Worse, she was starving. Again. She needed red meat, preferably steak.
Her stomach growled, sounding a little like her caged wolf.
Colton noticed. “I’m hungry too.” He smiled. “I’m a mean griller, if I do say so myself. How about a juicy T-bone? I’ve got a couple of steaks in the fridge.”
Like he’d read her mind. She grinned back. “As long as you can cook it rare, I’m game.”
“Rare? Not medium rare, but bloody?”
“Exactly.” Shifters liked their meat as close to fresh as possible.
Though he raised a brow, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he started telling her about the garden he kept in the back of his house. Apparently, it had been started by the home’s previous owner, and Colton kept it up for a hobby.
“Last year I gave away more vegetables than I used.”
“Rabbit food,” she said, smiling. “Sometimes it’s good, but I like my red meat.”
As they turned into his drive, she caught him giving her a sideways look. Telling herself that what he thought of her didn’t matter—after all, he was only human—she clutched her Wal-Mart bag to her chest and kept her gaze resolutely straight ahead.
The sooner she got out of this town, away from these people and this man, the better.
The more time she spent with Colton, the more chance she’d make a mistake and reveal her true nature.
Changing into one of the outfits she’d bought at Wal-Mart, she joined him on the patio.
He grilled the steaks with a quiet competence, serving hers up with a baked potato. Staring at the warm meat, blood oozing around the plate, she had to remind herself to use her fork and knife. She almost picked the T-bone up with her hands and tore into it with her teeth.
The fine line separating her human self from the caged wolf was growing thinner. This then, was what the descent into madness would be like, if she didn’t succeed in changing soon.
Such grim thoughts could ruin a perfectly good meal, so she pushed them away, concentrating on the food. Even though she chewed each piece of meat thoroughly, she still finished before Colton, though she’d yet to touch her baked potato.
She had to cover the bone itself with her napkin as her wolf wanted to gnaw. “Very good,” she told Colton.
“Youwerehungry,” he teased, pausing in the act of cutting another piece from his steak. He had no way of knowing she had to bite her lip to keep from reaching across the table and snatching the rest of his meat from his plate.
Quickly, Jewel focused on trying to eat her baked potato. While she ate that, Colton finished the last of his steak, saving her from possible embarrassment.
Pushing back his chair, he smiled at her. “You’ve had a tough day. Why don’t you go out onto the porch while I clean up?”
He’d built a screened-in porch on the back of his house. Two chaise longues overlooked the lake. Jewel settled into one of them, feeling both content and ill-at-ease.
Instead of relaxing, she should be concentrating on making a new plan of action. Yet, despite her best attempts, Jewel couldn’t keep her eyes open. The failed attempt to change, along with the shock of the fire, was too much. Sated from the meal, her body was shutting down.
She was asleep before Colton finished the dishes.
He stood in the doorway and watched her, wondering how she could be such a mysterious bunch of contradictions. To look at her, with her aristocratic features and creamy skin, she belonged in swanky tearooms eating cucumber sandwiches and sipping from fragile china cups. Instead, she ate her steak bloody and wanted to learn how to shoot a gun.
Though she was the sexiest woman he’d ever met, she never dressed provocatively. Instead, she wore clothing that seemed designed to hide her considerable attributes. Yet she’d tried twice to seduce him.
Fascinated by her, seriously in lust with her, he also admired the hell out of her. She was the most resilient person he’d ever met. Since she’d arrived in Anniversary, disaster after disaster had struck her, and she’d simply picked herself up and continued on.
Worse, she’d been right—someonewastrying to kill her.
Maybe, just maybe, if he used his every resource and called in a few favors, he might be able to find out who.
The next morning, he got ready for work while Jewel slept. He was loath to disturb her this morning, unable to deal with her effect on him, so he let her sleep. Even the sight of her toddling off to bed from the patio had made his mouth go dry.
She didn’t awake this morning, despite his puttering around in the kitchen and making coffee. She slept the deep sleep of the truly exhausted. When Reba called to check on her, he’d told the Realtor Jewel was still asleep.
