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She looked at another mannequin and read the sign: peekaboo camisole. The slits in the bust fitted neatly over the nipples. Her mouth dropped open.
“Stay here with her,” Jake said, and when she swung her head around to look at him, he grinned at her. “Be right back. ”
No thongs, she wanted to tell him. No way was she wearing a piece of silk wedged between her legs. Or a camisole that left her nipples exposed.
But then he was gone, and Tom turned to observe her with a look of wonderment on his face. The sheriff parked beside them and waited, watching Jake enter the lingerie shop, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Mortified was how she felt. If she wasn’t wearing a coat of fur, she was sure she’d be blushing furiously.
She just hoped Jake didn’t get her what he thought she should wear to seduce him rather than what she would wear for comfort. But when he spoke to a clerk and lightly touched a royal blue corset pushing up the bust situated in the window, Alicia was ready to bolt out of the vehicle and tell him that if he bought it, he could wear it.
Chapter 12
Normally, Jake wouldn’t have been caught dead in a lingerie store. Certainly not that one. The women loved to get the corsets for the annual Victorian Era Day for some fun after the celebration, although without a mate, Jake hadn’t thought he’d ever get to partake in that part of the fun. The difficult part for the ladies seemed to be trying to pick just one. Lisa Grae, the thirty-year-old owner, was dressed in a conservative pale-blue dress. She raised her brows to see him come into the shop.
“Hi, Jake. You didn’t say why you had to come here tonight. ” She sounded more than surprised.
“I need some things for a woman who’s staying with us. ”
“Oh. Can she visit and—”
“No. ”
“But her size. Did she tell you what—”
“She’s in the car in her wolf form and has no clothes. ”
Lisa glanced out the window and frowned. “Oh. Is Sheriff Peter posing as a bodyguard?”
“Yeah. ”
She sighed. “All right. So you’re not looking for anything fun. Just functional. ”
No, he wasn’t looking just for functional. But he let Lisa lead him to the racks of bras anyway. He ran his fingers over the lacy cups, then the satin ones. He picked up red ones, one lace, one satin, the one without any padding, the other with padding beneath the breasts. He didn’t know which Alicia would prefer so he would get both.
“Are you certain that’s her cup size?”
He put his hand around the cup and nodded. “Appears right. ”
“Hmm,” Lisa said, smiling, and the sound she made was one of speculation. Then she took him to a rack of panties. He selected three pairs of bikini panties in red.
“Maybe a pair of white?”
He shook his head. Red suited her.
Then he looked back at the royal blue corset.
“What about nightwear? A robe or something?”
But now he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the body hose that a couple of mannequins were wearing. One was a seductive fishnet, long-sleeved body stocking with an open crotch, and the other, a spaghetti-strapped sheer fishnet body stocking, also with an open crotch. Envisioning Alicia wearing any of it made him hard and wanting.
“A robe?” Lisa repeated, drawing his attention reluctantly from the body stockings.
He fingered a sheer, red-lace short robe.
Lisa smiled and folded her arms. “Does she wear a lot of red?”
He glanced at Alicia watching him through the Suburban window and thought about it, but he didn’t remember her wearing anything but white.
“I’ll take this,” he said, picking out a red shirt-like baby doll that reached just below the crotch, sheer enough to be revealing, but opaque enough to entice. He hastily paid for the garments, thanked Lisa, and headed for the door.
Alicia might not wear red normally, but he knew she’d look hot in all of it.
With sack in hand, Jake returned to the vehicle. He smiled at Alicia as Tom drove them to the casual-clothes shop where Jake figured he’d get her a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and sweatshirt. “I’ll bring you back to town to shop once you’re ready so you can pick up whatever else you might need until we can get your suitcases,” he said, as she eyed the sack.
When she poked at his hand still grasping the sack, he reached in and pulled out the red lace bra. She looked up at him. “Red would look good on you,” he said.
Tom glanced in the rearview mirror.
Jake pulled out a pair of panties. “To match the bra. ” He slid the robe out and put his hand underneath the fabric, smiling when he could see his skin through the sheer material. He could just imagine what she would look like in the robe. “Do you like it?”
She shook her head. He couldn’t tell if she was smiling or shaking her head in disbelief. But he didn’t think she was unhappy with his selection. Tom pulled into the parking area of the casual-clothes shop, and Jake didn’t take long to pick out two T-shirts, a sweatshirt, and a pair of jeans. He got her some flip-flops, too, not knowing her shoe size but guessing.
Then Tom drove them to Darien’s home out in the country. Trying not to show how apprehensive he felt about her shifting when they got there and learning everything about her in front of his family, Jake caressed her back, which helped both of them to relax.
He just hoped the hell he’d learn she wasn’t already mated.
As soon as they arrived at Darien’s home, Lelandi and Darien greeted Alicia as if she were a long-lost pack member. She remained glued to Jake’s side, however, and he recognized that she was feeling anxious.
“Come with me,” Lelandi coaxed, “and I’ll show you the guest room. ” She smiled brightly. Jake didn’t think he’d seen Lelandi this excited in weeks. She fairly glowed, and he was glad she was so thrilled to see Alicia. That would make it easier for her to fit into the pack. Although Alicia didn’t seem any less anxious.
At least when they’d had a newly turned wolf before, Carol had been from the town, had had psychic visions of what werewolves were beforehand, had been resigned to the fact she’d be turned, and had had a pack to teach her the ways once she’d been turned. Alicia didn’t know anyone here and might not know a lot about being a wolf if a pack hadn’t been watching over her. And he didn’t think one had.
Alicia glanced up at Jake, and his heart went out to her. If he didn’t think it would upset Lelandi, and if he didn’t think Alicia might still feel unsure of herself as far as shifting into a naked woman in front of him, he would have insisted on going with her instead.
What the hell. He crouched in front of her and stroked her underneath the chin. “Alicia, did you want me to go with you?”
Her large brown eyes studied him for what seemed an eternity. Tom and Peter were standing behind them, waiting for her response. Darien and Lelandi were just as quiet. Alicia shook her head.
Jake smiled. “All right. ” Then he handed the two sacks of clothes to Lelandi and rubbed Alicia’s head between her ears. “Go with Lelandi then. I’ll wait for you down here. ”
She nudged his thigh in an intimate agreement, then went with Lelandi. He knew Lelandi would be good for Alicia, no matter how apprehensive she might be feeling right now.
When she’d disappeared up the stairs with Lelandi, Darien said to Jake, “We have to talk. ”
Tom looked halfway glad he wasn’t needed for the lecture Jake was sure his brother planned to give him. When Jake and Darien entered his office, Darien took his seat on the couch, rather than behind the desk. It was a way of saying, This isn’t pack business as much as it is family business.
Jake sat on a chair nearby and waited for what Darien had to say, already feeling defensive.
“All right, you don’t know for sure if she’s mated, do you, Jake?”
“She came
to me in my dreams. ”
“Jake. ”
“No, not for sure. ”
“And you don’t know if she’s pregnant or not. ”
As much as he hated to admit he truly wasn’t one hundred percent sure, Jake shook his head.
“Why are these men after her?”
Jake leaned back in the chair and explained as much as he knew from the time he’d met her to what Peter was sure to have passed along to Darien from the sheriff who oversaw Crestview.
Then women’s laughter drifted to them all the way from the upstairs guest bedroom.
Darien raised his brows, questioning Jake as if he had a clue what the women thought was so funny.
***
“Oh, you poor thing,” Lelandi said, holding her belly, tears in her eyes because she was laughing so hard as Alicia chuckled again in the guest room where she would be staying. Lelandi’s red curls clashed with her red cheeks as Lelandi ran her finger over the “barely there” crotch of one of the red thongs. “I never liked wearing anything this skimpy. Jake must really have it bad for you. ”
Alicia smiled. “I should buy him one and see how much he likes wearing it. ”
Lelandi laughed, her green eyes smiling. “He might just like one. You never know. As soon as it’s feasible for you to go shopping, I’ll take you. Lisa, who owns the lingerie shop, must have been shocked to pieces to see Jake buying for a wolf no one knows. ”
“Does she know what we are?” Alicia asked, incredulous. She couldn’t believe she was in a house full of wolves—Darien, Jake, Lelandi, Tom, and Peter, but that there could be more in the town seemed surreal.
Somehow she had to ask Lelandi about Jake’s ties to Ferdinand Massaro, though. She wondered if maybe he alone was tied in with them. That maybe the rest of Jake’s family was clueless about his association with the criminals.
“Oh, yes. Of course. ” Lelandi reached out and squeezed Alicia’s hand. “We run the town. ”
“Run the town? Jake said Darien did. But—”
“Our pack does. As far as I know, it’s pretty rare for a pack to run a whole town. Most packs just infiltrate towns, work at jobs among the humans, live among them, and have their getaway spots when they have to take a run on the wild side. But they don’t decide who works in all the key positions. We only allow wolves to run the hospital, in case we have an emergency. And the vet clinic is werewolf run, too. So are the bank, the bed and breakfast, the florist shop, and most other businesses. But we’ll explain all that later. ” Lelandi lifted the nearly sheer robe and raised her brows. “This barely covers anything lengthwise, and it’s practically see-through. I’ve got an extra robe if you need one. Do you like red?”