“So, um…I guess this is it.”

Nina shrugged, making eye contact with him for a moment and then diverting her gaze.

He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t going anywhere—that he wasn’t going to leave just yet. He wasn’t certain that he wanted to leave at all.

The entryway lamps were on, shining in their faces as they stood out in the night by the door.

“I’m not scheduled to leave just yet,” he said, instead.

“Just so you know, if you ever feel like a good meal again, you can give me a ring. I’m usually home every evening, but you’d have to call me about an hour or two before so I can actually, you know, cook the food.”

He smiled. “You love cooking, don’t know?”

She grinned.

“Is tomorrow evening too soon?” he asked.

“Actually, I’m scheduled to make and freeze lasagnas for another food drive this weekend. If you want to stop by and be my taste tester, that’ll be a big help.”

“You’ve got yourself a taste tester.” He looked down at the take-out trays in his arms. “Thanks for the leftovers. I don’t think this will make it until lunch tomorrow.”

“Well, if anything changes, you know how to reach me,” she said, her hand on the doorknob.

He swallowed. “Nina, I…”

No, Raoulf. Now’s not the time. The wolf inside of him protested. The wolf wasn’t patient.

“You what?”

“Just wanted to say thanks again,” he said. “You should get inside. I’ll see you later.”

“Good night,” she said.

Her fluff of curls bounced as she turned around and slipped inside. She held the door slightly open and he took one last look at her. He wanted to grab her by the small of her waist and pull her right back outside and in his arms. Just thinking about his fingers gripping the soft, delicate plumpness of her skin had him straining hard against the zipper of his pants.

Christ, he wanted her. Badly.

In that moment, he knew that he couldn’t turn Nina Moore back over to Warren Chestnut. He just couldn’t. Not because he knew she was innocent and had the right to renege on an agreement that wasn’t in her best interests and that she seemed to never want to be a part of it in the first place, but because he wanted her for himself.

Nina finally closed the door, leaving him on her doorstep to speculate what he’d have to do next.

After checking in at his hotel, Raoulf hadn’t completely made up his mind and the same feeling of uneasiness threatened his train of thought. He had to get out. Had to talk to someone other than himself about this. His brothers were probably too busy handling their own business and personal dealings. Plus, how would he explain to them that he was thinking about not doing what he’d already been paid to do? How would he explain to them that his wolf was hell-bent that he had found something special in Nina.

“What the heck is wrong with you?” he mumbled to himself as he pulled into the parking lot of a local bar.

It hadn’t taken him long to ask around and find out where the shifter-friendly places were around here. He scooted into a vacant seat once he was inside the establishment and ordered himself a beer. Even with the dozens of shifters mulling around the bar, eyeing him like fresh meat and probably wondering what he was doing in their neck of the woods, he couldn’t get Nina off his mind. Heck, she was the bounty. The person he was getting paid to find and turn in. His next step should have been devising a plan to get her back across the state line to face his client, not how he could get closer to her to appease himself.

Something Nina mentioned stuck with him. She had been in Texas when she worked for Chestnut, which matched up, with the time frame given to him by Chestnut. It was all starting to make a little bit of sense. With Nina now living in Virginia, she’d managed to put hundreds of miles between them. It was no wonder he was having trouble tracking her down. He wondered if either Nina or Chestnut knew how close they really were to each other.

His phone buzzed at his hip and he brought it up to eye level to look at the caller ID. One name flashed on the screen: Warren Chestnut.

“Fuck,” he uttered.

He sent the call straight to voicemail and chugged down the rest of his beer.

If he broke protocol by withholding information from a paying client, he’d be in a whole heap of trouble.

One thing was certain, if anyone laid a hand on Nina Moore to harm him, they’d pay with their life.