away. Even that slight contact left her with the ghost of that beautiful melody she’d heard singing through his veins last night. It was only one of her gifts, but it had never come to her so effortlessly, nor had any man ever responded to her abilities so openly, even if Jenner seemed unaware of how receptive he was. She could only imagine the heaven of joining with him, skin to skin…
“Thanks,” she said, trying for a smile as her heart fluttered wildly. What was wrong with her? Yesterday at this time, she’d been happily imagining a romantic weekend with Jeff. But Jenner’s mere presence seemed to eclipse every thought of Jeff, good and bad.
“No problem.” He drew back almost as quickly as she had. Did he feel it, too, she wondered, this weird chemistry between them? She decided it was a stupid question almost as soon as she’d come up with it. Jenner was a big, sexy, supernaturally powerful man. And she was just…Mia. Not that she was unhappy with being just Mia most of the time. But it was not something that seemed to have set the male hearts of the world aflame just yet.
Because it was easier than forcing her mind to formulate coherent sentences, Mia shoveled up a forkful of the hash browns and dug in. Her taste buds sang their praises so immediately and loudly that she was pretty sure her eyes rolled back into her head in pure pleasure. Apparently, she’d been hungry.
“Umm. Mmm,” she heard herself say.
When she opened her eyes again, Jenner had paused in the middle of sitting down next to her with his own loaded plate and was looking at her with that intense, heated expression again. Almost as though he was thinking about taking a bite out of her. But as quickly as she could blink, it was gone, leaving her to wonder if she’d imagined it.
It spoke to her addled state, Mia supposed, that she kind of hoped not.
“Tastes okay?” he asked.
Mia swallowed. “Yes, thank you.”
Jenner slid onto the stool beside her without saying another word. Not much of a talker, that much was obvious. And it seemed like whatever questions she wanted answered, she’d probably have to ask them herself. While she pondered what to say next, she ate another bite of food. It was so good she quickly had another, and it took some time before Mia realized that she and Jenner had been eating for several minutes in complete silence. She glanced at him, certain she’d be confronted with at least an odd look, some sign that her lack of conversation was off-putting. But to her surprise, Jenner seemed perfectly comfortable in the quiet, eating and lost in his own thoughts.
It was easy to imagine him doing much the same thing every day of his life. A cozy thought, one that gave Mia a warm feeling she knew she had no business having over this man. But…it was so unusual, to be with a person who felt no need to inject words into a moment that was fine without them. Jeff had chattered ceaselessly, sometimes nervously…mostly about himself, Mia realized.
And he was as different from the man she was sitting next to as night was from day.
She looked back down at her plate, which she discovered was nearly empty. Jenner, it seemed, was noticing the same thing. He leaned over just a little to look, and now Mia could smell him again, a musky blend of forest and wood smoke. She had a mad urge to stuff her face in his neck and breathe it in.
“I guess that agreed with you,” he said.
“I…yeah, it did. Thanks,” Mia replied.
He eyed her plate, amusement glittering in his eyes. “I don’t know where you put all that, but there’s more where that came from if you want it.”
“No,” she said with a laugh. “Any more and I’ll explode.” She put her fork down and watched Jenner return to his breakfast. Mia took a sip of coffee, thought a moment, then plunged in.
“So,” she said, not missing the way his shoulders stiffened ever so slightly, as though he knew what was coming. “How long do I have before I turn into a werewolf? And when can I go home?”
Jenner had known she was going to ask the questions.
He just wished she’d waited until someone else had shown up to answer them.
He looked at Mia, her expression open and earnest as she watched him through a pair of glasses that shouldn’t have been nearly as sexy as they were on her. All that thick, dark hair was tucked behind her ears, and she looked like a young, bookish innocent.
Young, she most certainly was. Bookish, maybe. Innocent…well, he hoped Mia wasn’t as innocent as she looked, because otherwise her life was going to be very unpleasant until she got used to the way things worked with a wolf pack.
And she was still staring at him with those pretty eyes of hers, waiting for an answer.
“Well, you see,” he started, and then stopped again. Damn it, explanations weren’t his deal. Running off intruders and taking care of the filthy menaces that oozed around the edges of their territory was. He wasn’t valued around here for his communication skills…and he was now getting a very potent reminder of why not.
A crease appeared between Mia’s eyes, the beginnings of a frown. “I am going home soon, right? I’ve got work.”
“Work. Yeah.” God, he sounded dumb. What would a woman like Mia do for a living? he wondered. His curiosity about her—strange for a man who was picky about who he spent his attention on—prevented him from giving her an answer that was vague enough not to upset her.
Or any answer at all, for that matter.
“Okaaay,” Mia said, drawing out the word. “We have now established that we both understand that I work. Nick—”
“It’s Jenner,” he said reflexively, and knew at once how defensive he’d sounded. Well, great. That would do a lot to help his cause. He snuck a glance at the clock on the microwave and wished it were sometime in the afternoon instead of morning. Then Bane could deal with all of this. He’d expected, hell, hoped for a groggy Mia to feed and send back to bed. Instead he was getting grilled over breakfast.
Mia blinked at the sharpness of his tone, but to her credit, it didn’t seem to put her off much. “Jenner. Right, sorry. Look, I don’t know what you thought, but I’m not exactly living a life of leisure back in Philly. I need to get out of here as soon as possible, today if I can. I know you said you needed my help, and I’ll be happy to tell your…your Alpha, or whoever…everything I know about Jeff. But that shouldn’t take more than an hour or so, tops. I haven’t known him long.” She looked away. “I really think we should call the police. I don’t want him coming after me. I can’t have him coming after me. If he does, he’ll kill me. But I can’t stay here.”
Her blunt assessment, and the resigned way she delivered it, surprised him. Suspicion, always his first reaction, made the hairs at his neck prickle. He tamped it down as best he could, knowing it was unfair. Or maybe he was just hoping it was.
He still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something important here.
“I don’t think he was trying to kill you, Mia,” Jenner said slowly, unsure of how close he should get right now to the truth of werewolf bonding. She looked back at him sharply, and in that moment, despite her previous uncertainty with him, he could see the steel spine lurking beneath the surface.
“Yes he was,” she said flatly. “I saw the knife. He was about to
