Page 17 of Wrong Number, Right Gray Wolf

“I’m not. I’m just saying you looked like you were in a movie and about to go in for a kiss.”

Thankfully a song came through the speakers that distracted her. As much as I needed to talk about Stephen, it wasn’t about my desire to kiss the man.

Stephen didn’t call me that night as much as I willed him to, and I’d have known if he had. My phone was with me at all times. If there was any kind of notification, I checked just in case it was him. And I even went to bed with it by my side. For all I knew, he wanted to call me because he was looking for a friend and not a mate.

Not knowing whether he scented me as his was killing me.

The next day, on my way to work, I stopped to get coffee. I ran into someone who used to work with me while in line, and we chatted. They were someone I’d always gotten along with. Despite that, it still caught me off guard when he asked if maybe I wanted to grab dinner sometime.

It wasn’t an immediate no. I was polite about it, but I couldn’t go out with him. And the thing was, I’d probably have said yes in the past. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the guy or that I’d always waited for the perfect match. Posy always came first, but a dinner out here and there wasn’t a bad thing.

Until now.

Whether or not Stephen recognized our bond, I wasn’t going to be able to date anybody else. Not a human. Not a shifter. Not anybody. Stephen was it for me.

And that realization had me talking with Posy that night. I spent the entire day worried about how to bring it up. I shouldn’t have been. She recognized our connection.

“Daddy, you like Stephen. Stephen likes you. If you want to go kissing, you can.”

“You do know that liking someone just doesn’t mean kissing.” We hadn’t talked in detail about mates, but she knew they existed and they were a kind of family that sometimes grew with children and sometimes didn’t.

“I know, Daddy.”

“And do you know that if he becomes my mate, you will always be my priority?”

“Of course, Daddy. I’m the cutest.”

She really was.

“You should have him over on one of my Miss Caitlin nights. Then you can kiss, and I won’t even giggle.”

What was this child’s obsession with me kissing?

But she was right. That was a good idea. He still hadn’t called me, but he asked to, which I took to mean that he wanted to.

I called his work number hoping that I could find his direct line through the directory. Last time I hadn’t listened to the voicemail enough to see if there were alternative numbers on there or anything like that. But I didn’t have to wait to hear the message. A few rings in, Stephen answered the phone.

9

STEPHEN

As I unlocked the office, something was ringing.

I’d heard it before but only once. The landline. I bounded into the office as Remy was coming in through the door that connected to the house.

I slid over the wooden floor and leaped onto the desk. “Yes.”

It wasn’t Posy’s voice on the other end this time.

“Stephen.” My insides turned to mush at that syrupy voice that reminded me of honey twirling from a honey wand and the owner of that voice catching the very last drop.

“Yes. This is he.” Oh shit, why did I answer so formally?

“Oh, it is, is it?” There was a smirk in his tone. “Great, I was wondering if we could meet up?”

Assuming Posy would be there, I agreed. I could hardly ask him to leave her with the babysitter. If I hoped he’d warm to me and recognize the mating bond, telling him to leave his daughter elsewhere wasn’t the way to his heart.

“Posy has a Miss Caitlin night, which means she’ll be next door having a sleepover.”