Page 18 of August

It wasn’t a question, and there was a little bit of defiance in her green eyes, but also sadness.

“I think you want to. I think you’re afraid you’ll never really be safe.” He wiped off his hands and then put his arms around her, drawing her close. She was stiff and unyielding in his arms for a long moment and then she uncrossed her arms and melted into him with a sigh. He kissed the top of her head. “Ginny, tell me the truth.”

“I want to run.”

His heart cracked at the way her voice was so soft and scared.

“Why?”

“Because you’ll also be a target now. If I mate you, if I mark you and you mark me, and my grandfather finds out, then you’ll be marked for death too. He never leaves loose ends.”

“We don’t have to mate each other right now.”

She scoffed and lifted her head, her gaze narrowed. “How long can we really keep our hands off each other?”

“I’ll have you know that I can totally keep my hands to myself, madam.”

She laughed and put her head on his chest. “August, I’m scared.”

“Just don’t run, Ginny. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe, but if you run, I’ll find you, I swear on my life.”

“I know. I…couldn’t sleep last night because I kept trying to talk to my jackal about leaving, but she wants to stay. The thought of leaving you makes me want to barf, but staying makes me panic.”

He hugged her a little tighter. “Don’t barf or panic, okay? If you feel like running, if you get scared or panicky again, you just tell me.”

She lifted her head again and he saw the amber of her jackal in her eyes this time. “I will. I promise.”

He pressed his lips to hers, and when she wiggled in his arms to get closer to him, he cupped the back of her head and deepened the kiss.

Sealing her promise with a kiss seemed like an excellent idea.

August held her hand as they walked across the private living space to the security door that would lead them up to the topside employee cafeteria.

“We don’t have to mate each other,” he said.

“What?”

“If you want to wait, we can. I’m just glad you’re here with me. It’s okay if we don’t move forward like that right now.”

“You want to wait?”

“Hell no, I want to put you over my shoulder and run back home right now.”

She bumped his shoulder with hers and laughed. “I think my jackal would go on strike if I tried to wait too long. But I do want to get to know you a little better first. Hell, we haven’t even been on a date, and as long as my grandfather is probably still planning to hurt me, it’s not like we can just go out to dinner and a movie.”

He’d thought of that, actually, among the million other things banging around in his skull.

“Tonight we’re supposed to have dinner with the band, but I asked Lori to move it to tomorrow so we could go on a date.”

“But we can’t leave the park. Right?”

They reached the security door and she turned away so he could put in the code to unlock it. He hated that he couldn’t share the code with her, but it was one of the rules of the park.

“No, but I’ve got some ideas and I’m going to give you a really great night out.”

She hummed, giving him a curious look. He held the door open for her.

“What? You don’t think I can pull it off?”

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