JAKE
Present day
I staredat the message on my phone, not really seeing it after having read it four times already.
“All right?” Max walked into the kitchen, gaze zeroing in on my phone. His eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
I tilted my screen so he could read it.
Xen:Come to the pack house at 12pm on Saturday. Alpha Frost is bringing Myla. There’s things we need to discuss.
“Fuck.” Max handed my phone back, fingers brushing against mine, and my heart skipped at the stolen touch.
Because that was all we had now.
It’d been over two months since I’d had his mouth on mine, felt the raw strength in his naked body as we chased a release that had seemed so easy at the time. Looking back, I could kick myself for not appreciating how precious it was.
“I guess enough time’s past for Myla to move on and not cause upset in their pack.”
Max grunted. “I thought we’d have a little longer yet.”
I sighed. “Me too.”
With all the trouble with Axel and Vai Zh’alek, there’d been no time to investigate Faris’s death or look into the old pack laws to see if anything there could help us. Essentially we were still at square one, and the text burning a hole in my phone was a stark reminder that time was running out.
We might’ve been preoccupied with keeping Axel alive, but Xen and Frost had their own agenda. They didn’t give a shit about the fae, even honorary members of Rys’s pack.
“Want me to come with you?” Max asked. The vulnerability in his brown eyes hurt my heart because as much as I wanted to take him with me, I couldn’t.
And he knew it.
It was hard enough trying to get to a place where I didn’t want to wrap my arms around him every chance I got. Where even a faint trace of his scent made my body light up like I was on fire. I wouldn’t be able to hide any of that from one alpha, let alone two.
“Thank you, but I think I need to go on my own.”
He nodded, resignation stealing the smile that I’d got used to seeing. Even if it appeared less and less these days.
“Hey.” I caught his hand as he went to walk past me. “You know I want you there, right? That if there was any way I could take you and not give away the fact that I want to kiss you every ten seconds, then I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Max’s lips twitched, the mischievous glint returning to his eyes as his fingers closed around mine. “Every ten seconds, huh?”
I smirked. “Every five when you’re dressed like that.” He wore a pair of charcoal-coloured trousers that hugged his arse and thighs, showcasing muscles that made me want to rub up against him. His white shirt was just this side of snug, and I let go of his hand to stroke along the bulge of his biceps.
Max sucked in a breath. The way his eyes darkened told me we were headed into dangerous territory, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull away. We’d been so good at keeping our distance, at keeping our relationship as platonic as we could manage.
But Imissedhim.
Missed what we’d only got a taste of.
I wanted more and I knew with every fibre of my being that he did too.
“Jake,” he breathed. My name never sounded better than it did in Max’s gravel-rough tones. When his control was at its limit.
His hands found their way to my hips, deft fingers sliding up under my T-shirt, searching for bare skin. When he found it, I closed my eyes and touched my forehead to his, my shaky inhale not the only one in the quiet of our kitchen.
Our bodies weren’t quite touching, we knew better than that, but I still felt every inch of his warmth as if he’d wrapped those big arms of his around me and tugged me close.
To my surprise he laughed. Shoulders shaking under my hands. “Pretty sure this isn’t how mostfriendsbehave.”
