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“Look at you,” I breathed. “You’re so pretty.”
“Me?” He chuckled. “Do a little twirl for me.” I complied with the twirl request, the skirt of the fitted long-sleeved red dress I’d chosen from the lobby shop swishing against my legs. I’d put on weight since the last time I’d bought clothes, which I was choosing to see as a good thing.
We meant to walk out the door and go to the restaurant. We really did. But Caleb was just beaming at me, as if I’d personally hung the moon, and he really liked the way I was wearing that dress . . . and the next thing I knew, we were naked all over again.
Sometime just before the room-service kitchen was about to close, we managed to put on robes and order dinner. Knowing Caleb’s appetite, I ordered big—thick rare steaks, hand-cut fries, macaroni and cheese, chicken and dumplings, not to mention half of the dessert cart. It took three people to deliver our order to our room, plus the sommelier who carried the bottle of semidry red wine I’d ordered. When the sommelier offered Caleb the bottle to inspect, he grinned and motioned to me. I gave it a cursory glance and nodded, smiling warmly at the man.
“A lovely selection, miss,” he said, snapping his heels together before pouring us each a healthy portion. He left the bottle on the cart, accepted his tip from Caleb, and closed the door behind him. I took another sip of wine, enjoying the way it rolled over my tongue.
Caleb watched, his head tilted as he studied me. “You used to have this, didn’t you?”
“My own private sommelier? Well, not every day, just on the weekends,” I teased.
“No, the nice clothes, hotels with wine lists, waiters with accents, the whole thing. You used to have this.”
I shrugged. “Well, I lived on the nice side of comfortable, I’ll admit. And there are things I miss, like a dependably bug-free shower and knowing where I’m going to sleep every night, but I have to say, I was a lot more comfortable eating burgers at a saloon. With you.” I gave him a smacking kiss. “All this, it’s nice. But I can live without it.”
We ate, sitting on the floor in our robes, in front of the window, with the lights of Anchorage laid out before us. I was toying with an asparagus spear, considering the chocolate éclair left untouched on the dessert plate. It was lying there, all chocolaty and creamy and provocative. It was practically asking me to eat it.
“So, I was hoping you would come home with me,” Caleb said suddenly.
The hussy éclair forgotten, I grinned at Caleb and toyed with the belt of his robe. “Well, sailor, I don’t think that line works if we’re already home for the night, but if you want to do ‘strangers in a bar,’ I’m up for it.”
He laughed, prying my hands loose from his belt without much enthusiasm. “No, back to the valley, which is your home, too, so it sort of works out. I wanted to ask you before, but I was afraid you’d say no. I’m going to be heading back in a few weeks. You could stay with me, in my house. And we could have a life together. I know Maggie would rehire you as the pack doctor. It’s difficult to find doctors who can treat werewolves. I doubt she’s filled the position.”
“But what happens when spring comes and you need to go out on the road again?”
He shrugged. “You can come with me. I work twice as fast when you’re around anyway. Or hell, I could work from home. My cousin Cooper has been on me about joining his business, expanding it. I could do that, stay in one place.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You aren’t, I’m asking you. What do you want out of life?” he asked. “â??’Cause you can’t keep running like this. You can’t just keep moving on until you’re too old and tired to move on again.”
Well, that sucked all of the levity out of the conversation.
I knew what I wanted. I wanted to go back to the pack. I wanted to go back to the only real home I’d known since my parents died. And I wanted to stay with Caleb.
“I loved living in the valley. It was an incredible gift that your family gave me, allowing me to practice medicine. It was like regaining the use of a limb. And I belonged for the first time in years. I had a family. People who valued me, looked me in the eye. I was a person again.”
“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” he said.
“But it’s such a big decision,” I said weakly.
“Because you’re scared.”
I nodded. “That would be a massive understatement, yes.”
“By something I’ve done?” he asked, his expression faltering.
“It’s not you. Trust me, it has nothing to do with you. But I believe Glenn when he says he can find me. It’s only a matter of time, really. If I came home with you, I could be bringing all that trouble with me, right into your pack. And I couldn’t stand it if someone in your family got hurt because of me or if he caused trouble for the pack. It’s the reason I left in the first place.”
“What if he wasn’t part of the equation?”
“What do you mean?”
“I could kill him,” Caleb offered quietly, toying with the lapels of my robe. “I could track him down, snuff him out before he even saw me coming. I could make it look like an accident. It would never be traced back to you.”
I stared at him for a long, silent moment. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t considered it. And it would be so easy to let the word yes slip from my lips, to let Caleb give Glenn all of the pain he deserved and somehow keep my hands relatively clean. All I had to do was nod, and I would have the ultimate revenge on my bastard ex-husband.
