* * *
It was dark by the time Riley stretched in his chair. “I guess I should go,” he said unenthusiastically.
“Guess so,” Jason said, sounding equally reluctant. “I have to patrol later tonight, but I’ll drop by the motel tomorrow morning.”
“Really?” Riley drawled suggestively, bouncing his eyebrows in imitation of Bryce.
Jason sighed as he got to his feet. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to introduce you,” he said. “Next thing I know, you’ll be drinking fruit tea.”
“That’s one thing Iwon’tbe doing,” Riley said. He’d already made that mistake once—accepting a mug of Dave’s fruit tea, then having to quietly tip it out onto the grass when Dave wasn’t looking, because it tasted so bad. Only after he’d done that did Jason think to mention that shifters had an enhanced sense of smell.
But Dave had been cool about it. When Jason had started packing up the leftovers, hindered more than helped by Jesse, who seemed determined to taste everything one last time, Dave had sat with Riley for a while. He was originally from California, and it turned out he and Riley had surfed some of the same beaches when they were younger.
Riley said goodbye to the pack, shaking Urban’s hand and thanking him for his hospitality. Those green eyes were no less alert and assessing, but Urban had felt more approachable, somehow. Or maybe extended exposure to Matt Urban was like desensitization therapy, and Riley simply didn’t have enough adrenaline to spend theentireevening worried for his life.
Thinking that way reminded him why he was really here. “I didn’t meet Karl,” Riley said, as Jason walked him to his car. If Karl was the Argent, maybe they’d kept him hidden.
“He traded patrols with Tristan, so Tristan could stay and have some fun,” Jason said.
So either Karl wasn’t being hidden, or Jason didn’t know the full story. Either way, Riley should probably park his investigation for now and take these last moments with Jason while he could.
Settling back against his car, he hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Jason’s jeans and pulled him in close. “You sure he wouldn’t want to trade patrols with you tonight?” he asked softly into Jason’s ear. Because he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to spend the night with Jason pressed against him.
Jason sighed slightly. “Yeah,” he said. And then he leaned in to kiss Riley. Not the sort of teasing kisses they’d been exchanging earlier, but a long, deep one.
Riley finally pulled away, breathing heavily. “You’re going to kill me,” he said unevenly.
“Not quite what I was going for,” Jason said, taking a step back.
Riley stared at him longingly in the bright moonlight. The moon had just emerged from the veil of clouds behind which it had lingered all evening, and he could see how kiss-bruised Jason’s lips were, and the darkness of desire in his eyes.
“Just one more,” Jason said, moving in close. He pressed a slow, gentle kiss to Riley’s mouth. “Beneath a lover’s moon,” he said as he pulled away.
Riley found he was smiling inanely at Jason’s simple, beautiful statement. “Is that a shifter legend?” he asked.
Jason shook his head. “Not so far as I know. It was something my mom used to sing—a Mexican song. About how a lover’s moon burns clear and true, while a liar’s moon is warped by mist and clouds, and a red moon is a killing moon.” He stopped. “Yeah, doesn’t sound quite so romantic now, does it?”
It didn’t. And it hadn’t escaped Riley’s notice that in the time Jason had taken to explain, the moonlight had once more been distorted by thin clouds across the moon’s face. He shivered,suddenly cold to the very depths of his being. The moon had seen him for what he was. Jason wouldn’t be far behind.
He stepped away from the car, far enough to yank open the door. “I should go,” he said, folding himself into the seat.
As he drove away, he looked in his rearview. Jason was still standing there, shoulders slightly hunched and his hands buried in his pockets, watching Riley like he wanted to leave with him. Riley swallowed hard and put his foot on the gas. He didn’t look back again.
Chapter Twenty-one
JASON
Jason hadn’t wanted the evening to end. Most of his fears hadn’t come true, and those that had, they’d somehow survived. He couldn’t stop thinking about how well Riley had fit in, and how the pack seemed to like him, and how everything was coming together as if it were fated to be perfect. He justknewMatt would invite Riley back again, and maybe, another time, Riley wouldn’t have to leave.
He wandered back around to the yard, ready to help clean up. The only people left were Bryce and Matt, sitting at the table beneath the tree and talking in low voices.
Bryce was the first to see him, and called him over. “Want another beer?” he asked, gesturing at the cooler which still held a couple of bottles.
Jason shook his head. He felt drunk enough on Riley’s kisses. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned tosee Jesse and Tristan playfully chasing one another. Even in the diffused moonlight, Jesse’s coat shone silver.
“Do you think all shifters started off as Argents and then somehow the gene pool got diluted?” Jason asked, aiming his question somewhere between Matt and Bryce.
“You know, if generations of shifter historians haven’t worked that one out, it’s probably not going to happen with two drunk cowboys sitting in their backyard on a summer evening,” Bryce said, and took a swig from his bottle. “That sort of thing keep you up at night? Because I’d have thought with that hot blond in your bed, you’d have better things to focus on.”
