Page 19 of First Love

Chapter Seven

Amelia

I should have beenexhausted after the day I’d had—and after all the physical activity Jasper and I had indulged in—but I was wide awake instead. Maybe it was being in a strange house, in a bed that wasn’t mine, with a human man wrapped around me.

Only Jasper’s house hadn’t felt strange since the moment I’d stepped foot in it. His bed was super comfortable, more comfortable than any bed I’d ever slept in.

And the man wrapped around me was sweet and sexy at the same time. If anything, being securely entangled with him should have helped me fall asleep, not keep me awake.

But I’d watched the clock on Jasper’s bedside table tick the minutes away for about an hour now. Jasper had fallen asleep behind me, his slow, even breaths and stillness evidence of that. Sammy was down by our feet, but he let out some doggie snores every now and then so he was out cold too.

I was the only insomniac here tonight. Lucky me.

Actually, I was lucky. I would be sleeping outside in the woods if Jasper hadn’t been kind enough to invite me to stay. Not that my wolf would have minded that. Or I’d be blowing what little money I had on a cheap hotel room from now until Monday when Archer Sinclaire returned.

Archer Sinclaire. The Alpha who would take one look at me and smell what Jasper and I had done. I’d have to play the distraught angle. My uncle and my pack had been murdered. I had to flee my home. I had landed in a state I’d never been to before. My rental car and personal possessions had been stolen. Surely, an Alpha would show some compassion, right? He wouldn’t refuse me entry into his pack based on one small indiscretion.

Okay, okay. It was a huge indiscretion, but how was I supposed to resist a man who came to my rescue? One who looked like Jasper did? One who had a heart of gold?

“You’re not asleep.” Jasper’s voice was scratchy and ridiculously sexy behind me.

“I’m sorry if I woke you,” I said. “Am I fidgeting?”

“No.” His hand slid to my shoulder and he coasted it up along the curve of my neck then into my hair. Moving my hair aside, he pressed his lips to the base of my neck. “I sensed you were awake.”

Sensed?When werewolves bonded as mates they could often sense one another afterwards. That usually only happened after they’d bitten each other though.

And Jasper wasn’t a wolf.

“My mind is going and going,” I said. “Running through the events of the day. I need someone to hit the off switch.”

Jasper nudged my shoulder so I’d roll to my back. He propped himself up on one shoulder, and though the room was dark, my werewolf sight had no trouble making out the contours of his muscled chest and arms.

“I only know where your on switch is.” He slid his hand under the tank top I’d worn to bed with my underwear, his fingers splaying over my stomach then teasing the underside of my breast.

A moan escaped me and I arched into his touch. I loved his hands on me.

“You might have a point about knowing where my on switch is.” I rolled to my side to face him and cupped his bearded cheek. Leaning in to kiss him was instinctual.

We made out for a few heated moments before Jasper slowed the kiss and finally broke the contact. He pressed his forehead to mine though and sifted out a long, ragged breath.

“You unravel me, Amelia. I’ve never met anyone like you.”

Understatement.

I kissed his forehead and prayed for a way to keep him and still be part of a pack.

“I’m going to get a drink of water,” he said. “Do you want one?”

“Sure.” I admired the way his sleep pants hung low on his trim waist as he walked away. It was also fucking adorable that those sleep pants had paw prints on them. What would he think if he found out I had paws sometimes?

Shaking my head at that line of stupid thinking, I threw back the blankets and padded to the bathroom. I used the facilities, but on my way back to the bedroom, something made my wolf senses tingle. The Scouter in me immediately registered it as a threat, and I flattened against the wall in the hallway. I tuned my ears, but I didn’t hear anything aside from the hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen and Sammy’s snores back in the bedroom.

Still, something wasn’t right.

I lifted my head, trying to pick up a scent that didn’t match how it had smelled in Jasper’s house since I’d been here, but I didn’t smell anything different.

I slid along the wall until I reached the kitchen, the tension in my body sifting out when I found Jasper standing at the sink, perfectly fine, drinking a glass of water. No doubt the trauma of seeing my pack wiped out was finally catching up to me. I’d obviously been affected when I’d been standing among their fallen bodies this morning, but I’d had to bundle my reaction away so I could take steps to keep myself safe.