Pasting a charming smile on his face, Danny turned to greet the interloper.
“Yeah, I’m the Alpine Woods welcoming committee, and…” The rest of his speech fled, his mouth hanging open as he got his first look at the woman. His wolf immediately strained against his control.
The wind swirled around her, catching at the hem of her gypsy skirt and plastering the flimsy material against her legs, the outline of her shapely thighs clearly visible. Danny ran his eyes from the tips of her toes, clad in a pair of sandals with ribbon running up her legs, to disappear beneath the bottom of the skirt. The kind of sandals that made a man imagine following the crisscross of ribbon with his hands and lips. The skirt didn’t naturally cling to her hips, but thanks to the wind, he saw everything the fabric and style tried to hide. Like the fact that the woman before him was in impeccable shape. Her waist cinched in, thick with muscles. Her breasts were small and perky. A perfect body for an athlete. Or a fighter.
The thought jerked him out of his musings. Ruthlessly, he pushed aside his desire, tightening the reins on his wolf and jerking it away. He ignored the strange tingling in his hands, and continued his perusal objectively.
She wasn’t gorgeous. Her nose was too large for her face, with a crook that looked like it had been broken at some point and never healed properly. Her eyes were too round, and her teeth too big for her mouth. But her hair was a deep brown color that somehow rounded out the look, making her more attractive than she should have been.
As he stared at her mouth, her lips curled into a cocky smile, and he jerked his gaze to her eyes smiling back at him.
“And?” she prompted.
Danny smiled and raised his hand to his forehead. He was surprised to find it sweating slightly. The day was warm, but not scorching, as fall quickly approached. But the woman in front of him put his wolf on edge, making him tighten his grip on the reins of control.
In all his scenarios, he hadn’t counted on being attracted to her. Dangerous had never been his fetish.
This was definitely a bad idea. Maybe he should tell Jason he couldn’t do it, to find someone else in the pack. But the thought caused a slight bubble of panic, and he knew he wouldn’t back out. Not anymore. And not when his family counted on him.
“What? Oh, right. I brought you cookies to welcome you to the area.” He held out the plate he carried, and waited until she took them. “I’m Danny.”
“Amber.” She looked down at the plate and raised one eyebrow as she looked his way. “Cookies?”
“Yeah, they’re kinda burnt,” Danny apologized, clearing his throat in embarrassment. If he’d known beforehand how attracted he was going to be to her, he might have tried a bit harder not to burn the cookies. Or had one of his older brothers cook them for him. Both of them were whizzes in the kitchen, his mother having sworn that all her children would know how to cook if it killed her. Then Laurie, his older sister almost had, starting a kitchen fire that, luckily, their father had seen and put out before the whole house went up in flames. That had been the end of the cooking lessons. He and his younger sister, Julie, were left to their own devices. Now, he wished he’d taken the time to learn.
“Doesn’t matter what they look like, only what they taste like,” she said.
His gaze strayed to her lips again. He liked her smile. Couldn’t stop staring at the dimples denting her cheeks when her lips curled.
Danny grimaced. “Unfortunately, they probably don’t taste much better than they look.”
“Oh.” She glanced down at the plate of cookies before looking back at him. “Well, what is it they always say? It’s the thought that counts. I appreciate the welcome.” She glanced around the yard. “A committee of one, huh? I have to say, not much of a welcoming committee.”
Danny laughed. “Guess not. But it has its perks. I get to make all the decisions. And I’m the first to meet any pretty girls who’re new to town.”
He winked at her, wondering if he was going too far. But the others had told him to be forward and flirty. Of course, they’d also told him not to come on too strong. Maybe he was better off not taking their advice.
* * * *
Amber smiled at Danny, even as nervous energy rolled her stomach. It felt as though a herd of elephants were tap dancing in there. In other words, uncomfortable. She’d have thought she’d be used to the feeling by now.
The man seemed harmless enough, rather sweet with his offering of burned cookies, and his awkward attempt at flirting. But the last guy had seemed more or less harmless, too. Looks could be deceiving. She’d learned to never underestimate the enemy, and to never trust anyone unless necessary for survival. A lot of wolves wore sheep’s clothing.
But that didn’t mean she could hide out, no matter how much she wanted to rush inside and lock the doors. She had an assignment to complete, and if she didn’t have anything to report when her boss next called, she might find herself without a job. Not a pleasant prospect in the current economy, especially when half her work was FBI classified. Who would hire an employee who couldn’t fill out a resume without leaving large gaping holes? And if she did manage to get as far as an interview? Forget it.
But those thoughts were best left for another day. Right now, she had better focus on the job she did have. Nerves had no place here.
So she pasted a smile on her face, letting one end curl slightly higher than the other in a practiced move she knew drew men’s attention. She hadn’t missed the interest in his eyes as they’d slid up her body. And if she were honest with herself–which she usually was–she’d have to admit that desire had pooled in her belly under his regard.
Not that it mattered if she were attracted to him. Even if Danny didn’t end up being the enemy, she couldn’t afford distractions. And she couldn’t let herself get tripped up. Again. Her boss may have assured her this job was a simple recon assignment–the perfect assignment to ease her back into undercover work–but that didn’t mean she was taking any chances.
Truth be told, if the job were as easy as he made it sound, any of their field agents could have weeded out the information. Either that, or the job was harder than he’d let on. But she’d gotten the impression he’d worried about her, and had made something up so she could get her confidence back in the field. Her boss understood that some things left scars far deeper than the visible ones on the body.
Clutching the plate of cookies, Amber focused on the task at hand. The man appeared to be exactly as he advertised, a charming man here to welcome the new girl to the neighborhood. There was something sweet about the way he’d been struck speechless at the sight of her. She knew she wasn’t gorgeous, but it was nice to feel attractive. It had been a long time since she’d felt… feminine.
Yet, even as sweet as he sounded, an air of dominance surrounded him. The contrast between boy next door and warrior intrigued her. And made her wary. She had a sixth sense for recognizing when things were more than they appeared. And Danny was definitely more than he seemed. Not dangerous exactly, although she wouldn’t rule anything out, but something was off about him.
“So, welcoming committee, what does one do for fun around these parts?”
His eyes sparkled as he assessed her. “I can think of a few things.” The flirty tone, combined with the flash of heat in his gaze as it moved back down her body, told her what sort of “things” he had in mind.
Oh, he was good. But she was too old and had seen too much in her thirty years to fall for a pretty young face and flirty voice. There were plenty of other “things” men did to women in isolated cottages, too, that weren’t nearly as pleasant as what she saw in his eyes. She’d seen enough of the aftermaths to know. Just thinking about some of them curled her stomach, and brought her mind back to the task at hand.
Pretending