Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack Series - By Suzanne Wright Page 0,128

way of knowing whether he had what Ivy called “hot spots”—places he disliked being touched that could set him off.

Jaime’s entire body was a hot spot right now. If Dante touched her even once, she’d kill him.

As if he sensed that, he made no attempts to touch her or speak to her as they worked the rest of their shift. In fact, it wasn’t until they were almost on pack territory in the SUV that he reached across and placed his hand on her thigh. By that point, she had calmed down enough not to shake him off, especially since she could feel how mad he was at himself.

“You know I wasn’t talking about your wolf.”

“Really?” she drawled with skepticism heavy in her voice.

“I admit that my choice of words was bad and the whole thing came out wrong, but I do not think your wolf is beyond help.”

Although she sensed that he was speaking the truth, it didn’t improve Jaime’s mood much.

“This isn’t just about what you said. Yeah, what you said hurt. But it’s more than that. Since the very beginning, it’s been me who’s been giving all the support in this relationship. You lap it up, but whenever I need you to back up me on something, you don’t.”

“You wanted me to support you approaching a clearly dangerous dog?” She could see that he was genuinely missing the point. If he had been anyone else, she would have mistaken his response for pure ignorance. But it was like he once told her: he’d been on his own for so long that sometimes he could be self-centered without even realizing it. “I expected, no matter how much your instincts were telling you to protect me, for you to acknowledge and appreciate that I was doing my job.”

He didn’t respond until they were through the perimeter gate of pack territory. “You were putting yourself at risk, and that’s not acceptable to me.” In a mockingly sweet voice, she said, “I’m sorry. After all, your job isn’t at all dangerous, so I have no right to expect you to let me do mine without trying to hold me back and get in my way.”

“That’s different.”

“Why? Because it’s you?”

“Yes. No.” It was more yes than no, if he was honest with himself. Not that he was in any rush to tell Jaime that, though he suspected she already knew through their bond. Sometimes that link was a pain in his ass. “You have no sense of self-preservation, so is it really any wonder that I try to protect you?”

“But you didn’t try to protect me today. You tried to dominate me into doing what you wanted.

How is that fair? For a minute there, you were Beta, and I was just a packmate. Not Beta female, not your mate, just another pack member to whom you give orders.” His expression told her that now he got her point.

“That wasn’t what I was doing.” But it was. Maybe he hadn’t meant to undermine her and her ability to take care of herself, but he had. If she had gone all Beta female on his ass and tried to use that authority to boss him around or crush his opinions, it would have sincerely pissed him off. Unless it happened in the bedroom.

When he parked the car in the lot, Jaime turned to him. “Look, I know that this whole overprotectiveness thing is part of who you are and is so much worse now that we’re newly mated, but you can’t try to dominate me into doing what you want.”

“I’m sorry, okay.” He reached out and cupped her nape, rubbing it soothingly. “I believe we both agreed that I was going to fuck up a lot.” Pulling her to him, he gently meshed his lips with hers, relieved when she didn’t tense. “But I can’t apologize for wanting to protect you. I’ll always want to do that, and I’ll always try to, even when you don’t need me to.” Sighing, she relaxed into him. “I know. But I’ll still get pissy with you every time.”

“That’s okay. You’re hot when you’re mad.”

Growling, she shoved him away, ignoring his laugh, and hopped out of the SUV. He was at her side before she could progress more than three steps. Then, still laughing, he was kissing her, curling his arms around her. When she playfully struggled, he caged her wrists with his hands and backed her into the SUV, pinning her hands above her head. His cocky