Wolf and Punishment (The Alaska Princesses Trilogy, Book 1) by Theodora Taylor

football season, but…” She heard him take a deep breath on the other side of the phone. “I want to see you again. Soon. Can I see you again?”
    No, she answered in her mind as any sane person, as any sane princess in her position, should have. But out loud she said, “I’m flying to Chicago in two weeks for a wedding. I was supposed to be there all weekend, but maybe I could leave early and come see you in Colorado?”
    He was now smiling on the other side of the phone. She didn’t have to see him to know it. He was definitely smiling. Smiling big.

6
     
    M AG prided himself on being a pretty patient guy. You didn’t go from Bad Wolf to Denver University without learning the merits of biding your time. But the next two weeks took for fucking ever.
    Calling Janelle every night before he went to bed wasn’t enough. He could barely concentrate at practice, much less get any work done. Any other time he could have fobbed his academic work off on one of the human groupies, but in this case, he was shit out of luck. He had a paper for his Native Wolves Seminar due the Monday after Janelle’s visit, so the work couldn’t be passed on to a human.
    Janelle had gotten all alarmed when he told her about the essay on one of their calls. “Maybe we should postpone my visit,” she’d offered.
    “No, we ain’t postponing nothing,” he’d answered. “I’d rather work my ass off for the rest of the semester to pull the C I need to pass.” He had no intention of missing his only opportunity to see Janelle for the Great Sky God knew how long. He had no idea if or when he could convince her to come down again.
    And when she came walking into the baggage claim area, her wavy hair swinging, her gorgeous brown eyes searching until they lit up upon finding him already standing next to the luggage carousel, he knew he’d made the right call. And some kind of feeling overcame him then. He wasn’t much for romantic comedies. He was more of a Scarface or Die Hard guy— Friday if he was in the mood to laugh. But you’d think he’d been watching Love Actually non-stop the way he ran across that airport and swung her around in his arms before finally letting her slide down his body until her face was in line with his, her feet just a few inches off the floor.
    She laughed, the sound like soft wind chimes under the airport’s fluorescent lights. “You should put me down now.”
    “Give me a kiss first,” he answered.
    She pecked him on the lips. Then glanced around at all the people looking at them.
    “C’mon, you can do better than that. You don’t want me to carry you out of here, do you?”
    He could tell she wasn’t one for public displays of affection, not like his parents, who would climb all over each other, any time, any place, especially if they’d had anything to drink. But to her credit, she laid a good one on him, her lips capturing his in a deep kiss, her tentativeness disappearing as her tongue snaked into his mouth.
    When he set her down a few minutes later, he knew she could feel the proof of how much he’d liked that kiss hard and rigid against her stomach. He took the leather overnight bag hanging off her arm, and put it over his. “You expecting any other bags?” he asked.
    “No, I left my bigger suitcase at O’Hare. The hotel I stayed at has a luggage desk there.”
    “Cool.” He took her hand and started walking toward the parking structure. “I got us a free hotel room. Rafe hooked me up with one at the Wolf Springs Resort.”
    Her face fell, “Oh, I already booked a hotel room at the Denver Grand.”
    “Can you call and cancel? It’ll save you some money.”
    “I don’t think so,” she answered carefully. “I mean the Wolf Springs Resort is so far from here, and I’d much rather stay in Denver. Really I don’t mind spending the money.”
    Yeah, he bet she didn’t if it meant keeping him a secret, but he didn’t say anything until they got to his space in the parking garage.
    She