“Yes.” His knuckles whitened and didn’t ease up, not even after we’d parked in front of the cabin and he’d shut off the engine.
I unclicked my seat belt. “You’re second-guessing doing this, aren’t you?”
He finally released his steering wheel and thrust a hand through his dark locks. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”
Disappointment ballooned through me and came out as a sigh. “It’s okay.” I tried to put on a brave front. “At least, this way, you get to keep your pedestal.”
A smile finally gentled the hard line of his mouth. “Nicole Raina Freemont, you are going to be the death of my ego.”
I laughed.
He reached over and pried the hands I was wringing together. As he slotted his fingers through mine, our gazes locked, our breathing quieted. I wasn’t sure how long we sat in the soundless darkness of his car, but it felt all at once like an eternity and a mere handful of heartbeats.
“Are you second-guessing your second-guessing?” Did that even make sense?
“Fuck it.” He set my hand down on the center console and got out of the car.
What didfuck itmean? Did it mean he was in or out? I was about to open my door, but Liam beat me to it. He wrenched it open, then held out his hand. After I’d hopped out, he threaded his fingers through mine, shut his door, and led me over to the cabin.
I guessed he was in.
Chapter 26
Liam lobbed his car keys onto the kitchen counter, then steered us down the dark hallways toward his bedroom. I dropped my bag on the floor, realizing that my eighteen-month-long celibacy was about to end, and not just thanks to some random guy but thanks to my Alpha.
My Alpha who’d gone almost a year without sex. From any other guy, I would’ve assumed it was a lie, but Liam was in charge of a tiny person and a giant pack of werewolves. He probably didn’t have the energy or time for sex.
Once his bedroom door clicked shut, reality set in. He let go of my hand to draw his curtains closed. I admired his fluid, graceful gait from where I stood planted like a sapling in the middle of his bedroom.
When the toes of his boots knocked into mine, I craned my neck. His hands glided down my arms, then over my back, and finally around my neck.
“Is this some strange preliminary Boulder ritual?”
“Just making sure you smell like only one male.”
His proprietorial act exulted the primal part of me. “Perhaps, I should mark you too, then. To rid you of any traces of other females.”
“The only people I smell like is my son and you.” He took my palms and placed them on his pecs. “But go ahead; mark me with your scent.”
His nipples hardened as I coasted my hands over his torso and then around his taut waist and up the acres of muscle and sinew and bone that made up his back. I shut my eyes as I pursued my slow exploration of his form, committing all of him to memory.
“You can look, you know.” His low voice was as heady as the scent wafting off his skin.
Keeping my lids sealed, I murmured, “I’m memorizing your body so I can paint it tomorrow.”
He stiffened, which made my lids cartwheel up.
“I’ll give you a different face to preserve your anonymity.”
After a beat, he said, “Not much anonymity considering the whole pack’s seen me naked.”
My hands stilled. For some reason, I’d forgotten that detail. “Except me.”
“Except you.” His hands slid over the slice of bare skin between my top and the waistband of my skirt. He pressed his forehead to mine. “Do you know that the morning you opened the door to me bare-breasted has been running on a loop in my mind?”
“One of the top-ten most embarrassing moments of my life, on par with my involuntary birthday gift unwrapping.”
His eyes lit up. “Have you used it?”
