Eighteen

I walked out of there loaded with cookies, feeling more confused than ever... and also just a little, tiny bit hopeful. 

Rocco and Dax hauled Jesse's old furniture up to the spare bedroom for me. I hadn't ever really gone inside it, but I needed to move the stuff over to Jesse's room now that I was taking it over. 

I followed them back down the stairs after they'd set everything on the ground in the spare room for me. 

"Thanks, guys." My hands landed in Jesse's fur like they always seemed to. "You can thank us by coming to dinner." Rocco gave me a tentative grin.

 "We'd like to get to know you." I was feeling too think to leave the house and needed to study when I was done rearranging my room. "How about tomorrow?" I asked. 

"Deal." Rocco offered me a hand. I stepped toward him and puckered my lips, teasing him by reaching for his face. Dax grabbed me around the waist, spinning me away from Rocco, and I burst out laughing. 

"I'm just messing with you guys. I'm not going to kiss you." Neither of them looked convinced. They didn’t know me, or my sense of humor. 

"See you tomorrow," Rocco said quickly, and then they ducked out. I was still grinning broadly as I walked to the front door. Locking it up, I turned to find Jesse eyeing me suspiciously. 

"It was a joke," I told him. He growled. "Seriously, it was just a joke. My lips are lonely, but not that lonely." Jesse jumped up on his back legs, plopped his front paws on my shoulders, and licked me right across the lips. I shoved him off, spitting and gagging.

 "Blech, that's nasty. You can't go licking people's mouths, Jess. That's just foul." I noticed his wolfy grin and narrowed my eyes. 

"My lips will never be lonely enough for a wolf kiss, alright?" He made a coughing sound that was suspiciously close to a laugh. Asshole. 

"You're lucky you're cute and furry. If you were a guy, I'd kick you in the balls." He did his cough-laugh again. I flipped him the bird, shaking my head as I climbed up to the second floor. 

As cute as Jesse's townhouse was, a girl could get tired of stairs. I stepped into the spare room, AKA, my new bedroom. Where to begin... 

There were only a few pieces of furniture to drag across the hall to Jesse's room, so I decided to start with those. 

I rolled the desk chair over, followed by a little side table that held what looked like one of those forty-dollar crapshoot printers that would survive anywhere from a day to ten years, depending entirely on your luck. 

Leaving those, I headed back for the desk. Since I hadn't been in the spare room for more than a few seconds before, I hadn't noticed the laptop sitting closed and plugged in on the desk, or the stack of papers beside it. 

"What have you been up to, Human Jesse?" I murmured, leaning over the table. I leafed through the papers, my eyebrows lifting higher with everyone I saw. 

There were printouts from five different classes: applied programming, computer architecture, embedded systems, computer security, and web backend development. 

What the hell were those classes for? Sure, I could guess he was going after some kind of computer degree that much was obvious. 

But computer security, applied programming... what would you need those for?

 I went back to Jesse's room and grabbed my laptop off the floor where I'd left it, setting it down next to Jesse's and pulling up my school's course catalog. 

It took me about twenty minutes of comparing courses the names weren't exact matches for whatever his college was and mine before I realized what he was getting a degree in. 

Software engineering. I stepped over to the mattress on the floor and sat down on it. Shoving hair away from my face, I stared at the closed closet doors. 

Software-freakin’-engineering. Who the hell was this guy? I'd thought he was a jock who slept around (okay, I'd assumed that) but he was not only a freakin’ virgin, but a virgin getting a degree in software engineering. 

One who stocked up cash for a chick he'd never met, just because he wanted to ease her transition into his world. 

"I think I'm going full-on Stockholm Syndrome," I told Wolf-Jesse. He licked my arm twice. I didn't even push him away or tell him not to. 

Because… What if Human Jesse was kind of perfect? What if he was nice to talk to, not just look at? What if he was actually, legitimately someone I would’ve been interested in even without the whole werewolf mess between us? 

Up to that point, I'd assumed there wasn't a chance in hell I could ever have feelings for the guy inside the wolf I'd learned to tolerate. 

But what if I liked him? Liked him, liked him? Holy shit, I couldn't fall in love with a werewolf, could I? 

"Calm down, Tea," I muttered to myself. Looking at Jesse, I said, "Turn around. I don't want your human to see me losing my ever-loving mind over here." He huffed a sigh but turned his head so he was looking in the other direction.

 "He can't be a hot nerd," I whispered. "There aren't that many of them, remember? Like, less than half a percent of the population." 

Okay, that was a statistic I made up on the spot, but a girl had to tell herself what a girl had to tell herself. Fake statistics be damned. But... software engineer? 

"I'm just going to open his computer and check what he was looking at before reaching any conclusions," I muttered. "I'll probably find, like, a shit-ton of p**n.

And a cheating website yeah, he probably cheats on all his classes." The wolf snorted. 

I flipped him off again, opening Jesse's laptop. Yeah, major privacy invasion, but so was abducting a chick and forcing her to live in your house. 

He could get the hell over it. The screen turned on instantly. He'd left it plugged in and running, so he'd been planning on coming back to it. 

And what did I find on the screen after typing in the password his friends had given me (twelve)? Homework. Halfway-completed homework. I went through all twelve open tabs. 

Eleven were related to his classes—actual homework screens he was working on, how-to videos, and a couple of programs I didn't know that had computer language on them. The twelfth? A guide to stocking a brand-new home. 

There was a little box open on that tab that said, "Print successful," so I grabbed the stack of papers and leafed through them again. I didn't find the home-stocking sheet, though. 

Frowning, I searched the rest of the office and still didn't find it. I went into Jesse's room, and checked the printer it wasn't there either. 

Skidding down the stairs, I pulled open drawers until I found the junk drawer I'd avoided like the plague. 

When I opened it up, I found the list right on top. Maybe it wasn't a junk drawer after all. It was a two-hundred-fifty-item list. 

Most of the items were crossed out, including pain meds, tampons, sanitary napkins, and a razor. Things I was positive Jesse the man didn't need. 

Dropping the paperback on the counter, I took the stairs two at a time and dropped to my knees in the bathroom, flinging open the cupboards. I'd never dug around in them not wanting to get too cozy. 

My tampon box sat on the floor next to the trash can. My lips parted when I saw the inside of the cupboards. 

A massive pack of pads. Fruit-scented shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant. Boxes of various sizes and brands of tampons are stacked to fill the cupboard. 

Jesse had been nesting... on freaking steroids. But to do that, he'd been looking up ways to make his future mate feel at home. Researching what she would need what I would need. 

What I would want. I dropped to my ass on the tile floor, staring blankly at the cabinet. The wolf stood in the doorway, watching me with a tilted head. 

"Jesse's not a bad guy at all," I said quietly. "Is he?" The wolf shook his head "no". "And he's a nerd," I said. The wolf tilted his head, confused. 

"He studies a lot, and is smart," I clarified. The wolf's head bobbed again. "I'm going to like him," I groaned. The wolf grew still. I eyed him suspiciously. I'd never seen him freeze like that. 

"What are you doing?" My voice grew cautious. The wolf gave a small growl and stepped toward me like he was a predator. "No, no, no." I shook my head, scrambling backward until my back hit the toilet, then the wall. 

"You said I had until Christmas, and it's not even November yet. I have classes—and grades. And I don't want to die, dammit!” The wolf took two more steps toward me, and then he lunged.