Although he touched her often and teased her with the things he’d like to do to her, he never pushed for more, never took advantage of the arousal that was coming close to ruling her body. That same arousal was responsible for the dreams she had every night. There was nothing vanilla about them. The one she’d had the previous night had been particularly hot. Not only was she naked on her back in bed with her hands bound above her head, but she had a butt plug up her ass and Nick was f**king in and out of her hard and deep. She blamed Kent and all his “I bet Nick’s just as dominant in the bedroom” comments. That and Nick’s constant teasing.

As such, when he walked into the salon at midday looking so freaking hot it wasn’t fair, she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to snap at him or jump on him. She went with the first. “I told you this morning that I wouldn’t be able to make lunch today—Fridays are always busy here.”

“I know,” said Nick soothingly, smiling. Her snippiness never bothered him. “I brought you something—I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss lunch altogether because you were busy.” Not only did the female eat like a bird, picking at everything, but Nick knew she occasionally missed meals, and he’d be damned if he let her neglect herself like that. It particularly wasn’t good for shifter metabolism.

Shaya might have rejected the bag he held out to her if the Subway sandwich didn’t smell so unbelievably good. Begrudgingly she took it, silently cursing him for once again being nice and trying to take care of her. He did that a lot. Of course Kent thought it was unbelievably sweet, as did her regular clients, who had all met Nick at least once by this point and thought he was fabulous—in fact, the client in front of her was at that moment greeting him and talking with him about the freaking weather.

Finally, Nick turned back to Shaya and gestured at the sandwich. “Make sure you eat it.” In a voice so quiet only shifter hearing would pick it up, he added, “If I find out you haven’t, I’ll spank your ass.”

Perching a hand on her hip, she gaped at him. Just as quietly, she asked, “Who do you think you are, bossing me around and threatening to spank my ass?”

“I’m the person who owns that ass, baby. And I don’t like it when you’re not taking care of it.” With that, he planted a brief kiss on her cheek and left.

Shaya, still gaping, looked at Kent, who was working at his station beside hers and would have easily heard Nick with his shifter hearing. “Can you believe that guy?” Kent simply shot her another look of disapproval. Why? Because she had accepted the offer of a date for tonight from a client she’d had that morning, who was new in town. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t date a client, but she’d made an exception here. She could lie to herself all she wanted about why she was going—she could say it was because she didn’t want Nick, or she could say it was because she had a huge thing for her date, but the truth was that she was testing Nick.

He was fast becoming important to her. She couldn’t help being comforted by his presence and confidence. He made both her and her wolf feel safe, cosseted, and protected. For too long, she’d felt alone. Even before the whole Nick extravaganza, that loneliness had been there…like a cold draft in her chest. When he was around her, when his scent was filling her senses and he was touching her, that loneliness subsided.

He had made himself a part of her everyday life to the extent that if he left again, it would have a huge impact on her—an impact she wasn’t sure she could bear. If that was going to happen, she would rather he did it sooner instead of later. If one thing could succeed in making him give up, it was her going on a date with another guy. If he still didn’t give up…well, there would be no denying that he deserved a chance. It was a huge gamble, and it could blow up in her face, but she needed to know how committed he was to sticking around before she even properly considered giving him a chance.

After her client left, Shaya was cleaning her station when she again heard that frustrating noise. “Will you stop growling at me,” she whispered abrasively to Kent.

“What you’re doing is wrong, Shaya, and you know it.”

“I need to know if he’ll leave again.”

“No, you want to punish him.”

Okay, a part of her did want him to hurt as she had, but she was starting to think that he had been hurting as much as she had all this time. “If I can’t trust him not to leave, we can’t move forward. You know about my history with Mason—trusting is really hard for me. Considering Nick, my own mate, abandoned me once, I’d say it’s not all that surprising for me to be so hesitant.”

Kent’s face softened. “I know. But Shaya, there’s a strong possibility that Nick will kill your date. Do you want that on your conscience?”

“Why do you think I haven’t told him anything about it and don’t plan on doing so until after the date? I’ll send him a text to say that I’m going to your place after work.”

Kent gaped. “Why am I being dragged into this?”

She rolled her eyes. “Stop being a Nancy. He won’t know that you knew anything about the date because I won’t tell him.”

He gave her a petulant look. “Is there no other way of testing Nick?”

“Testing Nick for what?” asked a new voice. Paisley.

Groaning inwardly, Shaya shot her a sweet smile. “Nothing.”

“I have to say, I’m surprised he’s interested in you. I mean, I look at him…and then I look at you…and it just doesn’t make sense.”

“Paisley,” cautioned Kent.

“I’m not being insulting.” For once, it seemed that Paisley wasn’t being intentionally offensive. She appeared genuinely confused. “He’s clearly a very dominant guy—I’d be surprised if he doesn’t enjoy the D/s lifestyle. Someone like you, Shaya, well…I just can’t see you being able to cope with Nick as he is. You’re like the watered-down version of what he’d want—too testy and defiant, not to mention inexperienced. You…you’d be better with a guy who’s practical, sensible, sensitive, and gentle and all that stuff. Maybe a librarian or someone like that.”

“A librarian?”

“You know…someone safe and timid.” Paisley shrugged. “Now Nick, well, he’s far from that. I can’t imagine that you have experience with guys like him. And you might be sort of pretty, and you may have gotten his attention, but seriously, you can’t honestly think you’ll be able to keep it.”