“Only sometimes?” He’d have to do better.
Her nose scrunched up, as if she thought he was teasing her. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She laughed and blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say. I always like the way you touch me, but sometimes it’s soft, but still strong.” Her voice fell to a shy whisper. “It makes me feel safe.”
It made him feel like he wasn’t running away after all. Like he was doing something right. “I think I get it.”
With her eyes still closed, she turned her face toward his hand. “Are you sure? Because if you’re not doing it on purpose, be gentle with me. My heart’s not as tough as the rest of me.”
Nothing seemed like a remotely adequate response. He could reassure her, but what did any of it mean? Either they were ready for it, or they weren’t.
He eased back. “I’m not doing it on purpose, but I can stop anyway. If that’s what you want.”
She swallowed and caught both of his arms, holding him in place. “No. Not unless I’m the only one feeling…something.”
Because he didn’t know what else to say, he kissed her nose. “Breakfast. Want to go out?”
“Waffles.” She wiggled out from under him and bounced to her feet. “With whipped cream and strawberries. And bacon. And coffee.”
“You don’t have to cook every meal, Sera. You should take it easy.”
She capitulated without argument. “Then you pick a place while I pack and take a shower.”
He’d fucked up, but he couldn’t help it. He’d been honest, and that was all he could do. “Take your time.”
“It won’t be long.” She paused in the doorway and smiled at him. “I still want waffles, though.”
When she’d gone, Julio sat up and curled his shaking hands into fists. He’d tried to go slow, to be careful, and it didn’t matter. She was open, vulnerable to him. That meant he could hurt her, and it was the last thing he wanted to do.
Panama City Beach hadn’t been a basket of puppies and rainbows, but the reception they got in Orlando was downright chilly.
A group of men were waiting for them at the hotel. Either someone was talking about Julio’s impromptu tour of the Southeast, or someone at the hotel recognized his name.
He sized them up as he unbuckled his seatbelt. “Stay in the car, Sera.”
Her gaze tripped over the wolves. “What do you want me to do if one gets past you?”
Surely they wouldn’t. “They’re looking to assert dominance. Coming after you would be weak, beneath them.” He flicked the keys hanging from the ignition. “If that happens, leave me behind and get the hell out of here, ’cause it means all bets are off.”
Sera slipped her seatbelt off and reached across the seat to squeeze his hand. “Be careful.”
“Nothing to it.” He climbed out of the car and engaged the locks before closing the door.
“Gentlemen.”
The wolves fanned out as he approached, blocking off the parking lot exit. There were four, total—two fit blonds in bland business casual, a thin, dangerous-looking redhead dressed like a redneck, and the obvious leader, a thug over six feet tall whose bulging muscles strained the seams on his cheap suit.
The leader stepped forward, his gaze a hairsbreadth short of an outright challenge. “Julio Mendoza. You didn’t call to say you were coming to town.”
“No, I didn’t.” Nor was he expected to, but he let it lie. “Is that a problem?”
“It is when you bring trash with you,” the redhead muttered.
The leader lifted a hand to silence him. “It’s polite,” he said, giving the words an edge of a growl. “Or are you only interested in talking to outcasts and mutts?”
Julio forced a smile. “It’s polite to look people up when you roll into town—which was my full intention. Are you suggesting I needed to call first for permission?”
“No.” It was a blatant lie, and the wolf didn’t bother to hide it from his expression. His face twisted into something ugly. “You’re supposed to be the one who gives a shit about us.
Jacobson’s so perverse he’d let us all burn, and that new bastard doesn’t know how to be a wolf. But you’re one of us. So why don’t you act like it?”
If he didn’t shut this down now, things would get real ugly, real fast. So Julio stepped closer, right up in the man’s space, and stared at him. Hard. “Say what you want about me—I’m here and ready to kick your ass for it—but don’t talk shit about my friends.”
The suit’s hands fisted. “If you were half the man your uncle is, you’d be doing your job.
You’d be fighting for the wolves instead of dicking around the country with a coyote slut.”
“For dickheads like you?” He wouldn’t throw the first punch. He would not. “I prefer people with manners.”
It was the redneck who snarled, some control on his temper snapping. “You’re a fucking disgrace,” he spat, anger turning his face as red as his hair. “At least Alec Jacobson and Andrew Callaghan are only bent enough to screw human bitches. The only good coyote is a dead—” It didn’t matter that the leader was a few inches taller than him and probably a few pounds heavier. Julio grabbed the lapels of his cheap, ill-fitting jacket and threw him at the redneck with a growl. They hit the ground but sprang up, ready to fight.
Good. So was he.
Sera had no intention of driving away to leave Julio to his fate, even if she was utterly confident in his ability to prevail in a four-on-one fight. The wolves facing him had violence in their postures and hate in their eyes, and she’d known from the moment he first spoke that they wouldn’t be satisfied with words.
Instead of preparing to flee, she’d called Anna. “Now they’re talking a lot of shit. Mostly about me.” The running commentary diffused her nerves. Made it easier to breathe as she watched Julio. “They’re not saying anything really creative, though. I’m a coyote slut who’d be better off— shit.”
“What?” Anna demanded. “What’s happening?”
“Julio just picked up the biggest one and threw him at the others like a bowling ball.” Her heart pounded its way toward her throat as Julio punched the flannel-wearing redneck in the nose. “Oh my God, Anna, promise me he can handle all four of them.”
“He can handle them,” she answered instantly. “Look, he told you to stay in the car.
Whatever else you do, you stay there, okay?”
Sera gripped the door handle and winced as one of the blond wolves landed a rough hit to Julio’s side, but Julio barely seemed to notice. “I’m not stupid,” she whispered, hating herself for what she was instead. Weak. Useless. “I’m a liability. I’m getting in the way of what he’s trying to do.”
Julio spun and butted heads with the tall blond—literally. The man staggered back, and the one in flannel grabbed at Julio’s shirt. One blow knocked him loose, and he stumbled toward the car in an effort to catch his balance.
Julio charged him with a wild-eyed roar. They landed on the pavement in a full-on skid, sliding several feet before crashing into the front fender of the car.
Sera could hear her own rasping breaths filling the car. Power thundered over her, a dominance that sang in her blood and vibrated in her bones. Or maybe that vibration was the car shaking as the red-headed wolf tried to crawl away from the brutal punishment of Julio’s fists.
She could vaguely hear Anna’s voice from her phone, and she struggled to focus, to tear her gaze from the perfect storm of protective violence in front of her. “One of them got too close to the car,” she told Anna. “I don’t think he liked that.”
Anna swore viciously, and keys jingled in the background. “They’d better hope he doesn’t kill any of them.”