Thirty minutes later, Cody turned off the music and illuminated the overhead fluorescent lights to signal that the bar was closed, and it was time for everyone to clear out. The customers squinted their eyes at the glare, scurrying to get out of the harsh light.
I held my position at the end of the bar until the place was empty. My ears rang from the sudden quiet. Cody wouldn’t kick me out, and I wasn’t leaving without my mate. His own mate had left right before last call–I’d seen Cody carry her out to her car before he returned to finish up. He’d come back with a smile on his face, and I knew it wasn’t only some of his customers who were gonna get lucky tonight.
I just hoped I could figure out how to convince Summer that I’d make her the luckiest woman in the fucking world if she left with me.
After everyone but the employees were gone, I stood from my position and pitched in with the cleanup, helping Summer to bus the dirty glasses and toss the empty bottles into the recycling bin. I picked up and hauled the full recycling container out back, forgetting to make it look heavy. I could get away with showing more strength than most wolves on account of my size. When I came back in, Summer had a large push broom and was sweeping the floor with it.
I gently took it from her hands, waited for her to meet my eyes. “I got this, Summer.”
I wanted to touch her. Desperately. But still, I bided my time. She was on the clock. The sooner I helped her finish here, the sooner I could ask if I could take her home.
I made quick work of sweeping all the trash from the floor–and damn, there was a lot of trash! I guessed when the lights were low, people didn’t think twice about throwing shit underfoot. When I finished, I hauled two full trash barrels out to the dumpster in the back of the lot, one in each hand, and returned to wash up in the bathroom.
When I came back out into the main bar area, my hands damp, there she was.
I stopped two feet from her. Looked down at her. Waited. Waited. Breathed in her sweet scent. Fucking waited.
“Okay,” she said.
I frowned. “Okay?”
“Okay, I give you permission to touch me.”
With a gentle touch, I lifted her up onto the bar–fuck, was she light–so we were eye to eye. Setting my hands on her knees, I parted them and stepped between.
Her eyes were wide with surprise, not fear.
I cupped her face, sliding my calloused thumbs over her silky cheeks. Then leaned in and kissed her.
4
SUMMER
* * *
Wow. WOW.
I’d never been kissed like this. Equal parts reverent and fierce. Boone’s mouth was soft, but his kiss potent. I gasped, and his tongue found mine. Tangled.
Lush licks, gentle angling of my head where he wanted me, our mouths mated. God, his tongue was thrusting in my mouth like I imagined his cock would my pussy.
If he could kiss my lips like this, I wondered what he could do lower with his head between my thighs. I’d heard of beard burn being a thing, but it was happening. My pussy clenched in anticipation.
I hooked my heels into his butt and pulled him closer. Felt the heat radiate off him. Breathed in his scent. Like woods and pine and clean soap.
His hands slid down to my neck, cupped me there, then lower to my shoulders, then down my arms, as if learning me, all the while his mouth was on mine.
The initial surprise was gone, and need took over. My fingers tangled in his soft flannel and gripped, afraid I’d float away if I didn’t hang on. Afraid he’d stop. His body was hard. Muscular. Sturdy.
“Boone,” I whispered, when he kissed along my jaw to right behind my ear. His beard was soft against my skin.
Oh. That spot made me shiver.
I tilted my head, lifted my hips off the bar to rub against him. I’d never been so aroused in my life. Not in all the years I’d been married. Not ever. And Boone and I had all our clothes on and–
A throat cleared. Then again.
It wasn’t me. It wasn’t Boone.
