Immediately the rough warmth of his lips withdrew, left a mark of cold. She shivered, shrank deeper into her coat. She ducked her head. He had never been angry with her before, but this… She hadn’t meant to tease. She’d gotten carried away. His stupid smoldering eyes. His stupid make-out skills. His stupid way he looked at her, as though she were one of the wonders of the modern world.
“Hey.” His warm hand tipped up her chin, and his touch was gentle as ever. “I’m sorry. You’re right. This isn’t the place.”
Relief, gratitude flooded her chest. Tears flooded her eyes. She forced herself to scoot back on the blanket, and Ezra did the same.
“Willow?”
“It’s just…you’re not mad.”
“That was at least as much my fault as yours.”
“But I mean, you’re not mad that I said no.”
He made a sort of choking sound. “We’re in a public park on our third date.”
“Well…”
His snarl was filled with sudden rage, but again Willow knew the anger wasn’t toward her. “If any vanilla lowlife ever made you doanythingyou didn’t want to do—”
Willow reached out and gripped his shoulders before she knew what she was doing. “Shhh, no, Ezra, no man’s ever made me do anything. I’ve been pressured and I’ve said no, and that’s it. I haven’t been assaulted, not ever, I promise.”
He nodded, shut his eyes.
Once more, not understanding the instinct that told her to, Willow said, “Shhhh.”
Ezra’s chest caved with a quiet sigh. He opened his eyes. “Sorry. That was over the top.”
“It’s okay, really.”
He ran his palm over his hair. “So…since I’ve told you so much already… If you ask my pack, my protective instincts toward you are off the charts even for a wolf.”
“How could they possibly know that? They’ve never seen us together.”
“They can smell it.”
Right. Enhanced sense of smell. Butenhanceddidn’t begin to cover this. She wanted to poke for more info, but not until Ezra had fully composed himself. She scooted on her knees, then sat beside him and rubbed a slow circle on his back.
“Mm,” he rumbled quietly. “Thanks.” After a minute, he looked down at her, curiosity crimping his mouth. “How do you know to do that?”
“What do you mean?”
“When my anxiety hits hard, it helps for somebody just to touch me. Close friends know they can help bring me down with a hand on my back.”
“Oh.” She kept her hand between his shoulder blades, rubbed up and down. “Well, it just feels like what you need right now. I didn’t stop to analyze—which is weird for me, now that you mention it.”
“Wow,” he said.
“Are you anxious right now?”
“No, just riled up, but it looks like the cure’s the same for both.”
For a while they sat on the blanket, knees drawn up, Willow’s hand on his back. She rested her head against his arm. She flushed to remember how she’d felt with the power of his arms around her, the pleasure of his lips on her skin. But sitting beside him, offering an anchor back to himself—this brought her no smaller happiness, only a different sort.
“I need to explain something,” he said at last. “Before Saturday.”
“Explanations are always a good thing.”
“The safety you feel with me, it’s because of…us. You’re not going to feel it right away with every wolf.”
