Chapter Six
Marius lay sprawled out over his shitty sofa wearing only a pair of boxers, with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers playing on the TV in front of him. It had rained all damn day, and he hadn’t felt like going outside and running around as a grizzly. Washington Mountain Adventures didn’t have any trips planned until Thursday. November wasn’t exactly a big month for expeditions out into the wilderness. They had one more excursion this weekend, and that would be it for a while. Marius would be effectively unemployed until spring.
If he were a real grizzly, he’d hibernate. Not so much an option as a shifter.
Eowyn came on the television screen, looking fierce with her wavy, dark-blond hair and her gray-blue eyes. Marius’s cock stirred in his boxers. Eowyn reminded him a little of Hayley. Long, wavy hair, the blue eyes, although the color was slightly wrong. Miranda Otto’s eyes were more gray-blue. Hayley’s were brighter. But if he squinted, he could imagine he was watching Hayley on the screen.
The thought of her, in his living room, sent another stab of desire straight to his dick. He reached down and gave himself a squeeze through his boxers. Hayley. Her kiss had done something to him. She’d crashed right into him and broken through.
How could he be wrecked by one kiss?
And how could she have sat there, so unaffected, for the next hour? She’d talked to Summer and Jackson, and even Marius, as if the kiss hadn’t happened.
He had a raging hard-on. He gripped it again, reveling in the pressure of his fingers even while hating it. It was just wrong, how Friday had turned out.
This morning, he’d put on the extended version of The Two Towers, thinking a bunch of orc-slaying violence might cheer him up or, at the very least, get his mind off of Hayley. But then fucking Eowyn had to show up in her medieval dresses and long wavy hair and it had all come, full circle, back to Hayley Jaynes.
He let go of his cock to jab the remote and shut off the movie. Then he stood and padded over to the fridge, where he found one last bottle of beer. While cracking it open, he glanced at his phone. Four missed calls. All from an unknown number.
He pulled up his voicemail and listened. “Um, Marius? This is Hayley. We met on Friday, um, I don’t know if you remember me.”
Of course he remembered. He couldn’t seem to forget—that was the damn problem.
The message continued, “I really need to speak with you. I—”
He didn’t wait to hear the rest of the message, but went straight to selecting her number to call her back.
“Oh thank jizznoodles,” Hayley said.
“Huh?”
“Okay, so can you do it?”
He looked at his nearly full beer. Was he drunk and imagining this whole thing? But it was Hayley, so of course he’d do it. “Sure.”
“I owe you so, so much. Thank you.”
“Yeah, no problem.” This was the weirdest conversation ever. His fault, for not listening to the entire message or asking what she was talking about. “How’d you get my number?”
“I told Jackson I needed to ask you about the Mount Rainier trails.”
“Oh. That makes sense.”
There was silence on her end. Had she hung up?
“You there?” he asked.
“Yeah. You’re just…being awfully cool about this. After I was kind of a dick to you on Friday.”
“Look,” he said, scrambling for something to say without admitting he hadn’t listened to her message, “I want to be on friendly terms with your family. I like living in Huntwood, and if we’re on good terms, maybe your pride will let me stay. So if you need a favor, I’m up for it.”
She exhaled loudly. “Thanks. Great. So, I guess I’ll see you on December first?”
Almost four weeks away. Not like he had anything going on. “Sure thing.”
“All right. Thanks. Bye.”
He stared at his phone after she hung up. Took a long sip of beer. Then tapped on her voicemail again—this time, to listen all the way through.
“Um, Marius? This is Hayley. We met on Friday, um, I don’t know if you remember me. I really need to speak with you. I know this is weird, but I’ve gotta convince the Spokane Pride that I’m…taken. That I have a mate, or whatever. There’s a meeting scheduled for December first. Do you think you could come with me? Hold my hand or whatever, just so they get off my back?” Her words were rushed, like she was nervous. “I mean, you’re the only single shifter I know, other than my brother Will, but ha, that’s not going to work, you know? I don’t know how to repay you, but I’d owe you big time. Anyway, call me back, please. Let me know. And, um, thanks. For even considering this.”
He slammed the phone back down on the table.
What the fuck had he just agreed to?
He took a deep breath, guzzled the rest of his beer, and took the empty over to the recycling bin. Opening the fridge, he looked for another beer, hoping a buzz would help offer some clarity to this problem.
No more beer. Swearing, he slammed the fridge door closed.
He picked up the phone again, saved Hayley’s number to his contacts list, and jabbed at the screen to open a text message box.
Marius: You wanna be convincing with this, we need to get to know each other.
Hayley: Good idea. I can draft some questions for us to answer.
He growled to himself. Questions on a form? No way.
Marius: Fuck questionnaires. You wanna do this, we need to spend time together. Two dates. First one is tomorrow night at The Lodge. Send me your address and I’ll pick you up at eight.
Then he waited. Would she go for it, or chicken out?
Hayley: …
Hayley: …
He grinned. She must be freaking out over there. He typed, Don’t overthink it. I’m not trying to get into your pants. But if we’re going to meet them together, we’ve gotta sound like we’ve had more than two short conversations.
Hayley: …Good point. I haven’t been to the lodge. What should I wear?
Marius: It’s kind of a fancy place.
Hayley: So, a dress?
Marius: Yeah. Do your brothers know about the Spokane Pride and this meeting?
Hayley: Not yet. I don’t want to tell them. They’ll just worry.
Marius: You should probably tell them anyway.
Hayley: I will.
He could practically hear her sighing. She sent him her address and he wrote that he’d see her tomorrow. When it didn’t look like she was going to respond again, he set down his phone and returned to the couch to finish The Two Towers.
Hayley Jaynes. Full of surprises.