Wolf Nip Split

Chapter Seven

***Monday

Gramps made them breakfast before breaking out a mop and “swabbing the decks”.

Mark excused himself shortly after that. “I’m going to run into town and stop by the permit office to see what kind of timeline we’re looking at. You can come with me if you’re interested.”

For some reason the idea of heading out didn’t excite her the way it usually did. “You go on. I’m itching to explore the place a little more. Work on a few brochure ideas.”

He stared at her for a moment before cupping the back of her neck and pulling her against him for a brief, intense kiss. They separated, her lips tingling, his pupils gone dark. He stroked her cheek. “If you think of anything you need, make a list.”

The door closed behind him, and something very uncomfortable trailed up her spine leaving her listless. Edgy.

She wandered the bottom two floors for a while, picturing the changes she’d drawn all being completed. The place was going to be gorgeous when it was finished. She nabbed a stack of sticky notes and popped information on the walls that she wanted to remember to discuss with Mark when he got back.

The beam of sunshine falling through the window had to be the reason she blinked in surprise half an hour later as she woke up from a catnap. She didn’t remember going back to his bedroom, though, or putting on the shirt that smelt like him.

It took her full concentration to manage a bit of computer work before Mark returned with supplies for the kitchen and a pile of mail-order shopping catalogues.

She flicked through the pile quickly. Decorative lighting, specialty fixtures. “Oh, nice.”

Mark smiled as he sat down to the submarine sandwiches she’d put together while the groceries had been unpacked. “I figured you’d like something to hold on to, rather than just shopping online.”

“That’s so sweet of you. Thanks.”

“No problem. Also, good news on the renovation front. One of the pack works in the permits department, and I got to speak to him.” Mark nodded thanks at Gramps as the older man refilled their glasses. “He’ll make sure the forms are pushed through fast for us. Which doesn’t mean we can get away with any funny business in the important things, but it does mean we can go ahead and start immediately.”

Tessa sat in shocked silence.

Mark grinned wider. “What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?”

She slipped out her tongue at him for a second before shaking her head. “You’re kidding. We can start on the renovations now?”

“I’ve got the first load of wood being delivered this afternoon, and a dumpster box. We can clean out the unusable material and dive right in. I asked a few of the pack to help with the hard labour.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond. “That’s incredible. When I arranged my flights, I thought we’d spend weeks in negotiations before anything would get underway.”

“No reason to wait. I told you that. This is your home, so why not begin making your dreams come true?” He caught her fingers in his and squeezed them lightly. “Happy?”

“More than I can tell you.”

Gramps leaned back in his chair. “Going to spiff up the place, are you? Sounds like a plan. Bit of spit and polish always a good thing. Shall I move my gear to the crew’s quarters?”

“You’re fine where you are, Gramps.” Mark winked at Tessa so his grandfather didn’t see it.

Tessa melted a little inside at the care in Mark’s voice. A yawn overtook her, and she blinked in surprise. Again? “Well, I don’t know where that came from.”

Mark shrugged. “If you’d like to take a nap for a bit, we’ll have time to talk about things later.”

She should argue with him. If the work was going to start on the B&B, she wanted to be there. But her eyes wouldn’t stay open, and if it hadn’t been for Mark’s strong clasp around her, she would have curled up right there at the table. He tucked her into bed and sat for a moment, skimming his hands over her shoulders and head.

“I like you, Mr. Weaver.” She managed to whisper the words before sleep overtook her for the second time that day.

“You’re going to love me,” he said firmly. Or maybe she just imagined it.

***Tuesday

Shocked by the sight of ten a.m. flashing on the clock beside the bed, Tessa dragged herself to vertical. She lingered in the shower for thirty minutes in an attempt to wake up. When she did find her way downstairs, it was to discover building materials stacked in neat rows on the main floor, the old timbers already removed and piled high in the dumpster outside.

A note fluttered on the back of the door, and she strolled over to read it.

Taking Gramps home. Call me if you need me.

Her nose twitched, and her cat complained that he was gone. She had her phone in her hand and the call going through before she’d thought about it.

“Morning, sleeping beauty.”

“I’m so embarrassed. I feel as if I’ve gone narcoleptic, or something. Did you even go to bed last night?” Tessa poked her head into what would be the far storage rooms. “How did you get everything cleared out so fast? I never heard a thing.”

“I told you, guys from the pack came over to help.”

She’d slept through it all, and that strange fact made her pause. Although on the good side? There was something positive to be said for the pack. “I hope you passed on my thanks.”

“Of course.” He shot back the words so quickly she wondered what was up, but only for a moment. Her cat was too busy examining the cleared-out spaces to be curious about a conversation.

“How is your grandfather?” she asked.

“He’s great. Decided that the salmon run was more important than the paddle wheeler. He and his buddies are going out for a few days.”

Which meant they’d be alone in the house. Tessa’s mind raced with the naughty possibilities. “Are you coming home?”

“As soon as I get Gramps settled. You go ahead and take it easy. We’ll swing a hammer this afternoon.”

Taking it easy sounded like a great idea. Except before she did, there was one thing she simply had to do. He’d worked like a dog—ha!—to get things ready for building, the least she could do was provide an edible meal. Emphasis on the edible part.

Between the computer, foodnetwork.com and a couple burnt fingers, she managed. Sheer determination forced her to keep muddling through as her cat, of all creatures, insisted she provide for…Mark.

Although she wasn’t exactly sure what her cat was trying to tell her. The feline was all focused on images of sunshine and warm cozy pillows and lazy days by the fire.

Tessa shook her head. Whoa. That was weird. Maybe she’d been working too hard before she came to Haines, or something. Her cat obviously wanted a holiday.

Once the multiple pots and pans she’d used were washed up and hidden back where they belonged, she pulled a blanket off the couch and slipped onto the deck. Tessa wiggled one of the lounge chairs into a position where she could curl up in the sunshine to wait until Mark returned. For some reason, it was far more important to see him drive up than to work on anything else.

Well, at least with the fast-tracking, it wasn’t like taking a lazy day would put the entire project in jeopardy.

Somehow it happened again. She fell asleep, only waking when Mark laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey.”

He smiled. “Hey, yourself. You want to come inside for some supper?”

Supper? “How did it get to be so late?”

Mark wiggled his arms under her and lifted, blanket and all. “Well, there’s this big ball that we live on called the earth, and it slowly turns in outer space…”

Tessa poked him in the shoulder. “Silly.”

He nudged their noses together before lowering her feet to the ground, supporting her until she found her balance.

Tessa giggled. “That was kind of cute.”

Mark paused. “What?”

“The careful and tender bit. I’m a cat. You could drop me and I’ll still land on my feet.” She straightened up and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, anyway.”

He stared at her for a moment before taking a deep breath and changing the topic. “Something smells incredible in here.”

“Oh, that’s dinner. Just a minute.” She bounced over to the Crock-Pot and popped open the lid. When a rush of amazing scents hit her, she wanted to shout for joy.

Mark stepped behind her. “I thought you couldn’t cook.”

“I can’t. I bet it smells better than it tastes. Something’s bound to leap out of nowhere and kill us both.” She dipped the spoon into the stew to brave a try.

Mark caught her wrist and guided the scoop toward his own mouth.

Oh dear. “Don’t. What if I poison you?”

He blew on the steaming concoction. “I think we’ll be okay.”

She was tempted to cover her eyes as he closed his lips around the serving.

Mark stood and chewed carefully. Tessa held her breath, waiting for something terrible to happen. He seemed fine so far, a happy hum emitting from his direction.

Then he opened his eyes wide and blinked, right before he fell to the floor.

“Oh, my goodness, Mark.” Tessa dropped to her knees at his side, reaching to check if he was choking. If she had killed him, she’d never forgive herself.

Only he rolled, and she was trapped, that teasing smile back in place as he pressed her under him. “Hmm, delicious.”

“You scared me.” She smacked her fist against his chest. She was going to kill him for real this time.

He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Sorry. How can I make it up to you?”

Tessa wrapped her legs around him and pulled his lips back to hers, kissing him madly. All her sleepiness had vanished, replaced by a whole lot of other things.

Including a deep rumbling noise that escaped her tummy. Drat—how sexy. A true sign of having missed lunch.

Mark laughed against her lips. “Good thing you made supper, and it’s a tasty one.”

“We’re not done,” Tessa warned.

His soft caress along her arm soothed her cat as they found their feet. “Did you have a good day?” Mark asked as he grabbed them bowls and utensils.

Tessa moved the stew to the table, shocked she’d managed to cook something edible. “I had a lazy day.”

“Those can be good.” Mark breathed deeply as he leaned over the food she’d scooped for him. “Wait until mid-January. We’ll have lots of lazy days when the sun goes down early, and it’s too cold to do much outside.”

Tessa shivered. “Firewood. Lots and lots of firewood stockpiled, right?”

“Of course.”

Dinner passed comfortably, her satisfaction rising at every sound of enjoyment Mark made. Suzy-homemaker she wasn’t, but feeding him? Whoa, she’d never imagined how gratifying that could be.

Or how erotic. Mark scooped up a spoonful and scarfed it down happily, a tiny smudge of gravy clinging to the corner of his mouth. Tessa reached out without thinking and touched her finger to the spot, cleaning it away.

He caught her wrist, holding her in place until her gaze met his. Then slowly, deliberately, he licked her finger clean.

Tessa swallowed, hard. A buzz shot from where his tongue contacted her through her body all the way until she swore he had licked her clit.

Oh boy.

Where was this leading? They’d played around a couple days ago, but with her strange case of the sleepies, Mark had been left hanging for far too long. She wouldn’t mind a little more action, either, even if it was far too soon to be committing to anything like being one true loves yet.

Mark released her hand, refocusing all his attention on scraping the remaining bits of food from his bowl.

Tessa hesitated, not quite sure what his withdrawal meant. “Mark? Did I do something wrong?”

“You’ve done nothing but be yourself, and it’s killing me.” He lifted his eyes again. “I want you.”

Instant shiver—full-body, all-out physical response from head to toe. “I’m good with that.”

“Only, I don’t want just part of you.” Mark stared past her shoulder, his gaze unblinking as he continued. “You’re my mate, and my wolf thinks I’m nuts, but until you’re ready to accept me completely, I can’t… I thought I could, but I can’t make love to you without going too far.”

Her blood raced so hard a blackout seemed possible. “Too far?”

“Marking you. Mating you.” He pushed away from the table, opening space between them. “I know I said we could fool around, but I wasn’t aware how much being mates would get to me. Maybe if I were a stronger wolf I could handle it. Maybe if you weren’t right here—but don’t suggest you go anywhere else, because that would only be worse.”

Her mouth had gone dry. “You don’t want me around, but you don’t want me to leave?”

Mark rubbed his forehead. “I’m saying this all wrong, and I’m sorry. I’m trying desperately to give you what you asked for, which is time for us to fall in love. So we’re going to have to find ways to spend time together that doesn’t involve getting hot and heavy.”

Something twisted inside, and it wasn’t just her libido complaining. “Oh. Okay, that makes sense.”

Only having made Mark uncomfortable made her uncomfortable, and a change of mental game plan for the evening, well, sucked. While playing Parcheesi or working on a puzzle wasn’t what she wanted, she had to respect his honesty. “Thank you for telling me.”

“Yeah.” He smiled wryly. “Want to go for a run?”

***Wednesday

Tessa had deliberately set the alarm to make sure she’d get up in time. When it went off, though, she rolled over, on the verge of falling asleep again as Mark’s scent lingering on the sheets made happy little hormones dance in her veins.

At least until she remembered the reason she could smell him had nothing to do with wild romps. It was his bed, ergo, it smelt like him. No late-night orgasms, screaming out in pleasure or even basic cuddling had brought them together.

She forced herself to crawl out from under the covers, wondering what on earth was causing her to be so sleepy these days. Only, it wasn’t like exhaustion-tiredness, more as if she was too relaxed to want to bounce from task to task in her usual way.

The sounds of banging led her to the main floor where she found Mark swinging a hammer. Shirtless, his muscles flexing as he moved efficiently again and again, a light sheen of sweat slicking him up.

She clung to the raw wood two-by-four at the entrance to the room to stop from bounding in and jumping him, literally and otherwise.

Instead, Tessa cleared her throat. “You want some breakfast?”

He paused, lifting his head to flash her a wonderful smile that made her heart lift. “Good morning. Breakfast would be super. Hey, I picked up a new coffeemaker—one of those just add water ones. Give it a try. There’s a whole box of the decaf thingies it uses on the counter.”

“Thank you.” She shuffled awkwardly before turning away. Coffee, breakfast. Then, damn it, she was going to muster up the energy to help hammer boards.

On the second floor one of her sticky notes caught her eye, and she moved in closer to discover he’d written a comment below her suggestion for lighting.

Excellent idea. That will highlight the seating in this area. Well done.

Tessa stared for a moment before wandering the entire floor and reading the comments he’d added to each and every one of her notes. She carried this warm glow with her as she forced herself to keep moving into the day.

***Thursday

Mark built five walls, three door casements, a couple of bathroom subfloors and roughed in the plumbing for the family guest bathrooms.

In the afternoon he split a cord of wood and stacked it in the woodshed.

Every time he rounded a corner in the paddlewheel and spotted Tessa hard at work on the to-do list they’d put together at breakfast, his need for her flared again, and every time he somehow managed to turn away.

Lying down for the night on the single bed in his Gramps’ room was a special kind of torture, knowing she was there, right on the other side of the wall.

Being noble sucked.

***Friday

Mark finished the framing on what should have taken at least three weeks, and started on the wiring.

Tessa read through four different manuals regarding cooking for groups, planned sample menus for the B&B, took a nap, put together a couple of different promotional brochures, washed all the sheets and linens, took another nap, scrubbed and polished all the windows including the ones way up high that required her to balance on the top platform of the stepladder.

The email announcing her best friend would be back in town the next morning was the only thing that stopped her from going nuts.

Mark being noble? Sucked.