Melina

I had to admit that I found Trevor’s behavior regarding Julia endearing, rather than annoying. If he hadn’t realized he was acting like an ass, I might not feel that way, but Trevor recognized he was being ridiculous, and that’s why he didn’t want me to tell Julia. Of course, I had no intention of mentioning it to her, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to Trevor.

“I won’t say anything,” Gryph assured him.

“You want me to lie to your sister?” I asked, pretending to be shocked.

“I could make it worth your while,” Trevor offered.

I gave him a sweet smile. “Don’t you have a conference call?”

He cursed under his breath when he looked at the time. “I’m not going to have time to make your breakfast or even make coffee for myself,” he grumbled.

“I’ll bring you a cup,” I offered.

Trevor leaned in to brush his lips against mine. “You really aren’t mad about me arranging for a bodyguard?”

“Under normal circumstances, I might be upset with you for not discussing it with me first, but there wasn’t time, so you get a pass.”

Trevor grinned. “You are sexy as hell when you’re agreeable.”

“You’re still going to have to convince me to keep your secret about embarrassing yourself trying to protect Julia,” I reminded him, which made him grin.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he murmured close to my ear.

“Get to work. I’ll make coffee while I talk to Gryph, and then I have a meeting.”

Trevor’s eyes clouded with concern, and Gryph must have noticed because he jumped in. “I’ll go with Ms. Melina.”

“Great!” Trevor exclaimed, clearly relieved.

Trevor hurried toward his office, cell phone in hand, to take his call.

Julia raced into the room after Oliver, who was chasing one of the bunny slippers. I had no idea where the other bunny slipper was hiding.

“Oliver!” Julia screeched. “We have to go. I’m meeting with a client this morning!”

Oliver dodged back and forth before growling at the bunny slipper.

“Oliver,” Julia said in a more stern tone, which her familiar continued to ignore.

Gryph laughed as the bunny slipper ducked behind his legs, growling and hissing. I was amazed by how irritable those slippers could be. Then again, I might be even more irritable if I was being chased around by familiars all day.

“I thought you were joking about the bunny slippers,” Gryph said, trying to catch his breath and get his laughter under control.

Oliver raced around Gryph. “I said, stop, Oliver!” Julia screeched.

“Oliver!” Gryph barked out, and the beagle immediately stopped and dropped onto the ground.

Julia gave Gryph a shy smile as she scooped up her familiar. “Thank you for stopping him. I’m surprised he listened to you. Oliver’s not fond of werewolves.”

“He knows who the alpha male is,” Gryph told her.

“I should go or I’ll be late.” On those words, Julia scurried out of the house as if she were being chased by a werewolf.

One look at the werewolf in the room told me he’d like to chase her. In fact, based on the way his fist was clenched, I’d guess he was struggling with his instinct to pursue her. I suspected things between Julia and Gryph were going to get very interesting. I was predicting many more incidents of Trevor making an ass of himself while acting like the overprotective big brother. With a sigh, I decided I should probably have a talk with Gryph about Julia.

“So, Gryph,” I began, not sure how to approach the subject of Julia. “When was the last time you were with a woman?”

This might be too personal a topic to bring up with a warlock I barely knew, but werewolves didn’t mind talking about sex.

Gryph thought before answering. “About three years. At first, some of the females from the pack came by to see me. I think it’s because I had a reputation for being kinkier than many of the other wolves when I was in the pack, and there were females who wanted to take a walk on the wild side. At least, that’s what I told myself on days I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. Sometimes, I’d think they were being sent over because the pack leader felt obligated to take care of me after I lost my arm saving his ass. Either way, a new leader took over and cracked down on intermingling with wolves outside the pack, so the females stopped coming by.”

“Three years is a long time,” I began. “Maybe you should take care of things.”

“What’s the deal with the witch with the sassy mouth?” he asked, confirming what I’d suspected about his attraction to Julia.

“Her name is Julia,” I reminded him.

He shrugged. “Does her brother actually think she’s only into women? Or, was he trying to scare me off?”

“He knows she likes men and women,” I replied. “Trevor also knows you’d be able to tell if his sister was turned on by you, so I don’t think he’d lie to warn you off. Trevor’s recently realized that his sister is a grown woman who’s had sex, and he’s still trying to come to terms with that realization.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Gryph said thoughtfully. “I’ll wait to fuck her until after I’m done protecting you. That should give her brother time to get used to the idea.”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed at Gryph’s assumption that it was going to be that easy. It’s not that I hadn’t noticed how Julia reacted to him. I’d also noticed she wasn’t happy about her reaction to Gryph. If I had to guess, I’d say Julia was going to be more resistant to his advances than Gryph expected. For werewolves, sex was much simpler than it was for witches. If two unmated werewolves found each other attractive, they hooked up. This might be a little out of Gryph’s realm of expertise.

“Have you ever been with a woman who wasn’t a werewolf?” I asked.

“Nope,” he replied. “I guess I might have to be gentler with her.”

“You also need to understand that witches are different than werewolves when it comes to sex,” I began, feeling like I was talking to a child—a very large child who could turn into a two-hundred and fifty pound wolf. “Julia finding you attractive does not mean she’s going to have sex with you. You’d have to do more to convince her than you’re used to.”

Gryph’s lips curled into a predatory grin. “Now, I like the sound of that, Ms. Melina. Pursuing Sassy and luring her to me sounds a lot better than simply fucking her. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of fucking her, but the convincing part sounds fun.”

“Trevor is going to have a heart attack,” I grumbled. “Let’s get coffee, and we can grab food on the way to my meeting. We should also talk about how much you charge.”

Gryph snorted. “You don’t need to pay me, Ms. Melina. I’m glad to be doing something useful again. The pack pays me a nice retirement pension since I was injured fighting for them. Even the new leadership can’t change that.”

“First, I will definitely pay you,” I insisted. “Before you even consider arguing, remember that you may be stronger physically, but you don’t want to get on my bad side.”

Gryph chuckled. “You are right about that, Ms. Melina. What’s the second thing you want to bring up?”

“You have a pension?” I asked because, for whatever reason, I’d never pictured werewolves having any sort of retirement or disability plan.

“I worked for the pack,” he reminded me. “The pack has a good retirement plan, and it pays in full if you’re unable to continue working due to an on the job injury. Like I said, you don’t need to pay me.”

“I’m paying you,” I insisted. “Let’s get moving.”

“You can tell me more about Sassy on the way to your meeting,” he suggested.

It would appear that when Gryph decided to rejoin the world, he jumped in with both feet.