The Wolf's Mate Book 6: Logan & Jenna (9 page)

“Nightmare?”

He put the truck in gear and
shot her a smirk.  “I think I’m the only one in the pack with tattoos.  I’m big
and I don’t smile and I’ve tossed a drunk or two out of the bar.  People see
what they want to see when they look at me, and most people see someone they
think they should fear.”

“You smile at me.”

His large hand settled on her
knee and she could feel the heat from his palm through the material of her
jeans.  “You’re the first thing in my life worth smiling about.”

Damn, that was the most
romantic thing ever.

At the home improvement
store, Logan pulled a long, flat cart behind him as she walked up and down the
aisles.  She was fairly certain that she wouldn’t find everything she needed,
but she could at least get started.

She offered to pay him back
for everything, but he refused, reminding her that he was her mate.  She liked
being reminded of it, even if she didn’t need to be.  She was very, very aware
of the fact they were mates, and the longer she spent with him, the more she
liked him.  Underneath the ink and the menacing grimace he gave to others, was
a sweetheart with a great smile and a tender heart.  She liked knowing this
seemingly secret side of him.

When they were back at his
house, he unloaded her garden supplies and gathered tools from the shed, which
needed a good scrubbing and coat of paint.  Dividing the large square of tilled
ground into four sections, she used flour that she’d picked up from the market
to mark pathways and places where things would go.  Logan made coffee for
himself and sat on the porch, watching her quietly.

The fairy garden, where she
would create the ring, would be at the back right corner of the garden.  Thin,
low wooden fencing would surround the entire garden to keep animals away and to
support the fairy roses, which she had been surprised to find hidden among the
more traditional roses for sale.  She’d also found rosemary, thyme, lavender,
and ferns.  She wanted moss to cover the exposed dirt in the area, which Logan
said he would help her transplant from the woods, and she would also need to
find mushrooms.  The ring itself would be made of stone.

Brushing off the flour from
her hands, she smiled at Logan and joined him on the porch.  He slid his arm
around her immediately.  She liked that it was already second-nature to him to
touch her.  He promised to take her to a nursery tomorrow to buy whatever other
things she needed.

After a light lunch, they
started working on the garden.  He put up the fence and she planted.  They
ventured into the woods with a wheelbarrow that he found in the shed and dug up
thick, dark green moss to place in the garden.  After a long search, she found
a patch of mushrooms and had Logan dig them up.

Several hours later, her
stomach was growling angrily, but she was happy with the results of their
efforts.  Logan put the tools away and joined her.

“It looks great, sweetheart,”
he said.

“Thank you for your help.”

The sun was setting.  They’d
spent the entire day outside working.  Washing her hands in the kitchen sink,
she dried them off on a towel and said, “Do you have to go to work?”

“I normally work Tuesday
through Saturday from seven p.m. until three a.m.  The bar doesn’t get really
busy until Thursday night, and then the weekends tend to get fairly crowded.  I
told Peter, who runs the bar, that I wasn’t going to be in this week.”

“Why would you do that?”

He made an exasperated
sound.  “Because I’m not leaving you alone while that asshole Maximus and that
whack-job Jasper are running around.  I have no idea if they know you’re alive
or not, and I’m not taking any chances.  Besides, I never take time off, and
Friday is the full moon, so I wouldn’t have worked anyway.”

“If you’re sure.”

He nodded at her
reassuringly, turned to the refrigerator, and pulled out a paper sack of fried
chicken that he had picked up from the market.  She set the table for them and they
ate together.  When the dishes were done, they sat on the couch in the family
room and watched a movie.  She’d seen movies before, but had always chosen
romances.  Logan’s tastes went in the opposite direction, to what he called
‘action flicks.’  She hadn’t seen much violence in her life up until she’d been
kidnapped, and fairies fought with magic and swords, not guns and bombs.

Logan nudged her shoulder. 
“Sweetheart?”

She turned to him from where
she’d been absorbed in the thrill-a-minute car chase of the movie he’d picked
for them to watch.

He chuckled.  “You should
blink every now and then, baby.”

Her eyes burned a little when
she forced herself to blink and she shook her head with a laugh.  “Do people
drive like that in real life?”

“I’m sure some do, but if you
went tearing around on the street like those maniacs, you’d wind up in jail, if
you didn’t die first.”

The movie ended and Logan
turned off the television.  She followed him into the bedroom, her heart
pounding in anticipation.  All through the movie she’d been very aware of him
sitting next to her.  The heat of his thigh where it pressed against hers.  The
warm, comforting weight of his arm around her shoulder.  Although she’d been
interested in the movie, her mind kept drifting to when he’d pinned her to the
couch.

The scrape of a drawer
brought her from her sexy thoughts.  Logan placed a white undershirt on top of
the dresser and then disappeared into the bathroom.  She sat on the bed,
anticipation making her stomach flutter.  The door opened and he walked out
wearing only jeans.  Her eyes were immediately drawn to the thin line of dark
hair that trailed down past his waistband.

He walked to her, his
movements graceful in spite of the bulk of his body, and put the undershirt on
her lap.  “Goodnight, sweetheart.”

His lips brushed her forehead
and she realized that he was planning to leave her to sleep on the bed alone. 
Reaching for his hand, she said, “Wait!  Where are you going?”

He flipped his hand and
twined their fingers together.  “Couch.”

She couldn’t help but laugh,
imaging him on the couch.  Although it was a big couch, it wasn’t big enough
for him to sleep comfortably.  “Don’t be silly.  I won’t get any rest if I know
you’re out there uncomfortable.”  She stood and gestured to the bed.  “I’ll be
back in a minute.”

“You won’t take no for an
answer, will you?”

She turned and looked at
him.  He looked as if he wasn’t sure what to do about someone that cared
whether he was comfortable or not.  “No.”

He nodded slightly and a tiny
smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.  Shutting the bathroom door, she
stripped to her panties and slipped the large shirt over her head.  It was big
enough to pass for a dress, soft, and smelled faintly like him.  After cleaning
up, she opened the bathroom door and clicked off the light.  The room was dark
except for a bit of moonlight that filtered through the blinds, making the room
appear blue.  Logan was on the right side of the bed under the covers.  She
walked around to her side and lifted the covers, climbing in.

When her head settled on the pillow
and she was staring at the ceiling, she thought that perhaps Logan was planning
not to touch her at all.  He’d wanted to take things slow, and she liked the
idea, but she knew that he was fighting biology as well.  When a wolf found his
mate, it was instinctual for him to want to claim her in every way as soon as
possible.  Her cousin had confirmed that, saying that her mate hadn’t been able
to keep his hands off her from the moment they met.  Even though her mate was a
were-fox, the instincts were still the same.

Logan was treating her with
respect, purposely taking things slow so they could get to know each other
first.  Every fiber of her being wanted to pull him on top of her and spread
her legs wide, but she wanted to show him that she could respect him just as
much as he respected her.  Although she felt like she, too, was fighting
against instincts.

It wasn’t the first time
since she’d woken up that she’d been driven by thoughts that were foreign to
her.  Thoughts like marking him.

She let out a surprised
squeak when he suddenly hauled her against his side, one arm around her back. 
Tipping her face up, he bent and kissed her briefly and settled back on his
pillow.  She settled one arm across his chest, her head on his shoulder, and
closed her eyes, smiling.  He hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her, even
if he did have good intentions.  Some touching, even innocent touching while
they slept, was better than nothing, and his arms around her settled something
that had been feeling antsy moments earlier.  She could sleep now, held in his
strong arms.

Chapter 6

Logan found it harder and
harder to keep a respectful distance from Jenna.  She’d only been with him for
three days, but each hour that passed made it progressively more difficult to
ignore his instincts.  His hands ached to touch her soft skin.  His teeth hurt
from the desire to mark her with his fangs.  And his cock — well, he was pretty
sure he could fuck a hole in a brick wall with the way it had gone hard as
granite and refused to go away.  Walking around with a perpetual hard-on like a
teenager grated on him, but he’d promised himself, and Jenna, that they would
take things slow.  Somehow, he didn’t think the vixen was all that interested
in keeping the promise any longer.

It was heaven to wake up with
her in his arms, to share the first rays of the morning sun with someone that
he knew he was already half in love with.  He’d never known what love felt
like, not
this
kind of love.  Sure, he knew what family love was like,
at least from his grandmother, but he hadn’t ever loved a woman before.  Not
the kind of all-consuming love that his friends and packmates enjoyed.  From
the moment he’d looked into her terrified eyes when she’d awakened in his arms
in the Jeep, he’d been drawn to her.

They’d spent the last couple
of mornings at the nursery, picking out plants for the garden.  He didn’t have
any confidence in his ability to keep them alive, but he did trust Jenna when
she promised that there wasn’t anything wrong with the soil and the plants
would grow.  They worked together in the garden.  Gardening.  Such a mundane
activity, but it made him happy.  Not because of the fruits and vegetables that
would grow, but because of the time spent getting to know his mate.

She was funny.  Silly. 
Sweet.  She loved her family and her friends, and was proud of her upbringing. 
The fae-world wasn’t all that different from the world he’d grown up in, with
people separated by class, but in Jenna’s case, the classes were separated by
magical abilities.  When they’d been at the nursery on Tuesday, he was fumbling
in his pocket for the keys to unlock the back gate of his truck and Jenna
simply laid her hand on it for just a second and then opened it.  It was so
fast that if he hadn’t known it was locked, he wouldn’t have known she’d done
anything.  As far as he was concerned, her fae-power was cool as hell.

They’d stopped at a
department store on the way home so she could get more clothes.  He wasn’t
taking her to her realm for two weeks, and Reika had only sent over two changes
of clothes.  And he was very aware that none of the garments included had been
a bra.  It hadn’t helped the state of his cock to see her breasts bouncing
around under her shirt completely uninhibited.  And maybe he didn’t mind it
himself, but he didn’t like anyone else ogling her.

But who wouldn’t ogle her? 
She was gorgeous.  Fair skin, long, dark brown hair with little hints of
silver, and those metallic-colored eyes that brightened when she was happy and
darkened when she was turned on.  Her nose was small but perfect, her lips full
and naturally pink, and she had a habit of tucking a lock of hair behind her
ear and biting her lip when she was concentrating.  Petite and lushly formed,
she had curves in all the right places, and the natural scent of her was slowly
driving him insane.  He didn’t think it was possible for someone as beautiful
as her to become his mate, but he wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. 
The spell she’d cast had brought them together, and there wasn’t anything in
this realm, or any other, that would separate them.

Wednesday afternoon, Jenna
bent over and turned off the hose, and Logan barely stifled a groan as he took
in the perfect shape of her ass.  He’d done a lot of difficult things in his
life, but nothing was proving more difficult than keeping his hands off his
mate.

His phone buzzed, momentarily
distracting him from the view.

Bo’s voice met his ears. 
“How are things going with your girl?”

“Great.  How are the
patrols?”

After he had brought Jenna
home from the hospital, Jason had organized patrols to keep watch around town,
keeping an eye out for strangers.  When Bo’s mate, Reika, had first come into
town, Logan had headed up the patrols.  But where Reika had only had three
were-lynxes after her, Jenna had a crazy fairy and a dangerous wolf pack
potentially after her.  He had no idea if the wolf pack knew if she was alive
or not, but with the fairy gone from the Fae Realm, he was going to err on the
side of caution.