Page 71 of Broken-Hearted

“I’ll make the popcorn.” He gets to his feet. “Let’s save Armageddon for another night.”

Nathan was wrong when he said this wasn’t another stage in romancing Clara Vincent. Because snuggling with him as we eat popcorn and watch a movie?

Consider me romanced.

18

Idoze off on the couch and wake up to a wolf licking my cheek.

I push his big head aside. “Your breath smells, Blackshaw.”

He licks me again, and I bat him aside half-heartedly. With his mouth hanging open in a wolfish grin, he hops off the side of the… hold up.

When did I get off the couch and on the bed?

I lift my head to take in my new position, in bed and the sheets up to my chin. Nathan must have turned the TV off and returned the empty popcorn bowl to the…

My eyes widen.

Clean kitchen.

“You washed the dishes,” I breathe. “After I nearly destroyed it.”

Nathan growls softly at me from beside the front door. The wolf equivalent of get off your ass. The sparkle in his eyes is one I’ve seen many times before. I know what he wants to do, and I want none of it. Not with the drumming of heavy rain hitting the window and door.

“I appreciate you washing up after my kitchen explosion, but it’s raining, Blackshaw. My fur will get wet.”

Not all wolves mind rain. I do. But not because I’m shallow. Wet fur tangles in the rain, and when I shift back, my hair is always a big tangled mess. Martha says I look like a blonde poodle, and she’s not wrong.

He sits on his flank and cocks his head.

I know exactly what he’s thinking.

“I’mnotbeing a girl,” I deny when I’m very much being a girl.

A loud rumble emerges from outside, and I look at the small window. Rain splatters even harder and I instinctively shiver under the covers because it’s going to be freezing out there. I’m not interested in getting soaked. My wolf lets out a mournful whine in my head. She wants to run, but wet fur isn’t a big deal for her because she doesn’t have to deal with the tangles.

Nathan is like one of those happy dogs in a commercial waiting for a kid to throw him a ball. His tail is even wagging, and it’s very hard not to laugh.

“You heard that, right?” I nod at the window. “It’s torrential out there. Why would you want to go out there when you could be warm and cozy?”

His head lowers. So does the tongue hanging out of his mouth.

I hide my smile. “You’re really pathetic, you know that, right?”

He lies down, chin on his paws, the picture of devastation.

Laughing, I get up. “Okay, fine. You can be the one to brush the tangles from my hair, and I promise you, there will be many, many tangles. I will look like a big, blonde, fluffy poodle. If you laugh at me, I’ll kill you.”

He waits beside the door for me to step out of my clothes and sink into a crouch.

I close my eyes and reach for my wolf.

She’s eager to rush out and explore the water-logged world out there. I am less eager. But then again, I am a girl who is a teeny, tiny bit shallow.

Shifting has always come easily to me. I never need to think or stress about shifting. Being a wolf is a part of who I am.

But this time? Naked, on my hands and knees with Nathan watching me…

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