Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(37)
"Isn't that pretty much the same thing to you?" Jamie curled her lip in a sardonic grin. "They get better." She passed him another envelope, figuring that she could keep him entertained with the naughty content of the letters, and thus, make him completely forget that he'd decided she had a secret admirer.
"Oh, this one smells like," he took a long whiff, "some kind of musky, sexy cologne. All right, let's see."
His eyes scanned the text, and once again, got big and round and white. "Imagine my luck when I felt a suck, and looked back and saw nothing but you." Erik shook his head in awe. "This is incredible. Can I write these down? I can put some of these to good use. I'll take any help I can get. Izzy's pretty much in a terminal state of never-in-the-mood lately."
"Erik?" Jamie asked, slowly, like she was introducing a new concept to a third grader. "She's... pregnant. Have you heard of this condition? You’re lucky she keeps letting you go at her, even if it’s only once a day."
He chuffed a laugh. "Yeah, well, maybe if you put it in the form of a dirty limerick, I'd understand better."
He probably didn't expect her to fire one off right off the top of her head. "Erik Danniken's a hopeless, horny dork. All he wants is to convince his mate to pork. Maybe instead of pining, he should start whining, or else just go and buy a pig."
Erik furrowed his brow, letting what she'd said sink in. About thirty seconds later, he started booming with laughter so heavy and relentless that Jamie thought the neighbors would call the cops. Of course, the neighbors were the cops, so it worked out.
"Can I write that one down?" he finally asked. "I gotta use that one. That's perfect. I mean, it’s not exactly a limerick, but it’s perfect."
"Perfect for what?" Jamie screwed up her face. "If you use that on Izzy, leave my name out of it, thank you very much."
"Oh yeah, definitely. I want to make sure she thinks I came up with it. She'll love that. Good luck with your horn-dog suitor there, Jamie," Erik said as he rapped twice on her doorframe. "I'm gonna go... manage."
She took a deep breath and couldn't help but smile as he turned to leave. "Yes, you will, Erik. Somehow, someway, you will manage." She made a mental note to ask Izzy about the poems, and how romantic they were next time she saw her. If nothing else, she could see whether or not that whole thing about getting pregnant by a werewolf gave the mate the werewolf bloodlust.
If anything on earth could make Izzy kill Erik, it was hearing about him wanting to pork her.
Just those few seconds of lightness were enough to make Jamie relax just a touch. The tightness in the small of her back that she knew was her way of funneling emotions into physical symptoms, knotted up. "Well," she said to herself, "I've got a pile of dirty limericks, and one hell of a case of bear-crazy. Evidently, Mr. Drake has a case of Jamie crazy. So what am I supposed to do?"
She thought back to Dominic, how he'd relentlessly chased her, refused to let her out of his sight. And how at first, that made her feel wanted, longed-for, all those good things. Shortly thereafter, when he started in with the trying to make her quit her job to stay home and look after King Bela Lugosi Jr's every whim? Thinking about that now made her stomach turn in a totally different way.
God, I was stupid, she thought. So, so, so stupid. How did I let that happen? How did I fall for that?
For months afterward, after she finally got the courage to get away from him, Dominic had vanished. It was almost like he had no reason to be in Jamesburg except to haunt her. That had been... well, it was something she'd never forget, that's for sure. It took months for Jenga's surprisingly patient form of psychotherapy to make a dent in that complex. Hell, she was just grateful to get a little mental distance from that - from him. But Ryan was so different it was like a different world.
Dominic was nothing if not self-absorbed. Yeah, he was gorgeous, rich enough that she was a little embarrassed about it, and great in bed, but after Jamie got past all that, and found his heart - so to speak - there just wasn't much there. Ryan though? Heart as big as any she'd ever seen, even if it was hidden under about a mile of gruffness that could make Oscar the Grouch look chipper.
Thinking about Ryan with a trashcan shirt made her smile. She gathered the few belongings she carried with her on a daily basis - a handbag, and... yep, that's about it - and headed to the window. With the Ryan-caused daydream still fresh on her mind, Jamie pushed the shutters open and sucked a deep breath of late fall Jamesburg air.
It was crisp, clean, with just the tiniest bit of fir-scented bite. On her skin, she felt the cool prickle, the delicious kiss of autumn, and as Jamie's wings unfurled from where they were tucked behind her for most of the day, the muscles stretched, longing to move. From where she was on the top of the courthouse, she could usually drop twenty or thirty feet before spreading them out as wide as can be and catching air, blasting off into the sky.
The gentle early afternoon sun that streamed through the window warmed her wings, and her face, and for a moment she just stood there, absorbing the beautiful radiation that vampires, and bats, are both supposed to hate. She never did understand that one. Heat, okay, heat and humidity were two things that were very unfriendly. But good, honest warmth?
She shrugged, smiling as she plummeted past the first bank of windows, and then to the second. As she billowed her wings, catching a gust of wind like an exploding parachute, she had just a split second to wave to Professor Duggan who was always, always surprised to see her do that, as evidenced by the bugged-out eyes and puffed-up cheeks. Although it could have been most anything to get that response out of the old hedgehog.