Marisa Chenery - Reluctantly His

With a swipe of the towel, Nika Ryder wiped the wet mark off the top of the bar.

That done, she moved down to the customer who stood on the other side.

"And what can I get you to drink, Mike?" she asked the man, one of her few regulars.

"A dark ale would go down good right about now, love."

Nika smiled. "One pint of dark ale coming up."

She walked over to the tap and pulled a pint of draft. After she placed it in front of Mike and took his money, Nika put it in the register behind her. She gazed about the open room and sighed. She'd hoped the pub would have been a lot busier than this tonight.

The pub, The Old Sow, was Nika's, and her only source of income. When she had immigrated to the UK from Sacramento, California just a little over nine months ago, she hadn't expected to find herself the sole proprietor of a pub in Norwich. No, the whole owning a pub had been her then boyfriend's idea. She'd met David in California.

He'd originally been from Norwich, and after being together for a year, he'd talked her into the grand plan of returning to his hometown and opening a pub of their own.

Nika snorted to herself as she served another customer who sat on one of the barstools. Letting David talk her into moving to the other side of the world had been her first mistake. The second—when she'd believed he'd actually loved her enough to want to stick it out with her, even when things had started to become rough.

After six months of running the pub—hard damn work that didn't pay off with the amount of profits they had hoped for—the bastard had up and left her for another woman, moving in with said woman in London. So there Nika was, stuck in Norwich with a pub that was barely making enough money to stay open let alone provide enough for her to move back to the States.

More often than not, Nika pictured herself strangling her rat bastard ex-boyfriend. She would get a lot of satisfaction listening to the asshole struggle to take his next breath.

Since there weren't too many customers, Nika went back to the kitchen to make sure everything was all right with her cook. She'd inherited Lee when she and David had bought the pub from the original owners. In his late forties, Lee had worked at The Old Sow for a number of years. If not for him, Nika had no illusions to the fact that she would have fallen apart after David had hightailed it out of her life. Lee was her rock to lean on. The man knew how to run the pub better than she did. Back in the States, she'd worked in a few bars, but that had by no means given her the experience she needed to run her own establishment.

Pushing the swinging kitchen door open, Nika stuck her head around it and smiled when Lee looked up from preparing one of the few food orders they'd received.

"How is it going in here?" she asked.

"Good. How goes the front?"

"Four tables and a few sitting at the bar."

"So in other words, not nearly what you want for a Friday night."

Nika sighed. "No. I wish I knew what to do to draw in a bigger crowd."

"Just give it time. All it takes is a few more regulars and business will get better."

"Lee, the ever optimistic one. I wish I could keep your positive attitude. It's been over eight months since The Old Sow re-opened under new management, and they only trickle in. I just wish I hadn't listened to David when he suggested we close the pub down for that first month to do some remodeling."

Lee pulled a small pan out of the oven and plated the steaming food. He then put the plate on the stainless steel counter under the warming lights. Since Nika couldn't afford to pay another employee, she worked the bar as well as served the food.

Stepping inside the kitchen, Nika went and picked up the plate on her side of the counter. She then asked, "What table is this for?"

"Table three," Lee replied. "I know I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again. You could always try to sell the pub."

Nika shook her head. "No, that isn't an option. I wouldn't be able to sell it high enough to pay off all the debts, and have any money left to rent a flat while I looked for a job. At least keeping the pub I get to live upstairs rent free."

Lee held up his hands in surrender. "I know, I know. Go serve the food before it gets cold."

Carrying the plate in both hands, Nika used her hip to open the swinging door, and delivered the food. That done, she returned to the bar.

Just as she walked behind it, the pub's door opened, and a man stepped inside.

Nika stared when he looked around before slowly walking to one of the empty tables at the back of the room. Her gaze followed him. He was huge, at least six and a half feet tall with a weightlifter's body. His shaggy brown hair just barely touched the top of his very broad shoulders. Nika lowered her gaze to his jean-clad ass and sucked in a breath. The man had a hard, muscled butt she'd love to get her hands on.

Giving herself a mental slap in the face, Nika told herself to snap out of it. After David, she'd sworn off men for the time being. In no way did she want to find herself in the same situation—dumped for something better. And besides, running the pub five days a week didn't exactly leave her enough time to actually date, even if she wanted to.

It was all right to look, but that was as far as she wanted to go.

Garrick slipped into the chair at a back table and scanned the pub. He'd had no luck hunting his prey tonight; Fenris' werewolves appeared to be lying low, so he'd decided to stop by The Old Sow for a pint before he returned to the mansion. He hadn't been inside the pub since the new owners had re-opened for business. He noted the newer paint on the walls and the updated décor. Definitely an improvement, and a lot less drab from what he remembered. Obviously they'd done some upgrading in the hopes of attracting more customers, but the pub wasn't even a quarter full. If tonight was indicative of the amount of business they normally did, he had to wonder how long the new owners would stick it out before they called it quits.

His gaze landed on the woman serving drinks behind the bar. He took in her long, light blonde hair that fell around her shoulders. She looked young, but compared to his well over a thousand years, all mortals were young. Garrick watched her for a few more seconds before turning to scan the rest of the pub, looking for a waiter or waitress. He was ready for a beer. When he didn't see anyone else attending the few customers occupying a scattering of tables, he figured the blonde must work the taproom by herself.

Sure enough, after drawing a pint for another customer, she walked around the bar and headed toward him. Now able to view her head-on, he liked what he saw. She was more than pretty with her high cheekbones, small nose, and full lips. Being a werewolf, he was able to see the color of her eyes from the distance that separated them.

They were violet blue. He ran his gaze up and down her slim yet curvy build that her tight blue jeans and form-fitting, grey T-shirt did nothing to hide. His grin grew bigger the closer she came. Would she be up to giving him a bit of fun before the night was over?

When she reached his table and her scent washed over him, Garrick stiffened as his cock went instantly rock hard, straining against the zipper of his jeans. He drew in another lungful of her heady aroma and had to fight from going wolf, fisting his hands on the tabletop to stop his claws from breaking through the tips of his fingers. Inside him, his wolf threw back its head and howled with longing.

The woman smiled and asked, "What can I get you to drink?"

The sound of her American accent had Garrick wanting to hear more of it, preferably, as she called out his name while he pounded into her. His cock jerked inside his jeans when his gaze landed on her mouth, and he pictured her using it to suck him off.