Page 29 of The Way We Were(wolf)

He bounced a couple times in his chair, an attempt to muster as much enthusiasm as he could. If this was their last night together—who was he kidding? It definitely was their last night together—he wanted it to be a night she’d look back fondly on. Even though he was dressed as a zombie, he didn’t have to act like one.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he chirped and mentally slapped himself. He’d packed way too much faux enthusiasm into that response.

“How do I look?” she asked as she hopped out from behind the wall. With tattered fabric, red-tipped and flowing with each move she made, she should have looked ghastly and unappealing. But he knew there was nothing Lucy could ever wear that wouldn’t make his heart race and palms sweat. Because underneath the ghastly makeup and the frizzy gray wig was a woman who’d never not make his body tingle.

Unless he shifted. There was no telling how he’d react then.

“I think…” The words died on his tongue. He wanted to tell her she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met. That he wanted to be with her forever. That he was going to take time each and every day to think about her so he’d never forget her.

As he watched her twirl and then pose with a hand on her hip like she was a model waiting to for him to capture her photograph from her best angle, a laugh escaped his lips. Like there was any way he was ever going to forget this woman.

“There are no words.” Honestly, there weren’t.

“Right back atcha.” She pointed with finger guns that might as well have been real ones for the way his chest ached.

His eyes went to the clock on the wall. “I think it’s about time to get in our places. What time did you say the judging was?”

“They usually do that first to get it out of the way before the fun begins.”

Perfect. He just had to stay long enough to fulfill his promise, and then he’d get away. Sure, he wanted to spend the evening with her, walk hand in hand past the booths selling candy apples, maybe watch her eat a pumpkin roll as she sipped some hot cocoa. But she’d have to do those things without him—just as she had before. Yes, her life would go back to what it was like before they’d ever met. It had to.

And his… Well, his life would never be the same again.

ChapterTwelve

“We won? Are you serious?” Lucy’s voice echoed in the salon. She stared at the head judge, a portly man who was on the town council.

“You sure did…first prize. Congratulations!” he said as he handed her a check—the prize money she had prayed they would earn so she could, in some small way, pay back her aunt and family for all they’d done for her when she needed it most. And speaking of people who had been there for her when she’d needed it…

“Eric, we did it!” She ran to him, her boots clunking on the checkered floor, and leapt into his open arms. He spun her in a circle, his arms firm and tight around her body. She hoped he’d never let go.

“Youdid it,” he whispered in her ear, sending an army of goosebumps down her neck. She pulled back to look at him. Her feet were still in the air—fitting since she felt like they hadn’t touched the ground since the night they first kissed.

Though he’d seemed a little distant earlier, right now, Eric was really here. In the way his arms locked around her middle. In the way his eyes drew her in, anchoring her to this spot where their bodies were as close as two people could get. In the way she could feel his heart pounding against her chest, its quick beat telling her he felt the charge of this moment as intensely as she did.

As she pushed back a strand of his hair, her fingertips grazed his forehead, turning white from his face paint. She watched the slow bob of his throat and the quickened pace of his breathing as his chest rose and fell as it brushed against hers. This was the moment, her chance to tell him everything she’d kept locked inside her heart, bursting to get out with each passing second.

“Eric,” she began as his hooded eyes homed in on her lips. With a lick of his own and the speed of an animal attacking its prey, he leaned his head forward and claimed her mouth.

Pressed against his body, she felt the tightness of his muscles, seizing like he was physically holding something back. But the urgency of his kiss, the ferocity with which his mouth moved against hers, said he wanted her to have everything he could give.

He pushed his hand up her back, tangling his fingers in her hair. Then he quickly moved it down her neck, to her face, cupping her jaw and stroking her cheek, like a man without his sight, committing every one of her features to memory. But he didn’t need to because what she was about to say would ensure he could see her whenever he wanted. For as long as he wanted. Because he was the one for her.

As though a bucket of cold water fell from above, Eric froze, pulling back and holding his forehead to hers. Their ragged breaths mingled, the manic past few minutes proving more frantic than their lungs could handle.

“You…you’re everything, Lucy. I hope you remember that.”

The words were sweet, but his tone sounded pained. And when she raised her eyes to look at him, her heart fell to her feet. Because this wasn’t the look of a man who was happy. Or in love. The red-rimmed eyes and slackened face certainly didn’t make sense for a man who’d just kissed a woman he was about to confess his feelings to. Not like she’d been about to before he kissed her senseless.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, scared to death to hear the answer.

He looked to the wall behind the welcome desk, his muscles tensing again under her palm. Only, this time, when he looked back, his jaw was set, and his eyes had a sharpness to them that could have cut glass. Though he’d already lowered her to the ground, he still had his arms wrapped around her waist. His fists balled against her back, and his arms flexed against her sides.

“I…I, uh… I need to go.”

“What?” she asked, anger mixing with disbelief—a fiery combination to match the burn in her stomach. She’d known from the start of the night that something was off. But she promised herself that she would listen to her heart instead of her gut. Not that she could really shush it enough not to hear at least a little bit of what it had to say. And in this case, it had been right.

“I just… I need you to know I would do anything for you. You know that, right?”

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