She stretched and said, “Good. Time for bed.”

“You slept already,” Nathan said. “Did you want to decorate the tree now?”

“Tomorrow,” she said, sounding really dragged out. After the run they’d had all night, they were exhausted.

She reached for her car door, but Nathan bolted out of the car to get it for her.

She smiled at him as Bjornolf grabbed the bags of Christmas ornaments. He’d go along with whatever Anna decided as far as decorating the tree went. Then he was taking her to bed.

She patted Nathan on the shoulder. “We’ll do it tomorrow after we’ve had a good night’s sleep. I’ll enjoy it more then,” she said.

Nathan’s expression brightened.

“I bought eggnog just for the occasion,” Bjornolf said.

“With rum,” Nathan said, grinning.

“Only for the adults.” Bjornolf got the front door for Anna.

Somehow Nathan shot through the door ahead of them and headed for the bedroom. Before Bjornolf had shut and locked the front door, Nathan had grabbed Bjornolf’s bags and was hauling them toward the master bedroom.

“Guess it’s decided.” Bjornolf slipped his hand around Anna’s.

She snorted. “When a teen makes decisions of that magnitude for the adults, we’ve got a problem.”

“I see no problem at all.”

Anna looked at him. “I don’t even know which side of the bed you sleep on.”

“There’s only one side of the bed for me to sleep on. Your side.”

She shook her head. “You think you are one hot stud of a SEAL.”

“I am—where you’re concerned. But only where you’re concerned.”

“Night,” Nathan quickly said, not even looking at them as he dashed into the guest bedroom and shut his door with a thunk. The lock snicked home.

And that decided that.

***

Anna led Bjornolf into the kitchen, asking, “Have you got any brandy?” She wasn’t sure what he had in mind, despite his sexy innuendos. But she couldn’t just go to bed with him. Not yet.

She’d tried to sleep in the car on the brief ride home. Despite being tired from running all through the night and part of the day as a wolf, she wasn’t able to sleep. She couldn’t quit thinking about the way Bjornolf had slid his large hands down her panties and cupped her naked ass. How he kissed the swell of her breasts, and the way he pressed his erection against her belly, taunting her with just how much he wanted her.

The thing of it was, wolves didn’t show this kind of interest in one another unless they were really interested in something permanent. They were genetically engineered that way—mating for life with life spans that outlasted humans.

She tried to ignore the growing craving she had for him. At the back of her mind, the thought plagued her that he was just teasing and not really wanting her. She also worried that if she ever had a mate and had children, she would be as rotten a mother to them as her own had been with her.

Bjornolf poured them both glasses of peach brandy, handed her one, then carried his and the bottle to the living room as he followed her.

“First, we have to have a fire.” He reached for a matchbox, and she realized tinder and wood were already stacked on the hearth and ready to go.

“We’re going to bed,” she reminded him, “or I’m bound to fall asleep on the couch.”

“I’ll carry you to bed. Fire first.”

“You were sure I’d agree with this plan of Hunter’s? That I’d stay with you and Nathan?”

Bjornolf lit the tinder and turned to face her. He had the most devilish look in his expression. “He knows how to pick the right people for a mission. You couldn’t have been more perfect, Anna.”

Perfect for the mission? Or for Bjornolf?

“Nathan and I will put out the outdoor lights together tomorrow. He has the next couple of days free from work, Hunter said.”

“Yes!” Nathan said from the bedroom, and she could envision him pumping his fist in victory. She also realized he was listening to every word they said. Reminder to self—don’t let things get too heated.

“Go… to… sleep, Nathan,” Bjornolf said, his words a strict command.

“Nearly there,” Nathan said, trying to sound like he was drifting off.

Bjornolf smiled at Anna. His sexy I-want-you expression, with his brows raised and his darkened eyes, told her that the bedroom wasn’t going to be used just for sleeping tonight.

She frowned at him and said in a hushed voice, “We can’t do this with him in the house.”

His smile broadened and he looked like one satisfied wolf—just by getting her agreement, in part. “Yeah we can. Parents do it all the time.”

Her mouth dropped open, then she clamped it shut. She wanted to say they weren’t his parents, that she’d never been around a teen in a situation like this, but she held her tongue.

They decided to get down to business and put the lights on the tree. A warm fire glowed in the fireplace as Bjornolf helped Anna spread out the strands of lights, then began draping them around the spruce like she’d done with the garland.

When they finished and stepped back to see if they covered the tree fairly uniformly, he plugged the lights in and they admired the sparkly blue spruce.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, her arms wrapped around her chest, the lights sparkling off her dark eyes.

“Even more so when we put the ornaments on it tomorrow,” Bjornolf said, but he was thinking how beautiful Anna looked standing before the tree, picture perfect for Christmas. Feeling tired all of a sudden, he wanted to take her to bed now, but he didn’t want to push her too fast. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

She turned to look at him, studying his sincerity. “I’d fall asleep. Besides, I’m afraid we’ll keep Nathan up.”

They both looked back at the guest room door, expecting Nathan to say something, figuring he was dying to but was feigning sleep.

“I agree. He’s got to get his sleep.”

“We do, too,” Anna remarked as Bjornolf banked the fire. She turned off the Christmas tree lights, plunging them into darkness.

Bjornolf grasped her hand and moved her toward the hall. “We will.” He had no intention of sleeping with her. Certainly not right away.

Unless Anna had other notions. Her unpredictability was one of the things that drew him to her. He envisioned she’d start ripping off his clothes as soon as they shut the door to the master bedroom.

Now that scenario he could deal with in a heartbeat.

Chapter 14

Anna couldn’t help being nervous about what she and Bjornolf were going to do next. She thought he was the right one for her, but was she the right one for him? He didn’t know what he was getting into when he took her on. She was always trying to prove herself with the guys. Maybe because she’d tried so hard to prove her worth to her parents, and they never had seemed to think her worthy of their attention. Ever.

He closed the door to the bedroom and watched her as she took a seat on the end of the bed.

“We’re not going to just sleep, are we?” she asked.

He shook his head, but he didn’t take a step closer, as if letting her get her bearings first. “We’re going to do it, Anna,” he said matter-of-factly. “Tonight, tomorrow, sometime soon. Sooner, I hope, than later. But we’re going to do it.”

“Because?” she asked.

He moved across the floor like a stealthy wolf, and her heartbeat quickened. She didn’t feel the fight-or-flight feeling she had the last time he was with her in a room like this. She wondered how she was going to prove to him that her moves were just as hot and sexy as his.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked.

“Yeah. I am.” Bjornolf pulled Anna from the bed. “We’ll make one helluva killer team.”

A killer team. She smiled. That decided it.

Bjornolf saw the sudden change in her mood. She was shifting from being unsure of where this was going… to—“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”

Once it was decided, there was no going back. He’d planned to talk with her first, but screw that. They’d talk to each other for the rest of their very long mated lives. Now was the time for action.

Neither of them were willing to go slowly. As she tried to pull off his gray sweatshirt, he was sliding his hands under the soft sweater she wore, wanting to feel her breasts confined in that sexy, black, lacy push-up bra. Then he wanted to free them. She was hampering his progress as she pulled the sweatshirt up his chest, exposing him, but he wasn’t letting go of her sumptuous breasts.

She growled at him—actually growled! Then she leaned over and licked his nipple and pulled on it with a tender nibble. He should have known she’d try to take charge of the situation. He released her breasts, yanked the sweatshirt over his head, and tossed it to the floor.

He had planned to pull off her sweater next, but she slipped her leg behind his. Before he realized what she was up to, she grabbed his shoulders and pushed. The oldest trick in the book and he’d fallen for it—literally. He fell flat on his back with an oof, landing on top of his field pack full of clothes, which softened the drop.

She didn’t miss a moment to straddle his hips, yanking off her ponytail holder, then her sweater, and tossing them both aside. The gleam in her wickedly happy expression said she loved being on top. Not just for sexual play, but that she needed this because of their last encounter where he’d gotten the best of her.

He slid his hands over her thighs, knowing he could easily flip her onto her back and straddle her, but he wanted this to be her show. Unless she needed more sparring to make her feel like a worthy opponent. Whatever Anna wanted, Bjornolf had every intention of giving it to her.

He smiled at her, letting her know he was ready to play some more.

She leaned down and licked his other nipple, her lace-covered breasts rubbing his chest, as she moved her jeans-clad mons over his hard-as-steel erection. To think they’d delayed consummating their relationship for this long… What a waste of precious time. They’d have to make up for it.