Page 45

Her body flushed with warmth and intrigue as she thought about being with him tonight.

They sat down to eat at the dining room table. She took a bite of her first slice of pizza and moaned. “This is delightful. I never thought of adding fresh ingredients on top of a frozen pizza. This makes it so much better.”

“Edeen was the one who showed me how to do this. I never learned how to cook until Edeen taught me. She would come over to my apartment to have a meal on occasion, instead of me eating at her place, and scoff at what I had in my fridge. So one time, she just took me to the grocery store and showed me the staples I needed and taught me how tomake some meals. Then later we began competing with each other.”

“That sounds like fun. You seem to be very close to your sister.”

“We are best friends. Like you and Anne seem to be.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“You don’t think Anne will be…uncomfortable with me staying with you in your bedroom, do you?”

“No. I’m sure she would tell you to stay inherbedroom withherif I rejected you.”

Robert chuckled.

“Well, this is delicious,” Maisie said. “My compliments to the chef.”

“Thanks. I’m glad we could do this together.” They finished eating and cleaned up the dishes. Then he said, “Are you ready to run as a wolf?”

“I sure am.” Before he could tell her where she could undress and shift more discretely, she started pulling off her clothes. She was going to sleep with him tonight at the inn. She wasn’t going to be shy with him now.

He began to remove his clothes, signaling he was comfortable with her like this too. They were used to shifting in front of others, but sometimes in new wolf relationships, it could be awkward. She had already seen him naked when he took the fishhook out of her arm, and she felt safe and secure with him.

He wasn’t watching her, just working on removing his own clothes, but when he glanced at her just before she shifted, he smiled. She smiled too, loving the way he lookedat her, and then they both shifted. He was a beautiful gray wolf with a distinctive black face mask that made him look distinguished. Her face was lighter. His belly was lighter than hers, and he had a black saddle. Her back was more of a dark tan.

To her surprise, he licked her face, and she loved it. She nuzzled him and licked his back—a true sign of wolf affection. He smiled at her, appearing to love her wolf response too.

Then he barged through his wolf door, and she went after him. They ran like the wind, letting the breeze blow through their fur, feeling rejuvenated, one with the land. This was so much fun. She hadn’t run as a wolf since she and Anne had moved here, but now she figured they could run with Robert and the other wolves safely on his property on a regular basis. She loved being a wolf.

After he took her around the property for a while, showing her the loch, woods, and a stream, he led her up to the dike and they went through the wolf door there. Then they explored the MacQuarries’ castle properties, the woods, and another loch. It was really beautiful out here. Both properties were. They loved their inn, but that was one problem they had: a creek ran by their place, so they didn’t have a lot of land. They overlooked the ocean, which everyone who stayed there loved, and some woods for privacy, but there wasn’t enough land to run freely and safely as wolves.

This was refreshing, and for the moment, she wasn’t thinking about finding the body in the water, just abouthaving a blast running through the woods with a beautiful bachelor wolf. And later on when they settled down for the night?Thatwas to be continued.

Chapter 13

Robert was so glad that he and Maisie got to run like this. Edeen’s acreage was substantial—a hundred acres in all, of which she had gifted him half because they were family—and they hadn’t run all over it yet. He’d used some of the money from his inheritance to build his home and clinic, so his places were clear and free of mortgages. He had taken Maisie to the MacQuarries’ property to extend the run, to show her their beautiful surroundings too. She seemed to be having as much fun as he was. He realized he had never run with a she-wolf that he was dating, and the experience was amazing. She kept bumping into him in a playful way, and he loved it. He played with her just as much, nipping at her cheek, bumping her, chasing her tail, and that had her yipping and shooting off to keep ahead of him.

He quickly caught up to her. He couldn’t believe Maisie wanted him in her bed with her tonight, but he was all for it. He hoped her sister wouldn’t object or that Maisie wouldn’t wish she hadn’t done it after the fact. The secret would be out soon enough because wolf packs shared these things. It wasn’t a bad thing, really, because in the case of relationships,the other wolves in the pack would be hesitant to encroach on a bonding. Wolves outside the pack might still try to cause problems though. Some alpha males just figured they had what it took to get any female they wanted, even if she was seeing another wolf.

Robert and Maisie were headed back to the dike when they heard some wolves howling. They howled back in greeting. He loved her beautiful howl and howled again just with joy at being with her like this. She nipped at him in playfulness, and they continued on their way.

Once they were through the dike, they raced each other back to the house. He was longer legged than her, and he knew he was going to reach the house first, so he was in a quandary. Should he just beat her or let her win? Everyone reacted differently to a situation like that. His sister always wanted to try to win a race on her own. But his mother had always wanted him to hold back when they went running as wolves so she would have a better chance to win. So which would Maisie prefer?

He decided to stick with her and ask her about it later, but he might win by a nose. What he didn’t expect was her nipping at him, distracting him right before he reached the house, and her bolting ahead. He loved her for it. She was so cute.

They headed inside the house, and she shifted and laughed. He shifted and pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You tricked me.”

She chuckled, sounding so pleased with herself. “You were being so sweet not to get ahead of me. But I had to beatyou. I probably should have told you about my competitive nature.”

He laughed. He was having so much fun with her. “Yeah, I wasn’t sure if you would want to beat me on your own or if you wanted me to give you more of a head start.”

“Oh, I want to beat you on my own, but if you want to make allowances for me, I’ll take advantage of them.” She was so cute.

Smiling, he kissed her again, loving the way she was so much fun. Okay, so now he knew how she felt about running with him. She wanted to win—in her own way. “I guess we’ll get dressed and head over to the inn.”

“Absolutely.” Maisie started pulling on her clothes.