Page 38 of Hunter Moon

“Maybe if she’s working tomorrow when I drop by, I’ll ask her if she still wants it. The T-bird was always a finicky thing, but I think she could handle it. She’s a good enough driver.” I didn’t doubt Mrs. Matheson would still be willing to sell it to me. It had been her husband’s midlife-crisis car, and she’d always hated it. I didn’t suspect that had changed in a decade. Probably wouldn’t change in the next three.

Brook snorted but didn’t respond, as Wanda came up with our order. She set down our drinks, then, meeting my eye, put the giant plate of bread pudding in the middle, with two forks sticking out of it. “You’re still in fine shape,” she assured me, “but I hear the metabolism starts to go at your age.”

I scowled at her, narrowing my eyes. “You’re older than me.”

“And I don’t eat two servings of bread pudding at one go,” she shot back. Then she winked at me and sauntered off.

She knew full well it wasn’t all for me. And damn right I was in fine shape. Still passed my PT with flying colors every fucking year. I continued to glare for a moment, then snatched up the fork closest to me and took a big bite.

Aw hell, it was just as good as I remembered. I practically moaned at the taste, and across from me, Brook sighed and grabbed the second fork.

It was quiet while we ate, but Brook kept giving me an alternating evil eye and smiling at the dessert. He also finished a good half of it, so I felt accomplished.

When he leaned on my shoulder as we left the Grille, the wolf in my chest wanted to roll into him, grab him and never let go, but I managed to hold it back, if only just.

Back at the Morgan house, we sat in the car for a while. “I guess I should have asked if you wanted to go somewhere else. I just figured there’s a limit of how much a person wants to see of me at once, maybe.”

“Taking someone else for hot chocolate tomorrow?” His tone was light, but in that way that meant he was deadly serious.

I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned my whole body to look at him. “No. Not unless it’s Harmony or Shiloh or your mom, and only them because I don’t want their anger at me to make your life harder. Okay, and because I like them and wish they weren’t mad at me. But this is you, Brook.”

He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then closed it, his lips twisted to one side in irritation.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pressure you, and if you tell me to go away, I’ll do it. I want to make things right between us, and I know that’s on me. Everything that’s wrong is my fault, and if you need me to spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I will. You’re worth it, a thousand times over.”

The salty scent of tears filled the car, suddenly, Brook staring at me, wide-eyed, his lips pinched together. For a second, I thought I’d done something new and terrible, but then he launched himself forward, pressing his lips to mine, and everything was right in the world.

22

Brook

His hair was short—shorter than it’d been before. Some requirement of the military, probably. But it bent softly under my hand as I held the back of his head and pulled him into me.

At first he felt tentative, unsure if he should be there—like I should’ve been. But Aspen had been there all night, saying sweet things, playing with my fingers across the table, licking whipped cream off the gorgeous diamond of his lips. It felt like it had before, but with a new, desperate edge, like my heart was throbbing outside my body and I needed his gentle hands to keep it going.

I made a soft, desperate sound, and Aspen melted. His lips under mine moved slow. He didn’t take anything more than I gave him, but I wished he would. I shifted in my seat, pushing into him, nipping his lip. I coaxed him open with my tongue, andthere. Thank fuck. Finally.

Aspen’s searingly sweet butterscotch tongue teased mine, licking into my mouth to relearn the shape of it, across my gums, the shape of my lips.

I groaned, my pants too tight at the front as my cock swelled, heavy and hot. With a shiver, I felt the slick between my cheeks. So fast, my body was ready to sing for him, the wolf in my head knocking around, wagging its tail because this was it. Here was my mate.

But I wasn’t ready. When I pulled back enough to catch my breath, Aspen surged forward, ignoring the gear shift pressing into his body so he could touch my side, his rough, callused fingers dragging under the edge of my shirt. He still wasn’t pushing, just wanted more, closer.

His lips brushed across my neck. I heard him breathe in, take my scent deep into his chest, and he moaned in the hollow under my ear. His tongue came out to lick the spot. His teeth teased my earlobe.

I rocked toward him, trying to get closer even with the console between us, instinct winning out over sense for just a second. If I could lose myself in Aspen, nothing else would matter. For a while, everything would be exactly how it’d been when we were teenagers and my first heat was coming on.

I hadn’t had to spend it alone—Aspen dragging me up into one of his secret spots in the woods over Grovetown. He’d been there for me, with his hands and his lips and his incredible cock. Neither one of us had known what the hell we were doing, just that it felt right to be together, even when my parents wanted to shut me away until it passed, because we “weren’t old enough.”

But then he’d left.

Remembering that was like dunking my face into an ice bucket. My breath caught. My body went slack, and Aspen let me go.

We were both out of breath as I sank back against the car door. He was looking at me the same way he had back then, his pupils blown wide, his lips swollen and a little open. It was like he wanted to devour me, and after everything, that should’ve terrified me.

I wasn’t even sure it didn’t.

“I should go inside,” I whispered, feeling guilty all the while because I maybe didn’t want that. But I also wanted to run away, shrink down where he couldn’t find me, and until I figured that out, we couldn’t do this.

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