Seal Wolf Hunting (9781402293832) by Terry Spear Page B

Looks great.” He wasn’t just talking about the jam. “Just right.” He hadn’t eaten homemade jelly in eons, so this was really a special treat. He remembered fondly eating jam on bread before it had even cooled all the way when his mother made it.
    Lori looked up at him and smiled a little. He wasn’t moving out of her space, just smiling down at her, his mouth close to hers. Hell, he’d never enjoyed watching someone make jam as much as he did Lori. He was ready to kiss her again. She shook her head and turned to finish cooking the jam. He only let her get away with avoiding any further entanglement because he didn’t want to make her burn the jam. Otherwise, he would have kissed her.
    Lori began to transfer the jam into jars and seal them. She’d let the jars cool down so she and Paul could have some jam tomorrow.
    â€œSee? I knew what you’d like for breakfast. Waffles, pancakes, or French toast with fresh huckleberry jam.” She licked some of the jam off the spoon she’d used to stir it.
    The way her tongue licked the spoon made him think of tangling his tongue with hers again.
    â€œOr honey. Don’t forget how much I like honey,” he said. He let his gaze switch again from the spoon to her lips and thought about how much he’d enjoyed licking the honey off them.
    She chuckled.
    Unable to stop himself and hoping Lori was of a like mind, he took the spoon from her and set it in the empty saucepan. Then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again, tasting the sugary berries on her lips and tongue as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave in to the kiss.
    â€œI couldn’t wait for breakfast.” He gave her a firm squeeze. He wanted to tell her she shouldn’t have run off every time he came home. That maybe if she’d hung around, he might have changed his plans and hung around longer.
    This was how he imagined being with her—her soft body pressed up against him, her tongue stroking his, her arms securely wrapped around his neck, telling him just how much she wanted this too.
    Then she broke off the kiss and turned away, though he still had his hands on her hips, not wanting to lose the connection. “Um, okay so I guess it’s time to—”
    He waited to hear what she wanted to do.
    â€œRetire to bed so we can get up early, eat, then tape up the wall and get it ready to paint.” She looked back up at him, her lips slightly swollen from their kiss, her eyes darkened with interest.
    Since kissing her further wasn’t an option…
    â€œWell, are you ready for bed?”
    He raised an eyebrow.
    She gave him a get-real look. “I’m not suggesting anything here.” Though she couldn’t help but be amused.
    He laughed. “I wasn’t either. What were you thinking of?”
    He could sure be cute sometimes. She liked that playfulness when he wasn’t being all dark wolf and overly protective. She turned off the living room light and headed for her bedroom at the end of the hall. She wished Paul and Allan would settle down in the area. She wouldn’t mind dating Paul, if he was going to stick around. But she had known, even at an early age, that both men loved adventure, the thrill of danger, and excitement—and setting down roots here would be anything but.
    â€œBy the way, now that you know why I kissed you , I’m curious. Why did you kiss me back?” Paul asked when she reached her bedroom door.
    â€œTo prove you weren’t the only one who could be so rash.” Before she did anything else that was rash, she stepped into her room, said good night, and closed her door.
    A big part of his desire to show her how he felt had to do with the changing of their shifter life spans. At first it was subtle, as far as they could determine. Once they reached puberty, the shifters stopped aging—often showing no real change in their age for many more years. But as the years