He shook his head, staring at the ground, seeing something I couldn’t see there.
“Then this place was built. The alphas don’t like it. They hear strange howls on the wind, animals that don’t belong here, maybe don’t belong anywhere. They send us in, and we fail. Have to run on home with our tails between our legs. But then I tell them about you.”
“And how do you know about me?”
“Small town, everyone talks, and anyone who knows me knows that information about Shannon falls on a friendly ear. They tell me about the animals you help, the people you see.” His eyes flicked up, hardening for a moment. “The men you go out with.”
I frowned, backing up but unable to look away from those golden-brown eyes.
“They tell me about Stuart and his problems and the men who are offering him everything he needs, men in that place on the ridge. I tell the alphas about it, let them weigh it all up, those plans they have for me or you, and then…” The same Jai smirk reasserts itself, but just for a moment. “Then they become plans for me and you. I’m not lying to you, not playing. With the pack, I had to work the long game, but I’ve been on this for years, Shannon. Wolves are patient, waiting, ready to strike when the moment comes.” I watched his eyes shine in the low light. “That’s how I got them to make that connection between me and you.”
He moved in closer, slowly, like the predator he is, taking my wrists in gentler hands now, rubbing his thumbs across the soft inner skin, daring me to pull away.
“They can’t take it back now, so if you don’t want to go into that place again, I’ll fight every damn one of them to make sure that doesn’t happen.” His hand stroked through my hair, and damn if I didn’t want to rest my cheek within it. “You’re not there yet, don’t want me like I want you, but, Shan…” I looked up when I heard his voice break. “It’s you, always you for me.”
When he pulled me into his chest, I let him. Because my heart hurt and it eased when I felt him against me. Because drowning in the scent of him, I couldn’t hear my nan’s admonitions. Because when he stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head and I wrapped my arms around him, I could imagine I was back, five years ago and under the gum trees, the sounds of the leaves rustling in my ears.
But this time, he didn’t lay me down. He backed me up against that car of his, the metal cold against my back as he pushed his legs between mine. His kisses started sweet and slow, but neither of us played at that place for long. Jai… His name beat like a pulse in my heart, his groan shuddering through me when I grabbed handfuls of his hair and wound it around my fingers, used it to tug him close. He followed my lead, and his lips became hard, sucking, biting things, his tongue thrusting into my mouth to tangle with mine.
“Shannon.”
We jerked apart at the sound of Rob’s voice, turning to see him standing in the front doorway.
“Take the job or not. No one tells the Bruce women what to do, at any rate.” He shook his head, as if pissed that he’d even tried. “I’m sorry, love, that you felt used. Beth’s…made it clearer why you’d feel that way. Our house is always welcome to you. We’ve always wanted you to feel like you were family.” He lifted a plastic bag full of takeaway containers. “She won’t let you go unless she thinks you’ve got a feed to take with you.”
Jai looked down at me, then moved to take it when I nodded.
“You hurt her…” Rob growled, putting his hand over Jai’s when he grabbed the bag.
“It’s not me that’s doing the hurting, Rob,” he replied. “The pack gets out of my way? I’ll keep her safe forever.”
Chapter 10
So apparently, sitting in the car with someone you’ve just pashed, after some big declarations, is kinda awkward.
I got in the car with Jai, my eyes drawn to his hands as they put the car in gear and then moved around the steering wheel. I couldn’t seem to take all of him in. There was the flex of his thighs as his foot pressed down on the accelerator, the way his rolled up sleeves pushed higher, showing the corded muscles of his forearms. He was just driving, but this felt like some kind of intimate strip tease, where I’d catch tiny little reveals of muscular flesh, and my eyes kept roaming, searching for more.
He took a deep breath, shooting me a sidelong look and then flicked on the indicator, pulling the car off the road. I looked out the windows, just saw grey paddocks everywhere, cast monochrome by the rising moon, and wondered why we’d stopped. Jai unclipped his belt and swivelled around to face me, his leg up on the seat, his body crowding out the window behind him.
“I’ve thought about that night, when you and me… I’ve gone over that memory more times than I can count. I remember your scent and the bonfire fusing together into something sweet and musky, like wild honey. If I think hard enough, I can feel the texture of your skin on my fingertips. I remember those little gasps you made when I kissed you, when I slid my tongue inside you.” He watched me wiggle on my seat with hooded eyes. “Your scent right now, that kiss back there… I want to take you up those wooden stairs I hear you climb at night, strip you of those damn clothes, and reacquaint myself with every inch of that body I got to see so briefly that night. I want to bury myself so deep in you, we won’t know where I end and you start.”
He watched my throat bob as I swallowed, my mouth suddenly bone-dry as I saw every bloody thing he described, clear in my mind.
“If you drop me home, we’re going to do just that,” I said, part warning, part promise. I wanted him to call my bluff, slam the car in gear, and slide his hand up my thigh as we drove home.
And I didn’t.
If we were going to do this… I couldn’t complete the sentence, my brain pretty much stalling on that. I’d built so many roadblocks to the idea, sick to hell of mooning around, waiting for Jai Heller to want to be with me, that I was going to need some time to deconstruct them.
Time… His eyes tracked every move of my lips, the way I bit them when I realised what we needed to do, my tongue slipping out to try and soothe the abused flesh. How was I going to tell the man I’d been obsessing about for much of my adult life we had to take things slow?
“So we shouldn’t go home then,” he replied finally. “I…I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but I need to do this properly. Take you out, go slow—”
“Get to know each other?” I said.
“Yeah, that.” He frowned for a second. “Seems ridiculous to say about someone I grew up with but… You went away after graduation. You came to some of the gatherings and would show your face when you needed to, but it was like you were already gone. You talked less, smiled less, ate less.”
“Well, that part’s because if I ate like you lot, my arse would get even fatter.”
He let out a low growl at that, a pleased smile spreading across his face.
“What?”
“I like your arse just as it is, maybe a little plumper.” I reached across and belted him on the arm, which just had him laughing. “I’ve got an idea where we should go. Beth’d kill me if I didn’t make sure you had something to eat, and it’s in public, so we’ll keep our clothes on.”