Chapter Four
“Oh, I am so sorry!” Gia Donato shoved away the tree and swiped at the snow and tree needles that covered the man she’d just basically knocked onto the ground. “I didn’t even see you!”
He blinked at her. Her breath caught as shock rolled through her.
“Fuck me,” he muttered. “Not tonight.”
Gladly. Was her instant response to his invitation for a good, um, fuck. And…any night. But that was probably not the right thing to say so she pasted a smile on her face even as she hopped to her booted feet and offered a hand to him. “Hope you’re not hurt. You, ah, caught me off-guard.”
He stared at her. Way too long and awkwardly. Especially when he made no move to curl his hand around hers.
Okay. She pushed her offered hand against her leg. Wiped it. Was something on her? Maybe some sap?
“You don’t need to look at me like I’m a freak,” he growled as he jumped to his feet. Snow and more needles rained off him. “Even though we both know that’s what I am.”
What he was—big. Muscled. Drop-dead gorgeous.
The kind of insane gorgeousness that should be reserved just for people in movies who were super airbrushed.
She had never before seen anyone so gorgeous in real life.
“I can’t apologize for the staring,” Gia told him honestly. “I was super surprised to see—”
“To see me after a year?” A wince. “I know. Look, I’m sorry. Not like I planned it. Not like I even realized you were in Mistletoe Falls. Or in this tree lot. One hell of a coincidence.”
What was he talking about? “Did you hit your head?”
He raked a hand through his hair and sent snowflakes flying. “What? No?”
“Are you sure?” She moved closer to him.
Stood on her tiptoes. Tried to reach for that gorgeous head of his because he was talking all crazy, and Gia was worried she’d given her handsome stranger a serious concussion.
Just my luck. Please, do not sue me. But before she could stroke that thick, brown mane of hair, his hand caught her wrist in a lightning-fast move.
“Someone has great reflexes,” she murmured as her heart gave a little flutter at his touch.
His brow furrowed. “Gia, you know that you shouldn’t touch me.”
“Two things.” She smiled at him and tried to ignore the fact that the little flutter had just turned into a serious nervous twist. “Thing one, why shouldn’t I touch you?”
His furrow got worse.
“Thing two,” Gia determinedly continued. “How do you know my name?”
He gave a rough rumble. It sounded awfully like a growl. A sexy growl. “That’s not funny.”
“Well, good.” Her smile had to be as uncertain as she felt. “It wasn’t supposed to be.” Her gaze darted over him. Over what had to be at least six-foot-three inches of awesomeness. “If we’d met before, I would remember you.”
“You do remember me. I saw the shock in your eyes when you realized who you and your tree had hit. You were shocked and horrified that you’d slammed into me.”
Gia nodded. “True, I was horrified. When you act like a total klutz in front of a super-hot guy…”
He flinched. Almost looked…pained. Like her words had hurt him in some way.
Since when was a compliment supposed to hurt?
Gamely, she continued, “Um, being a klutz can be horrifying.” It was also the story of her life.
She’d always been tripping over her feet as a child, and no amount of dance lessons had helped, despite her mother’s insistence.
Gia had just knocked down lots of would-be ballerinas over the years.
“I was shocked because honestly, you’ve got the most incredible eyes I’ve ever seen.
I get that there are other people with golden eyes, but yours are really something quite special. ”
Those special eyes narrowed.
She inched back. “But you’re making me uber nervous because you know my name, and you shouldn’t. We haven’t met.”
He didn’t speak.
Okay. She inched back a wee bit more. “So…it’s late and it’s cold.” And Ted Bundy was supposed to be really attractive to his victims, so how about I don’t trust the good-looking guy who knows too much about me already? Creepily too much. “I need to get this tree back home.”
“But you don’t live here. You live in Jasper. This isn’t home.”
Again, creepy. “I don’t know how you realize that I previously lived in Jasper, but I do, in fact, live here now.” The tale of her big move was one that she was not going to share. When it came to guys, her luck had not been stellar.
But this is a new town, a new start. I will be safe here. Once she got away from the creepy, but hot guy.
Soft snowflakes fell into her hair. She felt one touch her cheek, so Gia brushed it away. “Yes, well, it was very, um, interesting to meet you, ah—”
“Oliver.”
Oh, she liked that name. Old-fashioned. Her smile came again.
“I missed your smile.” Growled. “Thought about it too much.”
Her gaze flew to the right. A security guard was over there, and she might just need to tell him that Oliver had a few issues going on with her—
“Here. Let me get the tree. Don’t know why you’re pretending we haven’t met before, but the least I can do is carry the damn thing for you.” Oliver wrapped one big hand around the tree and lifted it up. Surprise flashed on his face. “It’s…heavy.”
“Yes, that’s why I was dragging it. Even someone with your…” Glorious! “Your, ahem, muscles will have a little trouble with it. Especially when you’re just using one hand.” Maybe try two, sport.
“But I can lift just about anything.” He was staring at his hand and the tree in surprise. “My strength has been enhanced since the change.”
Okay. Definitely time to leave. She wiggled her fingers toward the security officer. A little help here.
“The change,” Oliver repeated, seemingly stunned. “Holy shit, could it be?”
The security officer waved to her. “Merry Christmas!” he called cheerily.
She wiggled her fingers at him. Harder. This was not about spreading holiday cheer. This was about wanting assistance!
“I don’t have claws,” Oliver noted.
Gia tip-toed back.
“I can control the shift now, been able to do that for months. I can make the claws appear whenever I want them to come out.” He looked up at her, and a giant grin spread across his face. “Don’t you see? I’m not changing anymore! Even though I am trying to shift.”
Because what you’re saying totally sounds sane. Not.
“It worked!” A cry of celebration as Oliver dropped her tree.
The security guard had finally taken the hint. He was coming closer. Good. Now if he could just haul ass a little more…
Oliver grabbed Gia’s shoulders. “I’m not a werewolf anymore!”
“Fabulous. Let me go.”
His hold tightened. “We can be together again!”
Nope.
“The angel granted my wish!”
Uh, oh.
The security guard was running because he’d heard Oliver’s shouts.
But Gia didn’t wait for the guard to rescue her.
She was afraid she didn’t have any more time to waste.
She slammed her boot into Oliver’s shin as hard as she could.
He gasped and staggered back. Then she whipped out her pepper spray when he lunged at her.
The spray shot straight into his eyes.
***
The bell jingled when the bar’s door opened. Oliver narrowed his incredibly dry and still aching eyes as he took in the slightly fuzzy sight of Cael rubbing down the bar top—and humming happily.
Oliver slammed the door.
Cael looked up. “Oh, you’re back!”
He blinked his eyes—about four times—and surged forward with determined steps.
“How’d that wish work out for you? Everything great?” Cael tapped his own shoulder. “Is someone about to get wings?”
Oliver slammed his hands down on the bar. “She doesn’t know me.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Gia.”
“Who is Gia?” Cael blinked. All innocence.
An act that Oliver did not buy for even a moment. “You knew my name. You knew I was a werewolf. You are my freaking guardian angel—”
“Oh, so now you admit it—”
“But you expect me to believe you don’t know the name of the only woman I have ever loved?” His voice rose to near shouting level.
His bad. But he was feeling stressed on account of the fact that Gia had pepper sprayed him right before she’d run screaming from him.
She hadn’t even run screaming when she’d found out that he was a werewolf the first time!
But when he wasn’t a werewolf, she and the security guard had both flipped out on him.
He would have wound up in a cell someplace if Oliver hadn’t raced from the scene so quickly.
“Ah. That Gia.” Cael nodded all sage-like.
Oliver grabbed for him.
The angel jumped back. “Settle down! It’s part of the whole self-actualization and realization process! I was just getting you to verbalize for me. You know that Gia Donato is the only woman you love—the only one you have ever loved and the only one you will ever love and the only one who—”
“Who thinks I am stark, raving mad? Yes, thanks for that, by the way. Top-notch job.”
Cael drew himself up to his full—what? Five-foot-three inches?—and sniffed. “I didn’t make the wish. You did. Sorry if you don’t like the consequences.”
This was un-freaking-believable. “The consequences were supposed to be that I stopped spouting fur and howling at the moon! That I was a man, not a monster. That I wasn’t a werewolf!
” Yes, his voice had risen to roar-level, but no one else was in that bar, so what did it matter?
“The woman I love wasn’t supposed to forget me! ”
Cael’s head tilted. “But didn’t you forget her?”
“What? No, never.” As if he could.
“Oh.” Cael appeared confused. “But you left her. Shot out of town. Never went back. Never gave her a backward glance. I figured you’d moved on and forgotten her.”
“Listen carefully. There is no forgetting Gia Donato. She is in my very bones. I left to protect her.”
Cael tapped his chin. “Is that what you did?”
“Yes.” A hiss.
“She asked you to leave to protect her?”
“No.” He frowned.
“She hated that you were a werewolf?” Cael pressed. “It terrified her? Horrified her? Freaked her out?”