Marisa Chenery - Leifs Surrender

Kye cringed. “I definitely don’t want Roxie practicing anything new on me. She’d probably turn me into a toad or something just as awful.”

Beowulf chuckled. “I don’t think you have to worry about that. Do you think one of you could give me a hand? The new crib and change table need to brought up to the baby’s room and assembled.”

Before Leif could say anything, Kye said, “I can help.”

“Great,” Beowulf said. “Since Roxie is busy with Dirk, I thought we could get it set up for her.”

Leif watched Beowulf and Kye walk out of the kitchen. So much for the added distraction he was looking for. He was now left alone with his thoughts, which seemed to center around sex with a certain cashier at a certain grocery store. He took a sip of his hot coffee. This had to get better, but if he was going to be truthful with himself, he knew the longer he held off claiming his mate the worse the mating urge would get. And it wasn’t as if he could search out another woman for some relief. Until the mating urge let him go, his cock wouldn’t get hard for anyone else. God, he hated this.

Finishing his coffee, he put down the mug on the counter and went over to the fridge.

He was in the mood for something to eat. He opened the fridge door, but didn’t see anything that appealed to him. Opening the freezer, he spotted the ice cream he’d bought the day before. He reached in and took out the carton of vanilla.

He took it over to the kitchen table and opened it. Roxie had already been into it since a quarter of it was gone. Having a hankering for some, Leif grabbed a big spoon out of the drawer. Usually not much of an ice cream eater, this one went down pretty good, creamy vanilla with just enough sweetness. Before he knew it, he’d eaten well over half the container of ice cream. There was nothing left but a few scrapings on the sides and the bottom.

“Oh, shit,” he said in a murmur.

Roxie was going to kill him. Wanting to hide what he’d done, Leif dropped the spoon inside the carton, closed it and hurriedly put it back in the freezer. What to do, what to do. He knew. He’d have to go to the grocery store and buy another one before Roxie found out. Yeah, that’s what he’d do.

Leif left the kitchen and planned to go upstairs and tell Kye where he was going when he saw Roxie coming down the stairs. She of course headed straight for the kitchen.

He closed his eyes and waited.

Sure enough, he heard Roxie yell, “Hey! Who the hell ate all the vanilla ice cream?

And who leaves a spoon in it?”

Deciding it was better to make a getaway now, Leif ran out of the mansion without telling Kye anything before Roxie came out of the kitchen. He was in his car and on the road to the store in less than a minute.

Arriving at the grocery store, all his senses started to come alive. Like a piece of metal drawn to a magnet, he headed inside. He sniffed the air, trying to single out one particular scent mixed in with the many. His mate’s scent was there, but weak. Realizing what he was doing, Leif gritted his teeth and forced himself to walk to the freezer section.

He was not here to search out his would-be mate. He would not try to find her. He would make his purchase and get the hell out of there without seeing her.

But in thinking that, he ended up doing the opposite. After he grabbed a carton of vanilla ice cream, he went unerringly to the end of the line where his mate’s scent was the strongest. She was once again working the cash register for the express checkout.

The closer he moved toward her the more her scent washed over him. His cock throbbed painfully, straining against the zipper of his jeans. The need to touch and taste every inch of the woman who had no idea what she meant to him just about overpowered Leif. The wolf inside him threw back its head with a howl of longing.

His body shook when it was finally his turn to pay. He tried to not look at her, but after he handed her his money, his gaze lifted to her face. She gave him a tentative smile, as if unsure of herself or what his reaction might be.

That small, sweet smile was just too much. With a groan, Leif leaned over the counter that separated them, wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his. He hungrily kissed her, pushing his tongue inside her mouth to get his first taste of her. At first, her lips remained stiff and unyielding, but after he stroked her tongue, twining it with his, she started to kiss him back.

At the sound of loud whistles and cat calls, Leif jerked back to reality and to what he was doing. He abruptly released her and jumped back. His chest heaving as if he’d run a great distance, he looked at her. She stood there staring at him, her glasses slightly askew, looking dazed. The scent of her arousal filled his nose. He had to fight the growl that threatened to push past his lips.

Snatching up the ice cream, he dropped his gaze to her chest to look at the name tag pinned to her shirt. He only took the time to read it before he hurriedly walked away.

With the taste of Jaden still on his tongue, Leif forced himself not to turn back and drag his mate away with him. He had one taste of her. It had to be enough.

Jaden’s brain had seemed to stop functioning. It took her more than a few seconds to gather her wits about her and remember where she was. She straightened her glasses as she tried to get her rapidly beating heart to slow. The left lens was smudged where his nose had brushed up against it while he’d kissed her stupid.

Holy crap. The gorgeous guy had come back and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Kissed her , Jaden Pryce, the plain Jane who normally only attracted men who wouldn’t know a dumbbell from a barbell. And what a kiss it had been. The feel of his tongue stroking hers had set her body on fire. Wetness had pooled in her pussy while her nipples had tightened beneath her shirt, begging for some attention.

Ignoring the large smudge hindering her line of sight, Jaden rang through the remaining customers in her line before she closed down her cash register for a quick washroom break. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her friend Vicky, shut down her register and follow.

Once inside the employee washroom, Vicky said, “You have to tell who that hot hunk was who laid that kiss on you.”

Jaden took off her glasses and ran them under the water in the sink before she grabbed some toilet paper from one of the stalls to dry them. “I have no idea.”

“What do you mean you have no idea? From that kiss, I’d say you know each other pretty well.”

Putting her glasses back on, Jaden shook her head. “It’s true. I don’t even know his name. I saw him here yesterday for the first time.”

“Well, you must have made one hell of an impression if he came back today and kissed you as if he couldn’t get enough of you. Why can’t something like that happen to me?”

Shaking her head, Jaden smiled. “If I did, I have no idea how I did it. I doubt it will happen again, and I doubt I’ll see him again.”

Vicky rolled her eyes. “If you believe that, you need your head seriously examined.

A guy does not kiss a woman like that and walk away forever. He’ll be back. And I bet he’ll hang around longer as well.”

Jaden wanted to hope that would be the case, but she didn’t have much confidence when it came to men. Yes, Mr. Gorgeous had kissed her senseless today, but he hadn’t exactly stuck around afterwards. At the end there, it almost seemed as if he realized he’d been doing something he shouldn’t have. And he couldn’t have been all that affected if he could just walk away without a word. Jaden had been lucky she’d even remained upright, let alone regained all her brain power. For a split second, when he’d stared at her after the kiss, her muddled brain had thought his eyes had glowed mutedly.