“What is it?” Lewis let me into the honey stand and closed the door behind us. Inside the freshly swept space, I was hit with the smell of honey, vanilla, and all kinds of flowers. He had blooms everywhere around the hives. I was curious about all of it, but even more about the alpha who ran this place.
I smiled through his gruffness. What walls this alpha had built up. I wondered why. “I brought you homemade soup and the items I tried to give you the other day.”
Lewis shook his head. “I told you I…” His ears were beet red, maybe from sunburn.
I instinctively walked over and placed my palm on his forehead. As I suspected, he was burning up.
“Wh-what did you do that for?” I hoped his stammer was a reaction to my touch instead of fever delirium.
I stepped back. “It’s not for free. But I’m sure we could think of a good trade. And I wanted to check if you had a fever.” Oh, goodness, I probably sounded like I was propositioning the alpha. “What I mean is, I hope to buy honey while I am here. Maybe you could give me a deal in exchange for the soup and tea.”
What I claimed had absolutely nothing to do with why I was here. The alpha was under the weather and, while he’d run away from me and my remedies before, I hadn’t been able to shake him from my mind.
My wolf wouldn’t shut up about him either.
One chance meeting, and I knew he was mine.
It would be an uphill battle to get him to admit the same.
“I could do that. I haven’t gotten any better. The cough has lessened, but I feel heavy and tired. Never felt like this before.”
“Do you have anything pressing? Anything that needs to be done immediately?”
He shook his head. “Even if I did, I don’t have the energy.”
He took the bag from my hand, and our fingers brushed again. A buzzing in my veins gave me another confirmation that this alpha was something special. Not that I needed any more confirmation. He was mine.
“Can you shut the store and get some rest?”
His eyes widened as though he’d never considered rest. “I suppose I could.”
“How about I go with you and heat up this soup and make you a cup of tea.”
Those full eyebrows bunched. He did that a lot. Always confused about a person being nice to him. “You would do that for me? You don’t even know me.”
I shrugged one shoulder. I would do a lot of things for this man, if he would let me. “I don’t have to know you to be kind, Lewis. Come on, then. To bed with you.”
I all but pushed him out the back door and discovered he lived in the most adorable three-bedroom cabin about a hundred feet away. The view of the fields and bee hives could’ve been on the cover of a gardening and landscape website.
Lewis opened the door for me and allowed me to go in first. His home was much like the shop. Organized but homey. Clean but comfortable. Bee decorations all over the place, and I suspected those were inherited or given to him. “Welcome to my home.” He scratched at the back of his head.
“Not a lot of visitors?” I asked, making my way to the kitchen.
“Not for a long time. No. Can I help you find anything?” He didn’t wait for me to answer but took a seat on the couch and leaned his elbows on his knees. The poor guy was wrung out.
“I’m good. Why don’t you lie down until I get things heated up?”
No answer, but from the kitchen, I saw him turn and kick his shoes off and lay on the couch. He was so tall that he had to lean his feet on the opposite arm of the sofa. “I can’t remember ever being this tired or sick.”
“We all need rest.”
His breaths changed to a slow rhythm, and I realized that while I puttered around the kitchen, he had fallen asleep.
Above the refrigerator, I found a wooden tray with bees and flowers carved into it. I plated up the soup and made the tea and stirred in dark-golden honey. When I brought it to the living room, I put it on the side table and sat on the edge of the couch.
Shit, I startled him.
“The soup is ready. Want to eat?”
