“All right! I’m sorry,” Dominic said, leaning against the sink. “I know, I can be kind of defensive. Ask me something. One question. I’ll answer, whatever it is.”
She sat back down. Only one question? There were so many things she wanted to know about him. “Why did you decide to get bitten by a warrior class wolf? What made it worth the risk?” she blurted out, then bit her lip. There were a million other things she could have asked.
His gaze took on a faraway look. “What risk? I didn’t have anyone who’d miss me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. Perhaps she had asked the right question after all. That gave her surprising insight into his life, but raised a million more questions.
“No reason to be.” He grabbed a bottle from the wine rack on the kitchen counter. As he poured, the phone rang with her mother’s ring tone. She quickly silenced it.
He snapped to attention. “Who’s that?”
“Nobody.”
He set down a glass of wine on the table. “Nobody, like some guy who wants to take you out on a date?” His voice went dark and dangerous.
“It’s my mom, okay?” she said, exasperated. “Nobody wants to take me out on a date. Except some crazy wolf who won’t take no for an answer and who expects me to marry him without knowing a damned thing about him!”
“If it’s your mom, why wouldn’t you answer?”
The phone started ringing again, and he lunged for it. She shoved it down the front of her dress. He threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“Oh, Zoey, of all the places for you to hide it…thank you for that.”
She stood up and leaped back, but he was on her in a flash, pinning her up against the wall. When the phone rang again, he grabbed the front of her dress and ripped it open as easily as if it were wet tissue paper. Before she could stop him, he had the phone in his hands – and he answered.
“Hello, Zoey’s mother? Lucinda, is that right?”
She didn’t even have more than a micro-second to freak out about the fact that he knew her mother’s name –because he was talking to her mother!
“Who is this?” she heard her mother’s voice. She lunged for the phone, but he danced back, holding it tauntingly over his head. Then he whirled around, his back to her, and said, “Oh, Zoey didn’t tell you about me? My name is Dominic Lombardi.”
“I need to talk to Zoey, please. I’ve been trying to reach her and she hasn’t answered.” Her mother sounded irritated and worried. Damn it. That was last thing Zoey needed.
“Of course, ma’am, just one minute and I’ll get her.” Oh, ma’am, was it now? Suddenly he was mister polite, respectful, choirboy.
He covered the phone with his hand.
“What will you give me not to tell her I mate-bit your ass?” he whispered.
“I won’t kill you!” she hissed furiously.
A chortle rumbled up from deep inside. “Yeah, that’s kind of a given. So? What do I get?”
“You bastard!” She grabbed at the phone, and he danced back out of her reach again.
“Zoey?” her mother called out.
“One kiss!” she whispered desperately.
And he smiled in triumph and handed her the phone. She was so going to murder him. He was going to be very, very dead.
“Mother!” she said brightly. “I’m fine!”
“Why weren’t you answering the phone? I was worried!”
“I was in the restroom.”
“Are you on a date? Who is that man?”
