Page 28 of Bad Blood Wolf

“Is that what you did too? For work, I mean?” Brody had smoothed out all the tangles, and now he was brushing her hair in long strokes. It was soothing. She could see why his mom had liked it.

“Hell, no,” Jasmin said. Like she’d want to be anything like her dad. “I was a professional chef.”

Brody stopped brushing. “For real? That’s almost as cool as crocodile hunting. Did you wear a white coat and make unpronounceable dishes with squiggly garnishes for hipsters to ooh and aah over? And did you salute and say ‘yes, Chef!’ to some screaming tyrant, like on TV?”

“All of the above,” she said. “In a very fancy hipster restaurant in St. Louis. Except I was the screaming tyrant and everyone saluted me. It was awesome. Yelling at the crew when they mince instead of dice isn’t nearly as satisfying.”

She heard the grin in Brody’s voice. “Head chef? Wow. Why’d you leave?”

Brody had gone back to brushing her hair. Every few strokes, he ran his fingers through it. She liked how that felt.

His question brought her own armor back. “Alexander Grant,” she said, her voice hard. “And his ‘make shifters into pets for the wealthy’ program.”

Brody’s hands stilled. “Hell, I’m sorry,” he said. “Stupid question.”

She shrugged. It wasn’t like people didn’t know. “We got out,” she said. “And now I get to cook in Alexander Fucking Grant’s state-of-the-art kitchen every day, and lounge on his expensive furniture, and drink his black label whiskey and brandy. And he’s the one in a cell.”

He should be dead. She still dreamed of bleeding him slowly, toying with him like he was a mouse in her paws. But at least he was locked up. She hoped the prison guards and the other inmates were treating him very, very badly.

Brody began brushing her hair again. “He should be fucking dead,” he said, as if he’d heard her thoughts.

No argument from her.

He gathered her hair together, then let it spill back down, as if he liked playing with it. He went on, “You ever think of going back to cooking? I mean, chef-ing?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “I don’t know if my jag can handle it now, though. Too much stress, and not allowed to bleed anybody.”

He gave a snort of laughter, but when he spoke, his voice was serious. “Give her a little time.”

He had no idea. Jasmin didn’t know if she’d ever be fit to be around people again.

She just nodded, though. “I’ve been thinking of getting a job as a cook in a lower-key kind of place. To start out.”

“Not a bad idea. What does your crew think?”

“I haven’t told them, but they’re gonna hate it if I’m working every night. Right now I do all the cooking, and those assholes are spoiled rotten. Except breakfast. I don’t do breakfast.”

“Cold cereal never hurt anybody.”

“Nah, Flynn usually does breakfast. He makes killer pancakes, for an amateur.”

“I’ve only met Flynn once, but I’m having trouble imagining him making pancakes. Of course, that could be because he was strapped with about six different firearms at the time.”

“He’s multifaceted,” Jasmin said. Brody snorted.

She wondered what Flynn would think of Brody being here. Of them ‘getting to know each other.’ She’d promised not to bring his trouble home with her.

He scooped her hair up again, and slid the collar of her shirt down, kissing her on the shoulder. His lips were soft, and the scruff on his face rasped lightly against her skin.

“See, we got to know each other a little,” he said, echoing her thoughts again. It was uncanny. “Like normal people. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“I guess not.” His lips were moving up her neck, and she had to hold back the urge to start purring. “It wasn’t as much fun as being naked, though.”

“No?”

He’d reached that place just below her ear, and she couldn’t help but let out the tiniest little moan. She felt his grin this time, and he sucked on the spot, his teeth grazing the skin.

Goosebumps spread down her chest, and her nipples tightened. “I still don’t understand why you don’t want naked.”

His tongue made a slow circle on the side of her neck before he answered. “I might have changed my mind about that.”