Chapter 9
“Thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
Cannon nodded, pouring steaming mugs of green citron infused tea for the two of them. Then he sat across from her with his own plate of food.
If Eira wasn’t half in love with him already just for the way he had with chicken, she would’ve fallen hard for his impeccable manners. He even used a napkin!
Geez. Low standards much? She shook her head and almost choked, trying to stem the flow of her wayward thoughts.
“Are you alright?” Cannon asked.
“Yeah, sorry. Sometimes, when I’m tired, my brain just sort of goes off on tangents with no rhyme or reason,” Eira explained for some reason.
“My mother used to say, whenever I was tired, I would try to fight sleep by talking and talking. She would say I had diarrhea of the mouth— Oh my God! I am sorry! That was crude,” she said, mortified that she’d mentioned such a thing at the dinner table, but Cannon didn’t seem to mind.
In fact, the gorgeous Wolf was leaning forward, crooked grin on his handsome face as she made an ass of herself.
“I think your mother sounds wonderful,” he said.
“Yeah, well, she’s okay. My Dad can be a bit much. He’s the typical overprotective patriarch, and that would be fine, if only he hadn’t created five exact copies of himself in my brothers.”
“Five is a lot of brothers,” he commented.
"Yeah, but it’s alright. I’m the only doctor, and if they get testy, I just describe things I come across in work and the vomiting stops them picking on me. Fuck, now I mentioned puking.” Eira dropped her utensils on the table and covered her face in her hands.
“What are you doing?” Cannon asked, and he sounded closer, but Eira was not taking the chance on seeing pity on his face by removing her hands.
“Wishing a hole would open up and swallow me?” she whispered.
“What?”
“I am so sorry,” she said, looking down and resisting his attempts at uncovering her face. “I am a disaster as a date.”
“Is this a date?” Cannon asked, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
“Well, I mean, I thought— you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked, peeking at him through splayed fingers.
“I am enjoying being with you, Eira,” Cannon replied, taking her hands in his and gently tugging them down. “But I don’t want you to ever feel uncomfortable around me.”
“Surprising as this seems, I don’t feel uncomfortable at all. Look Cannon, I am not like other women, or other she-Wolves. I don’t dream about babies and baking bread from scratch. I don’t care about curtains or what shoes Prada is putting out next fall,” she said, and felt herself slipping into panic mode.
“I work all the time, then I come home, and I shower, eat, and sleep. And when I am done with that, I go visit my family to keep my Mom from losing her shit. A doctor’s residency is probably more intense than medical school and interning combined, but I’ve come so far. I can’t, I don’t—”
"Hey, easy, easy,” he murmured, his long, sublimely talented fingers had started rubbing circles on her wrists.
The movement was so soothing, the touch perfectly sweet, and Eira felt herself sliding more and more under his spell. She could not bear to think of her failings as a woman and what he would do once he realized she was nothing like the female he had envisioned.
“This won’t do at all,” he chided, and made a clicking sound with his tongue. Then Cannon leaned forward, placing his hands on her waist. He picked her up, lifting her out of her seat, and settling her curvy frame onto his lap as if they always did this.
Shocked, Eira clutched his shoulders, half afraid she would slide off his thighs. She should have known better. The male Wolf was enormous and powerfully built. She fit perfectly, and even if she didn’t, those big hands on her waist were sure to keep her steady.
“What—”
“Shhhh,” he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers.
She waited a moment for him to say or do something, but he just sat there, holding her until all her anxiety rolled off her like water from a duck’s back. Exhaling the breath she’d been holding, Eira let him have all her weight. She settled against him, head on his shoulder, breathing in the spiced air that was full of his delicious scent.
Feeling happily full after consuming the fabulous food he had prepared for her, Eira’s inner Wolf stretched in her mind’s eye. The beast’s hunger was satisfied, but not her desire for him. She growled, nuzzling his neck, but Cannon pulled back.
“Before we do this, and yes, sweet Doc, we are going to definitely do this, I think I need to tell you a few things,” he began, his brown eyes shone gold with his beast as he stared at her.
“I have no family, no kin of any kind, so hearing you speak about yours just makes me want to meet them all the more.”
“But they can be so horrible!”
“Take it from someone who has no family, it’s better to have them.”
"I’m sorry, I should have been more aware of what I was saying,” she replied quickly, immediately regretting that loudmouthed part of herself for being so blunt.
“No, don’t do that, Doc. I like the way you talk. You are the most honest and open person I have ever met, and I love that about you,” he began. “Now, I know both our Wolves are pushing for this to happen quickly, but I won’t rush you. We go at your pace, Doc, okay? And I know we don’t know much about each other, but I want to. Damn, you have no idea how much I want to know all about you.”
Cannon seemed to watch her as if waiting for a response, but what could she say to that? The sounds of snowplows and salt spreaders clearing away the wintry weather and making the streets safe were loud in the suddenly quiet kitchen. She glanced at the window, smiling a little as she watched the smaller flakes that were now falling from the sky.
“Winter sure is crazy in Jersey,” Cannon said, a small smile on his handsome face.
He was giving her an out, a chance to talk about the weather. But Eira was no coward. This was the rest of her life on the line.
It was about time she claimed something for herself besides her job. Fact was, Eira would never know how he felt until she came out with it, so there was no sense in beating around the bush.
“My Wolf thinks you belong to me,” she confessed, hating the small quality her voice had taken on.
“Look at me,” he whispered, waiting for her to turn before he replied.
“I do belong to you, Eira,” he stated easily, and if she was not mistaken, Eira thought she heard a fierce sort of pride in his deep, melodic voice.
“I belong to you, Eira Sidak,” he repeated, even stronger. “And you belong to me. There is nothing and no one in this whole universe that can take that away. The Fates brought us together, and I don’t know about you, but I trust them. My Wolf knows you, Doc. Hell, I’m halfway in love with you already.”
“You are?” she asked, following the movement of his oh so tempting lips with her eyes while he spoke.
She was sitting up a little straighter now, leaning into him. He was so big, so totally hot, and all she wanted to do was get naked and rub herself against his wonderfully muscular body.
"Yeah, I am, Doc. I wanna know you. I wanna be with you. You’re my mate, and I want this to work. You don’t ever have to be afraid with me, never have to hide who you are or what you’re thinking in that magnificent brain of yours. I love it all. I want it all. The good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly,” he said, and they both laughed at that.
Christ, what was he doing to her? And did she even want to resist?
Eira reached up and pressed her lips to his. He might not think she was ready for this, but Eira had never been one to wait before taking what she wanted. And what she wanted was him.
“Cannon,” she breathed, coming up for air after being kissed so thoroughly.
“Yeah, Doc?” he asked, and she was pleased he was just as breathless as she was.
“You. Me. Bed. Now.”