"So we just hang, talk, and see what happens?" she asked him as she leaned back against a post on the gazebo.
"Sounds about right." Decebel stood and walked up to her. He left a little space in between them. A little more would have been better for Jen's comfort but she tried to act as if it didn't bother her.
"I'm going to ask something of you, Jennifer," he told her seriously.
"I'm listening." Jen tilted her chin up and gave him her full attention.
"My wolf is not coping well with the idea of others near you, touching you. I realize that there is no getting around it, but he doesn't. For all intents and purposes he has claimed you, mating signs be damned,"
Jen's breath caught at his declaration.
"So what I'm asking is, for lack of a better term, reassurance in your -" Decebel searched for the right word. Jennifer beat him to it, as she often did.
"Intentions, interest, attraction?" Jen grinned, she tended to go overboard on the vocabulary when she was nervous, which she was. Nervous, that is.
"All of the above."
"Okay. So I scratch your back, you scratch mine, right?"
Decebel's head cocked to the side as he drew even closer. Jen realized that she had unleashed a monster with her unabashed flirting. The question was no longer could he handle what she dished, but would she survive what he poured out on her? If she were honest with herself she would say she didn't yet know the answer to that question. But where's the fun in being honest with myself?
"I take that this saying means that you will need the same reassurance from me." Decebel placed his hands on her hips and pulled her away from the post and close to him. Jen gasped as her hands came up to his chest. Her breathing quickened and she watched his eyes follow her movement as she licked her lips.
Is he going to kiss me? Am I ready for him to kiss me? Jen laughed at that question. Has Joan Rivers had enough plastic surgery to qualify as a plastic figurine? Enough said.
"I wish the answer to that was no," she told him. "I don't like being the clingy, insecure chick."
Decebel chuckled and she felt the rumble vibrate through her hands clear to her soul.
"You are anything but clingy and insecure, Jennifer. Mysterious, confident, playful, beautiful, too sexy for your own good? Definitely. But never clingy or insecure."
"Are you trying to rack up brownie points, wolf?"
"Is it working?"
"I'll never admit it." She winked at him.
He squeezed her hips one time with his strong hands and looked into her eyes. "You will not doubt at any moment my intentions or interest in you. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," she said absently as she watched his amber eyes begin to glow. It took everything in her not to grab the front of his shirt and pull his lips to hers. Decebel must have seen it written all over her face. He lifted one eyebrow in a silent challenge. She wouldn't be the one to make the first move, not with her wolf. Decebel chuckled, and much to her disappointment dropped his hands and stepped back.
"I suppose I should escort you back to your room," he told her as he once again tucked her hand into his arm and began walking down the steps.
Jen grinned. "You don't want to go back and dance?"
Decebel looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I think we've both endured enough for the night. Don't you, micul meu lup?"
"Oh, come on, B. Surely you aren't one to run away from a little excitement?" she taunted.
"Being close to you is quite enough excitement for me, I assure you."
Jen blushed. Okay, that is just going to have to stop. I am not some fainting violet, she growled in her mind.
Decebel chuckled as if he could hear her inner monologue. The crazy thing was that she wanted him to hear her inner dialogue as bad as she wanted him to finally pull her to him and kiss her senseless. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, Jen laughed at herself.
Decebel dropped her off at her door, but before he left he pulled her to him, wrapping her up in a snug embrace. He tucked his head into her neck and took a deep breath. She let out a contented sigh. If this was what Jacque experienced when Fane held her, she didn't know how she ever let him let her go.
"Are you planning on taking a shower tonight?" he asked her, taking her completely off guard.