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“You’re a grouch in the mornings,” she informed him as she turned the stove on and dug around for a decent skillet. “Are you always like this, or just put out with me?”
“You are unreasonable,” he growled.
“So you’ve said before. ” She rolled her eyes as she turned from him. “Maybe you’re the one who’s unreasonable and you just don’t realize it. ”
That made better sense to her. She didn’t consider it unreasonable to want the heart of the man who had taken her as his mate. Nature and chemical reactions be damned. She had loved Jacob since she was a child, and she was tired of sitting back and waiting on him to decide it was time for him to love her back. He could get as grumpy as he wanted to.
She needed to be fucked, but she needed love too. If she couldn’t have his love, then his cock was next to useless to her. Well, almost next to useless. She was in heat, after all.
“I am never unreasonable,” he assured her arrogantly. “I’m an Enforcer, Faith. I was trained to be logical at all times. To be prepared. An unreasonable Enforcer is a dead one. ”
She turned back to him, her eyes narrowing. She walked over cautiously, staring at him, ignoring his frown as she bent close.
“You really look alive, Jacob,” she assured him. “Perhaps you’re one of those anomalies we keep hearing about. You know, the Breeds that could be more human than Breed. Or in your case, more alive than dead, despite your flashes of unreasonable behavior. ”
She jumped back with a laugh before he grabbed hold of her. His eyes had darkened dangerously, the muscle at his jaw tensing in anger or in arousal, she wasn’t certain.
Her body was burning for him, but for once, there was no fury springing from it, no anger at his overbearing attitude or at the years he had spent away from her. She was determined there would be no more separations though. She would achieve her needs during this time she had with him, or she would break from him forever.
She frowned, wondering if it were possible to become un-mated. It wasn’t like marriage or a contract. The chemical and psychological bonds were a mystery to scientists and Breeds alike. There had been no record so far of any pair becoming separated after the complete physical mating had occurred.
“What’s wrong with you this morning?” He was almost snarling as she hummed while placing steaks and eggs in separate plates long minutes later and placing light, fluffy biscuits in a large bowl.
She set his plate in front of him, refilled both their coffee cups and took her own seat.
“Should something be wrong with me?” she asked him, frowning. “Sounds more like something’s wrong with you. ”
“You’ve been a shrew for two days straight, done everything but invite the Council to target you in that damned bar, and now you act like Miss Mary Sunshine cooking breakfast and playing mate. You need to be consistent, Faith. All this jumping around is driving me crazy. ”
He cut into his steak with a quick, vicious swipe of his knife. Faith hid her smile and did her best to appear innocent. She wasn’t about to let him know that he was in for the ride of his life if he considered her erratic to this point. The best way to beat a damned alpha male was by confusing him. Hope had assured her of that. According to her, Wolfe was still more than uncertain about how to handle her. And he had easily admitted he loved Hope.
As she ate her breakfast, she fought the despondency that wanted to weigh her down. This was her last chance, and she knew it. If he walked away from her again, she didn’t know if she would survive the pain.
Breakfast was finished in relative silence. After clearing off the table and stacking the dishes in the dishwasher, Faith put on another pot of coffee, then went into the living room where she had placed her briefcase after finding it stacked by the fake coffee Hawke thought he was fooling her with.
He had returned the motorcycle as promised the day before, and dropped off the supplies Faith had ordered. A case of beer, and what he was trying to pass off as a can of coffee. Like she didn’t know decaf from the real stuff, she snorted.
As she re-entered the kitchen, briefcase and cell phone in hand, she caught Jacob sneaking the bag of coffee beans from the pantry. He froze as she stopped, watching him with narrow-eyed intent.
“Jacob. ” She sat her briefcase on the floor and crossed her arms over her breasts as she sighed in resignation. “What would it take to get you to leave my coffee and my beer alone?”
His lips thinned, his eyes narrowing on her. She had the impression he was clinging desperately to some misplaced idea that he could actually control her.
“It’s too hard on you. The tests prove it. ” He narrowed his eyes on her. “Until you come out of heat, you need to abstain from the coffee. ”
“It’s not going to happen,” she assured him coolly. “So let’s negotiate here. You promise not to bother my coffee in exchange for what?”
Chapter Seventeen
She watched him pause. He stilled, just like that, his eyes trained on her in a way that made her pulse leap in heated warning.
“Negotiations. ” He set the bag of coffee beans on the table between them. “I can handle that. ”
“Hm, I bet you can,” she murmured. “So state your demands and let’s get on with it. ”
There hadn’t been an Enforcer yet that could out-negotiate her. Even Wolfe had to struggle to do so.
Jacob watched her carefully, suspiciously.
