Iron: Blue Collar Wolves #1 (Mating Season Collection) (4 page)

And why wasn’t it going to happen? Because beyond their weird chemistry, beyond her crazy, never-ending feelings for him, the truth was Iron didn’t love Laura – and
no
, it wasn’t Bella’s dislike of her former high school enemy talking.

Mel agreed with her, though Mel could hardly be called a disinterested party. Still, Mel had been adamant it seemed Iron had decided to settle, and that Laura was the safest, easiest choice.

Leaving Iron to deal with whatever garbage was going through his thick head when it came to their relationship and watch as he mated another woman
would
have been the safe, easy choice. Accepting defeat and going out with Sam or another doctor – again, the safe, easy choice.

And when did Isabella Santiago ever go with the safe, easy choice?
Exactly
, and it wasn’t happening now, not when her future with Iron was involved.

This was getting settled. She was going to get the blind idiot to admit he loved her and wanted to take her as his mate this mating season. Enough of patience. Enough of pulling back, or giving him space, or any other crap she’d told herself to do as she fought her instincts to settle this by sitting him on a chair, sinking down on his cock, baring her throat, and demanding he claim her.

It was time to get on with their lives. Bella was getting older, and she wanted the family, wanted the kids, wanted Sunday dinners and raucous laughter and tears and wanted to tear her hair out over the chaotic love large families have, the kind she grew up in…and fuck, her biological clock must already be ticking, because right now she wanted to forget the preliminaries and jump on Iron.

“You look a little flushed. Should I get you a drink?” Sam’s voice broke through her thoughts, and she lifted her heated face to her sort-of friend and interested suitor.

Sam had been subtle, but in slow strokes he’d been making it clear over the last few weeks that his interest was more than in being colleagues.

The attention was flattering, and everyone around her agreed he was perfect. Her friends at the hospital had been talking them up to each other for a long time. No doubt there was a betting pool over when they’d get together, because Sam was the sort of guy any sensible woman would think might be
it
.

But she
wanted
Iron. He was twenty-two years of adoration and love, fifteen years of sexual desire, wrapped in a six-foot-two body that paid homage to his name. He was hard and large, possessive and powerful, a man who was only supposed to exist on movie screens and in female fantasies, not in real life.

Iron was
it
for her, and this thing with Sam, with Laura? All it did was bring her feelings to a head. Better or worse, and she knew how true that was.

She belonged to Iron.

Iron belonged to her.

And he better get with the program, because if he
dared
try to let her go home with Sam, she’d, she’d…

A charged energy ran down her back, and she turned to find herself the focus of Iron’s gaze, his hazel eyes almost glowing as they took her in.

Kara, the nurse who was the biggest champion of Bella and Sam getting together and probably had the most money on the line in the betting pool, looked at her watch. “I got to get home, guys. Promised the hubby I wouldn’t be too late.”

Murmurs started, and Bella kept her focus locked on the big man behind the bar. Every jump and every jerk of tensed muscles was visible under his skin. She arched her own eyebrow in challenge and waited.

His gaze never leaving her, he started mixing a drink. When he finished, he put it on the table and stepped back.

A fruity-looking drink, the kind only she would drink in a dive like this.

Asshole.

She was going to enjoy working him over tonight. Might even make him cry.

A goal was always a good thing.

Bella cleared her throat. “Drive safe, guys. A couple friends from my old high school gang said they might be here tonight, so I’ll hang around for a bit longer.”

Sam’s mouth parted, surprise shaping his features. Nothing had been promised about tonight or about them in general, but it would be a lie to say she’d been completely innocent in her actions with him. Still, he took it with good humor. “I’ll see you Monday, Doctor.”

“And you, Doctor.”

When her friends left, she went to the pool table, starting playing a game by herself, and waited.

‡

All good, going home.

S
teel’s text came
right at the ten-minute mark and only a couple minutes after Bella had issued her challenge, and
damn
, why couldn’t there be trouble? Anything to get Iron out of the bar and away from temptation personified.

He’d known this day would come. Hell, the only surprise was Bella let it go so long. She was a firecracker, in charge of her life, and like hell any man would dictate her timetable. He learned that the Monday after prom, when Billy Marconi was bragging about fucking her afterwards. Before he could beat the shit out of Billy, she marched over to Iron, yelled that if he’d gotten his head out of his ass and asked her to prom he’d have been the one who’d gotten underneath her skirts, but he hadn’t so he needed to quit posturing and shut the hell up.

Then she turned and kneed Billy in the balls so hard that even Iron winced in sympathy for the guy.

It was the fucking hottest thing he’d ever seen in his life, until tonight, when she looked at him with those gorgeous chocolate eyes and told him to grow some balls and fuck her.

He was going to mate with Laura. He hadn’t asked yet, only hinted it being a possibility, but Laura knew he was going to, just as she knew he didn’t love her, and probably knew Bella was his true mate. Laura might be human, but anyone familiar with the pack would know what Iron’s actions around Bella meant, and Laura had grown up knowing about the pack.

That wouldn’t stop Laura from mating him. She didn’t love him either, but they liked each other well enough, both of them wanting pups, both of them happy with the pack and their place within it.

They’d be good together, happy in a low-key, content way. No, he wouldn’t be with his true mate, but he’d already saw what happened when a wolf took a true mate who didn’t belong in their world.

He slammed the door shut on those memories. Not going to happen. He already lived through that shit once. Didn’t need to relive it now.

Bella stretched, her back a graceful arch and that ass round and begging to be cupped.

Still time. Still a few weeks before you have to mate Laura. Still a chance to experience Bella, sink into that delicious body that’s haunted you for years…

Iron didn’t have a devil on his shoulder. He had a whole army crawling over him, whispering in his ear, reminding him of almost twenty years of fantasies that starred the woman in front of him. Begging him not to lose this one chance to taste her, to hold her down and sink into her, to experience her underneath him.

Which would be worse? Not knowing what she tasted like? Or tasting her and then walking away?

Sam…
The growl issuing from his throat caused two bar patrons to startle on their stools, grab their beers and leave post-haste for a table. Iron closed his eyes, both to shield the glow that was doubtless visible as well as to block the sight of
Sam
leaning close to Bella, not quite whispering in her ear, but his body language making it clear to anyone looking that this man was
very
interested in this woman.

Why the fuck wouldn’t he be? The only men who wouldn’t be interested in Bella would have to be gay or near enough, the ones who only liked those skin-and-bones girls. As for Iron, he fucking
howled
the first time he saw Bella in a bikini, the only time he lost it around those not pack, and Steel tackled him to stop him from going full wolf and flat-out scenting her in public.

How the fuck could he be blamed though? Showing that belly without giving a fuck about what anyone thought of the fact it was large and curved, not flat and ridged. Those fucking delicious, large breasts, gorgeously tan and only just covered by
red
fabric. Then that ass, that
ass
, and it wasn’t a thong but it was the next closest thing, and if she bent over…

Iron leaned over until his forehead hit the bar, breathing through his nose and willing his dick to go down. Fucking stupid, why the fuck had he let his mind go down this path? Stupid asshole.

Sam
laughing, and that wilted his dick in a hurry. He glanced up to find
Sam’s
hand curled around Bella’s arm, and Iron wanted to tear that arm off and beat the man to death with it.

Sam
was what Bella deserved, what she worked for. Mrs. Jenkins asked in first grade what they wanted to be when they grew up, and Bella stood, her spine straight as it always would be throughout her life, and with her head held high said, “I’m going to be a doctor.”

Other kids laughed because they were all poor trash, and trash didn’t go to college, didn’t become doctors, didn’t do anything with their lives…but not him, because he saw it in her. Fuck yeah, she was going to be a doctor, and she’d make sure everyone else would kiss her ass if they tried to stop her.

That’s when he fell in love with her.

True mates. Mating Season.
All that would come later. It didn’t have shit to do with that moment. Six years old, and he knew he was looking at the girl he’d love forever.

And he had. And he did. And he always would.

He always would…

Yeah, he always would love sweet, stubborn, spitfire Isabella Santiago. Fuck whatever was out there that had him true mates with a woman he’d never be able to have, but it didn’t change that he loved her.

Sleeping with her or not sleeping with her had nothing to do with that. The loss, the longing would have a slightly different flavor depending on which path he chose, but nothing would stop the fact that he would always miss her, an ache that would never leave.

So if he was going to miss her, if he was going to mourn her, then fuck it, he’d take this last chance to love her, to taste her, to experience the one thing he’d regretted they’d never shared.

So when her friends started making noises about leaving, when they began giving her subtle nudges about
Sam
, when Bella looked back at him to see his decision.

He placed a drink for her on the bar.

And he waited.

‡

“E
veryone get the
fuck
out now.”

It was fifteen minutes to closing, and Iron had lost his goddamn mind thirty minutes back. He didn’t give a fuck if another customer ever walked through those doors. These assholes needed to leave.

The regulars grabbed their jackets and ran, throwing bills on the tables and not looking back. A group of what appeared to be college kids looked at the clock like they were going to say something, but the one kid who took a step forward immediately started backpedaling, shaking his head at the half-asked questions from the rest of the group, grabbing onto a couple of the other guys arms to pull them out of the bar.

All the while Bella shot pool, looking as composed and serene as a goddamn queen on her throne.

His eyes never left her. Not while he waited for the last idiot to leave. Not while he locked up. Not while he walked over to the tables.

Bella sank another shot before turning to hop onto the table, legs dangling and cue stick still in hand. “So…it seems we’re alone. Want to play a game?”

“Not pool.” There were so many other games to play, and he wasn’t going to waste a moment of this gift from heaven.

“But you like games?”

“Tell me what you want, baby.” The endearment slipped out, the term what he always called her in his head though he’d never said it aloud before, and inside his head was a hesitation, a warning, not to give too much, to leave something safe to cling to in the future.

Fuck it.
Fuck it.
He didn’t do shit half-assed. He was going to gorge himself on her, make real every fantasy she had starred in, and fuck the consequences. “Tell me what you like, fucking beautiful Bella. I want to play with you.”