Craig couldn’t have stopped himself even if he wanted to. There was something about this woman’s scent that drew him like no other ever had. He inhaled again to take more in, and he felt her entire body go rigid against him.
“Um, excuse me!” She pushed him away, confusion on her face. “A little personal space, buddy. You can’t just go around smelling strangers, you know.”
“I believe I just did.” He had to stifle a smile as her gaze narrowed, her irritation ramping up. Craig had to admit he was being a bit of a bastard, teasing her like this, but for some reason, he just couldn’t help himself.
Her green eyes flashed with anger, and he noticed the liberal spattering of freckles along her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. With her anger came a fresh flush of blood under her skin, which only caused another wave of her delicious scent to waft in his direction.
Peaches and ginger. His wolf wanted to bury himself in it. Whoever this woman was, he was now fully invested in getting to know her better. After over three months of living in Hillard, this feisty blonde was the first female his beast had even remotely reacted to, so he’d better turn on the charm to try to fix what his instincts had already damaged. He could scent that she was mostly human? Wasn’t that interesting.
“My apologies, darlin’.” He smiled, and her blush grew even deeper, “I’m not sure what came over me. Your perfume is incredible.”
“I’m—I’m not wearing perfume.” Her answer was quiet, and she appeared uncomfortable with his flirting. “And I’m a married woman.”
That news stunned him just enough to allow her to dart around him and make her way over to the booth Bennett and his new little gal were sitting at. Married? He saw the ring on the hand she’d held up, but there was absolutely no male’s scent anywhere on her. So, she was either lying, or she hadn’t seen her husband in some time.
Don’t care. Mate.
His wolf’s thoughts on the subject were quite cut-and-dried, and Craig had to agree with him on this. The curvy little blonde would be seeing him again.
****
“Well, that was interesting. I was still a little confused and a whole lot irritated as I sat down next to my sister.
“What was?” Ellie asked as she absently admired the ass of her boyfriend who was now talking to a couple of men over at the bar.
“When I came out of the bathroom, I accidentally bumped into some guy—and he smelled me.” I realized as the words came out of my mouth that it sounded much more benign than it had felt at the time, and my sister’s smirk would indicate she agreed.
“He smelled you, huh?” Ellie gasped in mock outrage. “The audacity!”
“It was creepy—I think, definitely weird anyway. If you’d have been there, you’d agree.” I couldn’t help but laugh, and I grabbed the stir stick discarded on the table and chucked it at my sister.
“You as*hole. It was a bar, I’m an attractive woman, and you’re going to get hit on sometimes,” Ellie sighed. “But there was something...different about this guy.”
I felt a pang of hurt go through me. If only I’d had the guts to tell Ellie over the phone that my marriage to my high school sweetheart was just a few signatures away from being over. I knew my sister would understand, but more than once Ellie had questioned whether or not I was truly happy, and I had always taken offense. We had been comfortable. My husband, Peter, had been my best friend and partner for my entire adult life.
It was only the last five years when I started to hint about starting our family that Peter began to pull away, and it eventually started to open my eyes to the fact that perhaps our partnership wasn’t what either of us had dreamed of when we met as starry-eyed teenagers.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “That’s something I need to talk to you about.”
This brought my sister up straight. “What? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to get into it here, we’ll talk about it tomorrow,” I answered just as the waitress arrived with several plates of appetizers and drinks. “Right now, all I want to do is stuff my face full of wings.”
“Okay.” Ellie gave me a look. “But as soon as you have a coffee in your hand tomorrow morning, I expect a thorough update, sis.”
“Deal.”
“Oh, and who was the guy?”
“What guy?” Ellie asked, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
“The aggressive sniffer?”
“Oh!” I laughed. “Let me see…” I scanned the bar as Bennett returned and slipped into the booth next to Ellie.
“Oooh, wings,” he said as he noticed my gaze searching the crowd, “What are we looking for? Did Sally forget the dip?”
“No, I was going to point out the guy who was sniffing me as I left the bathroom,” Ellie answered.
“Sniffing?” Bennett’s interest seemed piqued at that information.
“See, he thinks it’s weird too,” I mumbled just before I found the blue and gray of his flannel shirt over by the pool table. “There! He’s over by the pool table, in the blue flannel.”
Both Ellie and Bennett turned to look and had completely different reactions. Ellie issued an appreciative low whistle, and Bennett choked on his hot wing.
