Page 125 of Howlin’ For You

It makes me excited for both the vulnerable and silly moments we have ahead of us.

The waiter clears our dishes with a gangly sort of teenage grace. “My manager said the bill has already been paid, so goodnight. And thank you!”

“Before you say a word—” Nick scoots around the booth until he can exit on the other side. “Dessert is at another location. I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of something sweet.”

And here I was hoping a delicious kiss would be my dessert.

“I’m intrigued,” I say, taking his hand and sliding to stand in front of him. This close, I can practically drown in the blue of his eyes. In the intensity of his gaze.

“You gotta quit looking at me like that, Izzy,” he practically begs. He leans in so close I can feel his breath on my lips.

“Looking at you in what way?” I tease, not changing a damn thing about how I’m undressing him mentally.

His responding growl is low and deep, like a heavy bass line in a song. I can feel it rumbling through my chest and down to my toes. “Like you have much sweeter ideas for dessert than the cake I had custom-made.”

I shiver. “I don’t know about sweeter. But certainly tastier.”

“Fuck.”

I smile, leaning back from him. I’ve rarely gone after what I wanted in life.

Hell, I’ve rarely known what I’ve wanted in life.

But now? I want to tease Nick until all his carefully constructed control melts, and he throws me up against a wall. Call this step one of a plan that hopefully only takes a couple more hours.

“Show me this cake, boss.” I turn, whipping my hair behind me. “Let’s see how sweet it really is.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

NICK

She’s a demon.

That’s the only explanation for the succubus-esque level of temptation she exudes. I’ve blindfolded her to keep the location of our dessert secret, making her take slower, more careful steps. It only accentuates the swing of her flared hips in that goddamn red dress. It’s taking everything in me not to lead her home and do every single thing I’ve ever imagined doing to my mate.

Blindfold included.

She’s a demon, and despite knowing never to make a deal with one, I’d do just about anything she wanted right now, just to get one taste of her.

One moment of my hands on something other than her shoulders.

“Are we there yet?” she asks, fingers twitching at her sides.

My fingers flex on her shoulders as I direct her to the left. “Almost, petite copine. Almost.”

She shivers at the nickname but doesn’t ask again what it means. Just trusts me to tell her when I’m ready.

“We’re here,” I whisper after a few more moments of tension-filled silence. Taking the blindfold from her eyes, I step in front to open the door and watch her reaction.

Georgie covered the inside of Tea Leaves in twinkling lights. Soft music plays from the speakers. A soft, lacy white tablecloth sits on a table specially brought out from the back with a vase of flowers in the middle and a custom cake. Rose petals cover the floor.

And I can’t see any of it. I only see Isabella as she twirls in a circle, eyes eating up every piece of the bakery with a joyous hunger. She stops after two spins, meeting my adoring gaze.

“You did all this?” she asks softly, disbelief heavy in her voice as if she can’t comprehend that someone would want to do this for her.

As if she doesn’t deserve so much more than this—this right here is the bare fucking minimum. I’ve got an idea now of what her parents put her through, and if given the opportunity, I’m going to make sure she gets used to this kind of treatment.

That she forgets all about how ‘not enough’ her parents made her feel.