“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said with a nod, surprising me that he’d figured out what I’d wanted to know. “Just...can you tell your dog…wolf…dog…whatever, to stop looking at me like I’m a pork chop or something?”
If I could have laughed, I would have.
Nolan’s eyes kept shifting back to Loki, and I used his distraction to study him. He hadn’t changed too much since I’d last seen him at our graduation ceremony ten years ago. He was taller, of course, but he really hadn’t filled out much. His hair was still the same dirty blond color, though it looked a bit longer then it’d been in school. He’d barely been above the five-foot mark when I’d first moved to Pelican Bay. That, combined with his scrawny body, had made him look like a twelve-year-old kid until he’d finally hit a little bit of a growth spurt a year later. It hadn’t been much, granted, but I’d felt like less of a letch for admiring the sleek lines of his lithe body during gym class after he’d shot up to a whopping five-four. It had taken him another year to grow a few more inches and the last ten years had added a couple more, so he just barely came up to my shoulder now. He’d filled out a little, but he was still lean. Though his body reminded me more of a swimmer’s than anything else.
Nolan finally turned around, giving me a chance to take in the exact color of his eyes since we were standing so close.
I’d always thought them blue like mine, but, in fact, they were a mix of blue and green, and I absently wondered if one color tended to come out when he was experiencing a certain emotion.
Like fear.
Joy.
Passion.
I cursed myself because as soon as I thought of what passion would look like on Nolan Grainger, I imagined those long limbs of his wrapped around me as I drove into him.
Fuck, I needed to get back on track. I reached for my phone so I could ask him what he was doing here, but quickly realized I’d left it in the house to charge, since I’d forgotten to plug it in overnight.
Damn, this was going to be a pain in the ass.
I sucked at communicating even when I had the means to do it.
I pointed to the fabric Nolan was holding protectively against his chest and lifted my brows.
“Oh, um, no, I didn’t find another one,” he quickly said, again amazing me that he’d figured out what I was asking on the first attempt.
“It’s your jacket,” he murmured as he carefully unbundled the fabric and ran his fingers over the material as if to smooth out the wrinkles. His fingers were long and lean, but I could see the strength in them. God, what would they feel like stroking over my body like that?
Jesus, Kent, get a grip.
I took the jacket from him and nodded.
“You’re welcome,” he said with a nervous smile.
I pointed to the jacket and then to him. It took him a minute but then he said, “You have my jacket?”
I nodded and then motioned to the small office door. He followed me, though he kept glancing over his shoulder occasionally.
Still worried about Loki, presumably.
I went to the coat rack where I’d hung Nolan’s jacket a few days earlier. I’d expected him to return right away for it, but when he hadn’t, I’d figured he’d left town and forgotten it. The fact that he was still here had me wondering how long he was actually in town for.
I handed him his jacket and then put mine on the rack, but not before catching a whiff of the scent that clung to the material.
Nolan’s scent.
I had to resist the overwhelming urge to shrug off the jacket I was currently wearing and put the one Nolan had returned on instead.
Yeah, I was fucked.
Nolan needed to go.
Like now.
I turned around to show him out of the office and saw him standing frozen in place as Loki sniffed his shoes.
“He’s not going to pee on me or something, is he?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
I chuckled, even though there was no sound to accompany it. And it felt fucking weird. My only saving grace was that Nolan hadn’t heard the strange rumble in my chest.
I snapped my fingers and Loki immediately dropped to his haunches. I twisted my fingers and the animal stuck out a paw in greeting.
Nolan let out a wisp of air as he marginally relaxed, and then he was looking over his shoulder at me. “He won’t bite?” he asked.
I shook my head. I couldn’t fault Nolan for his line of thinking since Loki looked more like a wolf than anything else, and his silence often put people on edge. And while he still had the blood of a wild animal running through him and that needed to be respected, I’d had Loki since he was a pup, so he’d spent more of his life experiencing the world as a dog.