Only apparently it wasn’t. She stayed quiet a fucking long time. Jackson would have laughed if he could see me now — blowing it with the first woman I’d approached in a very long time…
“Josephine.”
I let out a slow breath when she finally introduced herself. And she offered her hand, too.
I didn’t even hesitate. She was giving me permission to touch her. I took her hand and electricity lit every nerve in my shoulder. It was like an instant shot of life and vitality.
“Gin again?” I asked her.
“Another sounds nice,” she said.
As she angled herself toward me, another wave of her scent hit me, and my wolf reacted. Something instinctive and so deep-seated it didn’t even make sense. I wanted to claim her and make her mine for all the world to see, and I recoiled from the unexpected urge.
But I couldn’t back away completely. I hadn’t wanted anything for a long time, and I couldn’t pass this opportunity by. It was just a drink, after all, to see where the night took me.
No harm in that.
Hell, if Jackson were here, he’d probably be encouraging me. No, scratch that — that rat bastard would probably be trying to hit on her himself.
Jealousy surged inside me, and I clenched my fists to try to contain it. Like it might leak out of my fingertips and show the whole world how I felt, or something. I didn’t do female entanglements anymore, and I definitely didn’t do jealousy.
That way swayed too close to all sorts of feelings that I didn’t even want to acknowledge, and it was also something I couldn’t possibly feel about a woman I’d only just met. I pushed back against my wolf. I didn’t have time to care what he thought right now.
And I certainly didn’t have time or the need for jealousy.
The existenceof jealousy made this beautiful woman bad news. More than bad news. Dangerous, actually.
But I had more self-restraint than to get drawn into a situation I couldn’t control. I was the alpha of a highly regarded shifter pack. I was CEO of the most ruthless company in town. I took whatever I wanted. I understood control.
I had ultimate control over my decisions and over my future. Iron control, even.
I was all about it.
One woman wouldn’t change that. Especially if she never met Jackson.
My wolf settled. Content with the idea of Josephine never meeting Jackson, apparently.
I wiped the idea of Jackson from my mind and pushed my wolf away. He was making this into way too big of a deal, and the constant fidgeting inside me was unusual and irritating. I was back in control now.
I was just going to buy her a drink.
I wanted to watch her drink. I wanted her to sit at my table across from me and the drink I’d provided her with.
One drink. Nothing else. It would please me.
I ordered her another glass and led her to my table.
“Thanks…I…I just…that is…” She started to speak, then laughed. “Oh my God,” she blurted. “I sound like such a mess. I’m so sorry. I’ve had a totalday.” She rolled her eyes, then shook her head. “No, seriously. It’s been a tough one. It seems to have been just bombshell after bombshell of news, all day.”
I chuckled. I liked her voice. It was all pretty and raspy, and I wanted to listen to it for a very long time. If phone books still existed, I’d probably let her read one out loud to me.
I took a swig of my drink. I couldn’t go too hard if I still wanted to drive and pay my respects, but enough to be social was okay.
“You know what? I know those days.” And I did. The days when nothing seemed to go right were the worst. And I knew them too well.
“Then…” Josephine looked shy for a moment. “This is going to sound really weird, but I just had the wildest thought. Want to help me out?”
I started to nod my head, agreeing to whatever she wanted before I even knew what it was. But I stopped myself. I knew better than that. I never agreed to a deal without knowing all the terms and conditions. I never signed my life away without reading every letter of the fine print first.