Page 51 of Bad Blood Bear

Chapter 22

His promise lasted less than ten minutes. He left Lissa to use the men’s room, his bear chafing at even that small separation. When he came out, he didn’t see her at first, and panic flared in his chest.

Then he caught sight of her a few stores down, looking at the window display. As he approached, he saw she was gazing into the window of an expensive boutique, at the prettiest dress he’d ever seen. It was made of some kind of floaty material in varied shades of blue, one of them deep enough to exactly match her eyes.

She had her fingertips against the window, and there was yearning on her face. Tank wondered if she’d ever had anything pretty to wear.

He walked up behind her, very slowly, and slid his hands onto her shoulders. “You would look like a million bucks in that dress.”

“Don’t even think about it, Jiminy,” she said. “There is no possible excuse for you to buy me that dress. Where would I wear it?”

“You’d have a place to wear it if I took you to dinner tonight,” he said impulsively. “There’s a steak and lobster place on the way home I’ve always wanted to try.”

She turned around, her eyes wide. “I know Flynn didn’t okay that.”

“I’ll call him. I’ll tell him you’ve been a good girl, and I’m taking you on a date as a reward.”

She smacked him playfully. “I’ve been good? Those darts were for you too, mister. Just saying.”

“Okay, fine. We’ve both been good, and we deserve a reward. If I can get Flynn to agree to a date, will you let me buy you the dress and take you out?”

This was probably crazy. Hell, he knew it was. But he suddenly wanted desperately to escort her into a nice restaurant wearing that dress, knowing she felt beautiful.

She watched him, looking thoughtful.

Finally she said, “Okay. On two conditions.”

Uh oh. “What are they?”

“Not telling.”

“Wait a minute,” he said. “How can I agree to a condition that I don’t even know what it is?”

She shrugged, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Do you want to go on this date or not?”

Tank bit his lip. He suddenly wanted to take her out really, really badly.

He pulled out his cell phone and called Flynn. He picked up immediately.

“Tell me everything’s fine.”

“Everything’s fine,” Tank said. “But it’s getting late, and Lissa’s hungry. I don’t want to take any chances with her… condition… so I think we should stop for a steak on the way home.”

There was a short silence. “No problems?” Flynn asked. “I’m asking as alpha.”

“No problems,” Tank said, glad Flynn would hear truth in his voice.

He heard Flynn’s relieved exhale. “Fine. Don’t be too late. Shit. I sound like somebody’s fucking father.”

“Bye, Dad,” Tank said, and ended the call. He barely heard Flynn’s “Assho—” before it cut off.

He looked at Lissa. “We’re good to go.”

Ten minutes later they walked out of the boutique, Lissa wearing the amazing dress, complete with stockings and high-heeled shoes. Tank was holding the other shopping bags in front of him so that they covered the enormous boner he’d been sporting ever since she walked out of the fitting room in it.

It hadn’t helped that she’d had a whispered conversation with the saleslady that resulted in her bringing over a wildly sexy bra and panty set made of tiny scraps of blue lace, that made Tank’s face go red and his dick go hard the second he saw it. It disappeared into the fitting room with Lissa and the dress, and now he couldn’t stop picturing her in it.

“Ready for dinner?” he said. He sure as hell was, though steak wasn’t what he was imagining eating.