Page 46 of Knotting With A Stranger

My thoughts drift to Lily; how easily we get along, as though we’ve known each other for years. Yet, I still barely know her. Though, I want to know everything.

Hunter’s mouth quirks. “Wouldn’t tell me shit when I asked yesterday, but they were eye fucking each other last night by the fire. There’s something there.”

“She could be your relative,” I suggest with deliberate nonchalance.

Hunter’s face sours instantly. “That fucking photo doesn’t mean a goddamn thing. Her grandmother standing next to Pop in some ancient snap proves exactly jack shit.”

I chuckle at his vehemence. “I get it. I’d be pissed too if I lost my shot with a girl who looks like that.”

“You’re a real asshole, you know that?” Hunter flips me off, but there’s no heat in it. “Besides, she’s way too sweet for any of us.”

“Not your type?”

“She’s a dream, and I’d even share her with you two ugly bastards to be with someone like that.” As he heads for the door, his words circle in my mind… We’d once shared a girlfriend when we were younger until she moved out of town. “Want anything from the kitchen? Besides your dignity?”

“Black coffee. And fuck you very much.”

“Love you too, princess,” he calls over his shoulder, the door clicking shut behind him.

Alone again, I lean closer to the glass, squinting at a peculiar marking. A boulder? A building? A goddamn Rorschach test? This map is deliberately obtuse.

The door creaks open to the room.

“Either Grandpa was secretly a modern pirate, or this is where he buried all those terrible Christmas sweaters,” I mutter, assuming Hunter has returned.

“I’d vote for the sweaters. No one disappears that many reindeer cardigans without a plan.”

I jerk my head up at the unexpected female voice. Lily stands in the doorway, one hip cocked against the frame, arms crossed over her chest. The firelight behind me casts her in silhouette, but I can make out the challenging tilt of her chin, the wild curls framing her face like a dark halo.

Thor is on his feet before I can respond, his massive form bounding across the room with a speed that belies his size. The same animal who once held an intruder at bay for three hours without so much as blinking now whines like a puppy, his tail sweeping the floor as he reaches Lily.

“Well, hello to you too, handsome,” she croons, dropping to her knees. Her tone shifts to that ridiculous baby-talk females reserve for animals and infants. “Who’s the goodest, fluffiest mountain wolf? Is it you? I think it is!”

Thor, the traitorous bastard, flops onto his back, exposing his belly—a vulnerability he shows to precisely no one. His tongue lolls from the side of his mouth, and I swear to god he’s grinning.

“Christ,” I mutter. “Eighty pounds of muscle and tooth reduced to jelly by a head scratch.”

Lily glances up at me, still running her fingers through Thor’s thick fur. “Jealous?”

The question hangs between us, loaded with possibilities. I lean back against the desk, crossing my arms to mirror her earlier stance.

“Should I be?”

She rises to her feet in a fluid motion that draws my eye from her white sneakers, up the denim clinging to shapely legs, past the narrow waist to the casual long-sleeve shirt with a neckline that teases rather than reveals. Her hair falls in chaotic spirals past her shoulders, several shades of brown mingling together like the inside of an expensive chocolate.

She strides into the room, Thor padding beside her like an oversized shadow.

“What’s with the glass table?” she asks, sidestepping my question as she approaches. “Secret plans to take over the world?”

“Half a treasure map for this property,” I reply, watching her reaction.

Her step falters. “You’re shitting me. A real one?”

“I shit you not.”

She approaches with newfound caution, as if the map might rear up and bite. “Like, a real X-marks-the-spot treasure map? Pieces of eight? Buried chests? The whole Pirates of the Caribbean deal?”

“Well, no X yet,” I admit, shifting to make room for her beside me. “That’s probably on the other half.”

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