“Are you going tojump?”
My heart skipped a beat at Leo’s low voice and the gentle wave of his sweet cardamom scent. It was so intoxicating it made me want to wrap myself around his body…or at least steal his clothes for my nest.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask where he’d been earlier, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“I was planning on it. I’m just a little nervous. Which is silly,” I hurriedly tacked on.
“Nah, it can be scary if you’ve never done it before. Do you want help?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll hold your hand as you jump. Keep you safe.”
My cheeks flushed, and it had nothing to do with the heat from the bonfires.
“Okay.” Sparks of electricity shot through me when his warm, strong hand surrounded mine.
He led me over to a bonfire—one of the smaller ones—and squeezed my hand. I tilted my head back to meet his gaze, my fingers itching to run through his dark curls.
“When you jump over, you leave all the burdens of the past year behind. They’re burned away, and you enter the new year cleansed.”
“That’s what I want.”
He nodded. “Together?”
“Together.”
We took a running start, and it was only Leo’s hand in mine that kept me from stopping when we approached the fire. I let out a little squeak and leapt. It only took a second, but when my feet hit the ground after clearing the flames, something had shifted inside me. The heaviness I’d been carrying, the grief at the unexpected ways my life had turned out, faded into the curls of smoke.
I beamed at Leo, but my smile faltered at the flash of pain on his face. He quickly masked it, but he was standing at an odd angle, with one knee slightly bent.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He smiled, but it was strained. “Of course.”
I opened my mouth to push further but completely lost my train of thought when he reached up and tucked a lock of my windswept hair behind my ear. It took everything in me to stop from jumping up and down at his attention. I perfumed, my scent filling the air, and I hoped his beta sense of smell wasn’t strong enough to pick it up.
“You made it over,” he said.
“Thanks for helping me be brave.”
His fingers skimmed along my jaw. “You’re always brave, Lucy.”
Later that night, when I was curled up in my nest, his words echoed in my mind.You’re always brave, Lucy.
It wasn’t true, but for Leo, I wanted it to be.
2
Leo
I gritted my teeth asI parked in the alley behind my shop. I turned off my car and was engulfed in darkness. I didn’t know if I should smash my head against the headrest or scream into the silence.
I had acted like such a fucking idiot tonight. When I saw Lucy sitting with my family, I’d hidden behind a booth and just watched. Because I lost my mind whenever I was around her. Because my family was sure to bring up the massive crush I had on her, and I wasn’t ready for her to know yet.
I raised my hand to my face and breathed in deeply, trying to catch a hint of Lucy’s scent on my skin, but there was nothing.
You’re so fucking pathetic.
