“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.

“No more than a cup a day,” he stated.

Faith rolled her eyes. “If you aren’t going to take this seriously, Jacob, I’ll just carry the damned bag around my neck.”

He frowned. “A cup is more than you need.”

“And much less than I’ll actually be drinking. The least I intend to settle for is four pots before late afternoon, if we are in the house all day. So let’s go from there.”

His lips thinned. “Four pots? Faith, no wonder you never sleep. The caffeine alone will kill you.”

He looked so domineering that she wanted to chuckle. She kept her expression calm despite that need. If he saw a single weakness in her stance now it would all be over with.

“I never sleep because I’m too horny to sleep,” she assured him, going for the jugular now. “You take care of your duties as my mate, and perhaps the coffee problem will take care of itself along with it.”

Surprise froze his expression. “Not that I mind fucking you, baby, but I’m not your damned stud,” he bit out, his tone edging on furious.

How had she known he would react just like that, Faith wondered in amusement.

She shrugged. “It would appear to me that perhaps there is a problem there. But that’s beside the point. We’re talking coffee here, not sex.”

She watched his lips thin, his eyes darken. Not in fury, but in complete surprise. She would have laughed at the expression if she weren’t more concerned with watching the swirl of emotions that suddenly filled his gaze.

“You believe the problem is with me?” he asked her incredulously. “You think I don’t desire you?”

“Jacob, I don’t think it’s a matter of not desiring me, but a matter of keeping up with me. Coffee or no coffee, I just don’t think it can happen. I’ve tried doing without. It only gets worse,” she admitted with a shrug. “But we’re debating my coffee…”

“Faith, I could keep up with you any day of the week,” he growled in irritation. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“If I were trying, Jacob, then you would know it,” she promised him with a frown. “Can we get back to the coffee?”

Faith tried to ignore the sharp, bursting heat in her vagina as he faced her. Her entire body was warming, preparing itself for him. She could see the determination to master her filling his expression.

“Forget the damned coffee.” One hand swiped through the air as he watched her with an expression of male challenge. “I want to discuss the sex.”

She propped her hands on her hips. “Forget the sex, Jacob. I wanted sex the other night and you stomped away like a spoiled child. I don’t want the sex, I want the coffee.”

He paused, his eyes narrowing as he considered her intently.

“If you want the coffee, then you have to give out,” he informed her smugly. “It makes you hornier, remember?”

“And I’ve done without for six years, remember?” she reminded him sarcastically. “I’ll make it another six if I want to.”

Jacob frowned. He laid his hand on the coffee bag, but it was the bulge behind his zipper that made her mouth water.

“No sex, no coffee. That’s non-negotiable.” His expression settled into lines of male stubbornness.

Faith restrained her urge to laugh at him. Like she was about to turn down the sex.

“The sex is negotiable then?” she asked him, her head tilting as she considered him.

Jacob frowned, his eyes narrowed. “Do you have to negotiate everything, Faith?”

She snorted. “I haven’t negotiated near enough where you are concerned, Jacob. If I had, I wouldn’t have suffered with terminal horniness for the past six years. I get my coffee, you get the sex. No limits allowed. No crying foul if you can’t keep up.”

“How much coffee can you drink?” he asked her suspiciously.

Faith made certain her smile was innocent and non-threatening. “The question is, Jacob, how often can you fuck?”

* * * * *

How often could he fuck? As though he didn’t have the stamina to keep up with a woman who until the other night had been a virgin? Jacob watched Faith as she poured a cup of coffee in unconcern. She had her back turned to him, and that dress draped her ass perfectly. She turned back to him, cup in hand, watching him with that damned expression of curious interest. As though she expected him to doubt he could keep up with her. He almost snorted in disgust. He wanted to growl in frustration. He reminded himself to question Wolfe about the alternate personalities she seemed to be displaying. Temperamental minx one moment, a nympho on a mission the next. She would drive him insane.

He owed his Pack Leader a forceful “thank you” for not apprising him properly of what to expect. And Jacob had no doubt Wolfe knew. As though the sexual revelations hadn’t been enough to contend with, he was now forced to deal with an added aggressiveness from his once quiet, shy Faith that threw him completely off balance.

“You know, Faith, it occurs to me that in your role of negotiator and Liaison to the Pack, that perhaps you have come under the impression that you are somehow not limited by the same rules as the rest of us mortal beings.” He crossed his arms over his chest, glancing pointedly at the coffee cup.

Her delicate brows lowered in a frown. “How so?” She sipped the coffee, and Jacob restrained his urge to smile with smug satisfaction.

The caffeine was proven to heighten the arousal, the adrenaline during the female’s cycle of heat. The aggression and sexual longings could be tempered and controlled if she would listen to reason.

“You forget, mate. The males of our breed are naturally stronger, and highly sexed. I will have you pleading for mercy before you sleep tonight.” And he had no doubts, caffeine or not, that he could wear her down.

She was baiting him, he knew. Holding against him his ignorance of her condition for the past six years and her disappointment in his emotional responses, and she was determined to make him pay, one way or the other. Her amused belief that her arousal was greater than his ability to temper it made him more than determined to prove otherwise.

That was a smile she was hiding behind the cup that she raised to sip at. A deliberate, knowing smile that made the beast in him roar in outrage. He knew it was. Added with her smug assurance was the scent of her heat driving him crazy. That had to be the reason for his own unstable emotions right now. That was the only explanation for this asinine game he was allowing her to draw him into.

“According to you, you haven’t had any for six years, until the other night,” she challenged him. “It’s a proven fact that when men, even Breeds, do without for long periods, they have no control. And I think I read a man is good for only twice a night, and then only a few times a week. Those aren’t good averages.” She shrugged. “Perhaps ordering the vibrators in case you get tired would be a good idea.”

Oh, how innocent she looked as she baited him. As though she had no idea what such a challenge would do. As a Liaison, as a female breed, Jacob knew she well understood what she was doing. Or at least, she should. Could her innocence, her needs, be allowing her to overlook this fact?

He narrowed his eyes on her, trying to see past the sweet delicacy her expression revealed for any hidden motives she might have. When he saw nothing but her utter belief in her own words, he felt irritation flare inside him once again. He would definitely show her that he was more than capable of keeping up with any desires she might have.

“Finish the cup of coffee now.” He glared at her.

Faith froze. He liked that little glimmer of apprehension he suddenly saw in her eyes, the way every muscle in her body tensed, and the sweet fragrance of her arousal deepened.

“Excuse me?” She quirked a brow. It was a charming move, but his cock wasn’t in the mood to be charmed, and neither was he.

The prickling along his flesh was only growing worse. The sensitivity of his skin, the need to touch her, taste her, was driving him crazy. He had spent the night tossing and turning in his bed, denying himself, staying away from her, intent on protecting her. She needed love and happily-ever-afters, and in his world, they just didn’t exist. He wanted to be honorable; he wanted to protect her from the world he inhabited and in part, from himself. But he would be damned if he would deny himself any longer. She had come to him, that sweet ass flexing in front of him, her voice soft and husky, her need scenting the air around him.

And now, she had the utter temerity to challenge his manhood. Sweetness and innocence be damned. He would show her what it meant to be his mate, and if she didn’t like it, then the blame could rest on her, and no longer mire his soul in guilt.