The moment Raoulf pulled up into Nina's driveway, he and his wolf were both anxious and excited. For the most part, his animal seemed to think that Nina was more than ready to be made aware that Raoulf, the man, wasn’t her only admirer. Raoulf, the wolf, also craved her. His wolf didn’t give a damn about the fact that this was a job for him. An assignment. He wasn’t here to court anyone, please anyone, or test the waters trying to find his mate. He wasn’t having much luck trying to convince his wolf of that fact.

Not only that, the delicious aroma of food wafting through a cracked window served as additional motivation for both of them. He cut the engine and stared at the red door of the townhouse. Just beyond the threshold was the woman who made him forget that he had a job to complete.

If he hoped to stay on schedule, today was supposed to be the day he got a confession from her. Either that, or he was supposed to turn over the information about her whereabouts to his client. But he was doing more than just stalling…

His phone vibrated on his belt jolting him from his thoughts. One glance at the screen revealed that the caller had blocked his ID, but that wasn’t unusual considering the fact that most of his assignments began with anonymous phone calls. He glanced down at his wristwatch. 5:54PM. Reluctantly, he answered the call.

“This is Raoulf. State the reason for your call.”

“Raoulf, it’s Chestnut. Hey, yo…you said you’d get back with me the other night. What’s the deal? You got any updates on that thing?”

Raoulf glanced up at the house just in time to catch the curtains close behind the window near the front door.

“I uh…” he said. “No updates right now. I’m on it.”

“You’re on it? You said you were on it the other day and that you’d located her,” Chestnut said. “What’s the deal?”

“My time’s not up yet. Let me do my job. Rush me and you’ll be back at square one. Do you need my services or not?”

“Alright, I need the confession and a resolution to our agreement. That’s all I care about. It’ll take me a day or two to send my colleague up there, so call me as soon as you’re closing in on her.”

“We’ve already discussed this, Chestnut,” Raoulf stated.

“Yeah, but time is money,” he replied.

Before Chestnut could ruin his mood any further, Raoulf disconnected the phone call and dismounted the bike. He grabbed a small shopping bag from the trunk and headed up the driveway.

The moment she opened the door, her unfiltered beauty rendered him speechless. Again. She wasn’t even wearing makeup. He would have smelled it on her. Her hair was all curls this evening, mostly wavy, with perfectly defined spirals on the ends. The perfume she wore smelled like fresh juniper and crisp, fall breeze.

No matter how hard he tried to process what his wolf’s intuition was trying to tell him about Nina, he always ended up suffering from temporary brain malfunction instead. He’d come across plenty of drop-dead gorgeous women, but none as striking as her. Meeting her had been the equivalent of experiencing his first time as a wolf shifter after the very first change. Exhilarating. Life-altering. And hopeful. He wondered if he was getting soft on the job by falling for the woman he was supposed to turn over. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been assigned women bounty before. Something wasn’t adding up. Either Chestnut was withholding pertinent information about her as a suspect or she was doing a damn good job of hiding her past. Nothing about her gave away any indication that she could ruin a businessman like Chestnut, but Chestnut seemed to think that Nina was capable of just that.

“Well, you’re standing there like you’re not sure if you want to come in or not,” she joked.

“I was just thinking about something,” he said, and then handed her the bag. “Some wine from the local winery I spotted while riding around this morning and a little something else you might need.”

“Thank you.” She grinned and then ushered him inside.

Her home was small and cozy, just like he’d pictured it. The walls of the main living area were painted a vibrant green and the floors were covered with the plushest carpet he’d ever seen. The home looked immaculately cleaned and very well decorated. He looked down at his work boots, wondering if he should remove his shoes. He hung his leather jacket on a coat rack near the door and proceeded to take off his shoes.

“Oh…you don’t need to do that,” she said. “Unless you want to, of course, or if you’re more comfortable that way.”

“It’s a habit,” he replied. “And yes, I’m comfortable that way.”

He took her lead and followed her toward the kitchen where she sat the bag on the counter. The first thing she pulled out was the gift he had picked out for her.

“Oh…” Her smile was perfect. “Thank you.”

She held up the aqua-colored vintage crystal bead suspended from a key ring.

“It’s beautiful. I love adding these to my key chain,” she whispered.

He grinned. “I noticed. It’s handmade. The clerk at the tourist shop said the name of the piece is called “A Moment in Time”.

“That seems fitting, and blue is my favorite color,” she stated.

“The color suits you.”

He didn’t miss the sparkle in her eyes as she blushed.

Next, she pulled out the wine bottle and set it down on the table, which had already been set for two.

“Pinot Noir…nice. This will go perfectly with the chargrilled steak. I hope you’re a meat eater, by the way.”

“Most definitely.”

She smiled. “I figured I couldn’t go wrong with meat and potatoes. Of course, I put my little spin on it. I grew up mostly in Florida and the eastern part of Texas so southern cuisine is what I know.”

“A woman who can cook…that’s not something I encounter every day spending my life on the road. I’ll pick soul food over fast food any day of the week,” he commented.

“Well, I do hope you enjoy the food. I don’t get to prepare full course meals as often as I want to now.”

“No family in the area?” he asked, moving further into her home to look at the framed paintings on her wall and other decorations in her living room.

She shook her head. “Not out here. My parents live abroad. My dad is from France. He was a Master Chef too. With his career in the Navy, we traveled about a lot while I was in school. When my parents retired, they made the decision to move back to France. Now they travel to a lot of the exotic locations that he never got to visit during his time in active duty. I’m an only child. Sometimes it gets lonely, but my parents and I talk about once a week through video chats.”

“That’s good that you’re still close to your folks,” he said.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Any family? I know you mentioned that you traveled a lot too.”

“My parents aren’t alive anymore. I have three brothers.” He cleared his throat, hoping the conversation didn’t lead to anything too revealing. “Do you have anyone in your life right now?”

“No, no time for dating. What’s important to me right now is getting my catering business up and running again?”

“Again?” he pressed. “What happened to the catering business before?”

She frowned and folded her arms across her chest. “I made a dumb mistake, that’s all.”

“Oh?”

“A bad business decision.” She backed up in the direction of the kitchen. “I need to take the peach cobbler out of the oven. I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.”

She disappeared through a doorway, leaving him standing there to speculate about the circumstances surrounding the mystery of who she really was and what she meant to Chestnut.