Page 31 of Gather the Storm

And Jace Kane? Well, he could go fuck himself.

Chapter 16

Daisy

Iplastered a serene expression on my face and made my way carefully down the back stairs because of course Jace hadn’t included a single pair of shoes with less than a four-inch heel.

Fucker.

I heard the sound of running water followed by the clink of silverware on porcelain and for a second, I was back at home, sneaking into the kitchen for a game of morning gin over coffee with Joan, Lenny the cook, and the rest of the household staff.

Then I remembered that I was in the old house over the falls, my only company the three boorish men who were going to be my roommates for the foreseeable future.

Okay, one of them was more boorish than the others, but still.

I stepped into the kitchen and was surprised to find Wolf alone, the plans I’d had drawn up for the house unrolled across the scarred wooden table at the center of the kitchen. He looked up when I entered the room and something dark flared inhis gaze in the second before it disappeared. Or maybe I was imagining that part.

“Morning, sunshine,” he said.

The nickname was cute, the kind of nickname you’d give a little sister. I hated the way it made me feel warm from the inside out.

And hot damn. Wolf always looked good, but first-thing-in-the-morning Wolf was something to behold. His dark hair was tousled, his face still soft from sleep, like he hadn’t put on the mask of indifference he seemed to wear for the world.

His perfectly cut biceps were on full display in another sleeveless T-shirt, and I had the sudden urge to study his tattoos, trace the images on his arms, ask him what they all meant.

Instead of jeans, he was wearing gray sweats, and my cheeks burned when I realized I’d glanced at the visible outline of his dick before getting myself under control.

“Um, morning,” I said, tearing my gaze away. I set my leather tote bag on the counter. “You found the plans.”

He nodded and returned his gaze to the blueprints. “Saw them rolled up against the wall, thought I might as well get a head start.”

I was embarrassed to be wearing such a tight skirt and low-cut shirt but they were the closest things to professional I could find in my new wardrobe. Luckily, there had also been a fitted jacket, although I was guessing Jace had planned for me to wear it with nothing but a bra — or not — since torturing me seemed to be his number one goal.

I smelled coffee and headed for the coffee pot I’d had delivered a few days before, along with a few basics like coffee and toilet paper. “Did you make this?”

I had no idea if caffeine would be helpful in my quest not to lust after my new roommates, but I needed all the help I could get.

“Yeah,” he said. “Figured we were all going to need it.”

“Thanks,” I said, grabbing one of the four cups I’d brought along with a handful of dishes. I really needed to go shopping.

I poured coffee into my cup — I knew the drip coffee machine was old-fashioned but I loved brewing a whole pot of coffee in the morning — and turned to face him. “Want a refill?”

I tried to set a tone of civility, if not friendliness, because whatever the Beasts thought of me — and there was no reason to think Wolf liked me any more than Jace — we had to live together.

“Sure,” he said.

Before I could move toward him with the coffee pot, he was up, his own cup in hand, coming toward me. He stopped next to me at the counter and I realized he was close.

Too close.

I could smell the coffee on his breath and the tang of his man sweat and something else that smelled like sleep and sex and dirty promises.

It went straight to my cunt and I grabbed on to the counter with my free hand, my coffee in the other, wondering if I was having a stroke because having a stroke actually seemed preferable to the alternative, which was that I was lightheaded with lust for Wolf LaForte.

The house was quiet — I assumed Jace and Otis were still sleeping — and the situation — me alone with Wolf in the quiet kitchen — seemed suddenly dangerous.

It didn’t get any safer when he flashed a sexy-as-fuck grin, like he knew exactly what I was thinking, and leaned down to murmur in my ear.

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