All the warmth extinguished from her face, where color was still high in her cheeks and her lips still soft from his. She blinked once, as if trying to resurface. Her expression closed, like a door shutting quietly so no one would notice. She took a step back, severing all contact.
It felt like an endless fall into cold air.
“Sure.” A small, careful shrug. She tucked her hands into her pockets. “Of course.”
Her scent, that fantastic, maddening scent, was suddenly marred by shame and bitterness. He cupped her face in his hands before she could retreat any further. “No, no, no.” He brushed a kiss to her mouth, then her cheekbone, then her mouth again. “It’s not like that.”
“You don’t have to explain anything.” Her voice was even, almost convincing. “It’s all good.” But her eyes stayed down.
“Look at me, Zoe.”
She did. And he understood, suddenly and completely, why people wrote entire poems about drowning in someone’s eyes because hers held every feeling she was trying to hide, and all he wanted was to stay in them until he’d smoothed every one. “You think I want to go?”
A small shrug that didn’t fool him for a second. “You said so. Which, again, is completely okay.”
“Moonbeam,” he let out on a sigh, barely registering the name that had slipped out rough and unplanned. He held her face steady, making sure she was looking at him. “If I stay a single minute longer, if I let the taste of you, the scent of you, the heat of you get any more into me....” He shook his head, searching for words that would explain without frightening her. “The longer I stay, the harder it will be to leave. And you deserve better than a man who lost his head in a basement on a random evening.”
She was quiet for a moment, reading him. Seemingly forever. Then something in her face softened—not fully convinced, but willing. “Okay,” she said. Then, smaller. “Would it...” She paused, reconsidered, and said it anyway, almost shy with it. “Would it be terrible if we lost our heads?”
He stared at her.
The wolf lunged for her; the man grabbed it by the scruff and held on. “No. It would be too soon, though.”
Her mouth curved, a little reluctant, a little charmed. She nodded. “I guess you’re right.” Then, after a breath: “It’s just... strong. And there’s very little reason for it. That’s not really how I operate.”
“Tell me about it.” He exhaled and looked at the ceiling for a moment, having a very direct and unfriendly internal conversation—fight—with his wolf. “Alright. Let’s both take a breath.”
His wolf snarled a very sincerewhat the fuck is wrong with you, and while he agreed wholeheartedly, he had to be levelheaded.
“Do you regret it?” she asked, blurted, really, like the question had been sitting too heavy to swallow.
“I wouldn’t regret it in a thousand lives.”
A small, slightly self-conscious smile bloomed. “Okay.”
“You?”
Her eyebrow lifted, the smile turning just a little cheeky. “Do I really need to tell you?”
“Feelings can be complicated and misleading. What you feel in the moment isn’t always what you think in the morning.”
She considered that seriously, which he appreciated. “Then no. I don’t. I do regret saying goodbye this soon, though.”
There was no way, not a single functioning nerve in his body, that could stop him from pulling her into his arms. He held her there, her cheek against his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head. He felt her exhale, like she was letting something go.
“So do I,” he said into her hair. “But I’ll see you soon. That’s a promise, not a courtesy.”
He kissed the crown of her head and made himself step back. Turned toward the stairs. Made it three steps before he turned around again, taking her hands in his. “Full moon’s in two days.”
“Okay.”
“Spend it with me. In the forest.”
“Aren’t you going to the Oread’s Letha celebration?”
“Not on a full moon. But I’ll come if you have plans to be there. Your choice.” He meant it. Everything had to be her choice.
She held his gaze for a long moment, something turning quietly in her head. Then she smiled. “I wasn’t really planning on going. I swing by for Jade, but I never last more than thirty minutes. Not really a huge-party person.” A small pause. “So, yes. I’ll come to the forest.”
