The lust glimmering in her eyes made Nick groan. He scrunched a hand in her hair, digging deep for restraint and using the feel of her to do it. “You can’t look at me like that, Shay. I’m hard as a rock here, and you’re making it really difficult not to bite this mouth. But you like that you do that to me, don’t you?”

Her blush gave her away. “Asshole.”

“At least I have the comfort of knowing I’m not the only one who’s horny.” When she snorted, he arched a brow at her and said quietly, “Shall I tell you what I’m thinking about right now?”

Flushed, she squeezed her eyes shut. “I really wish you wouldn’t.” The mating urges were becoming harder and harder to deal with, and she didn’t need him making it worse—particularly when she was feeling so restlessly needy. Her wolf, on the other hand, was extremely curious.

“I’m thinking about how gorgeous you would look tied to my bed. Want to know what I’d do to the ni**les that are poking through your T-shirt? I’d suckle on them and bite them until you were arching off the bed and begging me to f**k you. But I wouldn’t f**k you. Not yet. First, I’d taste you. You can’t have any idea how badly I want to know how you taste. Only after I’d licked you to orgasm would I bury myself inside you and take what’s mine. There’d be nothing gentle about it, Shay. It would be fast and hard and raw.”

When she opened her eyes again, Nick saw that they had darkened and her pupils were dilated. To add to that, her lips were parted, and her breath was coming in short, soft pants. He had to wonder why he was doing this when he was tormenting himself just as much as he was her. Clearly he had a masochistic streak he hadn’t known about until now.

Shaya took a steadying breath before speaking. Her voice was embarrassingly raspy. “You’re a teasing, cocky ass**le.”

He laughed, forcing himself to get to his feet and end the torture. “Story time is now over. Eat your chocolate and rest. I have a juicer to fix.” With that, he left the room and she turned her attention back to the TV. The plan hadn’t been to fall asleep. But that was what happened. When she woke, it was to find that it was dark and that Nick was sitting on the sofa with her feet resting on his lap, watching the TV on a low volume. He must have sensed she had woken, because his eyes moved to hers.

“Hey, baby. Feel any better?”

She did, actually. The cramps had gone, and the edginess had eased. She nodded.

“Good. Just so you know, your juicer is now fixed, the kitchen tap is no longer leaking, and your dinner’s in the oven, waiting.”

Did he have to be so nice to her?

“I noticed the faulty boiler, too. Your landlord will need to take care of it. I don’t want you having cold showers.”

Ha. Her landlord didn’t address any problems. He’d say, “Oh, I’m starting to think I may have to sell the house, I can’t afford to keep repairing it,” which was, of course, an indirect threat—if she didn’t deal with the problems herself, she’d be out of a home very soon. “I’ll call him tomorrow,” she said casually, though she knew the conversation would amount to nothing.

“No need. I called him while you were sleeping. He promised he’d take care of it.”

She gaped at him. “You called him? How did you even know his number? And what do you mean ‘he promised’?” Oh hell, what had he done?

Nick shrugged, his gaze on the TV. “I got his number the same way I got yours—I have contacts in the right places. Admittedly, he wasn’t so cooperative to begin with. Cried poverty and talked about selling the house, but when I mentioned that his bank balance didn’t quite back that up and just how important you are to me, he had a change of attitude.”

“You know his bank balance?” She was beginning to think Nick could find out just about anything about anyone. He simply shrugged again, like it was nothing. “I suppose you threatened him too.” He looked suitably offended.

“I didn’t need to. He was spooked enough knowing I had access to his personal information—including the little detail of him having an affair with his sister-in-law.”

She could only gape again. Then she shook her head, groaning. “You scare me sometimes.”

He rubbed his hand up and down her thigh. “You never have to fear me. You’re the one person who’ll never be harmed by me, no matter what.”

She believed that. A week ago, she wouldn’t have believed a single word he said about anything at all. But now, she did. That told her he was getting under her skin. And that was dangerous. But how could he not? The fact was that, whether she liked it or not, it was hard not to like having him around. He made her life easier by doing the littlest things, and he tried his best to take care of her despite her grumbles and protests. No one had ever done that before. No one had ever been so completely focused on her. Not even her parents.

“Now that you’re feeling better, I’ll get out of your way.” The last thing Nick wanted to do was leave, but he wasn’t going to stay unless she asked him to. He didn’t want her thinking that everything he’d done for her today had been in an effort to earn an invitation to stay. He’d done it because he wanted to. But as he wasn’t as well behaved as she’d like, he didn’t resist the temptation to plant a kiss on her tempting mouth. “If you need me for anything, you know where I am.” He had only taken two steps when he heard her voice behind him.

“Nick…thanks…for helping,” she awkwardly said. He flashed her a sexy smile that made her wolf shiver, and then he left…and Shaya found herself wanting to call him back. Yep, he was under her skin all right—under a lot deeper than she’d thought. Crap.

CHAPTER EIGHT

After three weeks of Nick doing his best to immerse himself in her life, Shaya was about ready to cry…because it was working. To her dismay, he was utterly consistent in everything he said and did. Each morning, he would be waiting at his car with a coffee and an offer of a ride, which she had given up on refusing. Each day at work, a gift and a text message would arrive that brought a smile to her face and made her want to laugh. Every lunch hour, he came to take her to lunch wherever she wanted to go. At the end of each day, he was there to collect her from work with a meal he’d cooked for her. And every Sunday, he helped her with grocery shopping and offered to do any jobs around the house.