“I’d like that.” Although she didn’t have a clue what his place looked like. What if she didn’t like it?

She’d love it, she decided. If Jake was with her and she could help him decorate, she’d love it. “Are your photographs hanging on the walls?” she asked as she headed for her chest of drawers.

“No. I’ll leave the walls for you to decorate to your heart’s content.” He continued to reverently put her mother’s things back in the boxes.

“I want that photograph of the fuchsia flowers at the gallery, unless you have another like that. Oh.” She put an armload of sweaters on the bed. “What about my car? Your photograph of the wood lilies is in the car.”

“You can have any photograph you want, Alicia. You didn’t need to buy any of them.” He chuckled. “You might be my only buyer.” Then he grew serious. “But your car will have been towed to a service station in Breckenridge. The window will be replaced and everything will be set right.”

“Good. I would have hated to lose that picture.”

He was so quiet that Alicia looked over from unloading another drawer of her underwear. He was reading a note.

“Anything important?”

“An address.” He looked up at her. “Danny Massaro’s address.”

“So my mother had Danny’s key and”—she read the address—“an address I don’t recognize.”

“The key could be to any place. But it really wouldn’t matter. I have lock picks, remember?”

***

Four hours later, they were finished unloading the furniture at Jake’s grandfather’s place, a spacious brick ranch-style home. Alicia wandered around the three-bedroom house, finally standing in the living room and turning to look at Jake as she watched men she hadn’t met help settle her furniture in the place. The same men had already moved out his grandfather’s old furniture and even cleaned up the house. Jake said he and Tom and some others had worked on renovating the place for months in preparation for moving in. She was already really warming up to being part of a pack.

“Is the house to your liking?” he asked, studying her response.

She smiled. “It’s lovely, Jake. All the beautiful stained-wood trim, the moldings, the rustic stone fireplace. I can’t wait for winter to come when we can sit before the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate and watching the flames flicker.” She looked out the expansive window at the forest surrounding them.

“All my life I’ve lived on top of people, crunched up beside people in apartments. Heard all the noise of neighbors walking on my ceiling or banging against walls when hanging pictures or moving furniture. Or hearing angry words when fights occurred. I love it here, the peace and quiet, the wide open space, yet the surrounding forest makes it comforting.”

He joined her and wrapped his arms around her. “You don’t feel isolated out here? Scared? Frightened of the woods? You’ve lived all your life in town. You won’t feel you’ve been dumped in the wilderness, will you?”

She nestled against his body. “No. I love it here. I used to love going on nature walks with my mother, wishing I had been a pioneer and could have lived out away from people.”

“Truthfully in a pack, we’re never very isolated. We might have our own homes or apartments, but we’re never really alone.”

“I can see that,” she said, smiling up at him as she listened to the men moving the master-bedroom furniture around as Tom directed the placement of the dresser.

“Lelandi wants us to come home for dinner. If that’s all right with you.”

“Of course.”

“But…” He leaned down and slanted his mouth over hers and then, with an openmouthed kiss, stroked her lips with his. When she parted her lips for him, he tongued hers. Their hearts were already beating faster, his body hardening, her nipples spearing him. “…we’ll set things up a bit before we return to their house.”

She knew what he had in mind. “Will it be safe?”

Already his eyes had darkened with desire. “Guards will be posted outside the house. You’ll be safe. I’ll just talk to them. If you want to”—he waved at the hallway that led to the bedroom—“start making the bed. I’ll help you finish up in a minute.”

The only thing bad about being with a pack was the knowledge they all knew exactly what she and Jake would be doing as soon as he cleared the house out. As soon as the men finished with the bedroom, she slipped into the room and dug around in a box, then found a set of fresh sheets as she listened to hear what Jake was telling the men. Not a word. Just a shuffling of boots, and the front door opened and everyone marched outside.

A few minutes later, Jake was stalking into the bedroom. “I set a detail around the house. We’ll be safe enough.”

“They don’t mind?” she asked, searching for the pillows.

“No, of course not. We’d all do the same for each other. Why did you have such a big bed when you’re such a little thing?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m a kangaroo in bed. You’ll probably decide to sleep in one of the other bedrooms once we furnish them. Or on the couch.”

With only the bottom sheet on the bed, he maneuvered her over to the mattress and began pulling up her shirt. “The couch.”

“Yes, in case I fight you too much at night.”

His fingers pushed through her hair, and he cupped her head as he leaned down to kiss her mouth. “You won’t move an inch when we’re together, and we won’t need but half that bed to sleep on.”

A promise was a promise, and making love with Jake was only the beginning of fulfilling that promise. No matter how tender or rough or rushed or slow and measured his moves were, he was the perfect lover.

The bedroom was cluttered with packing boxes and the newly painted walls were bare. The bed had no other coverings but the one fitted bottom sheet—silky cotton, no pillows, just she and Jake and their bared bodies as he pulled off her clothes and then his. She loved the way he wanted her, as if he couldn’t get enough of being with her. That she was beautiful and desirable, and she prayed he’d always feel that way about her. As she prayed she’d always feel that way about him.

He took his time pleasuring her, stroking her, making her wet and aching with need, only stopping to suckle a breast or kiss her mouth or slip his tongue between her parted lips, stirring her desire to have him deep inside her, thrusting and taking pleasure in her.

She slid her hands over his hard muscles, loving the feel of his smooth skin, the rough hair on his chest, his puckered, aroused nipples, his rigid sex rubbing against her in urgent desperation.

She wanted him. Needed him. Craved him.

He kissed her throat, trailing a hot, wet tongue down her breast, stopping briefly to lick her nipple, then down to her navel. He kissed and licked her there, sending her senses reeling in a whirling pool of desire. Her fingers combed through his thick hair, her body arching as the ache between her legs intensified.

And then he was stroking her most intimate spot, wringing her senses in the most erotic way. She fought crying out as her heated body rose, the wave building pleasure higher and higher. Like the rising crescendo from a well-orchestrated piece of heaven, she felt uplifted until the climax hit, pulsing through her and staggering in its pleasurable sensation. He was in her before she barely had begun to sink into that dreamy state of complete satisfaction, thrusting, massaging her breasts with loving tenderness, and kissing her lips with sizzling passion.

God, he was beautiful. She hadn’t believed women could have orgasms. Jake proved she was wrong. Over and over again. Just his tongue simulating sex, the way he thrust it into her mouth, could give her a near orgasm. His body rubbing hers, his finger stroking her, his mouth teasing her nipples into submission. The way he moved into her brought her again to that higher plane of existence—to that other world of blissful sexual fulfillment.

And when he came, she felt the trembling sweet exhilaration in joining with him again.

“Hmm, Alicia,” Jake mouthed against her breast and then licked a nipple, lifting his head to study her with a contented smile on his face. “If you don’t mind, I’ll call Darien and Lelandi and tell them we won’t be going over there for dinner tonight.”

Alicia smiled and caressed his whiskery chin. “I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“But,” he said, running his hand over her belly in a loving way. “It doesn’t mean you’ll go without supper.”

Supper consisted of homemade beef stroganoff and a glass of milk. And Alicia realized what a bargain she’d gotten in Jake when she’d mated with a wolf who could cook gourmet-style meals. Then it was back to bed, and sleep would come next as Jake fulfilled the first of his promises. They’d only use half the bed as he tucked her into his arms and held on tight, and he wasn’t sleeping on any couch, ever.

***

Early the next morning, they left for Breckenridge to check out her mother’s safe-deposit box. Alicia hadn’t thought they would need all that much firepower, but Darien wasn’t taking any chances and several of the men in his pack had volunteered.

Darien was staying close to Lelandi at home in case she had the triplets early, but Jake and his brother, Tom, accompanied Alicia, along with Peter and a half dozen other men from the pack.

At least she felt safe. She was nervous about what might be in her mother’s safe-deposit box, though. As she rode up to the bank in a black Suburban, with another leading the way, she felt like she was a member of an FBI team on a SWAT mission. That was much different from driving around in her little red Neon when she was about to serve a warrant.

Going to the bank should have been a private affair, with Jake at her side and her bodyguard force tagging along. But after all the incidents in the past—her mother’s murder, the shooting on the trail, her own planned disappearance, and her false-pregnancy faux-fainting episode at the art gallery, she feared that Detective Hanover’s father, the chief of police of Breckenridge, might get wind of her reappearance and send a patrolman to question her. What if the word had gone out to be on the lookout for her?