Damn their wolf hearing. Jake looked back at the closed door to the bathroom, hearing the spray from the shower hitting the tub in a rush. He should have walked outside the room to take the call, but he hadn’t been thinking. Not while he’d been staring at that inviting bed.
“Yeah.” Jake didn’t say anything more than that. Only one reason a shower would be running and he wasn’t in it. Someone else was.
Another very long pause followed. Then Darien finally conceded. “All right.” He tried to sound gruff, but Jake could hear the hint of a smile in his brother’s voice. “Call us when you’re on your way.”
“Will do.” Jake turned off his phone and shoved it into his pocket, annoyed with himself for getting caught in the act. Darien was sure to tell his mate, and Lelandi was sure to attempt her matchmaking with Jake again.
But with Alicia being human… that wasn’t happening.
Jake shook his head, irritated with himself again, but then the shower shut off and his gaze flew to the bathroom door as he imagined a soaking-wet Alicia climbing out of the tub and into his arms.
Chapter 5
Darien pulled Lelandi into his arms in the great room of his home, her belly seemingly getting bigger by the second the way the triplets were growing. He kissed her forehead and rubbed her back as she looked up at him.
“Jake’s all right, isn’t he?” Lelandi asked as Darien led her from the great room toward the stairs.
She was always worried about Darien, and she worried about his two brothers. He wondered how they had managed to survive before she came into their lives the previous fall. He smiled down at her. “He’s staying through the night and will let us know when he’s on his way home.”
Her lips parted in surprise.
Darien shrugged. “He’s taking some vacation time. Then he’s going to do a little sightseeing.”
Eyes huge, she stared at him. “Jake? Your brother Jake?”
Darien chuckled. “Yeah.” He tugged on a red curl. “Do you want me to give you another back rub?”
“I don’t want you to get tired of giving them to me.”
He snorted and led her up the stairs to their bedroom. “You’re carrying our future in there,” he said, running his hand gently over her expanding belly. “Anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable until the babies come and beyond, I’ll do. You’re the one who’s making all the sacrifices, after all.”
When they reached the room, he shut the door, then helped her out of her stretchy shirt. She rested her hands on his shoulders as he removed her jeans and then her undergarments.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” he asked, as he helped her lie down on her side, then tucked the pregnancy pillow under her belly and between her legs to take the pressure off her back.
He poured some cream onto his hands and warmed it between them before he began to massage her back.
“Hmm, Darien, you’ve said many times how beautiful I am, although I feel like a beached whale.” She sighed. “What is Jake really doing? Hmm, oh, that feels so good, honey. A little lower if you don’t mind. Yes, to the right… wait, to the left… yes, there.”
He massaged her lower back and felt the tension ease in her muscles as she continued to purr.
“He was with a woman, I venture to guess.”
Her eyes wide, Lelandi looked over her shoulder at Darien. “A woman? Are you sure?”
He chuckled. “Well, the shower was running, and he wasn’t in it. The fact he’s sightseeing when he never does sure sounds to me like he’s holed up in a hotel room with a woman.”
Lelandi turned her head back to the pillow and didn’t say anything as Darien continued to massage her back. Finally she said, “He never sees a woman socially beyond a strictly mutual sexual encounter because of what we are. If he’s sightseeing with her, does it mean she’s one of us?”
“We won’t know until he’s ready to tell us. But if she’s not one of us, I’m sure he just intends to stay with her tonight and return after that.” He had no intention of second-guessing the situation.
Lelandi was quiet. Darien knew her matchmaking mind was at it again.
“What about that woman… the one you said called here looking for Jake, but he hadn’t given her his number. Would it be her, do you think?”
“Sherry Slate, the lawyer? Jake told me if he had wanted her to have his number, he would have given her his private one. She must have done some research to come up with my name and number in an attempt to get hold of him. He told me she was a nice woman but not his type.”
“So who was she then?”
He rubbed Lelandi’s shoulders. “She’s a partner in a law firm in Denver. She met Jake at that art gallery in Denver where he dropped off some of his photographs. If you remember, he was late coming home that time, too.”
“No one told me that was the reason. I assumed he got hung up in Denver traffic or something.”
Darien shrugged. “There was nothing to it, so no need to discuss it with anyone. She was a frequent purchaser at the art gallery. Modern art, though. Not the kind of work Jake does.”
“Hmm,” Lelandi said with speculation.
“I really doubt it’s the lawyer. It may be just a fling with a human, Lelandi. I wouldn’t make anything of it.” He began rubbing her shoulders, kneading out the tension.
“He hasn’t been with a woman in a very long time, you told me. And he never stays with one overnight. It sounds to me that she might be a lupus garou.” Lelandi smiled and snuggled tighter against her pillow. “If he’s found his mate, then I only have to work on Tom.”
Smiling, Darien shook his head. “Tom’s bound and determined to wait for his dream mate. After I found you, he said he wanted to find a woman like that.”
“Well, if he doesn’t find one that way, I’ll have to help him along. Is Jake bringing the woman he’s with home to us soon?”
“I don’t know anything more than I’ve told you. And even that’s circumstantial. He might have just been getting ready to take his own shower.”
She frowned at Darien, looking as though she was annoyed he’d ruin her hopeful news. “But…?”
“Why would he be staying at a hotel in the first place? When I asked him about the shower running, he acknowledged it was but wouldn’t say anything further. If he’d been getting ready to take a shower, he would have hurried to end the conversation. But he wasn’t. As if he was waiting for someone to get out first.”
He massaged some more as Lelandi took a deep breath. “Why wasn’t he in the shower with her then?”
Darien chuckled. “How would I know?”
“Hmm, well, it sounds to me as if he’s working his way up to things… which makes it sound like she’s a lupus garou. If she were human, he’d just get on with business and be out of there.”
“Maybe,” Darien said.
She ignored him. “He didn’t even want to go to Breckenridge. Guess he’s changed his mind now. I wonder who she is.”
Poor Jake. If Lelandi had anything to do with it, she’d have him mated to the woman before he knew what hit him.
The shower curtain slid aside and Jake’s attention remained focused on the closed bathroom door. He envisioned Alicia’s silky skin covered in water droplets and licking every one of them off.
Before he could give much more thought to the matter, she opened the door to the bathroom, letting the steam out. Dressed only in a skimpy bath towel, she stood in the doorway for a moment looking at him and seeming a little hesitant.
“Is something the matter?” he asked, frowning.
She twisted her mouth a little and shook her head. “I forgot to get a change of clothes.” Her brows elevated a bit when his eyes shifted from her body to her face. But still she didn’t move.
Wrapped in the towel, she was beautiful. Her dark hair was dry except for the ends that were dripping wet. The towel was so short that it was more like a big hand towel than a bath towel, unless it was for kid-sized individuals. The fabric had little body, and even less when it was damp.
Clutching the towel in front of her, she took a deep breath and moved toward him. He was frozen in place, wondering what she had in mind. Hoping she wanted to join him in that bed of hers, which was way too big for just one person.
She paused in front of him and said, “My bag is behind you.”
He didn’t move. He couldn’t. Stray water droplets clung to her breastbone, a couple cascading down her throat. He glanced lower and saw some trailing down her thighs. With a purely primal instinct, he rested his hands on her bare shoulders and licked the droplets off her throat. She sighed and acquiesced, tilting her head back and baring her throat to him.
If she’d been a wolf, it would have been the equivalent of showing how much she trusted him. She appeared to revel in the feel of his tongue on her skin, her free hand grasping his shoulder as if to keep her balance. Then he worked his way down to her breastbone, capturing all the sweet drops kissing her skin, and she released a soft moan, her fingers gripping him harder, as if she was about to sink into the carpeted floor.
But he hadn’t finished and crouched at her legs, lapping up the sweet droplets clinging to her thighs. She chuckled, the sound throaty, sensual, aroused. “Tickles,” she said with a hushed voice.
When he stood, he saw her nipples pressed against the thin, barely there towel and looking aroused and needy. He preferred thick and luxurious towels when he showered and dried, but on Alicia, thin and barely there was perfect.
His hand cupped a towel-covered breast as his mouth captured hers, moving her against the wall and pinning her there. As she moaned into his mouth, his desire for her ratchetted up several notches. He molded his hand to her breast, the terry cloth rough against her soft mound of flesh, the nipple pressing against the fabric. His thumb began stroking the taut nub through the terry cloth.