Page 57 of License to Kill

“Fine. I want food.”

“Conveniently, that’s what I settled with.”

While I wasn’t willing to call him an asshole quite yet, I spent a great deal of time thinking it.

My barren little apartment wasn’t large enough for two people, and Jake hated everything about it, from its location to its size and general lack of creature comforts. He didn’t say a word, but I noticed the way his cheek twitched, his eyes narrowed, and his body stiffened. Worst of all, every last one of his predictions turned out to be true. When I wasn’t taking a cold shower to stay awake long enough to eat, I maintained a dubious relationship with consciousness.

Jake made himself at home on my couch and worked on his phone, and when morning came, a large brown and gold wolf slept curled around my feet.

I was supposed to hate everything about him, but he warmed my feet, and he woke the sense of security I’d lost long ago. Being alone should have been my new reality, one without respite, but he trampled into my territory, fit himself onto my bed, and slept as though he belonged.

My traitor heart had missed his presence.

The rest of me feared what his presence represented, and to keep my traitor heart restrained, I kicked Jake awake. “My landlord doesn’t allow pets in the building.”

He bared his teeth at me. Scowling, I thumped my foot into his shoulder. It wasn’t until I got up and took my morning shower that he changed back to human, and I found him on my couch wearing a pair of jeans and a smile.

I’d been right. He’d maintained his prime health, and he’d been doing some work on his chest and arms. His abs would attract every woman in the state if someone took a picture of him with his shirt off.

Before we’d fallen apart, I’d been secretively gleeful that his chest and those abs had been mine.

“Your bare chest isn’t going to win you anything,” I grumbled, heading to the kitchenette in an effort to ignore my unfair reaction to him showing off a little skin.

“My nose tells me otherwise.”

I hated wolves and their ultra-sensitive noses. “I’d break like a twig right now anyway.”

“I’m sure I could come up with something.”

I bet he could, too, which wasn’t helping me ignore his presence in my apartment. “As there is no us, there is no us in bed, either. When are you going to leave?”

“We only have the Hemshaw case in the works; we’re functioning as a backup team. And honestly? Our marital status will put a kink in things, so we’ll be yanked off the case and another team will take over. I’m filling in as an auxiliary special agent at the moment. Mom and Dad are doing their usual but filling in with CARD as needed. I bounce between CARD and HRT, although I’ve done some work with violent crimes, too. I haven’t enjoyed my work without you there with me.”

“Well, you should have thought about the consequences of benching me in all elements of your life. More importantly, that didn’t answer my question.”

Jake smirked, and I clacked my teeth so I wouldn’t chitter at the asshole for testing my patience.

“Jake,” I warned.

Rather than being properly intimidated by my annoyance, he kept on with his damned smug smile. “Okay. You’re right. It didn’t. I’m not leaving until you’re better. This is not up for negotiation.”

Damn it. When Jake gave an open-ended answer left to his interpretation, ‘never’ was likely an accurate assumption. “I’m not allowed to have pets in the apartment.”

“I’ll bribe your sleaze bag landlord to look the other way for a while.”

“I’m not supposed to have anyone in here with me, either. Especially brutish men.”

“Bribes go a long way. I’m hardly brutish.”

“You’re a giant. You have not lost any height. You’re a brutish man, and my landlord is not a sleaze bag. She’s just cheap.”

“Sources tell me otherwise.”

I frowned, crossed my arms over my chest, and glowered at him. “I’ve had no trouble.”

“You’ve only had no trouble because you haven’t needed anything, you know your way around a wrench and home renovations, and you’re on the top floor of the building. Heat rises. Otherwise, you’d freeze during the winter.”

To keep from chittering or otherwise growling at him, I checked my refrigerator in the off-chance food had magically teleported its way inside. The interior resembled a barren wasteland, and I drummed my hand on the door, wondering how I could turn some cream and butter into something edible. “That factored into picking this apartment.”