“How about your room for our private discussion?” He suggests.
“Oh hell no! I am not a slut. What do you take me for?” I snap back.
He groans, his patience clearly wearing thin. “I knew I shouldn’t have believed you.” He reaches for me again, but I step back quickly, hands raised in surrender.
“How about the bar!” I blurt out. “Buy me a drink, and I’ll listen.”
This big ass shifter stares me down, leaving me flustered and... turned on? How long have I waited for a man—a big, sexy man—to just walk into my life and manhandle me like he was built for it?
Goddamn. I swipe a bead of sweat from my forehead, hoping I’m not messing up my makeup.
A smirk creeps across his face. He leans in again, inhaling deeply near my skin. When he pulls back, his eyes have darkened.
“Honey paired with your arousal,” he murmurs, licking his lips before gesturing in the direction of the ship’s bar. “Lead the way, pretty Jackie.”
I cringe, mortified that he can smell my attraction. A blush heats my cheeks as I turn quickly and start power-walking down the deck, the ship’s gentle rocking beneath my feet doing nothing to steady my racing heart.
I feel his eyes on my ass the entire way, and I’m not sure whether to be mortified or turned on even more.
7
JABARI
Jackie leads the way into the bar area, occasionally looking back at me with those enchanting eyes. The bar is surprisingly empty—just a human bartender polishing glasses behind the counter and a couple of passengers at a far table.
She felt so damn good in my arms earlier, even if it was just for that brief moment when I had her over my shoulder. The scent of her, the way she squirmed slightly before I had to put her down—it was everything to me.
Jackie glances back at me again, her sweet face warming with a blush I can sense even from a few feet away. The confidence in the way she moves draws my eyes to her curves, the way her swimsuit hugs her hips and her skirt flows softly around her thighs with each step. There’s an easy rhythm to her movements—effortlessly graceful and quietly captivating.
We approach the bar counter, and the bartender shoots me a strange look before his expression shifts into a practiced smile for Jackie. He’s human, and a frown forms on my face, sharp enough to make the man clear his throat nervously.
“What can I get you, ma’am?” he asks Jackie, deliberately avoiding my gaze.
She looks to me, eyebrows raised in question, and I realize she’s expecting me to pay for her drink. I stuff my hands into my pockets, pull out a stack of cash, and hand it to her.
“Here, for your drink,” I say.
Jackie laughs, the sound musical and genuine. “I don’t need that much,” she says, but I keep holding out the money until she sighs, reaching out to delicately pluck a single bill from the stack with careful fingers.
“I’ll have a sweet tea with lemon, three sugars,” she tells the bartender, who smiles and takes the bill.
He glances at me, swallowing visibly. “I’ll get you a water.”
“A water?” Jackie furrows her brow, turning to me with curiosity in her eyes.
“Shifters only drink water,” I explain, watching how her lips part slightly in surprise.
“Oh...” she says, tilting her head slightly.
“How much do you know about the lore of Wintermoon?” I ask, but my question fades into the background as the bartender places her glass in front of her and hands her a straw.
I’m completely distracted by the way she pulls the straw from its paper wrapping, her fingers moving without fuss. She dips it into her glass, stirs it once, then brings it to her lips. Is it even possible to be jealous of a straw? Because right now, I am. Her lips close around it, and I have to force myself to look away.
Jackie giggles when she notices me staring. She puts the glass down and looks around the bar. “Can we sit at a booth or something?”
“Y-yes,” I stumble over the simple word. “Of course we can.”
The bartender puts a pitcher of water on the counter, and I grab it, gulping it down in a few long swallows, desperate to cool the heat building inside me.
