Chapter Eleven
“I need two more whiskeys,” Sarah said, approaching the bar. “Same cheap-ass brand.” She rolled her eyes.
Caleb resisted laughing. In the weeks since she’d started working at Devil’s Den, she’d developed some definite opinions on acceptable and unacceptable drink choices. He didn’t give a crap as long as people ordered a lot.
He glanced across the room to see if the customers had heard her, but if they had, they showed no indication.
He poured the glasses, and Sarah placed them on a tray before leaving with a wink.
Caleb continued to be impressed by the woman. Despite all the strangeness of learning about shifters, she’d taken to waitressing at Devil’s Den and didn’t have much trouble with customers, whether they were college kids slumming or the rougher crowd. It might have helped that any man who looked at her the wrong way got stink eye from him, though.
Sure, he would have preferred to see her in some Daisy Dukes and a tied-off shirt, but she still looked sexy enough in her jeans, boots, and t-shirt. Even the pony-tail she wore when she worked sent a little fire to his loins. Not that her hair down was all that bad either.
He resisted a growl. The truth was, he liked her no matter what she looked like. It was taking all his self-control not to march into her room at night and tell her how much he wanted to plant himself inside her.
When she returned to the bar with the empty glasses, Sarah shot him a smile. “Slow night.”
“Sometimes that’s for the best,” Caleb said, glancing at the door.
They hadn’t heard anything from the True Sons since their attack on Sarah. That set Caleb on edge more than anything. He’d expected the bikers to reply with a show of force, and now it was like they’d vanished into thin air.
He liked to think that he’d scared them off, but there was no way an alpha like Jake would run off just because Caleb took down two of his guys.
Greg hadn’t shown up to chew him out about taking them down, and they hadn’t seen anything in the news, so apparently the two other men had managed to get away from the area without cops or paramedics finding them.
“You know what the real problem is with slow nights?” Sarah asked.
“What?”
“Crappier tips.” She sighed.
“Not like I’m short-changing you,” Caleb said with a shrug. “Hey, any problems with your boss at the college?”
“I keep telling you, he’s my advisor, not my boss, and no. But as far as he’s concerned I’m doing embedded data collection with thesis-relevant informants.”
“Yeah, whatever the hell that means.”
“The point is, he doesn’t care, and he thinks I’m doing something useful for my research.”
“And he’s not worried that you’ve been away for weeks?”
“Not like he checks my apartment. He sent me a text earlier this week, and I told him I was doing fine.” She shrugged.
Sarah smirked and leaned over the bar. Her shirt hung just low enough to reveal some of her delicious cleavage. Caleb hardened at the sight. He realized that her not wearing Daisy Dukes was a good thing. He wouldn’t be able to get anything done otherwise.
“I didn’t tell you this before,” she said, her voice low. “But he ran a background check on you.”
“A background check? Seriously?”
“Yeah, guess he wanted to make sure you weren’t some heinous criminal.”
“I probably am that.” Caleb chuckled. “What did he find?”
“Nothing.” She stared at him. “Makes me wonder if there’s nothing to find or… people made it go away.”
He offered her a grin. “Maybe you’ll never know.” A little animal magnetism and the occasional favor from another shifter or two went a long way from keeping the law off you.
Sarah tilted her head, a seductive grin on her face. “Maybe there’s some way to find out. Something I can do to make you want to talk.”
Caleb’s cock hardened even more. Despite sleeping so close to a Blooded every night, and her scent calling to him, he’d made no moves, as she hadn’t seemed that interested. The truth was, he wanted the woman to want him as much as he wanted her, and she was either playing it cool before or had changed her mind because in the last few days, she’d been flirting with him a lot more.
“Oh, maybe I just need the proper motivation,” Caleb said.
“I could…” Her cheeks reddened, and she turned away. “Sorry, that was… I’m sorry.” She slapped her cheeks lightly. “Damn it. I wish I could say I’m drunk, but I don’t even have that excuse.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Caleb grunted. “’Cause I’m not. Look, I’m not going to lie. Even if you weren’t…” He glanced over at a nearby table. “Even if you weren’t special, you’re still hot as sin.”
Still red as a tomato, Sarah gave him a shallow nod. “Let’s just say you’re not exactly far from my type.”
“Then what’s the problem then? You got a boyfriend?”
“No, I don’t. It’s just—”
The front door opened, and three men came in. From the look of it, they were construction workers just getting off work.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Sarah said with a sigh. She grabbed some napkins and headed over toward the three new arrivals as they sat at a table.
Caleb bit back a growl. Tonight, he needed to make his damn move.
* * *
After closing time, Caleb trudged up his stairs and entered his apartment. The sound of running water from the shower greeted him. Sarah had come up about thirty minutes earlier.
He wasn’t surprised. She always liked to take a shower right after finishing up for the night. After two weeks of living together, they’d already developed their own little routines.
Caleb sucked in a breath at the thought of the water cascading down her head, flowing over her face, and running down her body, rivulets tracing her breasts and moving down her body to her shapely legs. His cock strained hard against his jeans.
He considered ripping off his clothes and marching straight into the shower with her. Thought about what it’d be like to brace her against the wall as he shoved into that tight little pussy of hers from behind. Too bad his shower was too damn small for that.
A low, sustained growl vibrated his entire chest. Damn, how he wanted Sarah.
Her Blooded scent permeated the apartment now. Unlike below, there weren’t as many scents to interfere, the result being every time he came back to his place he thought about Sarah and how much he needed to sink into her.
The water stopped, and Caleb walked into the kitchen to grab a beer. It didn’t matter that he worked in a bar. There was just something about drinking a bottle from your own refrigerator.
Sarah strolled into the kitchen in a soft robe, black strands of her wet hair hanging loosely against her face and neck. She shot him a warm smile.
Caleb inhaled deeply, enjoying her scent. If anything, now that she’d taken a shower, it was stronger.
She looked to the side. “How long do you think this is going to last?”
“What?” He shook his head, trying to take his mind off the idea that she was naked underneath the robe.
“It’s been a couple of weeks now. At some point, you know, I have to continue living my life, sad and limited as it is.”
Caleb shrugged. “I have the some of pack out searching. Once the True Sons come up for air, then we’ll deal with them, one way or another.”
He put his beer on the counter and walked over to her. Towering over her, he stared down intently.
“Is it really so bad being here?” Caleb said, his voice low. He locked gazes with her, staring into her blue eyes.
“No, it’s not, it’s just, I don’t like being…”
“Being what?”
“Being in limbo, not knowing.” Sarah blinked several times and looked away. “I’m supposed to be collecting information for my thesis.” She ran a hand through her wet black hair. “So even if this is all over, I’ll still be behind. I just…”
“Just what?”
She blew out a soft sigh. “I don’t know. It seems so weird to worry about going back to school now with everything I now know, and it’s not like I can change my thesis to be on werewolf society.”
Caleb snorted. “I’d love to see the King’s reaction to that, but yeah, probably a bad idea.” He shrugged. “Why do you have to figure any of this out now?”
“I have to figure out something.” Sarah looked back at him. “I can’t just go on day to day without a plan.”
“You can’t know what the future will bring. Sometimes you just have to play it by ear and not worry so much about the consequences.”
“Says the man who is practically impossible to kill.”
He laughed. “We’re not talking life and death here. The world won’t end if you make the wrong job choice.”
Her cheeks reddened slightly, and her pupils dilated. “And is that what you’ve done all your life? Just played it by ear and not worried that much about the consequences?” Her voice was lower, breathier.
He moved in a little toward her, taking in her heady scent. “Oh, I worry about the consequences, but only the important ones.”
“And that’s worked for you?”
“Yeah. It’s gotten me pretty far,” Caleb said softly before planting his mouth on hers.
Sarah half-closed her eyes as he parted her lips with his tongue.