2. Jesse
Chapter 2
Jesse
I can’t quite believe that Grace Whitmore is standing in front of me.
She looks great. I’ll say that. Gorgeous, even. Freshly showered, if I’m not mistaken, the scent of her wafting over me like a wave. She smells like fresh raspberries, spring rain, and wildflowers. Like the open fields on an April morning. It draws me in.
I try not to let myself look at her body. The last time I saw her, Grace was just a fresh-faced young woman about to head off to college. Now she’s far too tempting in a clingy shirt and form-fitting jeans. Her olive skin glows, and she stands with a natural elegance befitting a city girl, I suppose. And she is a city girl now. She left us all years ago, and this is the first time she’s been back.
“You’d think older would mean wiser,” Grace shoots back, her sky blue eyes sparking. There’s a green tint to them in the right lighting, I remember, then I curse myself for remembering. Why should I care what damn color Grace Whitmore’s eyes are? She’s the kid sister of our best friend.
But I just can’t help pushing her buttons.
“And you’d think family meant something,” I point out, drawling a little.
Grace flushes. She does, admittedly, look chagrined. “Look, I—”
“What’s going on here?”
Another man, another Alpha, strides up and puts his arm around Grace. She leans into him, but looks stiff at the same time. “Just catching up with some old friends.”
“And you were just getting to the part where you called me over to introduce me?” the guy teases her.
Something about his tone makes me bristle. I can see Cade and Hendrix doing the same in the corner of my eye. Only Easton stays calm, but that’s Easton’s way. I force myself to relax. There’s no reason for me to be upset about Grace dating some guy.
I wonder if her brother and parents know about him.
“Of course.” Grace’s flush deepens with even more embarrassment and I want to growl. It’s fun when I’m making her all flushed and a bit embarrassed. It’s not fun when it’s someone else doing it. It makes me want to bare my teeth. “William, these are my brother’s friends. The obnoxious one is Jesse, the one trying to get into every girl’s panties is Hendrix, the quiet one is Cade, and the serious one is Easton.”
“Not every girl’s panties,” Hendrix replies, not at all fazed by Grace’s sharp tongue. “I don’t go for anyone dead, underage, or married.”
“Such a high bar,” Grace drawls, her voice dry as a desert.
The guy at her side coughs and she flushes again. “And this is William, my boyfriend. He works in finance in New York.”
William grins and holds out his hand for us to shake. “It’s nice to meet all of Grace’s little hometown friends.”
I can feel my lip curling and I try to keep it down. We all shake his hand.
The guy looks like a model that stepped out of a magazine, and that ain’t a compliment. He’s too poised, too coiffed, like he’s never gotten his hands dirty in his life.
“So, Grace, what finally brings you back into town?” Hendrix says. He can probably tell that I want to puff my chest out. “Other than seeing us, of course.”
“Hendrix, I wouldn’t go out of my way to see you if you were on one side of the street and I was on the other,” Grace replies.
“It’s for your grandmother, isn’t it?” Easton pipes up.
We all look at him. I’m not surprised that Easton knows it’s the birthday of a friend’s grandmother coming up. Easton’s considerate like that. I’m more surprised he’s saying anything.
Grace looks just as surprised. “Yes. She’s not getting any younger, as Mom keeps reminding me. And it felt like a good time to, um, introduce William.”
“I’m sure it is,” Hendrix says, apparently deciding to play peacekeeper. Yeah, I’m not in the mood.
“So what do you all do?” William asks. “You’re all… cowboys?” He laughs a little.
Cade growls quietly in the back of his throat. I don’t know if anyone else can hear it, but it makes me feel a little better to know I’m not the only one here annoyed by this guy.
“We run a ranch,” Hendrix says amicably. “Coyote Ridge Ranch.”
“What? Since when?” Grace looks confused.
“We started it all shortly after you left.”
“Oh.” She clears her throat. “Well, that’s really nice for you all. So you’re an… official pack now?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Hendrix teases her.
“That’s what happens when you leave,” I point out. “You miss things.”
Grace glares at me. William, sensing the tension, tugs on her. “Let’s go and sit down, babe, get some food in us.”
“Good idea.” Grace tosses her head, her blonde hair catching in the light, showing off the white-gold strands. “Nice catching up with all of you.”
Cade snorts as the two of them walk off. “Nice? Yeah, right.”
I lead us back to our table. “She’s changed.”
“Grace never liked you,” Hendrix points out as we sit down.
“This wasn’t that. This was different. You saw how she dressed, how she stood. I’ll bet anything those shoes she was wearing cost hundreds of dollars. And they were heels too. Since when does Grace wear heels?”
“She’s always been elegant,” Easton says quietly.
“You can be elegant in a damn potato sack.” I sit back in my chair to get a good look at her through the crowd of the restaurant.
The others continue to talk, but I tune it out. I’m staring, and I know I shouldn’t but damn it I just can’t help it. I hate to admit it, but Grace has gotten even more beautiful with age, and she was enough of a temptation before.
Not that anyone knows about that. And no one ever will, if I have anything to say about it.
“I want you,” she’d whispered to me, her sweet lips at my jaw, her hands all over me. Christ, it’d taken everything in me not to give in.
Grace had only been eighteen at the time, and begging me—me, of all people—to take her virginity. “Just show me what it feels like, Jesse. I know you’ll make it feel good. You’ll take care of me and show me how to do it right, won’t you?”
A saint would’ve been tempted by her. If she’d been a bit older, and sober… but she hadn’t been. She was barely legal, and my best friend’s younger sister, and she’d been drunk. I wouldn’t ever take advantage of a woman that way.
I don’t think Grace understands that, though. After that night she got cold and sharp toward me. And now I see that even years later, that hasn’t changed. I get that her pride’s been wounded but I wish I could find a way to make her understand.
It sure would help if I could get her out of my damn head too.
Her smell haunts me. The spring of her, the freshness of her. The softness of her mouth as she kissed me. The way she felt against my body, her petite curves. I could lift her with just one hand, I’m sure of it, could just throw her over my shoulder, cart her off to my bed…
I mentally slap myself. No, we’re not going there. We’re not going down that road. Grace is off-limits for so many reasons, and I’m not gonna be the guy who pines after someone for years.
Yeah, I still think about her. Yeah, I still remember that night like it was yesterday. If I’m being really honest, there are times I’ve touched myself, imagining how that night could’ve gone, what would’ve happened if I’d been a little less honorable and said yes. Or, hell, what would happen if she came back and let me apologize, let me make it up to her.
But I’m not going to dwell on it. There’s no point. You can’t undo the past, anyway.
That Alpha laughs, showing off his too-white teeth, and a growl starts up in my throat.
I can’t help but wonder if he’s the man who took her virginity. If he’s the first man to have her. It makes my gut twist, hot and angry.
William leans in close to Grace, whispering something and tucking one of her long locks of hair behind her ear. Grace flushes and laughs, leaning right back into him.
When Grace left town to pursue a career in publishing, I never thought—
I cut that thought off too. Fuck this. It’s not my business.
I turn around and face the table, focusing on my pack mates. They’re what matters. Not Grace Whitmore.