“Soren referred to your wolf downstairs, now you have. I’m going to be blunt here. You really don’t look any different than me. And I haven’t seen any evidence of you going ‘wolf’. Other than your eyes glowing, that is.”
She still didn’t really believe he was a werewolf. There was only one way to give her the irrefutable proof she so obviously needed. He shifted. He held out his hand and saw it shimmer and blur as he took on his wolf form. Jorja’s eyes widened, her breathing growing ever more rapid. Once he was completely wolf, he looked up at her and held his paw out. Still she didn’t move. Hoping he could get her to touch him, to show her he was not a figment of her imagination, Kian took a step toward her.
Jorja’s eyes rolled back inside her head and she collapsed.
Able to move much faster than any mortal, Soren was there to catch her before she hit the floor. His friend looked at him and shook his head. “I don’t think that was a smart move on your part, shifting without giving Jorja any warning.”
Kian shifted back to his human form, willing his clothes on at the same time. He gently took Jorja from Soren and held her close to his chest with her head resting on his shoulder. “I didn’t know what else to do to get her to believe.”
“I think I’ve helped out here as much as I can. I’m going to my room. At least you got the hard part over with.”
Kian watched Soren leave the room before he went to the bed and placed Jorja on it. She was still out cold. All he could do was wait until she woke up.
Jorja opened her eyes to find herself lying on the bed in Kian’s hotel room. Everything he’d said, what she’d seen him do—actually shift into a wolf—all came rushing back. She sat up and scanned the room, finding Kian nowhere in sight. Then she heard the sound of the toilet flush. Her gaze landed on the bathroom door as he opened it and stepped into the room. His steps faltered a bit when he saw she was awake.
He slowly crossed to the bed. “Are you okay with what I am, Jorja?”
“I don’t know.”
And honestly she didn’t. She’d gone from thinking he and Soren were a couple of loons to having the truth practically shoved down her throat when Kian had taken on his wolf form. All he’d told her had to be the truth. He was a werewolf and she was his mate, bonded to him for the rest of her life. She needed to think everything through, order her thoughts. And she couldn’t do that very well with Kian nearby.
She slid off the bed, making sure she kept some distance between them. “I have to be alone. Please don’t stop me from leaving.”
Kian gave her a pained look. “If you leave, we’ll both suffer for it.”
“I don’t care,” she snapped. Jorja took a deep breath to calm herself. She felt on the verge of hyperventilating again. One fainting spell was enough for her. “If you don’t let me go I’ll never come to grips with this all. I need some time away from you to get this all straight in my head.”
He sighed and stepped to the side. “Fine. Go. The only thing I ask is that you don’t let the separation anxiety get too bad. It will defeat the purpose of you wanting to be alone. It will play tricks on your mind. You’ll think something bad has happened to me, making you desperate to return. Remember what it was like when you saw me again the last time. I can guarantee that will be the end result.”
Sex. That’s what Kian meant. They’d end up having hot, desperate sex like they had in the early hours of the morning. Which meant when she returned, she’d better know exactly how she felt about him, and be willing to accept the new life they would have together.
Jorja gave a short nod and walked past Kian. She didn’t look back as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway. With no idea where she’d go, but just knowing she had to get out of the resort, she took the elevator down to the lobby. A minute later, she was outside breathing in the night air.
Fishing her keys out of her purse, she headed for the parking lot. She’d go for a short drive and come back. Surely she could handle that much. She got in her car and drove away from the resort.
Already she felt as if she missed Kian. She pulled everything she’d learned to the forefront of her mind and quickly sorted through it. Kian was a werewolf. Could she accept that? More than likely, yes. Not once had she felt threatened by him. Obviously, his type of werewolf wasn’t the snarling, bloodthirsty beast movies portrayed them as. She would just need time to get used to him in his wolf form. By nature, she adapted to change easier than some people.
Then there was the issue of them being mates. Were her feelings for Kian strong enough for her to spend the rest of her life with him, even though they’d just recently met? Only earlier today she’d admitted to herself she’d fallen for him. Now that she knew he loved her, was happy to have her as his mate, her feelings for him were a bit stronger. The only thing holding her back from actually saying she loved him was how fast everything had happened. In a normal relationship, it could take months, if not years, to reach that stage in a long-term commitment. Hers and Kian’s had formed the first night they’d met.
She’d been gone fifteen minutes and the need to return to Kian was more than noticeable. As he’d told her, she felt as if something terrible had happened to him. She did her best to ignore it. She wasn’t ready to go back just yet.
Jorja pulled up the last thing she needed to make a decision on. If she did love him, could she give up her life in Niagara Falls? There was no question Kian would want to return to Toronto. And to be honest, why would he want to stay here? It wasn’t as if she had much in her life to offer him. He was the one with the wealth and family. She was all alone, had been for a long time. After her parents had died in a car crash when she’d been fifteen, and no relatives had surfaced to claim her, she’d been placed in the foster care system. Once she’d reached adulthood, she’d left to strike out on her own, and hadn’t looked back since.
The need to be with Kian increased even more. She thought of the way he’d been with her today. She’d felt protected, cared for. And when she’d caught him staring at her, she’d seen the love he’d professed lurking in his eyes. Then she’d thought maybe it had been wishful thinking on her part. Now she knew those emotions had been real. No man had looked at her like that before.
Jorja roughly wiped a tear out of her eye as she thought about all Kian offered her. She had a gorgeous man who would never leave her, would never cheat on her, would always be there for her. She’d have a real family again, something she’d missed. And she’d never have to worry about money again. Did she love him? As sudden as it was, she thought she did.
Having finally sorted out her feelings, and made the decision to not make Kian suffer anymore, Jorja turned the car around and headed back to the resort. And back to her man. She would jump into her new life with both feet and hit the ground running.
By the time she arrived at the resort, she desperately wanted to feel Kian’s arms around her, holding her tight. There were going to be some adjustments for both of them, but the main thing was they loved each other. They could work out the rest as they went.
It seemed to take forever for the elevator to arrive, and for it to reach Kian’s floor. With no keycard to get in, she knocked on his door. He opened it, his gaze seeming to eat her up where she stood.
She looked into his eyes and said, “I want you. All of you.”
With a groan, Kian wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into the room. As his lips took hers, kissing her as if he were a starved man and only she could save him, he let the door close behind them. Jorja kissed him back, the tears that had threatened finally falling.
Kian pulled back and wiped them away with his thumbs. “Don’t cry, Jorja.”