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  Axel and Christian smiled and nodded while the wolf just wagged its tail. They were off with one last wave of their hands towards their guards. Jessica leaned her head on his back and sighed, now that she knew that whatever they did wasn't going to be a fancy affair, she could relax and enjoy whatever was to come.

  Nick was thinking along the same lines, now that she was in his arms- or he was in her arms?-he could finally relax.

  He took them to the woods on his land. When they reached a clearing he pulled over and they got off to walk the rest of the way to his favorite spot. It was late and dark and Nick took that opportunity to hold her hand. Jessica smiled at him until they reached a large boulder by the river.

  To her surprise, there was a basket, a propane lantern and a blanket awaiting their arrival.

  She looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Mighty confident weren't we?"

  Nick laughed, shook his head and placed a palm over his heart. "No, I swear I didn't have anything to do with this, I didn't even know what I was going to do when I reached you." She kept looking at him skeptically "Ok I planned to kidnap you" He admit it, "but that was all."

  "That was all?!"

  He shrugged. "You make me do crazy things." He admitted and gave her a quick kiss on her lips.

  Acting as it that brief touch hadn't just singed his insides; he went about setting the blanket and pulling the food out of the basket. He didn't know who'd done this but he had an idea and planned to thank him-them-when he saw them again.

  He pulled out a couple of water bottles, strawberries covered in chocolate, a couple of pieces of cake one red rose. He handed the rose to her.

  "No real food, I think they're expecting me to have you as the main course."

  Jessica had just taken a drink of water and it all came flying back out to land on his chest. Mortified she tried to wipe the wet spots with her hands, thankful it was dark enough for him to miss the twin red spots on her cheeks, and apologized. Nick laughed and trapped her hands against his chest.

  "It's ok," he assured her, "and if it means I get to feel your hands on me, then please, do it again."

  Jessica looked away; feeling flustered by his words and Nick placed a finger under her chin and turned her to face him again.

  “Sorry if my candid speech embarrassed you."

  Jessica shrugged, "its fine, I just don’t talk about that stuff much."

  "Ok how about we talk about the lighter things then, get to know each other, our likes?"

  She readily agreed and they spent the next half hour talking about their favorite music, books and many other topics until her cellphone started ringing. It was her mother. She answered it, apologized for not calling to let her know she'd be home late and promised to be home soon.

  She hung up, pocketed her phone and looked at Nick sheepishly. "Sorry, time for me to go home." She started to help him pick everything up but he stopped her and pulled her up.

  "Leave it," he told her, "I'm sure someone will be here soon to pick it up." He reached for her hand, "Come on let’s get you home."

  They walked back to her bike in silence. When they reached it, instead of hopping on first Nick told Jessica to get on first. When she asked him why, he said "Because it will be my excuse to hold you."

  Jessica didn't know what to say so she got on and scooted forward. He got on and wrapped his arms around her, the way she'd done earlier, and pulled her back until there was no space between them. He placed his chin on her shoulder and told her "Ready."

  She gave a shaky sigh, started her bike and took off.

  It was the most torturous half hour of her life! When they reached her home they got off and he walked her to the door. She asked him if he'd like to take the bike but he turned her down and as soon as he did, a car drove up and parked behind her bike.

  He smiled wryly down at her. "My ride is here."

  Flabbergasted she looked at him and then at the car. "How did they-?"

  He chuckled. "One thing you will come to find out is that as an Alpha, you are never alone." He looked down the street. “And look at that, your guards are here too."

  Jessica looked and sure enough, here they came. "How, what?-"

  "Later." He promised. "Right now I want you inside before your parents come out." He looked down at himself. "I don’t think I'd make the right impression." Jessica looked down too and turned red when she realized what he meant. He laughed. "I'm sorry, that's what I get for riding behind you."

  She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, I should of-"

  He laughed again. "Fine, if you’re really sorry, then put me out of my misery." Her eyes flew open and he chuckled. "Not like that!" He shook a finger at her. "Say you'll go out with me again, you can pick where. And give me a kiss goodnight, and I'll consider the discomfort all worth it."

  Jessica nibbled on her bottom lip before nodding and going on her tip toes. He met her half way, it started out light but then he nibbled on her bottom lip before soothing it with his tongue. Jessica sighed and sank her hands into his hair. Jessica was feeling weightless, gravity had lost its power over her then suddenly the sound of someone coughing brought her down to earth.

  Jessica pushed herself away and together they turned to look at Axel and Christian.

  "I just thought you should know that your family seems to be enjoying the show." Christian informed her, each word laced with laughter.

  Jessica turned around and sure enough, they were all staring at them from the living room window. It wasn't possible for her to turn any redder, Nick groaned and Christian and Axel laughed. She told them to shut up and buried her face in Nick’s shirt. He gave her a tight hug before pushing her back and giving her one last kiss.

  "I better go, call me?"

  Jessica nodded and he bent down to kiss her again.

  "Tell them, I'd like to meet them next time?"

  Jessica nodded again and he kissed her lightly again.

  "Promise to call?"

  Jessica nodded, he kissed her again and she laughed and pushed him away. "Yes, yes, I'll call, I promise now go!"

  He kissed her one more time, said goodbye to Axel and Christian, waved goodbye to her family and strolled down to the awaiting car-whistling the whole time. Jessica shook her head and watched him go. When he was out of sight, all three turned and went inside.

  Standing before them, Jessica blushed and everyone laughed, together they walked back into the living room where she gave them the minimum amount of details of their date. Afterwards she said her goodnights and to her surprise discovered what thoughtful parents she had. They'd prepared a room for Axel and Christian to sleep in. She'd forgotten about that and to Danielle’s apparent displeasure the room was the guest room across from Jessica.

  She huffed away in annoyance and everyone watched her go. "Did anyone figure out what her deal is yet?" Jessica asked.

  Everyone shrugged and Jessica decided that she would find out tomorrow. Tonight she felt too good to risk having her bubble popped. After saying goodnight again, she sprinted up the stairs, took a shower, she was in too good a mood to be mean to her goons so she did it in silence, put on her pajamas and went to bed.

  Chapter 15

  "Dani, I don't like this one." Making an ugly face, Jessica looked at herself in the dressing room mirror from top to bottom and added. She was trying to find a dress for her date with Nick and so far she’d had no luck. "I'm not going to prom."

  "It's not a prom dress; it's a long evening gown."

  "It's not a gown; it’s a contraption for the mentally ill." Jessica grumbled, trying to reach the zipper in the back.

  Giving up she threw the door open, turned around and asked. "Can you please unzip?"

  Dani got up from where she was sitting but Christian, who'd been standing by the door, waved her back and unzipped the dress himself. Glaring at him, Dani sat back down, crossed her arms over her chest and asked. "Why does he have to be in here?"

  "You know why.” They’d already gone through
that and she didn't want to go through it again. Instead, Jessica looked over her shoulder at her. "Do you guys have a thing going on or something?"

  Dani snorted. "I prefer them less harry and with more brains."

  No one noticed the slight pause of Christian’s hands before he continued to unzip the dress. He looked over at Dani with that playful smile of his in place and asked her. "You know what they say don't you?"

  Dani raised an eyebrow in question.

  "Those with the fur know how to make the kitty cat purr." He wagged his eyebrows, earning him a killing glare from her and a laugh from Jessica.

  Trying to avoid an argument between the two, Jessica hurried back into the dressing room, shimmied out of the dress, flung it over the door and asked Danielle to return it and bring her something less formal. She waited, holding her breath until Danielle grabbed the dress and promised to be back with something else soon. Only when she heard her walk away did she slowly release the air in her lungs and sat down on the dressing room bench.

  "Christian?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Is there any chance you can go make peace with her or something? It's only been a week and I honestly don't know how much more I can take."

  "Is that an order?"

  Jessica thought about that for a second. "Yes, yes it is." She told him and had to bite back a laugh when he sighed overly dramatic.

  “As you wish.”

  Listening to his fading footsteps, she leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes; enjoying the silence and solitude. A commodity, hard to find in the last week; before, with her old body guards, she was free to at least roam her house on her own, not so with Christian and Axel, they followed her everywhere.

  Everywhere but into her room and the restroom; and even there they stood a couple of feet from the door!

  Taking care of business with an audience listening in wasn't easy. Now every time she went into the restroom she sang off-key and at the top of her lungs to feel comfortable enough to go, which was redundant because every time she sang…everyone knew what she was doing.

  Unfortunately, according to Nick, there was only one solution to her problem.

  Jessica closed her eyes and recalled the morning after her date with Nick. When Axel and Christian had followed her to the downstairs restroom, she had stopped them and told them to wait for her in the living room. They'd shaken their heads, apologized and told her they were only following orders.

  When she'd asked them why they needed to follow her around the house, they just shrugged and told her to ask Nick. Ignoring nature's call, she'd stomped off to do just that. She'd hurried to her room where she'd forgotten her phone and jabbed in his number, impatiently she waited for him to pick up. By the time he'd finally answered she'd managed to rile herself up and not bothering with pleasantries, she'd ordered him to call his goons off of her.

  "Good morning to you too sunshine." He'd greeted her. “You know, if you moved in with your mate, you wouldn't have this problem." He told her sweetly.

  In response to that, Jessica shrieked and flung her phone across the room. She'd forgotten about her increasing strength due to the serum weakening in her blood until she was staring blankly at the broken pieces of her phone on the floor. Seconds later there was a knock on her door; without being prompted, Axel peeked in and offered her his phone.

  "It's for you." He'd told her.

  Glaring, she'd taken it from him and placed it up to her ear and waited for him to speak. Nick, to her surprise, apologized for the inconvenience of the extra security measures around her. He explained to her that because she was now an alpha's mate she needed the extra protection, even in her house.

  "Shane was a wolf and you didn't know it." He reminded her. "And it would kill me if something happened to you because no one was there to protect you. Five seconds is all a wolf would need to kill you."

  His apology, the sincerity in his voice and his logic managed to cool her down and helped her realize that she was behaving like a spoiled child. Jessica sighed and grumbled. "Well, when you put it that way...I'm sorry I went off on you."

  Nick laughed. "Apologies taste like crap, don't they?"

  Jessica heartedly agreed and soon she found herself agreeing to go out on another date with him if he told the goons to back off a couple of feet when she was answering natures call. Now here she was, half naked in a dressing room waiting for Danielle to bring her a dress to try on.

  Somehow Nick had convinced her to go out to dinner with him later that night and since she had no dresses, she'd asked her sister to help her shop for one.

  She quickly found out that the safest place for her sanity was this room.

  Danielle and Christian could not stop bickering and that small fact had escaped her mind when she asked for this outing. She'd didn't know why but her sister could not stand Christian. When she asked Dani what was wrong between the two of them, she always got the same answer.

  "Nothing," Dani would tell her. "I just don’t like his never serious attitude.”

  Jessica had almost bought it. Dani was nothing if not serious and Jessica knew how much she liked order in her life, but she'd caught her looking at Christian more than once when she thought nobody was looking.

  Thinking about them, Jessica huffed and looked down at her watch wondering what was taking them so long. Tired of waiting, she got up and stood behind the door as she opened it a sliver to look around for them.

  What she saw had her jaw dropping and she was surprised that nobody heard it hit the floor. As quietly as she could, she closed the door and stumbled back to the dressing room bench.

  Her eyes must be failing her, she decided, because there's no way she had just seen her always sweet and composed sister slap Christian. She strained her ears in hopes of hearing their argument but she heard nothing. She had to grab on to the bench to keep herself from jumping up and snooping in on them.

  "It is none of my business," she told herself and waited patiently for Dani to bring her the dresses.

  Jessica didn't know it but the reason she didn't hear a noise from them was because Christian was using the oldest technique in the book to calm a female down.

  He was kissing her senseless.

  Danielle struggled and tried to push him away but he only held on tighter and kept kissing her into submission. Like a thirteenth century warlord, he laid siege to her walls until he broke down her defenses. He kissed her until she opened her fisted hands and laid them tentatively on his chest. Her surrender had triumph cruising through his blood; it was a heady feeling like no other he'd felt before.

  Fearing the loss of his control; he drew her bottom lip into his mouth one last time, engraving her taste in his mind, before breaking the kiss and taking a step back. And when she looked up at him, with passion clouding her wide eyes, he had to fist his hands to keep himself from pulling her back into his arms and kissing her again.

  Unused to all these feelings swirling inside of him; he fell back on his devil-may-care attitude and smiled at her. Never breaking eye contact, he rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb and told her. "You kiss as well as you hit and every time you slap me, I'm going to kiss you."

  Danielle gasped and he didn't fail to notice the jerky movement of her hand. He leaned over and whispered. "Yes ma'am can I have another?"

  Her hand jerked again and he raised an eyebrow expectantly but she lowered it down to her side and settled for a glare. "Stay away from me." She bit out. "Stop apologizing. I will never forgive you." With those last words, Dani snapped around and headed towards Jessica's dressing room with her back ram rod straight, never once looking back.

  Christian closed his eyes and wondered if this was what a drowning man felt like. As if his chest was slowly burning from the inside out. The worst part was knowing that he had no one else to blame for the pain but himself.

  If only he could travel back in time, he would go back and do things differently.

  Before he could fall into a pit of mis
ery Axel came up from behind him and slapped him in the back bringing him back to the present. For the last couple of minutes Axel had been outside taking a breather and now it was his turn.

  Putting his problems with Dani away for the time being, he smiled wryly at Axel and said, "I think she's on the twentieth dress."

  They both shook their heads and sighed. “women."

  After a couple of chuckles Christian saluted him and went outside to take a much and needed breather. He hoped that Jessica settled for one of the dresses she was now trying on because he didn't think he could take another insult from Dani without dragging her into his arms and kissing her again.

  Danielle flung the dresses over the door and exclaimed. "You better choose already, because we're running out of time and we have a lot of other things to do."

  Knowing that Danielle was in a bad mood, Jessica took the dresses and kept quiet. She could sympathize with her about her wolf boy problems. Jessica looked at the two dresses Dani brought her and immediately fell in love with them. One was a cream colored lace dress with a black self-tie waist belt with short sleeves and a v-neckline, the other was a short black tube dress with a sweetheart neckline and tiered detailing; both were mid-thigh length.

  "Dani?"

  "Yes?"

  "You were telling me I needed to find a dress for my birthday, right?" She asked eyeing both of the dresses.

  "Yes you do."

  Jessica broke into a smile and declared with triumph. "I found them!"

  "You did?" Her sister asked excitedly and clapped. "Try them on let me see."

  Jessica did just that and both Dani and Axel agreed that the dresses were perfect. Jessica especially loved them because she was comfortable in them and to her that was the most important thing. Excited to be done with the dress search, she hurried back into the dressing room and got dressed in her own clothes. After they paid, they met Christian outside and headed off to complete the rest of her to do list.

  They shopped for shoes, and then her sister forced her to get a manicure and pedicure. To Jessica it was the worst hour of her life! After that she had her hair done and only then did Jessica realize just how much her hair had grown in the last couple of months. It just about reached her shoulders and after showing the stylist the dress she planned to wear on her date, the stylist did her hair in a beach hippie look.