Page 102 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

I squirmed a little on the rocky floor of the cave and adjusted my shirt, which was tucked under my head like a pillow. I hadn’t put it there, which meant that at some point after I’d passed out cold from our marathon lovemaking session, he’d done his best to see to my needs. The knowledge that he’d cared enough to see to my comfort left me smiling and my stomach feeling a bit like someone had released butterflies in it.

Falling for him was going to be way easier than it should have been. Truth was, I’d already fallen for him way more than I should have. I didn’t live the type of life I could involve someone else in. Then there was the fact that I was a single mother. I didn’t bring men around my daughter or my niece. Neither did Mina.

I didn’t make a habit of talking about my daughter to men who I hooked up with over the years. There was no point. I wasn’t looking for anything long-term, so disclosing that I had a child was pointless. Most of them were just one-and-done meetups that I used to help take the edge off my wolf side. And none of them knew the truth about what I was.

However, Jonathan was different. He knew I was something more than human, and so was he. I wasn’t entirely sure what he was yet, but I did know he was supernatural. I’d seen his eyes glow.

The cave floor was anything but soft and comfortable, and I winced as an uneven, rocky patch dug into my hip.

Jonathan stirred and kissed my shoulder, pulling me tighter against him. “You all right?”

“I wish I could say this is my first time waking up on the ground since I was bitten, but it’s not,” I confessed. “For the first four years, I couldn’t really control what was happening to my body. So if I changed and managed to get loose, I’d wake up later in random places. But I’ll admit that this is up there with the most uncomfortable spots.”

He chuckled. “Sorry.”

“Not your fault,” I countered. “If I remember right, I’m the one who pinned you down and had my way with you.”

He laughed more. “Love, you are welcome to pin me as much as you want for as long as you want, and please know I don’t care what you’re pinning me to either. Could be a bed of nails. I’ll still be happy.”

I laughed softly. “Mmm, I need to get up and head back to the house. My vehicle is there, along with my phone. I need to call Mina and let her know monsters didn’t eat Astria, and no big bald guy with weird tattoos channeled electricity while standing inside a huge globe.”

“A big bald guy with tattoos and electricity?” asked Jonathan. “Um, I’m not sure what to do with all of that.”

“You and me both.”

Jonathan’s hand found my hip. “Love, my phone is here. Do you want to call your sister from it?”

“That would be great. Thank you.” No sooner had the words left my mouth than I felt something scurry over my foot. I sat up fast, running my hands over my body, checking for any other bugs that might have crawled on me while I was asleep. When I glanced at Jonathan, I found him watching me with an amused look on his face.

“Should I be offended that you’re wiping yourself down after spending the day doing what we did?” he asked with a chuckle.

I was about to answer when I noticed another bug crawling on the cave floor. I jerked my leg up.

He sat up slowly. “Willa?”

I bit my inner cheek as my face reddened. “I’m not a big fan of bugs. I make a great scary wolf-shifter, huh?”

“Ah,” he said, drawing me up and over him. Once I was on top of him, he pushed my hair back behind my ears. “There. Better? This way, they’ll crawl on me first. Plus, we can go for an encore performance.”

“Pretty sure we had an encore performance,” I said with a wink.

He arched a brow, looking at me in a way that said he more than wanted to go another round with me. “Well then, an encore to our encore.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “As fun as that sounds, I have to head back to the house.”

“You can use my phone,” he stressed before reaching with one hand toward his jeans, which were about a foot or so from us on the floor. He pulled them closer and retrieved his phone from the pocket before handing it to me. The gold pocket watch from my college bedroom fell out of his other pocket in the process.

I kissed Jonathan’s pectoral muscle and smiled as I nodded toward the watch. “Did you take that from my room back at the house?”

“I did,” he said.

I wanted to be outraged that he’d dared to do such a thing, but oddly, I found myself fine with the idea that he had it. Strange because had it been anyone else who took it, I’m not sure my reaction would have been the same. “When I opened my backpack and realized my necklace and journal were gone, I was heartbroken. But that watch made it sting less. For two straight weeks, I had that with me wherever I went. I even slept with it. That and this old copy of a book that I love.”

With his phone in his hand, he stared up at me, questions forming on his handsome face. “Willa, tell me about the book.”

I shrugged. “It’s an old copy of Bram Stoker’sDracula. Someone annotated it, writing their version of events all throughout the book. It’s hard to explain, but I loved it the minute my dad gave it to me. I’ve read it hundreds of times, so much so that I’m not sure how the pages didn’t start to fall out.” I chuckled softly. “I even put some thoughts of my own in it. Like at parts that seemed extra sad to me.”

“Such as?” he asked, his voice tight.

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