I tried to ignore the crazy fluttering in my chest. I wasn’t used to a lot of male attention. I’d had a couple boyfriends in college, but I’d never had a near stranger act so darn interested in me. Sure, we’d met before, but I’d just been a kid. Back then, I’d considered him cute before I even had a flutter of newfound female interest, but what did a ten year old know? Any crush I may have had ended when I watched him turn into a wolf. Thankfully, Uncle Adam had believed me then validated what I’d seen. Even told me Rand hadn’t been the only shifter around.
Over fifteen years later, the same was true. Rand was still handsome, still a shifter and still not the only one around. My property was right next door to Wolf Central.
That meant there was so much I didn’t know about the guy. Yup, near stranger. Near stranger who looked at me like he was hungry and not for a sandwich.
It was downright weird the way he expressed his interest in an over-the-top, protective way. And very flattering. And bossy. He wanted to move in with me?
Maybe that was how wolf-guys rolled. Maybe Rand was a big player with the ladies. He even said we were neighbors. I was a right-place, right-time convenience fuck.
I couldn’t forget, even after all this time, Uncle Adam’s tragic personal story. It had set me straight on guys like Rand. Wolves couldn’t be with humans. Not permanently, anyway. It was forbidden. Hookups were probably fine, and my pussy was thinking that wasn’t a bad idea. Except—
When he was still in high school, Uncle Adam had been in love with Maggie, a female shifter from Wolf Ranch. But she hadn’t been allowed to date him. A human. Even back then, it went against pack law. He’d told me they’d met in secret and shared a mad love, but one that had to come to an end when they graduated.
Maggie’d been forced to break things off. Not long after that, Uncle Adam had heard she’d left the pack to marry—no, mate—a wolf shifter in Nebraska. Some kind of arranged marriage thing.
It was a sad story of unrequited love and the reason Uncle Adam never married or had kids. He’d had a far off look in his eyes when he’d told me no one could hold a candle to his sweet Maggie. It was also why he’d been fiercely protective of the pack that lived next door and the secret Maggie had shared with him. He wasn’t supposed to know about shifters, but he had and kept that to himself for the rest of his life.
When I’d told him about how I’d seen Rand hurt by the tractor and turn into a wolf, he’d included me in the secret and shared his own personal story with shifters. After, Uncle Adam had sworn me to secrecy, too. Told me to never talk to Rand about the fact that I’d seen him shift or let on that I knew anything about their kind, that he and the rest of his family and everyone at Wolf Ranch were shifters. “They deserve that peace,” Uncle Adam had said.
I remembered his soft, raspy voice telling me that, how I’d nodded solemnly in agreement. How I’d felt special to be responsible for something so big. That summer had been the last time I’d come to the ranch, and it had been easy to keep the secret. No one at home, especially my parents, would have believed me. I’d kept it all this time. Even when Rand had appeared in wolf form on top of the waterfall watching me skinny dip.
Even now with him as my contractor. I had to pretend I didn’t know the truth about him and Nash, that they were shifters.
“Turkey or roast beef?” he asked, making me startle. He’d washed his hands in the sink and used a dish towel to dry them. Pulling wrapped sandwiches from the bag, he looked to me. “Are you hungry? You’re not a vegetarian or a vegan or something like that, are you?”
I laughed, going to the sink to wash my hands, too. “No. Although I did eat a lot of mac ‘n cheese and buttered noodles to get me through college. Turkey, please.”
“No more noodles for you. I’ll make sure you’re well fed, darlin’.” Rand flashed a grin, and when I noticed he had one dimple in his cheek, my panties melted on the spot. God, this was going to be hard, having him in my house doing the remodel projects, plus being hot, plus being a shifter…
He took a deep breath, and it seemed as if his blue eyes got darker.
I wanted him. Maybe he’d been in the back of my mind all these years, but there was a pull between us. Shifter or not. As if the secret I kept, the one he wouldn’t say, made me feel more connected to him.
I had no problem with a cowboy-wolf hookup. A fling with the contractor was what pornos were made of. I didn’t come to Cooper Valley looking for a husband or long-term boyfriend. If Rand liked to sow his wild oats with humans before he got mated off to some other pack or whatever it was they did, I was down.
Totally down. I just had to remember not to get my heart involved, like Uncle Adam, because Rand wouldn’t stick. Just like Uncle Adam’s Maggie.
Rand took a step closer. Somehow, he seemed bigger. Was he big all over? I had to wonder if wolf cocks were bigger than a regular guy’s. Was he proportional? Extra proportional? Oh God, my mind was one hundred percent in the gutter.
Clearing my throat, I opened the ancient fridge and pulled out a jug of lemonade I’d bought at the store. “Want some?”
“Sounds great, Red.” He winked.
I melted some more at the nickname. He used it like we were close and not just strangers who barely remembered each other from fifteen years ago. But the fact that he remembered all these years… I was going to be a puddle of goo by the time lunch was over.
I took a sip of the tart drink, licked the drops from my lips. My gaze whipped to his when I heard a rumble. Had he growled?
“You’re hungry, huh?” I asked.
The corner of his mouth turned up. “You have no idea.”
He took a step toward me, as if he was hungry for—
“Upstairs,” I blurted. Oh my God, what did I just let fall out of my mouth?
He stilled, a dark brow arching and the corner of his mouth tipping up.
“Upstairs? What do you want to do upstairs?” he asked, his voice somehow deeper than before. Huskier.
I wanted him to strip me bare and fuck me hard, but I couldn’t say that. Ever.
“Red?” His knuckles stroked down my cheek, and my eyes fell closed. “You need something from me? All you have to do is tell me, and I’ll take care of it.”
I bet he would. My pussy clenched at all the possibilities. I opened my eyes, and I realized he’d moved even closer. I tipped my head back to meet his gaze.
“Before we eat, could I have you, um, do something big and manly for me?”
Big and manly? Out of all the things that could be wrong with the house, why couldn’t there be a sinkhole?
Rand shot me a cocky grin. “Darlin’, I would love to do manly stuff for you. Show me what you need.”
It was the first thing that came to mind, besides sexy times. I felt even more stupid than before, but I couldn’t just say nevermind. “Come on.” I beckoned to him with a crook of my finger, heading out of the kitchen, sandwiches forgotten.
His smile was decidedly wolfish as he took off his hat, set it on the kitchen table as he followed. My nipples reacted to the way he was looking at me. They grew tight and heavy because of it.
I led him up the stairs, once more acutely aware of his presumed gaze on my ass. “In here.”