All We See & Seem (Timber Wolves) (11 page)

She was saying yes. In her own lecturing, Talley-like way, she was saying yes. “I love you,” he said, smiling bigger than he thought was possible at such an ungodly hour.

“A relationship takes work, and you have to be committed—”

“Talley Anne Matthews, I claim you as my mate, now and forever.”

She stopped mid-rant. Her eyes grew big, and he thought she might have started shaking.

“What did you say?”

Emboldened with a sudden surge of confidence, he took her hand so she could See his sincerity. “You’re mine. Now. Tomorrow. When we’re old and have grey hair and wrinkles. If you don’t want this, you better say so now, because I’m not letting you go once I have you.”

Instead of answering, Talley grabbed his face and pulled it to hers, which he decided was the best answer she could have given. Her lips were even softer than he’d imagined. He sipped at them, trying to find every nuance of her perfect flavor. He was wondering how far he should go, how much he could push, when her tongue parted his lips. Then she slid a hand up his shirt and he thought he might die of pleasure. He knew she was using her Sight. The moment he thought of something he wanted, she did it. It was the most mind-blowingly amazing make-out session in history.

And it was getting very hot, and very heavy, very quickly.

“Easy,” he said, capturing her hand with his own, although he couldn’t quite convince himself to remove it from his chest. He hadn’t thought he was cold, but the warmth she was radiating felt good against his skin. “We don’t have to do this tonight.”

She blinked those big, blue eyes at him, and he swore he was aware of each and every dark lash. “But what if I want to?”

Jase decided he was going to be awarded sainthood for doing the right thing. “I’m not ready.”

Talley looked genuinely confused. “But I thought you wanted to.”

“Trust me, I do. You and I are going to be having an ungodly amount of sex someday.” He sent a couple of X-rated images her way to reassure her. The way she flushed and wouldn’t look him in the eye afterward was all he needed to stay on track. “But our first time isn’t going to be at three in the morning on a twin-sized bed that sags on one side.” She was still studying the pattern on his comforter, so he put a finger under her chin and lifted her head until she was looking at him. “You’re not just another girl to me, Talley. I wasn’t lying before. This is it for me. I want to be the one helping you pick out denture cream someday. And I don’t want to spend the next eighty years regretting that I didn’t make our first time special.”

She kissed him again. It was just a little peck, but it was the best kiss of his entire life. “I love you,” she said against his lips.

“You do?” Sometimes life wasn’t fair. Sometimes you had to give up the basketball scholarship you had been working towards your whole life. Sometimes you had to wage impossible wars. And sometimes a girl who was way too good to so much as look in your direction fell in love with you.

Jase decided he might not punch life in the throat after all.

“Do you think I would throw myself at someone I don’t love?” She was more exasperated than offended. Jase wasn't quite sure how he knew that, but he did. It was like the Talley Power was working in reverse.

“You never know,” he teased, feeling lighter than he had in months, if not years. “I am pretty irresistible. It wouldn’t be the first time a random girl tried to rip my clothes off.”

She fisted her hand in his shirt and he thought she might be considering doing some literal clothes ripping. “This better be the last time you almost let her,” she said, using her grip on his shirt to bring his face closer to hers.

“I don’t know,” he said, stealing a kiss before continuing. “There is this one girl…”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, she’s this complete wild child. She even broke into an all boys dorm in the middle of the night one time just to try to seduce me. She might be hard to resist.”

Her eyes were focused on his lips. “Really? How hard?”

“Nearly impossible.” He traced her bottom lip with his thumb. Two could play at this lip-obsession game.

“What are you going to do about her?”

“Current plan is to kiss her until she passes out and can’t take advantage of me.”

“Hmmmm…” Her lips brushed against his. “I like this plan.”

There was no more talking after that. And even though he had to keep one leg braced on the floor to keep from rolling off the bed, he decided he wasn’t ever falling asleep without Talley by his side again.

Chapter 10

It took Talley some time to realize the sound she was hearing was a knock on the door. Jase had been a man of his word and kissed her until she was so blissfully exhausted she’d drifted off to sleep snuggled into his side, his lips still trailing kisses over her closed eyes. It was so perfect and loving, she might not have believed it if Jase wasn’t still projecting, even in his sleep. He loved her. Like really, truly loved her. Maybe even as much as she loved him.

Talley had expected her first kiss to be clumsy and embarrassing. Even in her fantasies where anything could happen, she’d imagined awkward angles, giggles, and furious blushes. She’d never dreamt that she would turn into some sort of wanton aggressor, crawling all over the guy, desperate to have more of him.

It’s amazing what the confidence that comes from knowing you’re truly loved and wanted can do to a person.

“Does everyone have their clothes on?” Joshua asked, pushing his head through the door. Apparently, he thought there was a real possibility they didn’t since his eyes were closed. Despite everything that had happened between her and Jase last night, Talley wasn’t quite sure what had led Joshua to that belief. When he let her sneak up to the room, she’d told him there was an urgent family matter she needed to discuss with Jase in private. She figured if he was really keeping tabs on them so he could pass information to the Alphas, he would be eager to get her to the room and talking, and sure enough, he’d practically pushed her out of the lobby and up the stairs.

She wanted to believe Jase was wrong and Joshua was only worried that something was really wrong last night, but his next words left no room for doubt.

“Talley, you’re on the bed! And your mate is touching you! Fantastic!”

Well, at least he seemed excited about it.

“Joshua,” Jase said, trying to sit up. Due to the bed’s dilapidated state, she had to help him, which probably didn’t help with the whole you-don’t-want-to-screw-with-me vibe he was going for.

“You two are absolutely perfect together,” Joshua said, tossing his messenger bag carelessly on the desk. He seemed oblivious to the fact that Jase was considering the best way to incapacitate him without causing a ruckus. “I have no idea why you didn’t realize it sooner. I’m pretty sure the blind kid on the first floor saw how crazy you two are about each other before you did. I really thought a Shifter and Seer would be a bit more self-aware than that with all their animal instincts and super-Sight-powers.”

“Who the hell are you?” Jase growled.

“I’m Joshua. Your roommate.” Joshua grabbed a Snickers bar and plopped himself down in Jase’s desk chair.

Jase was so angry he was beyond speech, so Talley asked, “What do you want, Joshua?”

“Glad you asked, Talley-girl.” Joshua leaned back and propped his feet up on the desk. “I need to the know where the Alpha Male is.”

“Stefan is in a secure location—”

“Stefan is in a private hospital room in Nashville.” He tilted the chair back until he could grab one of the iPads off his desk. After punching the screen a few times he said, “His blood pressure is 80/40; his heart rate is 40; his O-2 count is at 99; and his brain activity is, as it has been for weeks, practically non-existent.” He put down the device and looked at Jase. “I don’t care about a living corpse. I’m looking for Liam Cole.”

Jase’s thoughts were aligned with her own. This was a test. The Alpha Pack either knew about their allegiance to Liam, or they had their suspicions. Either way, the only thing to do at this point was to deny it.

“Why would we know where an enemy of the Alpha Pack is hiding?” Jase asked. He looked like he was insulted Joshua would even ask such a question, but Talley could See his fear. Her heart melted a little over the way most of that fear was aimed at her and how he was going to keep her from getting hurt.

Instead of saying anything, Joshua did another lean and grab, this time snagging yet another iPad. It took him a bit longer to pull up whatever information he was looking for, but eventually she heard her own voice coming from it.

“Do you think she’s okay?”

“Of course. Liam will take care of her.”

“You’ve been listening to our conversations.” Even though she and Jase had talked about the possibility, it was still a shock to know someone had heard everything the two of them had said to each other in that room. Everything, including—

“And watching, too. This baby can record images simultaneously from both cameras for forty-eight continuous hours. The CIA made an offer, but I refused. I’ve been burned by them too many times before.”

“I want you to erase last night’s recording.” Every muscle in Jase’s body was tense, ready to lunge at the guy who had the nerve to lounge in Jase’s chair as if they were all just hanging out and talking video games.

Joshua looked from his screen to Jase and back again. “But I want to hear the heartwarming confessions.”

“Erase it. Now.”

There was a sigh as his fingers flitted across the screen. “Fine. Done. Now, it’s your turn.” Joshua dropped his feet off the desk and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. All traces of the lovable goofball were gone. This Joshua meant business, and instinctively Talley knew this Joshua was dangerous. “I need to know where Liam Cole is hiding.”

Unlike Talley, Jase grew more relaxed the more serious Joshua became. “Are you sure you paid close attention to those recordings? Because the very next thing Talley and I talked about was how we don’t know where he is.”

“But you know how to find him.”

“Sorry, bro, I really don’t.” Jase used the hand that wasn’t tethered to Talley to lazily scratch his chest. “Listen, if you’re going to call in the big dogs, now is the time to do it. I’m not going to tell you anything else. The only person I’m passing information to is Sarvarna.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Listen, I don’t know what they told you, but I’m a Shifter. Do you know what that means?”

“That you require the occasional flea bath?”

“It means I can break every bone in your body before you can even think about defending yourself.”

Joshua looked at Talley. “He really believes that, doesn’t he?”

“We want to talk to Sarvarna,” she said instead of answering his question.

Again, he waved off the request to speak to the Alpha Female. “No, you don’t.”

“We don’t?” Jase asked. “What exactly makes you think that?”

“Because you hate that bitch almost as much as I do.”

Chapter 11

Joshua was genuinely happy for the couple sitting on the bed. When he’d first hacked into the school’s network and made certain he ended up sharing a room with the person everyone assured him was the most conceited Shifter in the Hagan Pack, he thought he was setting himself up for weeks of misery. The first day had tested his patience, but then Talley had shown up with a box full of gourmet cupcakes and enough goodwill to light up even a dank dorm room. The surly, self-important roommate he’d been trying to start a conversation with for the past hour changed in the blink of an eye. His sarcastic comments went from mean to witty, and the apathetic expression on his face was swept away by pure adoration. From then on, Joshua got his daily entertainment watching the two of them flying towards the inevitable. Along the way, he’d learned that Jase wasn't quite as annoying as he originally thought. In fact, he was starting to see why most people couldn’t help but smile when they said his name.

“W-we don’t hate Sarvarna.”

“You don’t hate the woman who tried to kill your best friend?” Knowing Talley, she really didn’t. ‘Hate’ didn’t seem to be a word in her vocabulary. “You’re a better woman than I, Miss Matthews.”

“We’re Alpha Pack Potentials,” Jase said, his eyes weighing Joshua’s response. “We serve Sarvarna and trust her judgment in all things.”

Jase’s tenacity in not blowing his cover would have been admirable if it wasn’t so damn annoying. “You can drop the act. I’m no more an Alpha Pack loyalist than you are.”

A movement just out of his line of sight caught his attention. Joshua shifted his gaze just enough that he could watch Talley’s foot inch towards his without giving away where his focus had gone.

“Talley, I don’t think it’s appropriate to play footsie with your boyfriend sitting right there,” Joshua said when her foot finally touched his own.

“Sorry,” she said, jerking it back under the covers. “I- I-”

“You were just trying to See if I was telling the truth.” He kicked off his flip-flop and stuck his foot up next to hers. “It’s okay. Footsie away.”