Page 13 of Warrick (Rocky Mountain Pack #1)

Aspen

Fumbling with my key ring to find the door key to the bookstore, I don’t realize that someone is standing there until I almost bump into them. Their feet come into my view as I let out a sigh. Not again.

“What are you doing here, Warrick?” My eyes pan up from his booted feet to his dimpled smile as he holds another coffee up for me to take.

“Well, you said that I can only be here if I’m a paying customer. So, I’m here to buy a book.” He says it like it makes the most logical sense.

I stare at him. “Showing up before I even open the doors with a coffee in hand…” I let the sentence hang.

He shrugs his shoulders. “Had to make sure my favorite girl had the energy to tackle her day. Plus, it never hurts to get a jump start.”

I just shake my head. Clearly, he isn’t going to go away.

Pushing the door open, I flip on the lights and they pulse on.

The first moments inside the shop when I watch it come alive are always the best. I enjoy the quiet and the serenity that comes with it.

The office lights hum as I put my belongings down on my desk.

Not sure where Warrick has gone, I come back out to find him slowly walking down one of the bookshelves, reading the spines of the books.

I walk up silently to have an opportunity to watch him without his guard up. His finger runs along the spines until he pulls a book out and flips it over to read the synopsis. He lets out a quiet ‘humph’ before placing it back on the shelf. When I clear my throat, he spins around.

“I have a new delivery of books that just came in that need to be put away. So, if you are going to be here, then you need to be over there in the lounge area,” I say as I point in the direction of the two chairs with a small table between them by the front windows.

He looks over to where I’m pointing and then back at me. “Do you want some help with the delivery?” He lifts his eyebrow in question.

A mischievous thought crosses my mind. He wants to help, does he? “You really want to help?”

“I’m here. Put me to use.”

“Alright, you asked for this. I don’t want to hear any bitching then,” I say as I turn toward the backroom where I have the boxes of books that were delivered yesterday.

I don’t want to tell him, but having someone help me do this is such a relief. He follows behind me as we walk into the backroom. I have shelves of back stock in here with a work table for sorting the books and scanning them into the system.

“Okay, so these ten boxes were delivered yesterday. I have to scan them into the system and then we have to put them out on the floor. A lot of them are extra inventory, so we will also have boxes that will only be set on these back stock shelves,” I say as I walk, pointing at the shelves. He silently follows behind me.

One glance over my shoulder and I realize that he is taking in everything I’m saying. Let’s see how long he can keep up this ruse. Walking over to the table, I point to the first box. “Will you grab that one and bring it over here to the table?”

Without hesitation, he grabs the box and, with ease, brings it over to the table.

I set out all the books from the box and, while the beep of the handheld registers each barcode into the computer, I glance up to find Warrick quietly standing there. “You know, you don’t have to do this.”

“I know, but I want to be here. If being here means that I grab boxes for you and cart books to the shelves throughout the store, then so be it.” He shrugs like it's not a big deal, but to me it’s the first step in the right direction.

“It seems our mate just wants to be near us, however that may be,” Aisling pipes up.

“It would seem that way. I just don’t know that I can trust it just yet,” I say skeptically back to her.

“Give him a chance to be here for you. I know he hasn’t in the past, but we can’t live in the past, can we?” she quips back.

We spend the rest of the day working our way through the stack of books. I have to say I am enjoying the one-on-one attention he is giving me. He hasn’t complained one time, not even when he grabbed two full boxes to carry up front for me.

He carries the last box in and I watch as the muscles in his back flex through his t-shirt.

His biceps are glistening with a fine layer of sweat after carrying so many books for me.

I can feel my face flush at the sight of him.

What those muscles could do to me? My hand fans my face to hopefully cool down those inner thoughts.

I bet he could hold me with ease against the…

Warrick clears his throat with a comical look on his face.

He busted me staring at him with lust flushing my face.

“You okay over there?” he asks.

“I, uh ...” I’m saved from answering when the bell above the door chimes.

My head whips to see who it is as I take a quick step back from Warrick.

Chase looks between the both of us with confusion.

“Oh, hey, Chase,” I say quickly.

He holds up the takeout bag from You’re Bacon Me Crazy. “I brought your lunch over. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he says, his tone questioning.

I shake off the lustful thoughts and smile brightly at Chase. “Not at all. Warrick was just bringing the last box of books up front from the shipment I told you I got last night.” My eyes encourage him to play along.

“Yeah, I was planning to help you with it after lunch. I knew you would work so hard on putting it away that you likely wouldn’t stop to eat.

I brought your favorite: chicken, bacon, ranch wrap with waffle fries.

” He comes over and plants a kiss on my cheek.

“I also made sure to grab you a cherry coke with a splash of vanilla,” he says, with a shake of the styrofoam cup.

There is a snort that comes from beside us, and I look over to see Warrick shaking his head.

He sets the stack of books down that he was lifting from the box while we were talking.

I look back to Chase and he shrugs his shoulders.

We already discussed ways to make Warrick jealous.

We already agreed on the lengths we would go and, of course, the things we won’t be doing.

Chase leans in and runs his hand down my side, pulling me in close to him. He wraps his arm around my lower back. His other hand cups my face as I lean into it. “Tell me you will be free tonight for dinner?” Chase asks in a sensual whisper.

“Fuck this shit.” Warrick doesn’t even look at either of us as he storms out of the store.

We both watch as he disappears down the sidewalk, heading back towards the pack land. We burst out laughing. My side starts to cramp from laughing so hard.

“His face …” I can’t even form a sentence. “Did you see the way he was glaring?” I wheeze out when I finally get the laughing under control.

“Yeah, that man was not only jealous, but mad that he was jealous. That was great,” Chase says.

A secret smile between the two of us is the only indication that we plotted this.

Granted, I didn’t expect him to blow up quite that much.

I figured he would get mad, maybe make some stupid comments.

I even thought he would give Chase crap.

What I didn’t expect was him to fly off the handle and storm out of here.

Chase helps me with the final box of books before we close up the store for the night. Like any night that he is with me when I close, he walks me to the edge of our territory, kisses me on the temple, and I watch as he walks away.

Later, as I am finishing my night time routine, I smell Wraith again.

I know that every night; he sits outside my house watching over me until I go to sleep.

I always pretend that I don’t know he is there because part of me worries that if I acknowledge it, then he will stop doing it.

As I lay my head down on the pillow and reach over to my lamp to turn it off, I tell Wraith goodnight.

He might not hear me, but I love knowing he is out there for me.

That some part of Warrick at least always chooses me.