Chapter Ten
Bang, bang, bang!
Delta jolted awake.
Bang, bang, bang!
“What is happening?” she whispered, kicking out of the tangled covers.
Someone was banging on her door! But when she shoved the door open, the only thing there was the wooden plank Nathan had rested against the door last night to keep the wind from blowing it open.
The snow was cold against her bare feet as she made her way around the house to see what the noise was.
Nathan’s truck was parked out front, and when she looked up at where the banging sound was coming from, he was on the roof. There was a stack of shingles next to him, and he was slamming a hammer into each nail like he was a dang professional roofer.
“Nathan?” she called.
He stopped and looked startled as he saw her down below. He pulled earphones off his ears and said, “Good morning.”
Delta looked around the frigid landscape in shock. It was still early in the morning. “Did you stay here all night?” she asked.
“No.”
“Oh. Well, did you sleep at all?”
“Also no.”
She rubbed her eyes and then wrapped her arms around herself. She wasn’t really cold, but she wasn’t wearing a bra. “What time is it?”
He stayed knelt on the roof and pulled out his phone, checked it. “Eight.”
“Whoa, I slept in. I have an interview at ten. Wait, what are you doing out here so early?”
“Working on your den.”
“Nathan! I don’t need you to take care of me!”
He pulled his headphones back into place and said, “I can’t hear you over all the death metal.”
“All the death metal?” She rolled her eyes closed and made her way back inside.
“Hey, Delta?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“What interview?”
She was four percent grumpy that he was still fixing stuff for her, and wanted to say something sarcastic, but he was looking down at her like he was actually interested.
“Floral shop.”
He smiled. “The one from yesterday?”
“Yeah. I’m actually starting to get really nervous.”
“Don’t be. They’ll love you.”
“Yeah. Listen, can I borrow your hotel room while you’re here? I need a shower.”
“No need.”
“I assure you I do need a shower before an interview.”
“No, I mean no need to go all the way out to my hotel. Go take a peek around the house.”
Well, that made her curious. Still barefoot, Delta made her way to the side of the house and skidded to a stop in front of a trio of large, blue hardware store buckets.
All three were steaming, and there was a metal loop with a shower curtain hanging from it attached to the side of the house.
She pushed it aside and there was a plastic shower head secured to the siding.
“Oh my gosh,” she murmured, studying the buckets. They all had thermometers and heaters in the water, and a cord ran from here to his truck, which must have been the source of power to heat the water.
Nathan had made an outdoor shower for her.
Touched, she backed up a few feet and studied the set-up again. How had he tracked this all down so fast?
“ Prime,” he called down to her.
An impressed laugh escaped her. She looked up and he was there, on this side of the roof, looking down at her.
“Are you going to watch me shower?”
“Wasn’t planning on it, Delta-Girl, but now I’m tempted.” The teasing was back in his voice, and she was relieved that their awkward moment from last night was just a distant memory. He was getting them back to an easier place.
“Want some coffee?” she asked.
“Maybe after your shower,” he said. “I need to turn off the truck soon.”
Right. He didn’t need his truck dying out here. Neither one of them would have a ride to town.
The shower was heavenly. The water was the perfect temperature of scalding that she enjoyed the most. She checked above her a dozen times, but Nathan never peeked over the side.
A little bit of her was disappointed, but that was okay.
He was here early, working on her den, setting up a shower, and that counted for a hell of a lot.
All clean, she wrapped herself in a towel and tramped through the snow back into the cabin.
Gah, she was glad she’d been born a werewolf.
The chilly bite to the air didn’t even bother her.
Inside the little house, the fire was just embers, but it was still warm in here.
She’d gotten up two times in the night to add wood to the stove, and she’d stayed nice and toasty.
It was snowing again, and she stopped right before she went inside to look at the piney forest that surrounded the clearing. Besides the nailing that echoed through the mountains, it was completely peaceful here.
She could see why Nory and Liam had fallen in love with this property. She would have to take some pictures later for her dad, so he would stop texting her all worried.
Nathan jumped off the roof and landed gracefully beside her. He had the tool belt with a hook for his hammer. Just when she thought he couldn’t physically get any hotter, he went and knew how to fix things.
“I have to repair some of the outer walls, and see what is happening with the electric and pipes when I open them up, but in a few days, you should have access to the other rooms without the whole damn thing falling down on you.”
“It’s a lot of work for a temporary den,” she pointed out.
Nathan shrugged and let himself into her home. “Nory said you can have this place if you want.”
“Wait, what?”
He pulled off the belt and set it onto the ground near the front door, then fiddled with the wire that she could latch the door closed with.
“I picked up a new lock, but the doorframe needs to be completely rebuilt,” he told her.
He gripped the frame and pieces of wood crumbled easily in his hands. “Rotten right through.”
“It adds character,” she joked as she pulled her body lotion out of her toiletries bag.
“I like the way you look without make-up,” Nathan said. “Just so you know.”
Surprised, she turned to him, but he looked completely serious.
He gestured to her face. “You have some little freckles.”
Delta looked down, feeling self-conscious, and Nathan approached her, removing his work gloves off his hands one by one.
He tossed them onto the arm of the couch bed and hooked a finger under her chin.
“We’re friends, remember? You don’t have to get all shy around me.
” His eyes were soft and the color of good whiskey.
He didn’t smell like fur right now. Only his cologne.
“I like that smell you wear.”
“I know. You told me.”
She frowned. “I don’t remember telling you that. When?”
“The third day we were paired. You were really tired from traveling to Coeur d’Alene, and you said it right before you drifted off to sleep.
“Is that…” She couldn’t finish the question because she had no right to ask it.
“Yes,” he answered. “That’s why I wear it.”
He released her chin and backed off her, made his way into the kitchen, and rummaged around in the grocery bags she had yet to unpack. “Go on put on your girl lotions, I’ll keep my back to you.” He turned and gave her a wink. “Probably.”
She liked that the teasing came back into his voice so easily now. “Monster,” she accused.
“You really don’t have any idea.”
As she was slathering cherry merlot scented lotion all over her legs, he passed right by her and knelt by the stove, stoked the embers, and then added a couple more logs.
“I won’t be here for a while today, so I can’t watch it.”
“I’ll be here working. I’ll watch it.”
“You’re getting your smell all over my den.”
“Good.”
“If I bring a potential mate here someday, he will think I am already paired.”
Nathan let off an irritable sigh and turned on her, ignoring his promise not to look at her.
She yelped and reached for the towel, but he was there in a blur and yanked it away, threw it onto the ground.
He gripped her shoulders and kissed her stupid.
It was another one like last night where she went straight backward with the force of his touch and wrapped her arms around him immediately just to keep her balance.
He took her right down to the bed and ground his hips against hers.
His hands massaged her everywhere until she was drunk on the tingling sensation he caused.
She bit his bottom lip gently, and the devil was back in his smile as he eased back slowly.
She released his lip and a soft growl rumbled from her.
“Whaaat the fuck was that?” he asked, his eyes lighting up.
She made a little yelp sound and clapped her hands over her mouth. “I wasn’t growling at you. I don’t think.”
“Feeling spicy this morning?” he asked, tickling her ribs.
A peel of laughter tumbled out of her, and she squirmed under his ticking fingers.
Nathan leaned forward and nipped at her neck and then pushed off her.
“My wolf has asked about thirty times for me to Change so he can piss on every corner of your den. I haven’t let him.
Credit where it’s due. If this place smells like me, okay.
That’s better than it could be, and I swear to God Delta, if you don’t stop teasing me about bringing other men into your life, I’m going to bend you over that sink over there and make you forget anyone exists but me, am I making myself clear? Friend?”
She was still drunk on his kiss. Delta inhaled a shaking breath and sat up in bed. “That doesn’t sound very friendly, friend.”
“I’ll make you come when I bend you over, and that’s pretty fuckin’ friendly if you ask me.”
How. How was this man this hot? How was he this sexy?
Standing there in front of the kitchen in the early morning light, hands on his hips.
White t-shirt clinging to his muscles, eyes lightening by the second.
Dark scruff trimmed perfectly on his chiseled jaw.
Dark hair perfectly mussed. Tall as a house, wide as a barn.
“I don’t know if I like this,” she said as primly as she could while she stood clumsily in all of her butt-naked glory.
He was consuming her with his eyes.
“I think you only want what you can’t have. The second you get me, you’ll throw me away.”