Wild Invitation

facing the door—of a high-end lingerie shop.
    Vivienne whistled from beside her. “Oh, now the man is playing hardball.”
    Grace had heard about the male wolves’ exhibitionist tendencies during the mating dance, but Cooper knew very well she was shy about certain things. “I’m going to kill him,” she muttered, trying to avoid the chief’s and Paul’s eyes as they walked past her office for the third time, necks craning.
    “Don’t murder the man until you see what’s inside.”
    “I am not opening this here.”
    “Come on, Grace.” Vivienne nudged the door shut in the men’s faces. “There, see? We’re all private.”
    Someone knocked.
    When Vivienne scowled and opened the door a peek, Emma poked her head inside, the glossy dark of her bob swinging across her cheek. “I had time before a class, and I heard…” Her eyes lighting up when she saw the box, she came in, shut the door, then hit the lock for good measure. “God, he really did do it. Even my guy wasn’t this shameless.”
    Grace’s stomach did a little flip.
My guy.
That sounded nice. She’d like to call Cooper her guy. After she killed him. “He could’ve had this delivered to my room.”
    “Please, Grace.” Vivienne snorted. “The lingerie might be for you, but the message is for everyone else. Hands off sexy Grace. She’s all miiiiiiiiine. Grr and snarl and grr some more.”
    Grace glared at her as Emma dissolved into giggles…but when Vivienne started beating her chest, her teeth bared, it was all over. It was some minutes later that she wiped the tears from her eyes and, giving in to their wheedling, tugged on the ribbon. “Breathe a word of what’s inside and I’ll make sure the lighting in your room gets stuck on bright noonday sun all week.”
    “Done.”
    Emma hesitated. “Can I tell Shamus?
Please
.” She pressed her hands together. “It might, you know, give him ideas.”
    “Not a word.”
    “Okay, okay.” Miming zipping her lips, the other woman said, “Open it before I explode.”
    They crowded around as she lifted the lid to reveal fine white tissue paper. Nestled within was a garment that made all three of them exhale in sheer pleasure. Rather than anything scandalous, Cooper had bought her a thigh-length nightgown in midnight blue, the straps ribbon-thin, the material cut so it would hug her body in all the right places, the fabric itself pure sin.
    “Oh, this makes me want to purr.” Emma rubbed the midnight blue between her fingertips. “I’m dragging Shamus to this store until he gets the hint.”
    Vivienne sighed again. “The man gets serious brownie points for taste.”
    Grace stroked her hand over the garment, in love. She’d never have bought it for herself, would’ve considered it too decadent, too expensive. “Maybe I won’t kill him,” she admitted in a dreamy voice, imagining Cooper’s big, callused hands sliding the straps from her shoulders, his stubbled jaw rough against her skin, his lips possessive.
    Vivienne nudged her shoulder, a knowing gleam in her eye. “Aren’t you going to open the other packages?” She pointed inside the box.
    “No.” Cooper only had a limited store of good behavior, and she was dead certain he’d used it all up on the nightgown.
    Her friends made disappointed sounds, begging pitifully,but Grace held firm, ushering them out the door, and locking it behind the two before returning to the box and surrendering to her own wild curiosity. She’d been right to worry.
    “I would,” she muttered to him later that night, as she straddled him in the backseat of the SUV he’d signed out of the garage, “have to be in a very, very,
very
good mood to put on that teddy. It might as well be made of tissue.” Instead of impossibly delicate red lace that would cup her breasts and glide over her abdomen with no intention of hiding anything.
    Cooper, sprawled half naked and magnificent against the seat, grinned. “I liked the hooks.”
    “That’s because they’re on the back.” Making it clear it wasn’t a garment a woman was meant to either put on or take off by herself. “And what do you call that last piece?”
    “Panties.” Knuckles running down the naked line of her breastbone to her abdomen, exposed due to the fact the sexy male beneath her had talked her into unbuttoning her shirt for him. “Definitely panties.”
    Her thighs clenched. “What exactly is that teeny, tiny scrap of red meant to cover?”
    “Hopefully not much.” He