That's not an answer.
I take a step toward her."Henrietta."
She looks up at me, and the space between us feels smaller than it did a second ago.The bond hums under my skin, steady and insistent, and for once I don't fight it.
"What is it?Did something happen?Are people treating you badly in town?”I’ve started hearing snide comments about her and the Romero clan.
"Nothing.I just—" She stops.Starts again."You fed me.When I was little.You took care of me."
"Yes."
"And then you—" Her voice cracks slightly."Why did you turn my father in if you cared about me?Why did you say those things about him, when you didn’t even know what he was really doing?He wasn’t dealing drugs.He had just purchased some healing herbs, that was all."
There it is.
I could tell her.Right now.I could tell her what her father was actually doing in those woods, and what I found, and what I destroyed before I reported him, and why he's alive at all.
But she loved him.And he's dead.And the truth would just be one more thing taken from her.
"I had to," I say instead.
It's not enough, but it’s all I can give her.
She steps closer.We're standing in the clearing, both naked, both pretending we're not aware of it, and the sunlight is warm on my shoulders and her eyes are locked on mine.
"I don't know what to do with you," she says.
I smile ruefully, aching with need."Join the club."
“Maybe…” she sighs.“The proximity thing doesn’t seem to be working yet.Fighting this intense desire, all the time – it’s exhausting.”
“Intense desire, you say?”I arch an eyebrow.
“Intense desire to kick your ass,” she shoots back.
I should just brush this off, but I can’t lie to her.“I also have been dealing with some pretty intense desires.I can’t sleep.I can’t focus.All I can think about is how much I want to be with you.My brothers are definitely catching on.”
“Well, we can’t have that,” she murmurs, and takes a step closer to me, and then another one.“Maybe if the proximity isn’t working…maybe we just need one night together, to get it out of our system.”She looks at me, vulnerable, lips parted.“What do you think?”
And then somehow — I don't know which one of us moves first — we're kissing.
Her mouth is soft and fierce at the same time, and my hands find her waist and pull her against me, and she makes a sound that goes straight through my chest.The bond flares hot and bright and my wolf is somewhere in the back of my mind doing victory laps.
We sink down onto the moss together.Her hands are in my hair, my mouth is on her throat, and she arches against me with her head tipped back and the sunlight caught in her hair.I can feel every place we're touching — her thigh against mine, her fingers digging into my shoulders, the soft curve of her hip under my palm.
This is a terrible idea.
I don't care.
Her skin is warm under my hands.I trace the curve of her waist, her hip, and she shivers and pulls me closer.Her mouth finds mine again and the kiss deepens, slower this time, deliberate.She tastes like want and something sweeter underneath it, and I can't get enough.
I pull back just enough to look at her.Her hair is spread across the moss, her cheeks flushed, her eyes dark and fixed on mine.
"Andrew," she says, and it's not a question.
I kiss her throat, the hollow at the base of it, the soft skin just below her ear.She makes a sound that drives my wolf insane.Her hands move down my back, her nails dragging lightly, and I groan against her shoulder.
"We should stop," I say, not meaning it even a little.
