Vann set out a board of baked Brie, pears, and nuts. “That you and I have met before,” he said.
“When?” she said through a mouthful of food.
“Behind your restaurant.”
She cocked her head at him and chewed her food.
“You mean in the kitchen?”
He shook his head and leveled her with his eyes. A strange otherworldly quality appeared in them that sent chills tracking up and down her arms.
The dog. The dog that she fed in the back alley wasn’t a dog after all, but a wolf, just as she’d expected.
“So when you say you’ve eaten my food, met me before…”
“When you called me Buster the other night, I remembered. We usually don’t remember what happens during the hunt, but you triggered something.”
She poked at the gooey Brie on her plate, deciding how to process this information.
“You’re the stray. The big goofy, gray stray I’ve been feeding every…”
“Thirty days, more or less,” he answered. “Yes. That’s me.”
GiGi nodded. “So when you said the way to your heart was through your stomach, you were not exaggerating.”
“I never exaggerate.”
GiGi sat and stared at her empty wine glass, thinking.
Vann refilled it for her, saying, “You’re going to need more of this.”
Chapter Eight
GiGi
“GiGi, tell me what you’re thinking.”
She met his eyes and said, “I’m thinking that I’m afraid you’ve already imprinted on me, and I’m dead meat.”
“What? I’m not going to eat you.”
Gigi sighed heavily and sipped her wine. “I think everyone in my life tends to get serious about their inner beasties mating for life when all I want to do is date. This is why I don’t date much. Does that make sense?”
Vann, to her surprise, laughed. It was a kind laugh, not a mocking one. She blew out a breath.
“That makes total sense. Do you want to talk about something else?”
She nodded, sipping her wine again. Then she watched as he reached across the island, his hand closing in on her face. “May I?” he asked.
GiGi wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but she decided to find out. All he did was tuck her lock of hair back behind her ear.
She smiled.
“See? People can just behave like humans and date like humans and touch each other like humans. Not everything is about mating and biting and destiny,” she posited.
Vann smiled but looked a little bit sad, in a way that made her a little scared. “Then let’s be human and get to know each other. What do you do for fun?”
“I spend almost every waking moment at the café.”
Vann pressed. “Let’s say by some miracle you had two days entirely to yourself. What would be your perfect weekend?”
GiGi sighed and said, “I would love to just get away. Get out of the city. Go out to sea, where no people are calling my phone and popping in front of me to ask questions. Just do nothing but watch the sun rise and then, I don’t know, read a book. I would love to just sit down and read a book.”
“Done,” he said.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means I’m going to make that happen for you.”
“You can’t whisk me away. I’ve got a restaurant to run and a wedding cake to plan.”
“The café is fine without you for a few days, and you have months to plan the cake. Shit, woman, we both know if Rosemary and Ash announced they wanted to get married tomorrow—“
She interrupted him, “I’d produce the best damn cake anyone in this town had ever seen. Without question.”
It was then she noticed that he was so close, the heat from his body rose off his skin and mingled with hers. He was so close she felt his breath when he replied, “Yes, and you’d nearly kill yourself in the process.”
“And who are you, my life coach? You here to save me from myself?”
“No,” he said, now nearly whispering and running his hands brazenly through her hair, his eyes traveling over what felt like every inch of her. “I’m here because you need to get fucked.”
GiGi, for her part, felt every sex muscle in her body contract with a fresh wave of anxious arousal.
Chapter Nine
Vann
She looked a little bit scared, with a glint of thoughtfulness in her eyes.
Of course, if she pushed him away, said no, he would go no further.
He hugged her small waist with his beefy arms and held her tight against him. The heat in her blood called out to him. She might want to take it slow, casually date. But there was nothing casual about Vann. As much as he put on a carefree persona for public consumption, he was a single-minded man, and that mind was all about GiGi.
“And you think you’re the one for the job,” she said with a smirk.
“The only one,” he said. His fingertips grazed her cheek. He traced a thumb across her cheekbone, and he detected the slightest of sighs and flutter of eyelashes. At this response, he took it a step further and laced his fingers into her locks of dark, wavy hair. He tilted his head close and brought her temple to his nose. He breathed her in. Her scent was strong but homey, like browned butter and spice. He closed his eyes and pressed his cheek against hers. The feel of her skin reminded him of bed, waking up underneath cozy flannel sheets on a frosty morning. How he would love to wake up just like that and reach over under the covers and feel her there, lying on her side, the curve of her hips calling to him…her rolling over to say good morning…her limbs reaching out to pretzel around him. Allowing him to wake her up with his mouth, plunging into her core, still warm from sleep.
GiGi sucked in her breath. It was just at the moment when he was thinking about what it would be like to taste her sex in the morning. Had he somehow whispered
