to think they’re a dick.” His hands gathered up my sweatshirt and pulled it up over my head. As he set the garment aside, his eyes came up to meet mine. “You definitely don’t have to know someone to want to fuck them.”
It was distinctly possible that my panties were truly melting off me. I was pretty sure that Jasper was a live wire of sexual heat, and I was far too close. His hips pressed into my thighs, and it felt electric. My core pulsed and every centimeter of my skin felt sensitive, waiting for his touch.
Jasper’s fingers closed around the button of my jeans, and he flicked it open and zipped down my fly. I gasped. “I wasn’t lying when I said that Kane will kill you.” The objection came out as little more than a whisper. “He’ll never let me go.”
“Kane doesn’t need to let you go, Teagan. You’ve already escaped him all on your own.” Jasper’s hands tugged at my jeans, and I lifted my butt so he could pull them down. His fingers closed around my hips, rasping over the lace of my panties, and he pulled me tight against him. Pleasure pulsed through me where his rough jeans touched my core, sheathed only in a layer of lace. My head clouded with lust as my folds slickened with heat.
Jasper’s hands caressed up my sides, his thumbs sliding under the hem of my shirt, and he said, “Kane no longer has power over you.”
“Doesn’t he?” I asked as I lifted my hands, letting Jasper pull my shirt off too. I wasn’t wearing a bra, so I found myself topless, clad in only a pair of red lace panties in the middle of the packhouse. My skin prickled, and my nipples tightened into peaks.
Jasper’s hands slid until they rested just under my breasts. “Kane will never again have dominion over you. I promise you that.”
“That’s an impossible promise to keep, Jasper.” He sounded like he meant his words, but Jasper didn’t know what he was saying. Not really. I laid my arms around the alpha’s shoulders. “But thank you for saying that.” Leaning in, I laid a kiss on his warm cheek. “I agree with you that I am still letting Kane control my life—and fuck that.”
“You ready for my job offer?” Jasper asked as his lips hovered inches from mine. “I overheard you tell the clerk at Cat’s that you have store manager experience, and because of that, the fire station is ready to offer you thirty dollars an hour, cash, paid daily. I need someone to inventory and restock the fire station. It hasn’t been done this year, and fire season is only a couple months away. After that, Lucas needs someone to inventory and restock his doctor’s office masquerading as a veterinary clinic, which the pack will pay for. There will be a lot of trade involved to get us everything we need to keep Grayhaven safe.”
I laughed. “Do you always offer women jobs while they’re naked and straddling you? Or, is this you saying that you want to be my boss?”
A small smile played over Jasper’s lips. “I was thinking more along the lines of an independent contractor.”
“With benefits?” I asked.
Jasper lifted a dark brow. “The job comes included with personal health coverage and dental.”
I chuckled. “You mean Lucas?”
“Yes. Lucas is included in your salary.”
“It’s unbelievably tempting.” I ran my fingers up the back of his neck. “Jasper….” I sighed, “If I stayed here, your whole pack would be killed. I can’t risk that.”
“Teagan, I already told you that this pack will be safer here than if we follow you up to Canada. The pack and I discussed the Kane situation on the night you arrived in Grayhaven. Every member of this pack is ready for this fight. Some of us have been ready since long before we knew you existed. Kane is only indestructible in people’s minds, but he has weaknesses like anyone else.” Jasper’s thumbs brushed over my bare skin. “I think fate brought you exactly where you were supposed to be, and that is right fucking here, with us.”
“I don’t believe in fate.”
There was no divine plan. I refused to believe that everything that happened in this life was meant to happen. It was just a random chaotic mess of pleasure, pain, and everything in
