One of his hands remained on her hip, while the other rose and pushed her long hair away from her neck so that he could wrap his hand gently around it. Sally had come to realize that Jericho enjoyed dominating her. Maybe not in a weird freaky way, but he liked having her in a submissive position, like holding his hand against her neck so that he could control its movement.

He tilted her head back and slowly leaned down. His eyes continued to hold hers and his warm breath blew across her face as he got closer. Finally, after what seemed like an hour instead of mere seconds, he pressed his firm lips to hers. It started out slowly, as his kisses often did, and then progressed as his passion grew. He pressed closer to her, wrapping his arm fully around her waist. His body was hard under her hands while hers yielded to him, even though she had huge reservations about allowing him so much access to her.

She didn’t hesitate because he wasn’t a good kisser or because his touch wasn’t also very nice. But every time he looked at her seductively, touched her, kissed her, or spoke things in her ear that made her blush, she felt as though she was betraying someone—someone very important to her. She tried to search her memories for any reason as to why she was feeling this way, but she was still blank on anything that happened before her parents’ deaths. Not only that, every time she tried hard to remember past that point, she’d get these sharp, stabbing pains in her head and that was enough to keep her from trying very often. So, instead, she continued to date Jericho and tried her best to keep the physicality of their relationship to a minimum. He didn’t make it easy. True, he might not be her soulmate or whatever, but she was still female and he knew exactly how to kiss and touch a female.

When his hand slipped up the back of her shirt and his warm flesh met hers, he groaned. Warning bells went off in Sally’s head. Too far, they yelled at her. She quickly pulled away and smiled, shyly attempting to cover up her rejection.

“I better go before it gets busy,” she said as she slipped from his hold, effectively moving his hand away from her flesh.

He smiled at her and nodded. “I’ll see you later. Be careful.”

She nodded back and then trotted out. Once outside on the sidewalk, she let go of the breath she’d been holding. What was she going to do? A teeny part of her liked Jericho. She didn’t know if she could say it was necessarily in a romantic way, but she liked his personality and his playfulness. He reminded her of someone else, but she couldn’t put a finger on whom. I must be thinking of some celebrity, she thought to herself.

Sally slipped her phone from her back pocket and pulled up her map application. She typed in ‘nearest hair salon’ and waited for the list to pop up. She picked the closest one within walking distance and started walking, attempting to clear her mind of Jericho and all the worries that came with him. In that moment, she was just Sally, a young, single woman with her whole life ahead of her. She wasn’t going to let fear, indecision, and worry rule her. Just as this proclamation was made, she stepped up to the hair salon to which her phone had directed her. She glanced at the name, ‘Taming the Mane.’ She chuckled to herself; at least they were attempting to be original.

She opened the door and stepped in. A cute girl sporting black tips at the end of her blonde locks looked up and smiled widely at her. Sally liked the extreme contrast in the girl’s hair. She liked how it seemed to make the girl stand out and somehow gave her confidence.

“How can we help you?” Missy, Sally realized as she looked at the girl’s nametag, asked her.

“I want to cut my hair and do something fun. It’s been long for as long as I can remember and I think it’s time for a change,” Sally told her, feeling excitement bubbling up inside of her.

“How short?” Missy asked her.

Sally looked around at the style magazines laying on the waiting room coffee table and one caught her eye. She reached down and picked up one bearing a brunette on the cover with chin length hair, cut at a dramatic angle, shorter in the back, gradually getting longer in the front. It framed her face and gave her a sassy look.

“This,” Sally said and pointed at the picture. “And I think I’d like some fun highlights too.”

Missy grinned ear to ear. “We can take care of that and you are going to love it.”

Decebel ran his fingers through his mate’s long hair, loving the way it felt as it fell around him onto his chest and stomach. It was late at night, actually early morning. He’d had to go and drag her from the library and the intense, not to mention, explicit conversation that had been ongoing with Jacque, Bethany, and her. As usual, he’d thrown her over his shoulder and smacked her backside while telling her to behave, ignoring her kicking, slapping, and tongue lashing. It wasn’t the tongue lashing he had wanted from her. Just another day in the life of being mated to Jennifer. He grinned to himself because he loved it.

“What are you feeling so smug about?” Her sleepy, sexy voice filled the quiet room.

He opened up the bond, giving her access to his thoughts. He loved the way she got irritated and interested at the same time.

“Feeling feisty, Mate?”

She smacked his chest. “If I am, it’s only because I spent several hours explaining the intimate mechanics of sexual intercourse to Bethany. How’s a girl not supposed to get feisty, as you call it, while looking at pictures that explain the act of making love.”

“Pictures?” he asked his brow raising.

“No, you cannot see them,” she growled.

“Why’d you get to see them?”

“It was for educational purposes.”

Decebel moved with inhuman speed and flipped his mate onto her back, hovering over her. “Well, then by all means, educate me Mrs. Anghelescu,” he purred.

Jennifer shoved at his shoulders, attempting to push him off of her. It was cute, really. He just stared at her, the heat in his gaze making her squirm.

“Not now, we need to talk.”

He did not like that answer at all. We need to talk is code for sit, stay, and get your ass chewed out.

“I think I like my idea better,” he said using the bond to persuade her.

She growled at him and slammed her end of the bond shut. He hated when she did that. It was painful to be cut off from her.

“Jennifer,” he snarled.

His mate snarled right back and seven hells if it didn’t just make him want her more. Why was she being difficult? She never turned him away. Never. Yes, he was a blessed son-of-a-wolf.