The night sky was black velvet set with twinkling diamond-white stars. Baldwin and Naomi walked side by side beneath towering pines that swayed in the gentle breeze, and pine needles were laid in a fragrant carpet on the forest floor. Naomi felt as if a thousand butterflies were swarming in her stomach.
Baldwin wasn’t talking, so Naomi found herself chattering to fill the silence.
“Just so you know, I’m taking this walk with you because I made a promise to Jamie, not because I like you or anything,” she blurted out.
“You don’t like me?” Baldwin looked confused. “Everyone likes me. Why don’t you like me?”
Naomi wondered if that “everyone” included other women. Did other women like him, and in what way?
“I didn’t say that I didn’t like you,” she protested. “I just said that I didn’t take the walk because I… Actually I don’t know what I said. When I’m around you I get really nervous and I start talking a lot for no reason and I don’t know what to say next and I…” She trailed off, almost in tears.
Baldwin stopped walking, so she stopped too, and looked up at him. It was nice to look up at someone. Naomi always felt like an awkward giraffe, towering over most of the guys she knew.
“You don’t have to talk,” Baldwin said. “But I like it when you do.”
That was a new one. “You do? Why?”
“Because you make me smile,” Baldwin said. “You’re funny, and loyal, and a good person. I have all this weight on my shoulders, with my responsibility to the Alpha Prime and by extension the entire pack. And the entire region. When I’m with you, I’m just thinking about you, not about all the challenges we’re facing here.”
“Oh.” Naomi blushed. “I like you too.”
“I know,” Baldwin said, and he stooped and kissed her.
For a moment, everything else fell away. When Baldwin kissed Naomi, she wasn’t the nerdy awkward girl everybody couldn’t wait to get away from. She felt sexy and desired.
Her heart tripped in her chest as his lips, warm and firm, brushed against hers, and she opened her mouth on a dreamy sigh. Baldwin wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. His tongue slid against hers, sending delicious shivers down her spine as she ran her hands over his shoulders and curled her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.
He growled softly and nipped at her lower lip with his sharp teeth, and Naomi whimpered and pressed her mouth hard against his. His tongue flicked and stroked and his hand drifted upwards from her waist until his fingers were almost but not quite caressing the side of her breast.
Finally Baldwin pulled away, and Naomi stood there, breathless and dazed.
“Now,” he said, “I’m going to walk you back to the cabin. And sometime this week, you’re going to go out to dinner with me. And in the meantime, you know where my cabin is. I’m home every evening. I’d love it if you came to visit.”
And he grabbed her hand and folded his hand around it and didn’t say another word the whole way back. He didn’t have to.
Chapter Thirteen
Dakota made it through the first week of school without too much drama from the students, until Friday, when Purcell got up in the middle of a lesson and started to head for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dakota called, hurrying after him.
“There’s a death challenge. My dad’s going to fight Miles. He’s going to kill him, and I want to watch.” Purcell’s eyes gleamed with malice.
Dakota grabbed Purcell by the collar and lifted him several inches off the ground. He gasped in panic and flailed, his eyes turning amber and his fangs descending.
“Watch what you say about Miles,” she snapped. “And you have two choices. You can either stay here and start showing some respect, or you can walk out that door and not come back.”
She let go of his collar and he staggered back with a low, angry snarl.
“My daddy will get you for this,” he snapped at her, then stormed out of the schoolhouse, slamming the door behind him.
Miles won that challenge, just like he’d won all the others, then spent Friday night in wolf form, tearing through the woods on the outskirts of pack property. Dakota could feel the thick anger that roiled inside him, and it made her ache. Why wouldn’t he seek her out, if she made him feel better?
Tired and discouraged, she glanced at the room where the cubs were sleeping. Naomi was out for a walk with Baldwin, who’d showed up with a handful of wildflowers that could have been a dozen long-stemmed roses from the way they made Naomi smile.
Dakota tucked her week’s paycheck into the empty coffee can and put it back on the top shelf of the cupboard.
Saturday morning she woke up to find the cabin empty and a note left for her on the table. “Baldwin is taking me & the cubs to town to do some shopping, C U later.” Naomi had made a heart where the “A” in Baldwin went, and ended the note with a smiley face.