NICCOI froze. Hope said she was falling in love with me. I didn’t know what to do. My mind went blank.I wanted to tell her that she wasn’t really in love with me. That it was all the mate bond, wreaking havoc with her emotions. But I didn’t. Because I didn’t want to ruin anything.Truth was, I was falling for Hope, too, despite all of my misgivings. My wolf had no reservations; he was angry we didn’t mark her last night when we had the chance. I was still cautious, mostly because of two reasons. First, she was human. And second, she had no idea werewolves existed.I looked up at Hope who was blushing furiously. She looked away from me and I realized that she meant every word she said. She wasn’t taking it back. I gave her a slow smile.“You are?” I asked, letting a smile come across my face. She shyly nodded. “I am pretty sure I am,” she said. “I’m falling for you, too,” I admitted. Her gaze snapped back to my face, her eyes wide in shock and her mouth open in a lit
HOPEI looked at Nicco. He looked intense and I didn’t know what was going on. I weighed my words.“If the adventure is with you, I’ll go anywhere,” I said.Nicco looked pleased. That was the right answer, somehow. He nodded, opening the bedroom door and walking out into the hall. “I’ve ordered some lunch to be sent up,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind.”I took the towel off my head and began blotting my hair. “Can we go out instead? If you’re too busy, I don’t mind going alone. I have never been to New York City before.”Nicco halted and turned back to look at me. “Hope, I’m sorry. But something has come up. We're going to leave very shortly and you can't leave the hotel. I promise to bring you back to New York City and give you the grand tour when it’s all over.”I didn’t like it. I was used to being able to go where I wanted, when I wanted to. And Nicco was back to being bossy. I didn’t say anything, just down the towel and picked up the comb, attacking the waywar
HOPEWe finished lunch and Nicco sat down with his laptop again. I wandered out onto the little balcony, amusing myself with figuring out what all of the buildings were. If I leaned way out and looked even farther, I imagined I could see Central Park. I was leaning out when I was grabbed from behind.“Jeeze, Hope. You could fall!” Nicco put me back on my feet. I shook my head at him, laughing at his fear.“No, I’m good with heights.”Nicco shrugged. “I’m not. So, please, don’t do that.”I sighed, following him back into the room. “You’re exceptionally grumpy. What’s wrong?”Nicco pointed to his laptop. “It’s this spreadsheet,” he admitted. “I know that the numbers are wrong, but I don’t know where to even start.”I sat down on the couch. “Mind if I look? I’m really good with numbers.”Nicco hesitated a moment and then shrugged, handing over his laptop. “Wouldn’t hurt anything,” he admitted. I popped open the laptop and started scrolling through the pages. When I said I
NICCOI didn’t talk to Vinnie about what Hope had found. I needed to think about it and look at the implications. I wasn’t even sure if the person who was stealing the money from me was the same person who was following me and involved with Angelica. I shook my head. I knew that my life was dangerous. It literally killed my father. I needed to be careful.Vinnie was going over the plans with me. “We thought it would be better to go at night. Harder to see and harder to set up an ambush.”I shook my head. “No. I want to go now. I just made the decision to go. No one will have time to put anything in place.”Vinnie nodded but he didn’t look pleased. “Let me make a few phone calls,” he said. “We also need to inform the Pack about the Luna.”I fixed Vinnie with a stare. “She is not my Luna yet,” I said. “I am still deciding.”Vinnie smirked. “Lupo has made up his mind.”“Lupo is not in charge,” I said, ignoring the growl from my wolf. “Just tell everyone from the Pack to
HOPEWe pulled into Nicco’s estate late at night. We had spent a little too much time at the pizza place. The pizza was as incredible as Vinnie had promised, and I wowed everyone with my billiards playing prowess. The boys had a few beers, and I had a lot of Dr. Pepper. Then we had to stop a few times on the drive so we could all pee.The turn off from the highway was a surprise. It was dark and, if I was driving, I would have missed it. I think they leave it overgrown so that no one ventures down the road. It was bumpy and rutted, but Caleb seemed to know the trick to getting through with only a few jostlings. The estate was surrounded by a huge wall and a monitored gate. Caleb pulled up and a grumpy looking security guard came out and shined a flashlight into the interior of our car. He nodded at Caleb and left the light lingering on me a little too long. I heard a growl and looked over in surprise. It sounded like it had come from Nicco but I knew that wasn’t possible.
HOPENicco put me on the edge of the bed and tugged off my pants. My panties soon followed, and he gave me a naughty look. “Lie back,” he whispered.I obediently lay back, and Nicco nudged my thighs apart with his hands. I could feel the wetness pooling out of me. His touch was an aphrodisiac and my wanton body responded to his touch. He leaned back and looked at me, groaning, and touching himself through his pants. “You are so beautiful, Hope,” he whispered before bending his head and using his tongue to run up my slit. The heat from his breath and the gentleness of his tongue caused me to throw back my head and groan, my muscles tensing. He backed away, looking again, and then I could feel his fingers on me, pulling me apart, blowing gently on my curls. His tongue then attacked my clit, flicking it and running up and down it, circling it. I groaned; the teasing too much for me. “Please,” I whispered. “Please, what?” he asked, blowing on my curls again. “Please more,” I
HOPEI felt Nicco slide out of the bed a few hours later. I looked at my watch. It said 3:02am. “Is everything okay?” I asked, concerned. He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. “Yeah. I just have some business to do.” He padded over to the walk-in closet and I saw the light illuminate underneath the door, briefly, before it was extinguished and he crept out. He gave me another kiss on the forehead and softly closed the door behind him. I woke up again shortly after eight. I stretched, disappointed that Nicco hadn’t climbed back into bed with me. I stood up and checked the sitting room. I wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t out there, but I was delighted to see that someone had dropped off my tote of clothing. What I had been wearing was decidedly wrinkled.I took a quick shower and braided my hair and then selected a tank top and some cut off shorts. I slid my feet into no show socks and tennis shoes and threw on a thin, button-down shirt that I didn’t bother to bu
NICCOI finished my eggs.They were quite good, though missing the meat and cheese that I tend to prefer at every meal. It was much healthier than what I usually eat, that’s for sure.I set the plate aside and gestured to Hope. “Do you mind looking at this for me and telling me what you see?First impression.”She nodded, putting her plate down and came to stand beside me.I moved my chair to the side and pulled her onto my lap. My wolf needed her close. We leaned into her, sniffing her hair and letting her scent wash over us. She was so engrossed in the spreadsheet pulled up on my computer that she didn’t notice.“First impression?” she asked, looking back at me.I nodded.“Okay, first impression is that someone is doing a really good job moving money around.It would pass most audits, but there are some discrepancie