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“Can I see your wolf form again?” I asked. “I didn’t get a very good look at you the other day.”
Caleb frowned. “Right here?”
“I’ll stand way over there, out of range,” I promised, scrambling out of bed and wrapping a sheet around my waist as I hid behind the oak nightstand.
Caleb grumbled, but he got out of bed and stood in the middle of the room. He rolled his shoulders and made a sort of squinting face. I giggled a little, which broke his concentration, making him whine, “This is awkward.”
“Oh, come on.”
He took a deep breath, centering himself. That same golden light spread from his heart, over his skin, dragging his human form in its wake. The light winked out, and standing in front of me was a huge iron-gray wolf, big chocolate eyes twinkling. He made a whuffling noise, as if to say, Well?
I knelt in front of him, letting his cold, wet nose tap against my face.
“You’re beautiful.” I sighed, running my fingers through his thick fur. He nosed against my neck, bumping his head against mine. “Such a big, beautiful boy.”
I scratched him behind the ears, cooing over him. He pressed his nose against my shoulder, knocking me back on my butt. I giggled as he hunched over me, licking my face. He phased back to human and was pressing kisses all over my face.
“Well, this is awkward.” I laughed.
“Too much?” he asked.
I nodded.
12
The Gift Horse Has Some Awesome Teeth
It had taken me much longer than I’d hoped, but we finally arrived in Anchorage. The snow was falling in earnest, giving the already alien city lights an otherworldly glow. Everything seemed far too bright, too neon, too busy. I found myself blinking in the glare of a stoplight.
I gave a fleeting thought to Red-burn and the post office she planned to use across town, but then Caleb asked me to locate Lolo’s “construction office” on the GPS system. I declined the honor of meeting him, electing to stay out in the truck while Caleb delivered the wedding ring to a snazzy office building in a nearly empty business park.
Caleb was all smiles when he emerged from the transaction. As part of our payment, Lolo booked us a room at the fairly spectacular Highbury Plaza. We were to stay there for a week, with all expenses paid. He’d booked spa appointments. We didn’t even have to check in, as Lolo’s “people” had seen to that.
I got a little nervous at the sight of the tall silver cylinder, one of the highest points on the city skyline. We crossed the chrome and blue glass lobby with our “well-loved” bags in hand and headed straight for the elevators. The moment the doors closed, Caleb lunged, pressing me against the glass elevator wall, and ravaged my mouth. I felt his hands cup my jeans-clad butt and squeaked. “It’s a glass elevator! The people in the lobby will see.”
“So let ’em see,” he growled.
When we’d reached our floor, we slid against the walls of the hallway, kissing and groping and laughing, until we finally found our room. When I unlocked the door, all kissing and/or groping stopped. This wasn’t a room, this was a suite. It was the fanciest space I’d seen since leaving my “married” apartment all those years ago. Even with the beige, ivory, and slate-blue tones, it was still remarkably feminine. The delicately beige carpet was plush and thick under my toes as I pranced around the room, hopping up and down over the view of the skyline and the mountains. We disheveled the hell out of the immaculately white duvet on the enormous bed, revealing the delicate blue sheets.
I dashed into the bathroom and made a squealing noise that brought an alarmed Caleb running. “There’s a separate shower and a bath!” I cried, climbing into the white-tiled whirlpool tub. Every square inch of the bathroom was pristine, recently cleaned white ceramic.
I was reasonably sure there would be no bugs in the tub. I wanted to bask in the cleanliness, wallow in it. I wanted to eat dinner in that tub, just because I could.
“It’s so clean.” I sighed. “And it has a separate tub and shower.”
“And that’s scream-worthy because . . . ?”
“Because sometimes a girl wants to wash her hair in a separate space from where she washes the rest of her.”
Caleb frowned. “Girls are weird.”
“Hopelessly so,” I admitted. “This seems a little too good to be true. Are you sure that Lolo’s not setting us up for credit-card fraud or a body hidden in the closet or something?”
“No, Lolo likes to treat people well when they do right by him. If you’d ever met his wife, you’d understand why he was so grateful,” Caleb assured me. “She’s got a temper on her and doesn’t care much who sees her flip out. We didn’t just save Lolo’s marriage. We might have saved his life.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “She tossed a cake at Lolo’s head once. Most awkward birthday party I’ve ever been to.”
