Page 3 of Sass Me Again

Shit! Ian thought. “You’ve got to calm down. You heard Jenn. She’s going to be at the Annual Convergence. We’ll make our move then. Not in the middle of a damn restaurant,” he said, warning his wolf.

“Fine!” his wolf huffed.

Closing his eyes, Ian sucked in a deep breath to calm his racing heart. He gave his wolf a minute to collect himself and calm the hell down. When he felt his hands shift back to his normal human hands, he opened his eyes and faced his slightly amused friends.

“You good now?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. I’m good.” Ian picked up his burger and took a huge bite. It took all of his willpower to keep his eyes focused on his friends and off Emily.

“Did I hear Jenn right? Did she invite Emily to the Convergence?” Jon asked.

“Yep,” Ian replied. He’d been hoping none of them would have picked up on it, but they all had hearing just as good as his, and of course, they had been listening into the conversation. Just like he had been. Nosy fuckers.

“You better talk to—,” Jack said.

“I know. I’ll stop by after dinner and let them know what’s going on. Hopefully, they approve.” Ian didn’t have much hope that Marcus and Isabelle would allow these types of shenanigans. As far as he could remember, he had never once seen a human at the Annual Convergence. It was strictly for wolves. Hundreds of them piled into their community annually for this event, hoping to find their mates. Each year there were tons of matches made, and new wolves came every year with the same hopes of finding that one special person they were fated to be with. Hopefully, Rafe and Mina would work wonders and talk them into allowing it.

It was a huge event filled with lots of that magical whoop-de-do that all the females went all gaga over. To be fair, some of the males did too. Ian had fallen for all the magic and bullshit too until he met his mate and figured out there wasn’t a paranormal bone in her body…until…

“Either way, he was going to have to have a serious talk with Rafe and Mina and figure out a way to claim his mate once and for all.

Jenn stood and walked toward the restroom, leaving Emily alone at the table. Ian jumped to his feet, needing to find a way to interact with her. He had no idea what the fuck he was going to say, but he went anyway. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other until he found himself standing in front of her.

The smells and aromas from the restraint faded away as her scent came into focus. Fuck… it was one he would never forget. The smell of fresh flowers filled his nostrils and sent the blood rushing south to his cock until it pressed painfully against his zipper. The only thing he wanted in that moment was to pull Emily into his arms and kiss the fuck out of her until she forgot her own damn name.

“What are you doing here,” he growled, sounding harsher than he had intended.

“Ian!” Emily jumped, nearly out of her damn seat. She cleared her throat and turned to face him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Jenn invited me out.”

“I thought we were supposed to stay on our own sides of town. Remember you don’t cross the tracks and neither do I? Wasn’t that what we had agreed on?” he asked.

“Grow up, Ian. That was over ten years ago. Seriously, get over it already. I’ll go where I want. When I want. With whomever I want,” she clucked, not even bothering to look up at him.

“Fine, but don’t think this is the end of it.” He stomped away, back to his table. The caveman in him wanted to snag her up off her chair, toss her over his shoulder, and take her away somewhere they could be together to figure things out the sexy way.

3

Emily couldn’t get to her freaking car fast enough. The confrontation she’d had with Ian was enough to make her run for her safe side of town. She didn’t know what the actual hell she had been thinking by agreeing to cross the tracks to have dinner with Jennifer. She really should have known better. It was just her luck that he happened to pick the exact same spot for dinner with his friends as the one damn night in years that she had decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it.

Serves you right! She thought to herself as she reached into her purse for the key fob.

“Damn it! Where is it?” Emily placed her purse on the hood of her car and dug around. After a few minutes of frantic searching, she remembered that she had left it lying on the table in the restaurant.

“Looking for this?”

Emily spun on her heel as the familiar voice rang in her head.

Fuck! It had to be him!

Ian dangled her fob in his fingers.

“Why?” One word with so many different questions behind it.

“Because you left your keys on the table and I thought you might need them. Or because I needed to see you once more. Or maybe because I haven’t been able to get the thought of kissing you out of my mind all damn night.” Ian stepped closer, invading her personal space. His musky scent of wild male enveloped her, fogging her brain to a stupor.

Emily wanted nothing more than to snatch her fob from his fingers, hop in her car, and take off, getting the hell out of there. But she didn’t. She stood frozen—like a damn statue, waiting to see what would happen next.

His minty breath fanned across her face, his lips inching closer toward hers. All Emily had to do was lean in half of a damn inch and his mouth would be on hers. Goosebumps spread over her arms, making the tiny hairs stand on end.