Hook, Line, and Mated by Jenika Snow

lighting, and then she saw him sitting in one of the far booths in the back. His big body made the table seem childlike. Easton lifted his head and their gazes locked. He stood, all that height and muscle becoming visible. Jessie swallowed past the rising arousal claiming her, and told her serval to stay back, that this wasn’t what today was about.
    And even from the distance she swore she could smell the mating heat coming from him. Or maybe that was coming from her? Maybe she was fighting this too hard? Easton watched her with unrestrained desire in his eyes the closer she came, and when she was sitting down across from him, the heat and electricity all but claiming every square inch of the space, she finally took a breath.
    The deli was small and quaint, and she knew many of the Sweet Water residents came here daily. It was originally owned by two sloth shifters when Jessie had been younger, but she knew there was new management since the sloths had retired. Although the interior was small, it was cozy and the atmosphere eclectic.
    Their waitress, a puma shifter with a big smile and bright brown eyes, stepped up to their table. The scent of her being newly mated filled Jessie’s head, and the sight of the mark she wore on the side of her neck cemented that scent.
    She took their drink and food orders, and then they were left alone. The silence descended around them, and her nerves climbed higher the longer he sat there and stared at her. All that arousal that had been strong inside of her since she opened the door and had seen Easton standing there was now gone, and in its place was her uncertainty, her fear of what she was really going to do with her life now.
    “So.” The glass of water and the condensation dripping down its side seemed overly interesting all of a sudden as her nerves took control.
    “You don’t have to be so nervous around me, Jessie,” Easton said in a comforting, soft , but deep voice.
    She lifted her eyes so she could see him. Dammit, he looks good just sitting there, his white shirt peeking out from under his dark button up shirt. He reminded her of a lumberjack, with the day’s worth of scruff along his cheeks and jaw, of the way his dark hair was messy around his head, and now with his dark, long-sleeved shirt he had on. Even the sight of his dark work boots peeking out from under the table made the whole ax-wielding shifter come into her mind.
    He had the appearance of being relaxed, and maybe he was, but he also looked like he could break someone in half with just his bare hands. And Jessie had no doubts he could actually do that with little effort.
    Jessie reached deep inside, straightened her spine, and decided that being nervous in front of him wasn’t going to get her anywhere, or make her feel any better. “Okay, I can try.”
    The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, but he didn’t make a move to speak. The waitress came back with their drinks and set the glasses beside the water. Easton watching her was quite unnerving, and suddenly she was dying of thirst. She grabbed her water and downed half of it.
    “I want you be relaxed around me, and not worry that I’m going to jump over the table and claim you.”
    She choked on her water after he spoke, and grabbed the napkin he handed her. Jessie wiped off her mouth and neck, looked at him, and saw he grinned.
    “It’s easier said than done.”
    He nodded, and the scent of his empathy was strong.
    “I’ll be honest, it’s hard for me to be like this around you, too.”
    She continued looking at him, a little confused on what he meant. But before she could ask he was speaking again.
    “I’m not used to … caring, I guess would be the right would for it.”
    Jessie could understand what he was saying, and there was a part of her that knew what he meant, at least since Brenna’s passing.
    “I’ve always led my life the way I wanted, and not worried about anything else. My parents are older, retried in Florida, so since