“Selena?” He stopped where he was, mesmerized by the sight of her. “What are you doing here?”
“I never got a chance to thank you for saving my life yesterday,” she said. “I didn’t even get to properly introduce myself, though it seems you already know my name.”
There was a primal part of him that wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her until neither of them could breathe. The urge was so strong, he had to ball his hands into fists at his sides to keep from giving in.
“My commander told me your name before I went into the school to rescue you,” he said as he unclenched his fist in time to shake the hand she offered. Her hand was small in his, her skin warm and soft against his rough palm, and he didn’t want to let it go. “Since you’re here, I guess that means you already know my name, too. Doesn’t mean we can’t do this right, though. Jayden Brooks.”
She gave him a smile that made his knees weak. “Selena Rosa. I’d really like to thank you for saving my life.”
He leaned closer so he could inhale more of her intoxicating scent. He wasn’t sure how it was possible, but she smelled even better than she had yesterday. Then, there’d been fruity flowers. Today, there was a hint of spice thrown in. The scent was like nothing he’d ever smelled before, yet familiar at the same time. He thought at first she was simply wearing a different perfume, but when he took a deeper breath, he knew that wasn’t it. He was smelling her pheromones, and his inner wolf was getting drunk on them.
He forced himself to release her hand so she wouldn’t think he was a weirdo. “Don’t think I’m complaining when I say this, but you didn’t have to come all the way out here to thank me. You could have just called.”
Selena’s dark eyes danced as she held up one finger. “Hold that thought.”
Brooks’s wolf half wanted to chase her the moment she turned and hurried into the bullpen, and it was all he could do to stay where he was. Selena came out a moment later, an enormous aluminum foil pan in her hands. He thought he smelled chocolate, but he couldn’t be sure, since his nose was still filled with her scent.
“If I hadn’t come in person, how would I have brought these?” she asked.
Grinning, she held out the pan. Brooks glanced down at the thick, gooey brownies inside. Selena might look and smell even better than the chocolate goodness she’d brought, but Brooks never turned his nose up at food. She was damn near overwhelming, but brownies were brownies.
And now he had an image of Selena lying naked on a bed with pieces of brownies scattered all over, from those perfect breasts to the juncture of her thighs. He immediately went hard at the thought.
In an attempt to push the mind-numbing vision out of his head, Brooks took one of the brownies—cut adult-sized, not those little kid-sized snack squares you had to eat half a dozen of—and took a bite.
“Wow,” he moaned as it melted in his mouth. He’d eaten a lot of brownies in his life, but these were on a whole different level. If he weren’t in polite company, he would have shoved the whole thing in his mouth at once. “This is amazing.”
Selena laughed, tilting her head back so she could look up at him. It struck him then how petite she really was. She barely reached his shoulder. “I’m glad you like it. I would have made something special, but I thought it was more important to give you a gift of my gratitude now rather than wait until I could run to the store and grab all the stuff I needed.”
“Special?” he mumbled as he took another bite. “These seem pretty special to me.”
She waved her hand. “These are nothing. I just threw them together at the last minute because I wanted to make sure I got here before you went home.”
Brooks didn’t know what to say to that. Not that he could have said much anyway, his mouth was so full. If this was an example of what Selena could throw together at the last minute, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like when she took her time. Instant foodgasm, maybe?
His head went straight to thoughts of brownies, orgasms, and Selena all at the same time, and he hardened in his uniform pants.Shit.He needed to get his act together before he started humping her leg right there.
He ate the rest of the brownie, then started to lick his fingers before stopping himself. He gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry. I usually don’t inhale food like that. But that was seriously the best brownie I’ve ever eaten.”
Selena laughed again. “No apology necessary. I never mind watching a man enjoy himself.”
Brooks was considering whether to lick the rest of his fingers clean when the innuendo in her words suddenly dawned on him. He looked up sharply, only to see her regarding him with a sweet, if amused, expression, as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Then he caught a glint in her eyes—a lightning-quick flash of coyness—that had him closing the few feet of distance between them. He truthfully had no idea what he was going to do once he got there, but he’d figure it out.
“So, are you going to share any of those brownies with the rest of us or just hog them all for yourself?”
Brooks stopped in midstep to find packmate and fellow SWAT officer Landry Cooper leaning casually against the doorjamb of the bullpen, a grin on his face that implied he knew exactly what the hell he’d interrupted. No shock there. Every werewolf in the building had no doubt heard him and Selena talking. Smelled them, too, which was a disconcerting thought, since Brooks had no doubt he was putting off buckets of arousal pheromones right then.
Of course, Cooper was the only one irritating enough to actually stick his nose in.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Brooks said, giving Cooper a grin. “Selena only brought enough for me. Too bad, because they’re really good.”
Cooper opened his mouth to reply, but Selena interrupted him with a laugh.
“Of course, there are enough to share.” She gave Brooks a reproving look. “You’d get sick if you tried to eat all these brownies.”
Brooks wanted to complain, but it wasn’t like he could point out that a werewolf could eat anything and everything they wanted without it ever affecting them. Instead, he had no choice but to stand there and watch as Selena took out a brownie, then handed the pan to Cooper.
“Could you make sure the other SWAT officers who were at the school get some of these?” she asked Cooper. “I want to let them know how much I appreciate what they did, too.”
