Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(51)

She looked at another mannequin and read the sign: peekaboo camisole. The slits in the bust fitted neatly over the nipples. Her mouth dropped open.

“Stay here with her,” Jake said, and when she swung her head around to look at him, he grinned at her. “Be right back.”

No thongs, she wanted to tell him. No way was she wearing a piece of silk wedged between her legs. Or a camisole that left her nipples exposed.

But then he was gone, and Tom turned to observe her with a look of wonderment on his face. The sheriff parked beside them and waited, watching Jake enter the lingerie shop, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Mortified was how she felt. If she wasn’t wearing a coat of fur, she was sure she’d be blushing furiously.

She just hoped Jake didn’t get her what he thought she should wear to seduce him rather than what she would wear for comfort. But when he spoke to a clerk and lightly touched a royal blue corset pushing up the bust situated in the window, Alicia was ready to bolt out of the vehicle and tell him that if he bought it, he could wear it.

Chapter 12

Normally, Jake wouldn’t have been caught dead in a lingerie store. Certainly not that one. The women loved to get the corsets for the annual Victorian Era Day for some fun after the celebration, although without a mate, Jake hadn’t thought he’d ever get to partake in that part of the fun. The difficult part for the ladies seemed to be trying to pick just one. Lisa Grae, the thirty-year-old owner, was dressed in a conservative pale-blue dress. She raised her brows to see him come into the shop.

“Hi, Jake. You didn’t say why you had to come here tonight.” She sounded more than surprised.

“I need some things for a woman who’s staying with us.”

“Oh. Can she visit and—”

“No.”

“But her size. Did she tell you what—”

“She’s in the car in her wolf form and has no clothes.”

Lisa glanced out the window and frowned. “Oh. Is Sheriff Peter posing as a bodyguard?”

“Yeah.”

She sighed. “All right. So you’re not looking for anything fun. Just functional.”

No, he wasn’t looking just for functional. But he let Lisa lead him to the racks of bras anyway. He ran his fingers over the lacy cups, then the satin ones. He picked up red ones, one lace, one satin, the one without any padding, the other with padding beneath the breasts. He didn’t know which Alicia would prefer so he would get both.

“Are you certain that’s her cup size?”

He put his hand around the cup and nodded. “Appears right.”

“Hmm,” Lisa said, smiling, and the sound she made was one of speculation. Then she took him to a rack of panties. He selected three pairs of bikini panties in red.

“Maybe a pair of white?”

He shook his head. Red suited her.

Then he looked back at the royal blue corset.

“What about nightwear? A robe or something?”

But now he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the body hose that a couple of mannequins were wearing. One was a seductive fishnet, long-sleeved body stocking with an open crotch, and the other, a spaghetti-strapped sheer fishnet body stocking, also with an open crotch. Envisioning Alicia wearing any of it made him hard and wanting.

“A robe?” Lisa repeated, drawing his attention reluctantly from the body stockings.

He fingered a sheer, red-lace short robe.

Lisa smiled and folded her arms. “Does she wear a lot of red?”

He glanced at Alicia watching him through the Suburban window and thought about it, but he didn’t remember her wearing anything but white.

“I’ll take this,” he said, picking out a red shirt-like baby doll that reached just below the crotch, sheer enough to be revealing, but opaque enough to entice. He hastily paid for the garments, thanked Lisa, and headed for the door.

Alicia might not wear red normally, but he knew she’d look hot in all of it.

With sack in hand, Jake returned to the vehicle. He smiled at Alicia as Tom drove them to the casual-clothes shop where Jake figured he’d get her a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and sweatshirt. “I’ll bring you back to town to shop once you’re ready so you can pick up whatever else you might need until we can get your suitcases,” he said, as she eyed the sack.

When she poked at his hand still grasping the sack, he reached in and pulled out the red lace bra. She looked up at him. “Red would look good on you,” he said.

Tom glanced in the rearview mirror.

Jake pulled out a pair of panties. “To match the bra.” He slid the robe out and put his hand underneath the fabric, smiling when he could see his skin through the sheer material. He could just imagine what she would look like in the robe. “Do you like it?”

She shook her head. He couldn’t tell if she was smiling or shaking her head in disbelief. But he didn’t think she was unhappy with his selection. Tom pulled into the parking area of the casual-clothes shop, and Jake didn’t take long to pick out two T-shirts, a sweatshirt, and a pair of jeans. He got her some flip-flops, too, not knowing her shoe size but guessing.

Then Tom drove them to Darien’s home out in the country. Trying not to show how apprehensive he felt about her shifting when they got there and learning everything about her in front of his family, Jake caressed her back, which helped both of them to relax.