Pawn Among Wolves

PAWN AMONG WOLVES CH. 09

Gemma sank down onto one of the newly vacated battered leather sofas by the window of the upstairs coffee bar, listening to her mother on the phone. Her eyes drifted appreciatively over the green stretch of the campus playing fields, shimmering under the warm afternoon sun outside the huge panes of glass.

Somehow the glossy, beautifully manicured grass just wasn't the same since she'd been rolled repeatedly in meadows of its coarse, wild relative.

Wild was how she liked it.

A little smile gleamed in her eyes as she lazed her head against the seat back and stretched her legs out under the short coffee table, straightening out the kinks of a tense post-lunch session working in the fume cabinet. Usually these prime seats were nearly impossible to get hold of, but never with her current escort. Jeremy and Gus had just sauntered over and loomed, chatting nonchalantly beside the group of laughing students clustered on the chairs, and for no apparent reason the five humans had each suddenly remembered something they were planning on doing elsewhere and quickly disappeared.

Kate found it hilarious, as usual. "Muy machos," she murmured appreciatively, dropping her shoulder bag beside Gemma and disappearing off towards the bathroom.

Gemma sighed into the handset, "Yes, it's pretty frustrating." What an understatement. "I don't seem to be getting anywhere, but all I can do is keep trying."

Jasmine seated herself with effortless, unconscious elegance on the opposite sofa, and Gus shot off to join the queue of males waiting in turn to flirt with the pretty redhead working behind the counter. They called it ordering drinks.

"Why don't I get them today," his brother spun to call to his rapidly retreating back. Despite being a wolf, and therefore able to listen in to a conversation downstairs if he concentrated, Gus apparently didn't hear the generous offer, so Jeremy bounded off after him to insist on getting the afternoon coffee for once. Judging by the look of resigned amusement on Jasmine's face, the wolf girl could still hear the daily tease carrying on in the furtive scuffle that was now the end of the queue.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make it for Dad's birthday, especially if Jamie's driving down and Adam will be back from his hiking trip by then, I wouldn't miss -." Gemma broke off as her breath suddenly hitched, caught in her throat when her mind idly interpreted the title of the shiny new paperback lying facing her on the coffee table. She felt her skin flush scarlet, and her brain seethed.

Damn the wolf. Wasn't he supposed to be taking life seriously right now?

"-wouldn't miss it for the world," she choked the end of the sentence out of her suddenly tight throat.

Why did he always have to retaliate? Reciprocate. Whatever you call it when someone keeps giving you gifts in return for the ones that you send them. And they're so pig-headedly stubborn that they won't let you get away with the last one. In fact, he was now way, way over his quota. And he was rubbish at taking turns.

Moreover, some of his gifts were getting increasingly shameless.

A smile was pulling at the corners of her mouth. Maybe she shouldn't have arranged that delivery of duck a l'orange.

Gemma could feel her blood beginning to purr, and kept hauling her mind back, trying to point it toward indignation, when all it wanted was to dive into playback mode. Or into fast forward - to the next time he had her underneath him and was nibbling his way down -.

Delete. Delete.

Jasmine's gaze was piercingly steady, boring into her friend across the table, the elegantly peaked brows raised interrogatively. Gemma avoided the black eyes, glaring down at the book, struggling to hold her lips in a firm line of disapproval.