He could tell it did bother her, as evidenced by the way she averted her gaze at times when he caught her watching him, or when their hands touched or their bodies brushed against each other, and she’d pull away as if he’d burned her. It was killing him to treat her like she wasn’t important to him, except as a partner. He knew kissing her had been a mistake, because that little kiss and everything that had led up to it had made him fantasize more than once about what becoming intimately involved would be like.
She’d invited him over a few times and he’d skillfully declined, sometimes because he had other commitments and sometimes because he was trying to put some distance between them. The problem was that he couldn’t see her as just his partner or a human that he had no business getting involved with. He’d been short-tempered with Paul and his family too. They had tried to reassure him it was for the best, but he didn’t need them telling him anything where Debbie was concerned.
It was time to meet her and Rowdy at the pizzeria for another Friday night “date.” For three weeks, they’d done this, and he’d hoped to dispel any notion that he and Debbie were an item.
He tried to think about the case, but the way this was going, he was afraid it would end up in the cold-case files before long. Unless the killer struck again. Although they certainly didn’t want that either.
When Allan arrived at the pizzeria, he saw both Debbie’s and Rowdy’s vehicles. He had to remind himself they’d had fun every time they had met for dinner, though after the first time, Debbie had water to drink. Rowdy had asked her to go out with him a couple more times, but she still said no, to Allan’s relief. The more he saw her and got to know her, the more he wanted to know her even better. He genuinely loved her company, her smiles, and her teasing nature, and he loved to tease her right back. He’d grown more lax around her, allowing more of his wolfish nature to show—the possessiveness, the playfulness, and the sexual overtures—although he shouldn’t have. But she brought it out in him, and he had a hard time keeping his wolfishness under wraps around her.
That was the trouble when a wolf began to really get interested in a good prospect for a mate and the female wasn’t a lupus garou. He’d even allowed himself to envision her being turned, of him doing the deed. That was a dark road he had to turn back from now.
Then right in the middle of refilling Allan’s mug with beer, Rowdy asked Debbie out to dinner for Saturday night. And, hell, she looked at Allan, as if waiting for him to approve or get her out of it this time!
“We have a date tomorrow night at Captain O’Keefe’s Seafood Restaurant,” Allan said, smiling a little at Rowdy and hoping Debbie wouldn’t be annoyed with him for saying so. Of course he’d take her out, but that would just stir up things between the two of them again. Allan told himself he was just doing it to rescue her from Rowdy since he was trying to wear her down and she looked ready to fold. Or maybe she was playing her woman’s intuition—women could be tricky like that—and forcing Allan to take a stand.
Rowdy lifted his mug of beer in a salute to Allan.
Allan raised his to Rowdy. He ventured a look in Debbie’s direction. She’d folded her arms and was frowning at him.
Well, maybe they wouldn’t really go out to dinner.
“I’ll call you about tomorrow night,” he said.
Allan and Debbie had continued to arrive separately at the pizzeria. He thought she was trying to flirt with other dive team members who were single, but he could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. He felt like a real heel, but what could he do about it? Nothing.
Rowdy shook his head. “See you all next week, if we’re still on.”
“Sure,” Debbie said, smiling.
“Right. Next week,” Allan agreed.
Then he left and headed home. When he arrived at his cabin, he got a call from Debbie. “Listen, about tomorrow night—”
“When did you want me to pick you up?”
“I…don’t want you to feel obligated.”
“I’d like to go out, if you’d like to.”
“Sure. Thanks for rescuing me from Rowdy. I don’t think he believes you’ve had a change of heart about us, but I appreciate that you made the offer.”
Allan couldn’t share how he really felt. How much he wanted to take her out. How much he wanted to stay with her afterward. She was like a drug to him, an addiction he couldn’t give up.
“Would six be good?”
“Okay, see you then.”
Allan knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He knew it, but he told himself there would be no harm in a little dinner date.
*
Late the next afternoon, Allan got a call from Rose. Every time he did, he worried she was going into labor. “I was looking over the applications—”
“You’re not going into labor,” he blurted out.
Pause. Then Rose chuckled. “No. I guess every time I call, I need to preface the conversation with, ‘I’m not going into labor yet.’ Every time I call anyone, I get the same panicked comment.”