We didn’t talk afterthat.
The tight coil of mountain roads lengthened and straightened as we approached the glowing inn. I was thankful there were guests. I wouldn’t have wanted to go back to a silent, dark place. I had enough silence and darkness inside ofme.
After parking in front of the revolving glass doors, August draped my uncle’s limp arm over his broad shoulder and heaved him into the lobby. I grabbed the master key from the small office behind the bell desk and led the way up to my uncle’s private apartment on the first floor. Jeb’s place wasn’t as grand as Everest’s attic dwelling, but it was still vast—my uncle and aunt’s closet alone was the size of my entirebedroom.
After August laid my uncle in bed, I pulled off Jeb’s shoes, tucked a blanket around him, and then turned off the lights. My nostrils itched with the scent of Lucy’s prized potpourri. How could Jeb stand it? I’d had to put mine out on the patio, which angered my already pissyaunt.
I wondered briefly what sort of accommodations Eric had given her in his basement. Did it make me a terrible person to hope she was lying on the cold, hard floor? The image of her standing over Evelyn tied to a chair made me ball my fists. How I hatedLucy. . .
“You can talk to me, you know.” August’s voice made me look away from the mason jars filled with desiccated rose petals adorning the stone chimneymantle.
I wasn’t going to ruin August’s one night with his parents. “You should go.” I started leading the way back toward thedoor.
“Ness—”
“Please, August. I don’t want to talk anymore. I just want to watch TV until my eyesbleed.”
He exited the bedroom, and I closed the door and pocketed the key. We walked back down the flight of wooden stairs decorated with an evergreen-coloredrunner.
At the foot of the stairs, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss against August’s stubble. “Have a safe trip. And call me from time to time, okay?” I smiled at him before hurrying toward my bedroom, feeling the invisible rope thinout.
“Ness,” August called out again, but I didn’tstop.
The tether weakened some more, becoming as insubstantial as a spider webfilament.
I took it August wasgone.
A pang of sadness hit me as I realized I wouldn’t see him again for months. But it was better this way. Better foreveryone.
3
Liam arrivedat one in the morning. I’d been just about to drift off when I heard him knock and call out myname.
The second I let him in, his arms came around me, his head dipped to the curve of my neck, and he inhaled me. “You smell like him. I hate that you smell likehim.”
I was startled to hear him say this considering I’d soaked in a scalding bubble bath until the water grew cold. I’d even washed my hair. I guessed soap couldn’t remedy the magical mating scent. Come tomorrow, it would no longer be a problem, though. I couldn’t smell like someone who was thousands of milesaway.
Liam licked the spot he was nuzzling and then dragged his tongue up the column of my neck, making me shiver. Was he trying to layer his scent overAugust’s?
He backed me into the room, lips crashing down against mine, hard and demanding. Even though I was worn out, I answered with as much fervor as I couldmuster.
When my calves hit the side of the bed, I pressed my hands against his chest and unglued my lips from his. “I might smell like August, but you smell like every male in ourpack.”
He glanced down at his bloodied shirt, tore it off, chucked it on the floor by my flannel armchair, kicked off his jeans, and finally dropped his underwear. Naked, he turned and headed toward mybathroom.
Water gushed, and the rings on my shower curtain clinked against the rod. I didn’t move. Barely dared breathe. Even my heart held perfectly still. Liam was naked—not for the first time—and taking a shower in mybathroom.
I still hadn’t moved when he came back out, a towel wrapped around his carved waist. He smiled brazenly as he observed my perplexed expression. And then he cradled my face in his hands and kissed me deeply, sweetly,thoroughly.
His hands left my face and raked up and down my arms that were hanging limply at my sides. I should probably have gripped his waist or clawed his back or done something with my fingers, but I couldn’t get them to move. I’d never been intimate with a man and was feeling a ton of conflicting feelings from edginess to fear to excitement toguilt.
All of them made sense, except the guilt. August’s face flashed through my mind, and my stomach tightened. I squeezed my lids shut, willing his face to vanish, willing the tension in my gut torecede.
“I can’t do it, Liam,” I said,breathless.
“Can’t dowhat?”
My cheeks burned. “Have sex. I can’t. Not tonight.” My breaths were coming out in short spurts. I was having a full-fledged anxietyattack.
