Selena tugged on the guy's sleeve and dragged him toward the table.
Here goes nothing.
Helena grabbed the gravy as if she intended to move it to the other end of the table and turned so she wasn't facing them straight on. That way, when she turned to greet him, she could accidentally on purpose bump into that amazingly broad chest and oops-a-daisy, gravy goo down his front.
She was not imagining licking all the gravy off of his finely-formed pecs. No she was not.
“Helena dear, I have someone who wants to meet you.” The crafty matchmaker shoved the wall of growly man in front of her and right up to Helena's side.
She didn't even have time to enact her plan. The hulk of a wolf man was all up in her space and instead of pouring the gravy down the front of him to get rid of him, she hugged it to her chest. “Hi.”
“Hello.” His eyes flicked from her own, down to her mouth, and kept going.
Dude was already checking out her rack and they hadn't even exchanged names yet. She wanted to be mad, but instead it made her feel desirable. She knew full well she had great boobs, but she wasn't exactly showing them off tonight. She was wearing a plain old v-neck t-shirt and jeans. What would he be staring at if she had on one of her dancing outfits?
A warm sensation spread over her heart and she licked her lips. This must be that mating thing the girls had talked about. Gal, Heli, and Zara all said they felt something visceral and extra special when they were with their wolves. Was this it? A warm gooey feeling across her skin.
One of his eyebrows went up and his gaze continued down, down, down. “You're dripping gravy.”
Helena glanced down and the bowl was tipped just enough so that a small but steady stream of gravy was dribbling down her cleavage. Still, she couldn't seem to move to do anything about it.
Hotty Wolfboy, ahem, make that Wolfman, took the bowl from her and swiped one finger over her sternum, catching the drip and cleaning the gravy from her skin. Where he touched her skin a trail of heat burned into her, much hotter and more intense than the spilled side dish.
She held her breath, waiting to see what he would do next. She wasn't disappointed. He brought his finger up to his mouth and sucked every last drop away. “Mmm.”
“Well, I can see my work here is finished. Good job, me.” Selena backed away and joined her family at the table.
Helena barely noticed, but Wolfman did. He stepped back and blinked a few times. “Sorry. I shouldn't have—”
He grabbed a napkin from the table and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She took the napkin and wiped the remaining stickiness away. “I'm Helena by the way. I guess we're supposed to be dates for each other tonight.”
She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that anymore. She did not not not need to be fixed up on a blind date. She didn't need any dates for that matter, but the dude was delectable, and Selena did have excellent taste in men. This guy was revving all of Helena's engines and then some.
One particular dribble of gravy was creeping its way down, down, down, right in between her boobs. If she didn't get it now, she'd be sitting around at the party with Eau de Turkey Gravy wafting out of her chest all night. Helena stuck a finger into her shirt trying to catch the drip, then realized what she was doing. She glanced up at her fake date and yep, his eyes were fixed right to her chest. Not that she could blame him. She was rooting around in there pretty obviously.
Whatever, guys would be guys. It wasn't like she didn't have them eyeing her actual boobs every day anyway. At least right now they were covered by several layers of clothes and gravy. She didn't mind his lascivious gaze, that she could handle.
Then he licked his lips.
All of a sudden, he was the big bad wolf and Helena was hoping that his tongue was all the better to eat her with, my dear.
“You missed a spot.” He reached his hand out and with one callused finger caressed her skin from the hollow of her throat down to the first button on her shirt. When he pulled his finger away, Helena forgot how to breathe for a second.
The smallest bead of gravy clung to the end of his finger and he brought it up to his lips and tasted the tip with that sexy tongue of his. “Mmm. Salty.”
Okay. Helena had never specifically thought anyone's tongue was particularly sexy before. Sure, it could be used to do some sexy stuff, especially between one’s lips, either pair. But the actual warm, wet muscle? No. Until now. She was going to have dreams about that tongue. Geez. Had it just gotten hot in here?
“Hey, Helena? You gonna bring that gravy over here or what?”
She was kind of leaning toward ‘or what’. If she happened to spill a bit more on herself...ack. Stop it. She didn't even know his name yet. So far, he was simply the hottie with the naughty body.
Besides. She was not doing this with him. Whatever this was. She didn't need a date, she didn't need a man. What she needed was some turkey dinner. “Yep, sorry. I was making a bit of a mess. Here you go.”
Helena grabbed the gravy bowl back from him, set it on the table, and sat at the only open spot. Ha. So there. That would show him she didn't need company or his finger or his tongue.
A growling sound came from behind her and one of the other girl's dates, who she happened to sit next to, froze with a bite of green bean casserole midway to his mouth.
Her date stood right behind them with his arms crossed. “You're in my seat.”
The guy got up out of the seat so fast he almost spilled his food. “Sorry, man. My bad.”
Helena saw Selena roll her eyes in Mr. McGrowly's direction and tsk-tsk at him. That didn't stop him from sitting his ass down in the now-vacant place. He freaking barely fit on the chair. He had the widest shoulders that a girl could so easily wrap herself up in and feel all protected and safe.
What? No. That thought did not come from the deepest darkest parts of her brain. Get the heck out of here with that idea. She was perfectly fine without wolfman hugs.
She slid her gaze over, hoping he wouldn't notice she was eyeballing him. Of course, he was looking right back at her and had a serious mad on. “Don't look at me like that.”
His face went from cranky to surprised. Dude clearly wasn't used to a woman calling him out on his shit. But then he did something that gave her butterflies way down deep in her belly.
He smiled.
Holy furballs. That little grin with a hint of wicked lit up his whole damn face and made his eyes twinkle. Damn it. She was such a sucker for twinkling eyes.
“My apologies. I will try not to look at you like that again. But no promises.” He winked at her. Actually freaking winked. “I am Aleksei and I have a proposition for you.”
“You do, huh? I don't think I like the sound of that.” But she did. Ack. No. No, she didn't. What the heck was wrong with her?
“Yes. A very private proposition. How about we go grab another bottle of wine for the group?” He jerked his head toward the bar. “Maybe some champagne to celebrate the holiday?”
Every single word out of Aleksei's mouth dripped with sex. He hadn't even slipped in any innuendos or anything. It was just the way his voice was, all husky and lazy, like he'd just gotten out of bed, or had the most amazing orgasm.
He could read the back of a cereal box to her and she'd happily just hand over her panties. She very clearly already needed a new pair since hers were more than a little damp. “Yeah. Champagne sounds good.”