“This is a terrible idea,” I managed, even as I leaned closer.
“The worst,” he agreed, eyes dropping to my mouth.
We hovered there, suspended in that moment of inevitable surrender. Both breathing too hard. Both fighting a battle we’d already lost. The electricity between us built with each sharedbreath, each tiny shift that brought us closer, until I could taste the promise of his kiss in the air between us.
“Tell me to leave, Lina.” His voice was barely human now, raw with need and desperation. “Tell me to go and I will.”
The smart thing would be to send him away. To remember his warning, to think about the wounds that suggested impossible things, to protect myself from whatever danger he claimed to bring. The smart thing would be to step back, to demand answers, to call those cops I’d threatened to call.
Instead, I looked into those gray eyes that haunted my dreams and said the only word that mattered.
“Stay.”
7
— • —
Knox
I was fighting a losing battle with my cock, and the fact that Lina was currently kneeling between my spread thighs wasn’t helping. At all.
She was focused on cleaning a particularly nasty gash on my ribs, her small hands gentle but efficient. Every careful touch sent electricity through my body that had nothing to do with our mate bond and everything to do with the position we were in. All I could think about was how easy it would be to grab her hips and pull her closer. To show her exactly what she was doing to me with those careful touches and that concentrated furrow between her brows.
Fuck.
I gripped the couch cushions hard enough to feel the fabric strain under my fingers, trying to think about literally anythingexcept the woman currently driving me insane. Tax forms. Traffic jams. That time Cole got food poisoning and spent three days describing his symptoms in graphic detail. Nothing worked.
My wolf was practically vibrating under my skin, demanding I claim what was ours. The beast had been restless since I’d left her shop earlier, pacing and snarling about leaving our mate unprotected. Now that we were here, with her this close, smelling of honey and coffee andmine, it wanted nothing more than to complete what we’d started.
Not yet, I told it.She doesn’t even know what we are.
The wolf didn’t give a shit about logic. It just wanted.
“You were out there,” she said quietly, peeling my ruined shirt away. The fabric stuck to the wounds, making me hiss. “During the attack. These are from-”
“Don’t.” I caught her wrist through the fabric, gentle but firm. “Please.”
I couldn’t let her finish that thought. Couldn’t let her connect the dots between the wounds and the beasts. Not yet. Maybe not ever. The look in her eyes stopped any further questions though. She saw my desperation, my fear for her, and let it go.
For now.
It had been weeks since I’d walked into her coffee shop and fucked up my entire life in the span of thirty seconds. I’d arrived in Pine Valley incognito, tracking a pack of rogues that had been causing problems along the coast. Simple mission that anyAlpha worth his title should be able to handle. Wait for them to make their move, neutralize the threat, prove I was still capable of protecting our territory after... after Blake.
My brother’s face flashed through my mind and I shoved it down. Not now. I couldn’t think about my failures now.
The plan had been straightforward. Set up in the local hotel with Noah, Cole, and Hunt. Scout the town. Establish patterns. Wait for the rogues to show themselves. Quick, clean, efficient. Exactly the kind of mission that would remind my pack that I was still their Alpha, still strong enough to lead despite what the whispers said.
Instead, I’d walked into Winters’ Books & Brews and seen HER.
The memory hit me with perfect clarity. The bell chiming as I entered. The scent of coffee and old paper. And then her, behind the counter, arranging a display of bookmarks with intense concentration. Dark hair piled in a messy bun, one strand falling across her cheek. When she’d turned at the sound of the bell, our eyes had met and she’d dropped an entire armful of books.
The crash had been spectacular. Books scattered everywhere while her face turned the most amazing shade of red. She’d immediately dropped to her knees to gather them, muttering apologies to the books themselves, and I’d stood there frozen because my wolf had suddenly perked up in a way it never had before.
Interested. That’s what it had been. For the first time since Blake died, my wolf was interested in life beyond guilt and pack business.
“Books? Yes! I mean, we have books. Many books,” she’d said, scrambling to her feet with her arms full of paperbacks, and I’d been gone. Completely, utterly gone.
One look. That’s all it took. One fucking look and I was addicted.
